Chapter 146 Territory Construction

Almost a month after Oberna inherited the title and territory of Weir City, Lind continued to lead the team along the coastline, turned around the Cape of Corpses, and headed towards the Redguard River. Jon was left behind by Lind and was named The port construction site of Miracle Harbor continues to host the construction of the port city.

A few days later, the team arrived near the mouth of the Hongwei River. From here, you can see the top of the castle of Stonehelm City opposite. On the fertile land near the river, more than a dozen villages of various sizes have been built. Looking around, the cultivated fields are covered with barley, wheat, and fruitful corn.

Originally, Linde thought they would be blocked by Stonehelm City, but when they arrived at the village, the village elders handed Linde the prepared list of villagers and land titles.

"Who asked you to do this?" Lind asked, looking at the thing in his hand in surprise.

"It's the gentlemen of Stonehelm City," the village elder replied honestly: "They told me that your Excellency will come to take us in. From now on, our village will be under your jurisdiction, Your Excellency, and we will also be your subjects."

Hearing this, Lind didn't know what to say for a moment. It seemed that the events in Weir City had frightened the lord of Stonehelm City.

It's right to think about it. The lord of Weir City just wants to take back those people who occupied the land and restore the land. Now not only are the people gone, but the territory has become someone else's. No matter how greedy the lord of Stonehelm City is, he should I don’t want to become the second Lord of Well City.

As a result, all the land reclaimed by Stonehelm City and the villages built were delivered to Linde's hands intact, and even the wooden bridge originally built to connect the east and west banks of the Hongwei River was demolished.

In addition, not only Stonehelm City is like this, but even Crow's Nest Castle is doing this.

When Lind's team marched to the upper reaches of the Redguard Valley, the land reclaimed by Crow's Nest Castle and the village built here were delivered to Lind's hands intact, and the bridges were also demolished.

Although the actions of the lords of Stonehelm City and Crow's Nest Castle surprised Linde, it undoubtedly saved him a lot of trouble and shortened the time spent patrolling the territory.

In addition, he also had some unexpected gains in the Redguard River Valley. In addition to the Stormlanders who had migrated from Crow's Nest Castle, there were also some aboriginal tribes in the nearby mountains that were somewhat similar to the savage tribes.

The people of this tribe claim to be the descendants of Dorax, the Corpse Maker. After their ancestors were defeated by the Storm King Cleoton Durandon I, they were imprisoned here. They multiplied for generations and finally settled here. Therefore, they prefer to call the Redguard River its ancient name, Slane River, and they also call themselves Slane people.

These Slaine people are very good at farming, and they have lived here for thousands of years. They are also very familiar with the resources in this area. With the help of them and the people of the Redguard clan, Lind can easily find out the resources in this area. Useful minerals.

What surprised Linde the most was that they also knew that there was a secret mountain road that could go directly through the towering ridges of the Crimson Mountains and connect Shengxia Hall to the Red Guard River Valley. There was no need to take a long detour from the red soil. It was originally about a month. The journey was shortened to two days.

To this end, Lind asked the Slane people to take him on a walk. The road went all the way up the steep hillside, then turned through a mountain stream like a gate, passed through a valley, and when he came out from the other end, They had already reached the hillside on the side of Summer Hall. Standing at the exit, Linde could even vaguely see the stone pillar-shaped rock in the distance.

This secret passage has a lot of traces of artificial excavation. It seems that the ancestors of the Slaine people tried to escape from captivity through this method when they were imprisoned in the Redguard Valley.

Although the road is now a bit narrow and can only be walked by one person, there is still a lot of room for improvement, at least it can be transformed into a width enough for horses, mules or donkeys to pass.

There are also some places where it is possible to build straight up and down elevators. In this way, goods in the valley can be transported to the mountains, and then mules and other pack animals can be used to transport them to the other side of the mountains, which saves more time.

In addition, the huge valley connecting the two sides can also be built into a transit town or fortress, and then several defense towers are built on the mountain roads on both sides. Then the entire road can be completely controlled without worrying about being exploited. This road, attack Summer Hall.

After inspecting the road, Linde already had a complete construction plan in his mind. After discussing with the master mason, he finalized the construction plan.

"What do you want?" After returning to the valley camp, Lind asked the elders of the Slane people.

