I will be crowned king

Although the distance was not far, it still took Anson three full days to return from Lake Town to the Port Beluga City Council.

In addition to the delay due to road problems, the main reason is to take the opportunity to inspect the progress of the legion farm; this is an important real estate that affects whether the Storm Division can gain a foothold in the new world, more than the "secret gold mine" and "free trade" "It's all ten thousand times more important.

Salt, fuel, food...these are the strongest hard currencies in the new world, and it is impossible to lose money at any time.

Needless to say, most areas are barely self-sufficient in food, and there are only two or three rich food-producing areas.

Once the war between colonies breaks out, whoever can stabilize the food supply and ensure that there are no major logistics problems will have more lasting fighting power and win the hearts and minds of the colonies, thereby gaining more Abundant food supplies...become a winner-take-all game.

The same goes for salt. Although the New World is close to the sea, the weather is too cold and the sunshine hours are too few. Even if coal and charcoal are cheap, the cost of making salt is extremely high.

Anson has no good solution in this regard. He can only hope that nothing will happen to the salt trade with the three North Sea countries. Therefore, he must find a way to win over the colonies of the three North Sea countries and use the method of community of interests to drag them into the thieves... unite to In the united front.

Of course, any perfect plan must have a contingency plan: so while Anson was urging the Beluga Port Chamber of Commerce to expand the salt trade, he was temporarily hoarding goods.

On the other side, the clerks of the Luen family under Talia have quietly built a salt factory near the seaside of Beluga Port. It is not large in scale and the workmanship is quite rough, but it should stabilize the mood of the people in Beluga Port at the critical moment. It's definitely enough.

When it comes to craftsmanship, this is also Anson’s biggest headache: both the local people and the Church of Order are stuck on the matter of “technology diffusion”, from smelting to manufacturing, even if they want to do something for the resource industry in Beluga Port. It is impossible to upgrade technology, let alone industrial upgrading.

The only technology diffusion that is not subject to local restrictions is agriculture and shipbuilding; but the latter is too large to be developed by Beluga Port, and there is no need for it for the time being; the former is slow to produce results, and it will take at least half a year to produce results.

But no matter how slow it is, it is better than nothing, not to mention that agriculture is also crucial to Beluga Port; therefore, when introducing immigrants, Anson specifically asked Erich to find a way to get some agricultural experts; the level does not matter, even just the experience. OK.

In view of the fact that a certain "black technology" that can really increase food production by a large margin may still be in the notebooks of a certain Saint Isaac, or in the "Qiuzhen Sect" database that has been fully accepted by the Church of Order. If you want to increase food production, it is still possible. There are only two ways to expand production and increase labor force, so the construction plan of the Legion Farm is crucial.

The results of the inspection made Anson quite satisfied - as the person in charge after Fabian, Lieutenant Colonel Norton Crosell showed a management model that was different from the Guards style and more like an "agricultural company".

He re-divided the tasks, stipulated the approximate daily labor time and the minimum amount of labor, and asked the troops in charge of the farm to take turns to serve as "supervisors" in half-platoon units to ensure everyone's performance, and to punish those who over-completed the work. For recognition and improved living conditions, the first place winner each week can enjoy sugar and an extra supply of alcohol, and use of the lieutenant colonel's private bathroom.

This familiar approach once made Anson very curious about his resume. After asking the clerk to check the officer's file, he discovered that Lieutenant Colonel Norton once ran a small business with his father in Northport for a period of time. It is said that although he only hired With only three workers, the efficiency is almost the same as that of a large workshop with more than a dozen workers next door.

So Anson couldn't help but think of little Norton holding a notebook in his hand, sitting on a crate, using "commission", "bonus", "career"... and other words with unclear meanings to make the three poor day laborers work hard. Pictures of people working and scrambling to contribute to their little boss.

Under the "Norton Crosell Model", although the subsequent construction of Legion Farm is not as fast as when Fabian was in charge, it can maintain quality while slowing down, and this quality is still sustainable.

