The departure of the eight knights affects countless people's hearts. Before they come back, everything will calm down.
However, some people are destined not to participate in this excitement, and that is the tens of thousands of people who came to Zero Crossing City for the first time.
The houses that have been built, no, it should be said to be simple shacks. The shacks built with the previous marching tents, wooden boards, and three to five stones are the outlines of three villages and towns.
Yellow Earth Town, Ponytail Town, and Swamp Town are the names of the three villages and towns. With the initial construction of shacks completed, Harrington also drove these people to the North.
"You are not here for the privilege. If you don't want to starve to death next year, then take your tools and open up wasteland!"
The current shacks can protect these people from the cold wind, and a group of people will die the next day. This is the minimum condition. Once achieved, these people will not only build shelters.
"The food you have now, including the food you will eat until next year, is all given to you by the noble Baron Ryan."
"Lord Ryan does not ask you to pay it back, but you must pay to make up for this gift."
The overseer from Frozen Earth Territory directs a large number of manpower, but what he does is very simple.
Dig and fill.
This wasteland is the edge of the Swamp. Frozen Earth Territory has been developing the Swamp, but with little effect. As winter comes, the Swamp freezes, which makes the development process even more difficult.
But it became an opportunity.
Developing the Swamp does not mean only developing the Swamp. The land on the edge of the Swamp is also a rare plain.
Because of the winter, the land is frozen with frost, and food cannot be grown on such land. At least this is the perception of most nobles, so over the years, no nobles have tried to turn this place into farmland.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The farmer's palms turned red when the hoe hit the cold ground. When he looked at the soil under his feet, he found that the soil dug out was no bigger than a palm.
"It's so hard. Can food really be grown on such land?"
These people were thinking in despair, but they still did not give up, because more importantly, they regarded this matter as repaying their debt to Baron Ryan.
The noble Lord said that there is no need to pay back, does it really mean that there is no need to pay back? Years of oppression have made them instinctively unable to imagine and resist. Instead, they think.
During this period, everything they ate, drank, and even lived in came from Ryan.
Even if Ryan wants to hang them on the stakes now, no one will resist.
In comparison, digging holes is much easier.
Bang!
The wooden sticks broke, and the hoe also had large and small gaps. This is the land in front of Northlands. They have become frozen soil.
"You want to be lazy, right?"
A new hoe was thrown over next to him, which made the farmers reluctant to put it down. This hoe is very useful.
"Is this the hoe from Master Baron Ryan? It's much better than mine."
"How could it possibly be from the Lord Ryan family? How could the noble master work with a hoe like you?"
Someone nearby retorted.
"Even if it's work, it's not with your hoe. I saw it that day, and Gold Coin was scattered all over the ground. I haven't picked it up yet."
"The Lord Ryan family must have a hoe made of gold."
It is impossible to work without talking, especially for these people, most of their few activities are on the lips.
Basket after basket of frozen soil was dug out, and specialized people carried them to the north.
"Where are they sending the soil?"
"I don't know."
"I'm so curious. I should have known that I had asked my uncle to put me in the soil delivery team. They didn't have to dig the soil. Why is this damn frozen soil so hard? It's harder than the soil in the territory I was in before."
The political affairs officer from Frozen Earth Territory walked on the land. He was not a supervisor, but he would stare at these people digging the soil. Watching a person keep moving forward, the political affairs officer angrily stopped him.
"Don't you see you've crossed the line?"
"You can't dig here!"
The farmer put away the hoe and went back. He was still very afraid of people who were wearing such warm clothes.
"A pit can only cover ten acres of land at most. Of course you don't know how much ten acres is. The line on the ground is the mark. You must not cross it!"
A loud roar came from the sky. Watching Griffin spread its wings, many people showed fear. They were no longer so afraid of Orcs, but Magical Beast was still a legendary creature.
Especially the huge, ferocious, and flying Magical Beast.