"We hope to get a piece of land that is recognized by the Seven Kingdoms and can be passed down from generation to generation." The elder of the Slane people quickly gave the answer. It was obvious that this answer was the result of their discussion.

Of course, Linde understood the meaning of their words and did not immediately agree to them. Instead, he asked: "I can give you such a piece of land, but who are you going to make the owner of this land? I can never give you this piece of land." For all of you?"

The Slaine elder was stunned, and the other Slaine people around him were also stunned. Obviously they did not consider this when they discussed it.

"Don't worry. After you go back and discuss it, give me the answer." Linde seemed to see their dilemma, so he comforted him.

After hearing this, the Slaine people also understood that this was not a suitable place for them to discuss matters, so they all left.

"Are you really going to give these Slaine people territory?" Nymeria said with some worry: "Do you know that doing this will bring you a lot of trouble? Now you are giving them territory, those savage tribes who have joined you. What about the knights who have been with you for a long time? Do you want to give them territory? If you don’t give it, then..."

"You don't have to worry." Linde said with a smile: "It won't be long before they come looking for me and ask me to withdraw their request."

"Why?" Nymeria asked.

"Because these people have been pursuing an equal system for so many years," Linde explained: "Equal distribution of output, equal internal status, equal wealth, and decisions on any matter are decided by everyone's vote after discussion... "

At this point, Lind paused. He recalled his first reaction after learning about the social structure of the Slaine people from the elders of the Slaine people. Isn't this the world of great harmony that countless people pursued in their previous lives?

Linde smiled and continued: "Although this system has helped them maintain reproduction and inheritance for thousands of years, it does not mean that this system is a good system. This system has too many limitations, such as the need to There is a relatively closed environment, and no one can have too strong desires. Once someone's desire is too strong, it will be like throwing fire into oil and it will eventually burn everything. This lights the flames of oil.”

Hearing this, Nymeria quickly had a picture of countless people burning in flames in her mind, and she couldn't help but frown.

Things were indeed as Linde had guessed. A few days later, a fierce internal fight broke out without warning among the Slane people, as if the desires that had been suppressed for thousands of years broke out at the same time. The population was not very large in the first place. The Slaine people suffered more than a hundred casualties overnight. All the elders died in the internal fighting, and almost all of them were killed by those around them.

It wasn't until early in the morning that those who survived saw the corpses on the ground and heard the painful wails of the injured, and then they woke up from their crazy desires. Some people couldn't stand the situation in front of them and the condemnation of their conscience, and committed suicide one after another. The population dropped by dozens.

After that, the Slaine people found Linde again and no longer mentioned the territory. They just hoped that Linde could move them to other places to live. Instead of moving together, they divided them into five families with different surnames and moved separately. Different places, it seems that there has been an irreparable rift within them, and continuing to live together will only deepen their hatred.

Lind also fulfilled their request. When the Slaine people left, they also gave Lind a map of the mountainous areas around the Redguard Valley that they had collected and drawn over the years. They also marked their discoveries on the map. The location of various types of ores.

"Are you going too far?" Nymeria said to Linde in a serious tone as she watched the Slane people clean up the corpses of their own race.

Linde did not respond to Nymeria's question, but calmly looked at the situation in front of him.

With the Red Guard Valley under Lind's control, his trip to inspect the territory has also come to an end.

Half a month later, he and Nymeria returned to Tengshi Town and began to work on various relocation matters.

Not long after he returned to Tengshi Town, the city also approved his application and sent Bachelor Thorne to him as a consultant bachelor.

However, what Linde didn't expect was that there was not only one Bachelor Thorne, but also a dozen assistant bachelors.

This is not because the school city is kind-hearted and adds more manpower to Linde, but there are not many opportunities to build a large number of castles, port cities and towns like Linde's territory. The school city can just use Linde's territory. To accumulate various construction experience and information.

Linde had no objection to this. Anyway, they needed his permission to build castles and other buildings. It was impossible for him to approve architectural designs that were too weird.

In addition, in his opinion, the more bachelors like this who are proficient in architecture, even if they are assistant bachelors who have not yet become bachelors, the better. After all, he now has three places under construction at the same time, one is Summer Hall Castle and the other is Miracle Port. Another one is the Red Guard Fort in the Red Guard Valley.

