Chapter 70 Mid-October
As mid-October approaches, the temperature in Lavoisin is getting lower and lower, which makes some people happy while others worried.
Letilan, who had received a big job, was both happy and worried at the moment. After leaving the manor, he urged the carriage to take him back to the city.
This army needs about 700,000 pounds of staple food every month, which is worth more than 2,000 gold coins.
More than two thousand gold coins! He never dared to dream of so much money.
What a concept! He works hard all year round, and even with the best luck he can only make a net profit of about a hundred gold coins.
These two thousand gold coins are enough to keep him busy for twenty years.
This is just the staple food. If salt and oil are added, the army will have to consume at least two thousand four or two thousand five gold coins a month.
However, no one knew how long this war would last. Seven hundred thousand pounds of food per month was equivalent to draining a town's two-year food reserves in one month.
The largest grain auction house in Lavoisin only traded this amount this year.
Obviously, he had to contact the Chamber of Commerce, find a few major grain and salt merchants, and ask his father-in-law to prepare to purchase butter.
He scratched his head and felt a little nervous when thinking about the large sums of money.
If anything goes wrong, it will be fatal.
However, as soon as Letilen's carriage entered the city and was still moving in through the gate, a group of sharp-eyed people in the city recognized it and quickly surrounded it.
It turned out that the news that the army was going to set up a camp in Lavosen to fight had spread, and the grain merchants in Lavosen had learned about the various distributions of military supplies from the servants in the Baron's mansion.
Knowing which company was responsible for purchasing military rations this time, it was inevitable to guess that the lady would find Letilen, who had been working for her.
Even Letilen's relatives knew about this and wanted to get a piece of the pie.
Letilan was forced to get off the carriage and looked up. It was Mr. Gordon, a big grain merchant in the Lavosen Chamber of Commerce.
Gordon was a distant relative of the baron. He did business in La Voisin under the baron's protection and owned two large mills.
At this moment, Letilen was also in a state of panic. He began to control his expression subconsciously and called all the grain merchants who came to inquire about the news into his home, intending to leak some information to them.
The salt merchant Mr. March and his daughter Corinna also followed the grain merchant into Ledilan's house.
Outside the manor, Gosley transferred fifty serfs from his own manor, and rented fifty serfs each from Reno Manor and Baskin Manor.
Together with Olivia, we followed the river bank pointed out by the aide to the camp planning office and made two trips back and forth to measure it.
The road here is being repaired. In two days, Mrs. Real, who is responsible for recruiting workers to cut down trees and repair the camp, will send people over to prepare a flat ground for the army in advance and prepare the cut wood.
Once the marching tents are procured and the army arrives at the camp, we can start dividing the tents, wood, and supplies, and the army will then build their own barracks.
Accompanied by Gao Sili and two soldiers, they walked along the narrow path in the forest.
Olivia rode briskly, pointing out the scenery along the way.
“All the trees here have been cut down, the rocks have been dug out to make the roadbed, the sand has been filled in and it has been tamped flat.
What is more important than a solid road is its width.
At least two baggage carts should be able to travel together, connected to the official road, and indistinguishable from the official road.
No matter what the battle situation is like at the front, the camp must be stationed here for at least four months. During this period, there must be no problems with the road we build.
The Earl has to come and go here, so there can't be too many trees left along the road. Cut them all down to avoid assassins ambushing."
Listening to her, Gao Sili nodded hurriedly.
This was also his first time doing such a big job. Along the way, he wrote down all the instructions from Olivia.
Olivia finished her instructions and returned to the manor.
Gao Sili, along with more than a hundred tenant farmers, began to measure the land in the forest, estimating the pits that needed to be filled and the stones that needed to be dug.
The entire Lavosen became busy, making the surrounding baronies seem cold and quiet.
Olivia returned to the manor, tidied up briefly, and was about to catch up on some sleep when Mrs. Baskin arrived next door.
This time her family was responsible for cooking and delivering meals to the troops in the camp.
