Four days later, the dragon folded its wings and landed on the "helipad" behind the Swamp Castle.

"You can move freely. I'll call you if there's anything."

After watching Carlos leave, Ronin walked into the courtyard.

At this moment, the whole courtyard was silent, without any human figures. If there were no fallen leaves in the courtyard and the surroundings were clean, he would have thought that the place was deserted.

"Where are the people?"

Luo Ning shouted: "Erin? Black Tiger?"

The black tiger has the most sensitive nose and is always the first to come out in the past, but now he is nowhere to be seen.

"Master, you are back!"

Finally, a head popped out from the corner of the courtyard. It was the maid Bella. She was wiping her apron with both hands, and seemed to be washing something.

"My Lord, you are finally back!"

She trotted up excitedly and saluted.

There was no master in the castle. Even when noble transcendents like Elrond and Jenny left, the servants didn't know who to serve and could only find something to do every day.

Fortunately, the grain from the recent autumn harvest has been collected, and the servants, under the leadership of Wilson, the head of government affairs, are helping to collect the grain and store it in the warehouse, so they are not so idle.

"It's Bella~"

Roning looked the maid up and down with a smile.

Before she knew it, the maid had joined the castle for a year. Compared to before, Bella was no longer thin and frail, and her complexion looked healthier.

As for her figure, she looked pretty good despite wearing a maid outfit.

Joining the castle and becoming a personal maid was a lucky thing for Bella. Not only did she have good food, drink and clothes, but when she returned home from the castle, her relatives and friends envied her. Some even asked her if she could become the lord's lover.

It’s a pity that the noble lord seems to have no interest in women.

But at this moment, Bella's cheeks turned red when the lord looked at her like this. She was nervous and asked quickly: "Master, what do you need me to do for you? Prepare hot water for washing, or ask the kitchen to prepare lunch? Or..."

Luo Ning waved his hand. Why take a bath in the middle of the day?

"Tell the kitchen to prepare lunch, and notify Galen to ask him to call Wilson, Chahar and others over."

"Oh by the way, where's Irene? Why isn't she in the castle?"

Bella's nervous mood finally eased. The lord remained unchanged and was indeed not interested in them.

"Miss Irene was probably too bored, so she rode a black tiger to Ziguo Village a few days ago. By the way, sir, Miss Irene said she has become an intermediate magician!"

Luo Ning's eyes lit up. He didn't expect that Jenny had just become a high-level magician and her daughter had also made a breakthrough.

"This is such a happy thing. When Irene comes back, I will host a banquet for her to celebrate her breakthrough."

A fourteen-year-old intermediate magician, his talent is no less than Breton's.

As long as he practices hard, he might be able to become a high-level magician before he turns 20.

As Bella informed Gallen and others, soon all the servants in the castle and officials in the territory knew that the lord had returned.

"Master, welcome back!"

Galen ran back immediately. Since Chahar was transferred to be the financial officer, the job of housekeeper gradually fell on Galen. The former personal butler also had his opportunity.

"Long time no see, Gallon. I called you over here to ask you to take care of something."

Luo Ning pointed at the rice ears placed on the bluestone floor. "This is a grain called 'rice', similar to wheat and barley. I need you to take its grains for me, dry them, put them in a linen bag and store them in a dry place as seeds."

It would take Carlos one day to get from the front line to the Swamp Castle at his flying speed.

The reason why it took him so many days to come back was that he went to the swamp and harvested the ripe wild rice.

"Please leave it to me!"

Galen thought that this was special food that Roning brought back from the front line, and did not ask any further questions.

Luo Ning gave some more instructions. There was only a small amount of wild rice, estimated to be only a hundred pounds of seeds at most. If they wanted to promote it on a large scale in Swamp Town, it would probably take several years of cultivation and selection to obtain more seeds.

For Wu Beiling, rice is a new thing, and the way it is grown is completely different from that of wheat.

If you want to grow rice, you can only try with a half-baked level like Luo Ning.

Although Luo Ning only knows a little, no matter how poor it is, it will not be worse than the wild environment.

These rice plants can grow and mature in the wild. There is no reason why they would die if we give them a better environment.

"Sir, the autumn harvest is now completely over. Although the farmers have been busy without a break during this period, all the wheat has been harvested. After a short rest, they will soon start harvesting barley."

Wilson, the chief administrative officer, was reporting on the autumn harvest: "Under your guidance on cultivation techniques and fertilization methods, the average yield of wheat per mu has increased from 105 kilograms to 178 kilograms now!"

He couldn't help but marvel that in all his years of living, the harvest had never been as good as this year.

During the harvest time, almost every farmer was grinning from ear to ear, and every day they would either praise the lord's wisdom and greatness, or say things like "Follow the lord and you will have enough food to eat."

Luo Ning nodded slightly.

Such per-acre yield is certainly terrible in modern times, but it is the result of the widespread use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

A yield of 178 kilograms per mu is already very good.

Wubeiling planted more than 34,000 mu of wheat this spring. According to this yield per mu, more than 6 million kilograms of wheat will be harvested this year! In addition, there are more than 38,000 mu of barley fields that have not been harvested...

Perhaps this year the total grain output of Wubeiling could exceed 10 million kilograms! Luo Ning laughed, "It's a bumper year!"

"Yes, sir, if we can have such a harvest every year, we in Wubei can earn a lot of gold coins every year by selling grain to foreign countries!"

Since becoming the treasurer, Chahar has been thinking about money every day.

"Master, the yield per acre has increased this year, thanks to the technology, tools and oxen you provided. I think the castle should collect this income, so should we increase the tax rate?"

This is what Chahar has been thinking about recently.

However, the matter was of great importance, so he did not dare to make a decision on his own and could only wait for Luo Ning to come back and ask.

"It's good to seek greater benefits for the castle, but it's not appropriate to change taxes when our population policy has just been promulgated."

Luo Ning rejected the other party's proposal.

Changing one's mind every day is not a sign of maturity and will also lead to dissatisfaction among the people, which is very unfavorable for Ukraine's northern territory to attract foreign population.

What's more, Luo Ning encouraged childbirth. How can the people give birth to children for you if they don't even have enough to eat? "You need to let the people know that if they grow more food and harvest more food, they can live better. This way, they will be more motivated."

"Your Excellency is right!"

Wilson echoed, “Although the farmers are tired these days, they all have smiles on their faces and work more actively and energetically than before.”

Chahar sighed, "I know this is not good, but the expenses of the territory are very high. Now the monthly salary is at least more than 200 gold coins, and the manpower is still increasing. Several industries are still in a state of self-sufficiency..."

He was afraid of what he would do if he ran out of money one day.

"Don't worry about the money."

Luo Ning is open-minded. Now is still in the investment stage, he will not not spend the money he has because of stinginess.

"Wushanbao won this war and we gained a lot."

Wilson and Chahar looked at each other. They were a little nervous when they came here. After all, the lord came back alone, and they didn't know whether the war was won or lost.

Now after hearing this, I finally feel relieved.

“So don’t worry about spending too much money, as long as it’s good value.”

Luo Ning smiled and said, "Starting today, you need to recruit more new people, because soon there will be more things for you to deal with."

"My Lord, what do you mean?"

An idea occurred to Wilson.

He was just a government official in Shanlin Town at first. At that time, Luo Ning asked him to learn more, see more, and do more. In the blink of an eye, he became the head of government affairs in Wubei, managing the government affairs of four towns.

Now that the Lord has said this, could it be that there is a new territory? (End of this chapter)