Chapter 67: Listening to the Report
The Hill Forest Castle was bustling again tonight.
In the kitchen, Mrs Bandler and her helpers, who had been honing their cooking skills for days, finally found their place and poured all their thoughts and concerns about the lord into making delicious dishes and bread.
The newly promoted junior knights, Juwitt and Sim, also walked into the inner castle's dining room with a reserved but proud attitude and had dinner with the lord and many seniors.
Roning got detailed information about the two newcomers from David.
Jewett and Sim were both under twenty years of age, the former being nineteen and the latter eighteen.
To be honest, the probability of being able to activate the fighting spirit seed and become a professional knight at the age of eighteen or nineteen is very small, and the future potential is estimated to be very poor.
But then again, it's good enough that Shanlin Town has a new extraordinary person now, so there is no right for anyone to be picky here.
At the table, Roning first solemnly introduced Redar's identity to others. Especially with McKen's indirect description, everyone understood the strength of this red-haired man, and Redar's position as commander was officially established.
At the same time, he also praised the newly promoted Zhuwitt and Sim and increased their salary to thirty copper coins per day, which was the same level as David.
As a result, the minimum daily wage of all the extraordinary people present, except Tom, was thirty copper coins.
Taking into consideration Tom's performance during this period and his good attitude towards everything, Roning generously allowed him to be "regularized" in advance, and his salary was also restored to the same level as other junior knights.
Tom was deeply moved by this.
At today's dinner, he finally gained recognition as the lord and entered the circle of core members of Shanlin Town.
The dinner ended happily. With Bella's help, Roning took a good bath, washing away all the dust from the journey and feeling refreshed.
I haven't seen Bella for half a month, and her complexion has become much whiter. Perhaps the change in her life has made her less busy and laborious than before.
Well, Luo Ning felt that he had made quite a few contributions. At least he had improved the lives of some people and made some people feel happy.
He believes that there will be more and more people like this.
In the study, Chahar and Wilson came to report on their work. Roning asked Galen to serve each of them a cup of barley tea to quench their thirst.
"Master, we have settled all 102 slaves. But there is one thing we must remind you of. There are not many vacant houses in the town."
As soon as he came up, Chahar started to complain: "I couldn't allow those slaves to live in the castle, even in the outer fort. So Wilson and I placed them in the homes of former defence officer Dyson and knight Kate."
Dyson and Kate were knights stationed in Hillwood Town by Lord Sen. After they were killed by Ronin, their houses naturally belonged to Hillwood Castle.
"But, sir, the house these two have is in pretty good condition. To be honest, I really don't want to give it to these slaves. It's a pity that there are no other vacant houses in the town."
Wilson agreed with Chahar: "Sir, if there are new people joining Shanlin Town, I think we should plan the construction of houses in advance."
Luo Ning nodded slowly, "Yes, what you said is exactly what we are going to do next."
"The growth of Hillwood Town is inevitable. In the future, our population will catch up with or even exceed that of a normal barony. It is very necessary to build enough houses in advance."
Ronin did not need to pay the slaves any form of wages or remuneration, but he did need to provide them with clothing, shelter, and food, and building houses was essential.
Of course, the housing requirements for slaves do not need to be that high, and each person does not need to have a room. It just needs to be able to live in it.
"Let's not talk about slaves for now. Wilson, how is the division of your village going?" Roning asked.
Wilson stood up quickly and took out a piece of parchment from his arms. "Sir, it has been divided. There are four villages in total. The total number of people in each village is more than 490. Excluding the 20 people who serve you in the castle, the difference is basically not much."
Luo Ning took the parchment and looked at it. The largest number of people in the four villages was 503, and the smallest was 492. The number of people was indeed not much different.
At the same time, Luo Ning noticed that the names of the village chief and group leader were written behind the village, which obviously had already been selected.
"Nice job, Wilson, but didn't you name the villages?"
Wilson said modestly: "I think it is better for you, Your Excellency, to decide on such an important matter.
In addition, the following village heads and group leaders are people I selected after investigation. They are either strong at work or people who grow crops with good harvests. If you think someone is not suitable, I will re-select them. "
"I am at ease with you doing things."
Luo Ning didn't have the time to visit the farmers one by one. The village chief and the team leader were just there to do the work, so it was enough as long as they did their job well.
"The village chief and the team leader should follow what you wrote. As for the name of the village."
Roning was very interested in naming, so he picked up a pen and wrote down the names of four villages on the blank space on the parchment.
The village with the largest population is Fuqiang Village, the village with the least population is Qinfen Village, and the ones in the middle, with 496 and 498 people, respectively, are Qianjin Village and Jingye Village.
He handed the parchment back to Wilson and said, "Gather these village leaders and group leaders to meet in the lobby of the Outer Castle tomorrow afternoon."
He looked at Chahar and said, "Although you are the steward of the castle, the expenses of these village heads and group leaders are all paid from the castle. Although Wilson is in charge of the government affairs of this group of people, you need to supervise matters related to results and assessments."
It is one thing for him to be confident in Wilson's attitude towards work, but it is another thing whether there is someone supervising him.
He knew that Chahar had the ability. He was in charge of the castle's accounts, resources, etc., and he also needed to understand the outgoing expenses.
This arrangement might make Chahar even busier, but who wouldn't be busy? Luo Ning was the lord of Shanlin Town, after all, so he was also very busy.
"I will divide the hundreds of slaves I bought this time into a construction team, an ironwood team, a logging team, and a dung collection team."
"The construction team consists of carpenters and masons, as well as ten men and ten women. They are responsible for building the residence. The initial requirements are not high. They are built on the mountainous land marked out in the farm area far from the town center."
"The Ironwood Team is used to cooperate with carpenter Uncle William to develop black iron trees. We need fifteen strong men and two women who are responsible for logistics. Let the construction team build a few houses in the west as a temporary base for the Ironwood Workshop."
"The logging team is composed of ten men and five women. They are responsible for coordinating the wood needed by the construction team, as well as building a road to the south out of the mountain town in the later stage."
"The manure collection team is responsible for picking up the manure garbage in the town. Later, I will teach them how to decompose and ferment the manure and turn it into fertilizer. For now, let's put five men and five women in."
Roning looked at Wilson, who was sweating profusely as he took out the quill pen he carried with him and wrote quickly on his palm.
"I will keep a few more slaves depending on the situation. If there are any left, I will divide them into four villages for farming. Tomorrow, you will divide them into groups according to my instructions."
"Okay, okay!"
Wilson recorded and responded at the same time. Things happened again, and it was a big deal.
Chahar secretly laughed at the side. Fortunately, he was not a civil servant and had much more free time.
"Chahar, I have to pay the salaries of the guards, castle servants, and civil servants tomorrow morning. Please help me calculate every one's remuneration in the evening and give it to me tomorrow morning." Roning said.
"Uh... okay, sir!" Chahar quickly maintained a serious attitude.
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