On Griffin's back, Eteria looked at the pothole-like land below, couldn't help but frown, and then fell down.
"What's going on? Digging so deep?"
The huge Griffin brought huge pressure, making the political officer bend down and said respectfully to Eteria:
"Lord Archon."
He was also a little embarrassed about Eteria's question.
"I don't know how deep I need to dig. I just want to see the suitable soil, but I still haven't found it after digging for so long."
Eteria looked towards the big pit. It had been dug almost half a meter deep, but the ground under his feet was still as hard as stone.
"Can this really grow food?"
She was no longer confident, so she entered Zero Crossing City and told Ryan about the Swamp.
"One meter is not enough, just two meters. If you can't see the stone at two meters, then stop."
The digging reached two meters. As expected, rocks were found in some places, while frozen ground was still found in other places.
At this time, the teams transporting frozen soil also began to transport baskets of swamp soil from the north. The surface of these soils were already frozen with ice cubes. They were constantly smashed with hoes. The baskets of soil turned into half baskets. Even as the dripping water fell, the soil would shrink in size.
Boom!
The flames rose over the earth, and the cold air became warm. The wood sizzled, burning the baskets and the soil together.
People gathered around here. They no longer needed to dig holes. They were enjoying the warmth around the flames. Seeing that the firewood was used to roast the soil, these people felt heartbroken.
As half an hour passed, the political officer began to give orders.
"Don't stand still, put out the fire, put out the fire!"
"Don't use the runoff water! Use a hoe to separate the wood inside, then use a wooden basket to throw the soil into those pits!"
A large amount of steaming soil and the still burning Ash were pushed into the pit. As the evening came, the arrival of one car after another made the air smelly.
"Fall down!"
No one understands it, but just do it.
As the feces was sprinkled in, the last layer of plant ash covered it.
"The dug-out frozen soil should be crushed like wheat, and then spread out!"
With the fall of a layer of soil, the pit that was originally two meters deep became only one meter. Finally, another layer of rotten leaves was spread down.
The sky was now dark, and most of the people had returned to the villages and towns. The last group of people set up wooden piles in the north to support the wooden boards diagonally.
The wind at night is very cold. This can at least change the flow of cold wind when touching the ground, so that these potholes will not bear all the cold.
However, some charcoal and branches were still left in each pit, and the flames illuminated the last group of people in the dark night.
Early the next morning, when we started working again, the large pits had become a little hardened by the frost, but when we peeled back the top layer Ash, the soil inside still maintained warm vitality.
The work on the second day was still the same as the first day. The frozen soil was dug out and sent to the north. The swamp soil from the north was brought over and filled in the pits. The flames kept the temperature. When the last layer was 20 to 30 centimeters, it was even necessary for people to stand in and personally stir the beast dung and soil in it.
"Five families are responsible for a piece of land. They dig, transport, fill, and mix it. If anyone lets the soil freeze, my whip will definitely beat you to pieces!"
The political officer was surrounded by guards, who looked particularly intimidating.
Pieces of land are being continuously improved, using manpower to keep the soil alive, and there are also huge construction sites in the Swamp to the north.
Unlike the reclamation of wasteland in the south, there are only two things that people here need to do, and that is to dig out the frozen swamp land, along with the solid ice and even the deeper black swamp mud, and send it all to the fields reclaimed by South.
The nutrients in these soils are horribly high, but their moisture content is too high, and coupled with the fact that they are frozen for most of the year, no food can grow.
Ryan does not need them to grow food in the fields for the time being. The most important thing now is that the Swamp will not let all the efforts made by Frozen Earth Territory fetch water in the bamboo basket in the summer.
The extremely hard soil from the southern land was poured into the long ravine dug here, and as layer after layer fell, stones were transported out from the direction of Frozen Earth Territory. These stones were also huge wealth, but now they were all filled in towards the Swamp.
There must be a road here next summer.
