That afternoon.
In the study, Su Qin opened the bundle and set it on the desk. Gold coins gleamed inside, and Yira stared at them in astonishment. A full six hundred gold coins.
Su Qin bit one. Pure gold. Seeing how happy Su Qin was, Yira was happy too! She did not care about the gold on the desk, though it might be more than she could ever earn in her lifetime. She cared more about the man before her.
Su Qin swept both hands, and the coins entered the system warehouse. After deducting what he had spent over the past few days, he had 605 gold coins left.
Yira stared at the empty desk in shock. Su Qin smiled at her. "A kind of spatial magic. You might encounter it yourself someday!"
Yira nodded. She decided to keep this secret buried deep in her heart, then asked, "My lord, what kind of god is the Dragon God?"
Su Qin took a drink of water and turned to Yira, who stood straight beside him. "An ordinary god!"
Seeing that Su Qin did not want to elaborate, Yira asked no more. Before long, he was sent out on an errand by Su Qin.
Sitting in his chair beside the study desk, Su Qin slowly brought up the system interface. He wanted to see what April's refresh had brought. He was very curious about it.
The page changed, and an option appeared: [April shop refresh. Please select a category. Available categories: seeds! Books! Building blueprints! Three categories, offering three random items of blue grade or below.]
Su Qin nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "System, choose blueprints!"
Another flash of white light swept across the interface, and three blueprints appeared.
[Level 2 farm blueprint: a good farm with stone walls, housing, a well, toilets, a large bathhouse, warehouses, and other buildings. Advanced building design. Covers 3,600 square meters and accommodates 5 farming households! Exchange price: 50 gold.]
Awesome! Next one.
[Level 1 logging camp blueprint: a good camp with housing, a lumber yard, a well, and wooden walls. Covers 1,600 square meters. Combines planting and logging! Accommodates 10 lumberjacks. Exchange price: 10 gold coins!]
He shook his head. It was a little underwhelming, but usable.
[Level 2 smithy: a good workshop building with housing, storerooms, workshops, and toilets. Advanced building design. Covers 3,600 square meters and houses 20 blacksmiths. Exchange price: 100 gold coins!]
Su Qin immediately waved his hand, exchanging for all the blueprints and storing them away.
[Gold coins -160]
That evening, in the council chamber on the castle's first floor, Nack laid several large yellow dragon banners on the enormous table. Su Qin walked over and inspected them one by one.
"Not bad. The black eyes are embroidered very well!" He looked at the next one. "This one is good. The scales are very neat!"
Suddenly, Nack interrupted him. "My lord, what creature is this? I've never heard of it in Westeros!"
Su Qin smiled and thought briefly. "Nack, this is a Qilin, one of my homeland's totems. I want to bring it to Westeros."
"My lord, I'm sorry." Nack sounded apologetic. After all, leaving one's homeland was a sad thing.
Su Qin smiled. "It's all right. You've done very well. How much did the seamstresses ask for each one?"
Nack answered at once. "My lord, I found some of the best seamstresses in Gulltown! They asked for fifty copper coins apiece. They said woolen cloth was easy to find, but yellow silk thread wasn't cheap. Each banner takes three people three days and nights to embroider. They stayed up these past few nights to finish these."
Each yellow dragon banner was over a meter long and half a meter wide. In the center, a yellow dragon coiled as it flew toward the outward-pointing tip of the inverted triangle.
These were family banners, meant to hang on walls to display identity and dignity. Of course, they could not serve as battle standards. The woolen cloth was too thick to fly. If they hung limply during battle, the soldiers might all run away!
Su Qin nodded to Nack. For workmanship like this, the price was acceptable. "Have them find more seamstresses. If there aren't enough, try recruiting among the refugees. I want one hundred Qilin banners within a month! Have them come to the manor once a week to collect their wages!"
"Yes, my lord!"
Only fifty gold!
Looking at the slightly plump Nack, Su Qin wondered whether assigning him this work was somewhat inappropriate. He decided to appoint a dedicated minister of logistics instead. That would also help cultivate a trusted subordinate.
After settling the matter of the family banners, Su Qin slowly left the council chamber through its large eastern door. Nack put away the yellow dragon banners and instructed the maids to close up the chamber.
