High Above

  Chapter 663 The future of my hometown (W word update, ask for a monthly pass!)

   Shen Xueyue (December) is approaching.

  Xiahui collar, in the evening, the crimson sunset penetrates the thin evening clouds, and sprinkles the sunset on the city.

  If Ian was not in Nanling, but in the imperial capital or somewhere else, he would be able to see heavy snow flying, and silver-white ice crystals covering the ground.

  Even in Nanling, the weather has cooled down, and the ground of the square will be covered with a thin layer of frost.

  Ian stood at the top of the renovated Lord's Mansion, sitting on the shoulders of the Cyclops, overlooking his territory.

  The brand-new castle of the Lord's Mansion has a metallic texture throughout. It is a fortress made of cast iron stone. It is essentially the same as a steel fortress, and it looks solemn and majestic.

One month after the end of the war with the rebellious mountain people, Xiahui City has fully resumed its normal operation. Under the guidance of Ian, the alchemy material center on the west side of the agate stone plain has received orders from the Nineteenth Army of the Empire. There were several medicine orders, and the forest avenue, which used to be deserted, was gradually filled with the lively ringing of caravans.

  Because the pedigree of Baron Laian was completely banned, and Ian's letter of commission had been delivered, the place was restored to its original name 'Xiahui Land', also known as 'Xiahui Collar', at the young man's will.

The reason why it is not called 'Ian Ling' or 'Alchomon Ling' is mainly because Ian thinks the place is too small, and it is not necessary to put his own name on it. It has a soothing effect on the people.

In fact, because of the titles of 'Messenger of the Dragon God' and 'Prophet of Thunder', some mountain people have come to visit Ian tentatively. They live on the wasteland on the edge of the Victory Square in the west of the city. The tent seems to be planning to stay for a while.

  Ian has a welcoming attitude towards these people. No matter whether these people are war refugees, are going to defect to Ian to live, or really think they are Dragon God messengers, they can become the labor force of the territory.

  However, it was only the documents that arrived.

   The official award ceremony had to send people from the imperial capital, and they are still on the way.

  Theoretically speaking, the certificate of award and the host should arrive together, but the situation in Xiahui is special, and the Marquis of Barton requires special handling, so there is a situation where Ian first receives the certificate and then pays the ticket.

The Xiahui Territory is roughly divided into four parts. Because the west of the city faced the mountain people's attack at the beginning, it also faced the direction of the mountain passage, so most of the military camps and defense facilities are located here. There are still many wastelands on the edge, which Ian left area for future expansion.

  The north of the city is where the city hall and the castle of the lord's mansion are located, as well as the lord's private estate. Many alchemy workshops that process xiahui grass are located here, which is considered the richest area in xiahui city.

  The operation of the city has returned to its original state, food prices have been flat, and production has resumed. Farmers have also begun to reorganize their fields and are planting some turnips and beetroots, striving for some food before next spring.

   Under Ian's command, everything is in order.

  However, there have been some funny things in the fields.

  According to the experience on Earth, Ian planned to carry out a land reform after counting the population and arable land.

  No matter how the people below object, he must take all the fields that can be planted with Xiahui grass into his own, so that he can arrange the next development.

   For this reason, he even planned to ask Isengard to borrow some money, so that the Lord's Mansion would not be able to pay for the land recovery.

Isengard generously lent 5,000 talers as the first batch of loans, which gave Ian the confidence to call all the planters and tell his plan—but he found that when he talked about the various measures of land reform, The expressions of these planters did not change at all, and everyone was indifferent.

After Ian finished speaking, the growers who finally understood what the lord meant suddenly realized. They looked at each other, and the oldest old farmer stepped forward, hesitantly saying too much to the young man. The lord bowed.

   "Master, maybe you haven't planted land before?"

  The old man weighed his vocabulary carefully, and he said slowly: "So...you may not know?"

   "These lands led by Leian... Uh, I mean, these lands led by Xiahui... were all yours in the first place?"

   "We just had a little bit of your spare time, so we have the opportunity to help you cultivate your property... er, I mean... you don't need to take the land back from us... it's yours, right?"

  The cautious words of the old farmer still stimulated Ian's young heart.

   "What the hell? All the land in the territory belongs to the lord?"

  Because he was indeed too young, he didn't pay attention to the rules and regulations in this area. Ian found out after consulting many classics—that's how it happened.

  Terra's land system is not advanced, but an extreme primitive dictatorship—the lord has 100% power over everything in his territory.

  In other words, all the land belongs to the lord.

  If Ian wants to use it, others have to obey unconditionally.

  However, in the same way, the lord needs to be responsible for the life safety and land safety of all the people in his territory.

