Chapter 199 Rand's Ambition

Rand was half-reclining in his great stone lord's chair.

The profession of lord is very relaxing when you are free and you can experience a lot of luxurious entertainment, but when you are busy, it is really boring.

The main problem is that you can't slack off. If you slack off, things will just pile up instead of going away.

Now that spring has arrived, Rand has to deal with the internal affairs of the territory, provide military advice to Fenris, and participate in the allocation of resources and manpower.

What Rand found very interesting was that even though they were doing the same job with the same standards, Elsa and Olenna still had many differences.

Olenna was born into a noble family and graduated from the Imperial Academy of the White Kingdom with professional training.

Elsa was born an assassin, and later experienced exile until she met Rand.

When she was Rand's adjutant, Olenna handled official documents in a meticulous and organized manner and was able to make some political analysis of the situation.

Although Elsa would not make any mistakes when handling official documents, the order and sequence were not as clear as Olena's.

If Rand asked Elsa for her opinion, the answer he got would be more likely to start from the details, and would always provide some ideas that Rand had not originally thought of.

"What did Fenris say?" Although Rand was in a lazy posture and asked Elsa to massage his shoulders, he was at least working hard.

"Shelan and Pero have both arrived at their destinations, but they are not as fast as Fenris in stabilizing their positions." Elsa replied, "Because they did not arrive in time, some strategic locations in their territories were occupied by minor nobles of the Borun Kingdom. They are currently attacking them, but their progress is fast."

Arrangements for farming have already begun at the hideout.

If it is just to expand the territory, the den is already very skilled.

First, use military force to control the target area, destroy the local resistance forces, and then make them slaves.

This is how Fenris arranged some of the small southern nobles he defeated in the Full Moon Territory. No matter if you are a noble baron, a knight, or an ordinary soldier, you all have to work for me.

Those who disobey discipline will be sent to the haunted iron mine to mine under the threat of the undead.

As the current adjutant, administrative adviser and military adviser, Elsa has provided Rand with many tips. Now according to Fenris's report, the prisoners should be working honestly.

The second step of development is to check whether there are any remaining buildings and suitable resources nearby, and arrange people to use them.

The next step is to plunder manpower. Any local villagers, bandits, and deserters can be used.

The last step is to build fortifications and roads.

It is convenient for the Centaur transport team to transport materials to the subsequent hideouts for the pioneers, and then carry out further development.

This is much faster than the traditional aristocratic way of development.

Although the manpower looted is of mixed quality, under the den system, they will all be transformed into the power of the den.

Rand opened the map again. He did not intend to give too many detailed suggestions. Rand only needed to grasp the general direction. As for the rest, Rand believed that Fenris would make the right judgment.

As the lord in charge of the rear, he does not have sufficient understanding of the cultural conditions and geographical environment of Manyue Territory, and micromanagement may lead to accidents.

Elsa was also looking at the map with Rand. Seeing that Rand had no objection, she continued to explain the recent domestic events in the Frost Moon Kingdom: "The king plans to hold a knight tournament."

"Hmm?" Rand vaguely remembered this event, which seemed to be an activity. He couldn't remember the specific content, but it seemed that several outstanding characters would appear. In this case, he could try to recruit them.

Speaking from a historical perspective, the Shimotsuki Kingdom's knight tournament has been discontinued for many years.

Originally, this conference was to select suitable talents and provide talent support to the king and the great nobles. After all, in this era, the number of knights with fiefs was much smaller than the number of knights without fiefs and lords.

However, there were also some nobles who suffered heavy losses of knights and lacked sufficient and suitable knights to serve them.

This conference is equivalent to an opportunity for both sides to get to know each other, and it is like a talent market.

Some winners of the Knights' Conference would be given the opportunity to develop a knight territory and make further progress, but that was during the founding period.

The Frost Moon Kingdom Knights' Conference event in the Deep Moon game that Rand remembers did not take place during this period, so it is uncertain whether the characters that were supposed to appear will appear.

But more importantly, this is a political signal.

The Frost Moon Kingdom should really start to tilt towards the south.

"So urgent?" Rand was a little surprised.

"It is said that it is still in preparation and the specific date has not yet been determined."

This obviously means that after Rand and others have gained a foothold, they will fill in some small nobles as their vassals and strategic buffers.

It now seems that the political judgment of the Royal City is that the southern kingdoms such as the Kingdom of Bolun and the Kingdom of Lensa should still focus on the gold mine war in the near future.

