My XX deal with Sister Nero

Oh! From the tone of voice, His Highness is planning to hire people right now! Thomas felt that he was born into a poor family, so it would be good to provide some benefits to everyone! So he replied: "Two meals. Because the workers work during the day, lunch should be a little better. Usually, it is two pieces of bread and a small bowl of porridge. Dinner is a piece of bread and a small bowl of porridge. Half an egg can be given to the workers every week."

Thomas was not greedy. He reported half an extra egg when he reported it. He thought His Highness would not check it. Even if he did, His Highness would not care about this half egg, right?

"That's all?" Tony frowned.

No wonder these capitalists are so evil. In the original accumulation of capital, a capitalist not only has to learn how to make money but also how to save money. Therefore, during the Industrial Revolution, capitalists always had to exploit the vast proletariat.

Of course, in this era, the big slave owners and aristocrats also exploited ordinary people, and it was already very good if they could provide you with a minimum of food and clothing.

Tony wasn't going to do that.

Although he didn't intend to let everyone know what human rights were, he didn't intend to exploit these hardworking people too much. After all, in China, in his era, if you traced back three generations, you could always find a farmer among your ancestors. So Tony thought for a while and said, "Three meals a day, a piece of bread and a bowl of porridge in the morning, three pieces of bread and a bowl of porridge at noon and in the evening, an egg every two days, and five bronze coins every day. What do you think of this price?"

How's the price? It's really good, isn't it?

Five bronze coins a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, that's almost eighteen gold coins, which is more than the income of this town in half a year!

"Your Highness...isn't this treatment too good? What if these people are delayed in their work schedule because of this? After all, every extra day worked here means one more day's income." Thomas said.

Indeed, they could barely make ends meet, but you improved the food and paid them back. Who would want to finish the job early when they heard they could leave after the job was done? Who wouldn't want to earn more money? The job was limited, and there was only one way to earn more money, which was to slack off and work longer. In this way, you could earn more money.

"It doesn't matter. Since there is a reward system, there is also a punishment system. If you can't complete it within the specified time, then your salary will be deducted!" Tony said with a smile.

"Depend...deduct wages?" Thomas didn't react for a moment and realized what this wage was.

Tony smiled and said, "Five bronze coins a day. I can give them out once a month. At the same time, I will set a certain amount of work for you to do each month. If you fail to complete it, I will deduct a portion of the money I should give you as punishment. If you are found to have deliberately delayed the work, I will just fire you without paying you. How simple is that."

Compared to the future, Tony is now simply a black-hearted boss.

In modern society, even if an employee is fired, he must be paid the full salary for the days he worked in the month. However, Tony simply deducted all the money. If it were in modern society, the employee could sue this black-hearted boss, but it is different in this era.

You are given good food and money, but you don't work hard and don't know how to cherish this opportunity. Who can you blame? Although these workers don't understand the truth, they still understand this. Besides, even if he deducts your money, who can you sue him? He is His Royal Highness, the younger brother of His Majesty the Emperor. Who dares to intervene in this matter?

"But the formulation of this construction period..." Thomas frowned.

Tony shrugged and said, "I'm not a professional at this. You can discuss it with the technicians. Oh, by the way, you are the former mayor of this town. I plan to transfer you to the city hall to be an official in the civil affairs department. What do you think?"

"What does the Civil Department do?" Thomas asked.

After talking with the Prince for a while, Thomas found that he was not a traditional nobleman. Thomas had been to Sanoni before and met some minor nobles there. When they looked at people, they basically looked down at them with their chins down. But this Prince was easier to talk to. He would try his best to answer your questions if he could, and even if he couldn't answer something, he would tell you truthfully that he didn't know the answer.

"The Civil Department, as the name suggests, is responsible for dealing with trivial matters of residents, including some public security issues, public health issues and some minor disputes. Of course, this Civil Department is only temporary and will be split up according to its detailed responsibilities in the future." Tony replied.

So that's it! Isn't this what I did before?

Thinking of this, Thomas nodded and said, "No problem, Your Highness, I will go to serve in the Civil Affairs Department."

After sending Thomas away, Tony glanced at the sky which was almost dark and suddenly realized that he seemed to have not had time to eat dinner yet.

He staggered back to the tent where he lived, only to see that the maid who was in charge of taking care of his daily life had already prepared the meal and was waiting for him to sit down.

"Your Highness, the steak is made from local cattle. The taste may be a little worse than the steak in Rome. I hope Your Highness don't mind." Seeing Tony coming back, the little maid Ola standing at the door of the tent looked at Tony with a worried look and said.

Aura is fourteen years old this year. She was originally Nero's maid. She followed Nero when he went to Thessalonica. Later, since arriving in Thessalonica, she was arranged by Nero to take care of Tony's daily life.

