Chapter 510: Three Great Cities

Although Miwu City was occupied by the Noble Allied Forces, Bruno did not designate anyone to manage it, so for a period of time, the city fell into chaos.

The various nobles carved up the territory, mostly engaging in the trafficking of serfs and the plundering of wealth and supplies.

Although it did not seem appropriate to Luoning, given the current social context, the actions of the Noble Allied Forces were within reason.

To them, war meant merit, and at the same time, it meant wealth; if you don't loot, you will be looted by others.

Luoning also had his own territory in Miwu City, and it was among the larger and wealthier districts; this was all agreed upon by the nobles.

It was just that he restrained his subordinates, not only forbidding them from kicking down the doors of Miwu City residents to steal wealth like bandits, but also arranging for people to soothe the public and maintain order.

Although doing so was a bit unconventional and appeared unsociable, with Luoning's current strength, what did it matter if he was a bit unsociable?

He hadn't said no to the actions of those nobles, anyway.

As for the issue of rewards for the soldiers after winning the battle, Ruidar, Maiken, and the others had long since formulated a plan, and they just needed to execute the distribution of rewards according to the plan.

Gold coins, armor, weapons, fields, houses, etc. —Luoning had a great deal of resources in his hands.

However, there was one thing Luoning could not avoid and had to do, which was to screen whether any alien races had infiltrated these people, and at the same time, those chambers of commerce and families with close ties to the enemy country needed to be detained and treated specially.

The night was deep, and Luoning reviewed this battle, searching for areas where he could have done better, among which the most necessary thing to do was intelligence work.

If he could have known in advance that so many alien races were hiding in Miwu City, he would have had corresponding preparations.

In view of this, Luoning decided to let Suofeiya contact Hameng, asking the other party to build an intelligence network in several cities south of Miwu City while collecting major intelligence, striving for internal intelligence to be passed out the next time they attacked a city.

Besides the lack of intelligence, he had a new understanding of Kaierluosi's role.

Dragons have advantages, such as leading the charge; one Flame Breath could turn the city walls into a sea of fire, and without strong defensive forces, it could almost allow the army to break through the city.

However, dragons also have disadvantages, which is that when surrounded, their massive size easily becomes a target for attack.

Luoning had indeed asked Kaierluosi if it could shrink its size to make it more agile.

Unfortunately, this would have to wait until Kaierluosi became a Legendary Creature to possess the ability to grow larger and smaller, and at that time, it would even be able to speak human language.

It was just that, given the amount of Energy Essence Kaierluosi needed for improvement, letting it become a Legendary was destined not to be a matter of a year or two.

During the period of handling Miwu City affairs, the funeral of Viscount Weilisi was held at Black Jade Bay, and Luoning was also invited to attend.

This family, which possessed Black Jade Ore and sat on huge wealth, although it no longer had Weilisi to hold the fort, his son was a Golden Knight and was quite promising.

Besides that, there was Weilisi's son-in-law, the Meteor Knight Edmond, so outsiders would not easily target this family.

Of course, the situation was certainly not as good as when Weilisi and Nikola were around.

Therefore, during the funeral, the new head of the family, William Black Jade, found Luoning and revealed the idea of wanting to marry into the Wushan Family.

Looking at it this way, before attacking Miwu City, Weilisi finding Luoning and wanting to introduce his granddaughter to Buleidun was not a spur-of-the-moment idea, but should have been discussed with his son long ago; otherwise, William would not have had this intention.

Actually, this was also very easy to understand.

Not to mention Lulansi, the long-famous Thunder Marquis, who had now recovered his strength; the Wushan Family was destined to enter the big stage.

Even more critical was Luoning, the Kingdom's newly promoted Marquis, who was also a Blazing Sun Knight, possessed a dragon, and had a series of other titles.

With the two of them, the Wushan Family would surely become a behemoth in the future.

Being able to marry into such a noble family met the expectations of all nobles.

In fact, quite a few nobles had already visited the gates of Wushan Castle, but Weilisi was the first to find Luoning.

Luoning had no choice but to take the opportunity to meet William's daughter, Lulia.

This sixteen-year-old, rather quiet girl, indeed had good talent in Magic, which was probably at the same level as Ailin, and now she looked like she was about to break through to become an Advanced Mage.