And because he wanted to conquer Changhu Town, the Storm Division had deployed almost all of its manpower, leaving only the immigrants who had moved from various small colonies to the vicinity of Beluga Port.

In order to allow these people to voluntarily leave the colony they worked hard to run, the conditions offered by Beluga Port were very high: a house, a job, and food and clothing.

It doesn't sound like much, but when the number becomes four or even five digits, the cost becomes scary.

For these promises, Lieutenant Colonel Norton, who was desperately trying to reduce costs, gave them in another form-land.

It is true that the Storm Division cannot provide houses to all the relocated colonists immediately, but it can provide them with land and materials to build their own houses, and the homesteads are privately owned; at the same time, after obtaining the collective opinions of the officer corps, all the Storm Division After the hired farmers have worked for one year, they will automatically "buy into the shares" of their farm and enjoy the benefits of a low-ranking officer.

Considering that most soldiers will not actually participate in farming work at all, this is equivalent to the Storm Division directly turning these immigrants into lifelong laborers. After breaking down the costs, the tax burden on these people is as high as three-fifths - and They were actually quite satisfied.

As for why, according to Lieutenant Colonel Norton, it is not surprising at all: although most immigrants have a strong spirit of adventure, this is mainly for some colonists who have just arrived in the New World; for those who have worked hard for five years Even the second and third generation colonists actually pursued stability.

Stable job, stable life, stable environment, stable prices... Although becoming a small shareholder of Legion Farm is restricted and the income will never make you rich, it is extremely stable.

For the sake of such stability, these people actually don't mind if the Stormtroopers occasionally "break their promises" and suffer a slight loss; what they mind is if the Stormtroopers go back on their word, exploit or even over-exploit.

Just like the three employees of his small workshop once did not mind working overtime occasionally or even often, but they did mind talking about relationships, the future, and ideals... It was not that they did not have ideals, but that the ideals of the employees were completely different from those of the Krossel family. The same, even polar opposites.

This once again proves that compared to an army, the Storm Division is actually closer to a cooperative "business" group; even the abilities of mid-level officers are not reflected in command, but are better at business and making money.

When Anson and his party returned from their inspection, Beluga Port was fully prepared to receive the imperial envoy. I wonder if it is because such large-scale public events have been too frequent recently. The Council of Five Hundred even summed up a set of rules. Complete and feasible process.

Because he was not a real "imperial envoy", the ceremony was naturally a little smaller, but the dock had been specially cleaned inside and outside. "Private representatives" from the city council and the League of Trustees were present, and even hussars were arranged to attend. The company's soldiers put on full uniforms and lined up in front of the dock to stand guard.

"Dear Anson, who do you think is coming?"

Thalia, who was wearing a dark blue dress, asked with a slight smile. Her small silk head was slightly raised, revealing the delicate sapphire neck ring on her white collarbone.

"Uh...I'm not sure." Anson was stunned for a second, his eyes quickly left the exposed skin of the girl's dress, and looked into the distance with some evasion.

This is not because he has any unreasonable thoughts - he would not dare to give him ten thousand courage - but as the number of "question questions" with Thalia increases day by day, his understanding of the three major magics becomes deeper and deeper. It also indirectly solved an unsolved mystery he had always had.

So where on earth did she get all those dresses?

He has seen at least ten kinds of clothes of different colors and different styles for different occasions - this is what he remembers. There are countless more casual and comfortable daily clothes and even pajamas for bed.

But when the sailors of the Crown "rescued" her from the rough sea, the girl only had a blood-red dress on her body.

The key to the puzzle lies in the particularity of one of the three major magics, blood magic.

As we all know, the power of blood magic is the power of life. Even beginner spellcasters can have extraordinary vitality, while advanced casters are almost impossible to kill by conventional means.

But this understanding of blood magic is actually quite superficial... As blood magic controls vitality, almost everything that is alive can be regarded as a display of its power; higher levels can even "Life and death" are regarded as a concept and control everything.

