56: Territory Daily Construction

Holland happily returned to continue his work.

Renn turned and interrupted Arnold, who was currently fantasizing about a bright future.

"I've looked at the blueprints. Some of these farm tools indeed cannot be manufactured by the territory at present, so let's start by manufacturing basic farm tools first."

"I will have Fornal allocate some manpower and resources to expand and upgrade these workshops in the blacksmith shop."

After Renn brought back over a dozen blacksmiths from the Iron Wall Fortress, the current blacksmith shop had become a bit small. Even though it had been simply expanded once before, the area was still insufficient.

Because Red River Territory had no iron mines and the local blacksmithing skills were mediocre, the weapons used by the territory's warriors were all finished products purchased from the Iron Wall Fortress caravans or through the Salak Merchant Guild.

Previously, the main work of the Red River Territory blacksmith shop was repairing weapons and equipment, while also forging some farm tools and daily utensils.

This resulted in the Red River Territory blacksmith shop always remaining small in scale.

Now, Renn decided to change this status quo by expanding the scale of the blacksmith shop and finding ways to increase both the number of blacksmiths and their technical skills.

"Lord, expanding and upgrading the blacksmith shop is naturally good, but there is another problem that needs to be solved urgently."

"What problem?"

"Lord, our iron ore reserves are almost exhausted. If we don't replenish some iron material soon, work here might have to stop in a month and a half."

"I understand. Keep working for now; I will solve the iron material problem."

Renn had money in hand now. If the territory ran out of iron, he could buy it, but he had no such intention for the moment; he had another plan in mind.

Seeing Renn's confidence, Arnold felt at ease.

"Forge the farm tools well and complete the task as soon as possible. I'll have even more important tasks for you later."

"Yes, Lord!"

Although he saw that it would take some time before the new farm tools could meet the territory's needs, Renn was in a good mood after discovering a new talent during this visit.

Leaving the blacksmith shop, Renn prepared to head to the farmland to see how the Nest Farmers were doing leading the Red River Territory Farmers.

A week had passed, and Renn had recruited another 20 Nest Farmers. There were now 38 Nest Farmers working in the farmland area.

These 38 people were not just Farmers but also teachers. Renn had the other Red River Territory Farmers follow these Nest Farmers to learn proper farming techniques.

Renn walked through Red River Town, where busy workers could be seen everywhere.

The school building was already finished. These past few days, Johnny had been organizing workers to work with full vigor, and construction sites throughout Red River Town were bustling with activity.

Renn's order to Johnny was to demolish all the thatched huts, shacks, and dilapidated houses where the Serfs used to live before building the roads. Usable materials were to be used on the spot, and anything unusable was to be thrown out of town.

The dilapidated houses where the Serfs lived were each worse than the last; they were simply uninhabitable and people could freeze to death come winter.

Renn usually found them an eyesore, and now that he had the manpower, he naturally wanted them all demolished.

By tearing down these dilapidated buildings and clearing space in Red River Town, Renn intended to re-plan the layout.

First were the roads. The roads were to be widened based on the original ones and paved entirely with stone slabs. While the original main road remained unchanged, three more stone slab roads would be added to cross the original main road vertically.

This would make the roads in Red River Town distributed in a grid-like pattern. These four roads would be the new main roads, with several branches splitting off from them.

This was Renn's current plan. As Red River Town expanded in the future, these roads would naturally continue to increase.

Fornal, who was watching the house demolition by the roadside, saw Renn walking over and hurriedly ran forward.

"Lord, it's truly a pity to demolish these houses like this. Many of them could still house people if they were repaired a bit."

Fornal felt great heartache watching the houses being demolished one by one, feeling that Renn was being far too casual about it.

"What's there to be heartbroken about over a bunch of broken shacks and rotten houses? Who could even live in those?"

"Tear them down to make room for widening the roads and for new houses."

"I've already had Johnny organize manpower to build new residential housing."

"The weather has been good lately, so it's the perfect time to tear down these broken shacks. Everyone will be able to move into warm new homes before the weather turns cold. Isn't that good?"

Renn was quite repulsed by Fornal's stingy ways, being unwilling to part with anything even though Fornal was trying to save money for him.

"But Lord, building new houses costs money. None of that timber or stone comes for free."

"Those Farmers don't have a single penny in their pockets. If we build them and let them live there, they won't be able to pay. Aren't we building them for free?"

Renn didn't care.

"Free?"

"There's no such thing as 'free' in such abundance. They work for me, and I will deduct it from the fruits of their labor."

"Deduct?"

Fornal didn't quite understand.

"Deduct what? Lord, after these people finish farming and keep their rations, the rest is basically paid as tax. What else is there to deduct?"

"Their rations were stolen this year, and what they're eating now is still the grain you distributed to them, Lord. Calculated this way, we've been running a losing business."

Renn held his head in some frustration. Fornal was good in every way, but this stinginess was unbearable.

"I know how to govern the territory, so don't say so much, Fornal."

"I know you mean well for the Derrick Family, but I am the master of the Derrick Family now. The rules have changed, you understand?"

"Let's not talk about this anymore!"

"How are things settled at the school? Are the children living well?"

"How is the canteen running?"

Fornal sighed deeply. Sometimes he really felt he was getting old and didn't know how to do things anymore.

"Lord, everything is fine at the school, and the canteen is running well too. They are cooking for their own children, so which of those peasant women wouldn't be diligent? They can't wait to give the best to those children."

"Scholar Ravenk is also managing very diligently and is already preparing to start teaching. It looks like it won't be many days before he can formally teach those children to read."

Hearing the good news, Renn felt very pleased.

"Good, Ravenk is doing quite well."

"Since the children are being managed centrally, many of the peasant women are now free. Have them start cleaning up the entire town's sanitation."

"Clean out all that accumulated trash, just like those broken shacks."

"Additionally, set a rule for everyone in the territory: from now on, not only is public defecation forbidden, but littering is also prohibited. All trash must be handled centrally."

"Yes, Lord, I understand."

Fornal no longer found any of Renn's orders strange; dealing with trash was a minor issue.

To Renn, sanitation was an important issue. Poor sanitation could easily lead to plagues and various diseases.

Previously, by building toilets, he had stopped everyone from defecating everywhere, and the stench in Red River Town had lessened significantly, but the trash accumulated over the years still hadn't been dealt with.

This time, with a major cleanup, he would not only demolish the broken shacks and rotten houses but also deal with the other trash, making Red River Town clean and tidy.

"Also, make a plan to expand the blacksmith shop later. Once we have the manpower, expand the blacksmith shop's workshops."

"Expand the blacksmith shop?"

"There's no need for that, is there, Lord? The current blacksmith shop is already sufficient for the territory's use. Once expanded, such a large blacksmith shop would require too much iron material to operate, and our territory doesn't have that much iron."

"Buying iron material from caravans isn't cheap, and our territory's blacksmiths have mediocre skills. Wouldn't it be better to just buy ironware directly from the caravans?"

Renn shook his head.

"In the future, I will need a larger and more professional blacksmith shop. Expansion is necessary. I will solve the iron material problem; you just arrange for someone to handle the expansion."

When Renn said this, Fornal immediately thought of the iron mine to the north. His heart trembled, and he didn't dare say more.

"Yes, Lord, I understand."