Lord: Starting with Summoning the Regular Army of Earth

On the open ground west of the town, the second support team led by Li Yuangang was also working at full capacity.

"Hey—you! Get up, you bastard!"

Li Yuangang held his breath, veins bulging on his green forehead, his arm muscles tense, as he struggled to lift a rock that didn't look particularly large.

If he were on Earth, with his own strength, he could easily lift this stone with one hand and swing it around several times.

But at this moment, the stone seemed to have taken root, so heavy that he grimaced and finally had to half-drag and half-carry it, staggering a few meters before putting it down with a "thump," kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Huff...huff...what kind of weak body is this?!" He panted heavily, wiping sweat from his brow with the rough, green back of his hand, and couldn't help but curse, "Back in my day, I didn't even struggle this much carrying a hundred-pound load across terrain. This goblin must have grown up on dew, right? Is it all hollow inside?"

A soldier nearby, also struggling with a smaller stone, chuckled wryly, "Brother Gang, be content. I feel like my arms and legs are like reeds, I'm afraid they'll snap if I exert too much force. Back home, this kind of physical fitness wouldn't even get me through basic training!"

"Exactly! Now I understand why goblins in legends are always seen in packs, sneaking around like sly foxes. With those physiques, they couldn't even beat a wild dog in a one-on-one fight, so they have to rely on numbers and underhanded tactics!"

"It feels like goblins are just a rough draft of what this world was created from, no, it's more like they were cobbled together from scraps," the other two young warriors remarked.

At that moment, they were also trying to pry a rock stuck in the ground with a thick wooden stick, panting heavily from exhaustion.

"Let's get to work quickly and clear out the foundation. Once the blacksmith's shop has made the tools, we'll be able to do some decent work. We can't keep wrestling with these stones forever, can we?" Li Yuangang said loudly.

He put his hands on his hips and looked around.

His team members were scattered throughout the open space. Some worked in groups of two or three to roll over larger stones, some carried smaller pieces of gravel by themselves, and others tried to pry them open with the makeshift wooden levers they had found.

Their movements appeared extremely strenuous, a stark contrast to their effortless ease on Earth.

The whole scene looked less like sappers working and more like a group of tiny worker ants struggling to carry food far exceeding their own size.

"Sigh, if you're not strong, you have to use your brain more. I never thought I, Li Yuangang, would end up having to use my brain!" Li Yuangang laughed self-deprecatingly.

But as the team leader, he immediately adjusted his mindset and loudly gave instructions: "Monkey, Da Long, you two don't need to try to lift that piece. Go find a sturdy wooden bar and pry it open with me. Xiao Yang, Baldy, you two are responsible for rolling the loosened stones to the pile. Watch your step, don't smash these toes that are as thin as tofu."

Under his command, the team's efficiency improved significantly.

Cooperation replaced brute force, and although it was still slow, the stones began to be systematically moved toward the planned defensive fortifications.

……

Having filled their stomachs, Old Sam, Eric, Karl, and the others watched from afar at the bustling scene beside the blacksmith's forge, as the goblins forged iron with their professional and skillful techniques. They were all astonished. They had never imagined that the goblins summoned by their lord were not only a well-trained army but also such professional craftsmen. This once again overturned their stereotype of goblins as an inferior species.

If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, they would never have believed that goblins could have such abilities.

"Are you all full? If you're full, get moving! We can't lose to those green monkeys, or how will we have the face to beg for food from the lord again?" Old Sam said loudly.

A group of young people were already getting restless. On the one hand, they were influenced by the atmosphere, and on the other hand, as Old Sam said, if their "jobs" were taken away by those green monkeys, they would probably have no food to eat.

After all, the lord said that food would be earned through labor.

So Old Sam, Eric, and the others approached Matthew and asked to participate in the work.

Matthew was very pleased with this, and said to Will behind him, "Will, you know everyone's situation best, so you should be in charge of assigning tasks to everyone."

He has relayed all the current mission arrangements to Will and believes that Will knows how to make good use of the people so that they can also play a role.

Will quickly began assigning tasks, with old John and his two sons taking charge of providing carpentry technical support for the fortifications.

Eric and Old Sam were left at the blacksmith's forge to help with the forging.

Carl, Bob, and others were assigned to help Li Yuangang's group clear their working base and move stones.

When Carl, Bob, and other young people arrived at Li Yuangang's group's work area and saw the goblins struggling to move what were not even large stones, the young men suddenly felt a strange sense of superiority.

He then deliberately picked up a large stone in front of Li Yuangang and the others, and even easily weighed it a couple of times, showing off his strength.

This made Li Yuangang and his group of unyielding warriors very unhappy, especially Li Yuangang, who couldn't help but mutter to himself: If my original body were to transmigrate here, I would take on all of you blondies by myself.

Despite his anger, Li Yuangang maintained the restraint and professionalism expected of a soldier. He ignored the young men, such as Carl and Bob, who were deliberately showing off their "strength," and continued to organize everyone to cooperate.

Not long after, Professor Zhang Hongjian, along with several experts from his group, found Matthew, who was on an inspection tour, and discussed the urgent funding problem.

Although Jinshiling appears to be thriving at present, only the managers know that they still face many problems and challenges, with funding being the most pressing issue.

The gold coins that Knight Conrad obtained from selling his possessions won't last long, so he must resolve the funding issue as soon as possible to ensure that Emberstone Ridge can operate smoothly.

"Comrade Matthew, based on the intelligence we currently have and our preliminary assessment of the local ecology and resources, we have identified two of the most feasible directions for monetizing our technology. One is the purification of high-quality table salt, but this requires finding a stable salt source, which involves uncertainty. The second is... soap."

"Soap?" Matthew's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly searched through the original owner's memory bank.

Sure enough, it seems that this world, or rather the Kingdom of Augustus, really does not have soap, a common daily necessity on Earth.

Although the original owner, Matthew, was the king's illegitimate son, the old king treated him very well, so even if his life in the capital was not as good as that of the legitimate princes, it was still better than that of most nobles.

Therefore, he was very familiar with the daily necessities of the kingdom's nobles. Indeed, they did not have soap as a cleaning product. The royal family used a magical cleaning agent made by magicians, which contained a certain amount of magic and had a strong cleaning ability.

However, the price is outrageously high, and only royalty and a few of the top nobles can afford it; sometimes, even if you have the money, you can't buy it.

The remaining nobles mostly used cleaning agents made from soap pods, which were far less effective than soap.

Matthew vaguely remembered that the soap-making process seemed simple and that it was once said to be a gift from God to mankind, because it not only cleaned but also helped mankind fight bacteria, reduced many diseases and infectious diseases, and greatly increased human lifespan.

"The principle behind soap making is very simple," added an expert skilled in traditional soap-making techniques. "Oils react with alkali to produce soap and glycerin. What we need are animal fats and wood ash. Oils can be purchased, and we have plenty of wood ash. The tools are just a large pot and molds. Most importantly, we can produce soaps that are clean, have strong detergency, and even have a light fragrance. If we add some fragrance, we can even make scented soaps, which would be an absolute sensation in the world!"

Matthew's eyes lit up: "What about the cost?"

"Extremely low! The main cost is in the acquisition of oils. Once successful, a palm-sized bar of soap could be worth far more than its weight in silver," Professor Zhang Hongjian replied.

Matthew was overwhelmed with excitement, as if he could see gold coins flowing in like water. Suppressing his excitement, he said decisively, "Alright! It's soap. Professor Zhang, you will lead the soap project team and give it your all. I will entrust the task of procuring the raw materials to Knight Conrad!"

Soon after, Conrad set off again for Ironrock.

……