This means that as the winner of the last military friction, as long as the Frost Moon Kingdom does not go too far, these southern kingdoms will not overreact.

The goal of the Frost Moon Kingdom is not big either - to carve out a piece of land bordering the Inland Sea in the south.

If this can be achieved, Rand, Shelan and Pero, as the vanguard, will definitely earn the most.

The premise is that you can really gain a foothold.

Rand was still staring at the map. Elsa waited for a while and asked, "What's wrong? Is there any problem?"

"This land is very good. The land in the middle is fertile, and there are many mountains around it. There are only a few roads leading into this place, and it is also adjacent to the inland sea, which is suitable for trade."

Elsa looked over the map carefully, not understanding what Rand meant.

Rand swiped his finger on the map a few times and said, "I mean, if I eat all this land by myself, it will be a standard-sized earldom."

The area designated by Rand was very large, including the Crescent Territory, the Crescent Territory, the Kingdom of Boren, part of the Kingdom of Rensa, and the territory of Pero.

Elsa stared at the area marked by Rand. Indeed, if the entire land was occupied and digested by Rand, Rand would become a powerful nobleman, that is, a real earl.

In the human history of this continent, except for some early founding periods, no one has ever been able to jump from an unknown person to a great noble like the earl.

Becoming an earl meant a population of 60,000 to 70,000, hundreds of knights in armor, a vast expanse of land, and a reputation that would be remembered by the king himself.

Elsa looked at Rand with an indifferent face. She was not surprised that Rand was a greedy person: "Oh~ So that's how it is."

She didn't express any opinion. Anyway, she would definitely stand firmly on Rand's side.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

As for Rand's specific plan, Elsa did not ask about it, because based on her understanding of Rand, he probably just had an idea now, and it would take a long time for him to come up with a specific plan.

In fact, it was true. After saying it, Rand felt a little embarrassed. Now there was no sign of anything.

But now that he had this idea, Rand had no intention of giving it up.

This continent will only become more and more turbulent in the future. The faster he can gain more power, the more initiative he will have.

"Okay, okay, let's get over this matter first and move on to the next thing." Rand glanced at the document in Elsa's hand, indicating that there was no need to mention this matter for the time being.

Elsa supported her chin, a smile appeared on her cold face: "Shelan wrote to you."

Elsa's smile is very beautiful, giving people the feeling of a flower blooming on the mountain top.

But Rand felt that Elsa was best when she didn't smile. It wasn't because Rand was evil and couldn't stand seeing people smile, but because most of the time, when Elsa smiled, it meant something bad.

Seeing Elsa smile, Rand's face darkened: "What is it?"

Elsa rolled her eyes twice, then said, "You can read the letter later. Shelan also sent a gift. As your adjutant, I suggest you take a look at the gift first."

"What's the gift?" Rand tried to guess for a while but failed, so he had to follow Elsa's instructions and ask.

"Wait a moment." Elsa pretended to calculate the time for a while, and then turned into a faint shadow in front of Rand.

Then a humanoid creature with pointed ears and dressed in maid clothes was led in from outside the lord's hall.

Could it be that Shelan thought that Rand liked elves very much? It was true. There were indeed quite a few elves in the den. Two of them worked in the tavern, and one taught part-time in a small classroom at the foot of the mountain.

It seems that now Lisa has a few more people to educate.

As a maid who was sent here and there without any control of her own will, this beautiful elf looked a little frightened, observing Rand with her big eyes.

He does look good, much better looking than the two elves in the tavern, but far inferior to any of the higher-ups in the hideout.

"Let her go find Lysa and let Lysa teach her a lesson," Rand said. "Tell Lysa not to go too far and be more normal."

However, this meeting with the elf maid gave Rand a lot of inspiration.

There is no such profession as maid in the hideout. At least in Rand's eyes, this is simply a waste of labor!

In fact, there is no need for maids in the hideout. Cleaning the lord's hall and the streets of the hideout is voluntary labor on Sundays.

Rand was used to cleaning his own place.

There is really no need for a maid.

but!

This doesn't mean that Rand doesn't like maids.

Rand never went to a maid cafe in his previous life, not because he didn't like it, but because he didn't have the money.

He doesn't recruit maids now, one reason is because he doesn't like them, and another is because the higher-ups in the hideout don't seem to like him recruiting maids.

but!

but!

Rand looked at Elsa: "I think the style of her clothes is very good."

Elsa took a half step back and asked, "What do you want to do?"

(End of this chapter)