Farming in the Magical World

Lanny was completely unaware of what was happening to the Enoch family, but he could clearly sense the Earl's malice and naturally had to make the necessary preparations.

After the promotion ceremony, he summoned Tim and Frank to his study, and his first words were, "The guard needs to be expanded to 100 men. What are your thoughts?"

Tim, who already knew his feelings, wasn't surprised and remained calm, but Frank was somewhat taken aback.

"Young Master, no... Weren't the Grummans all driven away? Why are you suddenly expanding your recruitment?"

Looking at Frank, Lenny felt that there were some things he needed to know, otherwise things would get complicated later.

Including Tim, we need to make it clear to him that last time he only knew that we were going to expand, but we haven't told him the reasons yet.

"Frank, have you ever thought about this question? Why is it that Petrov and his group of fifty or sixty people can move freely in and out of several surrounding territories?"

"Why is it that the Earl has gathered several lower-ranking nobles to surround and intercept them, almost becoming a laughing stock in the North, yet he still can't catch up?"

"Why are there noble armies in several directions, but not in the direction of Caster Ridge?"

As Lenny asked one question after another, Frank and Tim both fell into deep thought.

They hadn't considered these factors together before, so they didn't think much of it. But now, after Lanny's reminder, they all realized that it really wasn't that simple.

These reasons, taken together, led the two to a chilling conclusion: ...

Seeing that both of them looked pale, Lanny nodded, confirming their guess. "That's right, my dear father-in-law, Earl Angus Enno, isn't exactly friendly to our Wells family!"

When he told the two men that Angus intended to change the title of Caster Ridge to his brother-in-law, and that he was even willing to drive the Grummans into Caster Ridge in order to use them to eliminate the Wells family, the two men were stunned.

Tim was extremely agitated and immediately drew his longsword, ready to rush into the Enoch family and confront Angus.

Frank, on the other hand, was completely bewildered, constantly muttering, "What should we do? What should we do? What should we do?"

The only solution he could think of was to file a complaint with Grand Duke Marcus of the North, accusing Earl Enno of suppressing lower-ranking nobles.

"Uncle Tim, even if you have the Dark-Patterned Sword, are you confident you can storm the castle alone and see the Earl?"

"Frank, don't forget, we're all just speculating; we don't have any concrete evidence!"

"Alright, alright, don't worry, we're already working on a solution. This expansion of the guard is precisely to deal with any potential dangers."

After finally calming the two down, Lenny steered the conversation back to the purpose of the discussion.

"You should reconsider and see what problems arise from expanding the guard. This matter is urgent! Who knows when bandits, thieves, or even Grummans might reappear outside the castle!"

Hearing Lanny's words, the two gradually quieted down and began to think about the issue of expansion.

"First, there are the issues of location, weapons, and training!"

“Our current venue can't accommodate more than 100 people, and we need time to equip ourselves with weapons. We haven't even purchased bows and arrows yet. Training is also a problem. I can't manage it all by myself. A few squad leaders can train with me, but they're not quite ready to lead their own teams!”

As the person in charge of the guard's training, Tim focused more on training and related issues.

After thinking for a moment, Lanny immediately offered his idea.

"As for the location, there's a large flat area downstream of Hexi Village, to the side of the castle. Let's go there and build another campsite!"

The place Lanny mentioned is not far from Hexi Village and is also relatively close to the castle, almost forming a triangle with the castle and Hexi Village.

That piece of land was probably formed by river erosion in ancient times. It was a sandy area, not very good for growing crops, and very barren. But its only advantage was that it was flat and large enough.

Lanny also plans to build a potential factory there in the future, so he set up a camp first, which will also serve as a security force for the factory in the future.

"As for the weapons, only Elfen can meet the demand for a hundred bows nearby. But since the Count has already set his sights on us and is going to Elfen to buy bows and arrows, he can't possibly be unaware of this. He certainly won't let us make a deal so easily, and I don't want to attract his attention either!"

After stroking his chin and thinking for a moment, Lanny continued, "Do you remember Ford from the Locke Merchant Guild who came to the castle last time?"

Tim wasn't present when Ford came to the castle, but Frank had seen him. When Lenny mentioned him, he nodded and said, "I remember, he seems to have ordered a batch of weapons from us."

“Yes, Frank, have Joseph make a trip. He doesn’t have a strong presence in the castle, so the Earl probably won’t pay attention to him. Have him go to Elfen to find Ford and tell him I have a business deal to discuss with him!”

Frank nodded, indicating that he had made a note of it.

As for the training arrangements, Lanny didn't have much to worry about. He put Tim in charge of the training at the new camp, and those who received the promotion order this time would be assigned to be the captains of a squad.

The old camp, as the main defense force of the castle, is responsible for the safety of the castle and key figures such as Lanny. Black Tiger is left in charge to conduct daily training and report to Tim.

