The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

"I understand, step back."

Lind took the letter Keith handed him, glanced at it, and put it aside.

Keith was not surprised by the result. After all, all he had to do was make a statement. Whether the governor had this information or not was irrelevant.

Keith was able to climb up the ranks among the nobility to become a general, which shows he was quite adept at navigating social situations.

Whether the governor knows about these letters or not is not important, nor is it important whether he receives a reward. What matters is that the governor knows that he exists and is very loyal. That is enough.

Watching Keith, with a fawning smile, respectfully leave, Lind continued writing his reply to the queen in the capital.

If only all nobles were as sensible as Keith, unfortunately, such nobles are only a minority. Most nobles still cling to old ideas and refuse to let go.

Some even criticized Lind's reforms as completely violating the kingdom's laws, threatening Lind with the capital, completely unaware that the capital was already preoccupied with its own problems and that the North had effectively become independent.

To be honest, when Linde received the Queen's reply, he felt both annoyed and amused. That time traveler was really shameless, just blatantly asking him for technical support.

This reminded Lin De of his younger sister in his previous life; after a little tug-of-war, she would drop the pretense and directly ask for money.

Linde could only say, "You'll never get married if you keep doing this," while transferring the money.

However, this time-traveling queen still has some sense of shame compared to her younger sister. At least she said that the southwest is about to collapse, and if this time-traveling queen doesn't take action, the country will perish.

Then forget about the "Fengtian Jingnan" incident and get ready to collect the Queen's body.

The gist is this: although it wasn't explicitly stated, the other party clearly already knew what the previous letter meant, and neither side is pretending to be a big shot anymore.

Linde didn't know the situation on the southwestern border, but it shouldn't be at the point of collapse yet, otherwise it wouldn't just be Her Majesty the Queen writing letters.

However, after thinking it over, Linde decided to lend a hand.

First of all, the queen is right. Lind's goal is not limited to the North. The already decadent Kingdom of Capet is easier to deal with than the rising Kingdom of Anjou.

Secondly, even Doug had started using muskets, although they were still very primitive. However, as the war progressed, the method of making muskets would inevitably become known.

The real advantage of the gray-collar workers is not firearms or explosives, nor even the fact that their ray guns were taken by the other side. What Linde truly relies on is the gradually improving industrial system and complete production chain of the gray-collar workers.

In some cases, Linde could even sell obsolete weapons and equipment directly to his opponents at high prices, believing that Doug would be willing to pay the money.

If you're shameless enough, you could even snatch these weapons and equipment back halfway through the journey, and Doug would just shamelessly come back and buy them again.

There was no other way; the disparity in military equipment was too great, and they couldn't win a direct confrontation. Doug desperately needed to acquire the weapons of the Grey Collar army to replicate in order to upgrade his own forces.

By going back and forth a few times using this method, the money to repair the railway will be available, and Doug will have to thank us.

After some thought, Linde decided to write the manufacturing method directly in the letter, even though it might cause a large-scale leak. Linde really couldn't bear to send the technicians from his territory over there.

The knowledge a technician possesses is far greater and more valuable than the complete manufacturing process of a musket.

Hmm... Before sending this letter out, let's sell all the muskets listed in it to Doug. They're all obsolete models anyway, and repairing the railroad is really expensive. Doug will have made a contribution to the North.

I wonder what Doug will feel when he sees the muskets he bought at a high price soon everywhere in the capital.

Then Lind offered his deepest condolences to the late King Cran, and did not forget to ask if the mastermind behind the queen's murder had been caught.

This matter is not so easily forgotten. The basic method of making a musket is just the beginning. If the murderer is caught, Linde would not mind sharing an even better gunpowder formula.

Yeah, we can take down Doug again then.

Linde believed that the nobles in the southwest would take the new gunpowder formula seriously.

To outsiders, Linde was simply too loyal, still thinking about investigating the cause of the late king's death. He was a noble among nobles, a model of loyalty to the king, and a paragon of morality.

If they hadn't seen the sinister glint in Lind's eyes.

Those nobles don't really think they'll be off the hook just because Doug took the blame, do they?

The one who first made the figurines has no descendants.

After dealing with matters from the capital, all that remained was the matter of spring planting.

With the implementation of the Land Allocation Act, as long as this year's spring planting goes smoothly, there should be no need to worry about food issues next year.

In fact, in this world, some alchemically produced fertilizers are already as effective as industrial fertilizers from the previous life, and some specialized fertilizers are even better than industrial fertilizers from the previous life.

But its primary function was for the gardening of noble gentlemen; very little of it was actually used as fertilizer for grain production.

It's not worth it. The serfs' land is more than enough to feed and store up grain for the nobles. Why should they spend their own money to find alchemists or druids for magical items to increase production?

As for the serfs? The nobles would only give them a little bit of the grain they grew themselves when they were about to starve to death, which was already considered merciful. Most nobles would lend money to the serfs, and the interest depended entirely on the nobles' conscience.

The next day, in the study, Lin De asked with a serious expression, "So it really won't work?"

Tia's reply was simple: "No matter what, it's still hard for elves to accept the divine magic of the God of Nature being broken down into arcane magic circles."

"I'll add money."

"This isn't about whether or not to add more money."

The money-adding trick failed for the first time, but Lind wasn't surprised. Breaking down divine magic into arcane magic circles was still hard for these believers to accept. If even inorganic matter can use divine magic, then what is the meaning of faith?

As the next queen of the elves, Tia could never possibly do something so blasphemous to the god of nature.

The main reason is that the divine arts of the God of Nature are too powerful; accelerating growth and ripening would be an extremely overpowered cheat even in a cultivation novel.

Although this accelerated growth is very ineffective for increasing production, because it requires a continuous investment of magic power, the growth rate is determined by the amount of magic power invested, and there is a threshold. Once accelerated to a certain extent, it cannot be accelerated any further, or the effect will become less and less obvious.

With that money and magic, you might as well just buy grain, but it has a more important meaning—breeding.

That's why Lind disregarded the risk of blasphemy and offending believers, and wanted to dismantle the magic of the God of Nature.

No one understands the significance of rapid breeding better than Linde. If the queen transmigrator in the capital knew the current situation, she might be even more anxious than Linde, and even more unscrupulous.

Being able to breed quickly means being able to quickly test hybrids to produce high-yield crops, and even if the cost of this is frighteningly high, Linde will still set out to promote it.

Farming is completely ingrained in Linde's DNA.

Even in Linde's technologically advanced past, being able to feed everyone was something that would warrant the construction of a temple, let alone in this era.

“Alright, if divine magic won’t work, then how about basic druidic magic communication? I need some druids to teach my people how to farm and maintain the land, and also to help me dismantle some ordinary druidic spells.”

That is, the alchemy used to make fertilizer.

"You have to pay more."

Tia spread her hands and looked at Lind.

"..."

Why are all the elves like this?

Who exactly is spreading the rumor that elves are all celibate and abstinent?