Waking up the next morning, Niu Zida found that Amelie's belly had already begun to bulge slightly. This was a sign of pregnancy, indicating that the seed planted in Duōléi City had now sprouted. So, Niu Zida simply ordered a 2-3 day stay in the village, waiting for Amelie to finish giving birth before leaving. Anyway, there was still a nursery left from before, and Auntie Liddell also had experience with childbirth. Moreover, he could also take the opportunity to learn about the surrounding villages. Niu Zida's goal for this trip was to bring back as many able-bodied people as possible to enrich the Dore Baron's direct territory.
While waiting for Amelie to give birth, Niu Zida had the villagers contact people in other nearby villages, explaining the current policy of lowering tax rates to attract people to Dorei's direct territory. However, after two days, only a few responded. Many were unwilling to go to the lord's territory, as they were truly afraid of the days of forced conscription and heavy taxes.
Even though Niu Zida promised that the reclaimed wasteland here would still belong to the original owners, and that only a portion of the people needed to go to the territory to have their wasteland ownership recognized, many were still unwilling to go.
"Master, these country folk really seem to be unappreciative."
Seeing the situation, Amelie was a little anxious. At night, with her big belly, she held Niu Zida, feeling somewhat dissatisfied. After all, as a noble, it was the first time she had invited commoners to cultivate her land like this; previously, these people would beg nobles for favor.
"No rush. For now, just take as many people as we can. The current disbelief is mainly due to past history. As long as the policy is implemented and everyone sees the benefits, they will naturally come to seek refuge in the future. Moreover, we can give them some external motivation to make them willing to migrate."
"Oh? Master, what do you mean by that?"
Niu Zida lay in Amelie's embrace, looking at her snow-white breasts. Yor hugged Niu Zida from behind, constantly massaging him with her large, snow-white breasts.
This immersed Niu Zida in a gentle haven of snow-white breasts. All around him was the scent of milk mixed with the body fragrance of beautiful women, making Niu Zida almost intoxicated.
"You will understand in the future."
Niu Zida did not explain the matter further, only kissing Amelie's delicate body. Tonight, seeing Amelie with her big belly, Niu Zida could only turn over, part Yor's black stockings again, and directly enter... After staying in Aponia's village for two or three days, Amelie gave birth smoothly, producing six or seven Goblins in total. After waiting another two days for these Goblins to mature, the people who had contacted the surrounding reclamation villages also returned one after another. Approximately only a few hundred people were willing to follow Niu Zida back. Niu Zida signed contracts with these people, promising to give each of them an average of 3-5 acres of land, with the exact number of acres depending on the quality of the land.
Seeing that it was almost done, Niu Zida set off, taking the few hundred settlers who followed him back. After all, he didn't want to be away from Duōléi City for too long. In the carriage, Amelie said with some concern:
"Master, won't distributing land like this be too generous?"
"What's there to be afraid of? Anyway, the actual registered population of the direct territory is only about 7,000 people. When there were over 20,000 people, the average was still 3 acres. Now, the average cultivated land in your territory is probably close to 10 acres. These people will only get half of that. Not to mention, there's still a lot of undeveloped land in your territory. Don't worry, without people, your land is just empty; it can't generate wealth at all."
Amelie saw that so much land would be leased to commoners, and indeed, the greedy nature of nobles could not be hidden. She wanted to persuade Niu Zida to reduce it appropriately. Niu Zida cursed inwardly, the territory was already so miserable, yet she still didn't know to cherish the people's strength and stimulate production. Indeed, nobles were all like this. In bed, he was still too gentle with this little one; next time, he should increase the force.
Not only would land be distributed, but Niu Zida also decided that the people who followed him would also be organized to build houses and be given seeds for planting. If possible, farm tools could also be provided. If there were no farm tools, they could take out loans to purchase them, repaying with their harvest.
"What if these people default and flee again? These mud-footed peasants are very cunning."
"These refugees will have land to live and work in peace. As long as the tax rate is levied normally, and they can rent relatively fertile land and live in a safe place, what benefit is there for them to flee? As for defaulting on taxes, the land and the harvest are still there, so there's nothing to fear."
Niu Zida completely ignored Amelie's objections. At the same time, he secretly rejoiced that it was Seretina who had organized the tax documents before. It seemed that in the future, Seretina would also manage the taxes for the direct territory. She and Amelie had conflicts, so she would definitely organize the taxes clearly and transparently, not giving Amelie a chance to interfere.
After a day's journey to Dorei Territory, Niu Zida specifically found a place with more previously barren land and re-established a village. He summoned the tax collectors from the territory and, over the next few days, had them oversee the division of land, registration, and allocation of land to these migrating refugees based on the fertility of the surrounding land. He also specifically designated land unsuitable for farming as residential land.
Because Niu Zida personally supervised this time with Amelie, the work proceeded very meticulously. It was completely finished in about a week. Only after seeing that the tax collectors had already started distributing oat and wheat seeds, which were about to be planted, and that farmers lacking tools had begun to register for tool loans from the territory, did Niu Zida feel relieved and return to Duōléi City with Amelie and Yor.
He had been away for almost half a month. While recruiting refugees, Amelie gave birth twice, and Yor gave birth once. Upon returning to Duōléi City, Amelie's belly had grown again. Besides the human troops they brought, nearly 30 Goblins followed behind. Only after returning did he learn that Aponia, Seretina, and Misato Shizuku had all been pregnant and had given birth once before he left. With this addition, the number of Goblins under his command had already swelled to 400.
"Very good, very good. Your bellies are all doing well. Give your Master more sons."
"Of course, everything in the territory has returned to peace now, all thanks to Master's efforts."
The other maidservants sat aside. Today, Seretina was holding Niu Zida. At the dinner table, the beautiful woman actively lowered her head and kissed Niu Zida. Then, looking down from above, her beautiful eyes met Amelie's, who was kneeling on the floor with a big belly, curled up and looking up, swallowing. Seretina revealed a triumphant smile...