Now it’s truly time to focus on recuperation and rest.
Although Duncan led the British Legion to consecutive victories, it couldn’t offset the Duke of Dingtiger’s initial major defeat, followed by a minor defeat, and then those two hard-fought battles with Hengist and Hosa, all against elite Saxons, leading to significant casualties.
However, the urgent task now is demobilization. All those drafted farmers, town militias, auxiliary troops, etc., Duncan decided to disband them all at once.
Redistribute the land.
Everyone must go and farm, cultivate the land, dig ditches. The town hall will lend you money, interest-free, and help you prepare tools. Go and plant one good wave of crops to lift the nearly collapsing economy of Great Britain.
During the time of the Empire’s rule, Great Britain was still quite prosperous, with a population of over three million.
As for now, it’s uncertain if there are even a million people in the England region. Under the ravages of Saxon pirates, a lot of land has been abandoned, at least a third of the population has died, and many villages were reduced to just a few dozen people. The economy must be aggressively revitalized, otherwise, there won’t be enough food next year.
From a God’s-eye view.
Duncan discovered in the projection page new functionality, such as how he could now generate a simple town panel for Southampton.
"Territory: Southampton (large port town)."
"Roads: Muddy roads (road conditions are extremely poor)." Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveI(F)ire.net
"Agricultural level: Low (crop rotation system, lacking canal irrigation)" [Improving agriculture requires recruiting relevant talents; current era agricultural skills include channel irrigation and feudal manor system.]
"Commercial level: Low (marketplace dilapidated, port desolate, backward fishing industry)" [Relevant personnel Anya is restoring commercial economic activities.]
"Technological level: Low (backward forging technology, poor education, no engineering technology)" [Relevant talent needs recruitment.]
"Environment: Extremely poor (no drainage channels, household waste is casually discarded)."
"Temple: Small Viking holy sanctuary (dedicated to Odin)."
Basically, all of Duncan’s territories were in this condition.
In his previous life, Duncan belonged to an agricultural people.
Can this be tolerated?
How are you farming? Can’t you even manage proper canal irrigation?
It’s not just one place ; it’s nearly every place: muddy roads, crop rotation systems, decaying commerce, can’t even find people to forge proper equipment.
"This level of development is absolutely terrible."
Duncan’s first move was to boost agriculture, and disbanded troops were all sent to farm, captives were made to labor digging ditches. In just a few days, the entire territory was bustling with activity; he himself loaned money out of his pocket to those allotted land, urging them to quickly seize the chance to cultivate.
He even developed a piece of military farmland near Portchester Castle.
"With my current territory, maintaining a force of three thousand troops is enough."
"But they must all be combat soldiers."
Severus personally recruited exiles from the Gaul region; currently, there are two batches, roughly over a thousand young adults. This batch was not directly allotted land, but cultivated the lord’s land, yet could obtain ownership and corresponding freemen status after ten years.
Want to speed up this process? It’s simple, submit more grain, purchase with money, submit warhorses, or if family members join the army and achieve battle meritorious service, etc. If you behead a first-rank armored soldier on the battlefield, it’s almost equivalent to ten years of hard labor.
Currently, Duncan has bestowed freeman status and allotted land to the first batch of followers among the exiles.
Striking while the iron is hot, Clegane leapt to become cavalry commander because he seized an opportunity early on, the rewards for those who followed Duncan earlier were much more substantial.
Within the Lord’s mansion.
Anya hesitated, glanced at Duncan, and said: "Are those Saxons getting land allocated too?"
Duncan replied indifferently: "Yes."
"Why not allocate it?"
Anya cautiously said, "I’m afraid that if we give them land, those Britons will feel dissatisfied."
Duncan slowly stood, his gaze cold: "The dissatisfied can come to confront me."
"Since they’ve been incorporated, they’re my subjects."
"In my eyes, there’s no Briton and Saxon, only loyal subjects who swear allegiance to me."
Duncan forcefully overrode objections, allotting land and granting corresponding freeman status even to the Saxons.
But this only applied to those incorporated or rendered great service; many Saxon captives are still doing hard labor, frankly speaking, those who remain disobedient will eventually be sent to Xiu Hadrian’s Wall.
Crow Queen Triss glanced at her and softly said, "Southampton worships the Germanic Barbarian Race’s holy sanctuary."
"Dorset worships the Avalon sacrificial stone."
"Cornwall and Wiltshire both have Church chapels."
"How do you plan to handle the matter of beliefs?"
After contemplating for a moment, Duncan replied: "For now, don’t worry about it. Let them believe in whoever they wish, each sect’s pantheon shows their own skills, and whoever can attract followers will own them."
"We just need to control the secular."
Let Polytheism and Monotheism create their own competition; Duncan doesn’t plan to wade into these troubled waters for the moment.
Furthermore, he couldn’t possibly destroy the sanctuaries of the Norse gods to support Avalon’s beliefs; otherwise, the barbarian foreign legion army might suddenly lose morale. Maintaining the status quo is best for now, and ultimately, the missionary work relies on their own abilities.