Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 61 Water Conservancy Construction Begins
After completing the negotiations with the halflings, Su Li returned to the territory with his team in high spirits.

On this trip, he gained 800 gold coins, successfully recruited a halfling family to join, and obtained the loyalty of 12 halfling archers and 20 ogres.

Among them, 12 halfling archers will follow Su Li's armed attendants and participate in every battle after the territory is established.

Twenty ogres remained within the territory, primarily participating in construction. These twenty ogres did not include the ogre bull warriors; those powerful warriors were left within the halfling territory to protect the halfling estate. The ogres who arrived in Suli's territory were all mercenaries, the laborers favored by construction contractors. Their immense strength allowed them to easily carry a single log, and with their help, house construction progressed exponentially. Their demands were modest; simply enough food to fill their bellies was enough. If they were given a few copper coins daily, their dimwitted faces would be filled with simple smiles.

After Su Li returned to the territory, he immediately rushed to the farm and found his minister of seals, Lawen.

At this time, neat fields have been cultivated around the three farms. The crops are planted in rows and rows so neatly, and the ridges are full of green seedlings, which makes people full of hope for the future.

This Minister of the Keeper of the Seals is indeed a talent of the Griffin Academy. His planning of the territory is very reasonable. Every piece of land has been cultivated very carefully, and sufficient space has been reserved for water conservancy facilities.

As long as the territory has sufficient manpower, this place will immediately become a fertile farmland with complete water conservancy, neat ridges, and crisscrossing paths.

The territory's Minister of Agriculture, Fandral, guided the serfs to cultivate the farmlands as carefully as possible so that each piece of farmland could yield the most grain.

When Su Li arrived, Laun and Fandral were supervising the serfs with four armored attendants to draw water from the river and reservoir to irrigate the farmland.

In fact, clearing the land and planting seeds are the easiest stages of farming. A single woman can manage several acres of fertile land, and if things get tough, she can even use animal power. However, every family and farm requires strong male labor because subsequent irrigation and harvesting are twice as arduous.

Especially now, these newly reclaimed farmlands are not fertile fields with complete water conservancy facilities. In order to irrigate them, apart from relying on the weather, they can only rely on manual labor to carry water and irrigate it bit by bit.

After all, the magic of the Church of Dawn can improve the fertility of farmland and keep the plants well fed, but it cannot solve the problem of plants drinking water.

If there is not enough water, the output of these farmlands will also be affected.

Su Li was of course very dissatisfied with this primitive and laborious way of watering.

When Lao En saw Su Li, he immediately bowed and said, "Praise the gods, my lord, you have returned from the battle so soon. It seems that your conquest was very successful."

Su Li nodded and said, "This trip went relatively smoothly, but my loyal minister, the situation regarding domestic affairs leaves me unsatisfied. Can this primitive method of irrigation meet the needs of 1200 acres of land?" Laun turned to look at a dark-skinned serf who was sweating profusely as he walked between the ridges carrying two buckets of water, and poured out his difficulties, "My Lord, I know this method is clumsy, but even this inefficient method is difficult to popularize in the territory. Our craftsmen simply cannot make so many wooden barrels, and now there are only a hundred or so barrels used for watering. Of the 1200 acres of land, we'd be lucky if half were fully irrigated, and the remaining half will have to rely on the weather."

Su Li had expected the exploration to be difficult, but the shortage of supplies here far exceeded his expectations. There weren't even enough barrels! And that was with the help of the dwarf forge master.

Su Li took a deep breath and said to Laun, "My Lord, I underestimated the difficulty of your work. But I have good news. A halfling construction team will soon arrive in the territory, bringing with them 20 powerful ogres. Please arrange for them to start constructing water conservancy projects as soon as possible, prioritizing the construction of canals to those fields that have not yet been irrigated."

Upon hearing the news from Su Li, Laun immediately became excited. "A halfling construction team? This is fantastic news. As long as we can provide the ogres with sufficient food, all our water conservancy projects can be excavated at a speed visible to the naked eye. Reservoirs can be formed quickly, and ditches can be extended hundreds of meters overnight."

Ogres are undoubtedly the favorite laborers of every Home Secretary. The only difficulty is how to fill their hungry stomachs. They are different from those cheap gray beasts of the human race. They are always fed with coarse grains and rarely get meat to improve their diet. They can be irritable and cause unrest.

Fortunately, what the Hessen Territory lacks the least now is meat. The meat harvested from fishing and hunting is often too late to be smoked in the smokehouse, which is just right for satisfying the ogres' always hungry stomachs. The speed of a well-fed ogres will be more than ten times, or even dozens of times, faster than that of ordinary human serfs.

Not long after the two men were talking, the knights of the territory brought back the foreman of the halfling construction team and the halfling archers with their war horses and pack horses.

The brothers Harrilai and Harriet were not disappointed by the simple environment of the Hesse territory. Instead, their eyes were filled with excitement.

Harilai, the halfling chief's nephew and more intelligent, was in charge of the construction team's projects. Seeing all this, his eyes practically gleamed. "Gods be upon us, this is a newly emerging, wealthy pioneering territory. Their lord likely has thousands of gold coins! This is a paradise for halflings to make a fortune. Halflings will contract to build castles and walls, open taverns, and serve as cooks. A steady stream of gold crowns will flow into the family's pockets."

Laun greeted him warmly. He knew the cooking skills of the Halflings very well. According to legend, a Halfling chef once resolved a conflict between armies with just a roasted wild boar.

"Sir Harilei, there are certainly ample opportunities for you to make a fortune here. But first, perhaps we could host a bonfire dinner to welcome you and boost the morale of the people. I'm truly fed up with the shady food cooked by those ignorant village women. Then we can take the opportunity to discuss our cooperation, such as the windmill, waterwheel, and the farm's water supply system."

While Lawn and Harilei were having a passionate conversation, Su Li and Harriet also received an important piece of information. Knight Orstein sent back a formal knight to report to Su Li in person.

"My Lord, Commander Orstein has found a farm built by nomadic people from the Badlands in the middle of the Green Leaf Valley. As per your orders, we are on standby there, awaiting your support."

Harriet immediately raised her bow and arrow, stood on a rock, and shouted excitedly in a shrill voice, "Oh, my lord, this is the time for us halflings to show our strength. Perhaps we can show the big guys the power of halfling bows and arrows."

(End of this chapter)