Lord Harland.

Chapter 256 Army Expansion

The first stop of Li Cha's inspection tour, Li Cha chose Brick Kiln Village.

Brick Kiln Village was the first gathering point established in the Harland Territory. The history here was two months earlier than Fort William.

During the development of the territory more than ten years ago, Li Cha basically lived in the brick kiln village. At that time, his second uncle Powell was in charge of building Fort William, and Li Cha was in charge of building the brick kiln and led the contracted slaves to reclaim the farmland.In the tent set up in Zhuanyao Village, Li Cha lived for several months.

Back then, he worked hard and led the first batch of contract slaves from the barrenness to build a foundation.

After more than ten years of development, the village with a population of only 1,000 people has now naturally multiplied to 2,000.

As the population increases, of course the land must be divided.

Now there is not much wasteland around Zhuanyao Village that can be reclaimed, and children born in the last three years have no land to allocate.

The decree of the Harland territory stipulates that the eldest son inherits the land and real estate of his parents.

The second son and second daughter who can't get the farmland, if they don't want to bear the eyes of their brothers and sisters-in-law when they grow up, they can't find a job in the city.

In recent years, the development of brick kilns has been neither fast nor slow.

Today, there are three brick kilns in the territory of Harland. In addition to Bobby Brick Kiln, there are Brigade Brick Kiln and Graveson Brick Kiln.

The territory near the Bobby brick kiln factory has been developed and the infrastructure is basically completed.

The main business of Bobi Brick Kiln Factory has been transferred to the civilian side.

It has now been eight years since the first batch of indentured slaves in the Harland Territory became free citizens, and they have accumulated a lot of money. Their children have grown up one after another, and when they reach the age of marriage, the demand for private housing construction is relatively strong.

In the early years, the Bobi Brick Kiln Factory was the focus of Richard's attention. He even had to personally mediate internal disputes in the brick kiln factory. Now the reports of this brick kiln factory do not even appear on Richard's desk. It has become a territory that is not particularly important. A small business.

Richard walked around the village and found that the scale of Zhuanyao Village had expanded a lot, and the new houses were also better built.

He randomly selected several houses, went in and looked around, and finally came to Robinson's home.

Counting this time, Richard has been to Robinson's house three times.

Robinson's yard is still the same, looking slightly older than it did a few years ago.

Robinson's eldest son, Sola, is married and has built a new house and moved out of the yard. The second son enlisted in the army this year and has not yet completed recruit training.The young children have also grown up a lot, and they are already half-workers, able to help at home.

"How many people do you have in your family now, and how many acres of land do you have?"

"Celia's father-in-law passed away last year. Sola and Lina got married and lived separately. In the past few years, Celia and I have given birth to two more children. Now our family is still nine people and has 35 acres of land. .”

"I remember you used to have forty-five acres of land."

"You are right, Mr. Richard. When Sola separated the family, he took away the five acres of land he was assigned. Last year, his grandfather passed away, and the remaining five acres of land was given to Sola for inheritance. Now, Our family only has thirty-five acres of land."

Richard knew in his heart that half-way couples like Robinson and Celia were more common in the territory.In such a family, property inheritance is often more complicated.

According to the laws of Harland territory, Sora will inherit the land of his grandparents and mother.

Robinson's land and property will be left to his eldest son to inherit.The remaining children can only inherit some of the money left by their parents.

The allocation of fields to contract slaves in the Harland Territory has lasted for eight years. Over the past eight years, some old people who were assigned to them passed away one after another, and the fields they were assigned were often inherited by their direct descendants.With the continuous birth of newborns, the area of ​​cultivated land per capita has gradually decreased, and now the Zhuanyao Village has more people and less land.

"How has your life been in recent years?"

"Thanks to the blessing of the Goddess of Dawn, there have been no famines in recent years. Except for the one or two years when I built a house for Sola's wedding, my life was a little harder, and I can still live a good life."

Hearing that Robinson is doing well, Li Cha smiled and said, "Can you tell me how much money you have in savings now?"

In ordinary territories, the people would not dare to tell the noble lord how much money they have.

Because the aristocratic lords will extort money, they can't wait to collect all the gold and silver coins in the territory into their own treasury.

Ordinary people would hide a few gold coins tightly in their hands, fearing that others would know about it, and they would report it to the tax collector of the lord's house, which would lead to tax increases or robberies from the noble lords.

However, the Harland territory was different. Not only did it allocate houses and fields to serfs, but it also set relatively low taxes. Apart from one property tax increase, agricultural taxes have barely changed in eight years.

