Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 352 A Sudden Crisis and the Development of Flashspear City

When the trainee knights determined the champion, the expansion of faith in the territory seemed to be suddenly accelerated.

The entire territory seemed to be filled with the rich divine grace of the Goddess of the Sun. Under the glow of the setting sun, the entire territory was covered with a layer of golden afterglow. The towering towers of the city, the lush trees along the roadside, and the pastoral scenery of the territory all shone brightly, like a divine kingdom of the goddess on earth.

At this moment, the goddess's divine power enveloped the entire territory, and the corruption of chaos and the despair of darkness were compressed to a minimum, hiding in the corners and unable to cause any impact.

Everyone within the territory, even the knights from other churches, felt the erosion of the chaotic winds significantly weaken, and felt an unprecedented sense of ease. It was as if a long-ailing body had suddenly been healed, and an exhausted soldier had shed his heavy armor.

The earthly propaganda and divine blessings created a perfect synergy in this exemplary realm, leading to an unprecedented level of enthusiasm among the participants.

Just as Su Li finished dinner, the provincial governor Oliver came to him with the compiled accounts.

He was excited and thrilled, and without even exchanging pleasantries, he went straight to the point: "My lord, the effects of our Glorious Arena are already showing. Today alone, 237 knights have applied to join our territory, and the territory's population has increased by more than 800 people in just one day!"

“同时我们售出的土地面积多达4万亩！这意味着这些骑士和移民至少还会陆续买入上千名奴隶。我们领地至少会再增加4～5个庄园，3～4个村庄和据点。”

"In addition, we sold more than 120 properties and townhouses in the city. Today, excluding casino revenue, we earned more than 17500 gold crowns just from operating income!"

Upon hearing this, Su Li was overjoyed. These knights were truly wealthy. Indeed, in any world, no matter how much wealth one plunders from the lower classes, it will always be insufficient. If one wants financial prosperity, one must find ways to extract wealth from the ruling class.

The wealth they each provided to Su Li was nearly 30 gold crowns, equivalent to more than half a year's salary for an elite knight.

But it is clear that wealth cannot be completely distributed equally. Even if you kill the lower-level servants and lackeys, they still cannot come up with such a large sum of wealth.

Oliver explained in detail: "Our wealth mainly comes from the proceeds of land sales; the sale of just 400 hectares of land has yielded more than 10000 gold crowns."

"So much?" Su Li raised an eyebrow. Although the income from selling land was a one-time thing, he really did have a lot of vast and fertile plains.

Let alone 400 hectares, he could easily sell dozens or hundreds of times even if it were only 40 li (approximately 20 kilometers).

Oliver was very calm and confident, and said, "My lord, although this number seems huge, the price we sell the land for is actually very low. The price of one acre of land is only about 26 silver coins, which is only an increase of more than 140 copper coins compared to last year."

At 26 silver coins per acre, it was obviously not fertile land being sold. In this old world where farming was the primary occupation, farmland was highly valuable. Even farmers and country folk, after a year of hard work, couldn't save enough to buy an acre of fertile land, especially well-irrigated fields, which could fetch over a gold crown. This was an asset coveted by many nobles, who would hire thugs and henchmen to attempt land consolidation.

Based on a wheat yield of 300 jin per mu, the investment could be recouped in just 10 years. However, if the money were used to grow vegetables and other cash crops, the return on investment could be achieved in just 4 to 5 years.

In particular, the territory currently offers many extraordinary opportunities. Even a tiny, insignificant extraordinary product appearing on an acre of land can quickly recoup the investment within 1 to 2 years.

There is no doubt that the people and knights of the territory are very optimistic about its future and development trend. They have very high expectations for the returns on investment and future stability.

So much so that they were willing to forgo the current three-year rent-free policy for their territories in order to snap up the land early and secure their profits. Clearly, many were worried that the land would be worth far more than 26 silver coins three years from now.

Currently, 26 silver coins can still be used to purchase land on the Central Plains. Although it is barren land, there is still hope for development.

Three years later, if the territory takes off and the lord becomes a nobleman, those 26 silver coins might only be enough to buy land in the Bloodpine Forest.

Sometimes, an individual's development cannot keep up with the rise of an entire power. Therefore, for ordinary people, the best investment is to buy up a batch of real estate at rock-bottom prices while the territory is still selling assets, and wait for its value to appreciate. Alternatively, they can directly purchase the territory's national bonds and live in harmony with the nation.

