[Chapter 176 The Turbulent Northern Plains]

Eva didn’t mind. She wished she could take on more work.

But David knew in his heart that as Winter Town grew bigger and bigger, Eva, as his assistant, would have to deal with more and more intelligence information, and he might not have the extra energy to deal with trivial matters.

“Before that, you can let Elias work part-time!”

Anyway, Elias Parker, the etiquette officer, currently works as a butler and servant. In the future, as the population increases and some servants are recruited, Elias only needs to work part-time as a butler.

In comparison, it is more difficult to find a qualified chef. Maybe you have to choose a suitable target from other worlds.

This target must be someone who has no ties to the original world, is willing to settle in Winter Town, and has no ambitions.

After thinking for a while, David realized that it was difficult to find the right person. Maybe he could only let fate take its course.

“Or, let Jonah help train some chefs.”

“Do you want Jonah to open a cooking school?”

“That’s also good.” The school is called Newist. If Van Cleef develops some intelligence personnel from it, maybe it can become the main source of intelligence for the Winter Empire?

However, before training professional intelligence personnel, Winter Town can only obtain intelligence information about the surrounding areas in the simplest and most direct way: patrol the surrounding areas.

As time passed and autumn approached, an ominous atmosphere began to spread over the northern plains.

Many villages were filled with low pressure. Various contradictions had accumulated to a certain extent, and they lacked a trigger to detonate these troubles.

David learned this information in the way that, in addition to the soldiers and Arcee’s daily patrols, they could find more and more people who wanted to invade the border of Winter Town, and people from other villages began to come to Winter Town.

Some middle-aged farmers who were older and had accumulated some experience realized that something was wrong after seeing that the harvest was getting worse and worse and estimating the approximate yield of crops.

Many people began to flee: most of them chose to flee the Northern Plains, and only a small number of farmers, that is, those who were too far away from Iron Tree Castle and closer to Winter Town, came to David with the idea of trying their luck.

Although in the eyes of these farmers, the Northern Plains was not as good as advertised, but since Winter Town had been here for more than three years, there should be a relatively stable way to obtain food, right?

They didn’t know whether their guess was correct, but they were sure that if they continued to stay in the original village, they would definitely not survive this winter.

After some farmers fled to Winter Town from other villages, David and Arcee increased the reconnaissance distance and flew to farther places several times.

Although they did not see the conflict scene directly, some villages had obvious signs of being attacked.

Among them, the most serious was the Iron Water Village located in the south of Winter Town.

Iron Water Village was named after the river that flowed out of the Iron Tree Forest. The village was located just south of Winter Town, some distance away from the pioneer camp that was destroyed by the elves.

The village chief Amamandis, who founded the village, thought that if they kept a sufficient distance from the Ironwood Forest, they would not be attacked by the elves.

However, the facts gave the village chief a big setback.

The elves of the Ironwood Forest directly built a temporary camp on the site of the original pioneer camp, facing the Ironwater Village from a distance.

Throughout the year, conflicts broke out from time to time between the two sides. With the help of several noble forces, the Ironwater Village was finally established.

The village chief Amamandis of the Ironwater Village was relieved at first, just waiting for the farmland to be reclaimed. With stable crops, the Ironwater Village will slowly grow and develop.

As for the Winter Town in the north? Let the lucky Baron Glamorgan be proud for a while!

Who would have thought that although the farmland was reclaimed and potatoes were successfully harvested in the first round of planting, the yield seemed to be less than what was advertised at the beginning?

That doesn’t matter. It’s not strange to be exaggerated during publicity.

Besides, hasn’t it been said that the land in the northern plains is barren? A lower yield is acceptable, at least the planting cycle of this new crop is indeed very short. According to this time, at least three rounds of harvest can be harvested in a year.

But when the potatoes harvested in the second round of planting became less, Almamantis began to realize that something was wrong.

At this time, the old farmers who followed him to open up wasteland and build a new village had already speculated that the harvest of the third round of planting would be even worse.

“Isn’t it said that this crop is very high-yielding? Didn’t that damn Baron Glamorgan become a nobleman with this thing and have a Winter Town as his territory?”

Almamantis couldn’t understand. They were all potatoes, too. How did David Glamorgan get enough food stably?

“This… My lord, could it be because there are so few people in Winter Town?”