In addition, he planned to make some minor adjustments to the team, changing the combat squad to consist of one shield bearer and three spearmen. The shield bearer would be equipped with a shield and a scimitar, while the three spearmen would be equipped with red-tasseled spears and bows. Three combat squads would form a combat platoon, and ten combat platoons would form a battalion.

In this way, a team becomes 12 people instead of the previous 11.

Of course, the castle is currently only the size of one large brigade, and there is no need to consider anything larger at the moment, nor is it necessary.

Of course, with the change in the combat team configuration, the subsequent training also needs to be transformed. Instead of uniformly conducting marksmanship training, it now places more emphasis on training four-person teamwork.

“In that case, I have no problem.” Tim had no objection to his idea, but was a little confused about what the scimitar was.

In Lanny's opinion, once a shield bearer is approached, he will definitely lack the strength to hold the shield with one hand, so weapons like cleavers are not suitable, and knight's swords are too long and difficult to handle.

He suddenly remembered the curved swords popular among bandits in movies and TV shows—light, agile, and of just the right length.

When Lanny drew a rough diagram on the paper, Tim stared at it, looking it up and down, unable to recall where it came from. "What kind of weapon is this? I've never seen it before?"

"As long as it works, you don't need to worry about the source. Just pretend I dreamed about it!" Lanny was too lazy to make up a reason. Lies always have loopholes, so he simply stopped making them up and let the knight guess.

After addressing Tim's question, he turned to Frank.

Frank, as the butler, was more concerned with issues outside of training, which can be simply summarized as logistical problems.

“Young Master, the first issue is the salary. A monthly salary costs about ten gold coins. In addition, there are expenses for making team uniforms, purchasing weapons, and purchasing iron materials. The family’s current gold coins may not last long.”

"Furthermore, how will we solve the food problem for these people? Black Mountain Village can solve part of the meat problem, but what about vegetables and staple foods? What will we do then?"

Just when he had racked his brains to solve the training problem, more and more troublesome related issues arose, causing Lanny a lot of worry.

I didn’t expect that expanding to just a hundred or so people would cause so many problems. I can’t imagine how logistics would be handled for troops that have thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers.

Indeed, as the old saying goes, war is all about logistics. This is still the era of cold weapons. If it were the era of firearms, with such a huge consumption of ammunition, how troublesome would it be?

Although it was a huge headache, the problem still needed to be solved. After pondering for a while, he finally came up with some ideas.

As for meat, he plans to sign a contract directly with the hunters in Heishan Village and purchase all their game at market prices.

In other words, the castle would accept all the game they hunted, and even if they couldn't eat it all, he planned to make it into dried meat to serve as rations for the guards.

As for other items, since we're going to buy things from the Locke Merchant Guild anyway, we might as well buy more. For example, we can ask them to buy staple foods and large quantities of iron.

Of course, he will gradually cooperate with more chambers of commerce whenever the opportunity arises. He knows that relying on a single supplier is a big no-no.

In the early stages, we don't need to be so particular.

As for the expenditure issue, according to the current plan, relying solely on the Dark Pattern Sword, the castle will not only fail to make money from the Locke Merchant Guild, but will also have to pay out a large sum of money.

Therefore, the castle must find new sources of revenue.

Lanny's considerations are paper, glass, and tea. There are almost no results yet for these three things, but he is confident that he can get them done as soon as possible.

First, let's talk about paper. Grandma Mei herself has experience in making animal paper, and the process is very similar to the process she remembers for making white paper. It's just a matter of finding suitable raw materials and then making minor adjustments to the process. I believe there will be results soon.

As for the glass, everything is ready except for the final touch.

The crucible is now ready, but Lanny remembers that the melting temperature of glass is not fixed at 800 or 900 degrees Celsius, but fluctuates between 800 and 1600 degrees Celsius, depending mainly on the raw materials.

His two trump cards for further increasing the temperature are: first, coal grinding and crushing to increase the contact area with air; and second, the human-powered blower that Cody is researching.

A blower is much more efficient than a bellows. He believed that even if there were strange things in this world, he was sure that glass could be made by working together. After all, great power can create miracles, and if you have enough strength, even a brick can fly.

He also needs to make glass ones; the decorations on the Dark Pattern Sword require this stuff.

As for the tea, well, he hasn't gone to Black Mountain next to Black Mountain Village to check it out in person yet. He's only heard from Black Tiger and Jimmy that the tea trees there are very large, and these tea trees are spread across several hills.

Black Mountain is a general term for a mountainous area. It is named Black Mountain because the soil is black and hard.

Lanny had wondered if the black color of the mountain meant it was an iron ore vein, but he vaguely remembered that iron ore was red, so it didn't seem to be an iron ore. He had always wanted to go and see for himself, but he had never been able to find the time.

"Oh, by the way, could you go to the village and recruit a few more people for me, four blacksmith apprentices and four carpenter apprentices? I'll pay them two silver coins a month."

Seeing that the young master hadn't solved the problem of making money yet, and was about to spend money again, Frank wanted to dissuade him, but looking at Lanny's confident appearance, he hesitated for a long time and didn't say anything.