Sword of Dawn

Page 144

With the extraordinary eyesight of the knights, it is almost impossible to capture the flight paths of those things.

A moment later, a thunderous bang suddenly exploded, and huge explosion flashes rose one after another from the distant hillside, and the soil and rocks rose into the air, turning into small mushroom clouds in the shock wave.

The knights were taken aback by the loud noise. Many thought it was a powerful magician who suddenly broke in to attack the territory. Some even subconsciously activated their protective aura, but they didn't see the magician Instead, I saw the soldiers below continuing to move in an orderly manner amidst the loud noises. New metal objects were filled into the steel, followed by another burst of explosions, and another loud bang...

They finally knew what was going on with this terrifying blow that seemed to be bombarded by dozens of high-level spells.

After several consecutive rounds of shooting, the deafening roar finally quieted down. The knights looked at each other, while Gawain walked past them with a smile and walked towards the exit of the viewing platform: "Everyone, we should go to the next place. Don't keep staring Let's see, anyway, after today, everyone will inevitably have to deal with these things."

Now, they finally know what it means to "work with this stuff."

Walder Perici was walking in the middle of the team, and he heard a young knight beside him muttering to himself: "The new law...doesn't seem unacceptable..."

Wald tilted his head slightly, and recognized that this was the knight who said to "show his attitude".

Afterwards, Gawain took these people to a cannonball assembly factory.

He didn't let these Kant knights look at the rune structure in the shell (although he thinks these knights should not be able to understand the rune, after all, not everyone is as good at both magic and martial arts as he is), he just let everyone take a look, How many powerful cannonballs can be made here in a day.

After returning to the Lord's Mansion, Gawain watched the reactions of these old knights with satisfaction, but he thought that his deterrence was enough, and it was time to give these people some comfort.

"Everyone, I know that you are resentful about the deprivation of the right to manage the land - you don't need to justify or hide it. I still have this insight, but what I want to say is that this is the basis for the Cecile Territory to be strong. , It is also the basis for you to have a better future in the future.

"I guess you still can't understand the concept of liberating productivity, releasing population, and centralizing authority, but I can promise you that after you let go of your old privileges, what you can gain in the new order will be even better. Much—that's not just wealth, but personal glory and achievement.

"Kandland will set up a new management department similar to the second-level government affairs office. Philip Knight and Mr. Padrik will preside over this work. I hope that Walder Peric Knight will become the mainstay in this process, just like You maintained the order in Kant Territory a few months ago, and I hope you can also become the maintainer of the new order.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone present that it is wise to find your place in the new order, rather than to honor doomed lost privileges.

"Now, you can take your oath, or leave."

Cecil collar, on the banks of the Whitewater River, a new merchant ship is approaching the pier with the help of the port guide.

In the north of the kingdom, the main rivers are still in a severe dry season, the water sources on the high mountains are still frozen, and the rivers in the north are still full of ice floes, but in the south of the kingdom, the area closest to the wasteland of Gondor, the river channels are blocked The ice has melted, and although the wet season is far from coming, at least on the Baishui River, the lighter and faster merchant ships have become active again.

With the water level just beginning to rise, those merchants who have been waiting for the whole winter can't wait to start their business. The recovery month is not only the recovery of the farmland, but also the recovery of these merchants who travel far and wide and rely on reselling materials for a living. At this time, all the territories are in urgent need of goods from afar—of course, in most cases, self-sufficient farmers will not deal with these merchants. These merchants mainly deal with the rich and nobles in the territories. The rich needed much-needed wine, sugar, new carpets and clothing, as well as spices and furs.

These things can be sold at a higher price at this time.

Because the water level of the Baishui River is still shallow at this time, and there are dangerous ice floes floating on the river in many places, the first batch of merchant ships to set off have to bear greater risks for this, and the earlier the risk, the greater the risk, but driven by profit Next, there is always a daring person who is the first to leave the port.

The goods required by each territory are different. Cecil Territory may be the "most different" one among all the territories. There are not many drinks and spices needed here, but the demand for all kinds of magic ores and raw metal ores is huge. , these things are quite heavy, and the cost of land transportation is high, so most of the time they will be transported by water, and due to the prosperity of the alchemy potion business, any businessman with a brain knows that what Cecil has at the moment is money, so once the river opens, it will A ship full of magic ore arrives at Cecil's dock.

