Chapter 101: Construction Plan

Those who had wanted to quit had already left earlier.
The ones who stayed all believed they were suited for this place and wanted to continue serving the lord.

The punishments might be frightening, but the rewards were extremely generous — as long as one didn’t make mistakes, there was nothing to fear.

“Good.”

Once he confirmed no one was withdrawing, Viscount Jarvis began organizing the troops according to plan.

With over four hundred men, they were counted as a single battalion. Under it were eight companies: four pike companies, three musket companies, and one artillery company.

The pike companies were considered transitional units.
Once the number of muskets and cannons increased in the future, corresponding training would be conducted, and they would gradually be converted into musket or artillery units.

Naturally, Kadir was assigned to a musket company. Because of his excellent performance, he was even promoted to squad leader.

That was nothing compared to Blue, who was promoted to captain of the artillery company — a decision no one disputed, since not long ago he had used cannon fire to take down the corpse sandworm and rescue the lord, earning a remarkable military achievement.

In addition, the tents in the camp were to be reassigned according to the new structure, with two squads sharing one tent.

It’s worth noting that the knights of the frontier garrison town — along with their retainers — were also incorporated into the People’s Army. Most of them took up positions as squad leaders or higher-ranking officers.

All the small plots of land held by these knights were taken back by Owen.

He didn’t use force to reclaim them — most of the land had been cursed and left to waste, unattended.
Keeping them brought almost no income, so many knights were happy to hand over their barren plots in exchange for the lord’s compensation.

As for the knightly title, it would remain as an honorary distinction permanently.
From now on, no new knights would be created in the frontier garrison town.

And then there was Viscount Jarvis’s territory.

Owen “painted a big picture” of promises, and even pledged to gift one of the new firearms once development was complete, in order to secure from him the development rights to his land.

With that, Owen had integrated the Bianshu town and a vast amount of surrounding territory into his own control — finally able to carry out his plans without restraint.

Meanwhile, in Viru’s home…

Recently, Viru had completed many tasks assigned by the lord.

After repairing the city walls, he went on to fix several dilapidated houses in the northern part of the town, and even built a few wooden sheds to shield the lizardmen from wind and snow in the winter.

The walls of the public cemetery? Those were also something he had hastily piled together.

Whenever he had free time, Viru would do what he was doing now — sitting at a table, reading and studying.

In his hands was a book made of paper — given to him by the lord — about architectural engineering.

At first, Viru had scoffed at it.

After all, he was a well-known stonemason in the garrison town. He believed he had already mastered all the building knowledge he needed and had nothing left to learn.

And the book wasn’t even made of parchment — just a simply bound stack of plant-based paper.

Though the plant paper the lord had developed was thin and light, it felt cheap and low-quality. It gave the impression that, since the content hadn’t been recorded on parchment, it must not be worth much.

But when Viru casually opened it and glanced through, he was deeply drawn in by the various theoretical concepts inside.

So that’s how it is… problems can be solved this way too.

The knowledge was refreshingly new and completely broadened his horizons.

Curious about who had written the book, Viru even went to ask the lord.

Owen, however, acted mysteriously and only told Viru to study it well — the knowledge in it would soon be put to use.

The lord was clearly hiding something.

Still, Viru had no intention of pressing the matter — better to focus on studying the book.

The deeper he read, the more amazed he felt.

Since childhood, he had followed his father, a stonemason, learning the craft. After years of hard work, he had considered himself one of the finest stonemasons in the kingdom.

But now, he realized his knowledge was far too shallow — he ought to study even harder.

At that moment, his wife came over and called out, “Dear…”

“Shh — quiet!” 

Viru frowned, raising a finger to his lips. 

“Don’t disturb me. I’m studying.”

“But… the people outside were sent by the lord to find you.” 

His wife said helplessly.

“The marquis? …Alright then.”

With no choice, Viru reluctantly closed the book, placing it carefully into a drawer, and went outside.

Upon learning the lord had summoned him, he quickly followed the guard to the castle.

Entering Owen’s office, Viru placed a hand to his chest and asked.

“My lord marquis, may I ask what you need from me?”

“You’re finally here — come take a look at this.”

Calling him over, Owen pulled several building blueprints from a drawer and spread them across the table.

Viru casually picked up one. At first glance, it looked like a tall tower… No, the internal structure was somewhat like the furnace in a blacksmith’s shop — probably meant for burning something.

“Is this… a very tall furnace?”

Since he wasn’t certain, Viru decided to ask.

“That’s right — it’s a blast furnace, used for smelting iron ore. And here’s something similar.”

Owen took out another blueprint. 

“This is a kiln, for producing cement and clay bricks.”

The cement workshop had already resumed operations.

Unfortunately, the small workshop’s capacity was limited. Owen needed to build new kilns to boost output.

Moreover, this kiln design — provided by experts from Winston — included a space for fire-element mages to channel their magic, allowing magic production methods.

However, for now, the number of fire mages was too few, so production would have to rely on traditional methods.

The reason Owen needed so many building materials was because he planned to construct an entirely new frontier garrison town.

“Oh…”

Viru nodded and examined the next blueprint.

This one depicted a three-story rectangular building, each floor lined with ten large rooms in a row. Each large room was further divided into smaller rooms, connected on the outside by a long corridor, with staircases at both ends.

Notably, every large room was almost identical in shape.

“And this is…?”

“An apartment — you can think of it as a large building where multiple families live together.”

Then Owen explained his construction plan:

“I intend to completely renovate Bianshu town — tear down all the wooden huts and adobe houses, and rebuild them into these brick buildings. I’ll have the townsfolk live together in one area. That way, we’ll have wide streets, everyone under one roof, and it’ll make supplying water, heating, and even electricity much easier in the future.”

The moment Viru heard renovating the entire town, he was so stunned that he barely listened to what Owen said afterward.

“This is such a massive project… it would take decades to complete.” 

Viru said firmly.

“Exactly.” 

Owen nodded. 

“That’s why I want you to recruit more apprentices and train them well. From now on, there will be more and more construction in the Bianshu town — you alone won’t be enough.”

And it wasn’t just Viru — Owen also ordered the town’s blacksmiths to take on more apprentices, offering rewards for each new one.

After all, skilled craftsmen were scarce in the garrison town. The only way to grow enough talent for its development was through training.

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