The stones and frozen soil will stabilize the deep soil underfoot, because it is also mixed with metal waste. These wastes come from the blacksmith shop and the academy in Alchemy Valley. Those damn Alchemist apprentices, they wasted an unknown amount of metal in the process of becoming Alchemist.
Of course, these metals can be recycled, but in the end they chose to recycle them as waste. After all, the process of recycling them was too cumbersome. It would be fine if Northwind Province metal was scarce, but after all, there is no shortage.
The metal waste was crushed by Rose Alchemist's crystal python with its body into a simple version of "steel bars", and was thrown under the land to serve as a beam.
Ryan stood at the end of the road. He knew very well that the things he was doing now were just a drop in the bucket for this huge the Swamp.
But it must be done. When the weather warms up next year and the Swamp thaws, he will even try to plant trees to absorb the excess water and stabilize the land at the same time.
This is a long process that may take his entire life to achieve.
Maybe in a certain year in the future, this piece of the Swamp will turn into a golden piece, with countless wheat seedlings dotting the cold land, allowing time to witness the greatness of human power.
This is his vision. Even now, no one in Frozen Earth Territory can think of such a picture.
However, the last day will not come yet. Ryan needs to let these people see hope, starting from this first piece of land.
He personally walked through the Swamp and came to the reclaimed wasteland in the south. Planks of wood stood here like sloping roofs. Under the planks, some people even laid hay and branches. They planned to live here to ensure that the soil was turned over at night.
No one is willing to bear this kind of thing.
But the smell here is very bad. Although this wasteland was a little deserted a few days ago, the air was still fresh, but now it is very pungent.
The farmers here were a little shocked by the arrival of Ryan. They did not expect that Ryan would come to such a place in person. After all, they couldn't stand the smell when they first started two days ago.
The serfs knelt on the ground. Some of them had actually become civilians because of their merit, but they still knelt.
"Can we complete three thousand acres in one month?"
A group of administrative officers stood carefully in front of Ryan. After hearing Ryan's words, they immediately said that they would be able to complete it.
Maybe they were worried before. Three thousand acres might be troublesome, but now it must be completed, and it must be completed with greater efficiency and scale.
This is an opportunity to enter Lord Ryan's eyes.
"Three thousand acres is three thousand acres, no more, no less, otherwise Yelena Mages you have to deal with it."
If you want to reclaim wasteland, reclaimed land is actually the simplest first step.
Reclaiming wasteland only requires manpower and tools, but if you want to grow food, the first thing to test is the seeds.
Yelena Mages, as the demon Mages invited by Ryan from Imperial Capital, came to Frozen Earth Territory without doing any magic, and was arranged to study grain seeds and production. This woman's resentment, even Ryan did not dare to communicate with her too much.
If Grand Mage Macken hadn't told Yelena that Life Magic was the ninth miracle to emerge besides Eight Elements, and that the energy of any life was the truth of magic, I'm afraid Yelena Mages would have given up long ago.
And her talent is also terrifyingly strong. Ryan feels that Yelena Mages's talent is as good as Mage Luna's.
Mage Luna is able to become Archmage in Svadilfari's Doomed Northlands, and even forcefully move towards Grand Mage impact, and Yelena, she was from an ordinary background, and she became a demon Mages in her twenties by relying on a loan from the Magic Academy. This is rare.
In comparison, although Baroness Avril·Melendez Family became the demon Mages at a younger age, the resources they received were completely different.
Avril has talent and resources, but Yelena only has talent.
In the past two years, the biggest surprise that Yelena has brought to Ryan in Frozen Earth Territory is the seeds of food. Those seeds that can maintain life energy and grow in the cold land can adapt to the environment of Frozen Earth Territory.
Food is the most important thing for the people, and Yelena Mages forced Frozen Earth Territory's sky to expand several times.
So when discussing with Yelena about growing food in this wasteland, Ryan said nothing and told the other party that he had paid off Magic Academy's debt for the other party.
