Lord of Rot

Footsteps sounded from outside.

Leech reached out, grabbed Azure by the scruff of his neck, and lifted him up, rescuing the Brass Dragon from the cat’s mouth.

"Alright, go on and play outside for now," Leech said, waving his hand at the black cat.

"Meow~" Azure meowed. Pitz must have taught him what those words meant, because after hearing Leech speak, he let out another couple of cries, then hopped off the table and left.

"Oh, do be careful, Sir Azure." Gelan’s laugh came from outside the door.

Knowing someone was coming, the Brass Dragon complained, "This is why I hate cats and dogs."

The moment the door pushed open, the Brass Dragon shut its mouth and flopped down on the table, posing as an exquisite brass dragon ornament.

Gelan entered. "Good day, my Lord!"

"Good day," Leech sighed helplessly. "Gelan, I bet you’ve carefully prepared over a month’s worth of trivial matters for me."

"Yes, my Lord. I’ve compiled everything on paper for your convenient review."

Papermaking hadn’t been fully rolled out yet, but they could already supply the city hall and Leech’s personal needs.

"How thoughtful of you," Leech said, his head starting to ache as he looked at the thick stack of paper, every page densely packed with words.

The trivial affairs of 2,000 people, all the bits and pieces—the resolved issues had to be reported to him, and the unresolved ones even more so. This was Leech’s own prior directive, meant to prevent people from seizing opportunities for corruption.

In reality, corruption was absolutely unavoidable. Such is human society.

All he could do was tighten supervision and conduct periodic crackdowns.

If he gave the impression that he was hands-off, his subordinates would only grow more and more audacious.

"The stables have been built."

As Leech flipped through the report, Gelan gave a verbal summary, explaining, "Lord Kro Camel said he can go to the Desert Nobility to purchase some excellent warhorse breeds."

Each region had its own unique warhorses, like the Fierymanes of the East Gorge, which had somewhat explosive tempers but were well-rounded overall.

The horses from Giant’s Foot were smaller and livelier, suited for running in harsh environments, but couldn’t compare to the Fierymanes on open ground.

Endor’s steppe warhorses were large and rumored to be excellent at coordination, allowing those steppe Barbarians to become one with their mounts, though their charging power was a bit lacking.

The horses of the Northern Territory were better suited for light cavalry and scouts.

Warhorses from the Desert Area, while not the most agile, were highly adaptable and had great stamina, making them perfectly suited for a Knight’s charge.

Nowadays, there were no strict regional divisions; you could see nobles riding all sorts of warhorse breeds in any land.

"And the price is more affordable," Gelan added.

"Then let’s bring in a batch of desert warhorses," Leech said. "Have Quickblade arrange a squad of Soldiers to escort Kro to Leon City."

With the horses sorted out, the next issue was the residential area. The question of when to move was raised, as the city hall had finally figured out the accounts for demolition and relocation.

It hadn’t been easy.

When Leech returned, he saw the houses were already nearing completion.

Leech said, "There still aren’t enough houses. We’ll continue building next year."

"As for moving in, let’s wait a while. Perhaps they can move in before the first snow this year."

’The people have some money now,’ Leech thought. ’The new houses can’t be distributed equally. The more you chase ’equality,’ the more inequality you create.’

The simplest solution was money.

Those with money could move in now; those without would have to wait for the second phase of residential construction.

So he would wait a bit longer. By then, even more people would have money.

Even if moving into a new house was dirt cheap, you still had to pay the dirt-cheap price, right? No one gets something for nothing.

Speaking of construction, the topic of the new dock naturally came up.

"As for the watchtower you wanted on the cape, we may have to wait a while longer for that."

"Then build the dock first," Leech said. "After it’s built, have Piri take the sailors out to test the waters. Otherwise, isn’t our ship just going to waste?"

"Yes." Gelan nodded. He also favored opening the waterway first. Once that was done, they could try sending merchant caravans to East Port City, which would make transportation much more convenient. Moreover, with a dock, more merchants would surely be willing to come to Porcupine Territory.

Next was the issue of the blacksmiths’ factory receiving fewer orders recently.

Normally, though the work was tiring, they earned a lot of money. Now that they were suddenly idle and couldn’t earn, the blacksmiths were growing discontent.

In contrast, the carpenters’ workshop and the masons’ construction teams hadn’t had a day off.

Exhausted, but raking in money.

"Have them forge another batch of weapons, as well as the iron tubes I requested," Leech ordered. "And ammunition."

Muskets had terrible accuracy, but they weren’t entirely useless.

In Earth’s history, you never saw anyone taking aim before firing a musket. The true use of muskets was volley fire.

Muskets were inaccurate, had short range, and plenty of other problems.

But compared to the advantages of being convenient and easy to use—just load the powder and pull the trigger—the inaccuracy was acceptable. As long as the field of fire was wide enough, it didn’t matter where you hit; someone was bound to die.

However, Leech wasn’t sure how effective muskets would be in a world of Transcendents.