Speaking of which, Buleidun was also sixteen, and as an Advanced Knight now, his talent was equally outstanding.

Looking at it this way, Lulia and Buleidun were quite a good match.

Moreover, William proposed to offer part of the Black Jade Ore operating rights as a dowry; the conditions offered were very good, and there was a high probability it could succeed.

However, it was more appropriate for Lulansi, Weijinsi, and Daianni to make the decisions on such matters.

Luoning would at most express his own thoughts; letting him decide was clearly inappropriate.

Thus, William decided that after the matters here were settled, he would take Lilis to visit Wushan Castle.

Time passed very quickly, and in the blink of an eye, mid-September had passed.

The special envoy of the Teresia Kingdom arrived at Miwu City, bringing several large carts of money, treasures, and extraordinary items to request a truce.

This was already in line with Bruno's decision, so Gushan, as the commander, accepted the supplies sent by the other party and agreed to the request for a three-month truce.

However, the other party's idea of wanting to redeem Earl Wulaer, Viscount Pulaxiduo, and other powerful knights was rejected by Gushan without hesitation.

After all, the war had just begun, and a truce met the requirements of both sides, but if these people were released, there was no telling what kind of trouble they would bring in the future.

Don't let Wulaer go for a little money, only for it to eventually lead to a noble being killed by the other side on the battlefield; that would be too much of a loss.

Although it was a truce period, defense could not be relaxed.

Many nobles returned to their territories but left their troops in Miwu City.

Luoning was no exception; Miwu City was the bridgehead now, so he arranged for Ruidar to stay here while having him monitor Watchtower.

Kaierluosi sped through the high sky, carrying Luoning back to Yueguang Valley.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder; Luoning had been gone for nearly half a month, and Blanche had been missing him every day, sometimes really wanting to ride a Griffin to the front line to take a look.

It was just that the affairs of Yueguang Valley also needed her to attend to, so after thinking about it, she gave up; with that time, it would be better to go to Wubei Territory to take a look.

As the Marchioness, inspecting her husband's territory was her right, and this was also permitted by Luoning.

Now that Luoning had returned, the two of them inevitably had a good time being intimate.

After the passion, Luoning held Blanche in his arms as they rested, listening to his wife tell him about all the messy things in the territory, his mood feeling unprecedentedly peaceful.

"Luoning, Jennie sent a letter saying that the Steam Train and Steamboat on Uncle Ximeng's side have both made progress. In addition, the construction of Wubei Port is faster than expected; it is estimated that it can be test-run by the end of this year, and it should be officially completed by May or June next year."

Blanche snuggled in Luoning's arms and said with a smile, "Oh, by the way, Wubei City has also taken shape, and the number of people working and living there has reached 100,000. According to what you said, Purple Thunder City, Yueguang City, and Wubei City are all at the 100,000 level now."

"That is indeed gratifying!"

Luoning was a bit surprised, "I remember Wubei City didn't have much of an influx of outside population, so how did it increase by more than 20,000 people?"

"The entire Wubei Territory already has more than 200,000 people. The grain harvest has been good these past two years, and the population growth has been very rapid; the net population growth of Wubei Territory alone has exceeded 30,000 people."

Blanche explained: "The Wubei Territory currently has two major employment bases; one is the Coal Mine in Swamp Town which requires a large amount of labor, and the other is the construction of Wubei City."

"Where there is a demand for labor, people can be attracted to these two places to make a living, so the Wubei Territory is not without an influx of outsiders as you say."

Luoning could not help but look at her, surprised: "Not bad, how do you know this so clearly?"

"I am very diligent!"

Blanche stuck out her tongue and said proudly: "Apart from Magic cultivation, I go to check on the Wubei Territory whenever I am free. I can both learn more about your past and incidentally study how you manage the territory, so that I can promote it in Yueguang Valley."

"Not bad, you truly are worthy of being my head Steward!"

Luoning smiled and leaned down, beginning a new round of exploration: "To reward your diligence, I will also be a little diligent today!"

"Ah~ no, tonight is already enough... enough!"

"How can there ever be enough of this?"

For a time, the room surged with spring passion. (End of chapter)