If food can grow in the wasteland next fall, then Ryan will not hesitate to help the other party take a step further and become Grand Mage.
Mage Apprentice, magician, magician Mages, Grand Mage. At this point, it can be said that you have achieved something on the extraordinary path of magic.
Become Grand Mage, then it can be said that if you can see the day when you become Grand Mage in the future, no matter whether you can succeed in the end, at least you will have no shortage of talent and qualifications.
This is true for nobles. Becoming a demon Mages will get a level of funding. Becoming Grand Mage will completely change the future decision-making of a noble family.
"So, you can definitely study the seeds from the three thousand acres of land, right?"
Ryan still remembers the desperate look in Yelena's eyes when he grabbed a big bag of seeds and put it in front of his eyes.
Three thousand acres is enough, but Yelena needs to complete research on food seeds from this winter to next spring to ensure that at least some of those seeds can grow on this reclaimed land.
Ryan's requirements are not high. For the first time on this land, as long as it can produce ten catties per mu, it only needs ten catties.
He will be able to gain countless loyalties.
At that time, tens of thousands of people in these three villages and towns will become his Baron Ryan loyal loyalists, Ryan can lead them to kill the emperor with such loyalty.
This is the power of this land.
At the same time, he Ryan can once again enhance his prestige in the circle of nobles.
In Northwind Province, food is a problem every year.
The victories in the wars made Northwind Province's nobles have to consider him Baron Ryan in any decision-making. Then when the food really grows, then Northwind Province all decisions involving all nobles must be made by him Ryan.
Politics, military, and economy are the three major subjects. In the military aspect, no one can question Ryan. No matter what kind of war, Ryan is the unquestionable commander-in-chief.
As for the economy, Ryan has not stopped. Isn't the excitement of Zero Crossing City during this period caused by Ryan? In just five days, Northern Kingdom's Braveheart Guild took out more than 800 Gold Coin, which represented the death of more than 800 Orcs, but no one knew. No one knew that he, Baron Ryan, harvested more than 1,300 Gold Coin from the Northern Kingdom's Braveheart Guild in just five days.
Everyone thinks that Ryan is losing money, but behind the GG fee, there is a lot of positive income.
In Northwind Province, metal weapons are very cheap, but it also depends on what they are compared to. Compared with South weapons, they are much cheaper, but what about metal and wood?
A dagger and a dagger are things that ordinary families can only make up their minds by gritting their teeth and tightening their belts.
Zero Crossing City, Northern Territory Merchant Guild, Northern Kingdom's Braveheart Guild, these three biggest money bags are constantly producing wealth for Ryan.
Financially, he has his own rhythm.
Finally, there is politics.
For the nobility, politics lies on the ground beneath their feet.
Ryan should have gone to Thundercloud County to fight with those nobles for the lands and mines that had completely lost their lords, but he didn't. He didn't choose that path. That ready-made political battlefield would allow him to gain a lot of political prestige, but at the same time, it was also destined to make Ryan gain political enemies in the final outcome.
With more wolves and less meat, those lands and mines were distributed to some people, and the other nobles who also suffered heavy losses would naturally be angry and resentful.
But that is not what Ryan wants. He may have enemies, but they cannot be divided so simply, so he simply gave up on the political battlefield, jumped out of Thundercloud County, and returned to this desolate land.
Use the foundation of the land to tell all the nobles who they need to bow to in Northwind Province.
The emperor ignored Northwind Province and replaced him with Meyers to join in the fun.
For Ryan, this is a godsend opportunity.
Between the emperor and Meyers and Northwind Province's transfer of power, it was he, Ryan, who had a cross-hand hand. Before the emperor left and Meyers arrived, did he have a chance to gain the loyalty of this land?
"Baron? You can call me Baron, but you can't really think of me as Baron."
Ryan stood on the edge of the dung, looking at the south with a smile, putting his palms on his chest, and bending down to salute, the Sun on the horizon fell just right.