Volume 6: Moving Forward Step by Step
Chapter 1: Growth
The long-awaited winter in the Caucasus finally arrived. It was probably the busiest and most fulfilling period of Komer’s life. Despite the help of Puber, Hes, Neptune, and the newly added Rese, Lafayette, and Hozer, the influx of 150,000 people still threw chaos into the still-unfledged lordly administration.
Fortunately, along the way, Komer had already prepared himself mentally for the various difficulties and troubles ahead. At this point, he couldn’t afford to dwell on issues that hadn’t been fully considered. He immediately divided the administrative tasks within his territory. Rese, who had considerable experience and was known for his integrity, took over judicial affairs from Puber, while Lafayette was responsible for managing immigration, land reclamation, and settlement. Neptune was officially appointed as an assistant to the civil affairs officer, tasked with handling various miscellaneous tasks aside from finance—especially population statistics for villages and towns, as well as the selection and appointment of local officials for each area. This position was highly challenging and appealing to a young man like Neptune. In terms of authority, it was equivalent to half that of a civil affairs officer in the territory. Komer’s emphasis on Neptune also strengthened Hes’s resolve, making him more dedicated to working tirelessly for Komer.
Fran and Ilot took charge of organizing the lordly guard. Before the immigrants arrived, Komer, who had already returned to Ugru ahead of time, decided to expand the lordly guard once again, despite the objections of Ilot and Baoling. He increased the size of the guard from 180 to 500 members. Such a large-scale expansion of military forces was a shock to a remote territory like the Caucasus. Even Hes, Puber, and the others didn’t understand why Komer was so eager to strengthen his military forces. In their view, there was no external threat in the Caucasus at the moment, so there was no need to invest so much money in building a large armed force.
However, no one could change Komer’s decision. Komer also didn’t explain to anyone why he wanted to form a large-scale lord’s guard. Only Eilot vaguely sensed that Komer’s actions might be related to their conversation that night. But Eilot opposed it not because he thought expanding the military forces was inappropriate, but because the 180 people in the second batch had just been recruited and hadn’t even completed basic drill training. Recruiting hundreds more in such a hurry meant these ragtag troops wouldn’t have much combat strength. To truly become a fighting force, they would need at least a year or two of rigorous training.
Yet Komer’s requirements for Eilot and Baoling were simple: they had to train these 500 mainly half-orc soldiers in the lord’s guard to appear intimidating on the surface within a short time. As for their actual combat strength, Komer was well aware it couldn’t change quickly. Eilot and Baoling couldn’t understand Komer’s demands. An army isn’t a parade unit; just looking intimidating is useless. In actual combat, the enemy certainly wouldn’t give up attacking just because you look fierce. But the lord’s request wasn’t unreasonable. With simple armor and weapons, and some basic discipline and drill training, the 500 soldiers could at least look presentable.
Only Komer knew his intentions. With over a hundred thousand immigrants arriving, conflicts would inevitably arise between immigrants and among them and the local natives. To suppress these groups from different regions, aside from winning over some influential figures among them, it was also necessary to show them one’s powerful military force. For those in the north who feared orcs, seeing a strong half-orc army under their control was a far more effective deterrent than any preaching.
Forming a large-scale lord’s guard was just Komer’s first step. Fran served as the captain of the guard, with Baoling as his deputy. Eilot didn’t hold any position in the guard but temporarily acted as its martial arts instructor. Training wasn’t Eilot’s forte, and he himself knew this. Allowing Fran and Baoling to take on the tedious yet necessary training tasks so he could have some free time was exactly what Eilot wanted.
To equip this lord’s guard, which was mostly made up of orcs, Puber had to spend a fortune purchasing weapons and armor from Bruce. The issue of weapons was manageable, but due to the orcs’ strong and robust physiques, they required armor that was one size larger than what was available on the market. Puber thus had to order custom armor from Ugru and Bruce to ensure these orcs could wear suitable protection.
It can be said that Komer’s two-pronged approach was successful. By using land, shares in iron and coal mines to win over influential gentry among the immigrants from the three regions, coupled with the formidable orc military force, which posed a significant threat to the arriving human immigrants, these immigrants felt both shocked and somewhat reassured. Seeing squads of well-armed orc warriors patrolling along the route from Ugru to Matdan, the immigrants who had already begun logging, building houses, and clearing land as planned realized that the lord who commanded these warriors must be a powerful and domineering figure. Faced with the potential destruction of their homeland, what these immigrants needed most now was a peaceful and stable living environment. Those who had escaped brutal wars cherished this hard-won peace even more. Their top priorities were safety and the right to survive; democracy and freedom could wait—everything else could be put on hold in the face of life itself.
Most of the immigrants here were satisfied. Although the place seemed remote and desolate, that was due to poor transportation and lack of population. With people living here, these conditions could change quickly. The climate was warm, the land flat and fertile, and there were abundant forests and mineral resources. Immigrants from Main and Susor as well as those from the Duchy of Mellen began to accept their new home, at least since they no longer had to worry about freezing or starving through the winter.
