Chapter 76 Set off again
Unlike what Rhodes had imagined, the atmosphere after the first round table meeting was very bad.

In the parliament hall, the Knights of the Round Table sat down at their seats one by one.

They leaned back in their chairs and discussed among themselves.

They are divided into their own small circles, with clear boundaries.

When the twelve knights in the center arrived, except for the affiliated knights who had expanded their territories near them, everyone else just watched coldly.

From time to time, there were a few muffled curses, mixed in with the crowd and it was impossible to tell the direction.

The third Prince Cumberland walked into the parliament hall.

After seeing this scene, I sat in the first seat with a headache.

He knew the reason.

After all, it was because the Twelve Chief Chairmen failed to play the leading role they should have.

Among them, many people relied on the power of their families to seize resources in Broken Dragon Fortress.

This results in many non-knights having to pay higher prices when purchasing supplies.

More than five months have passed since the Royal Development Order was issued.

Many pioneering knights came here with full of dreams, but ended up in a miserable way and disappeared from the circle forever.

When others saw this, they thought of themselves and felt grief for the loss of the rabbit, and it was inevitable that they would have opinions about the Twelve Chief Seats.

But the factions within the kingdom were complex, and the third prince Cumberland could at best represent the nobles of the central territory.

The twelve knights from the Great Plains and East Sea Port would not care about the opinion of a prince.

Still doing my own thing and developing on my own.

Fortunately, not long ago, Prince Cumberland received news from the royal capital, Fuxing City.

It is enough to inspire the passion of pioneering knights once again.

After everyone was in place, Prince Cumberland stood up and announced in a solemn tone:

"I have good news for you all. The king and the nobles of the capital have recognized your efforts and have enacted a new law - the Territory Exchange Act."

"As long as the pioneer knights persist in the territory for more than three years, the court will send officials to calculate the value of the territory, and then they can exchange it for the territory of the Western Plains!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was an uproar among the knights at the long table.

"The Western Plains? Isn't that the royal family's private land? How could the king be willing to give it away?" a knight from the East Sea Port asked in disbelief.

Prince Cumberland smiled and nodded.

Then he had documents containing the contents of the bill delivered to the knights one by one.

Rhodes took one and read it curiously.

The Western Plains are located between the Great Plains in the south of the Kingdom and the Principality of Northfrost.

It was a new land that was developed when King William opened up the northern border thirty years ago.

It was separated from the southern Great Plains by the Wheat River and had not been valued by the kingdom before.

You never know until you go, and you'll be surprised when you go.

Vast tracts of plains that could be used to grow food were discovered and quickly became the focus of the kingdom's development.

According to the new law, if these pioneering knights hold out for three years, the value of their territory will be estimated and converted into an equal amount of land reward in the western plains.

Of course, the king has the final say on how this so-called equal conversion is calculated.

But even if it is just a village baron of dozens of square kilometers.

For most of the pioneering knights, that was a huge profit.

After all, the lord's strength depends entirely on the resources of the territory.

Many border barons in the southern Great Plains continued to prosper because their territories had abundant arable land and were surrounded by friendly trading countries.

Its strength is even greater than that of many old earl families, and its attitude towards the king has long been indifferent.

The originally deserted atmosphere of the round table meeting suddenly became lively.

"The storm is coming." Unlike others, Rhodes saw heavy pressure from this big move.

Are the territories of these pioneering knights important?
It is of great significance. The castle’s greatest function is not defense, but as a supply point connecting the front lines.

The pioneering war thirty years ago was forced to be suspended because the kingdom stretched the battle line too far and the logistics could not keep up.

Contemporary kings have evidently learned the lessons of their predecessors.

Before the war officially started, they wanted to build castles in the North in order to set up the logistical supply lines in advance.

This will avoid the terrible situation of supply lines being disconnected after going deep into the north.

But this level of importance was a bit too much, Rhodes thought.

Before the war even started, the royal family's trump card, the Western Plains, was revealed.

This is the case now. What should we do about the rewards for military merits after the war officially breaks out?
This was not the normal pace of development, unless the king knew one thing.

The price of the failed expansion of the northern border is far greater than that of the western plains.

After the announcement of the all-important exchange bill, the rest of the parliamentary session was uneventful.

Near the end, the third prince asked all the knights to go back and measure the scope of the territory.

