Chapter 213: Busyness and Plans

For some reason, after Allen extended his invitation to Yamila, he found he no longer had a single moment of leisure time.

Every morning, Manid would bring a large number of young officials, carrying stacks of documents, to line up at the door and report the year's income to Allen.

This included the transit taxes paid by passing caravans, with the primary sources being the revenue brought in by the High Pass and the Old Mirkwood Road.

Next were the various shops within the town, as well as the income from selling honey candies and various dairy products and fruit wines.

Looking at the thick account books, Allen suddenly felt a bit of a headache; it wasn't that he couldn't understand them, as sorting out the numbers before him was no difficult task for Allen.

After all, he had received a relatively complete education and had spent a few years knocking about in offices.

Furthermore, after a short period of adjustment, he was already able to grasp the ins and outs of it all and had discussed some plans for the coming year with Manid.

For instance, increasing the tax rate on certain goods while lowering it on others, so as to maintain a relatively stable state for commercial activities in this territory of tens of thousands of people.

Allen was, of course, not the type of lord who stared fixedly at gold and silver; he still had some understanding of the importance and function of taxation.

However, what gave His Majesty the King a headache was that such work was simply too tedious; he hadn't experienced this sort of thing for over a decade.

For a moment, Allen suddenly realized that the life of the king he was playing felt no different from when he was working a regular job.

As for the situation regarding the various types of income, it was naturally impossible to discuss it all in the span of a single morning.

Manid, with a look of excitement on his face, left Winderyburg with his subordinates and indicated that he would come again tomorrow morning.

In fact, this former merchant who was obsessed with making money, and the current Finance Minister of Rhovanion, felt that he had learned something new from his king during this morning.

At the same time, he was happy for himself, because the boss he served was not the type of lord who only cared about money.

And after Allen had a simple lunch, Old Karl, who was advanced in years but still full of vigor, brought several other elderly men of similar age to discuss the planting plan for the coming year with Allen.

Rhovanion, which currently still relied on self-sufficiency, absolutely could not be careless about such matters, and depending on the location, the things planted were also quite different.

Starting from Fislate, the further south one went, the higher the temperature would be; most farms would plant various seasonal vegetables while growing wheat and grains.

For example, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, onions, mushrooms, and so on; these increasingly diverse vegetable varieties were mostly spread from the Shire.

At the same time, a proverb regarding potatoes also spread from the Shire, and the original words were: Unless absolutely forced to, no Hobbit would ever take potatoes as a staple food, because it would affect their mood for the next meal.

Upon hearing this, Allen of course knew why, because eating too many potatoes would cause indigestion, affect one's appetite, and also lead to symptoms of excessive flatulence.

For Hobbits, who had to eat seven meals a day, this was of course an intolerable thing.

And from Fislate heading north, the temperature would drop rapidly, and the land there was mostly used for planting flax, corn, and beans, along with large stretches of pastures for developing animal husbandry.

Most of the sheep and horse herds under Allen's name were in the north.

When winter arrived and there was no work in the fields, most of the draft oxen would also be driven to the northern lands, which made them easier to take care of.

Terrain like hills and mountains had also been gradually cleared by the hardworking people over these years into orchards, planting fruit trees such as apples, pears, hawthorns, and red dates.

In most cases, these fruit trees did not require much tending, because the status of fruit in Rhovanion was merely a condiment in daily life and would not be treated as a staple food.

Moreover, the Humans of Rhovanion were very willing to share these fruits with the small animals in the forest, as long as there were no pests or diseases.

Of course, most of the fruit trees had not yet entered their peak harvest period; these trees, only a few years old, had limited output each autumn.

Only when they reached maturity was it necessary for Cabinet officials to organize personnel to complete the harvesting work.

In fact, in this era, the ownership of mountains, hills, and even orchards mostly belonged to the King.

In the mountain hollows where rivers flowed, there were also some people who were quite skilled at caring for plants, who would select some delicate and expensive fruits to plant on the sunny slopes.

For example, strawberries, cherries, and grapes.

And just understanding these matters took Allen almost the entire afternoon.

Because Allen really did know a bit too little about this aspect; although he had experienced the pastoral scenery of the countryside in his youth, when it came to farming, he truly didn't know much.

During the break, Allen even took the time to handle a dispute: the masters of two farms had gotten into an argument over water sources, which ended with both sides bloody and bruised.

In Rhovanion, this counted as a vicious incident, and the composition was complex; it contained elements of fighting and brawling, while also relating to the decree previously issued by the Cabinet regarding "Encouraging Residents to Go Out and Establish Farms."

The official in charge of such events, while feeling somewhat troubled, could only bring these two people before Allen.

While surprised that such events also required the Prime Minister to handle them, Allen fined the two for their fighting and brawling.

At the same time, he told the two that he would send people to inspect the local situation to see if they could repair some irrigation channels so as to satisfy the needs of both farms simultaneously.

At this moment, Allen had, of course, already thought of the reason why he was so busy.

After casually asking an Attendant, he knew that Yamila had already taken people to Ioviah; at this time of year, as it approached the end of the year, the officials there also needed to report the situation of the entire village to the Cabinet.

As for why those officials didn't come to Fislate, that was, of course, because one had to see it to believe it.

After all, Ioviah was a direct territory of the royal family, and the distance from Fislate was not far; by carriage, it would take three to five days, and Yamila would be able to return.

And the people who were currently seeking out Allen were actually mostly tasks that Yamila was supposed to complete upon her return, but now they had all been pushed onto His Majesty the King.