In fact, the nobles of Iron Tree Castle were not clear about the specific situation of Winter Town. Their information was still based on the information that Maloney Mansfield brought back.

In that information, the population of Winter Town was quite sparse, with only a few residents.

As for how David later obtained the Winter Town organization from the capital, the people of Iron Tree Castle were not very clear;

however, they speculated that Baron David Glamorgan, who obtained the Winter Town organization, should have recruited people to increase the population in the territory.

But no one knew the exact number, but based on the estimate, it was speculated that the number should not be too large.

In addition, the surrounding villages and towns tacitly intercepted the civilians who wanted to go to Winter Town throughout the year, and they thought that the population of Winter Town must be very small.

Without enough population, even if Winter Town was called a town, no one would take it seriously. In the eyes of these people, it was still a remote small village.

“If there are not many people… do you think we can get enough food from Baron Glamorgan?”

“This… Winter Town is the territory of His Majesty the King.”

“Of course I know, so we are going to borrow some food from the respected Baron Glamorgan to get through the current predicament.”

Although Armamantis said “borrow”, everyone around him understood what he meant.

While the village chief of Armamantis was studying how to borrow food and other supplies in a friendly manner from Baron Glamorgan, the farmers in his village were also worried about how to survive this winter. Farmers

from Iron Tree Castle explained to farmers who came from afar and wanted to go to Winter Town but were intercepted in Iron Water Village how harsh and cold the winter on the northern plains was.

And their current food reserves were definitely not enough for them to support the long winter.

When these farmers from other places knew the problems they were about to face, they began to regret their original choice. They never thought that the farmland they had finally obtained after traveling through mountains and rivers and working hard would not only not allow them to live a good life, but even question whether they could survive.

“If this place is really that bad? How was the Winter Town established?”

“Who knows? Maybe like the village chief said, it was actually His Majesty the King who gave the Baron enough supplies.”

“Why did His Majesty the King do this?”

“Maybe the Baron of Glamorgan is actually… Your Majesty’s illegitimate son.”

“Are you trying to kill yourself? You are making up stories about His Majesty the King?”

“What are you afraid of? I’m not living in Winter Town under the rule of His Majesty the King or the Baron.”

The topic of discussion gradually turned from survival to gossip, but there were also some clear-headed people who were considering their own way out.

“Then, there should be enough food in Winter Town…”

“I think so!” The person who was speaking looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to him, so he whispered his plan: “If the situation in winter is not right, I will go to Winter Town.”

“What’s the point of going there in winter? Could it be that Lord Glamorgan will be kind enough to give you food and shelter to help you through the winter?”

“I met two friends on the way here before. They didn’t stop in any village, but insisted on going to Winter Town… If I can’t survive the winter, I will go to them.” At this point, the man sighed helplessly: “At worst, I will be a contract farmer for them, and I will survive first!”

“…”

Although he spoke in a low voice, the people around him heard some of it more or less. Among these people, there were also farmers who knew the two people. They all regretted their decision in their hearts. It would have been better if they had resolutely gone to Winter Town.

There are those who regret it, and there are naturally those who don’t regret it. They think that even if they go to Winter Town, their situation will not be much better than it is now. They

are all on the northern plains, all with this barren land, and all grow potatoes. I’m afraid everyone’s situation is similar!

Similar conversations and thoughts occurred not only in Tieshui Village, but also in almost all the villages and towns on the northern plains.

Even in Frost Town, someone had a similar idea at this time: If you can’t survive, can you go to Winter Town?

As Sean Forrester, who had real contact with Winter Town, he also began to think seriously: Should I go to “borrow” some food from Baron Glamorgan?

However, he was still afraid of attacking the territory of His Majesty the King in the end, and decided to attack the village in the southeast first.

“First, kill these idiots who don’t know the limit! They dared to run wild in front of our Forrester family, they simply don’t know how to live or die!”

The road to the west of Frost Town was blocked by Winter Town. To the north was a worse and more severe area. Frost Town could only develop in the southeast and two directions.

As a result, a village blocked the only direction of development, which made Sean Forrester extremely annoyed, and he was ready to get these idiots out of the northern plains.

While the entire northern plain was turbulent and conflicts could break out at any time, David and Laura visited the fully built Glamorgan Castle and discussed what kind of furniture should be placed in each room.

(End of this chapter)