?In mid-March, as the temperature gradually rose, the people in the valley who had rested for the whole winter gradually walked out of their homes and walked towards their fields carrying the farm tools they received from the civil administration.

The refugees who were recruited one after another were also placed in various places in Tyniec County and the Wells Valley, one for every hundred people, and under the command and protection of civil officials and peasant soldiers, they spread towards the undeveloped wasteland...

Spring returns to the earth, everything revives, and Wales is full of vitality.

Early in the morning, Art ordered Cooper to summon officials from all levels of the Ministry of Government to come to the Valley Wood Castle to discuss matters. This was the first meeting held since the establishment of the Ministry of Government in Wales. Therefore, the government affairs of Cooper and his subordinates were very important.

The chief officials of the department specially dressed up and changed their appearance one by one, looking quite like palace officials.

After everyone had arrived, Art laid out the focus of the civil affairs work this year.

"Everyone, now that the Province of Wales has been established for more than a month, we must seize the time to open up wasteland and carry out spring plowing. The food in the autumn can be guaranteed, so as not to starve tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the territory of the Province of Wales."

"The reason is simple. The province of Wales is newly established. It is unrealistic to expect the reclaimed land in the county to feed tens of thousands of citizens. Now the large wasteland from the south of the valley to the northern border of Lombardy belongs to my territory. Early recruitment

The refugees have basically arrived. Therefore, we must take advantage of the beginning of spring to organize the people to clear up wasteland. We strive to reclaim all the wasteland and turn it into fertile farmland before winter comes."

Everyone nodded.

"In addition, while the Tunnel Affairs Department is reclaiming land to the south, the Construction Department cannot be idle. You must organize manpower to build a business road south that can accommodate three carriages in parallel, extending all the way south along the river.

We have visited the south of the valley twice before, and I also ordered people to search ancient books. There is an ancient trade road in the south, but it has been swallowed up by the wild forest. You can try to find the ruins of the ancient road and carry out restorative construction along the ancient road.

The construction of trade roads does not require speed, but the roadbed must be solid and drainage ditches must be dug on both sides. In the future, a post station will be built every ten miles or so along the trade road as a place for future caravans to rest and eat.

In the future, with the post station as the center, houses will be built on both sides of the business road to form villages. After that, the refugees recruited will be gradually placed in these villages, and the surrounding land will also be allocated to these people for farming."

"Your Majesty, most of the refugees are currently clearing land under the leadership of the Tunnel Service Department. Most of our Construction Department's people are building Wellsburg, and we don't have that much manpower to build trade roads."

Lawrence told Art about the current predicament of the construction department.

Art thought for a while, "In this way, we don't have enough farm tools and cattle anyway, so one-fifth of the people under the Tunnel Affairs Department will be placed under the management of the Construction Department. In addition, the Civil Affairs Bureau will continue to recruit refugees and arrange them all to

The construction department is responsible for construction matters in the south of the valley."

"It's Master, I will arrange for the civil affairs department to continue recruiting," Cooper said.

"Okay! You are now senior officials in the Ministry of Government of Wales. The prosperity of Wales will depend on you to a large extent in the future. As long as you do your best to build this new land, I will never

I'm sorry to you!"

"I am willing to serve the Earl!"

Everyone stood up and said loudly.

…………

At the junction of the northern part of the city of Tyniec and the Lucese province, Salter, the general manager of the European trading company, who was riding a horse, glanced at the dense forest behind him from time to time. The guards responsible for escorting the caravan were also on high alert.

Before leaving the city of Lucesien, a shop steward from the Lucesien branch of the Continental Trading Company hurried to the camp where the caravan was located late at night and reported the most worrying thing to Salt~

According to a businessman in the city who had good relations with the Continental Trading Company, the Continental Trading Company relied on Yate's position in the War of Succession to transport grain, grass, weapons and other supplies for the Liberation Army, and then monopolized the entire kingdom after the war.

North-South trade. Only those trading houses that have good relations with Yate can obtain supplies from Yate. Many other business nobles are not satisfied with the current status quo and hope to rebuild their own trade markets.

Before, they might have suppressed the Continental Trading Company. But now, as a palace-chartered trading house, the Continental Trading Company not only has the backing of Flanders and Baldwin, but is also extremely large in scale and has established close ties with major chambers of commerce in the north and south.

Moreover, the cost of acquiring goods is much lower than that of these business aristocrats. As a result, it is difficult for them to sell their supply of goods and they are always at a loss.

Seeing that they could no longer hold on any longer, these red-eyed businessmen simply took the risk and secretly formed a team, dressed as bandits, to rob the goods purchased by the European trading companies, in an attempt to cut off the transportation chain of the European trading companies step by step.

However, the caravan guards of the Continental Trading Company had at least a hundred people, and they were well-equipped, and their combat skills were not comparable to ordinary caravan guards. So they could only follow them all the way, waiting for opportunities.

After coming out of Lucesien City, Sarte ordered everyone in the caravan to be on high alert to prevent the group from taking the opportunity to rob the goods.

In this way, the group of people walked cautiously through Lucerne Province and arrived at the border of Wells Province. Apart from encountering a few groups of refugees along the way, they did not find anything unusual.

After arriving in the city of Tyniec, Salt finally breathed a sigh of relief. After arranging the caravan affairs, he hurried back to the valley to report the situation to Art.