Regardless, selling land for 10000 gold crowns is a huge profit.

As before, regardless of the territory, a transaction worth 10000 gold crowns is a huge fortune.

The salaries paid to the elite knights would be enough to support 2000 elite knights for a month. If the quality were lower, the 10000 gold crowns could hire 5000 mercenaries to fight several large-scale battles for a faction, with at least 1000 of them being elite.

The influx of so many knights into the Black Forest Territory has brought obvious pressure to the territory. After all, in addition to their faith in the Goddess of the Sun, so many people joined the Black Forest Territory in the hope of finding their own opportunities and a stage to realize their own value.

It's not enough to simply attract talented people to the Hessian Territory and then rest easy.

Every year, so many ambitious young college students graduate from the village. If you don't find them something to do, they'll definitely find you something to do. And the things they find won't be mundane; they'll at least be quite eventful.

So after Oliver's report, Su Li summoned Hilde and said, "My steward, it seems necessary to increase the number of knights. If the knightly orders and mercenary groups in the territory can't accommodate so many knights, we need to increase the number of knights and place some talent in this field."

Hilde had always been very supportive of Su Li's choices, which was also her duty as the High-Rank Attendant Supervisor. Upon hearing this, she said, "I think we can add one company to the High-Rank Attendant system and one company to the Provincial Legion. After this expansion, our directly subordinate secular army will have more than 2500 men."

Despite these words, her spirited eyebrows still furrowed slightly as she said, "But my lord, this is like drinking poison to quench thirst. Putting aside the increased finances due to the expansion of the army, it is easy to cause controversy from the perspective of public sentiment. After all, we still have more than 300 knights in the Radiant Sun Military Academy, fully armed and in good order."

"These are all passionate reserve knights from our territory, ready to join the army of the Black Forest Territory at any time."

All of this undoubtedly indicates one thing: relying solely on Su Li to maintain the army is simply not enough to accommodate so many knights.

Su Li took a deep breath and said, "We still have to rely on the power of the people. Let the caravans and mercenary groups of the people absorb these newly joined knights."

"However, this matter will obviously proceed slowly." The iron-fisted prime minister Oliver preferred the intervention of the territory: "If we rely solely on civilian teams, not only will it be slow to absorb these people, but it will also lower their wages and cause resentment among the people."

"Given the current oversupply of knights, the territory needs to step in and find them a target... to uphold justice."

“Then let Gilles take charge and have his knights start building momentum and recruiting members to go to Mount Oka.”

While he and Oliver were still discussing, a squire knight suddenly rushed out of the room and whispered a few words to Hilder. Hilder's expression changed, and she returned to the room, saying gravely, "My lord, some bad news! According to the message from Foreign Minister Hatzkelin, the Sea God Knights of Blue Mirror Territory are being mobilized. The atmosphere on the border has suddenly become tense. It is said that several caravans have been interfered with and delayed by the Sea God Knights."

Su Li clenched his right fist, slammed it heavily on the table, and stood up abruptly: "Baron Grant is trying to provoke a war between us!"

Hilde immediately followed Su Li to the huge war map in the study. Looking up at the map drawn on the wall, his heroic face was full of fighting spirit: "At present, they are only conducting military mobilization, but as the various troops arrive at their deployment positions, we believe that the real border blockade is about to begin."

Using geographical advantages to restrict the development of opponents and force enemies to submit is something every territory does, and Su Li did not complain.

He said regretfully, "It's a pity, the Brienne River's flow is still too strong, otherwise we would build a dam to block the flow and trap them."

This tactic was used once by the dwarves within the Empire, to the point that even the Elector had to personally apologize to them.

However, that is due to special geographical conditions. The Brienne River does not flow entirely down from the mountains; rather, tributaries continuously flow into it in the middle and upper reaches.

If only the upstream is blocked, it will have almost no impact on the downstream water flow.

However, diverting the flow in the middle and lower reaches would exceed the limits of engineering capabilities worldwide.

But he quickly composed himself and said, "No matter how much Baron Grant provokes us, our top priority right now is to stay calm and successfully complete the Glorious Arena. The trouble that Blue Mirror Territory has caused us can only be effective for this year, but the impact and benefits brought by the Glorious Arena can last for decades."

