A Great Favor

When Lenster arrived at Victor's camp, the main army had already set off, leaving only some logistical Logistics Department behind. Even the prisoners had been taken away.

However, Victor arranged for his clerk, Tors, to receive Lenster. Lenster was just about to ask Tors where Victor had gone and why he had left so suddenly.

But Tors spoke first, cutting him off. "Lord Lenster, this way please, our supply camp is this way."

After saying that, Tors walked ahead to lead the way for Lenster. Lenster tried to talk the whole way, but Tors kept changing the subject until the two finally arrived at the reserve camp.

When Lenster saw the dozens of tall granaries, filled to the brim with sacks of grain stacked like a city wall, he was stunned.

"This is..."

"Lord Lenster, this is over 2,000 tons of grain that my viscount sold to Ironvine Territory. It's all damp and moldy grain."

There are 30 grain depots in total, each storing about 200 tons. Oh, I misspoke!

Tors read it aloud in a flat, expressionless voice.

"Over 2,000 tons, how could 6,000 be left over? And where did this grain get damp and moldy?"

Lenster walked to a grain sack wall, took out his short sword, and slashed open a corner of a grain sack. Wheat poured out with a "whoosh." He grabbed a handful and smelled it; it was all the fresh aroma of grain, without any strange smell.

Lenster was speechless. In just over a year, Ironvine Territory had suffered a series of major battles, and most of the territory's food reserves had already been used up. In the past few days, besides worrying about the materials for rebuilding the territory, what worried the father and son the most was food.

Large numbers of people have been displaced by the war and are now in dire need of aid from the territory; otherwise, they will starve to death.

Originally, Lenster had discussed with Count Lloyd the possibility of arranging for these people to return to their hometowns as soon as possible, so that they could plant buckwheat now and harvest a batch of grain in the fall.

As for the food for these people during this period, they can only rely on the territory. With a population of tens of thousands, they need at least tons of grain. Currently, the entire territory can only scrape together 5,000 tons, which is far from enough to meet the needs of the people.

Originally, Lenster had planned to go to the Eastern Region with Victor to try and get some grain on credit from the Eastern Region there, since Ironvine Territory was also short of money and couldn't afford to buy so much grain at once.

Now that we have this batch of at least 6,000 tons of grain, the grain shortage has been largely filled, and Lenster and his son Count Lloyd no longer need to worry about saving face.

Just when Lenster thought that this was all the food the entire camp had, Tors continued to lead Lenster into the camp.

"There are also several warehouses full of miscellaneous items, and captured scrap metal (all weapons and equipment seized from the Fourth Legion; Victor even ordered the engineering corps to re-polish and oil them, making them look brand new)."

Besides this campsite, there are over 1,000 large livestock that my family said they couldn't take with them, so they left them with the Ironvine Territory.

These are worth 8,000 gold coins in total. Please deliver them to me as soon as possible, Lord Lenster, so I can catch up with the legion and report back."

Tors was initially pleased with the large amount of spoils he had collected, estimating that they would fetch 40,000 to 50,000 gold coins, enough to cover the costs of the expedition. However, the lord decided to give them away on a whim, which greatly displeased him.

At this moment, Lenster was already in tears. He remembered a saying Victor had once said, "You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of a household." He had been racking his brains over the shortage of supplies in his territory for a while, but he never expected that this time the problem would be solved in most cases.

The massive amount of grain, along with the weapons and equipment, and the cattle and horses that could be used for farming and transportation, were of immense significance to Ironvine Territory. These things could not be bought for a mere 8,000 gold coins; even before the war, they would have cost more than 10,000 gold coins.

Lenster immediately ran back to Ironwire City to report the matter to Count Lloyd sighed, "This time, we really owe Viscount Golden Sunflower a huge favor."