Chapter 253 The more iron, the less iron
Three days have passed since Meliati attacked and killed Bishop Resite.
The reality is much better than Meliati expected.
Except for the Changfeng Fort, which suffered some losses, nearly two thousand mountain knights successfully captured three strategic locations like a flood.
After capturing these three strategic locations, the knights of Cold Spring Castle began to uproot the church’s strongholds in the central valley one by one.
As a mountainous county, there were not many places to be stationed. Resit was killed, White Water Castle was captured, and the church at the bottom was leaderless.
In the countryside of North Mound County, knights in black armor and red clothes broke into monasteries one after another along the way, and even captured a blue-blood orphanage.
The ugly and extravagant life of the priests was exposed to the sun. Apart from the looted wealth that flowed into the hands of the soldiers, Meliati estimated that she could obtain nearly 100,000 gold pounds.
You must know that according to the church and imperial tax rolls, the annual tax payable in North Mound County should be about 4,100 gold pounds.
But there are more than one hundred thousand gold pounds buried under various monasteries.
A large number of low-level monks from the Qianhe Valley people were promoted to bishops and priests, and the temple knights and church fiefdoms were constantly divided up by local knights.
According to Meliati's request, the new fiefdom must sign an express contract rather than a verbal oath of contract.
The mines, shops, workshops and other industries were divided and annexed by the Dragon Cult dwarves and Megdi merchants sent by Meliati.
At the same time, cheap food supported from Norn quickly rushed into the market, and the Megdi Chamber of Commerce even sold food and grain seeds at cost prices.
Meliyati put aside her true nature as a loan shark, even frantically whitewashing her previous behavior, and vigorously cracked down on private loan sharks that disrupted the market.
The money obtained from these usurious creditors is all converted into labor wages.
After following Horn for so long, Meliati not only copied the car and fort tactics, but also copied the work-for-relief scheme.
However, in the hands of Horn, it was normal to work for relief, but in the hands of Meliati, it became abnormal.
After the flood, the mountain people's food reserves were basically depleted throughout the winter. However, if you sow in spring, you won't be able to harvest until at least the end of summer.
During this period, they had neither food rations nor income, so they had no choice but to flee and run around as beggars.
After the beginning of spring, a large number of unemployed people emerged throughout the Qianhe River Valley.
In this case, Meliati realized that giving free relief grains to farmers would only feed lazy people, and official low-interest loans to farmers would often turn into usury again amid corruption.
Meliyati started her career as a loan shark, and no one in the Qianhe Valley knows loan sharking better than her.
The only way to survive the crisis is to learn how to provide work-for-relief, promote rural handicrafts and open up wasteland and mines, tie farmers to where they are, and earn income from working as laborers to buy food.
The direction of the rural handicraft industry that Meliyati chose has long been determined, that is, iron smelting and forging.
The iron produced in this way can be used by oneself, and can also be exported to Norn in exchange for food to form a cycle.
There is just one problem, that is, the more iron is produced, the lower the iron price is, so the workshop's income will be low, and in the end it can only reduce iron production.
To put it simply, the more iron is produced, the less iron is produced.
In the current era, it is normal to increase or decrease production and recruit and fire employees according to market demand.
But the problem is that if the income from production reduction is reduced, workers will be laid off. The workers will have no income and no food to eat. When the time comes, they will have to rebel against Meliati.
Land annexation will not lead to peasant uprisings, only lack of food will. In order to solve this problem, Meliati had an idea and divided the food from Norn into two directions.
The first direction is to recruit labor, carry out land reclamation and mining, and develop the iron smelting industry and military industry.
The second direction is to expand the army, to expand the army wantonly.
In this way, even if the price of iron drops, Cold Spring Castle will still purchase weapons for the war, maintain the price of iron, and ensure that the workshop owner makes a small profit without losing money.
The laid-off workers turned into soldiers on the spot, took the iron weapons they produced and rushed to the battlefield.
The wealth they plundered on the battlefield was brought to Cold Spring Castle to purchase weapons and arm soldiers.
The war machine built by Meliati can continuously achieve a positive cycle.
According to her prediction, the war demands they will face in the future are definitely not small.
These new iron smelting workshops and blacksmith shops are not just built. They require a large number of blacksmiths and technical talents in iron smelting.
So she had previously used loan sharking to kidnap, specially found the dwarves of the Dragon Worship Cult, and reached an agreement.
Meliarte granted them the right to "live on the plains and worship freely" in exchange for the dwarves helping Meliati establish iron smelting workshops and blacksmith shops.
In just three days, black smoke and black floods from iron smelting are spreading throughout North Mound County.
On February 13, 1445, Duke Melia of Cold Spring Castle moved to Longfeng Castle with three thousand mountain knights.
She was originally preparing to attack High Castle by surprise, but due to the temporary rebellion of the Lord of Longfeng Castle, the news was leaked.
After Fili's investigation, the high castle was on guard and lost its surprise, so there was no need for a surprise attack.
This gave Meliati the opportunity to turn her attention inward and begin to completely eliminate the church's power in the central valley.
Ever since learning that Meliati was stationed at Longfeng Castle, an endless stream of small lords, knights, merchants and guild leaders and other public representatives came to pledge their allegiance every day.
Even the nobles and knights in Upper River County wrote to Meliati saying, "When you come to Qianhe River Valley, you will be from Qianhe River Valley."
According to Meliati Judging from her strength on paper, she has nearly a hundred extraordinary knights and thousands of soldiers under her command.
Even Meliati's iron-clad body was a little tired after three consecutive days of spinning.
After seeing off a group of craftsmen who swore allegiance, Meliati took a break and took a nap when he saw that there was nothing else to do.
Unfortunately, she did not sleep for long as she was woken up by the sound of footsteps.
As soon as the door was opened, Meliati, who was extremely alert, opened her eyes.
"What's the matter?" After tidying up the scattered clothes, Meliati stood up and looked at Feili, who was walking towards him, with her hands behind her back.
"Lord Meliyati." Fili looked at Meliyati, who was even more majestic than before, and knelt down to salute.
"I'm not the king yet. Even if I were the king, you don't have to salute me like this." Pulling Feili's shoulders, Meliati lifted him up, "Tell me, what's the matter."
Looking up at Meliati's iron face, Feili looked solemn and took out a secret report:
"Your Majesty, there is news from the High Castle, the toothless knight Arman With two command companies, 400 extraordinary knights, and some infantry, they are heading towards Longfeng Fort."
(End of this chapter)