Chapter 208: Leisen's End

Rognar had already adapted to his new life.

Since he began following Luoning, he had spent over a month, after completing the clearing mission in Zhaoze Town, sweeping the wilderness around Huitu Village with Kelami and three other Knights.

Once the more threatening beasts and Magic Beasts around Huitu Village were cleared, he returned to Zhaoze Town and began executing the task of purchasing grain.

"My Lord, 300,000 catties of grain have been safely transported to Zhaoze Town."

In the study, Rognar reported the results of his work to Luoning: "Wilson and Chahar are currently arranging manpower to unload and store this batch of grain."

With so much grain, although most would remain in Zhaoze Town for consumption, a portion needed to be distributed to places like Shanlin Town and Black Earth Village, requiring secondary transport.

Fortunately, the routes between the several villages were now relatively safe, and there was little risk even without Knight escorts.

"You've worked hard."

Purchasing grain was actually a simple job; after all, Rognar grew up in Muma City, where he had friends and connections, and he even managed to get a small discount for Luoning.

However, transporting 300,000 catties of grain required a significant amount of time and energy.

The supplier for this grain was a Chamber of Commerce from Lingchuan City; they did not have enough reserves in Muma City and could only bring in grain from Lingchuan City.

Lingchuan City was to the north of Wushan City, five or six hundred li away from Zhaoze Town. Although it was not too far, there were many things to prepare, and it was quite cumbersome.

Luoning was still very willing to attempt this kind of long-distance grain transport.

Because this could train the transport capabilities of Rognar and his team, providing a certain level of experience and foundation for logistics should a war break out in the future.

"My Lord, there is one more thing I need to report to you."

After finishing the report on the grain transport, Rognar began to recount what he had seen and heard in Lingchuan City: "It is about Leisen."

"Oh?" Luoning became interested.

The Bird Path from Shanlin Town to Wushan Castle had been completed two days ago, and Luoning had attempted to send a letter of greeting to Lulansi, but because the time was too short, he had not yet received a reply.

If there were a reply, perhaps he would know the final judgment on Leisen.

"Leisen admitted to the crimes of encroaching on the resources of Shanlin Town and repeatedly attempting to harm you. He also admitted that he had sought out the Skull Society, but regarding the accusation revealed by Feilidun—that the Skull Society was related to the Zilei Family under the Haide Bojueling—Leisen denied it."

Luoning frowned slightly; he knew it was not easy to confirm the relationship between the Zilei Family and the Skull Society, but he had not expected Leisen to directly deny the testimony of his own confidant.

"How did the other party quibble?"

Rognar replied: "The other party only said that they accidentally obtained a stronghold of the Skull Society while attacking the Black Gold Brotherhood, so they sent Feilidun to 'Yuanguangzhen' to deliver a letter, and accused Feilidun of being coerced into committing perjury by calling Yuanguangzhen the Zilei Territory."

Yuanguangzhen was located to the southeast of Wushan Territory; the former Yuanguangzhen was a vassal of Wushan Castle.

It was only in later wars that the local lord was killed by the Black Gold Brotherhood, and Yuanguangzhen fell into their hands, remaining unrecovered to this day.

"What did Feilidun say?" Luoning asked.

Rognar could not help but sigh with emotion: "Feilidun cried and lamented that he had failed Leisen's trust, bit back at Jialier, saying that he had been forced to fabricate testimony under torture, and then committed suicide in court."

This...

When he had contact with Feilidun in Zhaoze Town, the man had revealed a desire to follow him just like Qiaofuli, but Luoning had not agreed.

Luoning truly had not expected that the man's final end would be suicide in court, nor that he would have such courage.

Perhaps, when facing Leisen, the oath Feilidun had made to follow him in the past had played a role.

"What was the final result?" Luoning asked.

"With the jury consisting of Kingdom officials, Lord Weijinsi, officials from Heimang City, and numerous nobles from Wushan Territory, the final verdict was to sentence Leisen to hanging. The execution will take place four days from now, on the morning of April 5th."

Rognar sighed: "Jialier is also unlucky; he was accused by the people of Heimang City of slandering a noble, and they demanded that Wushan Castle put him on trial."

While lamenting Leisen's end, Luoning was simultaneously stunned by Jialier's predicament.

However, he figured that such an accusation could only disgust Jialier and should not have much of a substantive impact on him.

After finishing these matters, Luoning took out the items from his drawer.

"These are the Healing Spell Scrolls produced by Aierlong in February and March; I must trouble you to take them to the Silva Magic Energy Chamber of Commerce to sell."

Although Luoning had Aierlong put most of his energy into the research and production of Herbalism and Magic Potions, the production of Healing Spell Scrolls had not stopped.

After all, with Aierlong's current strength as a Chief Mage, producing second-level Spell Scrolls did not require too much Mental Power or Magic Power, nor did it take much time; he only needed to draw one in his spare time each day.

Recently, Luoning had also used up the materials bought in Wushan City to produce a dozen third or fourth-level Spell Scrolls, such as Detection Wind, Speed, Flame Explosion Technique, and so on.

However, he did not intend to sell these, keeping them for himself or his subordinate Knights to use.

"Additionally, help me notify Pier-sen and have him purchase 50,000 catties of iron ore, to be transported from the road in Zhaoze Town to Huitu Village."

In these two months, after William built a larger Bellows, the iron smelting High Furnace was finally able to completely melt iron blocks into molten iron, which meant that Wubei Territory could use casting technology.

Since he could smelt iron himself, Luoning no longer needed to purchase wrought iron from outside, but could directly purchase iron ore to smelt it himself.

On the market, the lowest price for a catty of wrought iron was 40 copper coins, while a catty of iron ore sold for between 5 and 8 copper coins.

Although a catty of iron ore might only yield 30 to 40 percent iron, and one had to prepare fuel, labor, and so on during smelting, after some calculations, it was still cheaper to smelt it himself.

"50,000 catties of iron ore..."

Rognar hesitated: "My Lord, smelting iron yourself is time-consuming and laborious, and the output is very unstable. Why don't you just buy wrought iron?"

He did not know that Huitu Village had already built an iron smelting High Furnace.

To be precise, the iron smelting area had already become a confidential zone.

Besides ordering that unauthorized personnel were not allowed to approach the work area, Luoning had also arranged for Guards to keep watch, and at the same time, he had issued a gag order to Kalesi and the other Blacksmiths; whoever leaked it would face the most severe punishment.

Regarding Rognar's suggestion, Luoning smiled and only said that he wanted to try it out, then changed the subject.

"There is a Baron Territory near Cuican City called Kona that is about to go under, and many people are fleeing. Andongni has already helped me assemble 560 commoners; I need you to take the grain and the caravan to bring this group of people to Shanlin Town."

Every year, many Barons and Pioneer Knights in Wushan Territory go bankrupt, and Andongni had already set his sights on these struggling territories.

Moreover, this was not the first group of people Andongni had brought in.

Last month, he had brought 864 Free Citizens from Muma City, all of whom had now been arranged by Luoning in Shanlin Town.

If one counted these five hundred-plus people, the population of Shanlin Town had already reached 3,500.

"Very well, My Lord."

Rognar sighed inwardly; it looked like he was destined to be a busy man from now on. (End of chapter)