A Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity
A Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity
He tossed the document to Assistant Minister Barov, settled back in his chair and put his feet on his desk.
If outsiders had not been present, he would have wanted to hum a tune.
"Your Highness, please restrain your grief," said Barov. He read the letter, frowning and frowned. "The king has unfortunately passed away; the first prince is the murderer. It is a tragedy. I don't know what Your Highness intends to do next."
"Gerald's death was so peculiar. I want to see how Garcia and Tilly react before deciding," said Roland, "but in any case, we should be taking precautions."
Barov looked at the prince, waiting for him to continue.
"With this change in royal power, the king's city may become turbulent. The first thing to do is to vacate your beloved ones and family members." It was important to prevent the Second Prince from taking these people to threaten his personal ministers. Right now, Assistant Minister Barov was indispensable for maintaining the administrative and normal financial operation of Border Town. Roland sipped his tea and continued, "You, Carter, and your subordinates, need to write letters to your family members. I'll entrust the guards to go to the king's city with the letters and arrange shelter for them in other towns."
"No need to come to Border Town?" Barov was not a fool. After 20 years of experience in politics, he immediately understood the prince's deliberate intention.
"No." Roland neither wished for the adversary to use the families to threaten his subordinates, nor did he want his subordinates to think he was trying to use the families to threaten them. So he chose a compromise, relocating them to other safer towns first. When things settled down, he could bring them to Border Town.
"I understand. Thank you for your concern, Your Highness." Barov nodded his assent. Roland sighed with relief. He really had too few talented employees.
"And about the ore trade, the recent export of iron ore will be suspended. We'll only sell raw gemstones to Willow Town," he commanded. "I need to keep the iron ore for my own use."
"This will reduce revenue, Your Highness."
"But it won't go down too much. The miners have found a new gemstone deposit that can make up some of the gap," Roland said. And there would be no business during the winter. No one was willing to go out any time the demonic beasts might be hanging out. As a result, there would likely be only two or three transactions for the next four months. For the lightweight barge, obviously the transport of gemstones was a more cost-effective choice.
"Understood." Barov jotted everything down.
After Barov had left, Roland called on Carter Lannis. "I need to expand the size of the Militia. After the recruitment release, please arrange to transfer a few members with quick response and high ability, to the new platoons to become captains. The training must be based on the same method that was implemented last time."
"Your Highness, if you follow the old training method, it will probably be a long time before the new platoon is ready."
"That's still stronger than a rabble," said Roland, waving him to do what he had said. The platoon trained thus far was far from being able to be called an army, he was afraid that they were at the level of college students after military training. But sometimes the measure of fighting capacity had to be compared to the opponent. In addition to the demonic beasts, they were also likely to encounter a group of private corps, mercenaries, and "mixed platoons" temporarily put together by serfs. As long as they were equipped with cross-era weapons, college students would be almost adequate.
After Carter had left, Roland could not help laughing.
He had not expected such a coincidence! It was a timely benefit, just like the passing of a pillow when sleep beckoned.
Was it bad news for him? A dilemma? Wrong! He knew little about Garcia Wimbledon, but she was not the kind of person to be trampled upon at will. The first prince had been sentenced to death in such a short period of time. Even if there was no insider, she would probably not return to the king's city easily.
He was just to follow suit. As long as he could guard Border Town without moving elsewhere, someone would certainly jump out, and the Duke of Longsong Stronghold was likely the first person to feel uneasy. Otherwise he would not have been so anxious about the documents and delivered them to him in such bad weather.
For the Duke, the sooner he saw it, the sooner he would sleep and eat in peace.
If Roland chose to stay in Border Town, it was equivalent to defying the new king's will. He would wait until the Months of Demons were over. The duke would then probably want to give him a profound lesson under Timothy Wimbledon's banner. But this was exactly what Roland needed.
If anyone were to ask what industrialization lacked the most, the answer would definitely be people.
It required a large number of people to join in this large-scale production, turning the public into individual parts of a huge machine to drive it into operation. It was no exaggeration to say that with the "sheep eating men" enclosure movement in Britain, a large number of farmers were deprived of their land, making them free laborers, which then laid a solid foundation for the later industrial revolution.
The industrial age was so harsh, as long as educated workers were put into this furnace continuously, the exchange in return would be huge. The smaller the industrial classification, the larger the population needed to be.
Roland had been troubled constantly by the problem of population.
There were just over 2,000 inhabitants in Border Town. Even if it was a new era of machinery, it was still only workshop-style production. Without a large number of people, many projects could not be launched. Where could he swindle so many people to come to this town?
Could he buy slaves? There was no mention of where to buy thousands of slaves at once. Adult slaves were expensive, and did not have much significant training. Younger slaves, under the age of ten, would take too long to train. Even if child labor was employed against conscience, the waiting period would still be too long.
Could he recruit talents? How many people would be attracted to Border Town? This would result in more costs than buying slaves.
Could he encourage people to give birth to more children? Forced marriages? Forget it...
He had also considered Longsong Stronghold. But since the kingdom was in a stable state, if he were to attack the surrounding lords, it would simply be gambling with the future. Duke Ryan would also not dare to confront him blatantly, he would rather secretly try to put a spoke in his wheel.
However, the situation was different now. Now that Timothy had ascended the throne, he was eager to see all his competitors disappear. This recall order reflected his eager mood. Duke Ryan had obviously been able to understand this. Once released from the old king's constraints, it would be strange for him, as the ruler in the Western Region, to do nothing.
This was the opportunity Roland had been anticipating for a long time
Longsong Stronghold, as the border of the kingdom, was a century-old city with nearly 10,000 permanent residents. Behind Longsong Stronghold, there were towns with large tracts of land and no defense ability. If it was possible to defeat Duke of Longsong Stronghold and win the city, he would be able to get a large number of free people, while completing the original accumulation of wealth in the meantime.
What easier way was there to gain population than annexation? What else could accumulate wealth faster than plunder?
The news was like a lighthouse dispelling the mist, illuminating the direction of Roland's progress.
He would never miss such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.