Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence

It's worth mentioning that further east from the Mezzaluna Fire Restaurant, beyond Carnival Square, lies the Wallflower District of the territory. This is a wealthy residential area filled with knights' mansions and quiet streets. Due to the empire's martial nature, it also possesses a degree of military character.

This affluent community is specifically mentioned because it is currently one of the territory's significant sources of fiscal revenue.

The buildings within were all designed by Suli and constructed by dwarf engineers and ogre construction teams in the style of the Imperial Elector's capital.

A mansion in the Wallflower District starts at a minimum of 500 gold crowns, a sky-high price that knights couldn't afford even if they sold themselves.

This is only natural, as this luxurious residential area wasn't intended for them, and even champion knights would find it difficult to buy a mansion here. With their monthly salary of 20 gold crowns, it would take them 25 months of not eating or drinking to afford one. But that's impossible, as they can live in the barracks without eating or drinking, but their squires, attendants, and servants can't.

This situation even caused Freya some resentment. Although the Corona Knight Order is wealthy, with support from merchants and nobles, those riches belong to the Order for expansion and strength, not for the knights to enjoy.

As the vice-captain, Freya's salary is as high as 30 gold crowns, but buying such a residence is still difficult for her, so she usually resides in the Corona Knight Order's branch.

The living environment here isn't necessarily worse than the Wallflower District, but the privacy is far inferior.

Her every move is watched, and every time she enters Heissenburg to satisfy Suli's bestial desires, it's seen by the other Corona Knights.

The ambiguous relationship and scandalous news between the Corona Knight Order's vice-captain and the Heissenburg territory lord are already popular gossip among all the knights and followers of the Church of the Radiant Goddess.

Suli isn't aware of Freya's worries. The woman always wears a cold, beautiful face, making it impossible to guess her thoughts. Only when Suli deeply manipulates her does her face and body flush red, with some change in expression as she begs for mercy.

So Suli increasingly enjoys teasing this cold, icy beauty. As soon as she enters the room, Suli immediately greets her.

The more cold and arrogant she is, the more Suli enjoys being intimate and flirting with her.

Perhaps men have this strange habit of corrupting virtuous women and encouraging women of the world to reform.

No! When it comes to his own woman, it's more like enjoying the feeling of defiling nobility and purity.

But in any case, Suli enjoys seeing her aloof and indifferent to everyone else, yet helpless and gently indulgent only in front of him.

So, walking up to her, Suli directly embraced her, wrapped his right arm around her slender waist, and kissed her cherry lips. Only after five minutes, when Freya's legs were weak, her body was burning, and her face and neck were flushed, did Suli release her and ask, "Is it a problem for you to put aside your work and go out with me?"

Freya's breathing was somewhat rapid, and her cold, icy expression had melted away, like the shyness of a snow lotus. Her bright eyes were hazy as she looked at Suli and said, "I'm a church knight, so in principle, it's not allowed... but it's hard for me to say no to you."

Suli hugged her tightly, as if to completely meld her into his chest, and said, "Why not become my female courtier? Then there wouldn't be so many rules."

Freya's hazy eyes immediately became clearer, and she firmly shook her head, saying, "I don't want to become a woman who lives by relying on a man. I joined the church knight order to prove that women are not weaker than men."

"That's right, that's right," Suli said decisively, "Women can hold up half the sky."

Women can hold up half the sky, only when women truly participate in labor! Just like when that phrase was coined, true gender equality was achieved, and factories treated everyone equally.

Not when men are wage slaves and women talk about liking travel, baking, food, flower arranging, tea art, fitness, or even clubbing.

What's good about this world is that, regardless of gender, everyone has to go to the battlefield. The orcs' battleaxes won't show mercy just because you're a woman. That idea of not hitting women is a pedantic Eastern thought. True respect for women is treating them as qualified opponents and going all out!

Even when it comes to exploitation, men and women are treated equally cruelly. Women may even be worse off, as they have to work in the fields like men and also satisfy the desires of the nobles.

Regardless of whether the right of the first night exists, it doesn't change the fact that these people are the property of the nobles. If the nobles want to sleep with them, they have no way to resist. The reason there aren't so many tragedies is entirely because the knights want to maintain their so-called pride and nobility. They disdain having relationships with these lowly slaves, as it would dirty their bodies and taint their noble reputations.

Even Suli's relationship with Phyllis, a woman from a peasant family, is still mocked behind his back by many merchants and knights in the territory.

