Mist Lord

"Sir, the population count is complete."

On his first business trip, Wang Er was very efficient and tried his best.

He looked disheveled, but was actually full of energy.

Despite the fact that a month has passed since Nakamura Teppei upgraded his territory to level 3, the territory's population, excluding the bone-winged bats, is still less than two hundred, far from reaching the population cap for a level 3 territory.

This was clearly something Nakamura Teppei did intentionally.

Putting everything else aside, just recruiting Tier 1 militia members every day would easily gather 300 in a month. In reality, the territory currently only has about 120 militia members, most of whom were recruited when the territory was Tier 2.

The reason for this is a common tactic used by lords—to restrict population.

If your initial troops are cannon fodder, after upgrading to level 3 and drawing a tier 2 troop, you should basically give up recruiting tier 1 troops and focus all your efforts on recruiting tier 2 troops.

This ensures that the size of the territory's military force reaches its limit, and that it will mainly consist of second-tier troops, rather than recruiting another group of cannon fodder.

Some cruel lords will choose to continue recruiting cannon fodder and then send these cannon fodder into the fog zone to clear out fog monsters, regardless of sacrifice or cost, in order to indirectly deplete the population of their territory.

But this is only theoretically feasible.

The recruited troops are living, breathing beings, not just emotionless strings of data. If a lord is too cruel and deliberately sends them to their deaths, their loyalty will steadily decrease.

It could even trigger a mutiny among the troops, which in turn could lead to the execution of the lord.

Besides, even first-tier cannon fodder has recruitment costs. Apart from a very few brainless or inherently cruel individuals, few people would do such a thing.

Of course, Xia Yuan is also an exception.

Sword and shield dogs are naturally warlike and belligerent; they even eagerly volunteer for battle without needing to be told to.

Can't stop it!

.........

To carry out his revenge mission, Nakamura Teppei was going all out.

Almost all the bone-winged bats recruited in the past month have been thrown into the war of revenge. Only five remain in the territory, making it impossible for Xia Yuan to pick them up even if he wanted to.

Apart from the five bone-winged bats and more than 120 militiamen, the remaining seventy-odd people were all serfs.

The majority of these were craft households, encompassing common professions such as carpenters, bricklayers, stonemasons, bamboo weavers, leatherworkers, embroiderers, blacksmiths, potters, kiln workers, and barbers, which could basically meet the daily needs of the territory.

It is clear that there are advantages to managing a territory for a long time; the foundation it has is indeed incomparable to that of a new lord.

Now it all benefits Xia Yuan.

Nakamura Teppei's territory was occupied by artisans and militiamen, so who would farm it?

In fact, whether they were artisans or militiamen, with the exception of a few such as blacksmiths, most of them were not full-time workers. While completing their own jobs, they all had to participate in farming.

This is also the most unique aspect of the militia as a branch of the military: they can both fight and farm.

Similar to ancient military settlements.

Moreover, militia members could be released from military service and converted into serfs after being captured.

This way, it won't take up any territory's troop quota.

Otherwise, Xia Yuan would have no choice but to take these militia prisoners to Yunyang City and sell them.

Now, however, they can all be discharged from active service and converted into serfs. This saves a large amount of money on purchasing serfs, and they can also serve as militia in various settlements to maintain local security, which is a win-win situation.

Of all the military branches, only the militia has this characteristic.

With so many craftsmen, there were naturally corresponding workshops and shops. Workshops like woodworking shops, novice blacksmith shops, basic tailor shops, and barber shops could all be demolished to obtain corresponding building blueprints.

Once back in the territory, reconstruction can be planned and carried out again.

Fortunately, the previous consolidation of military workshops had integrated the existing woodworking workshops, blacksmith shops, and leather workshops, so now new ones can be built. While military workshops primarily serve the needs of war, workshops catering to civilian needs also have their place.

The two are not contradictory.

