Friedman Butcher woke up from his sleep on time. The maid climbed onto the velvet-padded bed, fetched an ironed coat, and dressed and washed him.
The coat was heated on the stove, a hot water bottle was stuffed in the boots all night, and the gloves were hidden close to the body by the maid all night to ensure that they would be at the right temperature when they were given to the clan leader the next day.
Every accessory on the clothes will be carefully taken care of, including the family crest, cuffs, and canes, which must be shiny. The maids are like workers on the assembly line, and every movement is meticulous.
After completing the ritualized process of getting up, the tall and strong patriarch can stand at the bedroom window and overlook the entire city from the fifth floor of the City Lord's Mansion, which gives him a full sense of control.
But this winter has been particularly cold and gloomy.
The panoramic view of Banshee Castle is gray and black, with some ice particles remaining on the roofs of every house. Occasionally, fireworks appear from some chimneys, which are quickly blown away by the cold wind. Pedestrians on the street walk in a hurry, hunching their necks and walking fast.
Friedman's bedroom was as warm as spring, but the cold wind outside the bedroom shook the windows. From a high place, he could see several corpses lying on the street. The body collector pushed the cart and pried the frozen beggar from the ground.
come out.
It's really a 'pry'.
It was so cold that the body was so hard that it was frozen into the ground. The body collector couldn't grab it with his hands, so he had to use an iron drill to pry it. Only after prying could he move the body onto the cart.
The body collector moves very slowly, and his hands and feet are not very flexible. He has to rest every time he pries, take a breath, and pause before taking the next step.
Every winter, Friedman could see the same scene from his bedroom window, every day. He even knew the body collector—a sad man in his forties, hunched over, humble and humble, who had been working for ten years.
I've been doing this before.
Friedman occasionally asked his subordinates to bring some food to the body collectors without telling them why. He liked to see the body collectors frightened but at a loss.
There is an interesting connection between the most noble and the lowest.
"Go bring that poor guy some bread and a glass of hot water. I think he's almost frozen." Friedman called the maid and pointed to the body collector a few streets away.
The maid glanced and nodded in agreement.
Outside the bedroom, the family butler had been waiting for a long time. When he saw the patriarch walking out of the bedroom, he immediately reported some important news. For example...
"Your Excellency, Patriarch, there are currently thirteen large families in the North that have responded to your call and have joined forces to block trade in Cold Wind City. They also realize that they can no longer allow Victor Hugo to easily obtain supplies including food.
In addition, your proposal to form a coalition army after the beginning of spring has also been widely supported. Currently, five cities have sent envoys to discuss the coordination of unified actions.
According to your request, we will no longer recruit useless serf soldiers, but instead send out at least half of the regular military force to fight. According to rough statistics, the coalition will have more than 300 wizards and 2,000 high-level knights."
After hearing these numbers, Friedman nodded and expressed satisfaction. Judging from the battle half a year ago, the soldiers with poor command were simply unable to deal with Victor Hugo. If you want to restrain him, you must use high-end combat power.
Cold Wind City has stored a lot of food in the past six months, and has had a bumper harvest in the spring and summer. Hugo is not short of food now. Therefore, it must cut off its channels for purchasing food in the winter, so that the opponent will run out of food next spring, forcing him to fight decisively.
According to Friedman's good calculation, he would simply defend this winter. Even if Hugo took the initiative to provoke, he would hide in the city and pretend to be invisible.
After the beginning of spring, Friedman gathered enough strength from the North to assemble at the Banshee Castle, and coerced the guys from the Principality of Os to go with him. He would personally supervise the army and supervise the battle, without stopping along the way, and go straight to the Cold Wind City.
Don't play any unnecessary tricks, just use force to overcome skill. If necessary, the Buchi family will use their trump cards to pull out the family's treasure - Victor Hugo. This guy is too big a threat. If we don't eradicate it,
With him, there will be no peace in the North.
"Is there any good news?" Friedman walked to his study in the City Lord's Mansion, where he would stay for half a day to deal with some accumulated matters.
The butler followed closely, "Our own heavy-duty carriages exceeded the output of one hundred yesterday. The craftsmen all admired your wisdom and were grateful to give them jobs again. I believe that by next spring, we can get another hundred new carriages.
carriage."
Friedman didn't say anything about this news, but was a little annoyed. The heavy-duty carriage of Banshee Castle was copied from Cold Wind City, and many parts were directly produced from the Cold Wind City forge.
This project was originally carried out privately by a group of nobles. After Friedman discovered it, he forcibly seized it, increased investment, and expanded production capacity. Although the imitation is far less lightweight than the original, it can be regarded as technological progress and has solved the problem.
But is this output...
Producing one hundred vehicles in half a year sounds like a lot. But according to various information, the number of original heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages in Cold Wind City has exceeded one thousand. The total number is still increasing rapidly.
It would be great for the northern nobles to have a hundred carriages, but they couldn't figure out why they needed thousands of carriages. It would also cost a lot to maintain thousands of coachmen and thousands of horses.
However, Cold Wind City has 500 heavy-duty vehicles transporting coal in Voodoo Swamp alone, and the rest are still running around the territory. Cheap and convenient transportation brings intensive movement of people and materials.
In the view of the nobles, the people in the territory are property and must be bound to a fixed area. Wouldn't it be messy to let them run around? But Coldwind City is full of free people, Hugo doesn't care at all, he can go wherever he wants.
Friedman does understand the convenience of heavy-duty carriages. However, he can learn to imitate carriages, but he cannot learn the population management system of Cold Wind City. If he really learns, the foundation of his rule will collapse.
The Butch family only needs about 500 heavy-duty carriages, and any more will be completely useless and will not be used.
Cold Wind City has made another breakthrough in carriage technology, developing a super-heavy six-wheeled carriage with an elongated body to pull large building timbers more than ten meters long, or two or three four-wheeled carriages pulling five or six tons of coal in series.
Transportation capacity is still rising.
Friedman always feels strange every time he hears similar news - there are more and more new gadgets coming out of Cold Wind City, and no one can predict what will be seen tomorrow.
Not only have I never seen it before, but I also feel like I can’t catch up, which is very uncomfortable.
"Is there any other news?" Friedman sat in the study, knowing that there must be some bad news behind the good news.
The housekeeper stood beside the large desk, bowed and whispered: "Some people in the family still have some complaints about the tax rate. In addition, the tax police team has caught many caravans trying to smuggle goods, and the wizards in the city have expressed their intention to increase the tax rate on magic materials.
It's absolutely wrong."
Friedman became angry when he heard this. He banged the table and cursed: "If the tax rate is not raised, how will the family have money to raise their salary? Those fools must be behind the caravans that smuggled the goods."
As for magic materials, wouldn't it be better to let wizards buy the goods of the Butcher family? We sell them cheaply. Why must we use the enemy's products? Every gold coin they spend will turn into magic missiles and hit us.
On your own head."
Hearing the clan leader's anger, the housekeeper could only bow his head and say nothing. Internal interest issues are more complicated than external conflicts. If not handled well, internal strife will result, which is more difficult than fighting a war.
Then the maid knocked on the door and walked into the study, whispering: "Sir, following your order, the guards in the palace will deliver food to the body collectors on the street.
But the guard came back and said that the body collector had just frozen to death and fell next to the cart where the body was loaded, and the body was hardened."
Friedman was stunned for a moment and whispered: "It's too late, too late?"