My territory is filled with block creations.

Chapter 51 How can the loyalty of a caravan be guaranteed?

"I just wanted to ask how well you've trained these soldiers... and whether it's been too rough?" Thorne deliberately lowered his voice and asked the last question in a low voice.

"Village chief, it's no problem to get them to follow orders, and the group leader of each of the four groups is one of our own people."

"But the problem with being rough..." Lester said, scratching his head, "I can't control them without a beating. They're willing to fight to protect the village, but they're not willing to stand up like human beings to protect the village, as you said."

Thorne sighed helplessly. This was indeed his problem. After all, neither he nor Lester were professional soldiers and they didn't know how to manage things. As for directly imitating the military training from his previous life, that wouldn't work either.

Students in the previous life studied continuously from childhood to adulthood, so they could understand why standing at attention was necessary, what the meaning and benefits of obeying orders were, but for villagers whose average education level was less than that of prenatal education, it was obvious that reasoning with them would not work.

"Anyway, let's change the punishment. Let's change it from pure physical punishment to something like running or push-ups. It won't cause injuries and can even help strengthen the body." Thorne thought for a moment and decided to change the punishment for the warriors.

Then he added, "I plan to have them split into two groups in a while, one to protect the caravan and the other to go to the northern mountains to search for the iron ore. Are they capable of doing that now?"

"It can be done," Lester said decisively. "Those four team leaders from our own ranks can all manage their subordinates."

Thorne nodded, relieved: "However, don't always say 'we're all family.' Outsiders say that, but once you're in Redstone Village, everyone's one of us."

Rice nodded: "Okay, then they're all on our side."

Thorne nodded: "Then you continue training. Remember to change the punishment methods. I'll go back and see what we can trade in our village."

Upon returning to the work area, the first thing I saw wasn't a notebook recording the village's supplies, but rather the blueprints drawn by Alex.

It still consists of a large number of parts, the most eye-catching of which are several round wheels.

"Emmm..." Thorne looked at the blueprints in front of him and clicked his tongue somewhat awkwardly: "This round thing..."

"The wheels," Alex replied.

"What I mean is, I can't make this," Thorne said helplessly.

Alex felt as if her head had flown from the ground to the highest heavens. After thinking for a moment, she pointed to a herringbone gear on the drawing, with two sets of symmetrical helical teeth on the left and right, and the gear was made in one piece.

"Can you make this?" she asked.

Thorne: "Yes."

"Can you make this?" Alex asked again, pointing to the two simple, round wheels that had no fancy designs.

"No." Thorne shook his head.

Alex thought a lot. She even wondered if Thorne had picked up some bad habits from those old lunatics in the Mechanicus, like refusing to endure hardship or being unable to stand seeing others having a good time. But in the end, she accepted it.

Perhaps it really is a limitation of individual ability... Let's try to understand.

"Hmm... okay, I need... a continuous heat source, uh, maybe give me a bunch of fires piled up on top of each other?"

Alex sighed helplessly, and Thorne immediately made her a campfire out of wood, sticks, and charcoal, and also took out a precious piece of iron to make a flint and steel, which he gave her.

"If you need help, go to Karl and ask him to assign you a labor team." After Thorne finished speaking, he picked up a small notebook from his desk that recorded the current resources of the village and began to make plans.

First of all, ordinary resources like wood and stone, and construction materials that require only the villagers' labor, definitely cannot be sold. Not only would they not fetch a good price, but the village itself wouldn't have enough.

As for wheat and flour, they had wanted to sell them, but Naro refused for various reasons. In general, it seems that those grains will never end up on the tables of ordinary people.

In most cases, they would be wasted at noble banquets and in warehouses, or become food for future enemies.

Thorne felt immense pressure at the time. Why did Naro simply assume that those people would be his enemies in the future?

All I wanted was to peacefully farm in this small corner of the kingdom, and at most build a better paradise or something like that. I shouldn't have any enemies.

However, Naro's opinion should still be respected.

With the sale of grain also suspended, the only things left to sell are wool cloth, hemp rope, and paper.

If conditions permit, the village can also sell sugar and eggs. Thanks to the help of wheat seeds, the chicken farm in the corner of the village has grown from two chicks to more than a hundred.

The number of eggs laid every day was astronomical. After deducting the three eggs that the villagers bought with three labor points every day, and the eggs used for basic bread, a considerable portion was stored in the warehouse, but Naro did not allow it.

White sugar, carrots, potatoes—anything that can be eaten is off-limits.

It's a bit of a pity.

Fortunately, the eggs and flour won't spoil in the village, so I guess I'll just leave them there.

In addition to food, a significant portion of the feathers are also collected and stored in the warehouse every day, and of course, as Naro said, they are still not allowed to be sold.

Feathers can be used to make arrow fletchings; if you dare to sell them, you're aiding the enemy. Very well, very well, as expected of an administrator, you're quite adept at labeling people.

Soon, Thorne finally planned out the goods for his next business trip.

Two hundred rolls of wool cloth, two hundred rolls of hemp rope, and one hundred kilograms of white paper are all high-profit items, and the demand is so high that they are easy to sell.

These goods were handed over to Naro for inspection. After he checked them, he found that the first item was wool cloth, which was definitely high-end. After all, most people wore linen or animal skins these days, and wool cloth was very precious.

Almost a single roll can sell for tens of silver coins, and two hundred rolls of wool cloth would be worth fifty gold coins. Hemp rope, although cheap, is sold in large quantities, so the market price is conservatively estimated at ten gold coins.

White paper was even more profitable, as most of the kingdoms still used papyrus and parchment these days, and this kind of white paper was all imported.

The only downside is that the quantity isn't as large as that of wool cloth. After all, wool cloth is made by brushing with a brushing machine, while paper is grown from sugarcane, so the yield can't be compared. Even a hundred catties would conservatively cost ten gold coins, and all the goods together would only cost seventy gold coins.

Listening to Naro's calculations, not only was Thorne, who was hearing the prices, astonished, but even Alex, who was making wheel rims using the fire-heating method, was somewhat bewildered. So, was their investment about to pay off?!

The only problem now is how to ensure the loyalty of the caravan members and their guards who are carrying a huge sum of money.

This is a fucking question.