And along with the ore, there are also the first batch of new immigrants who arrived in this pioneering territory after the Moon of Recovery came.

The clerk in charge of registering immigrants is sitting in the office on the west side of the pier. He has been doing this work since last year, and he is familiar with the work content. After knowing that today's merchant ships still carry some immigrants, he sorted out the registration documents. Form, and began to record those outsiders who could not read big characters and could not even say their own names clearly.

Registrants in ragged clothes came in and went out one after another. The clerk skillfully and numbly sorted out the forms and filled in the contents, but suddenly, he noticed an unusual coat appeared in his sight.

It was a woolen coat, old but clean—not what a homeless person would wear.

The clerk raised his head, followed the seams of the woolen coat, and saw a man who looked down and looked good.

"Is it registered here?" The man asked cautiously.

"Yes," the clerk reflexively took a form, "Name, age, good job or previous occupation?"

"Joseph, 30 years old, a pharmacist."

"Pharmacist?" The clerk's fingers paused for a while, this is the most respectable occupation he has written down since he started this job, he raised his head uncertainly and confirmed again, "You mean pharmacist? "

"Yes, pharmacist, there are more than a dozen queues outside... including pharmacists, herbalists, alchemists..."

Chapter 0346 Skilled Immigration

After sending away the knights from Kant and finishing the daily work of approving paperwork, a whole day passed.

Gawain came to the window and looked at the huge sun that was gradually sinking outside. No matter how many times he looked at this alien sun, he would feel a sense of shock. The pattern of atmospheric turbulence pushed open the window of the study.

A gust of cold wind immediately poured into the room, swirling through every corner of the study—although it was already the month of recovery, it would take a long time for the weather to warm up, at least during this period, every morning and evening The wind is still quite powerful.

Gao Wen didn't mind the cold, on the contrary, he liked the feeling of being cleared by the cold wind, so he took a deep breath against the cold wind, but there are still people here who are afraid of the cold: A group of black shadows emerged from the nearby air almost instantly, rushed forward and slammed the window shut tightly, and murmured while closing the window: "You have a problem, it's so cold Open the window and freeze someone to death..."

It turns out that the best way to force a shadow master out of stealth is to throw a flashbang and open a window.

Gawain looked at Amber, who couldn't laugh or cry, and said, "A guard like you usually won't survive to get off work under the hands of other lords..."

"If you were an ordinary lord, I wouldn't be your servant." Amber turned her head and put her waist uprightly. Seeing her appearance, she should be ready to say a few more words, but before the girl continued to speak, a puff of food The scent of the scent had passed through the crack of the door and drifted into the study room. The half-elf thief immediately sniffed without dignity, "Wow...today's barbecue smells so good..."

Gao Wen also sniffed the smell in the air seriously, feeling a little strange: "It doesn't seem to be Betty's handicraft?"

"I won't analyze with you anymore, I'm hungry and want to eat!" Amber said quickly while waving her hands, opened the door and ran out in the blink of an eye, leaving Gao Wen behind who shook his head dumbfoundedly, and followed him out of the study.

Many aristocrats are used to formulating a lot of dining rules, not only to pay attention to the order of seating, but also to stipulate the position of the servants during the meal, the music to be played, and even the placement of the dinner plate and the number and orientation of the candlesticks. They are all very particular, and they will be proud of implementing such strict dining rules, and regard it as a manifestation of their "civilized people", but the dinner at Gao Wen's family is different from other nobles - the Cecil family itself is declining. A hundred years later, the table manners have been greatly simplified. After their ancestors unveiled their coffins and expressed their dissatisfaction with the crowd of people standing next to them while eating, the only remaining dining etiquette was even more omitted. Seven seven eight eight, until now, there are basically only two things left: "the ancestors can only serve meals after they are seated" and "wash hands before meals".

When Gawain came to the dining room, he saw that Hetty and Rebecca were already waiting for him at the dining table, and even the sea monster, which usually didn't leave the door very often, was coiled up at the table waiting for dinner, while Betty was waiting for him. There are cups, plates, knives and forks busy on the side.