That being said, the speed of Blue Mirror Territory's actions still greatly shocked Su Li and Hilde. The harvest season had just ended, and they had already begun their operation, seemingly ignoring the grand celebration currently being held in Su Li's territory.

This might be the confidence he had as an aristocrat, completely unconcerned about public opinion and pressure from others.

Su Li couldn't help but seriously doubt, and asked, "Does Baron Grant have some trump card up his sleeve?"

Hilde shook her head and said, "It's hard to say whether he has received any support for launching this operation so quickly. Our intelligence is still investigating. Ashfield has already sent halfling spies into Blue Mirror Keep, but it will take some time before we can find out their bottom line."

Su Li frowned deeply and asked, "Could it be the support of the Swamp Lord?"

If the Swamp Lord and the Blue Mirror Lord really did collude, then with their combined force of nearly 10000 elite knights, they could easily overwhelm Su Li even if they simply pushed him aside.

In most cases, quantity is also a form of quality. When the opponent has an overwhelming numerical advantage, they can easily sweep away the Black Forest territory.

Hilde paused for a moment, then said decisively, “Impossible. My lord, I think you are worrying too much. Although our Black Forest Territory is indeed developing very well, in the eyes of most proud and domineering lords, we are just pioneering knights who have retreated to a corner, and our territory has only just begun to take off.”

"Given the arrogance and domineering nature of these nobles, it is impossible for them to unite against a small border settlement. It would be difficult to even get them to admit that our territory might threaten their survival."

Hearing this, Su Li felt somewhat relieved; what he said made sense.

If there were a thriving village within a territory three or four thousand miles south of the Mirror Swamp, with fertile land and a lord possessing extraordinary abilities, whose territory grants all its inhabitants a +2 aptitude bonus and a higher probability of producing champion-level or god-chosen-level knights, would Su Li join forces with Baron Grant of the Blue Mirror Territory to form an allied army and tenaciously defend their border?

It's obviously impossible!

Let alone a village that is thriving, even if there were a spatial rift or a gap in the demon realm in the area, he would never be able to join forces with his mortal enemy, Baron Grant, to purify it.

After all, there are too many events in this world that could potentially brew a huge crisis, and he can't just sit idly by and nip each threat in the bud.

If Baron Grant has a bad relationship with the Black Forest, does that mean they have a good relationship with the Swamp Territory?
That's even more unlikely. These two baronies have clashed and fought countless times over the control of the mines. It's completely improbable that they would unite for a small border settlement.

Furthermore, Hilde had another crucial piece of intelligence supporting her judgment: "My lord, I believe the Swamp Territory will absolutely not intervene in our war with the Blue Mirror Territory. According to our current intelligence, the Swamp Territory's army's combat strength relies primarily on the unique geographical features of the swamp. It can be said that their army's structure is centered around the swamp, giving them a unique advantage. Even if we have a large number of champion knights and chosen knights, once our army is trapped in the swamp, it will struggle to advance and fall into a disadvantageous position."

“They cannot give up this advantage and move their troops out of the swamp to fight us in unfamiliar territory. After all, from the most rational point of view, no matter how strong we are, they can be evenly matched with us in the swamp, or even have the advantage. But if their manpower leaves the swamp and is slaughtered on an unfamiliar battlefield, their territory will be empty, and they will have no strength to stop our army.”

This analysis is indeed very reasonable!

Su Li nodded and said, "It seems that we don't need to worry about facing the worst-case scenario, that the enemy will form a coalition to target us."

However, this also means that he will have to fight two battles to pacify this border province, and both enemies have their own advantages and unique characteristics.

Then Su Li looked at the map and asked, "How is our marshal's western expedition going?"

"Marshal Orstein's forces have reached Coldwind Valley, with their camp set up at the foot of Frostfang Mountain, which is close to the border of Blue Mirror Territory. After opening up the passage to the border of Blue Mirror Territory, the Marshal is sending troops to clear and consolidate the flanks, bringing all the surrounding forces into our sphere of influence."

"Now the Marshal has cleared out three kingdom knight territories and more than a dozen pioneer knight territories. As long as we prepare our logistical supplies, we can use these as a base of advance to launch an attack on Blue Mirror Territory."

Su Li turned to Oliver and asked, "My Dean, how is the construction of Flashspear City progressing? This city is crucial for our frontline war's logistical storage and supply transport."

