This young master truly has the ambition of a hero.

However, it must be admitted that teasing idiots seems to be really cost-effective!

Chapter 293: Come with me, all of you!

From the cabinet's perspective, the third prince was indeed a very ideal candidate for the throne.

Although he is ambitious but incompetent and has a problematic personality, he is easy to fool!

Moreover, according to the intelligence Dick had, the reason why the Third Prince was able to "recover" was because of a so-called "miracle drug of the earth." After inquiring a little about its usage and effects, it was not hard to guess that it was something that could turn people into ghosts.

So the Third Prince is basically ruined. If he were just incompetent, there would still be hope, but since he's been tainted by this stuff, there's really no way to save him.

Marquis Leodor didn't mince words. He told Dick directly that some important figures in the cabinet admired his talent after learning about his deeds. They felt it was a waste to leave someone as talented as Dick as a lord in the northern frontier, so they wanted to recruit him into the court.

With King Hessian VII currently not involved in affairs, the cabinet is practically controlled by the prime minister alone. If Dick is willing to accept their offer, the path to the pinnacle of power will become an easy road in his sight.

It did sound very tempting, and Dick was very moved after hearing it, so he refused.

"I don't have any grand ambitions. Being a carefree little lord is fine. The capital city may look glamorous, but I'm afraid that once I'm inside, there won't even be any bones left."

"How could that be? You're too modest."

Let me think about it some more.

Dick couldn't refuse outright, so he resorted to stalling tactics. Leodor understood perfectly well, and before leaving, he gave a cold snort to remind Dick that some opportunities, once missed, are gone forever.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Reinhardt, who had been summoned to meet the Third Prince alone, also emerged from the prince's residence with a solemn expression.

The third prince was indeed ill, and when Reinhard saw him, he almost didn't recognize his old friend.

In just a few months, Pelé became almost unrecognizable, and his complexion was frighteningly poor. He told Reinhardt that he had become like this due to overwork, but Reinhardt was skeptical.

Pele first congratulated Reinhardt on his brilliant achievements and apologized for not being able to personally welcome him back home due to illness. Reinhardt sensed that Pele's tone was somewhat insincere, but he didn't take it to heart.

Reinhardt genuinely considered Pelé a friend and hoped to help him ascend to the throne. Their years of friendship inevitably led him to view Pelé through a beautifying lens; he didn't want to think too badly of his friend.

So Reinhardt, from the perspective of a subject, tried to advise Pelé, but before he could finish speaking, Pelé's face quickly darkened and he said in an unhappy tone.

"Are you telling me how to do things? And you're going to question me too?"

"No, Your Highness, you've heard of me..."

Reinhardt didn't know which of his words had touched a nerve with Pele, but Pele suddenly flew into a rage, appearing completely erratic and as if he had lost his mind.

Seeing this, the attendant knew that His Highness was having an "addiction" and quickly stepped forward to say, "Your Highness should take your medicine," and then politely "invited" Reinhardt out.

Just before leaving, Reinhardt caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of several servants bringing over a medicine box, taking out a syringe, and injecting the Third Prince into his arm.

A question began to form in Reinhardt's mind: Was it really a cure?

The conversation ended unhappily, and Reinhardt, feeling frustrated, habitually wanted to consult his fifth brother. However, when he found Dick, he discovered that Dick's maid was packing his luggage.

"Fifth brother, what's wrong?"

"The crisis has passed, and it's time for me to retire and return to my own territory."

"Is it in such a hurry? Why don't we stay a few more days?"

"There's no other way. There are still orcs in the northern wastelands. I brought all the high-end combat forces from my hometown with me on this trip. If this drags on for too long, I won't feel at ease!"

Dick's words were actually an excuse to extricate himself. The war in the South had temporarily ended, and the hundreds of thousands of troops on the front lines were unlikely to be disbanded immediately. However, internal political struggles between different factions had already quietly begun. Everyone wanted to claim the credit for themselves and shift the blame to others.

When Marquis Leodor came to him, it was both an attempt to win him over and a test. Dick immediately stated that he had no interest in power and only wanted to return to his own territory to be a happy earl.