Gawain walked to the dining table and glanced at Tire with a smile: "It's really rare, are you interested in going out for something to eat today?"

"I heard that there is a new cook," Tire said while shaking the tip of his tail slightly, "I'm curious, so come and have a taste~~"

"New cook?" Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, then looked at "Big Butler" Hetty curiously, "What new cook?"

"Santis is back," Hetty explained with a smile. "As the last convoy entered the city in the evening, I haven't had time to report this to you. He also brought his family, his father Bao Mr. Earl Seid is a cook, and there is a shortage of cooks in the family, so I will let him try."

"Has Santis come back... It seems that it's really time for the beginning of spring," Gawain showed a look of joy, and then he muttered, "But their family just arrived here, so they should have a day off."

"Mr. Bauer asked for it on his own initiative," Hetty said helplessly. "You should understand that he left the capital and came to a strange place. He needs to settle down at work as soon as possible to be at ease."

"That's right," Gawain nodded, then looked up at Betty, and asked the little maid with a smile, "How is the new chef?"

"He's a very powerful person!" Betty nodded vigorously and said with admiration, "Better than my craft!"

This girl spoke very calmly, without any sense of crisis that her "kitchen status" was threatened. It seemed that as long as she didn't move her pan, it would not affect her "right" to place cups, plates and dishes in the restaurant and take care of the lord. Just no opinion at all.

Gao Wen even suspected that even if someone moved her "rights", she would not know how to resist.

While he was talking, Amber couldn't hold it anymore. This half-elf who never knew what rules were and was used to spending time with Gawain's family quickly cut a piece of barbecue and stuffed it into her mouth. Then he yelled indistinctly while inhaling hotly: "Hooho...this...this is really delicious..."

"It's really that delicious?" Tyre looked at Amber suspiciously, poked the food on the dinner plate with the tip of his tail, and then tried to cut a piece of meat and put it in his mouth, chewing it twice After that, she swallowed the food expressionlessly, "It still doesn't taste good, but I'm looking forward to it."

"You're talking nonsense, don't you know that you don't have a sense of taste? You shouldn't have such unnatural expectations at all." Gao Wen gave the sea caterpillar a look, then tasted the new chef's handiwork and nodded with satisfaction, "That's right. , let that Mr. Ball stay here. But compared to this, I want to know how many people Santis brought back?"

Hetty already knew what Gao Wen would be concerned about, and immediately replied: "About a hundred craftsmen of various types and 23 scholars went to the city with him, as well as three mage apprentices and a low-level mage."

More than 100 craftsmen and more than 20 scholars, this is an acceptable number for Gao Wen, so many intellectuals or technicians are very useful in today's territory, but after hearing the words of mages and mage apprentices After counting, he couldn't help but frowned: "So few mages and mage apprentices? Only one official mage?!"

Amber also swallowed the contents of her mouth with all her strength, and stared: "Could it be that even an ancient magister like Kamel isn't attractive to the king's mages?"

Hetty seemed to be trying to scare people on purpose. After seeing the reaction of Gao Wen and Amber, she smiled and said the following words: "There are also nine official mages and more than [-] mage apprentices led by them on their way. ——one of the mages is even mid-level."

When Gawain saw Hetty's smile, he knew that his always dignified granddaughter was also skinny, but he completely understood Hetty's desire to "skin"——

Nine official mages and more than 20 mage apprentices!There is even an intermediate mage inside!

Although in today's Cecil's magic industry system, the mage's personal spellcasting level has little value, but a higher mage level usually means a certain attainment in mathematics and science besides higher talent , which is quite useful!

It is impossible for Santis not to know the requirements of the magic industry, so the people he brought must have been screened and reviewed. This group of mages and mage apprentices is simply a huge sum of money for Cecil Territory, which is in urgent need of technical talents. treasure!

Arranging a trip to the royal capital for Santis is indeed correct. Compared with the deserted and remote southern border, Ansu's Kingdom Center, which has been in operation for 700 years, must have more sufficient human resources. In cities with dozens of magical organizations, large and small, such as the Mage Association, Wizard Association, and Magic Research Association, there are quite a few low-level mages and mage apprentices...

