Unknown Knight

"Long live!" "Long live Lord X!" "Long live Fort Standstill!" "Long live the people of Fort Standstill!"...

Looking at the cheering crowds below, Axel was filled with emotions. He had not enjoyed such a scene of being admired by everyone for a long time. This made him excited but also under a lot of pressure. Now the saying that the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility is really not just talk for him. It is easy to say in other places, but it is so difficult to feed more than a thousand people in this barren land. It gives him a headache just thinking about it.

According to the preliminary estimates of James and Veron, there are now more than 220 water collection networks in the entire territory. In addition to drinking, the collected water is used to irrigate more than ten acres of vegetable fields on the terrace and for brewing wine, and there is still a lot of surplus water.

Now that the population has suddenly more than doubled, water supply has suddenly become tight and clean water has to be supplied in limited quantities. This makes Aix very worried. What if the wind direction changes one day and the wind blows from the land to the sea, the water obtained by the water collection network will drop significantly, and then everyone in the territory will have to suffer from thirst.

In addition, the problem of food for everyone also needed to be solved. Originally, some food was purchased from Rogge, and some was purchased from people from surrounding settlements who came to trade. Not only was there enough food for food, but also for making wine. The warehouse was also full of food.

Now there are half more mouths to feed, and the food in the warehouse is decreasing at a visible rate. If people from the surrounding settlements don't come to trade food, or Rogge stops selling food to him, then he really will be helpless. This is too dependent on others, which is not Aix's usual style. He must find a way to solve the problem as soon as possible.

Then there is the issue of work arrangements due to the sudden doubling of the population. The salt fields, which require a large number of people, are now basically saturated. Almost the entire bay has been developed into salt fields, and the snow salt produced has begun to accumulate.

The same is true for another pottery workshop. Originally, Ganlu's wine-making workshop needed people, but now due to the shortage of water and food, the wine-making workshop also does not need manpower, and may even lay off employees in the future.

Moreover, with so many people idle now, it is easy for trouble to arise and laziness will drain the people's diligence. Only by finding ways to give them things to do and continuously create profit value can the entire territory operate healthily and smoothly. Otherwise, if he directly swallows up so many people in the Harrisi family, it will be like eating too much indigestible food and choking himself to death. Wouldn't that be a big joke?

With no other options at the moment, Aix had to ask Bambo to organize more manpower after the meeting to increase the production of water collection networks. He also purchased more reed poles and stored them as strategic materials.

However, an incident a few days later allowed Aix to find a way to solve the current dilemma. It came from something Mathilde reported.

Having lived by the sea since she was a child, Mathilde was very good at sailing and fishing. Ever since she had the small sampan given by Roger, as long as she was not going to Roger to transport goods and slaves, Aix would let people who knew how to fish drive the small sampan to the nearby sea to fish. Mathilde took the initiative to ask to be responsible for leading people to fish.

As for getting fish from the sea, Aix still had high hopes. The dozens of mazes made by Bambo and his men could yield about fifty kilograms of miscellaneous fish every day. Although these fish were not many and could not solve the food shortage, they could still be used to make a bowl of delicious fish soup for everyone, along with some kelp and sea cabbage.

Since Mathilde took the initiative to ask, Aix let her be responsible for driving the small sampan and leading a five-person fishing team to fish. At the beginning, because they were not familiar with the fish conditions, the daily catch was limited.

Later, as Mathilde understood the changes in the surrounding water temperature and the direction of ocean currents, the daily catch of fish gradually increased, ranging from a hundred kilograms to one or two hundred kilograms, which greatly alleviated the pressure on food.

Seeing the increase in harvest, Aix became more determined to make a living from the sea, so he bought two small sampans from Rogge, which were specifically used for sea fishing. The fishing team also increased to more than 20 people, who were all led by Mathilde.

With the increase in ships and manpower, Mathilde's range of activities also expanded. The coastal waters within a radius of dozens of miles became her fishing grounds. The daily catch of two to three hundred kilograms of fish also became a stable source of food for Fort Standstill.

One day, when Mathilde was fishing in a bay five miles away, she found that there was a body of water surging up on the relatively calm water of the bay. She sailed the boat over, scooped up a handful of water and tasted it, and it turned out to be drinkable fresh water.

Aix was delighted to hear the news, and followed Mathilde on a boat to the bay. After some searching, he finally found the spring that was bubbling up. He scooped up a handful of water and tasted it. Although it was a bit salty, it was not very strong and could be drunk directly.

Everyone filled their water bags with fresh water and sailed back. Before leaving, Aix looked at the terrain here. This bay was different from the Standing Fort Bay. The entire bay was at least ten miles long. Except for the two sides which were composed of rocky beaches, there were no cliffs or rocky beaches in the middle. It was like a big slope, and the entire land slanted into the sea.

After returning to Fort Standstill, Aix, James, Velen and other leaders told them about the spring in the sea. They were all amazed. They never thought that there would be a fresh water spring in the sea which was full of salt water.

However, James poured cold water on him. According to his argument, apart from the more than two hours of delay on the way there and the manpower and resources needed to fetch water, going to the sea spring to fetch fresh water was a loss-making move. It would be more cost-effective to build a few more water collection networks, unless there was a serious water shortage.

However, Aix thought differently from them. With his knowledge system of the original world, he knew that it was not surprising that there was such a freshwater spring in that bay. It should be because of some reason that caused the land in that area to sink into the sea. There was already a groundwater layer under that land, and now all the strata are tilting towards the sea. Then, the groundwater layer that sank into the sea gathered and gushed out under the action of gravity, eventually forming a unique and peculiar landscape of a sweet spring in the sea.

Although it is inconvenient to use spring water from the sea, what about the spring water on land? If we can tap into the groundwater layer on the land and draw fresh water from the well, wouldn’t it be convenient to use it?

He acted as soon as he thought of it. He immediately asked people to prepare the digging tools and go to that area to explore the underground water source when the sun was not too hot.