The Lord Of Blood Hill

At Henwell’s signal, Simon carries over a box. He then distributes the top-secret documents inside to everyone.

Seeing Pacino crane his neck to look, Henwell hands him his own copy.

Henwell addresses the group carefully reviewing the files. “For the first phase of the project, each of you must allocate at least ten thousand acres of land. This land needs to be near rivers or lakes to facilitate my irrigation infrastructure.”

“Additionally, you must provide a plot for building housing, not a small one. For a demonstration zone of ten thousand acres, I will send a construction team of three hundred people. You provide the remaining workers. There will also be an agricultural team of over one hundred, plus more than twenty management staff from Peace Haven.”

“Besides the land, you need to supply three hundred serfs per demonstration zone, valued together with the land at ten thousand gold coins. I will invest over twenty thousand gold coins. That should satisfy you, right?”

“Given the misunderstandings about me, I won’t station armed forces, but you must provide protection. You may assign officials to supervise the demonstration zone, but you cannot interfere with my team’s decisions.”

Henwell continues, “Let me be clear: the personnel I send are highly skilled and expensive. If there are injuries, disappearances, or other incidents, you must compensate me at a minimum of eight hundred gold coins per person. Trust me, that’s just the cost price. If any special experts are harmed, I will personally demand an explanation.”

“You can bribe or sway those experts, but you must not harm them. If anyone uses force against them, I will take lethal revenge.”

Everyone sees Henwell isn’t joking. Knowing he’s willing to mobilize troops to fight a kingdom over a promise, no one doubts he’d really come after anyone who crosses him.

So, they all pledge to ensure the demonstration zones’ safety.

Henwell adds, “Pay attention to clauses nine and fifteen. Once the contract is signed, it lasts ten years. Not just the land, but the serfs must work there for the full decade. If anyone backs out midway, they must compensate me double for my losses.”

“If anyone tries to cheat me, think twice before signing. Clause thirteen states I have the right to decide which crops are planted. Don’t think you can manage the land and then grow high-value crops without my approval.”

Fabio flips through the documents. “What if we want more demonstration zones? Do you open up the technology, or do we have to build new zones ourselves?”

Good question!

Henwell smiles. “That’s covered in the appendix. If you want to create more demonstration zones, there are two options.”

“First, within two years, you continue under the original contract, but your share drops from half to one-third.”

Marquis Kadia frowns. “Why less this time?”

Henwell explains, “The initial deal had a first-time incentive. To encourage you all to join and rapidly expand the plan, I made big concessions.”

“This is a business, after all. The first partners take the risk. It wouldn’t be fair if later joiners get the same benefits once profits start rolling in. That would be unjust to those who believed in me from the start.”

“And that’s just the bonus for you who already joined. If you didn’t participate in the first phase, I only give a quarter share.”

“The second option: within three years, if you want to expand further, you take one hundred skilled serfs from the existing demonstration zone combined with new serfs to open a new zone. At the same time, you must add two hundred serfs to the old zone and cover the wages for my agricultural experts.”

Everyone immediately starts calculating in their heads.

No need to provide tools or seeds, no need to build irrigation.

They only provide land and three hundred serfs.

Henwell promises his management will increase grain output by at least a third compared to their own efforts.

One acre yields about twenty silver coins, roughly a third of a gold coin.

Ten thousand acres produce three thousand gold coins annually. A third more means an extra thousand gold coins.

It sounds small, but it’s essentially free money, four thousand gold coins handed over without lifting a finger.

They know managing crops themselves still costs resources.

Now Henwell takes all the risks, and they just wait for the profits.

For these high nobles, four thousand gold coins is pocket change.

But for a knight lord or even a baron, four thousand gold coins is no small sum.

Ten thousand acres sounds vast, but including the associated buildings, it’s less than seven square kilometers.

A typical knight lord holds nearly twenty square kilometers of land, and if about a third is arable, that adds up to roughly ten thousand acres.

The knight lord doesn’t have to lift a finger and still earns four thousand gold coins a year from the land. It’s enough to make anyone wake up laughing from a dream.

If the great nobles cooperate, they surely won’t settle for just one demonstration zone.

At this, Fabio slams his hand on the table. “I want to build a hundred demonstration zones!”

Seven hundred square kilometers is nothing for Fabio, who controls vast lands in the Western Regions.

A hundred zones means a pure annual profit of four hundred thousand gold coins. Such a good deal can never be too much!

Henwell twitches at the corner of his mouth. This guy really knows how to take advantage.

Henwell waves his hand. “No way! I don’t have that many people to assign, and you don’t have thirty thousand serfs to supply. I’ll grant you fifty demonstration zones. If the zones are close together, I’ll need to build villages—mainly for transporting and selling grain and crops. If necessary, some basic processing plants will be built too.”

“You’re responsible for the security and management of these villages. I won’t interfere, but again, you must guarantee the safety of my people.”

Fabio isn’t satisfied with missing out on half the deal. “That’s easy! If you don’t have enough people, train them faster! Your slow pace is holding me back from making money! Fifty zones it is, but you must reserve the other fifty for me. When you have the manpower, build them quickly.”

“As for serfs, don’t worry. I can always send commoners if needed.”

Before Henwell can respond, Arius smiles. “I’m in too! Count me in.”

The other nobles aren’t stingy either. The smallest contracts are for ten demonstration zones.

Some go all in alongside Fabio and Arius.

For example, Baron Pacino grits his teeth and takes on contracts for three zones, which covers nearly half his territory.

Marcus, Henwell’s father-in-law and a duke, naturally supports the plan wholeheartedly.

Surprisingly, Duke Obiken also commits fully to the project.