Of course, because Tony originally lived in the refugee area in Thessaloniki, Ola did not follow him.

PS1: I coded this chapter at the airport and uploaded it by turning on the mobile hotspot. It was a bit rushed, so just read it. I won’t count the recommendations and collections for now, I will count them all in the evening.

PS2: I just realized that I have to make three flights, from Changchun to Ordos, then to Xi'an, and finally to Chongqing. Oh my god, it's addictive.

PS3: There is only one update today. I will be on a plane later and will not be able to update. I will try to code some on the plane, but even if I finish coding, I probably won’t have time to upload it. I will try to upload three chapters tomorrow.

PS4: Now I will announce the new rules for adding chapters. From December 12th to the 20th, within seven days, for every 26 collections added, one chapter will be added. For every 100 more recommendation votes, one chapter will be added. For every 50 more monthly votes, one chapter will be added. For every 30 more interstitial posts and comments, one chapter will be added. For every 50 more rewards, one chapter will be added. That's it.

Chapter 59: Boudica Arrives

At present, Tony has two people he trusts the most. One is his chief guard Mary, and the other is his personal maid Ola. Especially Ola, she takes care of his food, clothing and daily life. He still cares a lot about what this young lady says, who is young but already mature in character.

After finishing his meal with Ola's help, Tony called Mary in and said, "Sister Mary, I want to reorganize the army here. What do you think?"

"Reorganize the army? How to reorganize it?" Mary, like Ola, had also been to Thessalonica. She was still somewhat impressed by the little inventions Tony had made in Thessalonica. Although these things could be thought of with just a little thought, among so many people, only this little prince had thought about this.

"The military service system will remain unchanged for the time being. It is still a compulsory military service system, but the army will be re-divided into three categories. The first category is the active force, which is the force currently in service. At present, the only truly active force in the entire Odney Town is the guard under Sister Mary's command. The second category is the reserve force. In the future, local conscripted soldiers will automatically be converted to the reserve force when they retire from the active force at the end of their service period. Once a war occurs, they can be re-conscripted into the army. The third category is the militia. They can do what they are supposed to do in peacetime, organize training in their spare time, and serve as assistants to the active force in war. What do you think?" Tony said.

Although Tony's explanation is very complicated, in fact, this is the combination of the field army and the national army currently implemented in the Roman Empire. The national army is actually a militia force, who are farmers in peacetime and soldiers in wartime, while the field army is the active force. The reserve force that Tony created is just to ensure that the active-duty soldiers still have a certain degree of combat effectiveness after retirement and can be recruited at any time.

"In addition, the army has established a new military rank and rank system to accommodate the new troop organization," said Tony.

After the Marius Reform, the military organization of the Roman Empire had been used for more than a hundred years. The tribal states around the Roman Empire basically knew the organization of the Roman Empire very well. However, although Tony, who traveled through time, also remembered the military organization of the Roman Empire, it was somewhat different from the military organization of his original world. If a war really broke out in the future, these problems that were only minor problems in normal times might become big problems.

So Tony decided to redivide the military organization and ranks and establish a new military organization according to the era in which he lived.

The troops adopt the "three-three" system, that is, three squads form a platoon, and three platoons form a company. According to Tony's idea, the organization of the entire army from low to high is respectively group, squad, platoon, company, battalion, regiment, brigade, division, army, and army group. Of course, considering that there may be wars in the future, an army group can be established above the army group based on the specific situation at that time to facilitate the command of the battle.

According to the new military system, the patrol team of Odney Town can just form a militia squad.

Apart from Tony's guards, this is probably the only team that can be called a combat unit. However, the combat effectiveness of this unit is indeed somewhat shameful.

After discussing military reforms with Mary in the evening, Tony got up early the next morning. After breakfast, he took a few stonemasons, a hunter and two guards into the mountains east of the town of Odney.

According to the hunter, there is a small hill about half a mile east of the town. A rainstorm a few years ago destroyed part of the hill, exposing the rocks inside the mountain. Tony thinks that he can organize people to mine these stones, which can be used for paving roads or building new houses for residents.

In addition, Tony also arranged for several people to build a small brick kiln in the west of the town. Now the Roman Empire has a relatively mature brick-making technology. Tony feels that even if he does not engage in some costly industrial revolution, he must at least let his territory keep up with the trend of the times and complete Romanization.

A small town that lacks money, people and everything else. How did I decide to choose such a place to start?

After confirming that this was the first quarry of the future town, Tony led his men back to the town. Now that they had decided to build the road, what should they do next to improve the town’s economy?