As for the question "Why does Thalia have countless pieces of clothing?", the answer is very simple - because all her clothes can be regarded as part of her flesh and blood...or body.

Therefore, every time the girl changed into a "new dress", even though she did not actively think about it, Anson couldn't help but have some impulse after learning the truth, and then pretended...

"What, you don't know either?"

The girl tilted her head slightly and blurted out in surprise: "Didn't Colonel William Cecil or Erich... tell you any news about this?"

"No, and I think they should know nothing about this matter." Anson quickly returned his expression to normal and said with a hint of certainty:

"We did not give the mainland much time to consider how to choose the imperial colonies. In order to avoid affecting the Osteria Palace, we could not let the news leak out so quickly; if I am not wrong, now the mainland knows There are probably not even fifty people in the turbulent new world - this is still a conservative estimate."

In fact, if the secrecy of the Osteria Palace is done well, there should not be more than ten people who know the truth; after all, it is said to be a conflict of interests between Clovis and the Empire, but in fact the wealthy and upper-class people of the two countries Social contacts are quite intimate and frequent.

As long as there are more than two digits of people who know about it... the last time they clink glasses in the candlelight salon, the news will appear from the high-end hotel in Clovis City to the emperor's royal meeting in Snapdragon City.

"Then, dear Anson, who is the special envoy you hope to be sent?" Thalia suddenly said.

"Uh... I don't have any particular expectations."

Anson's expression was startled: "Why do you ask this?"

A smile appeared on Thalia's face, with the corners of her mouth slowly extending to the left and right, and she looked meaningfully at the blue sea:

"Because Thalia hopes that the special envoy... can be Miss Sophia Franz."

Oh, it's Sophie...wait, who? !

Anson's eyes widened instantly, he opened his mouth slightly and then quickly suppressed the urge to blurt out. After a brief period of crazy squirming, his facial muscles showed a natural and plain smile:

"Why?"

"There is no special reason. I just think that if it were her, Anson would be very happy, right? After all, they are such good friends." The girl smiled and said:

"Thalia also wants to be friends with Miss Sophia."

"Yeah." Anson nodded: "I think you will succeed."

"Because she's gentle?" Thalia blinked.

"No." Anson said softly, pretending to be casual:

"Because as long as Thalia wants, everyone will be willing to be your friend..."

"Dong-dong-dong-"

The port bell rang, interrupting their whispers.

Along with the melodious notes, Anson raised his head and looked towards the distant horizon; three faintly visible "black spots" came into his field of vision, heading towards Beluga Harbor.

But just when the Council of Five Hundred and Bishop Ripper were preparing to organize the people present to greet him with cheers, a strange scene happened.

"What it is?"

Anson slowly narrowed his eyes and looked at the three behemoths with King Clovis' flag hanging high in surprise.

Three giant ships, the largest was sandwiched between the other two - the bow was missing, the sails were burned to less than half, the sides of the ship were full of potholes, and it was pitch black from head to toe, as if it had just come from Like something dug out of a coal pile.

The battleship on the left that looks like the Crown is slightly better, with only slight damage to the bow and deck, but half of the hull is dyed black, and the hull is like a drunken old man on the sea, swaying slightly left and right. Akira, as if trying to find a balance, proving "I can still drink".

The cruiser on the right is the smallest and most miserable of the three ships: half of the deck is missing as if it has been bombed, half of the main mast is broken, and the guardrails on both sides are bare and in tatters. The sail of the ship... looks like a ghost ship from a distance.

The three ships were swaying like this, drifting slowly towards Beluga Harbor... In the crowded port, the stunned people, the band who didn't know what to do, the congressmen looking at each other, there was a dead silence.

Anson was silent for a long time, as if trying to find some possibility, and said in a very uncertain tone:

"When they were... having a banquet and setting off the salute, did they accidentally give each other some light?"