The thorough preparations made in advance by Palermo and Pube also played a role. Whether it was Ugru or Matdan, or Bahomon and Darman Pass, the granaries built there had already been filled with food. As the immigrants arrived, the food was distributed to them by family. With sufficient food for the winter, the biggest worry of the immigrants was finally alleviated—as long as they could stay fed, their families’ lives would be saved, and that was hope. As for other necessities of life, those were not within Komer’s responsibilities. However, the merchants in Matdan and Ugru had already made various preparations full of hope, providing everything from cloth, clothing, salt, tobacco, alcohol, and beverages to books, tools, weapons, and furniture. All these were provided by the merchants of the Barefoot Society in Kafli in partnership with local shops, sensing business opportunities. The needs of over a hundred thousand people were like an endless pit of demands, and of course, this pit would endlessly produce the gold shields they needed.
The flat and fertile land between Ugru and Matdan became the most concentrated area for the immigrants, stretching for hundreds of miles. Over 60% of the more than a hundred thousand immigrants settled in this region. Most of them were ordinary farmers who made a living through farming. Many logging and charcoal-burning sites were also located in this area. The thick smoke rising from the shrublands along the roads from Matdan to Ugru became a unique landscape in the Caucasus. Clearing land by burning was the first step the immigrants had to take to survive there—only by continuously burning land could they ask the Earth Goddess for the fertile land they needed.
The towns of Ugru and Matdan became the preferred destinations for wealthy immigrants moving to the Caucasus region. These towns had relatively good infrastructure and entertainment facilities. Although the central areas had already been taken over by the lords for commercial use, it was still possible to buy large plots of land from the lords’ officials as long as you could afford the price, of course at a high cost. But for wealthy immigrants who wanted to live in towns, this expense was worth it. The conditions in towns were much better than in the rural areas—there were various shops, as well as some rare entertainment facilities such as cafes and bars. Although they seemed simple compared to cities like Xiangmein, Susol, and Messini, having a place to rest and relax in such a remote area was already quite rare.
But the main reason why these elite immigrants chose the towns was that in such a strange and desolate environment, they needed sufficient military strength to ensure their safety. It was the military power and presence of the lord’s guard, composed of half-orc warriors, that made them realize that staying in towns might indeed be the safest option.
Komer couldn’t help but admire these merchants from the two commercial city-states of Main and Sussor. While the immigrants from the Duchy of Mellen were busy clearing land and cultivating the fertile plains between Ugru and Matdan, the merchants from Main, led by Hozel and Zip, had already set their sights on the stone mines in the Darman Pass area.
The entire mountain range was covered in large bluestones with a sky-blue background and white flecks—perfect materials for castles and houses. If these stones could be transported to large cities like Cyprus or Gutenberg, the profits would undoubtedly be enormous. There were also steep rocks near the foothills, covered in bright red ochre-colored rock, which were extremely expensive decorative materials. Even in cities like Cyprus and Jazair, only the wealthy could afford them. However, poor road conditions hindered all this. The shipping cost alone for each shipment of stones to their destination was exorbitant—this was likely one of the reasons hindering the development of the Caucasus.
Nevertheless, the large-scale land purchases and building projects by wealthy immigrants in Ugru and Matdan clearly stimulated the construction market in the entire Caucasus, driving up prices for building materials. After careful analysis of the building materials market and transportation conditions in the Caucasus, the merchants from Main decisively joined forces to apply to the lord’s court for the right to mine the stones in Darman Pass. After some bargaining, Puber boldly proposed using the construction of the road from Darman Pass to Leon in the Caucasus section as a condition to obtain mining rights. After discussion, the merchants from Main ultimately accepted this condition.
In a similar situation, Puber put up three coal mines discovered in the Vot Mountains for public bidding, offering to build a road from the mines to Matdan in exchange for the mining rights. Lord Melbourne and the Barefoot Society merchants teamed up to defeat the merchants from Main and secured the rights to two of the coal mines, while the third was acquired at a high price by local merchants and gentry from Mellen.
Although the sale of these mineral development rights did not bring even half a gold shield to the somewhat struggling lord’s estate, it greatly stimulated the investment enthusiasm of merchants from three regions and local industrialists. The lord’s policy essentially involved using the proceeds from the auctions to improve road conditions. The large amount of labor needed for road construction also provided employment for many unemployed people during the winter slack season. From Matdan to the foothills of Volt Mountain, from Ugru to Matdan, and from Bahomon via Ugru to the Darman Pass, the entire Caucasus became a site of intense construction. Building houses became the main task for women, while the elderly, in addition to taking care of children, had to cook and do household chores. Road construction and bridge building were the ways for men to earn money to support their families.
From December to early March, the entire Caucasus was immersed in activity. Whether they were local natives or newly arrived immigrants, it seemed everyone was involved in the effort to build a new Caucasus. Two large towns gradually took shape. Ugru firmly became the core of the Caucasus, with its population soaring from less than three thousand to over twenty thousand people. The diameter of the central area expanded rapidly from less than a kilometer to over three kilometers. New houses were built one after another, and shops lined up in large numbers. Compared to a few months earlier, the population density had increased by more than ten times.
The preliminary work for iron mining in Bahomon had already begun. The road from Bahomon to Ugru was identified by Komer and Puber as the top priority project. Even before the immigrants arrived, Puber had recruited nearly a thousand workers to start laying the foundation. With the ample labor force brought in by the immigrants, the construction of this road progressed much faster and more smoothly. Various tools and facilities for iron mining were also quickly transported to Bahomon under Kafli’s supervision. The newly recruited miners quickly became familiar with the working environment under the training of skilled workers from the Leon region. It seemed everything was ready, waiting only for the right opportunity.