The only thing that can be called a commodity in this small town is animal fur. However, these animal furs can only be supplied to the city of Sanoni for the time being. Therefore, the fur traders in the city of Sanoni have been keeping the purchase price very low, resulting in the hunters not being able to make much money at all.

But when it comes to minerals, Tony is not very familiar with the distribution of minerals in the UK, and he is not sure whether the place where he is is rich in minerals.

Well, let's put the minerals aside for now. Even if they are discovered, Tony doesn't think he has enough manpower to mine them. The top priority now should be to settle the purchase price of timber and furs.

"So, the most common animal around the town now is foxes? And how much does an adult fox fur cost?" Tony found an older hunter in the town and asked.

The old hunter answered cautiously, "Every time we go to Sanoni City to sell, the price fluctuates, but in terms of volume, a fox skin is worth about two bronze coins."

Two bronze coins? Isn't that nonsense? Even though Tony was not a businessman, he knew that this price was ridiculously low. After returning to the camp, Tony immediately arranged for people to go to other cities to find out what the market price of a fox skin was.

After arranging all these, Tony returned to his tent, ready to have lunch and then take a nap.

However, just after finishing lunch, Tony heard a guard come to report that a convoy had arrived to the north of the town of Odney and requested to see His Highness Tony.

"Someone wants to see me? Who?" Tony was a little puzzled when he heard the news from the guards.

The governor of Sanoni City has already met me, who else would come to see me? And to pay me a visit?

"Your Highness, the visitor is Queen Boudica of the Iceni Kingdom," the guard replied.

Boudica?!

Tony's initial understanding of Boudica came from a game jokingly called Futanari. The portrait of Boudica in the game in her broken state was simply amazing. The clothes on her upper body looked the same as if she was not wearing any, and her lower body was only wearing a pair of panties. So Tony also looked up some historical information about this British fighting queen, and found out that she was a tragic figure like Spartacus.

So after Tony traveled to this world, he never wanted such a tragedy to happen. It was with this idea in mind that he chose to help Prasutagus in the city of Rome.

"Please invite her in quickly!" When Tony heard that Queen Boudica was coming to visit him, he didn't have time to think about it and directly asked the guard to invite Boudica in to talk.

PS1：统计截止时间为2018年12月20日3点40分，明天醒了再说吧，现在才到家，困得一批。

PS2: I’ll talk about the second chapter after I wake up. I may have a cold and a headache right now. I’ll see how it goes after I wake up.

Chapter 60: Consider doing business

"I am Boudica, Queen of the Iceni Kingdom, meeting His Royal Highness." Boudica bowed to Tony as soon as she entered the tent.

"Hello, Your Majesty the Queen. Come, please take a seat." Tony was quite excited to see Her Majesty the Queen. Although Her Majesty the Queen's current outfit was not the shabby one in the game, the clothes she wore now still made Tony feel that he was not afraid of freezing his thighs even if the weather got colder.

After Boudica sat down, Tony motioned for Ola to bring the juice, and then said, "I wonder what brought you here suddenly, Your Highness? What's the matter?"

Boudica said: "Your Highness has his own fiefdom. For ordinary people, when a new neighbor comes, it is natural to congratulate him on his new home. Now that Your Highness has moved in, we should at least express our gratitude. Besides, it was Your Highness who helped us out in Rome. If we don't express our gratitude, it would be too unkind of Your Highness' kindness."

Tony waved his hand and said, "No, no, Her Majesty the Queen encountered such an incident in Rome. As the host, I feel a little guilty. It is my duty to help. But to be honest, I am not a politician. It is too tiring to talk in official language. It is better for us to be casual."

"...Well, Your Highness is really a bit casual. Here is our gift list, please take a look." As she spoke, Boudica handed a piece of cloth to a guard beside Tony.

After the guard took the cloth, he immediately handed it to Tony.

Tony took the cloth and looked at it carefully, then said calmly: "I have only learned to read for three months, and there are many words in your words that I don't recognize."

Well, Boudica had heard a long time ago that the prince had been missing for several years and was only found a few months ago. It was normal that the prince was illiterate after wandering outside for so long.

After receiving the gift list, Boudica cleared her throat and said, "How about I read it to Your Highness?"

Tony nodded and said, "That's a good idea."

After unfolding the gift list, Boudica cleared her throat and read out: "Four carts of iron ore, four carts of wood, ten carts of animal fur, two carts of black ore, twenty cows, fifty pigs, thirty sheep, and fifty chickens."

It doesn't sound like there's much.

Tony shrugged.

To Tony, these things were indeed not much and not very valuable. That was because Tony was looking at the value of these things from the perspective of the people in the future city. But in this era, except for wood, the rest were still quite valuable. Moreover, the Kingdom of Iceni was just a small country, and these were the only things it could give away.

