Chapter 39 (1/2)
North, Newcastle.
As a result of last year's Newcastle uprising, the king ordered the construction of a military castle here as the core hub to control Newcastle. The project has been going on for nearly 11 months, and the construction speed is not fast, because there are sporadic violent activities in the local area.
At present, the transport ships that should have arrived a few days ago have not appeared, the construction has stagnated, and the Minfu and craftsmen who stay in Newcastle are anxious. They don't know what happened, whether the project can go smoothly, and whether they can return to their hometown as scheduled.
As the designer of the whole castle, James walked anxiously through a mess of wooden frames into the barracks of the military commander.
”What the hell happened!”
James angrily slaps a stack of material reports on the commander's desk.
”Stones can be excavated on the spot, but there is no wood! There's nothing left! What do you want me to build? Is that your sincerity? Throw me to this ghost place, and then give me nothing, want me to make a castle for your great majesty out of thin air? Why doesn't he take my head with him? ”
James's anger is understandable. He would have been the designer of St. Giorgio's Cathedral. As a result, after seeing his resume, the king ordered him to come to Newcastle, where the turmoil had just ended.
The good thing is that James is very responsible for the architectural design. Although he is full of resentment against the king, he still tries his best to build the whole castle. It seems that he takes every building he designs as his own child.
The commander has been pointing his nose and yelling at him these days. He is picky about the quality of wood and the hardness of stone Of course, the most common complaint is the slow transportation of raw materials, and the transport ship of the five port alliance has become ”a pile of waste whose speed is slower than that of snails”.
Today, the commander is very calm.
He poured James a glass of red wine: ”the five Port Alliance ship will not come.”
“……”
James's incessant swearing stopped suddenly. He looked at the commander in amazement for three seconds, and then jumped up like an old cat stepped on its tail.
”What! Are you going to abandon this half built castle? Lord! You blasphemers, you will... ”
”Stop, stop, stop! No matter what you say, I won't go to hell immediately. ”
The commander stood up and pulled his cloak.
”The ships of the five ports alliance will not come again, but the castle will continue to be built. Follow me.”
Newcastle is in the northwest of Legrand and the wind is blowing. James and the commander walked through the snow to the southwest gate of the castle. The gate of the castle was always closed in case of local rioters. The commander said a few words to the guard on the tower.
The suspension bridge crunched down.
The gate opens.
”See.”
The commander said.
James took two steps forward.
The gate opened and the cold wind came in. Outside in the snow appeared a long line, flying scarlet flags, the Royal iron rose in full bloom on the flag by the cold wind. The team came slowly from far to near, with a small group of Armored Cavalry scattered around the team.
James saw it.
It's a long transportation team!
Their cars were loaded with neat piles of wood and other things, and the long motorcade came winding. The Armored Cavalry in front of the line found that the gate had been opened. He drove his horse forward and saw the commander and James standing behind the gate.
The cavalry turned over and dismounted: ”the first batch of materials have been escorted, and the remaining materials will be delivered as soon as possible.”
”What's going on?”
James looked at the wood and then at the commander.
The commander rubbed his hands and laughed. He patted James on the shoulder: ”my dear Mr. designer! You should take your eyes away from the stones and timber. Our supplies will be delivered directly from angel in the future! How much wood do you want? It will never be rotten wood soaked in seawater! ”
It took James a long time to understand why.
Angar Pradesh has the highest density of forest in the whole of Legrand and the best quality of iron forest in the whole of Legrand. It is not far from Newcastle, but before that, the relationship between angar state and the royal family was tense, and the castle was built to guard against the attack from angar, not to mention the timber directly transported from angar.
But now it's changed.
The kingdom of angar bows to the royal family. The highest quality iron trees will be continuously transported from the peaks of angar. The king will build the strongest castle.
Also smiling were the cavalry on horseback.
He was sent by the state of angar to protect the goods. He grew up in angel and was used to the fact that the angel people were poor in the lush forest. They live the toughest life on the most rugged land, but now the business gate of Legrand is open to them again.The timber was transported out of angar state, and gold pounds flowed into angar people's pockets. They were even allowed to trade with other places on the way of escort. For the first time, goods that used to be obtained only through robbery can be obtained simply - if they can travel peacefully, who wants blood and death?
This is just the beginning. The day when angel could not afford a button on the king's clothes with one year's tariff revenue will be gone.
”From angel to Newcastle, where the rose flag will fly, the blood of the Empire will never stop!”
Said the cavalry, bending over and swearing.
………………
The king received a report that the castle building was continuing.
Along with that, the architect James, who never wanted to appear in the report, attached a letter.
In the letter, the guy who seemed to be full of architecture praised the king's achievements, and then he made a request to the king. The iron wood transported by angel grows for a long time and is extremely hard. James has a new idea: he wants to give full play to the military function of the castle. He wants to build a higher exploration building than originally planned and build more military towers to take care of each other.
“…… They will be the observation tower standing on the earth. If they can use the hard crossbow forbidden by the Pope, they can even be called the terrible killing machine There will be no place to hide all the changes on the northern grassland... ”
Finally, when it comes to his ideas, James's style becomes fanatical.
When the king saw this, he always felt that the tone was familiar: ”did our madman academy miss a member?”
Look at the church designer. He's a war machine maniac.
At the end of the letter, James revealed his real intention:
- he reached out to the king for money.
The king crossed out James's skyrocketing price and ruthlessly wrote another number.
More money?
OK, let's wait until the five Port Alliance sinks.
The royal family is really poor now.
Although it is cheaper to buy timber from angel than to prepare transportation by the five port alliance, the quantity is huge. In addition, after the sheriff's change of blood, the militia recruitment and selection began. Some time ago, after the parliament agreed to the royal family's request to expand private soldiers, Baron Hearn began to be busy.
The king did not intend to choose his own private soldiers from the noble knights, so his military reform was just a dead letter.
The new soldiers will be chosen from all over the country and avoid too much contact with the old nobles.
According to the king's request, this newly established private soldier can not be strong enough at the beginning, but should have high potential - as long as there is potential, it can be cultivated through later training. Although Knights of noble origin have better physical fitness than civilians, their loyalty The king had to make a question mark.
Every day the army maintains, it will spend a day's grain and pay
All in all, in a word: income can't make ends meet.
The king was more and more eager to let the five Port Alliance sink into the sea with their broken monopoly system.
He put aside his pen, took out the port of Legrand free trade act, which had already been drafted, and checked it.
The name of the bill was drawn up by the king himself. When he wrote down the word ”freedom”, he laughed vaguely.
It's time.
……………………
The resistance movement of chambers of Commerce in Southeast China has developed to the stage of collective strike.
The busy port was quiet at this time, and the ships were berthing quietly in the port. A large number of goods on the ship are not unloaded. Workers who help load and unload goods gather at the wharf every day to watch the merchant ship sigh anxiously. The suspension of the port and the strike of businessmen have a huge impact.