Road construction again

Elena, who was approached by Ryder: ???

A little curious.

Elena: "What's the matter?"

Reid took a deep breath and said, "My Lady, I am my father's eldest son. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I will be the next lord of this territory."

Elena nodded.

Reid continued, "But my father favored my younger brother and even wanted to give him a village."

Elena nodded again without saying anything.

"My brother has set his sights on this village bordering your territory." A hint of reluctance crossed Reid's face. "My father hasn't agreed yet, but given his preference for my brother, he'll probably agree eventually."

Elena didn't nod again, but looked at him.

Reid licked his lips nervously, then mustered up his courage and said, "I don't want my brother to inherit this village. It borders your territory and will surely become a wealthy village in the future. This village is extremely important to the territory, and I absolutely cannot let it fall into my brother's hands."

Elena raised her eyebrows. This was a compliment to her. Her territory was like a hot business center, which would drive prosperity to the surrounding areas.

Elena was happy and smiled at Reid: "Thank you for your support for the development of my territory."

Seeing the Viscountess's smiling face, Reid's tension eased a little. "That's for sure. Under the Viscountess's leadership, your territory will surely become more and more prosperous."

Elena nodded with a smile, motioning for him to continue.

Reid: "As the next master of the territory, I have the responsibility to make it better and better. So, please support me and help me, Miss Viscount."

Elena tilted her head slightly: "Support you, help you? What do you want me to do?"

Reid took another deep breath. "I hope to reach an agreement with you. I will open the border checkpoints to caravans traveling between my territory and yours. I will not collect taxes. I also ask you to build a road from here directly to your town of Fussen."

As for this agreement, Elena thought about it and said, "That is, I build a road from my town of Fussen to your territory, and then you open the border checkpoints and don't collect taxes, right?"

Ryder nodded heavily, "Yes."

"But," Elena frowned, "how will this benefit me? Building roads and opening checkpoints will only boost the prosperity of your territory. It won't have much impact on my territory, and I still have to pay for the road construction."

"This agreement will allow your villages to prosper as well." Fearing rejection, Reid spoke more quickly and enthusiastically. "Your territory is vast, but the new roads you built don't cover the entire area. Many places lack roads and are not directly connected to your town of Fussen, and this is no different. As far as I know, there are three villages in the southern tip of your territory alone that have no direct road connection to Fussen. Caravans simply can't pass through here. But if a road were built here, these three villages would benefit."

Elena thought quietly.

That being said, it is necessary to make all the villages prosperous. However, building roads is really expensive, and it is hard to say whether they will attract caravans after they are built.

So, do you want to fix it?

Hey, wait, there's another question.

Elena suddenly thought of an important question: "You want to open the border checkpoint for free. Do you have the right to do so? Will your father agree? Even if your father agrees, will your superior lord agree?"

Baron Harry is not Elena's subordinate, his superior lord is actually another viscount.

Opening the border and exempting taxes is a big deal, and it must be reported to the superior lord. A large part of the taxes must also be paid to the superior. If the superior lord does not agree to open it for free, it will be useless even if Baron Harry and Reid are willing.

Reid lowered his head in embarrassment: "Actually, our family's territory is quite remote and not very wealthy..."

Elena looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

Reid continued with his head lowered, "So the Viscount is relatively tolerant and kind to us. As long as we can pay more taxes in the future, the Viscount will not object."

Elena probably understood what she meant. What she meant was that this was a poor and remote area with little money and could not pay much tax, so the superior lords did not care much about it. They might not even care about it in normal times, and let it do whatever it wanted. But if the border was opened, as long as more taxes could be paid, the superior lords would turn a blind eye and acquiesce.

Elena understood, but she had a new question: "But you exempted the caravan from taxes, so how can you impose more taxes?"

How can we make money if tariffs are waived?

Reid's eyes sparkled. "And there's a road toll."

"And road tolls." Elena spoke almost at the same time.

After asking the question, Elena came up with the answer herself.

How could she have forgotten this tax? Besides, there were other taxes and fees. A caravan had to pay any time it passed through the territory, not to mention the costs of food, clothing, housing, and transportation.

Therefore, as long as Elena agrees to this agreement, Baron Harry's territory will definitely benefit from it.

So the question comes back to the original point, is Elena willing to build the road?

Elena thought about it, but still couldn't come up with an answer.

She said to Ryder, "I can't decide right now. I'll think about it carefully when I get back and write you back then."

Everything that needed to be said had been said, and Reid had no more reasons to convince the Viscountess.

He saluted solemnly and said, "I will be waiting for your news."

After returning to her territory, Elena first arranged the resettlement of the villagers who had suffered the disaster.

The houses and fields were burned down. If the villagers wanted to survive in this situation without houses and food, it would be a complete hell mode. There was no way Elena could just ignore it.

Elena asked the villagers to pack up what they could take away, and she was going to take them to another village to stay temporarily.

The villagers acted quickly, some with their families, some carrying their luggage on their backs, some carrying their bags, some driving their surviving livestock, and following the lord.

After several hours of walking, the group finally arrived at a village ahead.

Elena summoned the village chief and asked him to help the affected villagers survive temporarily.

"It will only take a few days. After I return, I will send someone to take charge of the reconstruction of the village." Elena said.

Victor, who understood the local accent, repeated it in his own dialect.

Elena continued, "I know that with so many people, eating every day is a big expense, and your village doesn't have much food, but you are neighbors. Let's help each other. In the next tax month, I will reduce your village's taxes and food as compensation."

Victor repeated.

The village chief immediately kowtowed in thanks: "Thank you for your kindness."

Victor translated to the Viscountess.

Elena: "If you help each other during this period and don't cause any conflicts or disputes, I will give you some rewards. I hope you will work hard and don't let me down."

