Chapter 199
The 199th chapter “city of miracles”
Du Wei’s decision bordering on the line of insanity sent shockwaves to his people. However, everyone is very clear on one point, he is not joking. He may be crazy, but he’s definitely not joking.
In the days that followed, Du Wei mobilized almost all of his forces.
The 4,000 infantry originally led by Robert have already been stationed at a military camp outside Anglia City. The problem at hand is the armory.
Damn Governor Bohan. When his people withdrew from here, they took almost everything with them that not even the basic equipment are left. At best, Du Wei can only properly equip 1000 soldiers for combat while the remaining 3000 people are left unarmed……
Fortunately before Du Wei came to the Northwest he had already made some preparations ahead of time. Sending his people in all directions, they scoured nearly the entire region and purchased every building material they can get their hands on.
It wasn’t all bad news though. In Anglia city’s stock reserve, Du Wei was pleasantly surprised to find that there were still many building materials he can use in storage. Apparently, the former government was well aware of the fact that this city needed major repairs, but due to the lack of funding, this plan was put on hold indefinitely.
And Du Wei would of course be happy to accept it all.
After assigning the series of tasks to his men, he himself hid inside the old governor’s manor and locked the doors. No one knows exactly what is going on inside, but Du Wei would occasionally summon some craftsman to inside. As for the content of their conversation, no one knows because he gave strict orders to keep it confidential.
Time flies and half a month have gone by. Nearly breaking his leg, Old Marde and a group of servants brought back large amounts of materials like: wood, clay tiles, and so on….. But to everyone’s surprise, there is no food on the list.
In the meantime, General Longbottom wrote a letter and had several people copy it god knows how many times. Then like a flock of bees, he sent them out continuously.
The truth is the content of each letter is the same:
“I’m back! Anyone willing to work for me again is to report to Anglia City immediately!” Rather than his name, the following signature is some odd pattern on the letter.
What General Longbottom is doing is summoning his old subordinates. Very soon, not even a month’s time, the military camp outside the city is filled with an extra thousand soldiers. These people are all elite Calvary knights that dominated the Northwest alongside Longbottom. After their retirement, most of these people went home and became farmers, tailors, blacksmiths, and some even took on small jobs.
Then a month later after the new blood, 5,000 sets of infantry equipment along with 2,000 Calvary equipment arrived. All this have to be credited to that famous millionaire Taklanshan because if not for this wealthy arms dealer, this stuff would never have been so easily delivered. Whether it is the weapon or armor, all of these things were crafted using the empire’s highest military standard. In addition, there are also the deadly crossbows so often used by the military.
With this little move, Du Wei already expended hundreds of thousands of gold. When it came to troops, it really is a bottomless pit.
Then relying on Longbottom’s connection within the Northwest, they brought in another few thousand war horses. Like this, Du Wei has under his command 4,000 infantry troops and 1,000 cavalry knights – all fully armed in the standard of the strongest military corp of the empire.
It didn’t take Longbottom long to wash away the rust that plagued his former subordinates. With a few days’ worth of intense training, every one of their military presence was revitalized. “Wake up everyone! Put on your equipment and get on your horses. It’s time for training! If anyone falls behind today then I will punish him by making wash our boots!” These words of Longbottom resounded every morning with the rising sun.
No one knows how the general drilled his unit, they only know that they would wake up early in the morning and stay out till nightfall. Sometimes, they would train for two to three days without returning.
The only certainty is that whenever they return, these guys would all be dead tired like they were just pulled from the mud.
As for Phillip and his peers, they used the shortest amount of time needed to take over the administration body in Desa Province. It wasn’t that hard anyways since the place was so poor and there wasn’t any work to do to begin with in a day to day basis.
Everyone was busy going about their business that even Hussein, this highly wanted criminal of the temple, had no time to rest. Du Wei used a special dye and changed his hair to blue. With an eye patch covering one of his eyes, this former Holy Knight is unlikely to be recognized by anyone at this point in this god forsaken land known as the Northwest.
And the part that Du Wei thought was lucky is that even the temple didn’t want to take roots in this barren land. Through the entire province, there is only two churches and they are all near the borders of Nuling Province.
Knight Robert’s burden is very heavy because not only did Du Wei toss the 4,000 rebels in his hand, he also put him in charge of recruiting new bloods – it can’t be helped, Du Wei simply didn’t have enough manpower he can trust.
The Northwest is a harsh place so the conditions are ideal in producing strong soldiers. Unfortunately, the population is simply too low. In a whole month, they only managed to recruit 3,000 people. In order to quickly bring them up to par, Knight Robert organized a reserve infantry regiment and mobilized his staff to drill these people day in and day out.