In fact, Freya is one of the most suitable candidates for the position of female courtier.

But unfortunately, Freya is adamant. She can indulge Suli's various intimate thoughts and satisfy his various needs when he requires it, but she refuses to become a noble's female courtier.

Suli had no choice but to say, "I don't understand why you're working so hard. Don't you think it's good for Hilde to be my courtier? Who can say that she's my appendage and can't live without me?"

Freya said calmly, "People can't be generalized. I didn't meet you when you were still green, so I have to work hard. If I don't, I can't even afford a house in your territory."

Suli's restless hands had already slipped from her waist to her rounded, beautiful legs, caressing her cool, full thighs under her skirt, and said, "What are you talking about? What's mine is yours, isn't it? I'll give you a Dawn River Lake Manor in a moment."

This is a beautiful manor built by a halfling in the southern part of the city, next to the Brienne River, but it was confiscated by the territory because its owner was suspected of participating in the vibranium smuggling case during the Border Sentinel War.

The vibranium that the armed servants had secretly hidden obviously needed some merchants and caravans to smuggle it out. In the list they confessed, this halfling naturally couldn't escape his crimes.

Freya shook her head lightly and said, "Then wouldn't I become a woman living off your handouts? I appreciate your kindness, but if you really want to help fairly, give me a discounted price on a house in the Wallflower District. I heard that other knights who come to you get better prices than merchants."

That's indeed the case. Suli hopes to use this property and community to retain some elites who are truly useful to the Heissenburg territory.

Elite knights who come to buy property, whether they are knights within the territory or elite knights from outside who plan to relocate and settle in the territory, receive discounts.

Even champion knights can directly obtain the right to use a property in the Wallflower District.

But Freya obviously doesn't have this treatment. Giving champion knights property is because these champion knights will directly join the secular knight order of Heissenburg and accept the command and appointment of Heissenburg.

Freya is a church knight, and nominally she is not under Suli's command. So it is indeed inappropriate for the territory to directly give her a house.

Suli could only say, "Alright then, I'll give you an 80% discount. Do you have that much gold?"

Freya nodded and said, "I'll process my spoils of war and some unnecessary souvenirs, and I should be able to gather a down payment. I'll take out a loan from the halfling bank for the rest, and I'll pay it off in two or three years."

This situation that Freya mentioned is also one of the important sources of equipment for the Heissenburg territory.

A powerful elite knight and champion knight can always slay a large number of monsters and obtain some valuable items during their travels and battles. Especially the members of the Flame Sun Knight Order who have recently come to the Heissenburg territory, they all have rich experience.

The equipment they sell greatly enriches the Heissenburg territory and the army's personal equipment.

Of course, they also purchase the territory's dwarven excellent-grade heavy armor.

Suli spent so much money raising so many dwarves for this moment.

In these days, the sale of dwarven equipment alone has earned Suli more than 2,000 gold crowns. This is wealth that can be harvested without leaving home, without having to organize caravans to send these things to Maleburg as before.

And this Wallflower District has brought Suli more than 3,000 gold crowns in revenue, and this community is still expanding slowly at a steady pace.

If the dwarves hadn't focused their main efforts on fortifications, the land sales revenue from this area could have earned Suli thousands or even two thousand gold crowns each month.

With the development and expansion of the territory and the improvement of the urbanization process, the real estate industry must be one of the most profitable industries.

It's just a pity that the sustainability of this industry is insufficient, and land sales revenue is also a one-time income. The next time you want to obtain this kind of revenue, I'm afraid it will be ten or even decades later.

On the other hand, the vigorous development of the banking industry has greatly promoted the territory.

And the banking industry is also very rich. Their buildings are not on Carnival Square, but in the southwest of the territory.

Here, the Great Cathedral of the Church of Dawn is connected to the surrounding subsidiary buildings by bridges, alleys, and tunnels. The marble buildings connect the entire area into a large building, which looks very grand and vast.

And the bank is located on the south side of this building, facing the treasury area on the north bank of the river.

This bank is jointly opened by six halflings in the territory, providing a lot of financial support for the territory's handicraftsmen to expand into workshop owners. The interest rate they give to handicraftsmen is much lower than the interest rate they give to Suli, after all, these handicraftsmen can't escape or default on their debts.

After Suli finished talking with Freya, he rode a griffin across the river bridge from the castle district and came to the city.

