Bringing the Railway to Daming

As a former Grand Duke Regent of the Kingdom of France and a relatively successful European noble politician, Philip II knew that hoping for his enemies to make mistakes was unreliable.

Therefore, after only briefly considering the possibility that the Dai Kingdom would never accept the religion of Qutuktu, he suppressed his smile and shook his head, saying, "However, the king of Dai will most likely discover how profound the influence of Qutuktu is on the French, and that he can consolidate his rule simply by accepting Qutuktu, so he will inevitably change."

"In order to deal with the possibility that the Kingdom of the Ages will become a major enemy of Burgundy in the future, I have already sent many spies into its territory."

"Hopefully these spies can bring back more useful information, such as the tubular firearms used by the Ming Dynasty mercenaries, and their gunpowder formula, etc."

"Of course, some of these spies, if given the opportunity, will continue to lie low, and perhaps one day they will become nobles of that country."

Upon hearing this, Charles was startled and immediately asked tentatively, "Father, how many spies did you send? Won't they be discovered?"

Philip II gave Charles a deep look and said, "I probably sent a dozen or so people. You don't need to know the exact number. As for being discovered—these people don't contact each other, and they don't even know much about the secrets of my Duchy of Burgundy. Even if they are discovered, it won't matter."

Charles felt regret.

He also wanted to get detailed information about the spies from Philip II, such as their names, appearances, and the identities they were posing as.

In this way, he might be able to use this information to get the King of Dauphin to kill John.

At this point, Philip II said, "The military strength of the Kingdom of Dai is very strong. I'm afraid our Duchy of Burgundy alone will not be able to resist it for a while. Therefore, Charles, your next task is to travel to various countries on my behalf."

"Strive to get all the countries to form an alliance to deal with the Dai Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty's mercenaries. Understand?"

This was a great task that could increase his network and reputation, and Charles immediately accepted it with great joy.

···
Dale was originally a farmer in the County of Auxerre, Kingdom of France.

His father had three sons and one daughter, and he was the second oldest. Although his father was a farmer who did not own any land but worked for a nobleman, he learned the nobleman's rules and passed everything in the family down to his eldest son.

Therefore, when he was twenty years old, he not only had no family, but also no decent job. He worked for his father and older brother every day and was not taken care of like his younger brother.

Life was very hard.

Later, the King's army breached the castle of the baron whose land his family had farmed, and recruited soldiers locally. Dale joined after a little consideration.

He was fortunate enough to pass the recruitment test and became a glorious squire, receiving a resettlement allowance of three silver coins on the spot, and thereafter receiving a military salary of one silver coin every month.

The army provides food and clothing, so he can save his settlement allowance and military pay to build a house, get married, and raise children in the future.

At that moment, he was glad that he had made the right decision.

His experiences over the past year have proven that his decision to enlist as a bodyguard for the Prince of Dai completely changed his life.

Although Dale's physical condition was not outstanding, he had a strong learning ability, was hardworking and could endure hardship, so he stood out in recruit training and became a corporal.

After that, he participated in many battles and made several meritorious contributions. He was first promoted to junior officer, which is equivalent to a squad leader.

Soon after, the escort army expanded, and he distinguished himself in the great battle between the pro-war and pro-peace factions in France. As a result, he was promoted to captain, in charge of fifty men.

Subsequently, the King of Dai formally established the Dai Kingdom. Dai Er, who had already learned a lot of Chinese and even dozens of Chinese characters, immediately consulted with the military advisor and changed his name to Dai Er to express his loyalty to the King of Dai.

After changing his name, he was given important responsibilities in the military expansion of the Dai State and made several military achievements. Now he has been promoted to the rank of commander of a thousand households!
In the current Dai Kingdom army, the senior generals are all people from the Ming Dynasty who crossed the sea with the Dai King, and this is also true for the escort troops.

Therefore, the position of commander of a thousand was already a relatively high rank for the French in the military—I have heard that several Frenchmen have become high-ranking officials such as assistant commanders and deputy commanders because of their great achievements.

But to achieve great things, you need not only ability and courage, but also some luck.

Dai Er felt that he was just a little unlucky.

However, Dai'er is already very satisfied with her current treatment.

The system of the Kingdom of Dai differs from that of the former Kingdom of France. The King of Dai recently distributed land to soldiers and officers, with the higher the rank, the more land was distributed.

As a chiliarch, he received more than 300 mu of land and also received some tenant farmers.

Of course, he was very different from the noble lords—firstly, he only owned fields, not territories, which meant that he could not raise private soldiers in his territories like the noble lords, nor could he have various rights over his subjects.

Secondly, the land granted to him by the King of Dai was also subject to taxation, although the tax was only half that of other landowners.

Even with taxes to pay and provisions to be given to the tenant farmers, Dai'er could still earn a considerable income from these 300-plus acres of land each year. Not to mention, as a chiliarch (commander of a thousand households), he received a military salary—a full 24 silver coins per month, amounting to several hundred silver coins per year!