Hussein is the one Du Wei sent over to help Knight Robert train these new recruits. As a former Holy Knight leader, he is the perfect fit for the job. Aside from this powerful figure, every one out two children in the Northwest is capable of riding a horse, so it shouldn’t be hard. Very soon, the perimeter outside the city walls became a war zone.
When the second month finally came, everyone started to really doubt if this Duke really went insane.
He said three months to build a new city, but a month have already passed, yet he is still locked inside his manor without taking a single step outside.
Large amounts of selected building materials have already been transported to the designated spot beside the Loulan Lake. This place originally only had a small little town nearby consisting of a thousand villagers, but because of Du Wei’s stuff, this place looked extremely crowded due to the mountainous piles of materials.
The ones in charge of watching over all of this are the 500 Royal Guards tasked with escorting Du Wei. Inwardly, they weren’t willing to stay and wanted to leave for the capital as soon as possible, but due to Du Wei’s persistence, they had no choice in the matter. Fortunately, their ordeal will soon come to a close.
On the fifth day of the second month, Du Wei finally came out of the Governor’s mansion. To everyone’s surprise, this already thin statured Duke became even scrawnier. Though his face was pale and his eyes red, Du Wei’s spirit seems to be in good shape.
“Gentlemen, remember today because from today onward, you will personally witness a miracle!”
Early this morning, the residence of this small town beside the lake have been gathered up in one place- the farm land outside the town.
The Northwest is a land with poor soil, but due to the Lake nearby, the area around the town is not bad.
Du Wei released a command to the thousand residents; he needs people who can work on a farm, the more the merrier!
You only need to help me plant and help me harvest! It was that simple: “And your wage….. For the people who worked, you can take one-tenth of whatever you harvested.”
This strange command left everyone bewildered.
Who couldn’t farm? This is a farm village, so even a woman can work.
According to Du Wei’s orders, everyone planted the seed they were distributed – this alone consumed two days’ worth of time.
At the beginning, everyone was still waiting to see a comedy…… What, can this noble lord be an idiot? Or is there too much food around that he is wasting it for fun?
But very soon, none of them could laugh anymore.
In the third morning, Du Wei in his wizardry robe had some of the servants carry out 10 barrels of water. After carefully assessing the amount, he pulled out a bottle from his pocket and dripped a few drops of liquid into the water.
It is then Du Wei began his magic.
What he did is not complicated; just about every magic user out there can pull off this mid-level spell.
After his spells completion, everyone present can see that above this noble lord’s head is a swirling vortex of air. Like an infinite force, the water inside the barrels were quickly sucked into the air and the wind began to grow ever fiercer. Finally, after Du Wei muttered another set of spells, the water vortex gradually rose into the sky and became rain clouds, ready to release its content. Then with a single command, a series of rain droplets began showering down against the farm land from all directions.
Once over, numerous plant shoots began to furiously soar out of the once barren landscape. In less than half a cup’s tea time, the once barren field is now fully populated with crops! All of this happened in a pace that the naked eye can discern!
Witnessing a miracle, many of the ignorant farmers began to pray aloud while many more were kneeling on the ground shouting Du Wei’s name.
“What are you waiting for? Harvest time is here! No matter how much you harvest, you can still receive one tenth of your amount.”
Du Wei’s single command caused the farmers to rush towards the field like fanatics, swinging their sickles like no tomorrow…….
Such a scene lasted for over 15 days and Du Wei can repeatedly force the field to yield two to three harvests each day!
Once time ran longer, even these enthusiastic farmers could no longer digest the volume! Like madness itself, the crops just won’t stop growing. In the end, Du Wei had to bring in the 1000 new recruits to help soothe the pressure on these farmers.
Subsequently, the problem that arose next is even weirder. Because there wasn’t enough sickles to go around, the new recruits can only harvest the crops with their own swords, eventually, even the granary were filled to brim and the crop harvested can only be piled up like a mountain outside the town.
Looking at the growing pile of food supplies before them, everyone really wondered if they were dreaming, but the ache in their back left no room for doubts.
Since then, the way these people look at Du Wei is akin to a divine god!
The 15 days’ worth of grain harvest even caused Du Wei’s gigantic fleet of cargo wagons to work overtime. One after another, newly built barns continued to pop out of the ground until finally every single personal was left exhausted by this endeavor. One with everyone aching on the ground did Du Wei’s crazy event come to an end.
And the result is…… Du Wei estimated that in the next year coming, the food prices in the northwest will see a steep deflation!
Subsequently, a grand celebration was held inside this quaint little town. Crazed with joy, everyone were binge drinking over the amazing harvest this year. Lasting over several days, every last drop of alcohol was consumed in this festival…. In any case, no will feel pity for the loss of these wines because it’s not like they are lacking in grain to make more!
After the party was over, Du Wei gave everyone a day’s rest before announcing: “Construction of the city begins!”
