Shen Mo stood on the city wall, watching the ravenous Wildlings on the open ground outside.
Shiranui Mai and Loke stood behind him, though both of his personal handmaidens wore somewhat hostile expressions.
The source of their resentment stood right beside Shen Mo—Zhao Qi, looking radiant and refreshed, as though she had been nourished by some top-tier tonic.
Feeling the aggrieved glares behind him, Shen Mo unconsciously touched his lower back, apologizing silently in his heart.
It wasn’t that he intended to neglect the two of them over the past week; Zhao Qi, in her nature as the Jade Face Fox, simply had an undeniable reason.
Enchanting weapons required rapid mana replenishment.
To avoid draining the ambient mana in the air, other methods were needed for swift recovery.
Consequently, Shen Mo’s kidneys had suffered terribly.
Unlike Mai, who had formally studied the bedroom arts, Miss Zhao’s nature as a Jade Face Fox meant literally draining him to the marrow.
Every time they finished, Shen Mo doubted whether he would live to see the next morning’s sun.
Yet strangely, despite being completely exhausted afterward, Shen Mo would be full of vigor again the next day.
He felt a scorching energy surging inside his body, and this energy was still growing constantly.
*Hiss—* He pressed a hand to his forehead.
Beside him, Zhao Qi smiled knowingly without a word.
“Are our food reserves sufficient?” Shen Mo asked, rubbing his temple.
“More than enough.
Adding just a thousand mouths won’t collapse our logistics, though we do need to continue expanding our arable land,” Zhao Qi replied.
“Then put them to work.
Distribute the seeds to them, and assign some guards to supervise them so they don’t eat the seeds.” “I understand, my lord.” “Also, use growth-accelerating magic on the crops.
Don’t spare mana on that front.” “I know, but…
you mustn’t withhold the proper compensation.” Shen Mo’s knees wobbled slightly, but he immediately straightened his back.
Behind him, the twin aura of resentment grew even thicker.
“That said, you should rest for the coming week,” Zhao Qi added, casting him a seductive glance before turning to leave the wall.
*** The well-fed Wildlings soon met their very first task.
Under the guidance of veteran Cathayan farmers, the Wildlings began cultivating land for the first time in their lives.
Rather than crudely burying seeds in the ground, they utilized professional agricultural tools for high-efficiency farming.
Of course, what astonished the Wildlings was not just the specialized tools, but the vast expanse of snow-free land spreading out before them.
The environment beyond the Wall was brutal.
Although some areas could support agriculture during the long summer, most of the land was rock-hard permafrost.
Without proper tools, cultivating this frozen ground was practically impossible.
Yet before them lay a vast, fertile plain completely free of snow.
A Wildling struck the ground with a hoe, expecting the dirt to be frozen solid by the northern winter, only to find it remarkably soft.
How was this even possible?
Several elderly Wildlings fell to their knees on the dirt, stunned to find that the earth could be dug up with their bare hands without even using tools.
Soon, translators passed down the farming instructions from the Cathayan farmers.
Armed with tools, the Wildlings quickly threw themselves into the work.
At first, some were unfamiliar with the implements in their hands, but with the help of the Cathayan farmers, they quickly mastered the techniques.
“Are all of them willing to farm?” Shen Mo asked, watching the Wildlings laboring passionately in the fields.
“Reporting to my lord, they have nothing else to do anyway.
The few carpenters and stonemasons were picked out long ago; the rest only have raw physical strength,” Ayush answered respectfully behind Shen Mo.
“If not for your mercy, their gods wouldn’t even save them from starving in the winter.
Now that they have stable shelter and food, they ought to be grateful to you, my lord.” “Their gods…
do they exhibit strong religious faith?
I mean the kind that interferes with normal life.” Shen Mo disliked religious fanatics.
Even though gods were ubiquitous in this world and the Cathayan locals worshipped the Dragon Emperor, he still disliked those whose faith disrupted practical living.
“Not at all.
They claim to worship the Old Gods, but they don’t seem to have regular prayer habits…
Unless swearing oaths in front of a Weirwood counts, and even that is rare.” Weirwood trees were everywhere beyond the Wall, with white trunks and blood-red leaves.
When Shen Mo and his army arrived, they had chopped down quite a few.
“That’s good.
But stay vigilant.
Don’t let two-faced traitors ruin our relationship with these…
Free Folk.” As for the rebels who were killed—well, if anyone missed living a life where they ate two meals every three days and might never open their eyes again after falling asleep, they were unlikely to be missed anyway.
While the men began farming, the women were led by Shen Mo’s Xinglin Maidens and Guiyin Generals to the silk-weaving workshops inside Zhenbei City.
Indeed, Shen Mo had managed to cultivate mulberry trees capable of growing in the freezing cold, as well as heated silkworm houses that kept the temperature warm enough for silkworms to spin silk.
With these, fine, exquisite silk could be continuously produced even in the frozen wastes beyond the Wall.
The Wildling women were not exposed to the core technology of silk production; their task was simply to sit before the spinning frames and weave.
Ask no questions, do the work.
They would work in the city’s spinning mill.
After a month, fast learners would be transferred to work in the newly constructed water-powered spinning mill by the river.
Shen Mo would provide these Wildlings with supplementary rations for a full year until these small households could independently fulfill their tax obligations.
For an army of ten thousand, only about a thousand people were currently paying taxes.
In a world without magic, such an economy would have collapsed long ago.
Shen Mo made another round through the spinning mill.
He saw that most Wildling women were not yet accustomed to such delicate work.
Even though machinery made most of the spinning mechanical, many were still flustered and clumsy.
It seemed this batch of goods would yield quite a few defectives.
As Shen Mo watched, he began calculating how much he should charge for these defective goods to sell them to the minor lords in the south.
It never occurred to him what he would do with the woven silk if the Night’s Watch on the Wall refused to trade with him.