Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 245: Counting the Losses and Loot
What Oliver said about the unrest in the territory was a bit exaggerated. With his iron-fisted approach and cold heart, if anyone dared to become restless, he would kill them.

During the time when Su Li was recuperating in bed, he was the one who made the decision to mobilize the dwarves and suppress the thugs and rebels.

He ordered the execution and hanging of at least hundreds of rioters.

Although he had only been in the territory for a short time, under his leadership, the atmosphere in the territory quickly became cold, hard and murderous.

In his previous life, Su Li's social infant mentality—to put it nicely, it was kindhearted; to put it bluntly, it was naive and weak—was so intense that even slaves dared to lash out at him, mocking his hypocrisy. This was because, since entering the territory, he had rarely personally ordered killings.

But it only took Oliver a little over a month to establish his authority within everyone's heart. Because he truly wasn't afraid to kill, within just a few dozen days he had successfully earned himself a series of titles, including the Tiger of Hessen and the Iron-Blooded Chancellor.

But there were indeed many people in the territory who were clamoring restlessly, gathering in front of the Bauhinia Palace every day to inquire about the distribution of the spoils.

Many freemen joined the Freemen's Corps just to share the spoils after the war.

Unlike those thugs who took advantage of the situation to rob, they really stood up, fought the monsters to the death, and defended their homes. They are the backbone of a territory.

Of course, we cannot simply suppress them directly and roughly.

Su Li then said to Oliver, "Let's first talk about the spoils of our battle with the Green Dragon."

Oliver had already made preparations and immediately gave a detailed account, reciting the story with great detail: "Although the battle with the Green Dragon was extremely difficult, we captured tens of thousands of weapons, armor, and props, which piled up like a mountain."

"Among them, there are over 42000 weapons alone. Many monsters have both a primary and secondary weapon, and some even have three."

Hearing this, Su Li's eyes suddenly lit up and he said, "The Blood Mist Hills area is truly rich in resources. Even in the human army, it's rare to find soldiers who can carry three weapons."

A spear, a shield, a sword or a bow—if all of these were complete, he would be considered a fully armed squire, and even qualified to serve in a provincial legion.

Upon hearing this, Hildreth took the initiative to speak, saying, "My Lord, I must introduce you and the other ministers to the resources near the Blood Mist Hills and Lake Essonide."

"The resources here are just as rich as the mining area at the foot of the Gray Mountains. The mining area we inherited from the Forest Legion includes a giant iron mine, a fire spinel mine, three crystal mines, and two mithril mines."

The output of crystal ore and mithril ore is relatively low, probably slightly higher than vibranium, but their value is completely incomparable to ordinary ores. They are necessary materials for making high-level rune equipment.

It can be said that this mining area can almost meet the ore needs of all equipment forging in the Hessen Territory.

As long as there are enough dwarf forging masters in the Hessen Territory, it will be easy to realize the vision of equipping all members of the territory with high-quality equipment.

By then, 2000 or even 3000 elite infantry and cavalry will be well-equipped, with shining armor, and can easily defeat enemies twice, three or even five times their number, with minimal losses themselves.

With this foundation, equipment is actually not what the territory urgently needs at the moment. Instead, people's hearts and morale are of paramount importance.

Su Li pondered for a moment, then said to Oliver, "We were able to win this battle. The Free Militia's desperate fight and the unity of the people in the territory cannot be ignored. So I plan to take out 30% of the spoils as rewards and give them to everyone."

"Thirty percent?!" Oliver raised his stern brows and said, "My Lord, your generosity is truly astonishing. Any freeman who fails to praise your virtues should be hanged!"

Thirty percent of the spoils, just weapons and equipment, means the territory will take out more than 13000 pieces to distribute to the soldiers and free militia below.

You should know that the Free Militia only had 2000 to 3000 people at its peak. The brutality of the war caused heavy losses to the Free Militia, with more than 600 people directly killed in action.

The number of wounded soldiers was two or three times that, and there was almost no way to get effective treatment. They had to rely on praying to the religious icons of Shaurya. Only a very few people had the chance to dispel the despair and pain in their bodies and receive limited treatment.

This world is so hopeless and dark. Although the war is over, the suffering and despair brought by the trauma are far from being alleviated. In fact, the tragic situation of the war will continue to affect the first pioneering territory assessment next year.

The massive population decline, the collapse of towns and villages, and the destruction of farmland will make it difficult for the territory to be directly rated as a barony, and at most it will be at the level of a kingdom knight.