"Santis has already left a stronghold in the capital, and is openly active in the name of long-term recruitment of talents. According to your previous instructions, 'Witch' Jibri and 'Fast Legs' Pierce will maintain the operation of the stronghold after Santis leaves. Hetty went on to say, "So in the future, technical personnel should continue to be sent over—as the Cecil Territory continues to develop, more and more talents will be sent."

Gao Wen listened happily and nodded with satisfaction. After Hetty finished speaking, he breathed a sigh of relief, and then looked at his eldest granddaughter: "Don't speak out of breath in the future."

Hetty bowed her head exaggeratedly on purpose, her tone was very serious: "Follow your instruction——"

Gao Wen smiled and waved his hands again and again: "That's all right, all right, if this continues, it will be another Rebecca."

On the other side of the table, Rebecca, who was lowering her head and trying to compete with the steak, immediately raised her head: "Why do you still have my business?"

The girl was brandishing a knife and fork to compete with the food from the beginning to the end, and she hardly heard any topics at the table. It was at this time that someone called her name, so she raised her head reflexively and replied.

Gao Wen was in a very good mood at this time. Seeing Rebecca's cute expression, he felt that he was much cuter than usual, and couldn't help but said to her: "You go back and prepare, your Institute of Magic Technology is not Get busy—didn’t you complain that there were too many people needed for practical engineering, and there was always no one available? Now, you have at least a hundred apprentices to train, and you have to get those apprentices in the shortest possible time. Rune craftsmen, mechanics, and rune masters are trained to become magicians."

The more than 100 craftsmen and scholars brought by Santis are indeed talents that the territory urgently needs, but it is not enough for them to adapt and learn the "technical needs" of the Cecil Territory, except for the indoctrination of Cecil's laws In addition, they must also learn a lot of basic craft knowledge and theoretical knowledge of the magic industry. Changing from traditional craftsmen to magic technicians is the first step for them to become Cecil technicians.

But fortunately, Rebecca once led a group of "problem people" with even worse foundations to toss and bump, and turned them into skilled magicians, so Gawain was not worried about this at all. A stupid roe deer who seems to be stunned, but in fact has extraordinary talent will not be able to lead a group of smarter and more obedient teams.

The magic technology research institute in the territory has been completed a few days ago, and several large laboratories and practical workshops have been reorganized. Now is a good time to train apprentices.

Of course, we can't put everyone in the Institute of Magical Technology—Gao Wen also plans to select some suitable scholars from those scholars and hand them over to the Santis area to become teachers in the Universal Academy.

If there are rune masters who are exceptionally talented in the theoretical field, they will be sent to the Rune Research Institute in batches.

Rebecca listened to the old ancestor's words in a daze. She didn't notice the few drops of broth sticking to the corner of her mouth. When she finally understood that she would soon have a big team, the girl immediately became excited and jumped up on the spot. A cheer: "Wow!"

Then he threw the fork in his hand to the ceiling.

Gawain looked up at the fork on the ceiling, and then looked down at Hetty whose face had darkened.

He sighed: "Come on, strike lightly."

Chapter 0347 Giant Beast

Of course, Gawain and Hetty's "beating the child" (in the actual sense) was basically just a scare. After all, Rebecca is now an adult and has the title of Vitesse. It's not unreasonable to hit or chase on the beams or run around the room, just a few lessons are enough-of course there is another reason, that is, Rebecca's head is really hard, basically a beating is enough It doesn't matter, it hurts if you hit too much...

But when it comes to Rebecca's title, it must be determined according to the kingdom's succession law and the rules of the noble system. After Gao Wen uncovered the coffin and secured the title of duke, Rebecca, as the current sole heir of the family, should follow the low The first-level knighthood is awarded the title of marquis, which means that this silly girl who runs around in the territory carelessly all day long and smokes her face black with big fireballs from time to time should actually be a marquis... Who will believe this shit?

It’s just that Gawain and Francis II made an agreement at the beginning. In order to prevent the royal family from becoming too wary of the Cecil family, Gawain Cecil’s dukedom is currently only a personal title, and it will be renewed in the Cecil family. Before obtaining enough noble capital (including land, population, property, and military strength), the title of Cecil's descendants will not be promoted, so Rebecca still bears the title of Viscount...