In fact, including the rewards he received for his meritorious service, he had already saved more than three hundred silver coins before the king distributed the land.

When winter came and the wars of expansion of the Dai Kingdom came to an end, Dai Er originally wanted to use the money he had saved to build himself a manor-style house.

As a result, while rewarding them with land, the King of Dai also gave them a new task: to establish "garrisons".

At first, Dai Er didn't quite understand what "Weisuo" meant. Later, after the commander explained it, he understood what it meant—it was that the King of Dai had assigned garrisons to each of the guards, and the land bestowed by the King of Dai from the commander of a thousand households down was all near the Weisuo.

Besides training, they spent their days protecting the garrison from enemy attacks and supervising their tenant farmers to cultivate the land properly.

Of course, if the King of Dai needed them, he would also summon them to fight elsewhere.

As a commander of a thousand households, Dai'er needed to establish a thousand-household office at a designated location. Upon arriving at the location, he discovered that there was already a baron's castle there.

Thus, the baron's castle became a thousand-household residence, and he naturally moved into the baron's original large house, saving him the cost of building a new house.

As for a wife, Dai Er already had one—when he was a centurion, he had the opportunity to choose a woman from among the female captives.

At that time, he could only look and not ask questions when he entered the female prisoner camp, so choosing who to select depended on his eyes and luck.

He was lucky enough to choose an illegitimate daughter of a count—his wife was named Angela, and according to her, her father had died in the war and her mother had disappeared.

As for her siblings... as an illegitimate child, Angela's relationship with her siblings is not good. In fact, even her father treats her only so-so.

Although Angela was an illegitimate child, she was still the daughter of an earl, and was not only beautiful but also quite knowledgeable. Dair was very satisfied to have married a woman of such status.

Originally, he was somewhat worried that Angela might harbor resentment towards the King of Dai, the Dai Kingdom, and even him.

But after he agreed to marry Angela, she used her knowledge to give him a lot of advice—which is one of the reasons why he was able to be promoted to commander of a thousand so quickly.

After spending more than six months together, he was certain that Angela had accepted him as her husband.

Most importantly, Angela is pregnant with his child, and I believe she will be even more devoted to her family in the future.

It snowed lightly that day.

Dai Erxian led several dozen of his personal guards to inspect his own fields—mainly to check the growth of the wheat and whether the tenant farmers could survive the winter.

Because he also came from a tenant farming background, he was not harsh on his own tenants. Moreover, his superiors had repeatedly instructed them to treat their tenants better—just like cattle and horses, if you take good care of them, they can work better.

If you don't take good care of them, and the cattle or horses die, it will be your loss.

When Dangdai Er finished his inspection and returned to the castle, a guard clerk who had stayed behind to guard the castle came to report, "Your Excellency, the commander of the Jier Thousand Household Office, the centurion Mickey, is here to see you."

"Mickey? Where is he?"

"They have already been invited to the office of the Thousand-Household Officer."

Dai Er nodded and immediately headed towards the Thousand-Household Office—due to the castle's structural issues, the Thousand-Household Office's office and his residence were currently connected. According to the requirements above, when conditions permit in the future, the Thousand-Household Office will also need to build a formal office and a Thousand-Household City.

Upon arriving at the castle hall, Dair met Mickey, a friend he had made in the army when he was a corporal and sergeant.

Mickey was a few years older than him and in better physical condition, but he wasn't as hardworking and had some minor health issues. So, although he had also made some contributions, he was only a centurion at the time.

“Brother Mickey, why aren’t you staying in your own garrison? Why did you suddenly come looking for me?” Dai Er asked with a smile.

Mickey pointed to a large glass wine bottle (made in the Ming Dynasty) on the table and said, "Of course I came to have a drink with you—this red wine was seized from a baron's castle and was given to me by my superior. I've treasured it until now, it's quite rare."

Dai Er said, "This is the government office, not a place for us to drink and chat. Come on, follow me to the second floor."

Mickey made an exaggerated expression and raised his voice, "Brother Dale, you're the commander here, the highest-ranking one. Are you afraid of anyone talking about you?"

Dai Er said, "It's not that I'm afraid of what people will say, but it's bad for the image. If I want the soldiers to follow the rules, I must first follow the rules myself. This is a principle taught by Commander Zuo, have you forgotten it?"

Zuo Qianhu was a man from the Ming Dynasty and also their former superior.

Mickey shrugged. "You remember everything Zuo Qianhu said. That's quite something—maybe that's why you were promoted to Qianhu."

Dai Er sensed Mickey's jealousy but wasn't angry. He led him upstairs.

The second floor of the main castle building is Dai'er's home.

Besides his wife Angela, there were two maids and two strong women in the house, who were considered his servants. As for male servants, Dair was not used to having other men in the house, unless they were his sons.

After he and Mickey sat down, Angela came over to say hello, had a maid bring some food, and then left.

Mickey poured wine for Dale using the drinking utensils on the table.

Dai Er looked at him and asked, "So, what made you decide to come all this way to treat me to drinks?" (End of Chapter)