Don't complain to the assessing officials about the rampage of monsters, the impact of war, and the tragic course of events. While the fertile land of the Border Princes is sufficient to support numerous pioneering territories, it is also bound to support countless monsters, bandits, and beastman warbands.

Any pioneering lord of a border princely territory will face all these challenges, which is also the reason why the empire sent them here.

If, by simply farming peacefully, one could be granted the honor of an imperial noble, what family's descendants wouldn't be vying for the title of Border Prince? And why did so many pioneering knights die in foreign lands?

This time, Su Li took out more than 5 pieces of equipment and distributed them to the soldiers. Based on their merits, some could get 6 to pieces of equipment, and some could even get more than ten. This would inevitably attract a large number of free people to the Hessen Territory.

After all, the battles in Hesse were brutal, but the lord was truly generous. As long as one could survive, the wealth they gained was equivalent to a civilian's hard work for a year or two.

Oliver, the head of the Provincial Council, continued, "These weapons and equipment will also greatly alleviate our territory's equipment shortage. If all of this remaining equipment were melted down, we could obtain at least 2000 high-quality weapons and 400 sets of high-quality armor. This would initially meet the needs of our high-ranking servants and knights for high-quality equipment."

Su Li nodded, understanding the demand. During this battle, when the human knight corps assembled a thousand-man force to launch an assault, the prevalence of sophisticated equipment was only about 60%, leaving hundreds of sets unsatisfied.

With these smelted equipment, the territory's army can at least look like a regular army, and can be considered a thousand well-equipped infantry and cavalry.

But the gap from what Su Li had imagined was still too big!

He felt that the current scale was like a village fight between the kingdom's knights. After all the fighting, the number of elite soldiers was still in the hundreds or thousands. Only when he could have three thousand elite infantry and cavalry could he firmly sit on the title of baron.

But at present, it seems that this goal is a big challenge for both Su Li and Hessen Lord.

Given the current state of the territory, it would not be an easy task to form 3,000 elite infantry and cavalry, even if there was still a year left next year.

Su Li said to Oliver, "We need to speed up the progress of these things. We don't have much time this year. If we don't increase the scale quickly, catching up next year will be a huge challenge."

Oliver was certainly aware of this problem. Rather than chasing after the enemy later, it was definitely better to prepare early. "My Lord, this won't be easy. We've disbanded the Dwarven Thunder Lancers and have them repair the territory's equipment and engineering as quickly as possible. The soldiers' swords have been bent and their armor has been shattered in this battle. Repairing all of this will require a tremendous amount of manpower and resources."

"Perhaps we could spend a fortune to hire a group of dwarves from the Grey Mountains? After we stabilize our relationship with the Redbeard Clan, our caravan can continue to advance deeper into the Grey Mountains. Perhaps we can contact the Dwarven Kingdom in the Dragonstone Forge and purchase some Star Iron Armor."

Star Armor?

Su Li was also interested. This time, they should be able to clear out a considerable amount of dwarf pledge money from the green dragon's lair. Whether this money was used to buy star armor or cannons, it would greatly enhance the strength of the territory.

Then Su Li asked, "How much wealth and high-level equipment are there in the spoils?"

Oliver immediately replied, "The wealth from the monsters is much lower than we expected. A monster isn't necessarily richer than a farmer. Aside from their equipment, the only valuable items on them are worth less than a few silver coins. But thankfully, there are so many of them, and their materials and furs are valuable. We cleaned them up and harvested around 6000 gold coins, but the selling price is more than double that. The carcasses of forest trolls and river trolls are especially frantic, attracting the dwarves."

"In addition, we found over 500 pieces of exquisite-grade equipment, over 80 pieces of perfect-grade equipment, and 2600 kilograms of vibranium melted down among the various equipment."

"2600 Imperial Jin of Vibranium!? How can there be so much?" Su Li was immediately cheered up. With these vibranium, the size of the rune armor could be increased again.

At this rate, it won’t be long before all the Hessen Territory’s Vengeful Sun Demi-Griffin Knights and Hessen Guard Knights can change into vibranium rune armor.

The armor's protective properties were truly formidable. Even a direct bombardment from the dwarven artillery would require at least three rounds to destroy an elite knight wearing Vibranium Rune Plate. Even the green dragon's dragon language magic couldn't directly kill a knight wearing Vibranium Rune Armor, unless it used single-target magic on a single knight at all costs. Furthermore, the death rate of the knights wearing Vibranium Rune Armor in this battle was truly exceptionally low.

