Winter Lord: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 111 The Differences of the Red Tide Territory
Louis put on his coat and walked out of the castle's main gate.

Underfoot is a compacted dirt road that extends in all directions along the central square.

The houses are clustered together, and the campfire and cooking smoke flicker in the cold wind, creating a scene full of vitality.

This place is no longer just that simple campsite.

The residential area of ​​Red Tide Territory expands outward from the castle like ripples, with streets, markets, warehouses, workshops...

Everything is growing rapidly.

He could clearly sense that this place was beginning to take the shape of a town.

Perhaps with further development next year, it can be called Red Tide City.

As the population grows, the prosperity of the territory will attract the attention of those who covet it.

Perhaps it's time to start building a simple city wall.

He silently memorized the plan.

From afar, Louis could see a group of knights approaching amidst the rising dust.

Leading the group was a fat boy on a black-maned horse.

"Boss!!" Yorn waved excitedly, almost tumbling off his horse.

The knights escorted several heavy wagons, piled high with sacks and wooden crates, so heavy they were almost breaking the axles.

Louis quickly went to meet him: "What are you doing here?"

Yorn leaped off his horse, laughing like a child, and patted the grain cart beside him, "My old man was worried I'd starve to death this winter, so he specially had a bunch of grain delivered over!"

He puffed out his chest smugly, his eyes gleaming with the innocent light typical of a rich kid.

"Especially since I earned a second-class merit on the front lines this time, the old man was overjoyed and looted a lot of my supplies. You deserve nine-tenths of the credit for that. I just happened to be passing through your territory, so I thought I'd drop by and see you!"

Yorn patted his chest: "Boss, want some? I have enough food here for now, sharing some with you is no problem!"

Louis smiled and shook his head in refusal: "I've already spent a lot of money to buy some, and I still have some stock left, so I'm not short of anything for the time being."

And so the two walked side by side in the cold wind, heading towards the castle.

Along the way, Jon kept his eyes wide open, looking around like a child entering the city for the first time.

Red Tide Territory is completely different from other parts of the North.

The people walking on the street actually had smiles on their faces.

It wasn't a forced, stiff smile, but a genuine, heartfelt ease.

Rows of semi-subterranean communal dwellings were built along the road. Although simple, they were considered mansions in the North and were arranged neatly and orderly.

The roads were also cleaned up, though not spotless, but at least they didn't have the mud and stench common in other parts of the North.

What shocked Jon the most was that whenever Louis walked by, the people would stop what they were doing, stand up straight respectfully, and bow to him.

Some people shouted loudly, "My lord!"

Some children waved excitedly and shouted, "Good morning, Lord Louis!"

The genuine smiles on their faces were as warm as flames in the cold wind and snow.

Moreover, there was not a trace of fear in those gazes, only heartfelt respect and trust.

Jon sat on his horse, his mouth slightly agape, with an expression of disbelief.

Everything here shocked him.

His fiefdom is located a little north of the Red Tide Territory, not far from here, but the situation is much worse.

The streets were muddy and the residents' dilapidated houses were all hastily pieced together.

Moreover, their food supplies were all provided by their count father, who lived far away in the south. Forget about smiles; most people looked gloomy and didn't even bother to speak.

He used to think this was normal; the North was too harsh, who could live an easy life?
He even suspected that what he had received was not a "fiefdom" at all, but a pile of dilapidated and troublesome land.

However, he had also seen the territories of other lords, and the situation was actually quite similar, or even worse in some cases.

Especially since it had just experienced war, there were burned-down houses and broken fences everywhere, and it was hard to find even a decent piece of firewood on the ground.

People looked numb, their clothes were tattered, and their faces were full of bewilderment and despair after surviving the disaster.

In this northern region, under these circumstances, he had originally assumed that everywhere was in a state of ruin.

But seeing all this before my eyes...

Yorn swallowed hard, unable to resist any longer.

“Hey, boss…” He pulled on the reins, turned and stared at Louis with a complicated expression.
"We all arrived in the North around the same time, how did you manage to do that? How... how did you manage to manage your territory so well?"

Upon hearing this, Louis gave a smug smile; the flattery had really hit the nail on the head, but he didn't reply immediately.

He looked up at the people who were busy on the streets in the distance.

People were carrying timber, others were repairing houses, and children in coarse cloth robes were chasing and playing nearby, filling the air with an atmosphere of happiness.

Then he said softly, "It's actually very simple."

Yorn opened his eyes wide and pricked up his ears, as if waiting for some earth-shattering secret technique.

"Just treat your people as real people."

"..." Yorn, sitting on his horse, stared blankly with his mouth slightly open.

"That's it?" Yorn came to his senses and looked at Louis with a complicated expression.

"Ah."

Jon's lips twitched slightly, and he remained silent for a long time.

This is way too easy!
Jon thought Louis was spouting correct nonsense.

But when he looked around at the orderly scene, he couldn't help but ponder the deeper meaning behind that nonsense.

To Jorn's astonishment, they rode slowly forward, and soon the castle gates came into view.

The moment Jon saw the castle, his eyes widened again.

The castle of Red Tide Territory is rugged and imposing, like a fierce beast clad in armor, quietly crouching in the cold wind.

The city walls, built of rammed earth and stone, seem to grow naturally from the earth, carrying a primitive sense of oppression.

There are no ostentatious decorations, no tall towers and carvings common in the South, only austere, practical, and subtly wild power, exuding the atmosphere of the North.

Jorn's expression almost froze; he had never seen a castle like this before.

Louis... he's already built the castle?!
He still lives in a wooden cabin, which, although meticulously built, can never compare to a castle.

This gap is even greater than the distance between the Red Tide Territory and the capital.

"How was it?" Louis looked at him smugly, his tone carrying a hint of undisguised boasting. "Not bad, right?"

As Jon looked up, he swallowed hard.

After a long pause, he managed to squeeze out a comment: "Shocking... but... but the building is a bit ugly."

"..."

“You don’t know anything,” Louis retorted immediately. “This is hardcore industrial style!”

Jon looked at the thick, large cylinder, and his lips twitched slightly.

If this is industrial style, then wouldn't the bunch of dilapidated wooden houses I live in be rural art?
(End of this chapter)