Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Captain Moro's visit brought a fresh breeze into the stuffy office, but Bard spent most of his day amidst mountains of paperwork.

It is not an exaggeration to say that Bard saved the logistics system of the Iron Peak County Military, which was on the brink of chaos.

As the Iron Peak County Military gradually established formal cavalry, artillery, and engineering troops in addition to infantry, the old system of "the six-member council directly managing everything" began to feel inadequate.

Mason was compelled to continuously expand the size of the "General Headquarters" and increase administrative staff to maintain the daily operations of this military force, which also managed civilian affairs.

As a result, the General Headquarters of the Iron Peak County Military increasingly resembled a messy study, where all the items were arranged according to the principle of "whatever is most convenient for the user."

When the user [Richard Mason] personally sat in the headquarters, the study that appeared chaotic to outsiders was instead comfortably familiar to him, and the headquarters could naturally run efficiently and smoothly.

However, once they were out of Mason's supervision—such as now—Winters and Mason each leading their troops stationed in Maplestone City and Artemis, the bottles and jars in the study were bound to be broken.

In terms of management, Winters, though a decisive leader—any request placed on his desk would quickly get approval—but the prerequisite was that there must indeed be a desk in front of Winters.

In other words, Winters only works when he wants to work, and Winters has always had a deep aversion to paperwork.

Compounded by the bureaucratic system's natural aversion to questions, the civilian employees sent to Vernge County chose to send all documents needing approval to Maplestone City, waiting for the Mason Commissioner to send back the files with approvals.

The administrative efficiency of the headquarters plummeted to an intolerable level. The canonical source for this content: M|V|L2EMPYR.

Fortunately, Bard's timely arrival changed everything. Now, even if Winters didn't want to work, Bard would force him to sit behind the desk.

Bills, calculations, and requests no longer needed to be sent to Maplestone City and eagerly awaited for the Mason Commissioner to send back the approval. Bard engaged Winters in endless discussions, exhausting Commissioner Montane.

Unlike Winters, Bard was a diligent manager. And sometimes, "decisiveness" needs to be driven by "diligence."

...

After seeing off Captain Moro, Bard hurried back to the office.

He removed the parchment covering the desk and continued drafting the proposal on "stripping the Civil Guard Officer of the Military Resolution Council's civilian power."

A brief knock sounded at the door, and after receiving permission, Anglu entered the room carrying a basket filled with documents.

The two had worked together for a long time, needing few words. Anglu sorted the documents and placed them on Bard's desk, while Bard, in mutual understanding, began reviewing the stack nearest his right hand.

But Anglu then took three letters from his bosom: "You need to look at these first."

Bard rubbed his aching eyes and gestured for the groom to sit: "Whose letters? What's the matter? Just say it directly."

"These two letters are from Mr. Old Priskin and Mr. Shaosha." Anglu placed the three letters on the desk in sequence: "This letter, however, is sent in the name of the Revodan Guild."

Hearing this, Bard's brows knitted slightly.

Anglu concisely stated: "The content of all three letters is basically the same, asking whether they can exchange our 'gold notes' in Artemis and Maplestone City."

Bard reached for the letters and read through them quickly.

...

The Iron Peak County Military's assets, whether mines, workshops, or refugee farms, could only provide physical resources and could not generate profit.

Additionally, due to the war, the tax base of the Newly Reclaimed Lands Province had greatly shrunk compared to the past, forcing the Iron Peak County Military to voluntarily reduce taxes to give the people some respite.

Thus far, the main source of income for the Iron Peak County Military has been "capturing spoils" and "selling spoils."

Among them, the largest income came from the Terdon Tribe's "contributions."

This resulted in the Iron Peak County Military, while holding a huge sum of money on the books, it was in the form of gold, not the everyday-used silver.

It should be known that in the marketplace of the Newly Reclaimed Lands, let alone gold, even large silver coins were rarely used. Transactions between farmers were mostly barter-based, even for big purchases, they were paid with accumulated small silver coins and silver pieces.

The gold bars weighing one kilogram in the Iron Peak County Military's warehouse, though each was of considerable value, were essentially unusable.

To turn the gold bars into spendable "money," the Iron Peak County Military conducted large-scale gold and silver exchanges with merchants, estate owners, and various guilds in Revodan—trading gold bars for the silver coins they held.

After arriving in Vernge County, the Iron Peak County Military again engaged Artemis merchants in a round of semi-forced gold and silver exchanges.

However, compared to the Artemis merchants who were anxious and took the gold bars immediately upon completing the transaction, the people of Iron Peak showed great trust in "His Excellency Montane."

Despite the transaction being completed and just needing to exchange gold bars for tickets, many Iron Peak merchants still delayed taking their gold from the military warehouse.

Now Bard finally understood why they did this.

...

"It's really taking advantage of us!" Bard carefully put the letter back on the desk and asked with interest: "Are they taking us for a bank that doesn't charge storage fees or a bank that doesn't deduct exchange fees?"