Leodor certainly didn't believe it, and Dick, too lazy to waste any more words, simply made his escape!

Never engage your enemy in their area of ​​expertise.

Political struggles in the capital are often like playing chess. You can cheat, resort to underhanded tactics, or cheat out of the game, but ultimately you have to follow certain rules.

Dick, on the other hand, just wanted to work out his biceps hard. Once he was strong enough, he would grab the chessboard and smash it on the top of the opponent's head, letting them experience what a "chess saint's" divine move really was!

So no matter how much Reinhardt tried to persuade him to stay, Dick was determined to run away and return north to continue his clandestine development for a while.

"Oh, right, elder brother, I have two gifts here. Could you please pass them on to my second brother and present them to His Highness the Third Prince?"

"Uh... what is it?"

"Top-quality sunflower seeds!"

"?"

Early the next morning, Dick and his Northern Volunteer Army began an orderly withdrawal from the front lines. They would first retreat by land to Mousse Harbor, where they would meet up with their comrades and then travel by ship back north.

The trading post in Mousse Harbor will be preserved. The north-south trade route has been established, so there is a natural need for an office here. Ruby Eyes has already trained a person in charge who is competent to manage the work here.

Back when he first arrived, Dick's Northern Support Army consisted of only a military observation group and a medical team, totaling less than two thousand people. But when he left, the force had swelled to nearly eight thousand.

Among the extra people were the local private soldiers that Dick had recruited. Of the original three thousand, more than two thousand survived. After learning that their families had been taken to the north by Lord Dick and properly settled, they followed along without hesitation.

Since their former lord had already abandoned them, they now recognize no one but Dick!

Besides these people, there were also many prisoners of war rescued from Firewing Fort who wanted to go with them, including some former guards veterans.

These prisoners of war who escaped death were withdrawn to the rear earlier than the Second Army Corps of the East, but they did not receive proper resettlement and even encountered a lot of discrimination and contempt.

Meanwhile, the cabinet bureaucrats fully demonstrated their extensive experience in being unethical.

They wouldn't let go of the soldiers' past as prisoners of war, first using the pretext that there might be enemy spies among them, and then placing them all under house arrest. Many soldiers felt as if they had jumped from one POW camp to another, and the food was even worse than when they were under the Maple Deer's command.

But what these soldiers found even more unacceptable than being suspected and investigated was that their pay and pensions were also withheld! The reason given was that they had been prisoners of war and therefore were not loyal enough to the empire.

The fundamental reason why bureaucrats do this is because the national treasury is empty, so they must find ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

Open source means increasing taxes on civilians, while cost-cutting means deducting military pay from these prisoners.

The most distressed were undoubtedly the veterans of the Imperial Guard.

The private soldiers temporarily recruited by local nobles didn't earn much money to begin with; they were already quite content to return home alive. But the Imperial Guard were professional soldiers; they were off-duty soldiers who relied solely on their military pay, and the Imperial Guard had a seniority system, with their pay increasing with years of service.

Now look at this mess – not giving him a single penny and forcing him into retirement.

The bureaucrats probably thought that these few thousand guards wouldn't cause any trouble. If things got really bad, they could just accuse them of treason and suppress them on the spot. After all, the empire has no shortage of people!

Upon learning of this, Dick was overjoyed. He immediately sent someone to contact these resentful veterans of the Imperial Guard, offering them good treatment and recruiting them to work for him.

Putting aside the bad habits of some veteran soldiers, the quality of the Guards is still very high, especially those technical soldiers who handle guns and cannons, who are exactly the kind of talent that Lagug desperately needs.

So Dick, who was no longer short of money, took in more than two thousand people with a wave of his hand.

The bureaucrat in charge of managing these prisoners of war was already annoyed by the noise from these veterans. Dick was willing to take them in and even gave him a bulging red envelope, which made him so happy that his eyes narrowed into slits... and he couldn't see anything.

The entire fleet had a smooth journey back. Dick landed at Newport News and then happily boarded his own train.

