Under the Red Dragon.

Chapter 76 How to Manage the Territory
The dragon-born centaur Chiron commanded his monsters to push away the people who were blocking the notice board. His centaurs and kobolds struggled to push the crowd three meters away from Chiron.

These dragon followers did not carry any weapons in this town dominated by humans, and they only held long sticks in their hands to maintain order in the town on a daily basis.

Although the craftsmen brought by these human nobles and merchants continued to smelt the iron ore, because the focus of the furnace workshops they built was on other precious ores, the iron ore was only smelted as a byproduct.

Even though the dragons have begun to consciously transfer their followers to humans' smelting workshops to learn casting techniques, it will not be possible to meet the weapon needs of all their followers in a short period of time.

Now, except for the warriors of the Centaur tribe who have relatively strong combat capabilities and are naturally excellent cavalrymen, the weapons used by other dragon followers are still simple. Even among the Centaur warriors, not every Centaur warrior is equipped with iron weapons.

This long stick made from special trees in the forest is extremely tough and can compete with sharp swords, but the crowd that surrounded it was not afraid.

Firstly, they have begun to get used to the existence of these dragon followers. Not only do these humans need to strictly abide by the order set by the dragons, but these followers also need to abide by the order.

Moreover, these monsters are often subject to stricter constraints than humans because of their own evil nature and certain inherent chaos.

Perhaps in the eyes of the dragon, these lives are all the same, just subjects ruled by the dragon, with different levels of closeness and trust.

Secondly, the humans who gathered around were almost all smart people, and they were very active in listening every time new regulations or rules were announced.

Because these declarations represent the will of the dragons, or can be said to be a certain governing policy of the dragon lords for ruling the land, people with a keen sense of smell will discover enough business opportunities under these new rules.

Sometimes being one step ahead of others can give you an advantage.

Therefore, most of the people who gathered around were managers sent by the pioneer nobles and heads of major merchant groups, because these people all had a keen sense of interests.

These dragon followers surrounded the most powerful warrior in the Centaur tribe into a circle, and then the powerful warrior unfolded the thick sheepskin notice in his hand. However, the Centaur warrior was suddenly stunned, and he forgot that he could not read.

"Damn it, I forgot to bring the slave girl that belonged to Lord Kalon. I always asked her to help me read the notices."

The Centaur warrior Chiron scratched his head, looked around his men and asked, "Is there anyone who can read? Stand up. After you finish reading this notice, I will tell Lord Dos about your contribution."

The monsters surrounding them stared at each other with wide eyes. There was no school or place to impart knowledge in the wasteland.

Among these monsters, being able to understand and learn to speak the common language is already considered a genius, and asking them to learn to recognize words and read and write is simply out of the question.

Not every race has the same heritage as dragons and is born with knowledge.

"Damn it," Chiron cursed angrily, using the words he had learned from the humans. "How can I build a good territory for the dragon if I'm with you insects?"

The angry Centaur warrior supported himself on the ground with his front hooves, raised his strong hind hooves and kicked his men away. The unfortunate monster flew backwards into the crowd, knocking down several residents who were watching the fun.

Chiron scratched his head and suddenly an idea came to his mind. He patted his head, feeling proud of his own cleverness.

The Centaur took out a gold coin from the pocket on his upper waist, thought about it and felt something was wrong, so he changed it to a silver coin. Before he took the silver coin out of his pocket, he hesitated again, and finally took out a few copper coins.

Chiron held a few copper coins in his broad palm and shouted to the residents around him: "If anyone among you can read, as long as he can help me read this notice, these copper coins will be his."

"But there can't be any typos, otherwise I won't give you the money." The Centaur emphasized seriously.

Although it was just a few copper coins, the conditions for completing the task were so simple that many residents raised their hands to indicate that they could help under the temptation of money.

Chiron stared for a long time and chose an old man with gaps in his front teeth, because he heard that the longer these humans lived, the more knowledge they possessed.

"Hey, it's you, the old man," Chiron said, pointing at the chosen human.

When the old man saw that he was chosen, he smiled so hard that his missing teeth were exposed. This was the old man who had guided Ross and Hull.

The old man took the thick parchment scroll from Chiron and began to read it with his eyes narrowed.

According to the management method discussed by Lanlong Duosi and Akzi, there are several main regulations announced this time.

On the one hand, corresponding taxes were levied on all commodity transactions and circulation, instead of the original practice of only levying a certain percentage of cooperation fees and related market rent taxes.

Now the dragons no longer need to give up their interests, they begin to govern their territory like a lord.

Of course, in order to promote the development of the town, Long Qun currently has no intention of imposing tariffs.

There were also restrictions on the trade of certain commodities, such as spices, which were scarce in the inland and more expensive than gold. These precious commodities needed to pay taxes according to a certain proportion of the transaction amount.

In addition, gold mineral resources cannot be mined at will. They must be mined after obtaining the opinions and approval of the Dragon Group. This is equivalent to returning the mineral development to the Dragon Group, and only merchants and partners designated by the Dragon Group can mine them.

There are also salt lakes and salt mines on the grassland, which are forbidden to be mined at will. Now they are guarded by the dragon's followers and no one is allowed to approach them casually.

This means that the dragon group's planning for the territory has gradually gotten on the right track, and is no longer the previous barbaric exploitation and development.

However, these did not cause any trouble to the pioneers, because what they were doing was equivalent to a business with no capital, and now they only needed to pay a little tax which was far lower than that set by the noble lords.

Besides, in this territory, the will of the dragons is the supreme command, and they will not be dissatisfied because of this. However, many people will regret that they can no longer make profits as unscrupulously as before.