Originally, with the funds he had on hand, Linde only planned to start construction in two places at the same time, but because the Church of the Seven Gods was willing to provide funds to help him build the territory, he naturally would not be polite. With sufficient funds, let alone three construction projects at the same time. Construction has started everywhere, even if it is four or five, there will be no problem.

It is precisely because there are a large number of facilities that need to be built that the current citizens in Linde's territory are obviously not enough. Linde can only recruit refugees from places such as King's Landing.

Although the Seven Kingdoms have experienced disasters such as extreme cold natural disasters, there have not been many refugees, because it is difficult for civilians who have difficulty surviving to survive the extreme cold weather. Most of them freeze to death and can reach King's Landing alive. There are very few people waiting in big cities, and even many poor people in some big cities have frozen to death, so there are not many refugees that Linde can directly recruit.

However, soon Linde no longer had to worry about manpower, because when he learned that Linde wanted to recruit manpower to build Miracle Harbor and Summer Hall Castle, the churches of the Church of the Seven Gods in various places called on the poor to go to Linde's territory and participate in its construction.

At the bottom of the Seven Kingdoms, there are a large number of devout believers of the Church of the Seven Gods. Under the propaganda of the monks of the Church of the Seven Gods, participating in the construction of Summerhall Castle and Miracle Harbor is considered a kind of salvation.

In a short period of time, a large number of poor people from all over the world poured into Linde's territory, filling the vacancies in the hands of the Linde people. Most of these people did not even need to be paid, and only needed to take care of three meals a day and housing. Place on it.

After learning about these situations, Linde also had some scruples about the Church of the Seven Gods. The Church of the Seven Gods was like a double-edged sword to him. If he used it well, he could kill the enemy easily, but if he used it badly, he could easily hurt himself.

Although his cooperation with the Church of Seven Gods is very good now, he has to consider the possibility of conflict with the Church of Seven Gods in the future, so he must master a power of his own within the Church of Seven Gods, instead of being like Now it's just a partnership.

Therefore, before the construction of his castle and port city started, Linde proposed to build two Seven Sacred Cathedrals at the ruins of Summer Hall and the Bone Corner near Miracle Port, and named them Miracles. The Holy Church and the Holy Church of Salvation, and then let the Church of the Seven Gods send monks and bishops to handle the affairs of the Holy Church as soon as possible.

The Church of the Seven Gods naturally highly praised Linde's move, and also highly praised Linde internally, so they decided to let Linde, the chosen one, concurrently serve as the archbishop of the Redemption Temple. Of course, this is only a nominal position. The church Practical matters remained in the hands of two bishops.

Although it has never happened that a lord also serves as an archbishop, it is not a big deal to make an exception for Linde as the chosen one among the Seven Gods.

In addition, this is also a test from the church to the Iron Throne, testing whether the Iron Throne will accuse the church of interfering in secular affairs because of this matter.

As the Church had hoped, the Iron Throne had no reaction.

Although Linde's status as archbishop is only nominal and does not have any real power, this does not mean that he cannot do anything.

Under Lind's deliberate indulgence, the two bishops selected to become the Temple of Miracles and the Temple of Redemption were both from the Great Temple of Baelor in King's Landing, not the Temple of the Stars, which had a better relationship with Lind.

This is mainly because the clergy of the Temple of the Stars are real clergy, and the clergy of the Great Temple of Baelor in King's Landing have long been corrupted by all kinds of sensuality. Apart from a layer of clergy skin, they On the inside, he is just an ordinary person, and only such a person can be easily controlled by Linde.

In just four days, the two newly appointed bishops had completely surrendered to Linde's command under Linde's coercion and inducement. With the assistance of the two bishops, most of the clergy in the two churches had become Linde's people, and those clergy from Baelor Cathedral and other churches, if they did not join Linde, would either be thrown into disarray and wait until no one remembers this person, then let him disappear, or simply press a button The crime made him go back and forth wherever he wanted.

Because Linde had never come forward and everything was done by the two bishops, the Church of the Seven Gods only considered it a power struggle within the church.

A few months later, the two holy churches were completely in Lind's hands, and the huge warehouses built beneath the two holy churches were also used by Lind to store the dragon bones that Varys secretly transported.