Almost all the free people thought that Li Cha was a benevolent and benevolent lord.

Li Cha's question made Luo Bingxun feel a little suspicious. He didn't want people to know how many gold coins he had saved, but he was unwilling to deceive Li Cha.He looked at the village cadres around Li Cha, with a bit of trouble on his face.

"Why, can't you tell me? Don't be afraid. If someone increases taxes and apportions more, you can go to Fort William to complain to me, and I will come to Brick Kiln Village to see you."

While speaking, Richard wrote a letter and handed it to Robinson.He urged: "Take this letter from me, and you can come to Fort William to find me at any time. No matter whether it is the city defense army or others, you dare not stop me."

"I dare not say it, Mr. Richard! My family has now saved twenty-six gold coins and sixteen silver coins. This is a huge amount of property."

Hearing this, Richard laughed heartily and said: "It seems that you have been living a good life in recent years. You have saved a sum of money. What are your plans for this money."

"My child Danon is already thirteen years old. I plan to use the money to build a house for him and marry a wife to inherit the family business. The rest will be divided among several younger children and let them go elsewhere. , and you can live a more decent life.”

"Robinson, don't you let your children go to school? Now the tuition fee has been reduced to three silver coins a year. According to your income, you should be able to afford it."

"Master Richard, although the tuition fee has been reduced, it is very expensive for the children to live in Fort William. I know a little bit of carpentry, and the children follow me to learn carpentry, farming, laying bricks, and firing kilns without spending money."

Seeing Robinson's thoughts like this, Richard sighed. Ordinary free people are indeed very short-sighted.

Li Cha took the initiative to shake hands with Robinson, left his yard, and went to visit other people's houses.After eight years of accumulation, the general development of Zhuanyao Village is very good, and most of the hardworking free folk families have saved a sum of money.

After leaving the Brick Kiln Village, Richard entered the Poppy Brick Kiln Factory with his entourage. He went directly to the factory director's office and told Poppy, Layton and others to show me the accounts of the brick kiln factory last year for me to take a look at.

Layton hurriedly moved out the ledger, and a few young attendants stood up behind Li Cha, and began to examine the ledger carefully.

These young followers are students who graduated from He'an Primary School and are also the first batch of auditors in the territory.

These people have a lot of authority, and some corrupt personnel have been checked out in recent days.

After reading all the books, Li Cha frowned, and said seriously: "The management has spent too much on benefits, and compared with last year, the profit margin has dropped a bit. If these things still cannot be changed next year, you can go home and have your children.

I am here to tell you solemnly, I hope you will not have greed.Your salaries are already very good, and your status is a world of difference compared to ten years ago.You should cherish the good days now, I don't want your names to be written on the list of executions in the future. "

The laws in Harland Territory are strict, and Richard does not need to compromise with the bureaucrats. As long as he embezzles more than ten gold coins, he will be sentenced to death immediately. His immediate family members cannot join the army, go to school, or serve as officials within three generations.

But there is always greed in people's hearts. Even though bureaucrats are well treated and have strict laws, they still cannot stop the greed of bureaucrats.

In the early Ming Dynasty, even peeling off the skin and making the grass work could not prevent official corruption, and Richard could not do the same. No system can stop human greed unless artificial intelligence is realized and humans voluntarily give up power and let desireless robots govern everything.

Now the territory has a small population and a small area. Li Cha's inspections are more diligent and he can suppress corruption.

In a few years, the territory will expand, and the population will exceed one million. It is estimated that the Harland Territory, like the rest of the Grant Kingdom, will be full of corrupt officials.

This year, Li Cha plans to set up a discipline inspection department, train personnel in advance, appoint Hayden as the Chief Inspector of the Territory, and take up a job similar to Inspector Censor, so as to relieve part of Li Cha's work pressure.

The Intelligence Department is preparing to appoint William's adjutant Noel to manage.

Hayden has been in charge of the territory's intelligence department for more than ten years. This kind of work is not suitable for long-term management by one person.If the management of intelligence work takes too long, a closed hill is formed, which is not too big or too small to be a trouble for the lord.

Hayden is Richard's brother from the same mother. If Richard wants to attack and purge the intelligence department in the future, it will be more troublesome to deal with it with Hayden standing in the way.

The intelligence department has great authority and has mastered the secrets of many territories. Richard is not very comfortable leaving it to an outsider. The person who can replace Hayden can only be a member of the Harland family.

