Lord of Industrialization

After the Universal Exposition last year, many nobles in the Kingdom of Gaul received a lot of benefits from the goods from the Duchy of Wesson.

Especially for large landowners, the first batch of fertilizers has caught up with wheat planting. It seems that this summer harvest can increase production by 20%.

So everyone has no objection to giving him a title, and they are all looking forward to exchanging wheat for improved seeds this year.

According to Old Louis's original plan, it would be enough to give Frederick a court earl title, mainly to normalize his land in the lowlands.

Those lands were now strictly Lilou's, and Lilou leased them to Françoise, who in turn subleased them to Frederick.

With this earldom, Frederick could put the land in his name and hold it directly with peace of mind.

But no one expected that the king changed his mind for some reason and made Frederick a duke with a fief.

After finishing the injection, Old Louis asked others to push him down, leaving Frederick talking to the ministers he had just named.

Frederick thought to himself, could it be that Old Louis wanted to win over him and not help the Kingdom of Tarago?

He had been to Lugang when he bought the land. It was located in the middle of the lowland area. To the south was the delta formed by the main channel of the Rhine River entering the sea. The northernmost tributary flowed south of the port town, and it was twenty miles from the North Sea to the west. More than fifty kilometers to the south is a hilly area where deer often run there, hence the name.

If you look at the plan, establishing a port there could become a transportation hub connecting the North Sea with the inland Rhine River Basin.

But the problem is that the altitude there is very low, and the floods in the spring every year will submerge the entire delta area, and when the water recedes, it will be full of swamps.

In addition to rivers and seas, rising tides can also flood some coastal land during astronomical tides.

Lugang is located in a swamp, on a higher ground. It relies on dykes to resist floods. When there is a flood, it is surrounded by a vast ocean. The hundreds of people who live here are all fishermen who go fishing on the sea.

At that time, Frederick had initially considered the swamps there, but when he inquired about it, he found out that in normal years the floods were as high as the waist, and in serious cases as high as a person, and that a dike of at least two meters high would have to be built. He said goodbye.

Frederick now has a total of 10,000 hectares of farms in the lowland areas, equivalent to 100 square kilometers, scattered in various places. After years of development, they have become relatively mature, and it is time to start harvesting.

Old Louis was lying on the hospital bed, holding Frederick's hand, and talked a lot of words of appreciation. He quoted scriptures and praised them for a long time, and then talked about the details of the fief.

According to his wishes, he was given another 100 square kilometers of land around Lukang.

Several ministers around him blushed after hearing this.

Frederick was not from the Kingdom of Gaul. If the Kingdom of Gaul wanted to fight, he would definitely not participate. If Wesson's army could help fight, this territory would definitely add 0, and it was good land in the country.

But the rules of feudal society cannot be broken. The Kingdom of Gaul will pay "assistance money" if it does not send troops.

In the past, Frederick's farm paid taxes to the local government, but now the farm and the new territory paid assistance directly to the royal family. The money was calculated based on the land area, and the unit price could be negotiated.

Frederick's previous farm was covered by taxes for 20 years and has been completely handed over to the local government.

After the tulip collapse and the Amstel fire last year, the local government's coffers were empty. If it weren't for the friendship bonds, the bonds for that year would not have been repaid, so it is impossible for the royal family to get back the remaining taxes on the farm. .

With the swamp-turned-farm example of turning decay into magic, naturally giving Frederick 100 square kilometers of land will no longer include taxes, but will require annual assistance payments. This money will definitely go into the pockets of the royal family. .

The problem is that it takes several years to transform the swamp, and His Majesty the King seems to want to use the swamp to collect farm money in these few years, which is a bit ugly.

The ministers had wronged old Louis. He was not stupid enough to offend Frederick for this little money. Now he wanted to win over him, so of course the details would have to be discussed.

Old Louis had long studied how Frederick reclaimed the swamps, and decided in his heart that he could give more of the swamps, and there would be no need to pay assistance fees in the first few years. It would not be too late to pay after the crops mature for two years.

However, after being a leader for so many years, he has long been accustomed to his vassals habitually complaining, and then he pulls them a few times and then sweetens them, so as to show his authority and generosity.

But Frederick had different ideas.

In his long-term plan, the lowland area must be eaten up, or at least support a reliable ally, so he started to build reputation there many years ago. Last year, he spent real money on it, hoping that the locals would be happy to welcome the king. division.