In this way, it could also free up a long period of time for the Prime Minister for her trip half a month later.

This was Yamila's plan, and when she left in the morning, she only smiled playfully at Allen without telling her lover about this matter.

Allen, who was thinking about other things at the time, thought Yamila was just going to inspect some work.

Of course, these tasks certainly couldn't stump Allen, and a considerable portion of them were things a lord had to understand.

It was just that Allen had been busy with fighting all along, and all such matters were resolved and decided by Yamila.

Of course, over these ten long years, the Cabinet had also cultivated many young officials to help the increasingly busy Prime Minister.

And what about Allen? Most of his main energy was spent on military affairs; he was either preparing for war or on the way to lead troops into battle.

Even if neither of these two things were happening, the things Allen considered were all related to the military.

For example, the matter he had been contemplating recently: how to arrange the vast land to the east of Mirkwood.

Before heading to Gondor, Allen had arranged a very important task for the second lord under his command, his former Attendant and current master of Heidelberg, Alayen.

That was to monitor the Easterlings who were still active in Rhovanion at all times.

However, following Allen's march south, the Easterlings living in Rhovanion also took advantage of the cover of heavy snow to return to Rhun with Ashur's son, leaving behind a land in total disarray.

After returning, Allen immediately learned this information from Alayen's report.

One must know that the land abandoned by the Easterlings was tens of thousands of square kilometers, roughly the size of half of Korea; even without considering the slightly barren land in the north, the fertile land near the Running River alone was enough to support many people.

But occupying that land also had a rather troublesome problem for Allen, and that was distance.

The nearly three-hundred-kilometer-wide Mirkwood separates Rhovanion into eastern and western halves; relying on the convenience of transportation, Allen is still barely able to control Long Lake Town.

However, wanting to control the more distant East Rovanion still presents some problems.

Regarding this, Allen can only consider the method commonly used by medieval kings: the vassal system.

Of course, whether it is Gondor or Rohan, they are also using this method of governance, and compared to his own allies, Allen's methods might be considered somewhat more sophisticated.

At the very least, when building his foundation, he trained a considerable number of officials to assist him in controlling vast tracts of directly administered territory.

Additionally, Allen has the help of the Simulator, which can, to a certain extent, guarantee the loyalty of his vassals.

However, this does not include Bard's family, yet Allen never doubts the lord of River Valley; their character, in another trajectory, has withstood the test of time.

Now, Allen still has some trump cards in his hand that are suitable to be played at this time.

The first card is naturally the more than three hundred Heavy Cavalry who followed him all the way south and have fought until now; their main composition consists of a small number of Swadian Knights, plus a large number of Khergit Cavalry.

As a king, Allen can fully trust the loyalty of these people, and at the same time, they have sufficient merit to obtain their own fiefs.

Therefore, Allen intends to enfeoff all three hundred-plus people as Knights, and then assign twenty prisoners of war to each person to go to East Rovanion to develop the land; this can also help Fislate solve the problem of having too many prisoners of war.

Because there are indeed too many, these prisoners of war often crowd out the work that originally belonged to the citizens, which is not a good thing for Rhovanion, which is currently in an upward phase.

As for the land in East Rovanion, there is actually nothing much to develop, because in the first year before the Easterlings left, they had already cultivated large tracts of farmland there.

In fact, there is plenty of ready-made land there; it just needs people to manage it and farm it.

And besides distributing the prisoners of war, Allen has another card in his hand that is also very suitable to be played at this time.

Before the war with the Easterlings began, Allen had once organized over a thousand Knight Attendants, and after a long period of three or four years, most of these children have already graduated; it is also time to find them a teacher to begin their internship work.

This happens to be able to coordinate with this current idea of Allen's; a newly enfeoffed Knight taking along a few newly graduated Attendants—isn't that a great thing?

What is this called? This is called guaranteed job placement after graduation.

At the same time, there are also some Northern Men who had to stay in River Valley to take refuge during the war.

Some of them are subjects Allen accepted from the canyons, and many are slaves saved from the hands of the Easterlings.

Within a short year or two, these people have not opened up their own land near the towns, and now they only rely on doing some odd jobs to maintain the lives of themselves and their families.

And the number of these people is also quite large, probably around several thousand.

If they are willing to return to their homeland, Allen also intends to hand these Northern Men over to his Knights for management.

This can also allow the gradually overcrowded River Valley to become more spacious again; otherwise, Allen would have to plan the northward move in advance, learning from the Eothiod of the past, and let a portion of the people go to live near the Greyflood.

That place is very close to the Grey Mountains and is a place very suitable for developing animal husbandry; Allen's original intention was to have Tuoju take the people of Horse Pasture Village to go there.

But now there is no need to be so anxious.

If the whole plan follows Allen's arrangement, each Knight can basically have two to three Attendants under their command, about twenty citizens, plus twenty prisoners of war who have to work hard to atone for their sins; that can be considered just about right.

Although the number of people is much smaller compared to some normal knightly fiefs, it is not without its good side.

Because the weapons and equipment used by these Knights when fighting, and even the horses, are all Allen's responsibility, and this even includes repairs after damage.

Compared to ordinary feudal Knights, their pressure can be said to be much smaller.

The main task Allen assigns them is to occupy that land for him and, at the first opportunity, guard against surprise attacks by the Easterlings.

This requires an experienced general who is proficient in combat to be responsible for the entire plan.

And besides Fatis, who else could Allen choose?