I'm not a lord

Chapter 84 The Dawn of the Iron Torrent

On the return carriage, Yagna snuggled in Lin En's arms like a cat.

After four months of getting along, she could actually vaguely realize that the man next to her might not be from the Hanfeng family.

He looks handsome and humble, but in fact he disregards all aristocratic etiquette.

Although he was domineering and tyrannical by nature, he did not ignore the survival needs of the lower-class serfs.

He rarely mentioned 'Cold Wind' in the castle, and most documents were not stamped with the family seal. He only occasionally wore a smock embroidered with the family crest.

It is unlikely that such a man came from the Earl of Cold Wind family, which has lasted for nearly two hundred years.

But none of this matters. Yagna only loves the real man beside her, not the illusory name of the Cold Wind Family.

She didn't care about the so-called reinforcements from Earl Frostwind.

Today, the White Bear Territory is nurturing a truly powerful army.

This army will protect the White Bear Territory and all the people in this territory, and will also help her complete her revenge and retake the Shoal Territory.

Thinking of this, Yagena couldn't help but hug Lin En's arms tighter.

It was noon when we returned to the castle.

Lunch is always simple. Lin En ate a few bites quickly and then went out to inspect the village.

Due to the rainy season in July, no merchant ships will arrive in White Bear Territory before August.

No matter how brave Leon was, he couldn't send a boat upstream in the storm.

Moreover, Sanhe City can no longer supply more "talents" to White Bear Territory.

The city with a permanent population of 8,000 has already provided nearly 300 adult male fugitive slaves to the White Bear Territory, and there is really no milk to be squeezed.

Of course, Lin En's sights are not limited to Sanhe City, he has set his sights on a broader target.

Those lower-class serfs who were forced to flee because of the war.

Most of the conflicts and wars in the North occurred in summer and autumn.

The main reason is supply.

The armies of the great nobles were composed of a variety of elements, including their own elite private soldiers, feudal knights from local areas, and various mercenaries and horse bandits.

The army's composition is complex, so it is naturally impossible to establish a systematic logistical supply.

Moreover, even a tyrannical man like the Duke of the Swamp could not provide food and fodder for an army of several thousand men for several months.

In fact, the army these days has no concept of logistical supply at all.

The solution to the problem of food and fodder is most likely to be looting on the spot.

When sending troops abroad, looting villages and towns along the way has become the underlying logic and is simply unavoidable.

In order to solve the problem of food shortage, the great nobles would even allow the army to plunder their own territory and issue formal plundering certificates to their military leaders in advance.

Let them grab the goods with peace of mind and without having to worry about being held accountable afterwards.

Isn't a civil uprising and the escape of serfs better than a military mutiny?
Thirty years ago, the Duke of Swampland sent troops to exterminate the deserters, and his cavalry plundered several baronies in the White River Basin.

The people could only swallow their anger when their territories were plundered, and they dared not stop or resist at all.

In summer and autumn, the grain gradually matured, and the army had food to rob when it went out. The serfs in various places were reluctant to flee because the grain was about to mature.

It's simply a win-win.

Of course the looting army wins twice.

You can harvest food on the spot and rob the villagers into poverty.

It can even solve physiological problems.

Lin En and Leon both believed that as the war intensified, a large number of serfs would flee along the Jing River into Sanhe City, potentially reaching tens of thousands. By then, it would be autumn, and Lin En could decide how many serfs to recruit based on the White Bear Territory's annual grain production.

As for July, his plan can be summed up in one word: development.

Under Lynn's orders, villages have begun building stone houses.

The mud houses that have withstood the test of heavy rain have not been demolished and can be used to accommodate influx of people in the future.

Due to the lack of necessary transportation tools, most of the serfs in White Bear Territory could only transport stones using carts.

A vehicle can only carry 60 to 70 kilograms at most, which is extremely inefficient.

Seeing this, Lin En immediately dispatched more than 20 four-wheeled transport carts from the dam construction site, harnessed two strong draft horses, and drove them on the flat gravel road. Each trip could carry nearly one ton of stone.

The small stones broken by the road will not be wasted. They can be burned into quicklime and mixed with water, straw and sand to make an excellent building adhesive.

This lime mortar is also an excellent exterior wall coating material, protecting walls from wind and rain erosion.

Attracted by the sturdy stone houses, the serfs in various villages worked hard.

Even a sudden downpour could not dampen their enthusiasm.

Serfs, both men and women, went into battle, wearing hats and raincoats, and traveled back and forth between the stone mine and the village in the heavy rain, transporting cartloads of stone back home.

After instructing the serfs to build stone houses, Lin En rushed to White Bear Town without stopping.

Under his personal guidance over two days, the head carpenter Tolima finally built a waterwheel and transmission device of qualified strength, and the head blacksmith Qihe finally forged a large and durable hammer.

By combining the two products, the first hydraulic forging hammer in the North was finally formed.

"Master, this hammer weighs over a hundred kilograms. Can it really be driven by a waterwheel? And what kind of ironware requires such a heavy hammer to forge?"

Qi He walked around the hydraulic hammer in the yard twice, and finally couldn't help but express his doubts.

Even when forging a heavy sword, such a heavy hammer is not needed.

"Once the new blacksmith shop by the river is finished, you'll see what this thing does. Right now, your most important task is to build nine more water wheels. Five for the blacksmith shop and five for the other workshop."

Lin En didn't have time to explain too much to the two chief craftsmen.

The significance of the hydraulic forging hammer is to replace manpower and undertake the most boring and arduous forging work in the forging process.

With the help of the forging hammer, the two thin blacksmith apprentices were able to forge qualified ironware blanks.

By simply processing the raw material, you can make a variety of ironware.

If the blacksmith operating the hydraulic forging hammer is skilled enough, he can forge a rectangular iron ingot into a uniform iron plate several millimeters thick.

As for the function of the iron plate, needless to say, it is naturally used to make top-level armor that is ahead of its time.

Of course, the iron plate still needs a lot of fine processing before it can be transformed into qualified plate armor.

Currently, the White Bear Territory lacks senior blacksmiths who can complete these processes.

But Lynn has seen the light.

If that didn't work, he would train a blacksmith himself.

If we want to smash this era, flesh and blood are too fragile, and we must rely on a real steel torrent.

Just as Lynn was directing the work in the blacksmith shop, Bova finally returned to the Shoal Territory.

"How dare the second son of Earl Frostwind send people to rob our envoys? How rude!"

Henryk was furious when he saw Bova covered in wounds. He wished he could lead his men into the White Bear Territory to seek justice.

The death of a steward and a male servant is a small matter, but the loss of Qiantan leader's reputation is a big matter.

Henrik is now the guardian of the Baron of the Shoal Lords. Wouldn't slapping the Baron of the Shoal Lords in the face be the same as slapping him in the face?
(End of this chapter)