Richard is going to train Mrs. Ola's eldest son, George. George has served as Hayden's adjutant for a year, but it is difficult for him to take charge of the territory's intelligence work with his current ability and experience.

Now the intelligence department of the Harland Territory is already very large, with more than personnel in operations, intelligence, logistics, and administration.

Intelligence work has its own complexities and particularities, and it is best to transfer officials from within the system.

Noel is a member of the distant branch of the Harland family and William's adjutant, responsible for managing part of the military intelligence work.

The most important thing is that part of the intelligence power controlled by Mrs. Olla and Butler Gibson has been handed over to Noel. He has managed it very well in the past one or two years without any mistakes.

The intelligence power of the Harland family has always been divided into two aspects. The first is the territorial intelligence system, which has always been under Hayden's management.

Another system was developed from the commercial system in the hands of Mrs. Ola.After more than ten years of operation by Mrs. William and Mrs. Ola, the strength of this intelligence system is also very impressive.

Through commercial infiltration, this system has penetrated into every aspect of Heihe Fort.

Some noble families in Geda Province have intelligence personnel of this system. They were chefs, winemakers, gardeners, gold and silversmiths, maids, attendants, accountants, etc., and were placed in noble mansions through various channels.

The two intelligence systems do not interfere with each other, and there is little cooperation.

The reason why Richard wrote to William and transferred Noel to the territory's chief intelligence officer was obviously his intention to merge the two systems.

William agreed to Li Cha's request, and obviously agreed with Li Cha's idea.

The intelligence work in the Haaland territory is divided into three aspects: military intelligence, internal intelligence, and external intelligence. Ruiz was responsible for military intelligence, Luciano was responsible for internal intelligence, and Vitas was appointed director of external intelligence.

Now Noel has been transferred to be the Chief Intelligence Officer of the Harland Territory, and George is still serving as Noor's adjutant.

Now beside Li Cha, there are many assistants at work, and the front-line work is basically handed over to the assistants now.Li Cha is only responsible for an overview of the overall situation, patrolling the territory, and severely punishing corrupt officials.

Of course, after this year's battle, the most important task for Richard is actually the training of new recruits.

After May, the Harland Territory began to recruit 4,000 new soldiers and began training for new soldiers.

The recruit training cycle in Harland's territory is one year.

The first three months are pre-training such as disciplinary obedience, internal affairs regulations, and literacy of recruits.

Three months later, the recruits adapted to life in the military camp, began to learn breathing techniques, trained in the use of equipment, and started training in archery, marksmanship, swordsmanship, horseback riding, bombing, combat and other subjects.

Of course, the training of the formation is the most important. From the day when you first entered the barracks to the day when you retired from active service, you almost have to practice fighting in formation.

The most important task of a soldier is to remember his position in the array.

Whether it is normal training or during a battle, you must never forget this.

If you lose your position on the battlefield, according to military law, you can enforce battlefield discipline and be executed directly.

Only by being familiar with one's own position and accumulating training over time can form a general conditioned memory, and when encountering a war, you can form a tight formation without panic.

In the face of all kinds of sudden situations, it is possible to change the formation, draw and join teams at will, and deal with battles in different directions.

In the training of the army, formation is the most important subject, and the second only to formation is archery.

The training of recruits, formation and archery are practiced almost every day.

A year later, soldiers who have completed recruit training must at least be able to form an array and be able to shoot arrows. Only by mastering these two most important skills can they integrate into the army and cooperate with veterans in combat.

The food for the army in Harland Territory is very good, and the standard logistics supply for each soldier is three gold coins per year.

Weapons and armor are provided by the territory, which will be calculated as an additional appropriation.

Two unlined clothes and one cotton coat cost six silver coins a year, and the remaining two gold coins and six silver coins are used to feed the soldiers.

Each soldier received three kilograms of rations per day, half a kilogram of meat, and two kilograms of brown sugar a month. Only with good material support can high-intensity training be carried out.

If they don't have enough food and clothing, and don't have sufficient material support, soldiers will urinate blood after a few days of intensive training.

Now recruits have been training for several months.

After several months of training, the new recruits have gradually acquired some of the temperament of veterans, and they look much stronger. However, soldiers who have never seen blood will always be new recruits, useless. Only by integrating new recruits into veterans and letting the veterans see blood and fight several battles can the transformation of identity be completed.

Li Cha pays close attention to the training of recruits, and often comes down to inspect and talk with recruits to complete the training together.

Therefore, the logistics officials did not dare to play tricks in this area. The material guarantee has always been sufficient and there has never been a shortage.

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