Inventory

Peaceful days are always fleeting.

Whether by coincidence or design, Caio and Ciss's victory celebrations were held on the same day.

This greatly troubled the nobles of the neutral camp, as attending gatherings from either side would offend the other.

Out of necessity, everyone had to selectively feign illness, resulting in a situation where gifts were given but the person was not actually there.

Hudson also fell ill. Although he had said he would attend, it was just a polite remark and could not be taken seriously.

He went to watch his competitors show off, needlessly making himself miserable; he's not out of his mind.

Besides, the invitations were just a polite gesture; they might not actually want Hudson to attend.

There's no point in causing trouble. Unless there's a life-or-death feud, why disrupt someone's victory celebration?

Nobles are expected to have magnanimity.

It's okay to stab each other in the back behind the scenes, but there's no need to turn against each other openly.

Otherwise, if you disrupt my banquet today and I disrupt your ceremony, wouldn't all banquets turn into farces?

Having prepared two gifts and sent them over separately, Hudson turned his attention back to the construction of his castle.

There were no new tricks. Apart from some minor modifications, the overall castle design still followed the local architectural style, with some Gothic elements.

Judging from the location of the castle, standing atop Mount Salam, the highest peak in the Southeast Province, it is clear that defense was the top priority.

The only difference is the layout of Hudson, which is much grander than that of a typical castle, with the main building covering an area of 1 hectare.

Including the surrounding buildings, it was a city. The area enclosed by the city walls was a full 3.8 square kilometers.

Once the entire project is completed, it will be a war fortress capable of accommodating tens of thousands of people, comparable to the Ethel Fortress.

If this had happened before, a baron wanting to build a war fortress would have certainly caused an uproar.

However, it's much more normal for a fiefdom viscount. Almost all fiefdom viscounts build their own cities.

The Dadir City, where Viscount Ciss resides, was built by the former noble lords themselves.

The kingdom only allocates funds to build cities in the Northern Frontier to defend against Beastfolk invasions, while neglecting other regions.

In any case, no human nation will invade the Alpha Kingdom. This is an unspoken agreement among the various nations of the continent.

Limited by financial and human resources, the construction of noble castles is generally a long and arduous process.

Three to five years is the norm, and eight to ten years is not unusual. Large-scale projects that last for generations are also possible.

Hudson has been working on it for a year, but the manor is still not finished, which is within the normal range that everyone is aware of.

With Beldens joining the fray, things sped up.

For ordinary people, transporting a boulder weighing several tons or tens of tons is more difficult than a snail moving forward.

But for Beldens, it was practically child's play.

Boulders weighing several tons or even tens of tons are toys in the hands of Young Bear. One moment they're playing fetch, the next they're balancing them on their heads and spinning around.

If one rock isn't enough, you can string several boulders together and play with them.

Beldens acrobatic performances are also a unique feature of the Mountain Territory.

Baron Redman was terrified, fearing that the Earth Bear might get carried away and start throwing boulders at people.

Fortunately, this situation did not last long. The number of boulders was limited, and in less than a day, the highly efficient Beldens completed the transportation of the boulders.

The stones were all prepared in advance, which is quite unsettling.

However, since Xiong didn't say anything, the others naturally wouldn't chime in either. Neither Hudson nor Beldens would disclose the details of the deal.

A respectable person + a respectable bear = tacit understanding and secrecy.

To protect everyone's positive image, anything involving interests must be kept confidential.

With no one causing trouble, both celebration banquets were very successful, although there were fewer guests attending.

In Hudson's view, the victory celebration was much like a wedding. Apart from the parties involved, everyone only paid lip service to it.

Even the parties involved may not take it seriously, such as Hudson himself.

Because of the castle construction, his victory celebration banquet hadn't even started yet, and the season for storing spring grain had already arrived.

Having experienced last year's locust plague, this spring's harvest is especially important for Leighton and Huaidun counties.

Countless territories are starving, just waiting for food to be cooked.

As far as Hudson knew, some of the Northern Nobles' territories even ate barley in advance to stave off hunger.

Ultimately, the problem stems from the overly limited variety of food crops, all of which fall within the locusts' diet, making the approach ineffective in the face of locust plagues.