In the center of the city is a large clock tower, jointly built by art merchants, Heissenburg engineers, and the Halfling Chamber of Commerce.

Suli looked at the time, it was already past two in the afternoon.

He said decisively, "Let's go to the dock area and then take a boat to Bjorn Bay and Lake Lefflin."

The dock area is below Heissenburg, so the group quickly arrived. Here, a large number of fishermen are hauling in their nets and transporting the wealth they have harvested.

A large number of caravans also arrive, unloading their goods directly in the center of the city. On the south side, there is a winding path connecting the streets on the south bank, which can deliver goods to various shops as quickly as possible.

Suli even saw some slaves here peeling open river mussels and digging out the pearls inside. There were quite a few of them, and it looked like there were hundreds.

Although ordinary pearls don't have as high a value as magic pearls, generally between 20 and 30 silver coins, these pearls can also bring Suli at least 30 gold crowns in revenue.

Don't lose sight of the purchasing power of gold crowns just because Suli just got a loan of 20,000 gold crowns. 20,000 gold crowns is a loan given to Suli by a large number of merchants and merchant alliances. It can be said to be the embodiment of the wealth and will of the entire territory. These big merchants and landlords are not only for making money, but also to support Suli in defeating the evil legions that threaten the territory.

In fact, 30 gold crowns is already a lot of wealth, and it can even hire a heavy armored cavalry regiment as powerful as the Fallen Wolf Mercenary Corps to serve you for about 10 days.

This long time is enough for a caravan to safely reach the trading town under the escort of this mercenary regiment.

If it is a farmer, this much wealth is enough to hire 30 farmers to work for him for a whole year!

A farm with 30 farmers is considered a very large farm in the empire, with an area of ​​possibly thousands of acres, producing hundreds of thousands of catties of grain.

The territory's finances are supported by such farms and income items.

Looking at all this, Suli felt particularly happy. He also boarded a barge with Deathclaw and headed towards Bjorn.

The reason why he didn't choose to fly was to personally feel the convenience of this canal.

On this flat and fertile central plain, the canal is undoubtedly extremely smooth, and the barge can travel quickly.

Suli even saw three barges coming from the direction of Bjorn Bay. The ships were very deep in the water, loaded with heavy grain, which was the soybeans harvested in autumn.

The autumn harvest time for soybeans is a little later than wheat, and it is now just ripe.

These three ships alone transported more than 80,000 catties of beans, enough to supply thousands of people in the entire territory for three or four days.

This made Suli feel very good, but not everything was so smooth on the road. When arriving at the intersection of the Bjorn Canal and the Brienne River, a small accident occurred.

As many as 12 barges staged a big melee here, and the scale of the battle made Suli tremble with fear.

As many as hundreds of caravan guards on the armed merchant ships, under the command of the merchant association, very tactically launched a boarding battle. The dwarves on it even used firearms, and the smoke from pistol and rifle fire was filled with smoke.

If Suli's griffin hadn't flown into the air and scared them into stopping immediately, I'm afraid this armed fight would have resulted in the death or injury of a dozen or even dozens of people before it could end.

And the reason why they fought was also ridiculous to Suli, it was actually just to compete for the issue of who would enter the territory first.

Su Li personally reprimanded them and drove them away. The subsequent punishment would be handled by the city guard.

After they came down from the canal, Freya said, "We urgently need to appoint a commander of the Black Forest Territory Navy and build a stronger navy and river guard."

Su Li nodded. Currently, the river guard relies mostly on cavalry patrols along the banks, with only a few people patrolling on the water. After all, the Imperial Cavalry Corps is the most powerful unit, and on the flat and fertile land of the Central Plains, the mobility of knights and mounted attendants is not inferior to that of transport ships and merchant ships on the river.

However, for now, this somewhat primitive and barbaric order can only be maintained.

The river guard is simply not something that the current state of the territory can afford to build.

The proportion of the territory's army is already very high, frighteningly high. Coupled with construction expenses, the fixed monthly expenditure is as high as 7,000 gold crowns or more. At this rate of consumption, without a windfall, the territory simply cannot accumulate much wealth. A fiscal deficit of three months is enough to empty Su Li's little treasury savings.

This is why Su Li came to inspect the territory's farming business as soon as possible. He desperately hopes that the territory's finances can cover all expenses and have a fiscal surplus, so that the treasury savings increase every month instead of decreasing!