…………

"...Sir, this is the situation. After I learned the news, I took the caravan back early the next morning. I finally breathed a sigh of relief when I arrived at the county seat~"

Salter, who was sitting at the long table in the lord's hall of the wooden castle and reported to Art, was still feeling frightened, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"Sart, you did a great job. Thank you for your hard work~"

After finishing speaking, Art got up and walked towards the wine cabinet on the side. He personally poured a glass of wine for Salter and handed it to him.

"Come, let's have a drink first."

"Thank you, sir."

Salt quickly stood up to catch the wine glass and drank all the wine in one breath.

Art, who was sitting at the top, held his chin with his right hand, thinking deeply.

"By the way, sir~" Salter suddenly said, "I also heard from a friend in the city that Count Lucesien is also somewhat dissatisfied with our caravan."

Art, who was lost in thought, suddenly raised his head and motioned for Salt to continue.

"Since the caravan became a palace-chartered trading house, it did not need to pay taxes to the local lords when passing through various places. As a result, those guys who lived on taxes lost a lot of money and were resentful of us. They all asked the palace to cancel our

privileges. The most dissatisfied among them is Earl Lucesian."

"Nowadays, Continental Commercial Bank is the only one, and other small commercial banks cannot compete with us. It is definitely unrealistic to rely on them to support their people."

Listening to Salt talk about the current plight of European commercial banks, Art repeatedly thought about how to deal with it~

…………

On the second day, Yate convened all the managers of the trading houses to discuss matters. In view of the current series of situations that are not conducive to the development of the European trading houses, he believed that it was unrealistic to completely monopolize the commercial trade of the princes. This would also cause public anger and make too many enemies.

It will be beneficial to the future development of European commercial banks.

After everyone discussed it, Art made a decision. He would unite with the smaller business aristocrats and take advantage of their geographical location to provide them with low-priced goods. On the one hand, he could win them over and resolve their grievances. On the other hand, he could also borrow money from them.

This expanded the influence of the European trading houses and tied everyone to this huge carriage.

In addition, Art also ordered Salter to make a special trip to visit the Count of Lucesne when he went north next time. From the profits of the European trading company, he used 50,000 pfennigs every year as the transit fee for the caravan, in order to relieve him.

of grievances and reduce unnecessary troubles.

Based on the current recovery speed of the Hou Kingdom, Yate also asked the merchants at the meeting to speed up their commercial layout. Not only should they build warehouses in important towns in the north and south to stock up on goods, but they should also build inns for traveling caravans and caravans under their own names to rest.

, providing food and accommodation. It also serves as a place to collect intelligence, collecting details about merchants coming and going, price changes of various goods, increases and decreases in production, etc. This will lay the foundation for the future development of the caravan.

Finally, in view of the development trend of Continental Commercial Banks, Artisan has recruited a group of people with business experience. In addition, apprentices from the Civil Affairs School will also be given priority to be placed in Continental Commercial Banks, so as to improve the efficiency of the operation of the commercial banks. At the same time, reduce the burden of Sart

The heavy burden on Walter made him focus more on the strategic direction of the company.

Finally, Art passed a secret order to Stanley, who was setting up nets all over the Hou Kingdom, asking him to arrange a special team for the European Commercial Bank...

............

After arranging the Continental Commercial Bank and civil affairs affairs, Art was not idle. He stayed in the secret room every day and thought about the development of Wales.

Once the territory construction in Wales is completed, the next step is to continue to expand southward. If you do not plan the next move in advance, you will easily be in a passive position and be slaughtered by others.

At present, few people know the status of this nameless valley sandwiched between several major principalities. But Art knows it in his heart. Once the province of Wales completes the development and construction of the valley, many people will start to be jealous. Not just because

This forgotten fertile land also has a very important commercial status.

If we don't seize the opportunity now to accumulate strength, we will only become the target of being slaughtered and divided by neighboring countries.

Art understands the principle of being prepared for danger in times of peace.

…………

While the construction of the valley was proceeding in an orderly manner, several uninvited guests from the south of the mainland came quietly ~

In the grass less than half a mile away from the border post, four homeless-looking people in tattered clothes and covered with scars used the cover of the grass to look towards the direction of the border post from time to time.

"Sir, ahead is the outpost set up by the Province of Wales on the border~"

A man wearing a worn-out cotton-padded jacket and ragged linen trousers said to the similarly dressed man with a flat nose next to him.

"Listen to me," several people immediately gathered around. "From today on, you should try not to speak and look at my eyes. If exposed, no one will survive!"

"yes!"

"You can't answer my questions so neatly from now on! Answers will make people suspicious."

"Okay~"

"Yes~"

"Hey~"

…………

At the junction of Wales and Provence, a small town has begun to take shape.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Soldiers at the border outpost of the Wells Provincial Guard Corps shouted to a few guys in somewhat tattered clothes.

"What about you, what are you doing there so dawdling around? Come over quickly and get checked."

As soon as the soldier finished speaking, one of the leading men winked at the people behind him and walked towards the checkpoint.

"What are you doing?"

The soldier responsible for checking passers-by asked.

"Master, we are farmers from Verno in the south of Provence. Last autumn, our hometown was attacked by bandits. The village was massacred and burned by the bastard bandits. Seven or eight young men in the village went to the lord's house to pay taxes and grain.
To be continued...