Even at the final stage of the decisive battle, Hildreth still had more than 80 Hessian Royal Guards knights around her who could follow her in launching a counterattack, and in the end more than 40 knights were still alive.

Among the more than 30 knights who died in battle, most of them did not have vibranium rune armor. There were only 6 knights who died in battle with perfect rune armor, accounting for about one-fifth.

In other words, with such a vibranium rune armor, the knights' chances of survival are more than 80% higher than others!

The same was true even for the griffins. A big reason why Deathclaw was able to survive was that it was wearing vibranium armor, while the other half-griffins suffered heavy casualties, with more than one-third of them killed in the battle.

Oliver explained, "This amount is perfectly normal. If the green dragons weren't so greedy, the amount of vibranium we could obtain would even increase. They've occupied the western part of the Bloodpine Forest for many years. There's also a massive iron mine near Lake Exonide. Even if they only mine a few hundred kilograms of vibranium each year, that should still be close to ten thousand kilograms. It's a shame they don't know how to craft vibranium rune armor, so they've somewhat neglected it and haven't deliberately accumulated it."

Su Li breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this: "Luckily, they don't know how to make vibranium rune armor, so they can only be used as bludgeons for the trolls. Otherwise, it would be even more difficult for us to win."

After saying that, Su Li held his breath, adjusted his mentality, and said, "Next, let's talk about our losses. Dietrich, Vandal, who of you will speak first?"

Dietrich was well aware of the severity of the situation on his side, so he worried that the lord would faint from the loss of energy and blood circulation after hearing the news. He decisively lowered his head slightly, took a step back, and said, "To be on the safe side, and to prevent delaying the lord, Lord Vandal should finish his report first. I'm afraid that if I do, the rest of the process won't be able to proceed."

Su Li turned and looked at Fandral, frowning slightly: "My minister, I hope you can give me some good news. Our territory is in urgent need of some news to boost our morale."

Fandral racked his brains for a moment, then replied with a bitter face, "My Lord, you know that in this dark and hopeless world, bad news is the norm, and good news is indeed rare."

"But thankfully, even amidst our despair lies a certain hope. We've counted our spoils and found over 6000 Emerald Ears. This means if we find another piece of purple spiritual farmland, next year's harvest season, the extraordinary grain alone will yield over 20000 gold crowns."

"Of course, this isn't easy. To ensure their vigorous growth, providing a suitable environment and the necessary natural order requires the constant casting of the [Sunfall] spell. However, our territory currently lacks a second champion-level druid, so this farming project may have to be postponed until next summer or autumn."

Hearing this, Su Li's mood really improved.

After all, farming is something that can best stimulate his genes and make him happy both physically and mentally.

Thinking of the income of 20000+ gold crowns, more extraordinary spiritual fields, and more powerful druids, he felt that the future was full of light and hope.

You know, in this dark world, light and hope are more precious than gems.

However, Su Li's joy didn't last long before Fandral began reporting the losses. "Compared to the extraordinary grain, our large-scale farmland suffered heavy losses. Although a huge fire broke out in the city, it looked extremely tragic, that was because the city's free citizens had a greater voice and were able to voice and emphasize their suffering."

"But in reality, the damage in the city wasn't great. The battlefield in the south destroyed only a few blocks, and in the north, not even the main buildings collapsed. The east was completely preserved. This is the core area of ​​our territory and the wealthy area. It also accepted a large number of urban refugees during the war."

"So, during the cleanup, we discovered that the fire only consumed the entire western part of the city and half of the southern part. The damage wasn't as horrific as the citizens repeatedly claimed. But for the rural villages, which had lost their voice, the blow was completely devastating. We counted at least five villages and seven farms completely destroyed in the war. After the fire, only a ghost town remained."

"In addition, the monsters burned over 67000 acres of farmland, and destroyed over 130 logging camps, fishing and hunting lodges, and ranches."

"Also, there's something extremely tragic happening. I hope you, Lord, are mentally prepared. Our territory's sacred site, Lake Rafflin, has been ravaged and polluted by monsters. Over 50 of the light-scaled fish within have been devoured by the monsters, and even the Storm Dragon Head Man has been torn to pieces, leaving only one. Over 20000 ordinary fish have been lost."

Upon hearing this, Su Li felt his blood rushing up, his vision went dark, and he almost fainted!

These damn monsters should be cut into pieces!

All of this was cultivated by Su Li with great difficulty and painstaking efforts over almost a year.

