Chapter 79 - Soda

On the vast prairie, it was empty all around. Looking into the distance, it seemed as if there was no end in sight. Being in it, one couldn't help but feel a sense of vastness, and it seemed that one's mood also changed a lot. "Is this the place?" Riding a horse on this prairie, Chen Heng was inspecting this land. He looked around, stared at the land in front of him, and thought in his heart. It had been more than three months since the end of the trial tournament. In the past three months, as Oriman had said before, she conferred on him the title of Earl of Soda and granted the Soda region to Chen Heng as his territory. The so-called Soda region was a vast area bordering the desert in the Kingdom of Kutu, with a very large area. This time, Oriman waved her hand generously and directly granted the entire Soda region to Chen Heng, the Earl of Soda. Judging solely from the area of the territory, the territory of Chen Heng, the earl, was larger than that of other lords in the Kingdom of Kutu. But in reality, it just looked good on the surface. In fact, the Soda region bordered on the desert, and most of the area was where alien races were active. It was very difficult to establish effective rule there. Moreover, in this rather vast area, the number of subjects who could actually be ruled by Chen Heng and from whom taxes could be collected was not large, pitifully few. According to Chen Heng's estimate, in the entire Soda region, the number of people who could be directly ruled by Chen Heng was probably only tens of thousands. The number of tens of thousands might seem quite a lot, but when spread over this vast area, it didn't look good at all. After coming to this territory, during this period of time, Chen Heng didn't do anything but inspected this area together with local guides and several people including Kurudo. A great man once said that without investigation, there is no right to speak. Chen Heng thought this sentence was quite right. The importance of intelligence was self-evident in many aspects. Therefore, after arriving at his own territory, Chen Heng started the investigation at the first time, wanting to know the most basic situation of this land. After a period of observation, Chen Heng already had some ideas about what he should do next. "Although the climate in the north is harsh, if there is no war, the land's output is sufficient." Riding a horse beside him and looking at Chen Heng, Kurudo said, "Although the output here is not as good as that in the south, because the area is very large and each lord owns a lot of land, people won't starve to death." "What's really troublesome are the orc thieves who come from time to time and some other inexplicable creatures." Speaking of this, he looked a bit helpless. "To resist these orc thieves, a large number of men are forcibly drafted to fight against them, so that they often miss the farming season. Sometimes, even when it's time to harvest, the crops will still be destroyed by these orcs." He introduced the situation of the North to Chen Heng and also introduced the main enemies that Chen Heng would need to face in the next period of time. From his account, Chen Heng gradually understood the basic situation here and also had a clear understanding of what he needed to do in the next period of time. "Got it roughly." Chen Heng nodded and continued to look at Kurudo. "I'll have to trouble you in the next period of time." This time when Chen Heng came here, he wasn't alone. Kurudo and others came here with him and became one of his followers. The foundation that Chen Heng had laid in the city of Kutu in the past was all brought here by him this time and put into construction. After that, Chen Heng began the process of building his own territory. To be honest, it was a very difficult thing to build from scratch in a blank area. Fortunately, Chen Heng wasn't starting from nothing. Compared with others, he had many advantages. His wife was Vinall, the royal princess, which meant that he had a very close connection with the royal family and could obtain considerable support from Oriman and even the entire Kingdom of Kutu. The lords and nobles around would also look up to him and open convenient doors for him for the sake of the royal family. Secondly, due to previous cooperation, he had a very good relationship with the northern lords and, to a certain extent, was still their biggest financial backer. After the north-south trade started, although many people saw the huge profits contained in it and also began to try to get involved, they started too late and hadn't found a low-cost and reliable-risk trade route to operate like Chen Heng. Coupled with the advantages established in the early stage, Chen Heng still had a large share in the current north-south trade. The result brought about by this trade route was that the northern lords generally had good will towards Chen Heng and would not refuse many of his requests. And the large amount of profit obtained from the trade also made Chen Heng financially well-off and not fall into an embarrassing situation. In addition, he himself was a powerful knight. This was the most important point. In this era, the role that a knight could play was unimaginable to ordinary people. With Chen Heng's current strength, as long as he led a guard of a hundred people, he was enough to move freely in this area. Those scattered alien thieves were nothing to him. However, despite having all these advantages, Chen Heng still had a very difficult time. The conditions in the northern region were so harsh that it was a bit difficult for him to start. However, he wasn't discouraged. Long before coming here, he had already known something about the situation here and had already made certain psychological preparations. The situations he was facing now were not enough to defeat him. In this way, Chen Heng, the Earl of Soda named Kailin, took root in Soda. Just after arriving here, he started his actions. He led Kurudo and others to inspect all directions, wiped out some thieves and small tribes that had been raging around for a long time, and reduced all these people to slaves. Then, through his authority as a lord and his powerful force, he forcibly relocated several small tribes scattered around and concentrated them together. In this way, he gathered the population of the entire Soda region as much as possible and began to reclaim land and build cities in several key places. When the population was gathered, the places that Chen Heng needed to guard were much fewer, and the military pressure was suddenly reduced. And when the cities initially developed, some small tribes and even wild people originally scattered around were also attracted and continuously migrated into the cities. In this way, Chen Heng's territory slowly developed and gradually got started.