But looking at the way this silly roe deer lives happily every day, I'm afraid she has never considered such a complicated matter at all.

"After the several large-scale laboratories of the Institute of Magic Technology are up and running, some mechanical projects that have been temporarily shelved can be started." After knocking on the head, Gao Wen continued, "At present, the North-South Road between Kantland and Cecil has been repaired, and it only takes one day for a carriage to go back and forth between the two places, but more convenient means of transportation are needed to truly connect the two places The land is tied together - like I said, the control of the land depends a lot on the level of traffic."

Rebecca was covering her head and pretending to be in pain in an attempt to gain sympathy, but when she heard Gao Wen mention the word "machine", she immediately forgot about it. The girl's eyes brightened, and she looked at Gao Wen happily: "It's just What you mentioned earlier, the mana motorized vehicle?"

"Technically, we have been able to manufacture 90.00% of that thing," Gao Wen nodded. "The only thing missing is the manpower. When you gather the manpower and activate the large laboratory of the institute, This project begins."

To manufacture a more advanced means of transportation that can match the pace of the current Cecil Land industry is an idea that Gawain has been brewing for a long time.Now the magic energy engine of Cecil Territory has been developed to the second generation of rotor engine. In mines, factories, buildings and other places, large and small magic energy engines and the steel machinery driven by them have become the biggest driving force for the development of the territory. However, the rapid development of mechanical engineering and the territory as a whole has also put forward higher requirements for transportation - factories need more and more industrial raw materials, the scope of control of the territory is getting larger and larger, and various large and heavy machinery are emerging in endlessly. The transportation of human and animal power has obviously become a bottleneck restricting the further development of the territory.

You can't always use a horse-drawn cart to pull ore to the steel factory, can you?It is not a long-term solution to carry the parts of construction machinery to the construction site by pulling people on their shoulders.

It's just that although Gao Wen proposed this idea, there is a serious shortage of technical personnel in the territory. Even if the magic in this world is very convenient and can greatly speed up the research and development and production speed, the rigid number of magicians is not so easy to make up for. So after the concept was proposed, it was just a concept - the project has not yet started.

Rebecca has always been very interested in it—this girl has a natural enthusiasm for mechanical things, especially since she knows that this automatic machine can also be equipped with a sixteen-pack of fireball launchers, which can make When she fired fireballs while running at hundreds of kilometers per hour, she was so excited that she was almost beaten by her aunt again.

After getting Gawain's affirmative answer, Rebecca immediately became silly and happy. She didn't know how many things she had made up by herself. She probably lost her ability to think, so she moved directly to the next topic: "There is one more thing, ancestor, the new immigrants at the port have completed their registration today, and the immigration management staff reported a situation..."

"Oh?" Gao Wen raised his eyebrows, "What's going on?"

"There are more than a dozen pharmacists, herbalists, and alchemists in this group of immigrants, from the northern and northwest directions of the southern border," Hetty reported earnestly, "In addition, they also mentioned that more 'peers' are leaving their homes. , so more people should come here in the future.”

"... Has the impact already started to appear?" Gao Wen listened quietly, with no surprise on his face, "Padrik is in charge of the northern trade route, and Viscount Andrew is driving the northwest trade route. The progress is in line with my expectations. almost."

"The month of recovery has arrived, and many mercenaries and adventurers who choose to recuperate in winter are preparing to start work, and they are usually the main customers of pharmacist occupations-in the entire winter that has just passed, our caravans have put Alchemy potions have been sold to almost every mercenary union in the northern and western regions, so now the pharmacists and alchemists in these regions are going bankrupt in large numbers..." Hetty sighed softly as she spoke, "Now they Apart from the Cecil Territory, the only remaining option is to move to the northeast, or move further to the east..."

"Glenland is already our ally," Gao Wen said lightly, "Tomorrow, the first batch of 1 alchemy potions of various types will be sent to the castle of Countess Ropeni Glenn, and she Pushed to the entire eastern region, the caravan will also use Glenland as a springboard to start providing alchemy potions to the eastern region."