If supplies were to be transported from Blacksun City to the front lines, the transshipment of grain alone would be enough to cripple Blacksun Territory's production. Su Li chose to build Flashspear City in this direction for two reasons: firstly, to strengthen control over the western territories; and secondly, to use it as a key military stronghold to support the territory's military offensive against Blue Mirror Territory.

Oliver immediately replied, “My lord, the construction of the trading city has been remarkably successful. Currently, in addition to more than 1000 dwarves and human engineers, there are also more than 200 halflings and more than 800 ogre construction team members. The people who built this city alone number more than 2000, and there are more than 700 people who provide services to them and settle in the area.”

"Another very important group is the priests of various churches. Currently, there are 11 monasteries in Flashspear City, including the Church of the Sun Goddess, the Church of Sharya, the Church of Verena, the Church of Leia, the Church of Tal, the Church of Redma, the Church of Yurik, the Church of Mor, the Church of Mannan, the Church of Hendrix, and the hidden Church of Lanord. The members of each church are no less than 200."

"So, in total, we have nearly 4000 people around Flashspear City. We have stored a large amount of grain from this harvest season locally, no less than 100 tons. That's enough to sustain our knights for almost a month."

"The most important thing right now is undoubtedly to finish the Radiant Arena. After the Radiant Arena ends, the champions and contestants will arrive at Flashspear City and gather a large number of people to go further to the city. There will also be a lot of religious orders and pilgrimage groups there. Knights will flock to the city and settle down around it, developing new farms and manors."

"The light there is so dazzling that it could attract the gaze of the gods. I suggest that our great expeditionary force also assemble in Flashspear City."

Upon hearing this, Su Li raised an eyebrow in surprise: "This progress has really exceeded my expectations."

Oliver replied confidently, "This is the result of a combination of factors. First of all, it benefits from the current increase in the size and the enhancement of the territory, which can provide strong support for the city's construction. The early stages of construction involved the full participation of more than 1000 dwarf engineers and more than 800 ogre construction teams, which is a condition that Blackforest City could not have met when it was built last year."

"In addition, we have a very mature set of experience and processes. From bureaucrats to engineers, from contractors to construction teams, everyone is extremely skilled and capable in building cities. With coordinated development, our construction speed far exceeds that of the past."

"Once the Glorious Arena ends, a large influx of people into Flashspear City will quickly solidify the local population. Currently, the population of Flashspear City minus the construction population is about 2000, but it will soon surge to more than 5000."

The rise of a second city with a population of 5000 would indeed be beneficial to the rapid growth of the Black Forest Territory. At that time, commercial trade in the towns and villages of this region would be able to reach Flashspear City directly, without having to travel hundreds of miles to Black Forest City or Blue Mirror Fortress.

It's important to know that while Flashspear City is newly built, the land around it is not barren. There are numerous human settlements scattered around it, all of which were conquered by Marshal Oliver.

There is even a small town that has already taken shape. It is the territory of a royal knight, with a population of over 1400 and three attached villages.

These strongholds and territories will then be integrated into Flashspear City, forming a three-tiered economic influence system of cities, towns, and villages.

However, as Hilde and Oliver said, no matter how tense the situation is, we must stay calm and make sure the Glorious Games are successfully held!

So Su Li waved his hand and said, "Don't release this information yet. Maintaining the territory's focus and enthusiasm for the Glorious Arena is the most important thing right now. Nothing can affect our grand event."

Hilde nodded and said, "That's right. My lord, tomorrow is also a very important day. Tomorrow, the champion of the official knight rank will be determined."

"The arena has given them very high priority and decided to finish their finals first before proceeding with matches in other ranks."

A formal knight is a legitimate member of the empire's ruling class, somewhat analogous to a scholar or even a licentiate.

Therefore, their matches are already worthy of occupying the most important arena, allowing the quarterfinals of other ranks to be postponed for them.

This was more advantageous for Su Li, as he had more time to spare. He smiled and said, "Very good. If we organize tomorrow's competition well, this celebration will be half done. As long as we can maintain this enthusiasm, there is no doubt that our influence has already been established."

Tomorrow's rewards will be even richer. The champion, known as the Rising Sun, will receive a perfect-grade weapon and 50 gold crowns. The runner-up will receive a set of exquisite-grade star-level iron armor and 30 gold crowns.

Such a generous reward will also significantly enhance the territory's reputation for producing advanced weaponry.

After all, that's a perfect-grade weapon, something that a regular-grade knight can't normally access.

(End of this chapter)