I'm not a lord

Chapter 172 Construction Plan of Baihe Territory

Lynn and his family arrived in the Marshlands and moved into the former Baron's castle.

The castle is located on a small hill a hundred meters high in the center of the territory, and it is the largest and most luxurious of the six baronies.

Not only does it have an outer brick and stone wall that is over six meters high, but its main building inside is also nearly fifteen meters high.

The main building has four floors.

The first floor is slightly sunken and contains a large warehouse and dungeon; the second floor is a council hall with a six-meter-high ceiling; the third floor is the owner's family living area; the top floor is completely open and serves as a rooftop in peacetime, but can be used as a watchtower in wartime.

The main building is constructed entirely of granite blocks, making it sturdy and durable, with an astonishingly thick outer wall of 1.5 meters.

Putting aside the comfort of living, in terms of defense alone, this castle is absolutely top-notch among territories of the same level, completely outclassing the wooden palisade castle in White Bear Territory where Lynn had lived for the past year, and is strong enough to withstand the bombardment of catapults.

But even the strongest castle cannot protect a cowardly lord.

More than a month ago, when the results of the Battle of Greenwater reached the River Marshland, the former baron, knowing that he would not receive reinforcements in a short time, immediately abandoned the castle and the territory and fled to Three Rivers without hesitation.

If he holds firm in Yingcheng, he will likely cause Lynn considerable trouble.

However, the old baron had long lost the courage of his youth and only wanted to survive, unwilling to perish together with the invading enemy.

Now, the old baron, having lost his territory, lives in constant fear within the city of Three Rivers.

The castle he had poured his life's blood into building became Lynn's new home.

After carefully surveying the area around the castle, Lynn planned to reinforce the walls and add several two-story buildings within the castle grounds to house the soon-to-be-established internal affairs departments.

Even if he conquers Mikawa Castle in the future, he will still place the power center of the territory in the River Swamp Territory.

Sanhe City itself was indeed a fortified city, but the western suburbs of the city were completely flat.

Furthermore, the Duke of the Marsh's Golden Deer Castle is located upstream of Three Rivers, and can be reached directly by following the Tranquil River downstream.

In terms of geographical advantage alone, the River Marsh Territory completely outclasses Mikawa Castle.

As long as Lynn holds onto this southernmost territory, the five territories to the north can develop and grow without any pressure.

While consolidating his territory, he was also closely monitoring the raiding war with Sanhe City, but he largely delegated authority to his second and third sons.

This level of minor conflict doesn't require Lynn to personally intervene; it's a good opportunity for his underlings to practice their skills.

His top priority right now is to work hard to develop the newly established Baihe Territory.

How can one fight a powerful enemy if one relies solely on external skills without cultivating internal strength?

While building the bureaucratic structure, Lynn also undertook two major projects within his territory.

The first thing is to build roads.

The land transportation between the baronies was in terrible condition, consisting entirely of muddy roads.

When the rainy season arrives in July, land transportation may even be completely cut off, leaving people with no choice but to rely on waterways, which carry certain risks.

This is something Lynn absolutely cannot tolerate.

According to his plan, the vast majority of his main forces would be deployed in the southernmost river swamp territory, focusing on external expansion and accompanying him, the "Son of Heaven," to guard the country's borders.

The new recruit training camp was to be set up in the northernmost White Bear Territory to prevent the barbarians from the northern wasteland from moving south, and also to monitor the two barbarians who had come to join them.

Such troop deployment will inevitably lead to internal weakness.

The four baronies in the middle will only have a very small number of professional troops, and will mainly rely on local part-time militia to maintain order.

In order to deal with possible emergencies, Lynn had to ensure that land roads remained open to facilitate the timely mobilization of troops.

Therefore, as soon as spring plowing ended, he placed the heavy responsibility of road repair on old Albert's shoulders.

He demanded that Old Ai build a high-quality road running north-south through the entire territory.

The road quality needs to be on par with the salt transport line in White Bear Territory; the width can be slightly narrower, but it must be as straight as possible. Old Ai is already extremely familiar with this kind of dust-removal task.

Last year, he led the construction of two roads, including a salt transport route and a forest road connecting White Bear Territory and Shallow Beach Territory.

Therefore, he replied with full confidence:

"Sir, give me two months, and I guarantee I will give you a satisfactory answer."

His strong confidence stemmed from the abundant human resources in his various territories.

Last year, the permanent population of White Bear Territory was just over three thousand, yet a high-quality road over fifty kilometers long was built within two months.

Today, the River Marsh Territory has nearly 8,000 people, the Heron Territory has 7,000, and the Red Creek Territory and Green Lake Territory both have more than 5,000.

With such abundant human resources, road construction is a piece of cake.

But then again, how could Lynn possibly provide Old Ai with such a high-level setup?
"Before you start building the road, I will recruit a thousand soldiers."

Lynn finally waited until the spring planting was over, and he could finally recruit soldiers.

Following the established practice of the White Bear Territory, they only accepted healthy male serfs under the age of twenty-five.

Those selected will have their families enjoy the same status as free citizens starting next year, and will receive approximately eighty acres of arable land.

In the southern territories, the serfs suffered even greater oppression.

Lynn could already picture the bustling scene of them enthusiastically signing up to join the army.

Of course, serfs who were not selected need not worry, as they can actively participate in the road construction project and have the same opportunity to obtain the status of free citizens.

Despite Lynn's attempt to undermine him, old Albert remained loyal and replied, "Sir, I still guarantee that the mission will be completed before the rainy season!"

"Great, that's very energetic, that's the attitude I'm looking for!"

Lynn simply shoved the road planning blueprints into old Albert's hands.

He had already drawn up plans along the way during his last inspection of the territories by land, and was just waiting for the spring planting season to end so he could start construction.

After assigning Old Ai his tasks, Lynn then issued a conscription order to the stewards of each territory, giving them a week to recruit new soldiers.

The fifth brother, Andrei, has already arrived in the River Marsh Territory, bringing with him the troops scattered throughout the various territories.

Lynn's total forces are now just over a thousand.

This included 150 cavalrymen under the second son, 300 infantrymen each under the third and fourth sons, plus 100 refugee soldiers and 200 barbarian archers.

Lynn combined one hundred vagrant soldiers with Joseph's three hundred infantrymen, completely abolishing the term "vagrant army," and selected one hundred outstanding veterans from them.

These veterans will accompany the fifth brother, Andrei, north to serve as officers of various ranks in the newly recruited army, in order to speed up the training of new recruits.

After a quarter of training, by the time of this autumn harvest, these new recruits will have a certain level of combat capability, and at least they won't be too weak-kneed on the battlefield.

That should be just in time for the Northern's traditional 'war season'.

Although Lynn could not fully predict the future of the North, it was always good to be prepared.

Of course, building a new army is not simply a matter of stuffing new recruits into military camps.

Lynn also had to provide them with weapons, armor, food, meat, and generous wages.

Fortunately, he had all of these things.

The newly expanded territories brought him far greater economic strength and war potential than before.

Currently, workshops in various territories are receiving large orders, and blacksmiths, leatherworkers, carpenters and other craftsmen are working at full capacity in order to arm these soldiers as quickly as possible.

Just as Lynn was seeing off the new recruits at the castle, the third brother sent men to safely escort the envoy, Kalebo, and his party to the Marshlands.

(End of this chapter)