The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 851 Beidu Fort

"Are you still going to hide it from me?" Fenglin Youlan sighed helplessly as she looked at Long Xi.

When he looked up again, his eyes were filled with sorrow and pain. He stared at his dragon and didn't know what to say.

“You know…” Long Xi seemed very surprised and astonished, after all, Maple Forest Orchid should not have found out so quickly if she had been trying to hide it!

"Yuehua...you...you will lose your future!" Fenglin Youlan choked out. Long Xi still had a long life ahead of him and shouldn't give up his bright future for her sake.

"If we don't even have the present, how can we talk about the future? My knight!" Long Xi looked at him tenderly, her eyes showing no evasion.

"The destiny of a dragon knight lies in the sky, not in looking up from the ground, and the same is true for dragons! If I cannot live as a dragon, I would rather die!" Long Xi said calmly.

……

"Just treat Youlan as a normal hero!" Roland called a small meeting with Adolf Heinrich and others.

"Why? Didn't his dragon revive?" Darian Nightblade asked, puzzled.

“The situation is special! His dragon hasn’t fully recovered! He only regained his normal size by using a special dragon skill!” Roland shook his head and sighed.

"So it means a large flying lizard?" Adolf Heinrich understood the situation immediately. Although the analogy was not perfect, it was absolutely fitting.

"Pretty much, so be careful not to actually treat him as a dragon knight in any of your operations! I don't want any dragons or dragon knights to fall!" Roland said solemnly. Casualties in war are inevitable, but Roland hopes that he can protect most of his men.

"Okay!" Adolf Heinrich nodded. The main purpose of this meeting was to remind everyone not to actually use Maple Forest Orchid as a Dragon Knight Commander! Otherwise, things could easily go wrong if a real battle broke out!

"Alright, meeting adjourned! Keep your mouths shut when you leave, and don't mention this unless it's absolutely necessary. At the same time, try your best to find a good way to treat the dragon's fundamental injuries!" Roland rubbed his temples, looking troubled. He thought he had gained an extra help, but he didn't expect that Maple Forest Orchid, who had just climbed out of one pit, would fall into another.

……

"The wheat is growing well this year!" The visitor reached out, plucked a few grains from a stalk of wheat, and popped them into his mouth.

"Lord Lance! I salute you!"

"Greetings, Your Excellency! Thanks to His Majesty's blessing!"

Several farmers were resting under a tree by the field, chatting idly. They didn't see Baron Lance suddenly appear until he spoke. The farmers bowed deeply to Lance with utmost respect.

"No need for formalities. It looks like this year's harvest should be good!" Lance said, looking at the endless wheat fields.

"Yes! This year the weather has been pleasant, with favorable winds and rain! It's a bumper harvest!" several farmers exclaimed.

"I'm off! You can find me at Beidu Fort if you need anything!" Lance nodded to the farmers and then mounted his horse. ...

"Where have you been again?" Nina Bonn asked curiously as she brushed the dust off Lance's clothes and patted his cloak.

"I went out to check on the people, after all, I am the governor of Beidubao!" Lance had a headache.

As one of the kingdom's newest cities, this place represents both opportunity and danger. The brave Lagranges brought their families to the wasteland and built their own North Crossing Fortress on the site of the former North Crossing Fortress. Lance, on Roland's orders, led soldiers to garrison this place to protect the people. At the same time, as the kingdom's most useful plugin, Lance also shoulders the responsibility of the local governor.

“This year’s harvest will be very good, what are you worried about?” Nina asked her lover, puzzled. As a former village girl, she was familiar with farm work and could tell at a glance how the harvest would be.

"I won't feel at ease if I don't take a look! I need to go around more! Go around more!" Lance said, taking a big gulp of water and catching his breath. It was a tradition in the Lagrang Empire for lords and governors to go deep into the countryside from time to time. First, to let the people see who the ruler was, and second, to stabilize the people's hearts and investigate their conditions. This was also a product of the fact that the nobles in the early days of the empire were afraid of riots. Those nobles who stayed deep in their castles and didn't even know what their territory was like had long been hung on flagpoles by their old farmers!
"What kind of trick did you come up with?" Nina asked, smiling at him.

"Um... this year's harvest should be pretty good..." Lance could only answer this way after struggling for a while. After all, he was not good at farming and could only make inferences based on the plumpness of the seeds and their vigorous growth. He relied more on the farmers' accounts and the investigations of the local officials.

As for Roland's makeshift team, what kind of officials could they possibly have? So Lance, who was basically fighting alone, could only ride his horse all over the entire territory to find out the situation.

"Hehe~" Nina laughed at Lance's embarrassed look.

"Oh! Right! Her Majesty Ajax just arrived. She asked me to give you this letter; it's an order from the kingdom!" Nina, having finished laughing, suddenly remembered her business and quickly took out Ajax's letter, handing it to Lance.

"Oh? Let me see!" Lance quickly took the envelope, opened it, and started reading. Nina, who was also curious, leaned over to look as well.

"Whoosh!" Lance casually closed the letter, placed it on the candlestick, lit it, and tossed it into the fireplace.

“Another batch of immigrants is coming!” Lance frowned.

"Our grain reserves are running low! Will the autumn harvest taxes really be enough to support this city?" Lance couldn't help but wonder. After all, the orders from Swiftstream City told him that he needed to feed these immigrants himself. The question was, could the autumn harvest taxes really be enough to support these people for a whole year? After all, Radil's construction team was still resupplying in North Crossing Fortress!
“Since the Queen of Swiftstream City has given the order, it must be acceptable. I don’t think the King and Queen would joke about their own people starving to death, would they?” Nina thought for a moment and said.

"Hmm..." Lance could only suppress his doubts and ask them again when he saw them next time.

In fact, after more than a year of reclamation, the Duke of Joelster and his men in Jiliu City had calculated how many people the arable land could support. They realized that even diverting several thousand refugees to them this time wouldn't be enough to overwhelm Beidu Fort. In addition, with Radil and others almost having extended Jiliu Avenue to the original site of Pingnan City, Beidu Fort, as the front line of the expansion, naturally had to begin to shoulder the important task of connecting the east and west, at least until Pingnan City was completed...

In the autumn of the Third Age 2952, with the final hammer blow, the Swift Road, which started from Swiftstream City, finally reached the site of the former Imperial city of Pingnan. This meant that the Kingdom was about to open up its eastern and western territories and completely swallow the Lagrange Plains.

"Is Longya Fort just ahead?" A construction worker wiped the sweat from his brow and looked eastward.

"It's still early! There's still the old site of Wind Chime City in between! You've all worked hard!" Radil walked up with a smile, greeting everyone as he spoke.

“But it will happen soon! Soon the kingdom’s political center will be moved to Lagrange City!” Radil said with a sigh. It was foreseeable that the political center of the Kingdom of Swiftstream City would soon be reduced to the capital of the North.