***
A month after the arrival of Aaron, the changes he brought to the life of Agdar became noticeable.
«Lord Aaron, the road from Moldar Gorge to Horkwell has been completed,» the knight reported.
In front of him stood a teenager who was watching from the hill for a large number of people below. They wore something, made noise, shouted, but most importantly, they worked tirelessly. From a distance it was not very noticeable, but if you get closer, one feature will become obvious ...
All these working people looked very unusual, one might even say exotic ... Some had dark skin, others, on the contrary, very light, there were people with red hair, some even with green ... In general, almost everyone had some kind of — something of its own zest in appearance.
Obviously, they were not all residents of Agdar, they were all emigrants, and not entirely voluntary. Simply put, the vast majority of those who are working on the construction of the city are slaves bought by a special forces detachment for gold received after selling the loot from the Arcer clan.
The idea to solve the problem of labor shortage by buying slaves came to Aaron very prosaically — there was simply no other way for him. It was possible to hire workers in the lands of other clans, from free people, but in an extremely limited number. Still, the whole plan is based on secrecy, and hiring a large number of people does not really fit with this principle.
Slaves were much more expensive, but Aaron believed that there were advantages to buying slaves... These people, at least the majority, did not come from here, this was a key factor in the selection, following their professional suitability.
If a person became a slave and was moved to the territory of another clan, then he had nothing left to return to, therefore, giving such people a home, you can achieve unprecedented loyalty from them. In addition, the knights from the Black Falcon detachment, sent to buy slaves, tried to choose, first of all, those who owned some kind of craft, or were taught to read and write. Surprisingly, it turned out that such slaves were far from being the most expensive commodity...
The most valuable slaves are mostly beautiful women, as they are often bought to satisfy certain needs ...
Men who do not have magical potential are actually not very expensive, since in principle, most people living in the territory of a clan are slaves, even if this is not officially fixed anywhere. Therefore, many clans do not buy slaves to meet their labor needs, since at any time they can simply force the inhabitants of their lands to work instead of them.
Not being a particularly decent person, Aaron decided, without bothering over trifles, to also use the labor of the inhabitants of Agdar along with the labor of purchased slaves. Thus, he now had one hundred and thirty thousand souls that could potentially work tirelessly for his well-being ... Buying thirty thousand slaves was madness, but Aaron's gold was not as necessary at the moment as labor resources ...
Aaron also had an idea to contract teenagers under the age of fifteen for the construction of the city, they were not yet among the population of Agdar, like the old people over seventy-five ... But this had to be abandoned, since the teenagers more interfered than helped, and Ilmira with Einar did not approve of his son's resourcefulness.
— What about the construction of the administration building, when will the construction be completed? Aaron asked, turning to the knight.
«Tomorrow everything should be ready, only finishing work remains,» he replied.
«Great, so soon we can announce the birth of a new city,» Aaron smiled. — Let's call him Guldar... Yes, in honor of the lake that gave him life...
«You have a very good sense of naming...» the knight said confidently.
— Do not flatter, I know that this is far from my best talent...
Aaron again returned his gaze to the city under construction and the lake on the shore of which it was being built. The view was without any doubt beautiful, the architects bought as slaves did their best ... The city loomed very beautiful, and not at the expense of practical benefits ...
All this became possible thanks to the use of the «Vigilant Observer», thanks to which it was much easier to design and draw up a plan for the construction of the city ...
A city is, first of all, a place that has the administrative apparatus of city government and the facilities necessary for the functioning of industrial enterprises. The difference between a city and a village is what the inhabitants do... The villagers are engaged in agriculture, and the city dwellers are engaged in trade, and also work at various enterprises.
There were no cities in Agdar before, for the simple reason that the population was enough to build a city, but there were no obvious reasons for this. There was no need to build a city as a defensive fortress, since there was no one to defend against. Creating an infrastructure for enterprises also did not make sense, because these same enterprises did not exist. Trade in Agdar was only poorly developed, which did not require the construction of a city to ensure the functioning of trade relations.
However, now that Aaron needed to create a number of enterprises for the production of goods, primarily for military purposes, the construction of the city became the most important task ...