Chapter 54

“Master, are you sure you will be able to bring back the fifth lady?” Housekeeper Hong asked after Housekeeper Mo was sent out to rest. Housekeeper Hong, Captain Hui, and other sisters-in-law stayed to discuss and see if Xiao Yu’s plan was feasible.

“Yes. If she doesn’t come back then she will be married out to another family.” Suesha was the most reluctant to let go Siwen.

Xiao Yu sat on his chair and leisurely drank from a wine glass. He narrowed his eyes: “I said I will do it! I said I would protect the town but you guys said I wouldn’t be able to resist Carrie. What happened at the end?”

Everyone looked at Xiao Yu’s confident posture. Recently, Xiao Yu had done a lot of things which seemed impossible. Perhaps, Xiao Yu would still be able to carry out this seemingly impossible task.

In the past Lion town and surrounding territories couldn’t be protected by the Xiao family. It felt as if their town would be destroyed at any time. However, it was totally different now. The town was going through rapid development. Moreover, Xiao Yu was leading an army of orcs and elves and could pressure Wang family in case they didn’t want to give up Siwen. They saw that Xiao Yu was daring to challenge the Wang family so he should have some kind of backup plan.

Because of it, people of the Lion town began to prepare to send off Xiao Yu and Siwen.

Xiao Yu had asked to leave after ten days because he had a lot to consider before moving out. His territory was just in the initial stages of the development and there were a lot of things that he had to take care of. He believed that Carrie’s father would come for revenge in such a short time frame but he had to take preventive measures.

In addition, three races would not follower a command line if Xiao Yu was gone. He had to think about new policies that he had to implement to attract people to his territory.

Wang family’s territory was about 2000 miles away from Lion town. There were no airplanes, trains or cars so it would take them about a month for round trip. It would be normal to spend a month in there. It meant that Xiao Yu would be away from the Lion town for two months.

He talked with Housekeeper Hong and Captain Hui about the implementation of his policies regarding the farmers and recruitment of farmers from close by territories.

He was planning to attract population from everywhere. Because of past wars, the biggest problem his territory faced was the number of population. Xiao Yu had destroyed quite a few bandit camps and moved residents over. However, the number of the population was still less than 50000.

The main policies that Xiao Yu had come with were tax cuts and tax exemptions. Xiao Yu had ordered Housekeeper Hong to send people to nearby territories to whisper into ears of others about the tax cuts and tax exemptions of Lion town. All the new immigrants would get three years of tax cuts. They could move to any place within the territory and began to grow crops on lands. This way they would be exempt from taxes for the next five years. They would get everything that they grew and Xiao Yu wouldn’t ask even for a grain.

In this era, the people or civilians didn’t own land. All the land belonged to the nobles and lords. In order to plant and grow crops, the peasants had to borrow the land from Xiao Yu. In short, they were tenants of Xiao Yu. Now, Xiao Yu was giving them rights to use the land for free for the next five years which was an incredible policy on its own. The privatization of the land hadn’t occurred in this era so it had caught the attention of many others.

Northwest was a barren land but it didn’t mean that growing corps was impossible. It’s just the yields were worse in comparison to the rich southern regions. However, by Xiao Yu’s method farmers would own land and wouldn’t give taxes which mean that every grain was their own and the rate of return was more than in southern regions. Xiao Yu was a modern man and knew that development of the society would take a lot of time.

He was aware that privatization of the land was an inevitable course of the history. However, it wasn’t something that could be implemented overnight. He was planning to go with Shang Yang’s reforms regarding rice fields and so on but Housekeeper Hong was against it. Because of it, they had disputed for a long time. Housekeeper Hong believed that all the land belonged to nobles. How could they let peasants use it for free?

It took Xiao Yu long time to explain housekeeper Hong that they had to get people to migrate to their lands. He was using this method to attract farmers. The policy was strongly supported by the people of the territory. The land near the Lion town was very large. The number of farmers doubled in short time period.

Moreover, with the implementation of this policy, people who had joined bandit groups began to come back and there were people who had just come to seek refuge. In the last month, the population of the Lion town had increased by 10000 people.

Xiao Yu ordered Housekeeper Hong to continue to expand the cultivation of lands by using this policy. He knew that with farmers he would have food. This way he could support soldiers, attract blacksmiths, craftsmen, and others.

Housekeeper Hong gradually eased on the implementation of Xiao Yu’s policy as he saw more and more people come to join their territory. Nevertheless, the lands would return back to Xiao Yu in five short years.

In addition, Xiao Yu was planning to harass the citizens of Carrie’s father’s territory.

He had sent ghouls to wander in the mountains and kill creatures. Arthas had reached level 4 during this time. Xiao Yu was planning to use Death Knight Arthas and ghouls to get into villages and towns by Principality of David to harass the citizens. He wanted to make sure that Carrie’s territory was enveloped in fear and chaos.

Moreover, Xiao Yu had arranged defense for the Lion town. Xiao Yu knew that his forces were strong but they couldn’t act autonomously. All of them had to rely on Xiao Yu’s commands. As a result, he decided to cultivate heroes who could lead the forces when he was away. He wanted heroes with intelligence who could plan, decide and implement tactics and strategies.

Xiao Yu knew that he was going to have a lot of wars in the future. However, he couldn’t be everywhere so he had to rely on heroes to work independently of him. The first hero that he focused on was Thrall.

Thrall was a leader and chieftain of orcs. He was born with the temperament of a king and talents of a leader. Xiao Yu honed his skills and explained basic skills regarding management.

Xiao Yu had spent most of his time playing games in the university. Because of it, he was sent to compulsory management classes by the administration of the dormitory. That’s why he had attended some basic management courses.

Thrall was a fast learner. In a short period of time, he was able to establish himself as the leader of the orc forces.

Grom was a strong hero but wasn’t a leader type. However, it was easy for Thrall to become one. He was indeed the king of the Orc horde.

Xiao Yu ordered Thrall to lead the forces and help Captain Hui in case someone else attacked the town. In the case of peace, Thrall could take the warriors and rob bandit camps.

After finishing main arrangement, Xiao Yu took Arthas, dozens of ghouls and few Shades to go to Carrie’s father’s territory.

Shades were invisible units and excellent scouts. Xiao Yu knew that his strength was weak so he got few shades as scouts in case troops from Carrie’s father’s territory came over.