King of the North: My Lord's Diary Weekly Summary

When Wayne saw the watchtower nestled in the snow-covered woods, the lord's pass in his arms seemed to warm slightly.

It took Wayne and his party five days to trek across the snowfield before they finally reached the watchtower in the southeastern region of his territory.

Indeed, because Wayne's territory was close to the national border, the Duke established four watchtowers here before any lord took over the territory.

Among them, the northwestern watchtower, which is located in the border defense zone, is the largest—it is said that a knight was stationed inside.

Based on what Wayne had done on his journey, these outposts were ones he could take over—which, of course, meant that he would be in charge of guarding the area.

Therefore, Wayne does not intend to take over all of his territory at once; that is unrealistic.

It would be better to have the Duke's sentries guard the area for a while, while I take over and develop the safest and best-positioned southeastern region.

Lacking experience, and in order to reduce the pressure of management and increase the margin for error, Wayne divided the four areas into a nine-square grid.

Excluding the two squares in the upper left and upper center of the northwest region, which belong to the border defense line, he has divided his territory into thirty-four parts.

They are currently located in the "Outpost" in the southeastern upper left corner, which is the main base location that Wayne decided to use as a backup.

According to the simplified map, below the watchtower is a medium-sized village, situated on the plain beside the Ice Scar River.

"Please wait here for a moment while the Baron takes over the outpost before distributing equipment and assigning tasks."

After Ronald finished speaking to the people following behind him, he followed Wayne to the outpost.

Indeed, during the five-day journey, in addition to doing his homework on the lord, Wayne was also actively working to gather the people.

They mostly came from several unclaimed villages that the Duke had deliberately left behind in the central North, as well as some territories that were no longer viable.

Wayne gathered a total of 47 households, about a hundred people, and made promises of eleven taxes, at least five acres of farmland per household, grain distribution per capita for the first month, and farm tools distributed according to labor capacity.

However, more than half of the people are still on their way—most of them are walking slowly, but they have chosen relatively safe routes.

Wayne allocated them enough food to survive, and most of them should make it to this place alive.

It seems they had received advance notice, as someone was already waiting at the watchtower.

They were several soldiers wearing leather armor.

The bearded man at the head of the group saw the escort team next to Wayne, recognized their faces, and, according to custom, clenched his fist and pounded his chest in salute: "Baron Wayne, I am Bass, the duty officer of the Southeast Outpost."

Here are the keys to the outpost and the defense records—now, they're yours.

He pulled out a bunch of iron keys and a worn-out booklet from his pocket.

Wayne took the booklet, nodded, but his eyes were fixed on the guards.

"Is it just the few of you here?"

Upon hearing this, Bass chuckled awkwardly: "The remaining team of brothers is organizing supplies."

Following the gazes of the surrounding soldiers, Wayne caught sight of a cart loaded with weapons behind the watchtower and chuckled softly.

"So many weapons and equipment, are you taking them all?"

Bass's expression seemed slightly unpleasant: "Well... adults can also choose to trade."

"Oh?"

Wayne drew out his question slightly: "How much?"

"For weapons with high integrity, an iron sword... five gold coins..."

The language of Bath has become noticeably weaker.

"?"

Ronald, standing beside him, frowned, his fingers already lightly touching the hilt of his sword; he was clearly already angry.

Wayne is a baron, how dare this sentry!

Wayne didn't have any aristocratic sentiments, so he didn't feel offended at the moment, but he was just puzzled.

He pondered the information revealed by this unusual behavior.

Wayne knew that the sentries would return to the Duke's residence and receive honors after the handover, so even if they had no reason to curry favor with him, they wouldn't deliberately antagonize him.

Therefore, offering such a high price doesn't seem like ripping him off, because he certainly knows the prices in the North.

So... Wayne understood.

He at least had the right to use the Duke's prices to buy these weapons, while they were unwilling to sell them—because they knew their own shopping list and knew they hadn't bought any weapons.

The reason for their reluctance is not hard to understand—after all, this is the North, and even the shipping costs must be high.

They could sell to other lords, or even to farmers in neutral territories, which would certainly bring in more income.

As for the Duke, even though there are systems in place to prevent these petty tricks, there's still plenty of room for them to make a profit if they're willing to hand over some gold coins.

The escort captain next to him didn't react much—it seemed he wanted to make him the villain.

"So disrespectful...it seems they don't consider me someone who can survive here..."

Thinking of this, Wayne nodded: "You can take it back."

He naturally understood the principle that the emperor was far away and that it wouldn't be difficult for him to take over some of the weapons.

However, it would be quite disrespectful to the Duke to do this instead of buying it from him.

The benefits and the impact are disproportionate, so let's forget about it.

Wayne didn't consider himself a short-lived man, and besides, this was just a pittance.

With the detection weapon provided by his cheat system, and living in the North where mineral resources are naturally abundant, he wouldn't lack iron.

This is Wayne's first time as a lord, and he is still inexperienced. However, he is already in the North, and just to survive, he must try to think things through as thoroughly as possible and make more accurate decisions.

Even if other people's lives are not that important, they are still related to your own life.

Therefore, he prefers to use more thinking instead of more trial and error costs.

Take the best and you'll get the middle.

Bass had just breathed a sigh of relief—

"but……"

"What's wrong, sir...?"

Seemingly feeling that he had overcome the most difficult hurdle, and with the pressure gone, Bass's tone was now a little impatient.

"Answer a few questions for me about the situation here..."

After sending the sentry away, he looked at the almost empty watchtower and felt rather satisfied.

At least the watchtower and two wooden huts were still standing, so he and his confidants wouldn't have to worry about accommodations for the time being.

Well… Wayne looked at the woodland surrounding the outpost and the empty outpost basement—the sentry team hadn’t brought these worthless pieces of wood.

The sentry's response to his questions about the surrounding forces and dangers only mentioned the situation in the southeast—a village, a river, a cliff, and wasteland on the opposite bank of the river, nestled against the mountains.

It was almost exactly as I saw it on the map.

Based on their attitude, Wayne had some ideas.

"They knew I was coming, and they knew it would be convenient for them to take it on their way back, so they sold it in advance."

"That's quite shrewd."

Wayne thought to himself: "Then the next step is to see if they sold it to the villagers."

If so... the villagers should have a good attitude towards me.

But if not...

That proves that there are other forces in or around the territory that can cooperate with the sentinels—they have bribed the sentinels.

So, which one is it?

"Lord Wayne, in addition to the resources, the servants and cooks have been delivered ahead of schedule as usual."

The ironware is all new and of good quality; other supplies have also been inventoried and are ready for storage.

Just as Wayne was pondering, Wright came to his side to give a report.

Wayne nodded: Let's run multiple lines in parallel.

He gathered the people together and issued the division of labor and land reclamation orders that had been rehearsed several times before:

He divided the cavalry and villagers into two groups: one group cut down trees and dug up stones; the other group collected resources and began building houses for the villagers.

Wright led the cook and some servants to look around for potential locations to use as their own camp; he himself, along with Ronald and the rest of the servants, went to survey the surrounding terrain, select a base, and then visit the villagers in the evening.

After all, a map can only give you a general idea; you still need to investigate and assess the specific situation yourself.

With Wayne's permission, a fire was lit in the cold woodland, and the villagers' energy, along with the sound of logging, almost flowed into his heart through his ears.

That was the sound of his own assets growing, giving him a joy and excitement he had rarely felt in his previous life.

"I wonder what my future main castle will look like?"