These people were the foundation of his rule.
Just like when he recruited soldiers before, he also prioritized recruiting families with complete members. Because he was worried it might be easy to cause chaos otherwise, he felt more at ease this way.
After careful selection, Jason Liu chose 5,000 new workers. Including their families, there were tens of thousands of people.
Counting the more than 1,200 families of the first group of lumberjacks who were willing to follow him to Lake Saylor, that added another 2,700.
Roughly calculated, the number of people following him to build a port on Lake Saylor already totaled more than 13,000.
As the saying goes, when there are tens of thousands of people, the crowd has no boundaries.
Jason Liu looked at the sea of people around him and couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by how many there were!
For the soldiers under his command, Jason Liu intended to take 300 veterans and 200 recruits, a total of 500 people, to the other side of Lake Saylor.
Among them, he assigned McCann to command 150 archers, and Jon to lead 100 two-horse cavalry.
He placed his bodyguards Rubin and Chris back into the army and had them each lead 100 soldiers.
The remaining 50 soldiers would serve as his personal guards—Earl Jason East's bodyguard unit—led by Captain Dicken and Vice-Captain Kent.
The remaining 300 recruits, led by Bud and Marb, would stay behind at the lumber mill to continue training, protect the workers, and uphold the laws of the site.
Maester Cobain and his assistants, along with Marb and Bard, would manage the lumber mill.
Having handed over the lumber mill to them, Jason Liu felt relieved.
To make Chris a legitimate commander of 100 soldiers, Jason Liu knighted him—just like Jon, Dicken, McCann, Bud, Marb, Rubin, and Kent.
Thus, under Lord Count Jason's command, he now had eight knights.
All kinds of food, clothes, tents, and the belongings of the workers heading to Lake Saylor filled 200 freight carriages. The remaining 200 freight carriages were just enough to carry people.
These 200-plus carriages, with a few wooden boards added, could each carry 30 adults and children.
This setup allowed 6,000 elderly people, women, and children to ride, which was much faster than walking on foot.
These carriages were sufficient for transporting the slowest members of the group, and Jason Liu no longer needed to rent additional wooden carriages from Winter Market Town.
As for the young and strong men with enough stamina, they could simply walk beside the carriages.
Fortunately, people in this era were used to walking long distances from childhood. The nearly 400-kilometer journey from Winterfell to Lake Saylor would be no problem for them.
That evening, Jason Liu transported all 500,000-plus logs stored at the lumber farm to Warehouse No. 2 in the modern era. That warehouse already contained nearly 800,000 logs—enough for Fusion Trade to sell over the next two months.
The next day, all supplies were re-counted. Then the elderly, women, and children were helped onto the wooden carriages.
The men lined up in the clearing outside the lumber camp, each holding a wooden spear sharpened at one end.
Along the journey, these could serve as both walking sticks and weapons. In case of wild beasts or emergencies, they offered some protection.
Of course, with tens of thousands of people and hundreds of carriages, the sheer size and noise of the group would likely scare off most beasts before they even approached.
Jason Liu wasn't worried about animals—he was worried about people.
After all, such a massive movement likely meant the entire northern border now knew he had rented land around Lake Saylor from House Stark and planned to build a port for commerce.
He was a little worried that malicious individuals might target his convoy.
This wasn't impossible. Westeros was full of wandering mercenaries, knights, and robbers.
Of course, if it were only poorly armed robbers, that would be manageable. He feared some of the other northern powers might take action as well.
It wasn't out of the question!
After all, he was an outsider with no roots in Westeros. Even if someone robbed him, he'd have no place to plead his case.
Even if his relationship with House Stark was good, how could that compare to the deep ties between monarchs and vassals that had lasted for centuries?
For example, if "Old Flayer" Roose Bolton made a move, would House Stark truly risk conflict with their most powerful vassal over someone as insignificant as him?
What if it came to open confrontation?
So, for the safety of this journey, Jason Liu specially bought 5,000 stab-resistant suits, spending 2.5 million yuan. The price was lower than before due to a bulk discount.
These 5,000 suits were distributed among the young men. Then the 200 soldiers led by Rubin and Chris were embedded among the 5,000 workers as squad leaders.
He didn't expect the workers to fight, but their sheer number and uniform appearance—blue labor protection suits with black stab-proof armor on top—looked imposing enough.
If anyone harbored ill intentions, just seeing this neatly dressed and spear-wielding group of 5,000 might make their hearts tremble!
Unless someone truly intended to break all decorum and sent thousands of elite family troops to openly slaughter his convoy...
...In that case, even if his team was wiped out, Jason Liu would accept it.
In any case, he didn't need to worry about his personal safety. He could return to the modern world at any time.
And if someone really pushed him too far, he could return to modern world, spend some money abroad to get highly lethal machine guns and explosives, and lead a team to reduce the enemy's stronghold to rubble within minutes.
Of course, Jason Liu sincerely hoped it wouldn't come to that.
Compared to mass killings, he preferred "building high walls, stockpiling grain, and slowly becoming king."
After all, buying machine guns and explosives wasn't so simple.
Even with money, he wouldn't know where to go or whom to buy from.
Besides, those in the arms trade were all dangerous people. If he wasn't careful, he might get hacked to death himself.
It was too risky. After all, reality wasn't something that could be solved by just thinking about it.
Rumble—
Three large, luxurious four-wheeled carriages emblazoned with the Easter family's Starfire flag stopped at the gate of the logging camp.
Lena and Bella stepped down from the third carriage—Barlow's carriage—while Jason Liu's larger one stood nearby.
"Lord!" Lena and Bella trotted toward Jason Liu and called out softly.
Jason Liu nodded and told them to wait by the carriage. He still had arrangements to make.
Boris had also arrived on horseback with the carriage to see Lord Jason off. He, along with the maesters and assistants of Easter Hospital, would not be following Lord Jason to Lake Saylor for the time being.
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