Frederick has always had only one core of foreign policy, be friends with him and make a fortune together, including the Upstream Regional Cooperation Organization, the Elbe Treaty Organization, the Helvetic Federation, the new cities of the Osmaga Empire, and the nobles in the Rhine League. This is true.

Only by comparison can we see the differences and let people know who is the true friend.

The most intuitive comparison is to let people feel for themselves what life will be like under different rulers on the same land.

Frederick said to Old Louis: "Your Majesty, I am willing to hand over all the farms in my hands to the royal family and replace the two delta plains south of Lukang."

He is familiar with the terrain of the lowland areas. There are many plains divided by rivers in the delta area south of Lukang. Among them, the one on the other side of the Lukang River is relatively narrow, about 190 square kilometers. Further south, there is a large plain between the main rivers. A lot, about 450 square kilometers, totaling about 640 square kilometers.

However, there are only swamps growing with reeds, which are flooded every year and no one develops them.

If we want to reclaim the area, we must build dikes with a height of more than 2 meters to surround the two plains to prevent floods from entering. The total length is more than 200 kilometers. It is initially estimated that the amount of earthwork exceeds 3 million cubic meters, which is equivalent to half of Weissensee. Measures of earth were dug out of the Carolina Canal to build embankments.

But this had many benefits for Frederick. The increase in land area was only one aspect. The key was that scattered land could be concentrated for easier management.

But this involves a fundamental political issue: Frederick was not from the Kingdom of Gaul, but from the Rhine League. The lowlands were captured after a battle between the Kingdom of Gaul and the Rhine League. Frederick His father died in that war.

If Frederick obtained a large area of ​​uniform land, some people can't help but wonder, is he going to annex in a curved line?

Old Louis considered the overall situation and made a decision in his mind.

He said to Frederick: "I can give you those lands, but I don't want the farm you have cultivated."

It wasn't that he didn't want those farms, but he wanted to save his face and didn't want others to say that he was forcing Frederick to exchange worthless swamp land for mature farms.

Old Louis continued: "There are many pirates in the North Sea now, who often harass the coastline. I plan to build a defense line along the northern coast."

"Of course, I'm not asking you to pay. I'm asking you to pay for the project. The cost of materials will be cheaper."

Frederick understood that the prevention of piracy he was talking about was secondary. The main thing was to defend the Kingdom of England across the strait. He might also build a line of defense on the border with the Rhine League.

No one who has been to Weissenburg has any doubts about the engineering capabilities of Frederick's men. Everyone thinks it makes sense for old Louis to entrust him with the construction of the defense line. Archduke Weissen is simply a god in the field of civil engineering. The presence.

Moreover, this matter is regarded as a military mission and one of the vassal's obligations.

Frederick thought for a while and said: "It is not realistic to build a wall to enclose the coast."

Old Louis smiled and said: "It doesn't need to be like this. My plan is just to build lookout bunkers on the seaside, build fortresses on key roads, and build military camps in the rear."

Frederick nodded. The scale of the current landing battle was not very large, and getting ashore was very troublesome and took a lot of time. The most important thing for counter-landing was to give timely warning and delay the enemy, allowing the rear to have time to gather forces to launch a counterattack on the beach.

The same is true when pirates attack. As long as there is time to warn, the local lords can mobilize their troops to lead a counterattack or defense.

Frederick agreed and suddenly thought about the difference between using civil engineering in exchange for land and working on a construction site to buy a house in his previous life.

He also proposed building a road network in coastal areas, which would collect tolls in peacetime and speed up the deployment of troops in wartime.

The general matters were quickly discussed, and Old Louis generously gave him a piece of land on the north shore of Lukang, totaling 700 square kilometers.

Before Frederick left, Old Louis held his hand and said, "My illness depends on you. I will perform the ceremony for you after I recover."

Only then did Frederick realize that something seemed wrong.

As the saying goes, the more you emphasize something, the more it lacks. Old Louis has been emphasizing recovery. Is it because he is afraid that his illness will not be cured?

He left this matter alone. The construction of new land required start-up funds, and this money had to be raised.

Then a breaking news spread among the nobles.

That night, a "maid" who came to seduce Frederick asked him: "Sir, I heard that you are going to sell those farms?"

Frederick replied: "Yes, do you want to buy it?"

The "maid" said coquettishly: "Can you give me one?"

Frederick said coldly: "I hate people who think about getting something for nothing all day long."