With the help of Claude’s merchant caravan, the price of basic gunpowder ingredients had dropped significantly, and he planned to bring muskets onto the stage.

"Yes." Gelan didn’t understand the purpose of the iron tubes but nodded obediently. Anyone who had witnessed Leech’s talent for invention would not doubt his decisions.

"Also..."

More than a month’s worth of accumulated problems was enough to make Leech’s head split open.

For instance, the strictly prohibited promiscuity had started up again.

Between the single men and women, one side or the other was always unable to restrain themselves.

"This must be strictly controlled!" Leech emphasized again. "They all pray to the Four Gods every day, but when it comes to this, they indulge themselves again, is that it?"

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand people have biological needs, but promiscuous relationships would only breed disease.

Not only was the current level of medicine incapable of curing them,

but messy relationships were also a vector for spreading illness.

"If it comes to it, we’ll set up matchmaking sessions. Get them married," Leech said.

"Matchmaking?"

"It’s similar to a noble’s ball," Leech explained.

The most famous form of matchmaking was the noble’s ball. If you fancied a young lady, you could try to strike up a conversation. As for how deep that conversation went—and whether you could close the distance entirely—that depended on your own abilities.

But for commoners, matchmaking was just a formality—a quick check for compatibility. It was a case of beggars not being choosers.

Gelan nodded. "If we could hold a party that everyone in Porcupine Territory could attend, it would surely boost morale."

He continued, "And if some people find a partner in the process, that would be for the best."

It’s human nature to seek excitement. What was that old saying? A wife isn’t as good as a mistress, a mistress isn’t as good as a secret lover, and a secret lover isn’t as good as one you can’t have.

But strict prohibitions with clear consequences could still effectively prevent the emergence and spread of disease.

It’s better to provide an outlet than to simply block the flow. The "outlet" Leech was providing was marriage.

Porcupine Territory currently had more women than men. The first step was to ensure every man had a wife, satisfying at least part of the demand.

As for the rest... he’d just have to go get more people.

’There aren’t enough men to go around,’

Leech sighed.

He had just finished giving instructions to Gelan when Joe arrived. His issue was relatively simple.

They needed to scale up.

The Porcupine Wine business was booming. Claude was already offering more money just to buy a little more.

Honey sales were also good, but with winter approaching, the bees needed to hibernate, so honey production would cease for a while.

"A merchant caravan from the Three-Fork River Land also came inquiring, hoping to purchase some of the wine."

Nothing made Leech happier than a merchant caravan showing up unprompted.

The Three-Fork River Land was another noble territory in the East Gorge. As its name suggested, it was situated around the Three-fork River and was rich in waterways and ecological resources.

It also had mineral veins, and rumor had it that precious alchemy resources were often mined there.

In short, it was the envy of Baron Porcupine—another local tycoon.

"Scale up!" Leech slammed his hand on the table, making an instant decision. "Keep expanding. As for personnel, prioritize hiring local commoners from Porcupine Territory, especially those whose entire families live here, who are married and have children."

"Yes."

As long as there was market demand, they would produce like crazy.

But grain cultivation couldn’t fall behind. Food was the foundation; otherwise, they would have to rely on others for raw materials and be at their mercy.

’Still short on people. I have to find a way to get more.’

The higher-ups of Porcupine Territory came in one after another. Joe had just left when Quickblade arrived.

Quickblade was very direct. "My Lord, you’re buying warhorses?"

Although the stables were far from Porcupine Castle, anyone who wasn’t deaf would have heard about the construction plans.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Leech asked, taking a sip of honey beer.

From the look on Quickblade’s face, it was clear he had come prepared.

Leech knew exactly what this was about.

He wanted stables for one reason: Cavalry.

The role infantry could play was just too limited.

Especially since he was preparing to bring highly mobile musketeers onto the battlefield. Qi Jiguang’s musket cavalry was his initial goal.

"Heh heh."

Quickblade grinned. "No suggestions, but my Lord, didn’t you say before that you were going to form a Cavalry? All the bastards under my command wanted me to come and ask about it."

Speaking of Cavalry, Leech often used the excuse of selecting cavalrymen to start a fight—one against a hundred, at that.

But every time, after he was done fighting, he’d pull up his pants... err, that is, he’d dust himself off and leave. This left the Soldiers under him on tenterhooks, with no definite word. But he was the Lord, after all. Even if he fought them and left them hanging, they wouldn’t dare say a thing.

Now, hearing that Leech was buying warhorses and building stables, the Soldiers’ dreams of riding once again flared to life.

"Mm," Leech said. "In that case, select another hundred Soldiers. Then, have the veterans and the new recruits train together and go through selection together."

A hundred Soldiers wasn’t enough for a real showing. Leech wanted to expand the size of his forces.

"Huh?" Quickblade was stunned for a moment, then quickly recovered. "Yes, sir!"

Recruiting another hundred new soldiers meant the number of Cavalry would also increase. For the veterans, this meant their chances were even better than the new recruits’.

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