Golden autumn arrived in October.
The barley in the fields and the apples in the orchards had been harvested in abundance.
Taking advantage of the upcoming First Free Trade Alliance Congress in Glan Territory, Zhou Ming personally traveled with messenger letters through all seventy-two member territories of the Free Trade Alliance, inviting nearly all the barons and counts from those lands to attend this significant congress. If a lord could not come personally, he would send an important representative instead.
Before that, after drawing up the designs, Zhou Ming led the servants in thoroughly renovating the castle inside and out.
First, after scraping away the moss and gray stains covering the castle's exterior walls, they painted the entire outside with pigment-mixed lime, giving it a warm yellow glow. The uneven interior walls were smoothed over with cement and then whitewashed, immediately making the rooms much brighter. Redwood flooring was laid over the brick and stone floors of the corridors and bedrooms, followed by a layer of non-slip carpeting.
Then came the true centerpiece. Aside from the living room and bedroom he used himself, Zhou Ming had every piece of furniture in the more than one hundred guest rooms prepared for the congress representatives replaced with dozens of new furniture styles produced by the Furniture Workshop. Once the representatives spent a single night in those rooms, he was certain they would be reluctant to leave without buying several sets to take home.
At the end of October, the agreed meeting date arrived.
The lords of the Free Trade Alliance's member territories began arriving in Glan Territory.
Naturally, the first to arrive several days early were the three barons from Yoken Territory, Nathan Territory, and Patton Territory, the earliest members of the alliance.
The moment these three barons stepped into the newly