She received a monthly stipend of five hundred gold coins from the Baroness.
It was used to build a kitchen, a bread kiln, mobilize cooks, purchase firewood and charcoal, as well as vehicles and livestock for transportation. The company was also responsible for sending people to deliver water to the camp every day.
After this, she had a lot of dealings with Olivia, who was in charge of purchasing food.
She came over happily, wanting to give Olivia a gift and make arrangements in advance so that if something happened in the kitchen later, there would be no one to help her.
Olivia also knew that if the cook didn't steal, the crops wouldn't be harvested. Mrs. Baskin was in charge of processing the food, so she would definitely steal some money from her pocket.
However, she was the one in charge of purchasing and had such a big responsibility. If she stole too blatantly and affected the delivery of the work, then she, the purchasing manager, would also be held accountable.
Therefore, Olivia confiscated her gift, beat Mrs. Baskin, and threatened her:
"Don't be too happy. Think about it, if such a good thing only falls into the hands of Lavosen, wouldn't the other barons feel uncomfortable when they see it?"
"Take Baron Forres, for example; he always likes to resort to trickery.
If he wants to find fault with our baron, the best way is to start with the quartermaster."
"We are two families, one is responsible for purchasing and the other is responsible for cooking. This affects the food and drink of the entire army. What will happen if he does something or gets hold of something on us?"
When Mrs. Baskin heard this, her joy disappeared immediately.
The more she thought about it, the more she thought that this was the case. If Baron Forres was jealous, he wanted Baron Bergru to make a mistake in front of the Earl.
The most direct way is to start from the main camp and make Baron Bergru bear the blame for not taking good care of the main camp.
If her kitchen was poisoned or her granary burned down, she would be dead.
Not to mention, if you use the kitchen to make too much oil and water, if you are not careful, you may be caught by someone with ulterior motives.
Olivia added, “If it weren’t for this, would such a lucrative job be assigned to us?
I'm afraid the Baroness also knows that she can't take on such a problematic job by herself.
If anything happens, he can just take it out on us in front of the Count and that will be all.”
Hearing this, Mrs. Baskin was frightened, her face froze, and she quickly tucked her tail between her legs.
“That’s true.
Then you have to help me keep an eye on it. If someone tamper with the food, neither of us will be in trouble.
I was happy, but it turns out this is a hot potato."
Mrs. Baskin took Olivia's hand and frowned.
"Don't worry, I'll definitely keep an eye on you. When the time comes, we'll all be in this together."
Olivia pursed her lips, smiled slightly, and sent the increasingly anxious Mrs. Baskin away.
After the man left, she stopped sleeping and just waited for dinner.
It was late at night when Caesar returned from the Baron's barracks. The two sat facing each other in the small restaurant, the candlelight slowly drifting, and Olivia put some spicy chicken nuggets on her plate.
This was her fourth meal of the day, and it was considered a midnight snack.
"...The Earl intends to attack from Dongfeng City first."
Caesar bit into half a dumpling, revealing the juicy lamb and onion filling inside.
Today they received the offensive plan that the Earl had been studying in the city of Anko.
The Earl said that they should focus on speed, create momentum, and take over the entire County of Constantine within a month.
The first target is Dongfeng City.
The Laenians called the city Osvedon, which means East.
In the Alta language, Oswichton means east wind.
It lives up to its name, being the easternmost town in the whole of Llania.
The country of Lennia is covered with ice and snow for half a year. It has a vast territory and a sparse population. Further north is the ocean that freezes in winter.
There are only five counties in total, and each county is very large, three times larger than the county of Rosslinge.
Oswegoton is a large, long strip of land bordering two Alta counties.
To the south is the River, bordering the northwest corner of Roslingey County, Alta., La Vossen and Carron.
There is a coastline to the east, bordering the northern end of Desiso County northeast of Alta.
However, this coastline of Dongfeng City has a deep-water port and a warm ocean current. It is an ice-free port with an outlet to the sea, and ships can sail all the way to the south of the continent.
