You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 167 Military Meeting
The five messengers received a response from Roman, and were filled with shock and anger. They were ruthlessly driven out of Sig Town.

Roman made a harsh statement and then immediately gathered his knights.

They were holding a military meeting in the lobby.

"Fight! They deserve to be hit!"

Green was eager to get back to work; he hadn't had enough fun at Condé Navigation not long ago, and he couldn't help but feel excited.

“Dick?” Roman looked at the veteran knight.

Dick nodded slightly, indicating his support.

Roman was speechless. How could they have no understanding at all?

"I'm asking you about the specifics of the enemy."

This veteran knight has probably participated in more wars than all of them combined, and knows a great deal about real warfare.

Dick pondered for a moment: "The Berchtess family is too far away to send too many people, so the main force is in the four families behind us."

Roman casually rested his chin on his hand.

Write it down in pencil.

"Write what?"

Roman explained, "When will they arrive? What is their army composition? What are the skills of their soldiers? How will they attack us once they arrive? You have to think about this from the enemy's perspective."

Jett then said, "They'll probably join forces with Earl Condé."

Aaron nodded: "That's right."

well.

Originally, it was one against five.

Now it's one against six.

Count Condé has just suffered a huge loss, so he can't possibly remain indifferent; he'll definitely join in and get a share of the spoils.

"They're coming from upstream."

"But without a boat, they can't get here."

"Well said."

"We are naturally invincible."

The crowd was buzzing with discussion, and Kao even said they should be careful to prevent them from coming from downstream, but Jet shook his head.

Even if they send a small number of troops, it would still be around five or six thousand people, and they would need at least a hundred ships, and they would have to be the kind of pirate longships, otherwise it would be difficult to row upstream.

Roman yawned, looked at Dick, and saw that he had finally finished writing a long piece of writing.

Roman stared at the draft paper.

"Do you think their total number might be seven or eight thousand?"

"Yes, I'm overestimating it."

"And then they can't break through?"

"Correct."

Dick continued to nod.

Roman fell into deep thought. The town of Sig was extremely well-defended, which, although it also hindered rapid development, allowed the mountains to naturally block all enemies.

His thoughts were somewhat scattered... He planned to clear through the barren mountains and build a 100-meter-long bridge to connect the land.

However, this project is on a canal scale, requiring tens of thousands of workers. Its only advantage is its location at the entrance...

The call from the side brought Roman back to his senses.

Dick's battle plan was also read by the other knights who were conquering the land.

“Dick wrote very well, but don’t let your guard down. Keep training going,” Roman said, standing up.

Sig Town is a tough nut to crack, but for the five noble families, no matter how tough the nut is, they have to crack it.

First, you'll have to hit a brick wall to find out how hard it is.

Secondly, you would have to jump into the Yellow River to die.

Dick once followed his lord on a campaign over the ownership of a salt field.

If they are the victors, they will receive the profits from the saltworks, either by buying it out or by taking a cut.

However, they were the losers and gained nothing.

This is why the territories of some great nobles are often very fragmented.

There are plots of land here and there, and hundreds of miles away there is another plot of land covering several thousand acres.

Take Count Kant, for example.

Although he was a high-ranking nobleman in the countryside, Roman assured him that he owned several manors or estates, or pastures and wastelands, in other lords' lands or towns. Those lands would provide him with a certain income each year.

Although the town of Sig is a thousand miles away from the Grand Duchy, it doesn't stop Grand Duke Riftarms from owning a piece of land in a remote, impoverished place unknown even to the Black Iron King.

As for why it exists?

Naturally, it was the result of war and conquest.

For example, in the Silver Moon War, the Silver Moon Lord's territory was dismembered by other nobles. It's possible that nobles hundreds of kilometers away contributed money and effort, clearly there to get a share of the spoils. How could they let him leave empty-handed?

Since the money can't be divided, the only option is to give away the land.

It’s not yours anyway.

……

I reckon there will be a tough battle to fight this spring.

The most urgent task now is to reclaim wasteland and cultivate the land.

We need to cultivate the remaining 4,000 mu of land thoroughly and plant something quickly so that we can free up the farming labor force to do other things.

Roman is preparing to expand his iron smelting operations.

Because it is the spring planting season, the coal and iron sector currently has only four or five hundred people, but even so, the output should not be underestimated.

With mountains of iron ore, producing thousands of kilograms of steel a day is no problem.

In the agricultural era, this steel production far exceeded the standard.

Even without selling salt, Roman could make a fortune selling iron.

This will attract even more covetous eyes.

The water-powered forging hammers work day and night, which means that dozens of weapons or farm tools can be forged every day. After all, there are as many as two hundred people working at the blacksmith's workshop, and their forging skills are becoming more and more proficient.

Iron ingots that could not be forged were stored for future use.

……

Roman went to the military camp with the others.

Disabled soldiers like Tucker have long been discharged, and veterans will receive more preferential treatment.

There's nothing else to it; these days, only the disabled can be discharged from the military.

"How are these new recruits?" Roman asked.

The new recruits were drawn from conscripted soldiers they had captured; their physical fitness was superior to that of ordinary people, and their foundation was stronger than that of farmers.

“He trains very hard,” Dick said.

Diligence comes from self-discipline and motivation.

Jeter was secretly called the devil instructor by the soldiers.

It's all because he's strict by nature, has a strong work ethic, and is naturally inclined towards standardization.

Soldiers would be whipped if their behavior did not meet the standards.

He always acted with a reason and treated everyone equally, not just based on personal preference, so he only incurred fear and not hatred.

“Some of the new recruits are performing exceptionally well…” Dick said, pointing to a line of new recruits standing alone in the drill ground.

Roman recognized some of them as his apostles.

One of them was also pulled into the simulated battlefield by him.

They are currently only training in formation; they have not yet been issued weapons.

Their training conditions were much better than those of Dota's soldiers.

The latter was trained by Aaron from scratch, while the former only needed to learn the latter's queue style.

They have a good foundation, but a poor basic level. First, they need to improve discipline. Roman doesn't want a defeated and scattered rabble, but a professional army that can regroup even after a cavalry charge.

There are different kinds of defeated troops.

The former scattered in a panic and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Once the latter collapses and finds its leader, it can quickly regroup and fight back, giving the barbarians of this era a huge, epoch-making surprise!

In just over half a month, the training has been very effective; at least on the surface, it looks quite professional.

Only Roman could see the problem.

For example, discipline may be superficial and not deeply ingrained.

Training is a long-term process. To fully improve the physical fitness and combat discipline of all soldiers, it is necessary to subtly change their behavior patterns and thinking habits.

But this will probably take two or three years, otherwise it's impossible to master.

(End of this chapter)