Line 1, connecting the main city and the new port, has officially opened to traffic after trial operation testing. The efficiency of transporting goods and people has been greatly improved, and it has also injected a strong boost into the economy of Laguge.

It was already September, and local farmers were harvesting corn in the fields on both sides of the railway. In some fields, large machinery could be seen operating, like electric clippers for shaving heads, harvesting row by row. The efficiency was far higher than manual labor, and it looked quite relaxing.

Dick felt exhilarated by the sight, while the Southern soldiers in the ordinary carriages behind, who were visiting Lagug for the first time, were genuinely amazed by the scene outside the window.

In the traditional perception of the general public in the Empire, the area north of the Central Mountains was a harsh and cold land, a ghost town that had long been used to exile criminals and disgraced nobles. Therefore, many of them, although they agreed to follow Dick to the north, felt that it was a helpless decision made out of desperation, and were mentally prepared to endure hardship and cold.

When they actually arrived in the north, they found the local area to be unexpectedly rich.

When these people lower their expectations enough, Lagug is full of surprises in their eyes!

Chapter 294: Good Ways to Solve "Problems"

"The corn tortillas are so delicious! Hahaha..."

As the train pulled into the main city station platform, the welcoming team, who had been notified in advance and were waiting there, immediately served freshly baked corn cakes and milk tea to the soldiers who had just come from the southern battlefield and were still feeling lost about the future. This warmed their stomachs and hearts.

This move maximized the emotional value!

In an effort to deflect blame, the imperial high command smeared and denigrated these former prisoners of war. Through officially controlled media, they deliberately attributed the early defeats of the war to the cowardice of these prisoners, while omitting any mention of the comprehensive strategic and tactical errors made by the command.

This led many uninformed people to deeply resent these prisoners, and every day, crowds would gather outside the temporary detention center that "held" them to hurl insults at them.

The food supplier who provided the detention center deliberately used inferior products and even shamelessly tried to excuse his crimes in public, saying that rotten people should be fed rotten food and that he was not a profiteer but was giving these criminals a just punishment!

This collective bullying from all levels of society quickly robbed these veterans of the joy of returning home alive. The more honorable a person was, the harder it was for them to accept this discrimination. As a result, during that period, people committed suicide every day in the detention center, and their families even refused to come and collect the bodies because they felt ashamed.

Shame, resentment, grievance, and unwillingness to accept defeat!

Suffocated by a barrage of negative emotions, the soldiers desperately wanted to explain to the public that they were not cowards and had fought valiantly on the front lines. But no one was willing to listen, because in the eyes of others, their very existence was the most unforgivable crime!

Dick was familiar with the social atmosphere in the South and knew the plight of these captured soldiers, so he specially instructed people to arrange this welcoming ceremony.

The newly joined southern soldiers numbered over six thousand. After arriving in Laguge, about one-third of them chose to retire and return to their hometowns according to their personal wishes. They were dispersed to various standard villages but were assigned to the reserve force. The rest were assigned to the private army of Laguge's territory.

Dick glanced at his account data. The total population of Lagug now exceeded 800,000. If the surrounding small territories under their actual control were added, the population would be around 1.5 million.

With ample financial and material resources, Dick was able to maintain a standing army of 20,000, although 10,000 of them were "fake troops" affiliated with the Border Legion.

Such military strength makes Lagug the strongest fiefdom in the entire northern border of the empire, while the second-ranked Marquis Richard only has five thousand soldiers.

The marquis, who knew nothing about industrialization, couldn't understand how Laguge could have so much money when he could barely support 5,000 soldiers with his own gold mine.

Could it be that the corn cobs are covered with gold particles?

Many northern lords had a vague understanding of so-called "industrialization." They were indeed envious of the achievements that Lagug had made, but they couldn't understand those things that were outside their knowledge, so they couldn't even try to imitate them.

Some tried to introduce corn cultivation, but ended up being misled by the seeds.

Some tried to run factories and engage in industry, but they lacked educated workers.

Others believe that Dick's retainers were capable, which indeed allowed the other party to guess correctly, but all attempts to poach him were ultimately proven to be futile.