Hudson is preparing to diversify its agriculture, and poultry must be raised to control the locust infestation.

Although there is no market for chickens and ducks these days, and large-scale farming is not selling them, it doesn't affect my own consumption.

Aquaculture can also be considered. The ditches and rivers dug out of the swamps serve as natural aquaculture farms.

Anyway, these days there's no pollution from chemical fertilizers and pesticides; everything is natural and organic.

There's no need to be overly ambitious about yields; whatever the harvest, it's a profit. Increasing the meat supply is also a powerful measure to address the territory's insufficient food production capacity.

For the military in particular, adequate nutrition is key to building a strong military.

If you can't even fill your stomach, what kind of fighting power can you expect?

All sorts of plans are in the preparation stage; the most important thing right now is the spring grain harvest.

Hudson has moved his operations elsewhere, leaving the preparations for the victory celebration to Baron Redman. Fortunately, a group of his clansmen volunteered to help, otherwise he might not have been able to handle it.

The main reason was that the Mountain Territory was extremely poor. The event was ostensibly a victory celebration, but the main task was actually to supervise the construction of the castle.

The main structure is fine, the key is the interior decoration.

Sculptors, painters, designers... all kinds of art professionals were brought in from the provincial capital at great expense.

Without a bit of artistic talent, you can't keep up with these people's thought processes. If you let these guys improvise, the chances of being shocked are definitely greater than being pleasantly surprised.

Hudson didn't seem to feel anything as he watched the truckloads of harvested grain, but the others were genuinely shocked.

Who spread the rumor that crop yields are low in mountainous areas?

The yield per acre in the Mountain Territory is almost the same as that in the plains outside. Keep in mind that this is newly reclaimed wasteland, which is still in the soil conditioning stage.

Fortunately, Hudson had the foresight to plant oil crops in these areas, rather than the mainstream rye.

The answer is that the soil is suitable.

Without specialized soil geology research, it's difficult to immediately determine which crops are suitable for which soil types. Ironically, the Aslant Continent doesn't have a profession dedicated to soil geology research.

Surprise is one thing, but there's no need for envy or jealousy. Everyone's territory is a plain, where almost all crops have high yields.

The joy of the harvest did not last long. Hudson was surprised to find that the food shortage in his territory had increased rather than decreased.

The newly reclaimed land area is indeed substantial, with 110,000 mu of new mountain land and 68,000 mu of new paddy fields, making it another year of exceeding the target.

However, the rate of land increase has not kept pace with the rate of population growth.

Without any recreational facilities, they began procreation as soon as it got dark. The unrestricted serfs were even more enthusiastic about procreation than Hudson had anticipated.

While the saying "one child a year" is a bit of an exaggeration, it's not far off in reality. Both men and women of childbearing age are going all out to have children.

It was all because Lord Hudson was too kind. He stipulated that pregnant women could not engage in heavy physical labor and distributed milk and goat milk to infants, so that everyone had no worries.

The natural population growth rate has exceeded 6%.

Of course, this data is not scientific; the statistical period is too short, and the infant mortality rate cannot be accurately included.

These days, children are easy to raise; adding a new batch of newborns doesn't increase the cost of childcare much.

The real cause of the food problem was the Beastfolk slaves acquired at low prices.

The surge in the number of slaves not only disrupted the territory's population structure but also exacerbated the food shortage.

The number of serfs was only a little over 28,000, while the number of Beastfolk slaves was approaching 60,000. This unhealthy population structure was definitely a threat to the long-term development of the territory.

The only saving grace is that while the total food shortage is increasing, the food self-sufficiency rate is continuously improving.

At the current rate of land reclamation, it is very promising to achieve basic food self-sufficiency in two years.

If this news gets out, it will definitely cause a huge uproar.

The achievement of basic food self-sufficiency means that the bottomless pit of land reclamation in Mountain Territory has seen a turning point.

It's certain that we'll continue to lose money, but the deficit will gradually decrease from the current tens of thousands of gold coins per year until it eventually turns from negative to positive.

According to external estimates, this turning point should occur more than a decade from now, rather than in the last two or three years.

There's no way to imagine it; even the most optimistic person couldn't fathom the scene of Earth Bear on a construction site. It's just too anti-bear.

