Chapter 191 Financial Issues
The guards of the Swamp Castle have been replaced by members of the knight team from the Horse Herder City, and Lord Sean's guards, Knight Fenris, and Rayson's wife and daughter are all being held in the castle prison.
Roning took a cursory tour of the manor.
Compared with Hillwood Castle, this place is more luxurious. Among other things, there are many magic crystal lamps here, which are rare items in Hillwood Castle.
However, the humidity is a bit heavy, and there are many insects, so the castle servants need to take care of it regularly. Otherwise, the furniture, clothes, books, etc., will easily become moldy.
After a rough look, Ronin accompanied Galil to the castle's fortress to briefly interrogate Leisen's family and accompanying knights.
When Fenris saw Rhonin sitting on the main seat, he was convinced that Baron Leisen, whom they were following, was finished.
"It was you, Joffrey, who betrayed Lord Reisen?" Fenris, who was bound by chains, asked with gritted teeth.
Joffrey stood beside Ronin. If it weren't for Ronin's special regard for him, he would probably have died in the prison of Wushan Castle.
He had no good feelings toward Fenris. When Lei Sen arranged him in the Black Collar Tribe, the two disagreed.
"Leisen paid the price for his stupidity. It has nothing to do with me."
Joffrey said, "Fenris, you and I have known each other for a while. Without reservation, I advise you to tell Lord Rhonin and Sir Galil of Wushan Fort about the relationship between Reson and the Order of Skull and Bones. In this way, you may be spared some torture."
Fenris's face was gloomy. He did not continue pestering Joffrey. Instead, he wondered if he could surrender and if Ronin would accept him like Joffrey.
With this thought, his tone softened, but he didn't know the relationship between Leisen and the Skeleton Society.
"I don't know, but Feridon may know."
Fenris said: "Last December, Feridon left Thayne and returned after a long time."
Galil looked at Ronin, "This Knight of Feridon."
"My people will bring him here."
Luo Ning said, "If it's earlier, maybe we'll know tomorrow."
Feridon was also captured?
Fenris was shocked. Lord Leisen had only gone to Wushan Castle to celebrate the New Year. What happened in such a short time?
Ronin did not stay in the fortress for long. He was uninterested in the interrogation and did not intend to recruit a professional knight like Fenris, who was difficult to control.
On the contrary, other weaker knights, and even the ordinary guards and archers who made up Lord Sean's knight squad, attracted his interest more.
The cavalry, archers, and infantry of Shanlin Town are still in training. If these people from Lord Sean can be perfectly absorbed, the defense of the territory will be much easier to handle.
He now controls six places: Swamp Town, Forest Town, Green Bamboo Village, Purple Fruit Village, Gray Soil Village, and Black Collar Tribe.
Swamp Town is the most populous place in Wubei Territory and needs people to guard and maintain it;
Mountain Forest Town is Ronin's base camp, with a large amount of farmland, iron and wood workshops, etc., which also need people to manage;
Ziguo Village is a sericulture base, and Huitu Village is a ceramic base, so they cannot be abandoned;
as for the Black Collar Tribe, he learned from Joffrey that the Black Collar Tribe has very fertile land and high yields of crops. More than 4,000 acres of land have been reclaimed, and last year, they sent more than 70,000 kilograms of grain to Sen Territory.
It can be seen from this that the black-collar tribe also has huge development value.
After counting, only Qingzhu Village is not of much value. Luo Ning should consider relocating more than 300 people to the Qingzhu tribe first.
"Are you the steward of Swampburg?"
Ronin randomly found a room and asked Joffrey to bring Lei Sen's butler over.
"Yes, sir."
This is a middle-aged man with short brown hair. He should normally be in good spirits, but after being detained for a few days, he looks very haggard.
"Your original master, Lei Sen, was stripped of his noble title and territory for the crime of assassinating a noble. Now, I, Ronin Wushan, am the new owner of Swamp Town. Tell me about the production, operation, and financial status of Swamp Castle, and I will allow you to continue living on this land."
"Saelin is happy to serve you, my lord!"
When Ronin first moved into Hillwood Castle, he did not need Leisen's servants to serve him, but he could get information about the castle from this group of people.
Serin is a qualified steward who clearly understands Swamp Town's financial situation.
Take the breeding of black buffalo as an example; he knows exactly the number of cattle on the ranch.
Among the adult black buffaloes were 82 bulls and 566 cows; the rest were 164 calves.
Roning made a rough estimate and found that if each cow was sold at an average price of 20 gold coins, he could earn more than 16,000 by selling all the cows in a package.
Of course, the price of 20 gold coins should be too low.
Black buffaloes are large and good at plowing the land. A slightly better-quality black buffalo is comparable to an ordinary war horse, and selling it for 30 gold coins is no problem.
However, compared to the horse industry in Muma City, Leisen's buffalo business is much smaller, with less than a thousand cows in total.
Luo Ning plans to distribute some of these cattle to Shanlin Town and Heitu Village to speed up land reclamation and increase grain harvests.
In addition, Luo Ning also learned from Sailin that Lei Sen runs aquatic businesses such as fish and shrimp. Although this cannot be compared with the aquatic business in Hushang Town, it can still generate a certain amount of income yearly.
Thousands of gold coins in Swamp Town fall into Lei Sen's pocket yearly.
The only regret is that there are not many good farmlands here. Baron Leisen needs to buy food from outside to maintain the territory's population consumption.
That was why the other party set their sights on the Black Collar Tribe in the north. The 70,000 kilograms of grain transported from the Black Collar Tribe last year saved him a lot of money.
In addition to this information, Roning also learned from the other party the approximate population of Swamp Town - more than 9,800 people.
After Wilson had completed the census, the number of registered people in the Ronin territory was likely to exceed tens of thousands.
Based on his previous experience completing the [Good Fortune] achievement, Luo Ning wondered whether he could complete two [Prosperous Population] achievements in succession this time.
After all, the second level of this achievement only requires the registered population to reach 5,000, and the third level is likely to be set at 10,000.
However, Roning has not yet figured out how to complete the achievement of [Siege the City and Conquer the Territory].
Logically speaking, he should have completed the task by now as he has occupied the Territory of Sen, but the achievement status remains unchanged.
Luo Ning guessed this might be related to the word "city."
Swamp Town is still just a town, not a city.
Whether a territory can be called a "city" is mainly determined by its population size.
"If Swamp Town has a population of tens of thousands, can it be considered a city?"
Roning planned to wait until the census of Swamp Town was completed before considering whether to leave some of the thousands of slaves purchased from the Viper Slave Exchange in Swamp Town to make up the population of tens of thousands.
Completing as many achievement tasks as possible and obtaining attribute points and energy essence are very important to him.
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