Those mysterious women, they didn't recognize anyone except Dick!

As a result, more and more northern lords wanted to join the Northern Alliance and curry favor with Lord Dick, while others who disliked Dick secretly formed an alliance to oppose him.

But as they watched as Laguge's development flourished, and it even had the resources to support its allies, the gap in strength between the two sides widened, and the despair and helplessness in their hearts grew stronger.

"We can't let that little bastard continue to be so arrogant. The people in the territory are in chaos. Those ungrateful lowly people are all desperate to run to Laguge. We have to find a way to stop this!"

"Easier said than done. Think of a way, think of a way, but have you come up with any solutions yet?"

At the Marquis Richard's holiday estate, the conservative nobles, led by the Marquis, once again held their routine meeting. Their alliance closely resembled the Northern Alliance's organizational structure, even adopting their rules for holding regular internal meetings.

But when this group gathered for a meeting, they didn't discuss how to develop their territory or defend against the orc invasion; instead, they discussed how to counter the growing influence of the Northern Alliance, while also cursing Dick Best.

If they hadn't known that kid was a Saint-level mage, they would have really wanted to find a sorcerer to cast a spell to kill him!

What they are most worried about right now is the increasingly serious problem of population loss within their territory.

Most of the lords present have territories located in the south-central part of the North, near the Central Mountain Pass. Because they are close to the gateway to the interior, people and goods from the south will pass through their territories first, allowing these lords to make a fortune simply by acting as middlemen and collecting tolls.

Therefore, for a long time in the past, it was a relatively developed and prosperous region in the entire North.

Over time, these lords became arrogant, considering themselves "half southerners" and looking down on the poor northerners around them. They mocked the Northwest as country bumpkins and the Northeast as a den of bandits.

However, everything changed after the orc invasion two years ago!

The rise of Laguge and the establishment of the Northern Alliance united the Northeast, and its subsequent development was as rapid as if it were on drugs.

What made the nobles of the central and southern regions hate Dick the most was that he actually wiped out the countless bandits and pirates in the northern fjords, withstood the invasion of the northern orcs, and built a sizable port in that godforsaken place, opening up the sea route between the north and south.

As a result, many caravans abandoned land transportation and chose sea transportation, which has a larger capacity and faster speed. In addition, the transit tax in the new port was also lower, so merchants naturally all flocked here.

The saying goes that cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. Dick is not only going to kill their whole family, but he's even wielding a small shovel to dig up their ancestral graves. How can they not hate him?

Just then, a guy who had been drinking heavily and got himself completely drunk suddenly slapped his thigh, burping and cursing incoherently.

"Damn it, why couldn't those orcs just invade again and smash that damn Newport Port to pieces!"

"Wait! What did you just say?"

Suddenly, Marquis Richard turned to look at the not-so-sober drunkard.

Richard had initially disliked this man who spoke unclearly, but the man's two sentences had suddenly enlightened him, giving him a flash of inspiration. He felt as if he had suddenly come up with a "good solution" that could solve all their troubles once and for all.

Chapter 295: Vacation

Having returned from the south, Dick, who had been busy for half a year, decided to give himself and the girls around him a vacation. With October just around the corner, they needed to nourish themselves properly before winter.

Ragug today is completely different from when he first arrived. This land, which was plagued by an extremely cold winter and was the poorest in the entire North, is now known as the "Promised Land flowing with milk and honey" by the people of the North, and the material life of the common people has been greatly improved.

In Dick's relatively simple moral code, he, as the lord, could only truly eat well with a clear conscience if everyone was fed first.

For this vacation, Dick didn't take everyone to the mountains for hot springs, mainly because they had been going every year before and it had become a bit stale. So, after a vote, everyone decided to go to the beach this time.

Considering the climate at the latitude of Laguge in late September and the natural conditions along the fjord coast, sunshine, beaches, and bikinis are definitely out of the question. However, a luxury hotel has just been built in Newport, specifically designed to accommodate high-end guests. The person in charge is a particularly ambitious individual and plans to hold a closed-door reception for the lord and his wife before the official opening, requesting your inspection and valuable feedback.