The specific territorial boundaries were drawn and submitted to the parliament, and then the parliament was declared over.

Rhodes and the five knights of the alliance left together. After leaving the temple, Charlie suggested that the six of them go for a drink together.

But everyone was very busy, so we finally declined.

Before leaving, Rhodes reminded them: "This winter is not right. If you have gold coins, you'd better store more food."

Byrne and the others looked at him in confusion, but nodded to show their understanding.

Charlie waved his hand nonchalantly and said:

"Did some nobles from the Great Plains secretly bewitched you? Knight Rhodes, don't be fooled by those black-hearted vampires. They just want to create the illusion of food shortage so that they can take the opportunity to raise the price."

"Maybe, but it never hurts to store more food in the territory, right?" Rhodes responded without giving too much advice.

Some things just need to be mentioned briefly, too much is as bad as too little.

"Yes, I came here to restock supplies, and it's okay to buy some food."

After all, they are familiar alliance companions, and they must unite and take root in the North.

Seeing that he was trying to persuade him, Charlie didn't want to offend him, so he shrugged and chose to accept it.

The six people parted here.

Rhodes left here and went to find the president of Jianling Chamber of Commerce.

In the next few days, he purchased as much food as possible through the Chamber of Commerce.

From the cheapest potatoes, to peas, beans, rapeseed, to grains such as rye, barley, oats, and wheat.

The price of these grains ranges from 2 to 8 copper coins, which is not too expensive.

Rhodes' current treasury has 210 gold coins.

He took out 150 gold coins, gave priority to cheap and filling food, and bought more than pounds of various foods.

In addition, it is necessary to replenish coarse salt and purchase a large number of training arrows to meet the daily arrow consumption of the Divine Archery Camp.

Various miscellaneous supplies were replenished, and money flowed like water, and another 50 gold coins were spent.

Rhodes calculated the list and found that including the purchased supplies, there were more than one million pounds of various types of food in his territory.

At least for the next three months, the more than 5,000 people in his territory will not have to worry about food and supplies.

The plan to reclaim the territory's farmland had to be accelerated, Rhodes thought.

The magic fields were not enough to provide enough food, and there was no way to ensure food self-sufficiency, which always made him feel uneasy.

At this time, the president of Jianling Chamber of Commerce came to him with a letter.

"My Lord, this is a letter from your family."

Rod took it doubtfully, wondering if his father would be so petty as to write a letter specifically to scold him.
After seeing the childish, angry face drawn on the envelope, he finally understood and couldn't help laughing.

He knew who sent it to him.

Rhodes opened the envelope and began to read.

"Bad Rod, you haven't sent me a letter for five months! You don't care about your sister at all, you big bad guy!"

Through the text, Rhodes could feel his sister Alice's anger.

After the initial anger, the following content quickly turned into concern for him.

The state of Alice writing this letter emerged in Rhodes' mind.

The girl was lying on the bed with her cute little feet raised in the air.

After puffing out her lips and writing the first sentence angrily, her little face immediately fell onto the pillow.

I hugged my pillow unconsciously, worrying about his situation and feeling disappointed for not receiving the letter.

I should have sent a letter to Alice earlier, Rhode reflected in his heart.

No matter how busy you are, you still have to care about your sister.

Then he unexpectedly discovered that there were 20 gold coins in the envelope.

Alice didn't say it in the letter, but Rhode could imagine how she had been tormenting her mother Elena for the gold coins.

A smile appeared on his face.

"Please send this letter back to the Chamber of Commerce." After Rhodes finished writing the reply, he handed it to the president in charge.

In addition to letters, there are also healing potions, nutritional potions extracted from high-quality barley, and various agate gems from the north.

The castle hasn't been built yet, so I can only send some northern specialties to comfort Alice.

After finishing all the affairs of the fortress, Rhodes slowly drove out of the gate with a carriage full of supplies.

On the way back to the territory, he looked up and ahead.

Heavy snow had been falling for several days, and the roads were already covered with a thick layer of snow.

An abnormal icy magic was surging in the sky.

In the distant snowfield, something seems to be stirring in the hazy depths.

"I'm not going to die here."

The scene of the knights' dismal exit passed before his eyes, and Rhodes muttered to himself.

His restless mood gradually calmed down, and he led the team into the snowfield and disappeared in the vast snow.

(End of this chapter)