18 Chapter 18

The castle is the core building for humans to control the land, and it is also the prerequisite for the lords to swear their sovereignty to the outside world.

  In Westeros, the Kingdom Expansion Act also follows this principle. Only when a qualified castle is built on the open land, the kingdom will recognize the lord's legal ownership of the open land.

  Therefore, after coming to the frontier, Samwell's first core task was to build a castle of his own.

  Only in this way can he become a real lord.

  So, just after lunch, Samwell called the artisans of Upland City to discuss the construction of the castle.

  "Lord Caesar, we just had a rough inspection of the environment here, and we have a rough plan in mind, and we were about to report to you."

The person who spoke was a craftsman named Vido, who was over fifty years old, with gray beard and hair, but He was very prestigious among the group of craftsmen from Upland City. Back then, Viscount Martyn even held Samwell's hand and told him to protect the old man.

  "Mr. Vido, please tell me." Samwell has always respected capable people.

  Vido bowed slightly, and talked eloquently:

  "My lord, we think that to build a castle that suits your identity, the best location is in the northeast corner of this valley. The terrain there is higher, and it will not be affected even if the tide rises, and Two sides of the mountain can save two sections of walls.

The currently planned castle covers an area of ​​about five acres. The main castle has six floors, thirty-eight rooms, two basements, and there are three auxiliary castles, a stable, and a warehouse. , three barracks, and four ninety-foot-high towers, on which heavy bed crossbows and small trebuchets can be placed.

  The city wall is about eighty feet high and about twelve feet thick. It is very strong with mortar and gravel filled in the middle.

  Outside the city wall, sea water can be used to surround the city with a moat..."

  Samwell listened silently, and waited for the other party to finish speaking before asking:

  "So, how much does it cost to build such a castle?"

  Vido stroked his long beard and thought for a moment, then said:

  "It will cost about 70,000 Golden Dragon."

  The corner of Samwell's mouth twitched, and he asked again: "How long will it take to build it?"

  "With the current manpower, it will take about five years."

  The corner of Samwell's mouth twitched even more, and asked again: "If I find enough staff, how long will it take?"

  "At least half a year. However, in this case, the cost must be more than 70,000 gold dragons, and it may cost several times." "

  "okay ."Samwell nodded feeling little better.

  He definitely can't wait five years, when the White Walkers will come and play ass.

  Tickets must be obtained before the game of power officially starts.

  So, the question now is, how to raise such a huge amount of money in a short period of time?

  It is definitely impossible to continue to attract investment. No matter how many grievances there are in Westeros, it is impossible for him to make such a huge sum of money.

  However, Samwell didn't panic. Since he dared to come out and explore, he must be prepared.

Before coming here he told Todd that he could earn income from the territory through serious business and he was not bragging.

But it's too early to talk about that , first we have to settle down first.

"Mr. Vido, the castle is not in a hurry, let's build a stable and safe camp first. Do you have any suggestions for this?"

"My lord, then I suggest that you build a simple wooden fort.

First, near the entrance and exit of the valley, a small hill should be piled with earth and rocks, a wooden tower should be built on it, a beacon tower should be set up on it, three or four shorter arrow towers should be built on each side, and a solid fence should be used for protection around it.

Ditches can be dug outside the fence to enhance protection. Houses, stables, blacksmith shops, and other buildings can be arranged behind the tower, which are also built of wood.

This kind of simple wooden fortress is cheap, easy to obtain materials, and has a short construction period. It can quickly form an effective defense. Of course, its shortcomings are also obvious. It is not strong enough, afraid of fire, and cannot be recognized by the kingdom as the core of the territory.

However, these are more than enough for camps transitional use."

Samwell nodded with a smile and said, "Okay, Mr. Vido, I will leave it to you to take full responsibility for this matter."

"Yes, my lord."

Vido bowed and saluted, and then asked again, "My lord, I also have a preliminary plan for the construction of the pier..."

"The pier is not in a hurry. Concentrate manpower to build the wooden fortress first, and remember to build more wooden houses. I'm afraid we will have new companions in a short time."

After arranging the craftsmen, Samwell turned his gaze to Todd Flower . "Knight Todd, what advice do you have for the security of the camp?"

Although there was some gap between the two of them because of Carter's death before, they didn't tear each other apart, and Todd has been doing his best along the way.

Especially after going deep into the Crimson Mountains, without this experienced knight, even if the pioneering team was not harassed by the savages, they might not have reached the northern shore of the Summer Sea so smoothly.

Therefore, Samwell still respects Todd's opinion in terms of security.

Todd didn't hold back either and immediately replied, "My lord, I suggest removing all the trees near the entrance and exit of the valley to prevent enemies or wild animals from taking cover. In addition, although the savages did not attack us all the way before, they followed us all the time, so we must be vigilant and arrange people to go out of the valley every day to keep watch and check the surrounding situation by the way."

"Okay." Samwell nodded, and after thinking for a moment, he added, "However, as long as the savages around us don't show malice first, we don't want to attack them. If possible, I hope we can find out the distribution of the wildling tribes around, and it would be best for me to meet the leaders of those tribes."

"My lord, the wildlings in the Red Mountains don't have any kindness towards us. The reason why they didn't attack us before was that they saw that we had enough soldiers, so don't take them lightly."

"Don't worry, I understand their danger. But as pioneer lord , if I can accept some savages as subjects, our territory construction will definitely be smoother."

Todd didn't persuade much and then started to act according to Samwell's instructions.

The originally quiet valley suddenly became lively again.

Samwell led his recruits to catch fish and shrimp by the sea because Bleak Island is located deep in the Red Mountains, and transportation is inconvenient.

Although they bought some livestock and prepared some bacon, they must save something fresh to eat.

Fortunately, the recruits were originally dock laborers. Most of them grew up on the banks of the Mander River, so they naturally knew how to catch food from the water.

In one afternoon, the recruits had a great harvest, and the seafood they caught piled up into a hill half as high as a person.

But just when Samwell was happy to have a seafood barbecue dinner tonight, Todd came back worried and reported, "My lord, it's bad. Our soldiers who were cutting down trees outside were attacked by savages, and three people were injured. Out of the three sentinels sent out, only two came back."

[END]