As a result, after one war, almost one-third of it was burned down.

Regardless of his frail body, Hildreth hurriedly dragged his right leg to Su Li's side, supported his arm, and gently stroked his back, comforting him, "My Lord, my Lord, please don't be angry. All that we have lost, no matter how you calculate it, is less than 20000 gold crowns. It's only the result of more than half a year. But we have gained at least hundreds of thousands of war reparations, which is the wealth accumulated by the Green Dragon over the years. We still made a profit, and we have overcome this greatest difficulty. We will have peace in the future, and we will soon be able to recover with the war reparations."

"Your health is most important. With your leadership, we will quickly recover our strength and swiftly surpass our former peak. Less than a year ago, you set out from Bauhinia Castle with only 300 gold coins and five elite knights, arriving in this unfamiliar land. You quickly expanded your territory, even defeating two legions of God-chosen Demons and God-chosen Green Dragons."

"You now command the hearts and minds of the people, and you hold the hopes of the territory. You already have three God-chosen ministers, over ten champion-level knights, and thousands of elite knights. With wealth exceeding one hundred thousand gold crowns, why should you worry about your rapid expansion?"

With Hildur gently stroking his back, Su Li finally felt relieved. That's right, if we only talk about the loss of wealth, the harvested grain and the lost extraordinary fish and ordinary fish were only worth a few thousand gold crowns each, which was not worth mentioning compared with the war reparations.

All the bloodshed and sacrifices will eventually be compensated in victory.

Victory is the best motivation in the world!
With the support of 10 gold crowns, any difficulties will be easily solved, and the territory will surely recover and develop at a faster pace.

Su Li calmed down a bit and immediately made arrangements with Fandral, "We need to resume production as soon as possible. I will order the dwarves to temporarily suspend military projects in the territory and have the dwarf and ogre construction teams fully assist the people in repairing their villages and farms. This is also a good opportunity to implement the infrastructure construction you proposed earlier."

This can be considered as a case of breaking down before building up.

One of the important reasons why the territory's infrastructure construction progressed slowly before was that the territory could not come up with so much financial resources. Whether it was paving roads and bridges, or building temples and hospitals, it all required golden coins to be spent.

It costs at least 20 gold crowns to build a monastery, and if one is built in each village, the price will be hundreds of gold crowns.

To connect the entire territory with roads, even if it was just dirt paths, stretching for hundreds or thousands of miles, would cost nearly a thousand gold crowns. If they were to upgrade to gravel paths and build wooden walls and watchtowers in every village, it would probably cost over 2000 gold crowns.

Now it is equivalent to the Dragon Princess paying for the infrastructure of the Hessen Territory.

Fandral immediately straightened his chest with high morale. Before the severe winter came, his biggest vision for governance was to connect roads to every village and build monasteries of the Church of the Goddess of Dawn for various strongholds in the countryside.

Not just for mercy and rescue, but more importantly for preaching!
After the harsh winter comes the ceremony of spring bringing all things to life. This is the most important ceremony of the Church of the Goddess of Dawn. The more believers pray in this ceremony, and the more monasteries pray hymns at the same time, the stronger the effect of the Blood Sacrifice of the Father of Grain will be.

It can be said that whether the vision of building a granary on the border of the territory can be realized is almost half determined by next year's Spring Birth Ceremony.

At least this year, the territory has not been able to realize its vision of becoming a border granary. After a large amount of farmland was destroyed, the territory's food must be supplied to the people of the Hesse Territory first, and there will not be much surplus food for export.

So Fandral immediately said, "My Lord, our religious planning and the nuns are ready. As long as the population is sufficient, we can start construction at any time."

"Adequate population?" Su Li looked at Dietrich and asked, "Medical Director, you can't avoid this step after all. What is the current population situation in the territory?"

Dietrich took a deep breath and said solemnly, "Regarding the war losses, I will also follow Lord Vandal's way and report the good news to the Lord first."

"Although our territory's army suffered heavy casualties, humanity's courage and glory have earned the praise of the gods. This epic victory has been spread through religious monasteries and wandering poets. Furthermore, some church knights have left our territory after the war and continued to travel in other directions, all of whom enthusiastically proclaim the splendor and glory of this battle."

"This has attracted a large number of people to our territory. Caravans, slave-hunting groups, freedmen, and northern nomads arrive in Hessen Town every day, restoring the size of our army."

"At the same time, a large number of the territory's troops gained strength in this battle."

(End of this chapter)