The Extraordinary Earl

I inspected the first established stronghold among the twenty strongholds, learned about the situation, and gave the elderly some living supplies.

This is the job of Luther Pompeii as acting lord.

Before leaving, Luther told Knight Michel to train the militia well. After a month, he would be transferred to another village to train the militia.

The return journey is not far away. If the former Pompeii Territory was considered a large village, then the expanded Pompeii Territory is roughly the size of a town.

How big can a town be?

Moreover, the roads along the way had been repaired, so Luther quickly returned to the vicinity of Pompeii Castle. When you come to Pompeii Castle, you will see green wheat, occasionally mixed with other crops.

Wheat is growing very well. Although the harvest cannot be estimated yet, I think the harvest should not be too bad. The manure is very effective in fertilizing the fields.

In the green ocean, there are houses standing up, surrounded by a fence. There are sounds of chickens and dogs inside the fence, which is a beautiful pastoral scenery.

Looking at this beautiful scene, Luther occasionally felt that being a rural lord seemed not bad.

Ha ha.

I feel so comfortable all over.

But Luther soon shook his head and got rid of this unrealistic idea. Although the country lord also has fun, our goal is to become a great noble.

If you miss the countryside, you can come and live there.

The big nobles can enjoy the fun of the country nobles, but the country nobles cannot enjoy the fun of the big nobles. This is the difference.

Luther didn’t just talk.

After a while, we gradually approached Pompeii Castle. In this green farmland, you can see thin wooden sticks standing from time to time, with red ribbons tied to the tops of the sticks.

This is a sign. After the autumn harvest, the farmland here will become part of Pompeii City, and the serfs will be arranged to places close to the original Pompeii Territory and the twenty strongholds, increasing the number of Pompeii Territory villages.

Perfect.

At this moment, more than thirty two-story villas were built on the idle land near Pompeii Castle. These were the houses given to the knights by Pompeii.

Of course, it's just the outer shell and the land. The knights have to pay for the furniture and decoration in the villa themselves.

Although the building complex centered on Pompeii Castle is still very small and compact, it already has the appearance of a town.

After returning here, Luther did not choose to enter the castle. Instead, he went to the blacksmith shop with his entourage. The blacksmith shop is still near the castle and near more than thirty villas.

There are also grocery stores, which all look out of place.

The plan was to move the blacksmith shop to the edge of town, but the official move would not take place until after the fall.

Arriving at the blacksmith shop, Luther saw Old Bob, Old Bob's eldest son, second son, and a group of teenagers.

The blacksmith shop is still the original blacksmith shop, but it has been enlarged in scale. It currently has about ten blacksmith furnaces. Old Bob, three blacksmiths, and a group of teenagers are working on the blacksmiths.

The fire is burning brightly, and the temperature in the blacksmith shop is so high that just standing nearby can make people sweat like rain.

"Master Luther." Everyone in the blacksmith shop saw Luther and his party. Old Bob put down the hammer in his hand and greeted them cordially.

His two sons smiled at Luther and continued to forge. The other teenagers looked at Luther with fearful eyes.

As the sons of serfs, they knew from an early age that the lord is God. The overseer in charge of the serfs is the hand of heaven.

If you are lazy, you will be beaten.

They had only fear and no respect for their lords.

And they knew that Luther was the next generation of Pompeii knights.

Luther also knew this, so he showed no affinity to these young people from serf families, because it was difficult to reverse the situation in a short time.

Let them adapt to the life of free people first.

"Hi Uncle Bob." Luther got off his horse and hugged Old Bob happily, without disturbing Old Bob's dirty appearance at all.

Old Bob chuckled.

Old Bob’s plan is to wait for the autumn harvest to cut down the forest and build his own family farmland. The address has already been selected.

Old Bob’s great farmer’s dream is constantly moving forward. But for now, I can still help with blacksmithing at home and teach a bunch of new apprentices.

"How are these apprentices? Are they okay?" Luther looked at the teenagers who looked at him with fearful eyes from time to time and asked.

Becoming apprentices in the blacksmith shop, this group of young serfs not only changed their identities, but their clothes were also much better, their nutrition had also kept up, and they looked much stronger than a month ago.

"Very good, very obedient." Old Bob grinned happily.

As a master master, there is nothing more satisfying for an apprentice than to be obedient. Blacksmithing is a boring job.

Only an honest and obedient child can become a qualified blacksmith.

"That's good."

Luther showed a satisfied smile. Blacksmith, carpenter, and stonemason are necessary professions in a territory. As the size of the town increases, the more people in this profession, the better.

In particular, the blacksmith is also responsible for the equipment, weapons, etc. of the guards. Although there are not many guards in the territory at present, after all the 10,000 people arrive, Luther plans to expand the army by 500 people. Adding the original 100 guards, it will be 600 guards.

Plus militia.

The number of military units and paramilitary units in Pompeii territory will increase to one to two thousand.

Of course, in the early days, you can buy weapons, armor, etc. from Baron Barton, but in the future, Luther hopes that these teenagers can become independent blacksmiths so that the weapons and armor in the territory can be self-sufficient.

Luther chatted with Old Bob for a while and left soon. As for the other carpenters and masons, Luther did not look at them.

Because Luther was not familiar with the carpenters and masons, he might not be able to say a few words after he went there, and he might even be embarrassed.

Forget it.

However, Luther asked the officials of the city hall to keep an eye on the masters. On the one hand, they must keep a close eye on the masters who want to hand over their skills to the serf teenagers, and on the other hand, they must supervise the masters not to treat the serf teenagers harshly.

The status of serf is indeed not a good status.

Not everyone is as kind as old Bob and may be discriminated against.

I visited the newly developed No. 1 stronghold in the territory and learned about the study life of the liberated serf teenagers.

This is Luther's important job as a lord today. From now on, work will still be relatively leisurely, and it will probably be this daily routine.

Just waiting for one thing to come.

That is the autumn harvest.

Autumn harvest means taxes.

After the harvest, Pompeii will officially build a city.

After the autumn harvest, the original villagers and serfs in the Pompeii territory will work with twenty strongholds to develop new farmland.

Luther is quite looking forward to the effect of manure fertilizing the fields.

All in all, the autumn harvest is a big deal.