"What is that black ore?" Tony suddenly asked.

Boudica replied: "I don't know what it is exactly, but the Governor of Britain has also purchased this thing from us, so I think it should be a valuable ore, just like iron ore."

Hearing this, Tony's heart moved and he said, "Take me to see it!"

Although I don’t know why Tony wants to see it, now that His Highness has made a request, there’s no harm in taking him to see it.

Under Boudica's guidance, Tony finally saw the so-called black ore.

Looking at the shiny black stone, Tony's expression changed slightly: "Isn't this just coal?"

Tony's hometown in his previous life was near a coal mine. According to his father's arrangement for his life, he would work in this coal mine in the future. After all, both his father and grandfather had worked here.

Tony was lucky enough to leave the mountains and become a customs officer, otherwise he would probably have to stay in the mountains all his life.

But precisely because there is a coal mine near his home, Tony is extremely familiar with coal!

"There are open-pit coal mines in the Kingdom of Iceni?" Tony said in surprise as he looked at the truckload of coal.

"Coal mine? Is that the black ore? Yes, we have a mine," Boudica replied.

Open-pit coal mine...

In this era, Tony knew that due to technological limitations, all mines that could be mined were basically open-pit mines, or shallowly buried coal mines. If not, let alone mining, it would be difficult to even discover them.

Tony knew the importance of coal. In steelmaking, using coal is much better than charcoal. Even for heating in winter, the effect is much better than charcoal.

"How much of this black ore can you produce every month? How much do you give to the province every month?" Tony asked.

Boudica thought for a moment and said, "I'm not really sure about this. Why, Your Highness, are you interested in this mineral?" Boudica asked.

"To be honest, I am indeed interested." Tony scratched his head and said.

Boudica said: "This is easy to discuss. Since Your Highness is interested, I will go back and tell him. Then we can give you a lower price than the provincial government."

A lower price? Tony estimated that the provincial governor was completely exploiting the working people. The money given to the Iceni Kingdom was probably already a very low price. Is it necessary to lower the price a little bit just to save face?

Well, but I will be the one who benefits by then. At worst I can just make concessions in other provinces.

"What about transportation? As you can see from my side, the territory is not very large now. It seems that there is no direct road from here to the Iceni Kingdom, right?"

Boudica nodded and said, "Yes, it's not raining these two days, so we can just go through the forest. But once it rains, the soil in the forest will be soft, and we won't be able to drive through."

In other words, do I still have to build a road to the Iceni Kingdom?

But building a road to the Iceni Kingdom is not easier than building a main road in a small town. The main road in a small town is only a few hundred meters long, but the main road to the Iceni Kingdom is more than that distance.

Let me put it this way, if you want to go to Kamrodunum from the Iceni Kingdom, you can go directly southwest to the city of Sanoni. The city of Sanoni, the town of Odni and the Kingdom of Iceni are exactly in the shape of a triangle. To put it bluntly, because no one has ever been here before, the Iceni Kingdom has only one road leading to the city of Sanoni, and there is no road to the town of Odni.

Winter is approaching, and if we want to build a road, we will probably have to wait until next spring.

"This is really troublesome..." Tony looked up at the sky and said, "How about this, although it's a bit troublesome, but before the new road is built, your team should go through Sanoni City."

Tony paused for a moment and said, "Come to think of it, I feel a little awkward calling you Her Majesty the Queen. Can I call you Sister Boudica?"

"Sister Boudica? Okay, okay, then I will call you Little Tony too~" Boudica said to Tony happily.

Speaking of which, Tony remembered one thing about Boudica's settings that he had read on the Internet before, which was that Boudica was a generous person who did not care about details, so he planned to build a good relationship with her by addressing her first, so that if something happened, he would have someone to help. Besides, after their relationship became close, if Decianus wanted to take action against Boudica, he would have to consider Tony's feelings a little.

PS1: I feel much better today, so I will continue to update. After I came back yesterday, I took a screenshot. According to statistics, as of 2018:12 am on December 20, 3, there were a total of 40 collections, 749 recommendations, 604 monthly tickets, 25 rewards, 1400 valid book reviews, 3 valid intervals, and a total of 39 updates owed.

PS2: I only updated one picture yesterday, so I owe one more update.

PS3: According to the new rules... I don't have any new records of owing updates, so I owe a total of 86 updates. The conditions for the next update are 849 collections, 654 recommendations, 55 monthly tickets, 2400 rewards, 53 valid book reviews, and 89 valid interval posts. Any one of these conditions will suffice.

PS4: I wonder if you are interested in the historical Nero. If you are, I will take some time to give you some general knowledge later.