However, it was precisely because of this that a group of pirates emerged on the island across the coast.
The island is called Vero Island. It is not small and is covered with snow for half of the year, and only thaws for a short period of time.
The pirates on the island were divided into more than a dozen tribes, each with more than a thousand people. They fought with each other and never became a big force.
Apart from riding on small rafts made of birch bark and occasionally robbing Lenya's merchant ships outside the port, they made a living by fishing.
But in the past five years, a remarkable man has emerged on this island, who is the leader of this rebel army.
He brought together all the pirates on the island, resolved the hatred between each tribe, and created a common enemy for these pirates, Lenya.
In the past few years, Lennia and the islands have been fighting each other to the death at sea. Lennia has become increasingly weak and has spent huge sums of money to build warships, but has never been able to defeat the pirates' tactics.
After the First World War, the pirates changed their name to the rebels and, based on the myths, claimed that the land of Lennia should belong to them.
Olivia had heard that the myths of the twelve continents actually all had the same origin.
A thousand years ago, the continent was still a complete and great empire, and myths circulated that twelve gods created this continent.
Later, the empire fell and the land split into small countries. Six countries on the continent revered the Creator God as their main god.
Other countries, and some small corners, have their own gods to worship.
When fighting a war, gods are often used as a pretext to rally morale.
But many pirates who yearn for the mainland actually don’t know that their leader has no intention of occupying the mainland at all.
It is not a problem at all to occupy Constant County and defeat the thousands of pirates who are now guarding this county.
The real difficulty is that after the occupation, one will have to face the neighboring Lenya nobles.
The Earl meant to quickly capture Constant County this winter, pretend to be good for a while, and let the nobles of the remaining three counties relax their vigilance.
They were already divided and on guard against each other, and no one would make the first move to attack Constant County or Hobbs, which was occupied by the rebels.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, we can use the arable land in Constant County to produce food, gather strength, recruit soldiers, and naturalize all the remaining Lenians in the area.
The next winter, the whole of Lenya was taken into his possession.
Olivia held her cheeks and looked at Caesar curiously and asked:
"Which place in Constant County is more suitable for storing troops?
If you could choose, where would you choose?"
She had already inadvertently asked Jagabu today and now wanted to hear his opinion from a military perspective.
Caesar thought about it and if he were in his shoes, he might be more inclined towards Dongfeng City.
Although this place is close to the pirates' hometown, it has a good outlet to the sea, and there is no need to explain what this means.
Moreover, the terrain here is very good, and many passes are easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Therefore, when the rebels attacked this city, they first looted the manors outside the city and drove the people away. It took them a whole month to attack the fortress before they took the town.
After taking this place, they took the rest of the towns in Constant in just a few weeks with unstoppable force.
When Olivia heard this, she remembered how Jacopo had described his hometown.
He said that Dongfeng City is mostly sandy hills and there are rich mineral resources outside the city.
If only this place could fall into her hands.
After having supper, the two washed up and went to rest.
Kaiser will fire Watson in a month, so he will be gone for several months at least.
While I am still at home, I always have to be intimate, then work hard, and irrigate a few times before I can go to bed.
Olivia was exhausted and lay in a puddle. A candle was lit outside the bed curtains. She vaguely saw Caesar bringing water to wash her.
The tiger-backed woman had a muscular body and very gentle hands. He took a hot towel and massaged her from head to toe. She felt so comfortable that she fell asleep immediately.
At dawn the next day, the weather was gloomy and a knife-like cold wind was blowing outside the window. The leaves were swaying and falling down.
Graya put on a thick felt robe and stuffed her feet into new felt shoes. She looked at the weather outside.
He went out, called a few servants, and asked them to light all the fireplaces in the living room.
He rushed into the steamy kitchen again to see if his wife's breakfast was ready.
Two hours before the fight, the servants in the kitchen started to light the fire and sift the flour.
It was originally whole wheat white flour, which was sifted to leave only the finest flour. After fermenting it in a pot, we started kneading the dough to make steamed food.