The village chief's voice of thanks became even louder.

Victor continued translating.

After Elena finished explaining, she went to the village chief who had been affected by the disaster to explain.

"I ask the same of you. You must manage the villagers well and avoid any conflicts or disputes. If everything goes well, I will also give you some rewards."

The affected village chief quickly assured: "I will take good care of the villagers under my command and will never cause you any trouble."

"Okay, I believe in you, and I hope you won't let me down." Elena looked at them with a serious gaze, and the lord's supreme majesty was fully revealed at this moment.

The two village chiefs knelt on the ground, not daring to look up.

After handing over the candy and adding some intimidation, Elena felt that it was about time, so she got up and went back to the city.

Ride all the way back to the town of Fussen.

As soon as she returned to the Viscount's Mansion, Elena summoned her subordinates and asked them to organize manpower to go to the disaster-stricken village to take charge of reconstruction matters.

"The scope of reconstruction includes the villagers' houses and the reclamation of the burned fields." Elena looked at them. "I know this task is difficult, so I've given them a generous time limit. It just needs to be completed within 10 days."

The officials all frowned, 10 days.

Seeing their expressions, Elena added, "The budget will be a little bigger too. For 20 silver coins, you can hire some helpers or mage apprentices to speed things up."

The officials' brows finally relaxed a little.

"But I require detailed accounts and every expenditure to be clearly written down." Elena added another restriction to them.

The officials showed an expression as expected.

After working for the past few months, they have become very clear about how much the lord values ​​the account books.

"Okay, that's it. Let's deal with this matter as soon as possible." Elena waved her hand and asked her subordinates to go down and do their work.

The officials took their leave and left.

After the officials left, the office suddenly became quiet. Elena looked up at a large territory map on the wall, lost in thought.

The door to the office opened and Leonard walked in.

"What are you looking at?" Leonard asked.

Elena's eyes were still on the map: "I'm looking at it, and there are still a few roads to be built."

Elena's finger landed on the map, sliding gently. "Look, if we want to build a road from Fussen to here, connecting to Baron Harry's territory, the shortest route is this way. I think, since we're already here, we can open a branch line to the left, so that we can go half a circle and connect to the main road on this side. If we go this way, we can connect these villages and this baronial town together. Also, if we go right at the foot of this mountain, we can pass..."

Slender fingers kept sliding across the map, continuously pointing out several important connection points. A new road network vaguely emerged in the soft and confident words.

"Look, if we follow my plan and build a road network that covers the entire territory and connects every village, we will need to add three more main roads and 10 branch roads." Elena gave the answer she calculated.

Leonard stood in front of the map as she spoke.

"What do you think?" Elena turned and asked Leonard.

Leonard raised his eyebrows slightly. "Didn't you think that building roads wasn't worth the money before? Why are you suddenly building so many roads?"

Elena turned back to look at the map. "Because it's really not cost-effective to build only one road, but if we build a few more and build a comprehensive road network, then it will be worth it."

"Why?" Leonard asked calmly.

"A complete road network is indeed necessary for the territory. In case of another Warcraft invasion, the news can be spread faster and the knights can arrive faster. It will also be of great help for subsequent rescue and reconstruction. Therefore, the road must be built." Elena answered seriously.

After the incident of the fire wolf burning the village and her personal experience of riding a horse, she was able to look at the problem of roads from a mortal's perspective in a more practical and realistic way. In the past, she did not have much experience. If she really had to travel in an emergency, she would only think of using wind spells or teleportation scrolls. As for roads, she regarded them more as a necessary condition for infrastructure or business operations, with a sense of detachment. However, after today's incident, she truly realized how dependent mortals are on roads when encountering emergencies.

"In addition, new roads are also very necessary for the development of the territory. More and deeper circulation of caravans within the territory can also help the various villages in the territory develop. Selling agricultural products and doing some manual labor can also allow villagers to earn more money."

"Even if we ignore all of this and only consider the cost of road construction, it's more cost-effective to build more roads. Building a road to Baron Harry's territory can be completed by an earth mage in a day, but adding a branch line connecting to another main road can also be completed by an earth mage in a day."

Elena looked at Leonard with clear eyes and calculated the bill for him seriously: "Mages are charged by the day. A mage is 5 silver coins a day. Building one road is 5 silver coins, and building two roads is also 5 coins. So of course it is more cost-effective to build two roads."

Five silver coins a day is a lot of money. When Elena calculated the cost, she only took into account the biggest amount, because compared with the cost of hiring an earth mage, the various materials needed for road construction can be ignored as a small amount.

Leonard raised his hands and clapped twice. "Not bad. This algorithm is simple and clear."

"You think my calculations are correct, don't you?" Elena smiled smugly, then continued, "Based on our experience with road construction last time, I estimate these roads can be completed in six to seven days. In that case, the cost to the mage would be 30 or 35 coins. I think it's feasible."

Leonard laughed and shook his head.

Elena:???

"Did I calculate it wrong?" Elena felt guilty as if she was comparing answers with the teacher after an exam.

Leonard looked down at the little girl who was not even as tall as his shoulders, and confirmed once again that she was really just a little girl, innocent, simple and cute.

"Have you forgotten that I've been promoted to Epic Knight?" Leonard asked.

Elena was puzzled by the question: "I didn't forget, what's wrong?"

"I'm an epic knight and a demigod, stationed in Fussen Town for a long time, doing business with you. Building the road is also to make my business run more smoothly." Leonard said with his hands on his hips. "If I spread the news of the road construction, won't those who want to curry my favor take the initiative to help me build the road?"

Elena:!!!

When it comes to taking advantage, she is indeed too young.