The nobles and mages who already had cooperative relations with the dragons were even happier, as they knew better than anyone how profitable the franchise could be. Almost all the noble merchants present were rubbing their hands, thinking about how to please the dragons and get this right from the dragon lords.

However, the subsequent decrees made these people even more excited. The dragon group exempted grain trade from taxes and encouraged humans to settle on this land.

These dragons will recognize the rights of humans living on this land, and no matter who comes to this land, they will become free people after gaining freedom.

Each person brought back will receive a fixed amount of reward. The more people you bring back, the greater the reward.

If one has a special skill, such as a blacksmith, carpenter or other craftsman, or a serf specializing in agriculture, the reward will be doubled.

This implicit hint was almost an explicit statement in these people's ears. It meant that their ships could not only return fully loaded from this golden land, but also from the areas ruled by human countries.

This was equivalent to encouraging everyone to become bandits who plundered and migrated the population, and the nobles were even more delighted that the refugees in their own territories and the villages scattered in the wilderness could be exchanged for large amounts of gold.

What makes other ordinary adventurers even more excited is that the dragons actually promised that everyone can cultivate this land, the reclaimed land will belong to the cultivators, and no taxes need to be paid on the reclaimed land within ten years.

Only after ten years do they need to pay a certain percentage of taxes, and this percentage is lower than that of other noble lords. This condition is impossible for other lords to offer, but it can be guaranteed in the dragon territory, which is almost entirely wilderness.

Humans and other races are encouraged to settle here, and are promised that they can have the status and power that normal people should have. Not only that, if they have outstanding talents, they can also become officials in the dragon territory.

Moreover, as long as they become residents of the dragon territory, they will be exempted from military service for three generations. That is, the territory will not actively conscript these residents within three generations, and the territory will also actively help the residents build houses.

For the dragons, although these conditions are quite generous, they do not actually cost them much in terms of benefits, because those endless forests are originally idle and are in urgent need of population development and utilization.

But even the nobles and wizards were tempted by this condition. They had already stepped out of their homes and stood on the balconies to watch what would happen next.

Even if they have a large family and wealth, there are always some illegitimate children and distant relatives in every family. Instead of keeping these people in the family and being frustrated, it is better to bring them here to seek development.

It is foreseeable that as the rule of the dragons gradually gets on track, the relevant systems will also need to be gradually improved.

This means that not only can they make a lot of money in this land, but perhaps they can also become a noble official in the gradually taking shape dragon kingdom.

The increasingly heated atmosphere in the crowd suppressed the voice of the old man who was reading the notice, and it was not until Chiron sent his men to stop him several times that he was able to continue reading the notice.

But the mind of the wizard Lazi has drifted far away, and he decided to go back and have a good discussion with his team of adventurers. These dragon lords are currently intending to build a unique dragon kingdom, rather than choosing to have a monster kingdom like the other five-colored dragons.

Opportunities and dangers coexist. People with a keen eye will often seize the glimmer of opportunity in danger. Mage Lazi feels that he may be able to take a bold gamble and become one of those people with a keen eye.

Maybe I could make a career for myself in the future instead of being a wandering adventurous civilian wizard. Maybe I could become the founder of a family.

The young mage began to be filled with longing to even have his own mage tower.

Not to mention the discussions and ideas of the noisy crowd in the town, under the discussion between the blue dragon Dos and Akzi, the Dragon Territory finally began to take a crucial step, gradually stepping onto the track that a territory should be from its original barbaric and disorderly development.

Perhaps due to the natural distrust of the five-colored dragons, not many humans will choose to come to this land, but when those sold by the nobles take root here, it will be proven. All this takes time.

And time, compared to those short-lived species, always stands by the dragon.

As word of the Dragon Lord's new laws spread, the townspeople began to have different ideas.

These residents who temporarily gathered in the golden Haikou town for adventure and gold panning originally set foot on this land only for profit.

But if the ruler of this land really ruled the territory as the decree stated, a considerable number of these people began to think about living here permanently.

Moreover, in the world of Ekania, there are countless prosperous towns formed by gold mining, adventure or certain commercial trades. In the far southern continent, there are many examples of towns that have developed from wastelands into prosperous towns because of seaport trade.

For example, the famous Black Rock Trading Port gradually gained favor among maritime merchant groups because of its abundance of a special spice, its good navigation routes, and its harbor that was naturally suitable for ships to dock.

It has developed from a small village into a large seaport where various major merchant groups are stationed. In particular, the Blackstone Merchant Group, the number one maritime merchant group in the southern continent, is also stationed there. They are involved in almost all local industries, hence the name Blackstone Port.

What's more, the Golden Haikou Town is a place where all these key points are gathered together. Although it is a little far away from human countries, the safe trade routes along the way have already been fully explored.

The only thing that worries these people is that there are evil five-colored dragons ruling this place.

Although the previous good cooperation has given both parties initial trust, once it comes to their long-term future, everyone will subconsciously refer to their own stereotypes, and these will take time to slowly change.

However, according to Blue Dragon Doss, in this situation, the nobles and merchant groups should take the lead in breaking the deadlock. Although these nobles and merchants can succeed because of their natural birth, sometimes facing opportunities, these merchants and nobles are more fearless than those brave adventurers.

Because these people are not only educated due to their good backgrounds and have vision that ordinary people do not have, but they also have the character to take a big gamble in their bones. If not, they would not have achieved their current status and power.

Of course, what is more important is that these people can do anything when faced with sufficient benefits.

They are only afraid of no benefit or too little benefit.

(End of this chapter)