Generally, two baskets of palm-sized steamed buns are made every day. The adults eat one basket before dawn and leave. The wife eats another basket after she gets up in the morning, and it is served with some side dishes.
The kitchen is busy in the morning, mostly because it has to prepare enough staff meals for the servants in the entire house to last the whole day.
Usually they would bake a few batches of roughage bread and cook a large pot of meat soup.
The kitchen is not a popular place in the summer, but in October it becomes popular and everyone likes to come here to warm themselves by the fire.
However, there were few people eating at home today, so Gao Sili went out early in the morning to lead the tenant farmers, divide them into groups, and make plans by section.
The steward also followed his wife's instructions yesterday and took the miller to visit every household and warn the people.
In the next few months, you must stay at home and don't wander around the camp.
Do not have any contact or communication with people in the camp, and do not bring anyone to the manor.
Adam and Ethan were also instructed to hire more people to watch over the workshop in the next few months.
Don't let strangers come to visit and snoop into their business secrets.
So, Adam, Ethan and several workshop owners hired a few people and sent a few themselves, planning to work in two shifts to patrol spontaneously around the workshops.
At noon that day, the Baron's Mansion sent a maid over, and Olivia received the funds for occupying the land and building the road.
At the same time, he received news sent by Letilen.
Letilen's men said that he had contacted five grain merchants, one salt merchant, and one butter merchant.
Letilen was busy checking the warehouses of these merchants, inspecting the goods and checking their quality to see if they had the ability to take over the market share.
He planned to bring people to the manor to see her in a week.
Let’s see how the shares are divided specifically and then reduce the price.
Now these businessmen are all under the management of Letilen.
After Olivia received the news, she thought for a while, opened the skill paster, and pasted Graya's "Passive Loyalty" onto Letilen.
These businessmen currently have zero favorability towards her, but at least it can increase by 5% every week.
The first is to see the effect of the paste, and the second is to prepare for the price.
This kind of bargaining is the most challenging to people's bottom line, and it is possible that the favorability level will be reduced to a negative number.
If the underlying codes of these merchants are fixed at a slightly favorable level, then no matter how much she bargains, these merchants will not have much resistance.
At the same time, Olivia searched through the "events" but did not find any events related to herself.
It seems that her job is still safe for the time being.
Currently, she has two Divine Blessings and one Condemnation, which is not enough to completely resolve an incident or launch an attack.
Olivia thought it through as soon as she had this feature.
If someone wants to cause trouble for her and become her enemy, then she must fight back.
It only takes five condemnations to hit the bull from a distance without getting your hands dirty, and use the butterfly effect to create a man-made disaster.
The higher the condemnation, the greater the damage and the higher the success rate.
Every five weeks, one person can be attacked. If this is used to eliminate the enemy, it can be said that one person is killed every ten steps and no one is left alive in a thousand miles.
The greater the power and the higher the status, the more enemies you will naturally have due to structural conflicts, and this cannot be avoided by being a good person.
A week later, mid-October.
The ground was covered with frost, and the breath turned into mist. The forest near the manor was covered with dead leaves, and it was a bleak scene, but more than a hundred tenant farmers were coming and going in the jungle.
Gao Sili used the grant to purchase a batch of axes, saws, and shovels and distributed them to the tenant farmers.
Gao Sili paid for three big pot meals every day, hired a cook, bought food, and provided hot water for the three meals without interruption to ensure uninterrupted construction.
In just one week, they cut down tens of thousands of trees and shrubs of all sizes from the forest and cleared a route.
All the tree obstacles were cleared away, and the road was widened along the narrow path.
The forest was bustling, but the manor was quiet. Except near the factory, there were not many people walking around.
Letilen led the merchants all the way to the manor, and six or seven carriages came steadily down the hillside.
They looked at the neatly paved roads in the manor, the vigilant residents on the roadside, and the manor with closed gates and guarded by soldiers, and they couldn't help but feel restrained.
…
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