“Master Petrov, your father called for you, he has something to discuss with you.” A white-haired steward suddenly rushed to the side of Petrov and talked into his ear.
“I’ve got it,” Petrov nodded, and after an early goodbye to Rene, he took a coach back to the House of Honeysuckle with his housekeeper.
“Father,” he entered the study and saw his father Shalafi Hull writing something by the table.
When he heard Petrov’s voice, the count did not pause his writing, “You have to sum up the number of people and their income within our domain and deliver your summary to me, I will then arrange the soldiers for the spring expedition. Duke Ryan has already sent out his call for weapons, When the snow melts, we and the other five families have to provide him with knights and mercenary, which will then march against Border Town.”
“How much do we have to provide?”
The count put the pen down and raised his head, “What happened? Until now you have never concerned yourself with this kind of problem.” He reached to the side of the table and opened a letter, “We have to send at least twenty-five knights, together with their corresponding squires and horses. Also for the mercenaries, they must be fully equipped, and lastly we have to send 100 free people or serfs, who have to be equipped with simple weapons.
Petrov summed up the troops within his head if I add all the soldiers provided by the five families we will provide more than 1000 soldiers. Together with the
Duke’s own troops, it will add up to a force able to sweep away any power in the western territory. Even if the Longsong Stronghold didn’t send their
defending troops, this force isn’t something that Border Town can resist. After all Border Town only has two thousand inhabitants.
“Father, can you please stay away from the battlefield?” Petrov asked hesitantly.
“What do you want to say son?” the Count asked strangely.
“I’m worried about your safety.”
“His Royal Highness only has a few knights and less than 50 guards. Our numbers are more than ten times greater than his!”
Theoretically, this was the case, but his father had never seen the Prince before, but Petrov did. “But… Father, everybody said, that the wall made up out of mud paste will soon collapse, but the Prince presided over the construction and it still stands. They also said, that Border Town using only miners and farmers as soldiers, cannot stop the demonic beasts. His Royal Highness has not only done this, he was even able to defend his town until the end of the Demons of the Months, and during the whole months, no one fled from Border Town. “The more he said the more disturbed his heart became,” Now, once more, everyone thinks that Duke Ryan will defeat Roland Wimbledon, running over the Prince as easily as running over an ant. Father, are you certain that it will be as easy as you think?”
“That’s enough!” Shalafi slammed his fist onto the table. He shook his head and stood up, then he went to the wall — the wall on which the portraits of their ancestor hung. “You always liked more to be a businessman and buy and sell goods than riding a horse and going to war, this is fine for me. But being a merchant is not equal to being a coward. Those merchants who cross the ocean were threatened with death every day,” he shouted, pointing at the wall. “Look at the portraits, your grandfather, your grandfather’s grandfather, they all leaned on their longbow or their sword and defended themselves against demon beasts, bandits and brigands. You disappoint me, being so afraid of fighting! ”
No, Father. Petrov bowed his head, no longer motivated to argue, but within his heart he thought, you are talking about grandfather and grandfather’s father but if you took a closer look at those powerful faces, and then take a look at your loose belt and your overflowing double chin. Father, do you really believe you are able to use the bow?
Chapter 104 Planning and Entertainment
On a sunny afternoon, it was finally time for Roland to fulfill his promises.
He conferred the title of Viscount to Sir Pine. In addition to the title he also received a territory to the south of the Redwater River and the right to set up a small village on the other side of the river. Currently, this new territory was still covered by jungle, but Roland had already planned to develop the land. In order to make him give up the autonomy of his newly acquired territory, Roland promised Sir Pine that he would give priority in opening up the territory as soon as possible.
Furthermore, on the open ground Roland would also establish several different kinds of industries, that would generate shares to be given to Sir Pine and his descendants. Roland of course, used his technical abilities as the reason to describe why it was needed for him to supervise the industries. He also explained to him that it was a pretty good possibility to receive money without having to do anything.
Sir Pine readily agreed to this offer — after all, he didn’t like this kind of work, in his view, there was nothing more interesting than riding a horse into battle. But after he had his daughter, he instead put his focus into hunting. The industries in his old territory had already long since been ruined, so he simply asked Roland to help him sell his land which was located east of Longsong Stronghold, after all his family had already completely moved and started to live in Border Town. Roland naturally agreed to his request.
Another person he conferred a title to was Brian, who was awarded with a knighthood. Afterward Brian had to choose if he wanted to get his own territory or still wanted to serve in the army.
If he chose the land, then he could no longer serve in Border Town’s first Army. If he decided to join the army, he had to, just like the others receive his land due to the achievement of his military merits. Without any hesitation, Brian chose the latter option.
As a result, Roland could finally start with planning the general layout of his territory.
With the Redwater River as one boundary, and the Impassable Mountain Range as the other. The living area had a length of three kilometers and a width of seven to eight kilometers. After the construction of the residential areas, it could also later be used as a prize, which could be given as an additional reward to promoted officers.
The other side of the Redwater River will become the future industrial areas and agricultural areas. The land could be extended to the south, but the only problem was that it was still covered by forest. In addition, its topography sloped higher and lower in the further distances. To meet the needs of the population, Roland must begin to reclaim the land.
The border area to the west of the garrison and the forest where the demonic beasts hid themselves were also important areas to open up.
The forest has a wide range of treasures, such as wood, edible fungi, wild animals, herbs and more. In addition to using wood for construction and in industry, it could also be used as a fuel source. The vast area covered by the forest was staggering. Roland had already sent Lighting to explore it, but even flying more than thirty kilometers she still hadn’t been able to see its end, that meant that if all of the wood in the forest was to be used for building a fire, it would burn for a very long time.
The last area was the territory between the Hiding Forest and the Impassable Mountain Range — it was a no man’s land, a restricted area, in other words, a barbarian wasteland. He could only speculate how big the area between the Impassable Mountain Range and the border of the forest was. Both borders were extremely vast, it had to be much bigger than the territory of the Kingdom of Graycastle. In the face of such an extremely large and ownerless land, Roland’s heart began to itch. But he also knew that for the moment he was temporarily unable to bother himself with this piece of land. At present, the most important thing for Border Town was to increase its population.