Back in the study, Su Qin opened the system interface. He looked at the summoning interface, thought deeply for a moment, and said:
"System, can I specifically summon figures from the Hundred Schools of Thought?" After all, the craftsman problem had to be solved.
There was silence for a moment. Suddenly, [Yes, but targeted summons cost twice the normal price.]
Su Qin let out a breath!
"System, targeted selection: summon a blue-quality craftsman of Mohism from the Warring States period."
[The cost is 100 gold coins per summon. Accept?]
"Accept."
Blue light flashed across the interface, and a blue figure appeared on it:
[Junior Mohist craftsman enhancement material: carpentry level 2, smithing level 2, masonry level 2, bricklaying and other crafting skills all level 2. Effective five-dimensional attributes: intelligence 4, valor 1. Material may be used on people with loyalty above 90.]
Su Qin nodded, then summoned many more craftsman character templates one after another.
Below junior craftsmen were apprentices. Their craftsman skills were all level 1, but that was enough, since Su Qin only needed them to forge weapons for now.
In the end, Su Qin summoned two blue Mohist craftsmen and ten white craftsmen. (A large smithy could house twenty people, so he had not summoned enough to fill it.)
After summoning these talents, Su Qin had only one hundred gold left in his pocket!
Money flowed away like water. But that was fine. Every investment would bring returns!
First things first: build a level 2 smithy. Heavy industry is always the most important foundation.
The next day, Su Qin had a plan. He was going to Gull Square. Soon, the bell in Gulltown's central square began to ring.
Su Qin's purpose was to select ten young people with loyalty above 90 and secretly distribute the materials to them under the guise of divine miracles.
Soon, a crowd gathered in the square. A hundred militiamen carrying spears-sharpened wooden sticks-surrounded it. Su Qin stood on the platform and nodded to the squad of militia guards beside him.
The guards began striking the ground in unison with their wooden spears. Then they shouted together three times, "Silence!"
The people below immediately quieted down. Su Qin looked around and began to speak. "Hello, everyone. I believe you all know by now that the new Baron of Gulltown is an Easterner. That would be me."
The people below listened attentively. Word had already spread everywhere: the new lord had waived taxes for a year. Over the past few days, refugees had even been arriving in Gulltown by boat from Featherwood!
Su Qin nodded and continued, "I am now recruiting the first group of maids, manservants, and craftsmen for Gull Manor."
A murmur passed through the crowd. So the new lord was recruiting servants. They had thought Su Qin would be like other nobles and simply pick the strong and the beautiful to enter his household, but his next words left many of them unable to keep still.
"I swear by the Old Gods and the Seven-scratch that, the Dragon God!"
"Everyone who enters Gull Manor will be well cared for. I will not beat or berate you at will, nor will I arbitrarily threaten your lives."
"The manor's manservants may go home once a week. I will pay the servants and maids one silver coin a month, with food and lodging provided. You may choose to take that silver coin home!"
"I do not need you to be powerful. I do not need you to possess profound skills, nor do I need you to be beautiful. There is only one thing I need."
Su Qin raised his head and briefly swept his gaze across every face. The people were all solemn and attentive. Satisfied, he said, "All I need is your loyalty!"
"For this first round of recruitment, the lord's household will take forty maids and sixty manservants."
"Refugees and Gulltown residents are welcome to apply."
Su Qin thought for a moment. "I will not force maids to share my bed. If a maid ever does share my bed, I guarantee she will do so willingly! Once the maids have worked for me until the age of twenty-five, if they wish to leave the manor, I guarantee them a substantial sum so they will have the means to marry."
"The same goes for the manservants!" "Applicants for maid and manservant positions must be between sixteen and twenty years old. I do not care about your looks, so long as you are not disabled."
"Successful applicants will receive one month's wages in advance, as a gift I have prepared for you."
"Now, anyone who wishes to apply, come before me one at a time." As soon as Su Qin finished speaking, a boy in ragged clothes responded.
"My lord, I'm willing!"
The boy was small and frail, only about 1.6 meters tall. He looked at Su Qin's face. He desperately needed this money. It could keep his younger sister alive!
He had also heard of the lord's deeds and admired him greatly. The lord had defeated forty-seven people single-handedly, and all his enemies had died gruesome deaths. His father had died in that attack. So the moment he heard of these benefits, he hurried to apply.