His genes are inherently focused on saving.

Fortunately, the results of farming are very gratifying. When Su Li arrived at Bjorn Bay, the beautiful idyllic scenery made him feel happy.

As far as his eyes could see, there was a fertile land between the vast foothills. Lake Reflyn was like the most dazzling blue-green gem inlaid on the earth. The lake water was crystal clear, with a beautiful emerald-like blue-green luster.

It was the season for irrigation. The huge water conservancy valves were opened, and the misty lake water poured out from the sluice gates, irrigating the vast and boundless childhood below. The blue-green wheat seedlings shone in the sunlight.

In the woodland belt between the fields, there was a magical atmosphere. From time to time, mischievous nature spirits showed their heads and disappeared between the rocks and moss.

In the crisscrossing paths, swamp striders as tall as ten meters, with eight pillar-like legs, slowly carried a large amount of supplies to Black Forest Castle. Although they moved slowly, their unparalleled carrying capacity still exceeded that of dozens of carriages.

People from the Church of Dawn observed all of this next to the sluice gates. They had to ensure that the lake water could irrigate all the farmland and canals below, and also ensure that some of the magical creatures in this holy place would not leave.

So Vandal released [Descent of the Sun] once in the eastern part of the lake, which greatly activated the creatures in the lake. Various rare fish and some magical creatures that Su Li had never seen before scrambled to jump out of the water, enjoying the surging Kilen Wind brought by the Descent of the Sun spell.

By using this spell to attract the creatures in the lake to the east bank of the lake, these creatures would not swim out from the valves.

This scene also attracted a large number of residents and living creatures in the territory to watch the beautiful scenery. Even the guardian otter, Kappa, led the primitive girl and a group of river elves into the lake to enjoy the beautiful scenery.

However, this spell consumed a lot of Vandal's physical strength. After releasing the spell, he sat on the bank of the dike, panting heavily against a willow tree.

When Su Li approached, he was taking out his wine pot and gulping down the wine.

Su Li couldn't help but smile and asked, "Lord Vandal is in a good mood. This is the time to enjoy the new wine and the beautiful scenery, just in the prime of life."

Vandal quickly stood up, holding on to the tree trunk, and said breathlessly, "Lord, you misunderstood. This is not wine. Druids don't drink alcohol on weekdays. This is magic spring water soaked with laurel gemstones, which can help me restore divine power."

Su Li's eyes lit up: "The laurel gemstones are already being used?"

Vandal nodded and said, "That's right. Our territory currently only has two laurel gemstones, one is with me, and the other should have been with the chief of the pasture, Edmond, but it was taken away by the military commander today."

"This is not an easy thing. If it weren't for the support of the provincial council, the chief of the pasture would not be willing to give such a precious gemstone to a rude knight. I heard that Edmond even sleeps with his gourd."

The gourd is a kind of thing similar to a gourd. It is made of gourd and is often used by the empire and druids to hold olive oil, wine, and sweet spring water.

Su Li didn't expect Edmond to sleep with a gourd.

Su Li smiled and asked, "He doesn't have anything particularly important, so why is he so concerned about this thing?"

Vandal immediately said solemnly, "How could there not be? With Edmond's help, the scale of our herb cultivation in Hot Spring Village has increased to 43 mu!"

"This is all the result of his full catalysis."

43 mu of herbs, these are precious spices, which means that at least 50 jin can be produced next year.

One jin of vanilla pods is equal to one jin of gold.

But don't think that this scale and expansion came easily, all development requires investment.

Just the potions, spring water, and spells that Edmond drank in order to catalyze these herbs are a huge investment.

Don't think that these things are not valuable if they don't cost money, this can be completely regarded as equivalent man-hours.

A druid who releases so many spells and divine arts can generate great value in any direction.

Su Li was more curious about another thing and asked, "Did you use Descent of the Sun on this herb plantation?"

Although the number of uses of the Descent of the Sun spell is extremely tight, every place needs the blessing of this spell. After all, the series of effects it brings is too strong. It can summon a round of scorching sun, allowing the golden morning sun to flow like liquid gold on the farmland and pasture.

Then this land will receive the protection of a series of divine graces such as [Pure Area], [Identify Nature], [Immunity to Pests], [Grain Abundance], and [Natural Order] for a whole month.

In any case, the herb plantation is worth this divine blessing, which can increase the yield per mu of spices, and may even produce higher quality transcendent vanilla pods.