Chapter 67: 67. Listening to Reports

Shanlin Castle was lively again this evening.

In the kitchen, Mrs. Bandele, who had been honing her culinary skills for days, and her assistants finally had a chance to put them to use, pouring all their concern for the Lord into delicious dishes and bread.

The newly promoted Primary Knights, Zhuweite and Ximu, also walked into the Inner Castle's dining hall with a reserved yet proud attitude to share dinner with the Lord and many of their seniors.

Luoning received detailed information about these two newcomers from Dawei.

Both Zhuweite and Ximu were under twenty years old; the former was nineteen, and the latter was eighteen.

To be honest, the probability of activating a Battle Qi Seed and becoming a Professional Knight at the age of eighteen or nineteen is very small, and their future potential is likely quite poor.

But then again, it is good enough that Shanlin Town has new Transcendental beings now; there is no room for anyone to be picky here.

At the table, Luoning first introduced Ruidar's identity to the others with great ceremony; especially with Maiken's side remarks, everyone understood the red-haired man's strength, which effectively established Ruidar's status as a commander.

At the same time, he also praised the newly promoted Zhuweite and Ximu, raising their salary to thirty copper coins per day, putting them on the same level as Dawei.

In this way, among the Transcendental beings present, except for Tangmu, everyone else had a minimum daily wage of thirty copper coins.

Considering Tangmu's performance during this period and his attitude toward everything, Luoning generously allowed him to "become a regular" ahead of schedule, and his salary was simultaneously restored to the same level as the other Primary Knights.

Tangmu was moved to tears by this.

At tonight's banquet, he finally gained the Lord's recognition and could be considered to have entered the circle of core members of Shanlin Town.

The banquet ended happily, and under Beila's service, Luoning took a good bath, sweeping away all the dust from his journey, feeling refreshed.

Having not seen her for half a month, Beila's complexion had become much fairer; perhaps the changes in her life had spared her from the running around and toil she had endured before.

Hmm, Luoning felt he still deserved some credit; at least he had brought improvements to some people's lives and allowed a portion of them to gain a sense of happiness.

He believed that there would be more and more such people in the future.

In the study, Chahaer and Wilson came to report on their work, and Luoning had Jialun serve them each a cup of barley tea to quench their thirst.

"My Lord, the one hundred and two slaves have all been settled. But there is one thing we must remind you of: there are not many vacant houses left in the town."

Chahaer started complaining as soon as he began, "I could not possibly allow that group of slaves to live in the castle, not even in the Outer Castle. So, Wilson and I settled them in the homes of the former Defense Officer Disen and the Knight Kaite."

Disen and Kaite were the knights arranged by Sain Territory in Shanlin Town; after they were killed by Luoning, their houses naturally belonged to Shanlin Castle.

"However, my Lord, the conditions of those two houses are quite good; to be honest, I really hate to give them to this group of slaves. It is just a pity that there are no other vacant houses in the town."

Wilson agreed with what Chahaer said, "My Lord, if new people join Shanlin Town later, I think we should plan for housing construction in advance."

Luoning nodded slowly, "Indeed, the matter you mentioned is exactly what we need to do next."

"The growth of Shanlin Town is inevitable; in the future, our population will catch up to a normal Baron Territory, or even exceed it, so building enough houses in advance is very necessary."

Luoning did not need to pay the slaves any form of wages or remuneration, but he needed to provide them with clothing, shelter, and food, and building houses was essential.

Of course, the requirements for the slaves' housing did not need to be that high, nor did they need one room per person; as long as it could house people, it would suffice.

"Let's put the slave matter aside for now; Wilson, how have you divided the villages?" Luoning asked.

Wilson stood up hurriedly and took a piece of parchment from his bosom, "My Lord, they have been divided. There are four villages in total, and the total population of each village is over 490. Excluding the 20 people serving you in the castle, the numbers are basically not much different."

Luoning took the parchment and looked; among the four villages, the largest had 503 people and the smallest had 492, so the numbers were indeed not much different.

At the same time, Luoning noticed that the names of the Village Chiefs and Group Leaders were written behind the villages, clearly already selected.

"Well done, Wilson, but did you not name these villages?"

Wilson said modestly, "I thought such an important matter would be better decided by you, my Lord."

"In addition, the Village Chiefs and Group Leaders listed are people I selected after observation; they are either strong at work or have good crop yields. If you feel anyone is unsuitable, I will go and re-select."

"I trust you in your work."

Luoning had no time to observe the farmers one by one; anyway, the Village Chiefs and Group Leaders were just there to work, as long as they got the job done.

"Let the Village Chiefs and Group Leaders be as you have written. As for the names of the villages..."

Luoning was interested in naming things, so he picked up a pen and wrote four village names in the blank spaces on the parchment.

The one with the most people would be called Fuqiang Village, and the one with the fewest would be called Qinfen Village, with 49 people.

He handed the parchment back to Wilson, "Gather these Village Chiefs and Group Leaders in the Outer Castle hall tomorrow afternoon to meet."

As he spoke, he looked at Chahaer, "Although you are the Steward of the castle, the expenses for these Village Chiefs and Group Leaders are all accounted for by the castle. Although their administrative affairs are handled by Wilson, you need to supervise matters involving results and assessments."

It was one thing to trust Wilson's attitude toward work, but it was another thing to have someone supervise.

He knew Chahaer had the ability; the castle's accounts, resources, and so on all had to be managed by him, and he also needed to be clear about external expenditures.

Such an arrangement might make Chahaer busier, but who wasn't busy? He, Luoning, was the Lord of Shanlin Town, and wasn't he busy enough?

"I will divide the hundred or so slaves bought this time into a Construction Squad, an Ironwood Squad, a Logging Squad, and a Manure Collection Squad."

"The Construction Squad will consist of carpenters, masons, and ten men and ten women, responsible for building housing. The initial requirements are not high; build them on the hilly land in the farm area far from the town center."

"The Ironwood Squad is to assist Uncle William the carpenter in developing the Black Iron Tree. It requires fifteen sturdy men and two women responsible for logistics. Have the Construction Squad build a few houses in the west first as a temporary base for the Ironwood Workshop."

"The Logging Squad will consist of ten men and five women, responsible for assisting with the timber needed by the Construction Squad, and later building roads out of Shanlin Town to the south."

"The Manure Collection Squad is responsible for picking up manure and trash in the town. Later, I will instruct them on how to decompose and ferment this manure to turn it into fertilizer. Let's start with five men and five women for now."

Luoning looked at Wilson, who was sweating profusely and taking notes quickly on his palm with a quill pen he carried with him.

"I will see how many of the remaining slaves to keep; if there are any left, divide them into the four villages to farm. Follow what I said and group them tomorrow."

"Yes, yes!"

Wilson responded while recording; more work had come, and it was a big job at that.

Chahaer secretly chuckled on the side; fortunately, he was not the Administrator, so he was much more relaxed.

"Chahaer, I will be distributing the wages for the guards, castle servants, and the Administrator tomorrow morning. Help me calculate everyone's remuneration tonight and give it to me tomorrow morning," Luoning said.

"Uh... yes, my Lord!" Chahaer quickly maintained a serious attitude.

Thank you to all the lords for the monthly tickets, thank you~

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(End of this chapter)