Chapter 72: 72. Preparations Before the Expedition Against the Wilder Tribes

Under Wilson's unified arrangement, the 102 slaves were divided into five large groups: the Construction Squad, the Ironwood Squad, the Logging Squad, the Manure Collection Squad, and the newly formed Blacksmith Squad.

Without disrupting the work arrangements of the other serfs and free tenant farmers, this batch of slaves was purchased very opportunely.

As mentioned before, the status of slaves is even lower than that of the serfs in the territory; they are viewed as tools that can speak.

Although the status of serfs is also not high, and they are bound to the land and cannot easily leave or change their status, they still enjoy certain independent family, marital, and economic rights at the legal level.

As the master of this group of slaves, Luoning has the power to decide their status.

Following what he had previously instructed Jiaman, he made a promise to this group of slaves: as long as they worked wholeheartedly for Shanlin Castle for ten years, Luoning would remove their slave status and promote them to the serf class.

At the same time, Luoning also allowed this group of slaves to marry and have children; although the children born would still have the status of slaves, as long as they shed their slave status, their children would likewise no longer be slaves.

Status must be earned through one's own efforts; although Luoning possesses the soul of a modern person, he cannot be a pure philanthropist in this world.

It is already very good that he can provide a channel for this group of people to change their status; if it were an ordinary lord, who would care about the life or death of slaves?

Do not look at how he only gave these two promises; they are enough to awaken the longing to escape fate in the hearts of some slaves.

Of course, it is very unrealistic to expect slaves to be completely self-aware; Luoning will not give up the right to whip them into shape, and he will also have Wilson and others exercise such rights.

Small punishments for small matters, large punishments for large matters; if they commit a capital offense, Luoning will not be unable to kill them just because they were bought by him.

Everything, when it comes down to it, still requires them to work hard.

Besides the slaves, Luoning also promulgated the same incentive measures for the serfs.

On the existing basis, if the serfs cultivate the land for the territory for ten years, Luoning will reward them with ten mu of land.

Although the property rights of these ten mu of land still belong to Luoning, he allows that only 30% of the output from these ten mu of land needs to be turned over to Shanlin Castle, and the rest can be distributed freely.

One must know that current serfs have to turn over 50% of their output to the castle, and after subtracting seeds, what remains for them to eat is almost around 25%, which they combine with wild vegetables and other things to make black bread to barely get by.

No matter which world it is, human emotions are connected; everyone wants to live a life where they are well-fed and warmly clothed.

Luoning has set long-term goals for the serfs, coupled with the incentive plan for the four villages to compete in production that was just announced, as well as the curved plow and ridge tillage method that are about to be implemented; he believes the motivation of most farmers will improve significantly.

After returning from William, Luoning stopped by to check on the training status of Maiken and the others.

The guards brought over from Wushan Castle are already in a state of complete detachment from production, and Luoning does not intend to let them work in the fields.

During this period, although both he and Maiken were not in Shanlin Town, before leaving, both Luoning and Maiken had instructed Dawei to continue letting the guards perform appropriate drills while guarding the castle well.

The open ground on the west side of the castle has now become the training ground for the guards.

Maiken divided the twenty-seven ordinary guards into three groups, with nine people in each group. Every day, one group is arranged to take turns guarding the castle and patrolling the territory, while the remaining two groups continue their daily training.

In addition to formation training, ordinary guards now also need to undergo military boxing training; at the same time, Maiken has also arranged for close-quarters combat, sword practice, and archery training that is set to begin in the next two days, among other things.

As for the Professional Knights like Dawei, Tangmu, Zhuweite, and Ximu, they mainly focus on combat technique training, which is much more intense than the training for ordinary people.

Knights can only strengthen the Battle Qi within their bodies by constantly pushing their physical limits; slackness will only cause their cultivation to stagnate.

The only exception is the commander Ruidar; he was nowhere to be seen early this morning. According to Maiken, Ruidar left Shanlin Town early in the morning and walked into the Wubei Woodland alone.

Indeed, the intelligence gathering work on the wilder tribes should also begin. Compared to the Sain Territory, the wilder tribes should be easier to deal with.

After all, openly launching a war against other nobles will inevitably lead to accusations and intervention, and Wushan Castle might even mediate or even punish Luoning to maintain the unity of the Wushan Territory.

To deal with an overt attack on the Sain Territory, either Luoning must be strong enough that no one dares to say anything, or he must push Leisen into an isolated position where no one helps him plead for mercy; neither method is possible right now.

The wilder tribes are different; they are enemies who were driven into the woods by the Noble Allied Forces of the Wushan Territory in the first place.

If it weren't for the fact that the mountain roads were difficult to travel, the transport of supplies was too troublesome, and the various nobles had no interest in spending great effort to annihilate the remaining remnants of the enemy, they would not have left the wilder tribes alone.

Now that Luoning is taking action against the wilder tribes, not only will he not be accused by any nobles, but to a certain extent, he is also contributing to the Wushan Territory and promoting the might of the Wushan Family.

Over these years, it seems Wushan Castle has not done anything remarkable.

Ever since the old master Lulansi retired behind the scenes and handed matters over to Weijinsi, this family has begun to fall into silence.

Luoning watched the knights and guards sparring from afar; Shanlin Town now has two Advanced Peak Knights, one Intermediate Mage, four Primary Knights, plus himself, an Intermediate dual-class lord, totaling eight Transcendental beings.

With a few more Transcendental beings, he could form a Knight Squad.

When selecting guards at Wushan Castle, Luoning looked at Sir Jiaman and wondered when he would be able to have a Knight Squad of his own; he just didn't expect that only a month had passed, and this idea had already become within reach.

"My Lord, you've come!"

Maiken and the others stopped immediately upon seeing Luoning approach.

"I just came to take a look; you all continue training."

Luoning beckoned to Maiken, "The carpenter William has made a batch of Ironwood Armor and weapons using Black Iron Trees; you arrange for two people to move them over later to equip the guards. Those shields are of decent quality, and you should be able to use them too."

Maiken knew about the existence of the Black Iron Trees; it was discovered when they accompanied the lord to inspect that area that day.

At that time, Maiken was only an Intermediate Knight and couldn't even cut through a Black Iron Tree with one sword; the armor forged from this stuff definitely has a certain level of defensive capability.

"I didn't expect William's processing of the Black Iron Trees to be so fast," Maiken said with a smile. "I'll have someone move them over in a while and equip the guards first."

"The Ironwood Armor, plus the five sets of full-body armor obtained from Pedro and Pulinsite, I'll leave it to you to distribute."

Luoning glanced at the two new knights who were sparring, "Give Zhuweite and Ximu a bit more guidance during this time, and also Dawei and Tangmu; count every one of them and get their combat power up. Once Ruidar gathers intelligence on the wilder tribes, we will have to be ready for battle."

Maiken's expression turned solemn, "Very well, my Lord, I understand!"

While the two were talking, a guard ran toward Luoning's side, "My Lord~"

Maiken looked over, "It's the guard on duty at the castle today."

Luoning was a bit puzzled; the guard rushing over so anxiously must have some urgent matter. Last time it was Feilidun who visited; could someone else have come today?

The guard panted as he ran to Luoning, "My Lord, there are a few knights who say they want to visit you."

So someone really did come; this Shanlin Town is getting lively, but he couldn't think of who would be bored enough to run over here.

"Is it Knight Feilidun from the Sain Territory?"

"No, it is not; it is a knight from Muma City."

The guard answered while panting, "The leader says his name is 'Luogenna Tieti'."

(End of chapter)