Prior to this, a group of Cecil pharmacy merchants had successfully opened up the market in the Eastern Territory, and had relatively fixed sales points in several towns. It remains high, and the supply is also a problem, but now with the full support of Ropeni Grant, Cecil's alchemy potions will be continuously sent to Duke Silas Loren's territory.

"...The Cecil collar is probably the only choice for those pharmacists," Hetty shook his head, "or in other words, our factory is their only choice."

"There will be more and more people coming later," Gao Wen stated the facts in a flat tone, "People like pharmacists belong to a relatively wealthy class among the common people, so they will be more tolerant of 'unemployment' Be stronger, unlike the mine laborers in Tanzania Town, they will not go bankrupt as soon as the mining machinery is in place. The pharmacists and alchemists who have come to the territory should be the kind that are usually relatively poor and have little savings. , They quickly went bankrupt after they couldn’t receive orders in the early spring, and those who still have savings or regular customers...will be forced to come here one after another after alchemy potions become more popular.”

Till poked the food in front of her with the tip of her tail. It seemed that she had finally given up on the idea of ​​eating, and was about to use her tail to absorb the food. She was listening to the conversation between Gawain and Hetty. At this time, Youyou Said: "Actually, the sooner the bankrupt at this time, the luckier they are, they still have time to enter the factory to seek a job - with the production efficiency of the factory, those later pharmacists may not even have the qualifications to enter the factory, after all I heard that such a large reaction group can be controlled by only seven people, and the output is almost equivalent to more than 8000 pharmacists plus one..."

As an outsider from a higher civilization, Tire understands many things in Cecil Territory-although the sea monster society is very different from human society, she has witnessed the The rise and fall of many civilizations can be seen from experience.

"Industrialization is a behemoth with a stronger appetite than that of Typhon," Gao Wen said unhurriedly, "Typhon has made progress in the transformation, but it also needs to devour more resources and population to survive." After completing the final transformation, the progress brought about by the magic industry in Cecil Territory is faster than that of Typhon, and the things it wants to swallow... Of course, there will be more. Traditional handicraft industries, small economies, traditional agriculture...all is its nourishment."

"Factories can eat people," Hetty said suddenly, softly, "you told me that a long time ago, but I didn't understand what it meant at the time... Now I'm beginning to understand, those factories... would It had such a big chain reaction."

"Yes, the factory can eat people, especially when it is out of control, it will almost use human flesh and blood as fuel," Gao Wen said, lowering his head to cut the food on his dinner plate, thinking However, various phenomena in the process of society's transition from agriculturalization to industrialization, and the dire consequences of uncontrolled "factory cannibalism" will emerge, "so we have to set up to control this giant from the very beginning." The chains and fences of the beast. Whether it is to formulate a comprehensive worker security system, or to resettle the displaced population in advance, or to prepare sufficient peripheral jobs that can accommodate the landless and unemployed while developing industries, it is all about controlling this A necessary measure for a behemoth."

Amber stared at Gao Wen blankly for a while, then blinked: "No wonder you made a lot of weird regulations when you built those factories... So you put everything that will happen in the future at that time. Have you figured it out?"

"We must think about it, otherwise the factory will eat up all the achievements we have made so far." Gao Wen smiled and glanced at her, "When people have only two choices, either die in the factory or die in the factory. When we starve to death outside, then everything we do means nothing, and the world is just as bad as ever."

Gao Wen's words reassured the people present, but he knew that there were still some things he hadn't said.

The "control measures" he formulated can indeed alleviate the various contradictions that arise after the industry destroys traditional handicrafts and agricultural society, but the effect is only to alleviate, especially in this world, the existence of magical power makes any technological breakthrough very easy It produces extremely powerful and direct effects. The time required for a large number of mechanical equipment to go from drawing to finished product is very short, and the speed of industrial products from concept to mass production is also extremely fast, so the power of industrialization is also magnified accordingly. Therefore, in In this process, the pressure brought by a large number of handicraft populations who went bankrupt due to the collapse of the old social order may not be so easy to relieve.

So how should these excess pressure be relieved and transferred?

A series of lists silently emerged in Gao Wen's mind...

Chapter 0348 Wind Direction

After the Recovery Moon, the weather in southern Anzu began to warm up rapidly.

It's a welcome change of mood for someone who works in a place like a port terminal.