Unfortunately, there was only one Earth Bear, and Hudson didn't dare to exploit Beldens' full potential, so he could only coax it into working; otherwise, the efficiency could have been further increased.

"The area of land for spring plowing has increased significantly this year, and your tasks are all very heavy."

Especially for the newly developed paddy fields, you all need to keep a close eye on the rice varieties introduced from elsewhere this year.

Beastfolk slaves are not suited for delicate work, so spring plowing will still be the responsibility of the villagers. The old rules will remain in place, with tasks assigned according to the number of laborers, organized by the local militia.

The rewards I promised to the citizens must now be fulfilled.

Last year, the land reclamation plan was 100,000 mu, but 110,897 mu were actually reclaimed, exceeding the target by 10,897 mu.

Based on the settlement of one-third of the excess reward, 3,632.3 mu of land will be designated as public land, to be distributed among the leaders who participated in the land reclamation.

Record this, and starting next season, extract the profits from this land and distribute them according to the contributions of each resident who participated in the land reclamation.

"I said with great pride, "Hudson said.

He didn't really care about the profits from a few thousand acres of land. As long as everyone was willing to work hard, Lord Hudson wouldn't be stingy with rewards.

Unfortunately, these incentives could only be used on serfs. The vast majority of slaves were still primarily subjected to forced labor.

The language barrier left Lord Hudson, who was adept at making grand promises, feeling powerless for the first time.

Otherwise, the best performers would eat meat, the worst would eat dirt, and those that are neither good nor bad would eat feed.

"Yes, sir!"

Everyone answered in unison.

It's clear everyone is in a good mood. Following a generous lord is obviously more promising than following a stingy one.

If they could be so fair in rewarding and punishing serfs, then it goes without saying that they were even more so in charge of the management.

For entrepreneurs, reputation is of paramount importance. Especially when dealing with their own people, any breach of contract can demoralize the team.

Losing credibility is easy, but regaining it is incredibly difficult.

After a pause, Hudson continued:

"I've also prepared your share, which Tom will deliver to your lodgings with some people later."

Despite the fact that many members of Hudson's startup team were of dubious origin and whose loyalty was questionable, they still received the necessary rewards.

These are things that Hudson can only decide for himself; no one can help him.

In the Aslant Continent, there is no such thing as a New Year, so there is no such thing as a year-end bonus, and there is not even a clear standard for salary.

There was no other way; in this day and age, serving a noble lord was considered an honor.

What's the point of discussing compensation?

Even if these people's ancestors may have been nobles, by their generation, the titles have long been gone, so they are nothing.

Only feudal nobles could inherit titles.

Other honorary nobles are all granted lifelong status.

The son of an honorary noble can still claim to be a nobleman, since his father is a true nobleman, but by the time it comes to the grandson, he is nothing.

If the middle generation doesn't work hard, the next generation may end up as ordinary people.

The guys who're hanging around with Hudson now are all commoners. Claiming to be a fallen aristocracy is just a way to raise their own status.

They're all here for wealth and status, so they're unlikely to be rich. While other rewards may be limited, Hudson won't be stingy with money.

As it turns out, monetary incentives are quite effective. Even without receiving the items, everyone's morale was significantly boosted.

There may be an element of acting involved, but life is like a play, and who isn't an actor?

"Sir, last year's plan has been completed. What are your thoughts on this year's territory development plan?"

"I can't help but ask," Luke asked with concern.

Being a businessman by trade, he had honed his ability to read people. He immediately saw through Hudson's intention to win people over and promptly cooperated with him.

"With the coal supply that has been a constraint on mine production secured, we aim to double the mine's capacity this year. We also strive to expand our related business network to neighboring provinces."

The replacement of bronze with Ironware is an inevitable trend, and this is our opportunity. While others are still focused on weapons orders, let's seize the market for everyday goods first.

When necessary, the price of goods exported outside the province can be reduced to offset the increased costs associated with transportation.

The land reclamation plan has been expanded to 105,000 mu (approximately 6,667 hectares) due to an increase in the adult labor force.

The plan to reclaim swampy land is tentatively set at 250,000 mu, with an estimated 50,000 slaves required.

Aquaculture...