Compared with most lords in Dawn Continent, the pensions for soldiers in Harland Territory are very good.
The families of soldiers who died in battle can receive 50 kilograms of food every month, and a death allowance of one gold coin every year.
This kind of pension can be received continuously for twenty years.
In addition, every year during the Dawn Goddess’ Christmas, the territory will give some holiday expenses to the families of martyrs.
Last year's festival expenses were three taels of brown sugar, ten pounds of mutton, a roll of linen, and three silver coins.
Although the supplies are small, they are enough for the martyrs' families to have a good holiday.
The annual pension provided by the territory is enough for a family of three to barely support themselves.
The pension policy designated by Richard is better than the treatment of the regular army of Grant Kingdom.
For a central army such as the Northern Army, when a soldier dies in battle, he or she is only given ten gold coins as a pension, plus the comrades and officers contribute a little, so it's a one-time deal.
When the pensions are all spent, the living standards of the families of the fallen soldiers will plummet.
The pension issued by the Harland Territory is not a one-time settlement, but lasts for twenty years. For many soldier families who are not good at managing money, this pension is a guarantee of survival.
Because of the implementation of a good pension policy, the soldiers in the Harland territory fought desperately.
In several wars, the territory has lost more than 200 soldiers in total. The annual pension, including food, costs about 400 gold coins.
As casualties continue to increase, the pressure on pension expenditures will also increase.
If there are no new sources of finance, the capital chain will become tighter and tighter, and eventually the territory will go bankrupt.
The brick order brought by Baron Sharp has been completed, and the territory's largest cash income now comes from the sale of steel.
The heavy trebuchet blueprints were exchanged for more than a thousand kobold slaves, and now they are all sent to the mines for mining, and the output of the steel plant has also increased.
The territory consumes half of the steel production capacity and sells the remaining half.
Steel sales are increasing every month, and last month it exceeded 300 gold coins. The profit after deducting expenses is quite considerable.
After completing Baron Sharp's order, Richard did not let the brick kiln factory stop and continued to bake bricks.
In addition to supplying the fired bricks to Fort Sophia, Richard is also preparing to build several roads and expand the river terminal.
Next year, Richard is also planning to build a new military fortress, Iron Mountain Fort, near the steel plant and add a squadron of soldiers to protect the mine and guard against spies.
This year's grain harvest has once again ushered in a bumper harvest. Excluding the rations left by the territorial residents, the grain reserves in the territory have exceeded 8,000 tons.
Richard only plans to store 3,000 tons of grain. If the remaining grain is put into the market, the price of grain in Heihe Fort will drop a bit.
Moreover, grain trade requires a lot of transportation capacity. If you want to transport grain, you need to build roads and build grain transport ships.
If you hire an outside grain ship, a piece of the profit will be taken away by others.
The investment in road construction and shipbuilding was not small. Richard calculated the cost and felt that it was not very cost-effective.
Especially in recent years, the territory is still very short of money, so any little money can be saved.
In a short period of time, Richard only planned to build Fort Sophia to Fort William, Fort Sophia to Iron Mountain Fort, and Fort Sophia to Bobi Brick Kiln Factory to connect the castles in the territory.
These three roads undertake military dispatch tasks and have higher priority.
Since food cannot be transported out, the territory needs cash income.
After thinking about it, Richard decided to build a brewery and brew grain into liquor in exchange for money.
The wine market in the Grant Kingdom is mainly wine, with some fruit wines and grain wines being relatively rare.
Through long-term observation, Richard discovered that the northern region prefers spirits.
If high-alcohol wine is brewed, sales should not be a problem. The key is to keep the secret of the brewing process.
The distilled liquor brewing process is so simple that anyone can copy it just by looking at it.
The high-alcohol trade may not be able to be monopolized for too long.
There is also grain wine on the Heihebao wine market, but the brewing process is very backward. Not only are there many impurities, the wine is also very turbid, and the taste is sour.
Richard carefully studied the brewing process of grain wine and found that this primitive grain wine used fermentation method.
Using fermentation method, not only the yield is low, the time is slow, the degree is low, but the taste is also very average.
Switching to the distillation method, the taste is much better and the cost is also reduced.
Richard used the distillation method to brew a batch of liquor on a small scale and let the soldiers in the army taste it. He won praise and recognition from the soldiers.
Of course, this batch of liquor is relatively strong and the noble lady does not like it, and it is not suitable for use as wine for noble banquets.
But as long as we capture the market of Northern Legion soldiers, we can make money by opening a brewery.
After brewing liquor on a small scale and gaining popularity, Richard immediately began to build a brewery.
Richard originally planned to go to the Grand Duchy of Stanik to purchase a group of slaves and use these slaves who had no connection with the Grant Kingdom to build a brewery, but he did not expect that more than 2,000 refugees would be recruited.
This group of refugees has nothing to do with the lords of other regions in the north, so they can just select a group of brewing workers.
When these people arrived at the territory, Richard took them to the south of Bobi Brick Kiln and across the Burnie River.
The other side of the Burni River is still a wilderness, and dozens of hectares of paddy fields can be cultivated.
The brewery is built at the foot of the mountain, about 500 meters away from the river.
It is now late autumn, and the weather is getting colder and colder.
In order to speed up the construction of the winery, Richard mobilized 3,000 serfs to help 2,000 refugees cut down trees and build houses.
By mid-October, rows of brick houses had been erected at the foot of the mountain. The refugees had settled down smoothly, and the distillery was completed. Highly distilled liquor began to be produced on a large scale.
Because the alcohol content of distilled wine is very high, often reaching over 60 degrees, it tastes too strong. Richard mixed some water and felt a little better.
Grain wine mixed with water came out, and it immediately became popular in Heihe Fort and swept through all major taverns.
This kind of wine was named Heart Fire by Richard.
Soldiers, mercenaries, and hunters are loyal customers of distilled liquor.
In the cold winter in northern Xinjiang, drinking a glass of high-alcohol wine can warm up the body and resist the severe cold.
Moreover, the price of distilled liquor is also very affordable. You can buy one kilogram for three copper coins.
Normally, three pounds of grain can brew one pound of wine.
The cost of grain for one kilogram of puree wine is only two copper coins. If labor and investment are included, the cost is still higher than three copper coins.
Richard sells blended wine, so the cost is lower.
Calculated, one kilogram of blended wine is less than one copper coin, and the profit has doubled. The twice profit is enough for the capitalist to sell the noose to hang himself.
Whether it is the previous life on earth or this life, the alcoholic beverage industry is a highly profitable industry.
If a brand effect is formed, profits exceeding 200% are actually very common in the beverage industry.
It's a pity that the productivity of Grant Kingdom is not yet the time to pursue brands, and there is no brand effect.
I have something to do in the afternoon. I went to the county town to buy an electric bicycle. Today there are still ten updates. There will be ten updates every day from the 1st to the 5th, eight updates every day from the 6th to the 10th, and five updates every day after the 10th. Until next month, the manuscripts will basically be deposited.
It is no longer available, and only 6,000 words can be updated every day.