Wu Liyan was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter and said, "You think too much. This is none of my business. I have never wanted to become some shitty noble." "What?" Knight Roman looked up in surprise. "But do you know what the situation in the North Glacier is like now? A large number of orc clans are heading south, and the marauding teams are attacking like locusts. But what is the Empire doing? They are cutting military spending! They are canceling the standing army! The garrison of the Wind God Fortress has been reduced from the minimum limit of 5,000 people to less than 1,000 people. With so few people, they can't even fill the battle positions on the city wall!" "Perhaps Grand Duke Mitchell also knows that the situation is urgent and keeps drawing troops from various earldoms, but those damn southerners don't care at all. They are just waiting for the orcs to invade in large numbers so that they can take the opportunity to attack from the south and get a piece of the pie!" "There is no hope in the north. I can only lead my people to the south. This is the farthest distance I can go." "My goal has never been to become a pioneer knight or a noble lord. I just want to settle my daughter and my people in my lifetime. Even if the territory is given to someone else, it is better than being slaughtered by orcs." Romon listened quietly to Uriyang's words and said nothing more. Others may not know, but he knows best that with Uliyan's ability and the wealth accumulated from ten years of service, he can take his daughter away and go to a small town in the south to live a comfortable life as a rich man, and then leave a thick dowry for his daughter to marry into a good family. But if he brought hundreds or thousands of people with him, everything would become unknown. At least Roman didn't dare to think about whether he had the courage and ability to do so. Although Romon came from a knight family in the town and had no good feelings towards the ignorant and numb country folk, he was not a fool after all and could understand Ulian's thoughts to some extent.
How far can the relationship between relatives and friends be on the banks of the Arctic Ice River, where the weather is freezing and transportation is inconvenient? People from the same village are more or less related. The fathers of the closest generation are cousins, and the grandfathers of the more distant generation are cousins. There are so many relatives and friends in the surrounding villages who come to your house on their knees to beg for mercy. As an imperial soldier, a village headman, or even the de facto clan patriarch, how can you bear to run away alone? The people of the North attach great importance to blood ties. The biggest reason why the Odalov family has maintained its rule for a thousand years is that it is the "eldest son of the god of war Tyr". As a result, all the people of the North who are descendants of Tyr have only rebelled in the name of not submitting to it, rather than overthrowing it. Even if it was Romon himself, if one day, Isenpol could not be defended, he would not abandon his people and escape alone. After saying this, Wuliyang patted Luo Meng on the shoulder and said, "What you are considering is whether this investment will pay off. What I am considering is how to keep my people alive. I have no choice." Luo Meng was silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "Captain, I understand. I will try my best to persuade my father to agree." The next day, under the leadership of Urian, Romon toured the camp and listened to him proudly boasting about his great achievements of "exuding the aura of a king and making the dog-headed people bow down to him". He then carefully put forward some suggestions from the locals before sailing downstream on a fishing boat loaded with iron ore. Regarding the price and projects of iron ore trading, a steward specializing in this came to communicate with Uliyan. The iron ores in the Gnoll Valley are divided into three categories according to the quality of the ore, and can be exchanged for equal to twice the weight of food. Although the Husky Fisa was worried that cunning humans would find fault with her and specially selected the best quality iron ore to send to the River Bend Camp, the other stupid ogres did not have such thoughts. Driven by greed, some kobolds would even carry some rocks that contained almost no iron to trade, just because these rocks were large and heavy enough and they hoped to exchange them for more food. These rocks that were picked out and thrown aside by the villagers in charge of receiving them are not completely useless. They are the best materials for building river dams and house foundations. The selected high-quality iron ore will be transported to the blacksmith shop in Isenpol, made into farm tools, spare parts and weapons, and then transported back to the River Bend for further trading. This deal is already very fair. The North is not really short of iron ore resources. What is really lacking is productivity, miners and transportation. The value of the iron ore itself is only part of it. The cost of transporting hundreds of miles back and forth by small fishing boats also accounts for a large proportion. Therefore, before Lord Hewan repairs more than 30 miles of roads, this transaction is destined to be carried out on a small scale. If it weren't for the relationship between Ulyan and the Petukhov family, no one would be interested in such a risky and troublesome small transaction. This time, Romon brought nearly a ton of wheat and a shipload of land reclamation supplies such as iron farm tools, rivets, and saw blades. Looking at the refilled grain carts, the villagers were all delighted and worked with great enthusiasm.
Ding! Because of the surplus food, your residents' happiness has increased! The food here is not the sour, rough and difficult to swallow rye, but the high-quality wheat that is grown in abundance on the banks of the Anzeno River. As for rye, Petukhov's steward tactfully stated that rye accounted for a very small proportion of the grains grown in Isenbol, and the stems and leaves were usually harvested before they even began to ear and were used to feed donkeys and horses. A ton of wheat sounds like a lot, but when it is divided among 300 people, no matter how much the grain is mixed or how frugally one eats, it will barely last them a week. What is truly valuable are the ironware and steel swords that Romon brought, which are the most urgently needed and scarce supplies in the camp. Especially the steel swords given by Romon, they are all military-grade, thick steel one-handed swords full of Northern style. They are more than ten times more valuable than those iron bar swords made by rural blacksmiths or those scrap steel swords that have been passed on a hundred times. In the market of Isenbol, such a steel sword is worth a ton of wheat. As Urian's chief fighter, Leo was the first to be assigned a steel sword, which greatly increased his favorability towards Knight Roman. "If he is willing to take off that armor and give it to me, I will support uncle in selling you. No, marry him." Sitting on a large wooden barrel in the camp kitchen, Leo held the steel sword in his hand, stretched out his fingers to flick the blade, feeling the heaviness of the blade and the vibration that quickly disappeared, and he couldn't help but let out a sigh of admiration. The sharp blade and tip of the sword can easily cut or pierce the fur of wild beasts and aliens. The two deep blood grooves not only reduce the weight of the weapon, but also adjust the balance of the sword. The thick and flexible sword spine can ensure that the sword body is not easily deformed or broken. In contrast, his beloved iron sword would often bend because he stabbed people too hard, and he could only straighten it with his foot so that he could continue to use it. Leo didn't even dare to use it to chop hard. Frequent chopping of hard objects such as bones will cause the iron sword to break at the same speed as the candle melts. If he had such a steel sword and wore the light armor of Knight Romon, Leo would have dared to challenge Urian, let alone the mere ogre leader! "Hmph, that's just the kind of person you are!" Olivia didn't want to talk to him and was counting the supplies on her own. The kobold cubs hiding under her skirt seemed to be able to sense their "mother's" emotions. They immediately poked out a few of their puppy heads, barked at Leo, and then were scared back by Leo's glare.