What surprised Xia Yuan the most was a brick kiln built outside the village. After its demolition and reconstruction, Mingguang Village would be able to fire its own bricks, tiles, and pottery. Replacing all the houses with brick and tile might be difficult, but at least they could build their own houses.

To avoid needing architectural drawings everywhere.

Besides the brick kiln, another big surprise came from outside the city: a watchtower. After its demolition, a blueprint for the watchtower's construction was successfully obtained.

Its value is even higher than that of brick kilns.

This is because Xia Yuan possesses the rare artifact, the "Military Blueprint Scroll," which allows him to make up to ten copies of military building blueprints. This enables him to construct numerous sentry towers around his territory.

The surrounding area will be significantly safer.

.........

Aside from population and blueprints, all that's left is a massive amount of building materials. Conversely, food reserves are low, indicating that even a territory managed for a year faces a constant food shortage crisis.

Not having enough to eat is the norm.

Besides food, stocks of minerals and other similar commodities are also extremely scarce.

Finding an open-pit mine or an abandoned mine in the Misty Continent is extremely difficult.

The main source of ore for ordinary lords is to annihilate camps of demonized creatures or nests of mist monsters, obtaining a few bits of loot here and there.

Fortunately, the summoned units come with their own weapons and equipment; otherwise, they would not have been able to meet the army's needs at all.

"Sir, here's another pair of fine treasures~~~"

Wang Er's smile revealed a face full of wrinkles, a mixture of flattery and ambiguity.

"What treasure?"

Xia Yuan thought Nakamura Teppei had some amazing private collection, but then he saw Wang Er leading two pretty maids over, wagging his tail.

"Master, I've interrogated them. They all served the former lord. They're pretty and know how to serve. What do you think? Should we bring them into the manor to serve us?"

Wang Er was still trying hard to claim credit.

"Serve you my foot!!!"

Xia Yuan was speechless and immediately kicked Wang Er hard.

They have absolutely no sense of observation.

Can he still use someone who serves a pervert like Nakamura Teppei? Would he dare to use him?

"Sir, I...I...I was wrong!"

Wang Er was so frightened that he cried and kept slapping himself.

How could he be so stupid?!

Despite the master's high standards, he still did such a foolish thing.

Should!!!

.........

After the minor incident, the inventory of the spoils was nearing its end.

All slaves who were planned to be sold were made to wear hoods to prevent them from revealing the situation in Mingguang Village to other lords in the alliance.

Putting aside other things, Li Mingyu would at least be very interested in the situation in Mingguang Village.

It wasn't just these slaves; they were treated similarly during the Civilization Trial. Even now, that third-tier masked warrior still wears a hood and never sees the light of day.

Although they proactively revealed some of their trump cards, some secrets of Mingguang Village, such as the sword-and-shield dogs that can advance and the skeleton warriors that can transform into skeleton knights, are not suitable for exposure.

Naturally, strict confidentiality is required.

.........

A dazzling white light flashed, and Xia Yuan returned with a massive amount of spoils.

As usual, Satir was in charge of settling the bone-winged bats and militia slaves, while Wang Er was in charge of settling the artisan households and serfs, and inventorying and storing all the supplies brought back.

Xia Yuan also made arrangements for construction immediately, upgrading the territory where needed and building new ones where necessary.

These building materials cannot be wasted.

In particular, the construction of the earthen city wall originally required a lot of earthwork excavation, but now it's much easier to use the earthen city wall that was demolished by Nakamura Teppei, saving a lot of effort.

This trip was truly a fruitful one.

.........

As darkness approached, Elua returned with the simpleton, looking disheveled and bearing considerable injuries.

"Master, we've found out!"

"No rush, let's go down and treat the wound first."

Seeing that Elua's abdomen was still bleeding, soaking through her linen underwear, Xia Yuan frowned slightly.

Fortunately, he came back alive.

It seems that Elua encountered quite a bit of trouble on this reconnaissance trip.