The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Linde doesn't plan to stay in the valley for too long, but the immediate priority is to restore production in the valley and Doug territory, so Linde will need to stay for a while longer.

Historically, some rebel armies, despite having won, were ultimately unable to maintain their advantage. The main reason for this was their inability to resume production, which in turn prevented them from stabilizing public morale and restoring order.

The North Wind resumed its horn-sounding operation, but this time it was not bringing soldiers and weapons, but rather artisans and production equipment from the western North.

In addition, many merchants boarded the North Wind for the first time, experiencing the train's power as they brought their goods to the valley region.

These merchants were specially invited by Linde. Although the valley is now sparsely populated and there is really no business to do, and Linde is not a professional in this field and does not know how to use the visible hand to manipulate the economy and help a region develop rapidly, Linde can directly manipulate those merchants.

Attracting these merchants is simple, and there are many ways to do so: lower taxes, allow them to lease civilian railways in the future, and provide some support policies. These merchants from the North will soon be scrambling to do business around the valley.

In fact, even if Linde didn't offer any policy support and forced some merchants to come to the valley, there would still be plenty of people who would want to come.

Not to mention that Linde has always adhered to the idea of ​​making money together and getting rich with everyone, just the prestige of Linde's recent victory over the demons will make these merchants come even if they have to pay them. This is not an ordinary investment for making money, but a political investment.

However, Linde wouldn't really let these merchants not make any money at all; that wouldn't last long. So, Linde first took Lena to pay the soldiers' wages. After all, although some soldiers had returned to Gray Collar, there were still many things to do in the Valley after the war, and some people still needed to stay. These soldiers who received their wages but couldn't go back immediately were the best customers.

Linde and Lena sat in the center of the square, checking lists and distributing pay to the soldiers lined up in the square.

"I recognize you."

Lin De sorted out the bag of silver leaves in his hand and handed it to the soldier in front of him, placing it in the soldier's palm and saying, "Your mother is very worried about you in Black Iron City. Now the North Wind also has a mail service, so remember to let your family know you are safe."

At the same time, Linde also took out two other packages of silver leaf coins and two medals and handed them to the soldiers in front of him.

"This is your two older brothers' pension and medals of honor. I'm sorry the certificates haven't been made yet. Send these to your mother first. Remember to tell her that her sons are all outstanding and the pride of us gray-collar soldiers."

The soldier silently accepted the two pensions and medals of honor, his face expressionless, but after receiving them and leaving, he couldn't help but wipe away his tears.

Although they won, it was a very fierce victory. Since the gray and white-collar workers declared war, the number of casualties was not even a fraction of that in this war, although this was partly due to the fact that the number of casualties among gray and white-collar workers had been quite small in the past.

Watching the departing soldiers, Linde sighed. War is indeed extremely cruel, but will those soldiers suffer from so-called post-traumatic stress disorder?

There will probably be some, but most soldiers will only regret not killing a few more monsters and saving a few more teammates.

Distributing soldiers' pay was tiring, but fortunately, it wasn't just Linde and Lena who were there; other officials were also helping out in the square. In fact, Linde could have simply stood by and watched, or even not come at all. At this initial stage, almost no one dared to touch the soldiers' pay, and even if Linde completely ignored it, no one would dare.

But Linde still chose to do it. Besides Lena's request, Linde also wanted to set an example for future generations, just like how emperors of a certain dynasty initially needed to personally inspect the troops at the training ground. Although this rule had become a mere formality since the time of a certain war god, Linde could not refrain from doing it just because this rule might be abolished by unfilial descendants in the future.

To increase the population of the valley and surrounding areas, Linde also helped bring over the families of the soldiers stationed there and provided these families with additional allowances.

This led some soldiers who were struggling financially to choose to be stationed in the valley and surrounding areas, although their numbers were not large.

In this regard, we can only say that we have to take it slowly. The more crucial thing is to manage the Golden Harvest Plain well and make it the granary of the North again. That way, even if Linde doesn't provide subsidies, there will be a steady stream of people coming to replenish the nearby population.

As for the Golden Harvest Plain, after distributing the soldiers' pay, Linde found Tia, who was eating snacks in her tent.

Tia was lying on the sofa that had been moved from the nobleman's house, flipping through books and eating dried fruit, occasionally scratching her thigh. She looked like she was on vacation, very comfortable.

And that was indeed the case. Not long after returning to the Gog Empire, Tia's bad habits developed in the gray-white collar infuriated Avilia. While spanking Tia, Avilia wrote a letter blaming Lind for being too lenient with Tia, to the point that Tia had to repeat a course on etiquette when she returned.

Originally, Avilia didn't want Tia to come back, but after hearing the information provided by Tia and the druid elders, she had no choice but to let Tia go back to continue helping Lind. After all, those monsters of the demon race were no small matter, and it was necessary to have trustworthy people constantly keeping track of the situation.

This was indeed a good opportunity for Tia to gain experience.

"When will the Golden Harvest Plain return to its previous state?"

"It's hard."

Tia closed the book and said, "It's very difficult for land to recover to its former state after a war. With the help of us druids, we might be able to barely make it in time for planting. But as you've probably noticed, the blood of those monsters will pollute the land."

"The methods for dealing with this are in the original scriptures of the God of Nature, but to be honest, we elves are more concerned about what these monsters actually are. After all, the original scriptures only describe the pollution and how to deal with it, without directly describing the monsters themselves."

"We elves will certainly help you restore the land of the Golden Harvest Plain, but in return, we also need the monsters of the demon race, as well as information about that demon god."

Tia's tone was very casual, as if she hadn't considered that Lind might refuse, and indeed that was the case. In any case, Lind and the elves were already practically allies.

Moreover, Lind had some guesses about those monsters. After all, some pieces of meat that hadn't been used or transported away were found in the demon camp. The arrogant demons seemed never to have thought they would lose, and they didn't even have a plan for retreat. These pieces of meat weren't even destroyed.

“We’ve already been investigating those monsters, and we’ll share the information with you, of course. But I have a question: some of the information comes from a rather extreme religion. Can you accept such extreme heretics?”

Tia seemed to understand what Lind meant, and pinched her nose as she said, "If it's just about exchanging information."

Linde nodded. Once he returned to Gray Collar, he could arrange for the elf and the Lantern Dream to meet.

At the same time, letters from other factions also began to arrive at Lind's location.

The battle in the public eye has ended, but the battle behind the scenes has only just begun.