In this one month, Phillip racked his brains out to round up thousands of workers from across the province. In addition, he also hired as many craftsmen as he can up to this point. Even though the Duke is finally announcing the start of the construction project….. The time from the deadline is already halfway in!
He was really questioning the whole ordeal, but after witnessing the Duke’s miraculous ability, his own belief is starting to shake……. Maybe it’s not madness; it’s really possible to completely build a new city in one month!
“You just need to work at night.” Du Wei gave this simple command to the recruited workers and craftsmen’s: “you do not need to do too much heavy lifting. In fact, I only need you do some ticketing jobs here and there.”
Subsequently, Du Wei once again demonstrated his miracles!
Like the creation of the good harvest, Du Wei had Marde gather up some people to plant some saplings at certain locations. Then using the “As time goes by” spring water, he created another artificial rainfall.
Then around a thousand saplings grew into towering big trees in a single day!
After the blowing into the “Life Horn” (the gift he got from the treants), the thousand giant trees were awakened….. What awaited these treant companions is the already piling supply of building materials.
These mindless treant companions are without a doubt the best laborers. Not only are they immune to fatigue, they are very obedient!
Unlike before, the huge stone boulders that once required dozens of strong men to lift can now be easily handled by a single treant companion.
At the beginning, these artisans were all frightened by these gigantic monsters. Fleeing in all direction, it was only due to the pressure from Du Wei’s army that they finally settled down. Once determined these giants were harmless, the thousand workers finally began working!
It is as Du Wei predicted. The majority of the heavy labor was handled by the treants and the workers only need to do some patch work and hammering.
For example: when building the walls, the craftsmen’s only need to jump in to fill in the gaps with mud after the treant companions casually laid the stones together……
In less than 10 days, the Northern side of the walls was already taking shape!
Such a pace was so fast that it was scaring people!
Philip and a number of Mr. Blue Ocean’s disciple acted as the supervisors, each busy with their assigned tasks.
Reality as proven Du Wei did not talk big.
With the powerful giants as the labor force, the majority of the city walls were completed when there was still 5 days left from Du Wei’s promised date. Constructed in a diamond shape for the corner towers, the rest of the wall is towering at 15 meters high, this standard is already within the empire’s standard.
Under the protection of a wall stretching for up to 20 li’s (10,000 meters), this Loulan city will be Du Wei’s new capital in the Northwest.
(Li is an old form of measurement in Chinese. One Li = 500 meters)
But privately, everyone gave the city a new name:
City of miracles!
Of course, this “city of miracles” is only an empty shell, other than the city walls in the outer perimeter, the inside is blank. With nothing but the main roads designated by Du Wei inside, there is only a castle.
This will be Du Wei’s future manor.
The basis for Du Wei’s new capital is already set in place. The remaining problem is to populate the city with structures and people from other areas. All of this cannot be done in a short period.
According to Philip’s estimate, turning this new capital into a fully functioning city still requires a one year time frame.
Prior to this, Du Wei is to remain in Anglia city.
The residents of the small town near the lake are to become the first settlers of this new capital. Under a series of promises, they gave up their homes and began construction of their new home inside the city walls…..”
With the passing of several months, those willing to move to the new capital have reached 30,000 and the northwest district is starting to come together. For those that are willing to take the risk, Du Wei promised to exempt them from all taxes for one year.
And these farmers don’t have to worry about losing their source of income by coming to the city. Not only is there large number of opportunities to find work, Du Wei also allowed them to retain their original land, thus assuring their mindset once and for all.
Most of the immigrants are from Anglia City. When Du Wei announced the tax exception bill for those that immigrated, he also sent a message across the city that in the coming future, Anglia City is to lose its status of a city in the Desa Province. Also, he does not intend to station anymore troops here afterwards.
Without the protection of a wall – if this rundown wall can still be regarded as a ‘wall’ – then this place will become an ideal spot for bandits to pillage. Without the sense of security, these people can only choose to migrate to Loulan City.
The relocation of 80,000 citizens is not something that can happen overnight.
However, Du Wei doesn’t have to worry about this because Philip and his peers are handling all of the administrative work related to this problem. Along with Knight Robert, this trusted knight of Du Wei’s will be responsible for escorting the immigrants along the way to Loulan City.
And Du Wei?
Like a hermit, he once again began his mysterious life inside the governor’s manor back at Anglia city.
And Hussein wasn’t left alone either. This mighty and powerful Saint Knight has been tasked by Du Wei to go retrieve some more spring water from the valley inside the frozen forest. The reason for this sudden journey is because Du Wei’s reserve of “As time goes by” spring water is almost exhausted!
The only one capable of safely entering the frozen forest and not have to worry about being attacked by magical beasts is only Hussein. That is why Du Wei chose him.