Assessment of Merits and Rewards

The Wood Fort Town has grown in size along with the development of the Two Rivers Territory. It now has more than 10,000 residents, making it a small city. The residents are mainly families of military personnel and territory staff, as well as some Freemen.

In Victor's plan, the population carrying capacity of towns like Wood Fort Town is already close to the red line. Wood Fort Town has begun to expand its urban area to the surrounding areas. Fortunately, the plains formed by the two tributaries of the Great Fish River in the east and west are vast enough, with a total area of more than 60 square kilometers, which is sufficient to meet the construction of satellite towns.

Currently, six small residential areas have been built around Wood Fort Town to disperse population pressure. The main residents of these areas are Freemen, mostly military dependents who have been freed from serfdom. They mainly provide agricultural products such as fresh fruits and vegetables to the entire Wood Fort Town.

There are also some resourceful families running small individual businesses such as restaurants, tailor shops, and grocery stores, which have greatly increased the economic activity of the entire town of Wood Fort Town. Victor is also willing to encourage this behavior and has formulated loan policies in the territory's Finance Department to provide these people with small loans, hoping to improve the wealth of the Freemen and expand market consumption capacity.

As the territory gradually develops, the Freemen will increase. According to the plan, new Freemen families will appear in the four villages. After all, Victor and the first batch of indentured slaves can become Freemen after a three-year development period. In other words, by the end of this year, the first batch of 8,000 indentured slaves will all become Freemen.

Apart from the more than 4,000 people who had been released from serfdom early due to military dependents, the remaining Freemen were evenly distributed among the three villages of Red Soil Village, Riverside Village, and Green Field Village.

As for Pasture Village, it is a special case. Apart from some Barbarians soldiers' families in the army, no new Freemen will be moved there. Victor plans to move all the soldiers' families from the Garrison Corps from Golden Sunflower Territory to here.

He has already written to his father and they have agreed that the next fleet of ships will bring more than 3,000 military dependents to the Two Rivers Territory. These immigrants, together with the existing military dependents from Pasture Village, will form a large settlement with a population of more than 5,000. At that time, a militia detachment will also be established here.

The reason Victor planned to set up such a large-scale military settlement here was due to the special situation of Pasture Village. Managing the huge livestock herd in Pasture Village required a large number of herd slaves, and the operation of the horse farm also required a large number of herd slaves. Currently, the number of herd slaves in Pasture Village has exceeded 9,000, of which more than 4,000 are young and middle-aged men.

Maintaining a sufficient population of Freemen here would also be beneficial for managing and controlling the large slave community in Pasture Village. At the same time, the wool textile industry in Two Rivers Territory will also establish its main production area here, which will require a large number of workers to participate in production. In order to ensure the production order and product quality of the factory, it is not suitable to convert slaves into workers. These Freemen can provide labor for the wool textile industry.

Victor also considered the current labor shortage in Golden Sunflower Territory caused by immigration, so he directly sent half of the gold and silver from this raid to Golden Sunflower Territory via a fleet, and gave it to his father, the Former Baron Wembley, to buy slaves to replenish the population of Golden Sunflower Territory.

The construction and development of Golden Sunflower Territory were very well-developed, sufficient to meet the needs of the population's production and life. Combined with the original scale of more than 20,000 people, it would not be difficult to absorb the same number of serfs on a 1:1 basis.

Victor also reduced the scale of Two Rivers Territory's slave purchase plan for next year by one level, intending to purchase only about 10,000 people, with priority given to the quality of the slaves. Two Rivers Territory has already reached a population of 100,000, of which more than 70,000 are slaves. Although the territory has a large enough army to control these slaves, it has basically reached its capacity limit.

Victor believed that the current population of the territory was sufficient for its development and construction. The next major task should be to absorb these slaves, at least half of whom should be converted into Freemen, so as to initially consolidate the sense of national identity among the people before considering expanding the population.

On September 4, the General Staff and the Department of Civil Administration finally completed the drafting of the reward plan for war merits and submitted it to Victor for review. Victor and Number One spent three hours reviewing the plan. Although they found some errors, they found that it did not violate the principle of fairness.

Victor returned the revised plan to the General Staff and the Department of Civil Administration, instructing them to prepare accordingly.

The combat troops involved in this sweep operation totaled 5,761 people, Logistics Department totaled 2,184 people. All of them received rewards, including land rewards covering a total of 90 square kilometers, which basically accounted for nearly half of the idle land in the Two Rivers Territory's plan. The gold and silver rewards amounted to 9,000 gold coins, and some of the rewards will also be distributed in kind, such as livestock, agricultural tools and other production tools, as well as daily necessities and consumer goods such as flour, White Sugar and cloth.

At the same time, the families of more than 4,000 soldiers will also be freed from serfdom, totaling more than 100 people. This directly doubled the Freemen population of the territory and reduced the total slave population of the territory from more than 70,000 to more than 50,000.

However, the territory's financial expenditures were not limited to these. According to the territory's initial policy, after serfs were converted into Freemen, the territory would rent land to them at extremely low prices. The territory would also provide funds and production tools to help them develop the land. All of these funds were considered as low-interest loans provided by the territory to them. The total amount of money needed was estimated to be 50 square kilometers.

At the same time, there are also nearly 200 fallen soldiers and more than 100 wounded soldiers to be compensated, which will require an investment of nearly 500 gold. In order to unite the army's spirit, Victor also built a cemetery for the fallen soldiers in this battle and the soldiers who died in previous wars in the territory, for burial and worship.

All these expenses, both inside and out, amounted to approximately [amount] gold coins spent in the territory. Two-thirds of the territory's land reserves were depleted, along with a considerable number of horses, cattle, sheep, and a large amount of supplies.

However, Victor believed it was worthwhile. The most important thing was to give all the indentured slaves in the territory an expectation that could change their fate, thereby motivating them to work harder. The new Freemen people would also become wealthy enough after a few years of management, and would provide a huge market for the territory's industrial products.

As for the amount of gold and silver spent, it seems like a lot, but the gold and silver treasures from this war alone add up to no less than 60,000 gold. In addition, at the end of the year, the Iron Birch Territory will transfer about 20,000 gold in White Sugar trade dividends. Even if 30,000 gold is transferred to the Golden Sunflower Territory, Victor will still have 50,000 gold in working capital. The expenditure of 20,000 gold is not a burden for him.