Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 70 Caravan Visits
What Su Li called the castle hall was actually the first floor of this low stone house.

His castle was still very simple, with only a simple wooden wall surrounding an area on the outside and a few simple houses built of stone inside.

But the people in the castle are full of hope. Everyone is enthusiastic and determined to overcome all obstacles in this wilderness and build a beautiful home together.

So although the room was simple, every corner was full of vitality. The furnace in the blacksmith shop was burning with flames, the dwarves were sweating profusely, and the heavy hammers were swung again and again, making a clanging sound.

In the stable, the diligent servants were repairing the horses' hooves and washing the dust and mud off their bodies.

In the milking parlor, there are hardworking maids who squeeze out bucket after bucket of pure white cow's and goat's milk, and the beautiful priestess of the Church of Dawn is teaching them how to make cheese products.

Although this land was remote, it was not without trade routes. The dwarves of the mountains would occasionally organize caravans to go out of the mountains, exchanging their metalwork and other products for venison, beef, cheese, and other foods that they could not produce in their fortresses.

There was no hot tea in the castle. Su Li brought Lawen back to the castle, and Lawen asked the maid to bring up two cups of warm milk. He smiled and said, "My Lord, you are tired from the journey. Have a cup of hot milk to relieve your fatigue. This is the fresh milk that was just produced in our territory these days. How does it taste?"

Su Li was really thirsty. He tilted his head back and gulped down the large glass of milk in the wooden cup. After finishing it, his eyes lit up: "Hmm~ But it's quite sweet. Did you put sugar in it?"

"No, it's a beehive we found in the Green Leaf Forest. It contains natural flower honey brewed by bees. We collected about 10 kilograms of it," Laun explained.

"Green Leaf Hills is really a treasure land with rich resources." Su Li smiled. The future planning here is undoubtedly the manor area of ​​the territory. It has beautiful scenery and abundant prey. It is simply a natural royal manor.

The two chatted for a while and then turned their attention back to business.

Laun first reported on the tool production issue that Su Li was concerned about. "The territory now has over 800 tools, and the blacksmith shop is still producing. I plan to build a larger blacksmith shop and have Boros Dragonhammer move there with several apprentices to forge more sophisticated weapons, equipment, and heavy armor. Harry and several dwarf miners will be in charge of the blacksmith shop in the castle, melting iron ore and forging iron ingots and simple production tools."

"If all goes well, we can even add another two or three hundred slaves and settle them down smoothly. We can also provide them with sufficient farm tools to carry out agricultural reclamation. Currently, the serfs in the territory are mainly caring for the fertile land we have reclaimed, so the six heavy plows we produced have not yet been put to good use."

Su Li asked with concern: "How many acres of fertile land do we have now?"

This question should have been answered by Minister of Agriculture Vandal, but Lawn, familiar with the overall political situation, answered first, saying, "After a detailed count, including the farmland at Wolfgang Farm, we have a total of 2300 acres of fertile land for crops in our territory. Furthermore, we've also used our oxen to cultivate 200 acres of new land in the past few days."

At this point, Laun's spirits lifted. "My Lord, the 'Law on Farming' you've enacted is a brilliant idea. Before this, no one had ever imagined that those lowly serfs, lazy and shameless, could possess such diligence and dedication. They actually took the initiative to work day and night to cultivate the fields during their free time after finishing their farm work."

"When several serfs asked Fandral for oxen and heavy plows, Fandral suspected they were cattle thieves who wanted to escape the territory with the oxen in the dark."

Su Li couldn't help but smile. No one in this world understood the terrifying nature of this system better than he did. After all, he'd been crushed by this kind of pressure once before. So, let's all roll together. Either we become kings and escape this dreadful status, or we'll be completely flattened and reduced to dust.

Su Li then said, "The Farming Law can only solve the problem of scale. What about efficiency? How is the progress of the water conservancy project?"

"We're making rapid progress. Thanks to your decisive victory over the Beastmen in the Battle of Mutter Valley, we've acquired a large quantity of iron. Boros has crafted a large number of specialized digging tools for the ogres. Twenty ogres have already dug a trench totaling 20 empire miles, and the reservoir has been expanded to over 20 meters. Fandral guarantees that the two light-scaled fish will survive and spawn within. We've jointly sent a letter to the military commander, Knight Orstein, requesting that he station a team of guards here day and night to prevent fish thieves from stealing our precious light-scaled fish."