  For example, if a monster or an intruder comes, the people of the lord can theoretically not resist at all. The only thing they may need to do is to go to the lord to expel the monster and the invader.

  If the invader defeats the lord and becomes the new lord, then the original lord cannot blame his subjects for this.

Because no matter how much the people resist, it’s useless—as long as the enemy’s sublimator leader is eliminated, even a half-barbarian like the mountain people will not engage in guerrilla warfare and street fighting to resist to the end, because once the enemy is angered, the sublimator is the real one. will physically dig all the 'enemies' out and destroy them.

   Moreover, only such a system can give the lord the motivation to protect 'own' things.

   This is a weird custom that can only be made in the world of sublimators.

   "There is no need for land reform at all!"

The land policy that Ian wants to preside over is actually very simple, that is to open up the scattered fields, reclaim wasteland, connect all the land suitable for planting in Xiahui Territory as much as possible, and then allocate cultivated land according to the actual needs of each village, town and population. Ensure that all those in need can have their fields and cultivate them nearby.

  However, the ownership of the land belongs to the mansion of the lord.

  Private buying and selling of land is prohibited, and the use of land must be subject to the arrangement of the Lord's Mansion.

  But everything was originally like this—the farmer’s land originally only had the right to use it, and everything belonged to the lord in name.

  One side is the original feudal dictatorship, and the other side is advanced planning.

  But the world is originally a spiral, and the original will occasionally become advanced. After confirming this, Ian couldn't help complaining: "I have already borrowed five thousand talers from Yisen! Is it possible to return it?"

  Of course not.

  Borrowed by ability, why should I pay it back? The most is not to borrow a second time.

Ian invested the 5,000 talers in the development of the territory, and invited several professional teams to survey the soil and terrain conditions in the territory. He also explored the mining areas in the Baisen Mountains, and bought a batch of alchemy furnaces by the way. State-of-the-art mining equipment driven by the mining industry in preparation for mining development.

At present, the exploration team is still exploring, but the news reported is very exciting: the three mining areas are all rich ore, including iron, copper and tin, and the most exciting thing is that the exploration team discovered the "grained iron" from the Xiakou mining area. ', this is a natural mineral with a part of the source material structure. There are layers of extremely regular lines on the ore. The common heavy iron, red steel and fluorescent copper are all refined and processed from grain iron and its associated minerals. to make.

  The appearance of grain iron means that there is a rarer sublimated metal vein inside the Xiakou mining area.

  Although Ian is happy, it is not particularly strange. After all, with the conditions of the Xiahui leader, it is not unusual even for Mithril mines to appear.

  Everything is going well.

   Terra 773, December 1st.

  Xiahuiling's first tax officer/civil servant exam has begun.

   Moda steward.

   "Dad, do you feel better?"

  A young voice sounded in the room where the lights were not turned on and the windows were closed, and the old man's indistinct grunt responded to him.

  The former chief steward of Baron Ryan, Moda sat up from the bed in a daze. When he opened his eyes, he found that his last son Roland was holding a cup of medicine and looking at him with concern.

  He picked up the medicine silently and drank it in one gulp. The old man who became more energetic because of the bitterness took a breath, and said, "Don't look at me like that... Didn't I allow you to take the exam yesterday?"

   "Isn't it because you are worried."

  The young man rubbed his head and replied energetically: "And you did not take your medicine in the morning, that's not okay."

  The old man glanced at each other.

   Steward Moda has never liked his youngest son very much.

  He is a rebellious guy. As the last boy in the family, he yearned for life in a big city since he was a child because he could not inherit the position of steward.

  Roland just came of age, so he stole a sum of money from his family and went to Nauman City. When Manager Moda led someone to chase Nauman City, this guy had already sneaked into the caravan and left the Golden Plain.

   Now it was impossible to catch up no matter how hard he chased, the angry steward Moda swore after returning home that he would pretend that he had never had this son, and that he would not feel bad if he died like this.

   But five years later, when the smiling son returned home with a mechanical alchemist diploma, the old man was still ecstatic at first.

   Then he hung Roland up and gave him a hard pump.

   Moda is in charge not because of Roland's rebellion, but because Roland is always too adventurous.

  For example, when Steward Moda wanted to move his family to Nauman City, Roland did the opposite and insisted on staying in Xiahui Territory to work for the new lord.

   "Dad, you have served the old lord all your life, so what's wrong with me going to see if I can become the tax officer of the new lord?"

   These are Roland's original words: "And I think that with my knowledge of mechanical engineering and inscriptions, I can fully play a big role under the new lord's hands. Maybe my achievements will be higher than yours!"

  Thinking of this, Steward Moda's expression turned even worse.

