Chapter 109 Expanding Trade

The Shire, a region where almost only Hobbits live, can be said to be one of the few places in the entire Middle-earth that truly enjoys a peaceful life.

That was also the life that the Creator God truly hoped that His children could live when this world was created.

But in this era, there are very few people who can enjoy this kind of life.

Even those royal families or nobles who stand at the top of power are often forced by the enemy or the dark people to have difficulty sleeping all day, and they have no time to live a luxurious life.

But now it seems that there are many more people living a peaceful and happy life west of the Misty Mountains.

The small caravan returned to the roadside fort smoothly with a cart of goods.

As soon as they came back, a large group of people immediately surrounded the cart, looking for the items they entrusted, and it was a lively scene for a while.

"This seems to be good..."

On a chair by the roadside, Levi looked at the small caravan and thought about it.

The role of traveling merchants is often not only the exchange of materials, but also the expansion of influence, the display of the unique culture of the territory, etc.

It is always beneficial.

Anyway, there are too many supplies to use, and they are just sitting there, so why not take them out for a walk?

With that in mind, a formal caravan was established one day later, consisting of the original eight people plus four residents who have learned archery or have certain skills, a total of twelve people.

These are people who have been recommended by other residents and are interested in business activities and willing to take on this position.

Four of them are merchants, responsible for the statistics and sales of goods, and the other eight are guards.

Merchants wear wool sweaters or leather clothes with the characteristics of roadside forts, and carry some self-defense weapons. In addition to warm clothes, the guards also wear armor forged with elf craftsmanship, holding long swords and bows.

The number of carts increased to three, all of which were large, pulled by some moderately fast horses in the horse farm.

There is no way, too fast will easily overturn the cart.

This team mainly goes west, and the planned route passes through Bree, Shire, and Lindon, and finally arrives at the gathering place of the Blue Mountain dwarves, and then returns.

There is basically no need to worry about the safety on the road. On the one hand, there are few enemies on this road. As long as you follow the main road, you can basically go back and forth smoothly.

On the other hand, each horse in the caravan is covered with horse armor, which looks very hard and durable. Coupled with the fully armed guards, it is foreseeable that no one dares to attack this team unless it reaches a certain scale.

And when the caravan was about to set off, Levi synthesized a flag on the spot and wrote his name on it in the common language to show that this was the person under his protection.

In this way, this caravan, which had been expanded once, set off. Everyone on it wore warm clothes and robes that could block the wind and snow.

They will bring goods that are quite rare in this season to the people of Middle-earth.

At the same time, announce the existence of the roadside fort to the outside world.

"If you meet homeless wanderers or refugees on the road, you can bring them back."

"But remember, Roadside Castle does not accept hooligans or lazy people. Those who are unwilling to work but want to enjoy various benefits can go anywhere, but don't bring them here."

At the gate of the city, Levi made the final instructions.

"I remember, sir."

The merchant standing in the front said: "I swear on my name that I will do this seriously."

"We are the same." The other people in the caravan also responded.

Nodding and watching the caravan leave, Levi looked at the vast snow outside the city and arranged a new task for the residents in the city.

Ice harvesting.

Other work can be done at any time, only ice harvesting has to wait until winter.

Under Levi's instructions, the distribution of labor began to change. A small number of people maintained the harvesting of vegetable garden crops, half of the others went to dig mines, and the other half squatted in the ice field to dig ice with the precise collection picks provided by Levi.

Priority is ice harvesting, followed by mining.

First, keep the former's workstation saturated, and the extra ones go to the mine or other places.

The number of ice blocks began to increase. Although it may not be as fast as Levi's digging, it can continue, and Levi himself can take time to go to other places.

For example, hell.

Wow——

Crossing the twisted portal, Levi made some marks at the location where the construction was about to begin according to the direction on the map.

Then he returned to the warehouse, took out a lot of materials, and started working along the marks.

This is a dedicated hell direct road from Roadside Castle to River Valley City.

For various considerations, Li repaired three roads, one ice road, which was temporarily vacant due to insufficient ice reserves, the second was a runway, which was convenient for riding back and forth, and the third was a mine cart track.

However, it is called a mine cart track, which is actually a railroad track laid on the road to facilitate the transportation of large quantities of materials, or if you don't want to walk one day, you can sit in the mine cart and let it run slowly.

A total of 140 kilometers of road-this is destined to be a very long project.

However, once it is built, it will be a true high-speed road, with no obstacles or turns. You only need to run straight ahead to reach your destination.

Even if the ice road is not yet built, it only takes two hours to get from Roadside Castle to River Valley City by horseback. Converted to the distance of the main world, it is equivalent to crossing more than 1,100 kilometers in two hours.

This time can be halved after the ice road is built.

It was a little troublesome when it was built, but it was really useful after it was built.

A very time-consuming project started like this.

On this construction road with a predetermined direction, Levi pushed forward three roads at the same time.

However, because this road was too long and required too many materials, Levi had to make a large number of transport minecarts first, fill them with refractory blocks such as cobblestone, and then let the minecarts follow him to move together, while building the road and transporting materials as supplies.

In the end, even the things in the ender box were taken out by him and used as material boxes.

Time passed slowly.

Half a month passed in a blink of an eye.

When Levi built the road to one-tenth of the expected length and just used up the blue ice, old Wade came up.

It was about the residents.

"Sir, many people have felt the promotion during this period, and they can all open the box."

"Good thing, keep it up."

Levi put the cubes into the backpack and said:

"This means that they are qualified to live here, provided that they can always maintain the current status."

"Contributions can be increased or deducted. If you stop working and producing, the contribution will gradually disappear, unless the person is no longer suitable for work."

Old Wade became serious.

"I will keep your words in mind, sir, and the residents will also know."

Levi nodded and continued:

"You can also use the transport mine cart to become a formal resident representative, and this will be very necessary for the collection of iron ore veins in the future."

"The mine tunnel has not been dug yet, so you can do what you should do."

After filling a backpack with building materials again, Levi thought about it and said:

"I will be busy for a while, but I will stop my work on the first day of each month. You can come to me for feedback at that time."

"I know, sir."

Old Wade bowed and went back to his own business.