Su Li quickly calculated that in about ten days, twenty ogres had dug a canal the size of twenty empires and more than doubled the size of the reservoir. This efficiency was practically comparable to that of mechanical equipment. Indeed, when one's power is multiplied, even moving bricks on a construction site can lead to prosperity.

Su Li smiled and said, "No wonder the halfling construction teams always cause complaints from other business rivals. If we had a hundred or so ogre workers, the construction progress in our territory would be leaps and bounds every day! This efficiency is comparable to that of two or three thousand human serfs."

As expected, in this alien world, one must discover the miraculous abilities of alien races. If a small imperial town had a halfling community and hundreds of ogre workers, its development would be truly extraordinary. The only problem might be how to feed these followers of the glutton god.

Laun smiled and said, "Hatsklin, the halfling leader, has already spotted this business opportunity. Her family still has thirty or forty members. She has already sent one of her sons, along with a team of halflings and two ogre bull warriors, to form a caravan. They've loaned us 60 gold coins and are heading to the empire to recruit ogre mercenaries."

"And speaking of caravans, I have some good news to share with you. A human caravan arrived yesterday outside the wooden wall of the residential area in the south of the city."

"So soon?" Su Li was surprised. No wonder Laun said this was good news. His territory had only been built for a month, so how could merchants visit? "What kind of caravan are they?"

"It's a group of furniture merchants. They originally planned to go to Bloodpine Ridge to cut down valuable pine wood. However, they encountered a large number of forest bandits and were forced to flee along the Brienne River, where they discovered our territory. They heard that the mercenaries guarding them suffered heavy losses, with at least 20 killed and many injured. They hope that we can provide them with some herbs and some armed protection while they enter the forest to cut down trees."

Furniture merchants encountered forest bandits?

Hearing what Lawn said, Su Li immediately felt it made sense. He remembered that under the influence of the dragon's aura, the desire and rage of the centaur Bloodhoof tribe in the forest became extremely strong, and they began to attack any forces they found.

If this green dragon is not dealt with, every spring when animals are in estrus, the bandits in the forest will come out and plunder human territories, villages and farms outside.

But no one expected that this matter would also have an advantage. The restlessness of this centaur tribe actually drove a caravan of furniture merchants to Hesse.

Su Li thought for only a moment before making a decision: "Agree to their request. You negotiate with them first. Once you reach an agreement, bring the caravan leader to see me. We must deal with the forest bandits. We need to capture them and expand our army. We must sweep their camps and capture slaves."

Hearing this, Lawn was slightly surprised and suggested, "My Lord, these people are very dangerous. Among them are legendary thieves and wanted criminals, and even many are exiled Knights-Errant. As you know, the range of Knights-Errant is very broad, ranging from apprentice knights to champion knights. Confronting them head-on is not a wise choice. With your abilities, we can develop steadily, then expand our power and eventually wipe them out in one fell swoop."

"Before then, our wise choice should be to keep our distance from them until our power grows strong enough to crush them."

Laun is indeed a top student at the Medheim Griffin Military Academy. His view on the dangers of war and his theory of winning first and fighting later are worthy of his background as a graduate of the military academy.

If he could crush his opponent by farming, Su Li certainly didn't want to take military risks. After all, in a war, no one could guarantee victory.

But the pressure on the green dragon is there. If Su Li does not enter the forest and weaken its clan, the chances of winning in the future will be even slimmer.

In order to enter the forest, these forest bandits near the outskirts of the forest would be his first target.

So Su Li said, "My political advisor, your suggestion is excellent. From the perspective of domestic affairs, you are not wrong. But I am the lord, and I must balance domestic affairs with the military. The forest bandits pose too great a threat to us. We must actively defend ourselves and take the initiative to weaken their strength. Otherwise, when they gather together and start plundering, our castle with only one hundred soldiers and four hundred people will not be able to withstand their massive scale."

Laun was unaware of the terrifying reality of the Green Dragon's existence, so he persisted in his persuasion, saying, "My Lord, you have no idea how terrifying those bandits are. The previous Lord coveted the bounty and wanted to lead his troops in to clear out the area, but suffered a great loss. Even now, those bounties are still gathering dust under the shelf of the Government Office."

"Is there a bounty?" Su Li's eyes lit up. This was truly a pleasant surprise. "Bring it over here and let me see it."

Laun immediately ordered a servant to take the moldy lists from under the shelf, hoping to dissuade Su Li from his impulsive thoughts.

(End of this chapter)