  —This silly boy doesn't understand at all, his family is the family in charge of the previous lord.

  One lord and one official. Look at the presidents of the chamber of commerce, captains of the guards, and other managers in the Old Lyon Territory. Which one has not been expelled? Xilin's head was burned!

   That is, Amber, the madman who was not loyal at all and spent all day in the laboratory, was left behind.

   But even so, the new lord still parachuted a new alchemy steward as the leader. The young one was almost his grandson, but Amber treated him respectfully and treated him like a disciple all day long.

  Humbled to this point, he was kicked out of the laboratory and could only go to the alchemy workshop for eight hours a day.

   In this way, which craftsman would respect Amber?

  How does he manage the affairs of the alchemy workshop?

  Although Steward Moda knew Ian a long time ago and knew that he was a warm-hearted and good knight, there is a huge difference between a good knight and a good lord.

  In particular, suppressing former lord officials is itself what a good lord should do.

   "I am not afraid of death, and I am very confident. I don't think I will be buried at all... Then what other options do I have besides letting you go?"

   Waved his hand, Steward Moda stood up with the help of his child's arm.

   "Why are you afraid of death..."

  Helping up his father, Roland muttered that he used to learn mechanical alchemy and inscriptions under a scholar in the Falling Star Hills, and he didn't come back to take care of the old man until the upheaval of the former Leon leader.

  Originally, Roland planned to leave when his father was in better condition, and go to the imperial capital to continue his studies.

   As a result, he never thought that Ian, the alchemist genius he had heard about in the Falling Star Hills, would come to his hometown to become the lord!

  —Huaiguang is on the top, God-sent good luck.

  This opportunity is not seized or human? So he didn't even think about it, and directly signed up for the tax officer exam. As for whether he had any experience, it was another matter.

  Anyway, with my own knowledge, even if I can’t do well as a tax officer, I can still go to teach—in short, let’s get involved first, and Ian might be able to teach me a thing or two in the future.

  Who knows, but his father got angry because of this, and he persuaded him for a long time before letting the other party let go and agreeing to go to the city hall for the exam.

Moda really has a headache for this young son who is too straightforward. Ian is obviously an extremely skilled lord. This can be seen from the fact that he found out the truth behind the baron's crime after only one day and one night when he first came to the Lean Territory. It can be seen that his decisive underground assassins against the middle class of Lai'an City and the thunderous methods against the mountain people after that represent his superb methods.

  Working under this kind of person, the best thing is not to have your own ideas, just follow the other party's orders carefully.

  But with his son's jumping temper, is it possible to meet Ian's conditions?

   Moda holds a pessimistic attitude.

   But he didn't intend to persuade Roland either. The old man could tell that Roland would never listen to his own opinion.

  I don’t allow him to use his family identity to take the exam, this kid will use a fake identity to take the exam—then things will be much more troublesome.

not to mention…

   I am dying.

   Turning his head sideways, the old man looked at his closed window.

  His house doesn’t open the windows, and I haven’t been out for a long time, because Moda is very afraid that after opening the window and going out, what he sees is a completely strange city.

  The old man knew that with the arrival of a new lord, everything would be turned upside down, and the streets and the past that he had enshrined in his past memories would all disappear in smoke.

   Most of all, he was afraid.

  Afraid that I will start to doubt, those past memories are all hallucinations, all false...

  He was dying, and Steward Moda knew it well.

  Take the medicine every day, and at most help him prolong his life for a few months.

  He died of his heart, not really at the end of his life.

  —If I knew it earlier, I would have listened to that sister Huaiguang, and went to the Holy Mountain to recuperate with the debriefing, to cure my heart disease...

   But what's the point of being alive? I can't tell the difference between reality and falsehood, and I have lost the sustenance of my life's struggle.

   Steward Moda doesn't want to look at the new city outside, because he wants to keep all the memories of the past in his mind, and die with the memory of the old Leanland... so that he can rest in peace.

but…

   But he still wants to know…

   Shaking his head, Steward Moda said something in a low voice, the voice was too low for Roland to hear clearly.

"Father?"

   Roland lowered his head, and then heard the old man muttering: "It's for me."

   "Roland, if you must meet the new lord."

  The young man turned his head, and he looked at a pair of old and cloudy eyes. The owner of those eyes, which was almost dead, stared at him, and said in a weak tone: "Then take my share to see."

   "Look at what he will turn this city, this territory... the hometown where I have lived all my life into..."

   "Yes, Father."

  Hearing this, Roland kept smiling, and Roland, who didn't want his father to worry, finally showed a solemn expression.

  He nodded seriously, holding his father's hand: "I will help you to see it."

   "Look at... the future of my hometown."

  (end of this chapter)