"Everyone, come over!" His voice was not loud, but it made everyone gather around, their eyes focused on the map.
Lucien and Hakon quickly walked out of the shadows, then pushed through the crowd and squeezed in. Evelyn also approached and stood beside Arthur.
"How many villages are there in my territory now?" Arthur asked.
Lucien and Hakon exchanged glances. This question was much simpler than calculating acres. Hakon was the first to answer: "Lord Arthur, there are currently sixteen villages, large and small, on your land."
"Exactly!" Arthur pointed with his finger on the rough map. "Sixteen villages, like a handful of sand, loosely scattered across this land, each village with fewer than a hundred people!"
"If powerful bandits attack, they might even be slaughtered before news can be sent, or before I can dispatch troops for rescue. Issuing orders for mobilization requires sending people to notify them, wasting time. Collecting taxes, God knows how much or how little they hand over. For management and governance, I don't have that many officials."
"I want to merge them." Arthur's finger drew a few circles on the parchment, representing the scattered villages, "to form several large military strongholds."
"Merge?" someone in the crowd asked. "Military strongholds?"
"Yes, merge." Arthur emphasized, "Merge these sixteen scattered, sparsely populated, and difficult-to-manage villages into four military strongholds."
Arthur scanned the crowd, emphasizing his next words: "Each military stronghold will have one administrator, one tax collector, and they will obey the military officer."
This was something he had considered. Everything was prepared for future wars. He would appoint administrators, tax collectors, and military officers, but they would not be on the same level; they would obey the military officer, with military matters taking precedence.
Arthur looked at the increasingly obvious confusion on everyone's faces and explained in a more straightforward way: "I call it 'Disperse during cultivation, gather during leisure.'"
"Simply put! During the busy farming season, villagers can go to their respective fields to cultivate, living in temporary huts by the fields or in their former villages."
"However, during the slack farming season, especially the long, cold winter, or when enemies attack, everyone must return to the built civilian strongholds for concentrated living and receive military training simultaneously."
Arthur watched as the crowd's expressions seemed to gradually grasp his meaning and continued: "The benefits of doing this! First! Safety! Tall walls! Concentrated soldiers! No bandit or rogue group of less than a thousand would dare approach!"
"Second! Easy to manage! Any of my decrees! Only need to be announced in the military stronghold! Everyone will see and hear it! And receive it immediately!"
"Third! Convenient for taxation and mobilization! How many people are in each household! How much tax should be paid! It's clear at a glance! When soldiers need to be conscripted! With one order! They can be assembled in half a day!"
Lucien and Hakon roughly understood Lord Arthur's meaning. They fully grasped the points about safety and convenient mobilization. After all, the Old Lord had simply shouted a command at Dreadfort back then, and a dozen people had gathered. This was indeed a good thing; at least in times of war, there would be no need to scour the world to notify those scattered villagers.
And the administrators and tax collectors also understood that this would greatly reduce their workload and difficulty.
This was also what Arthur considered most. The quality of his grassroots bureaucracy was worrying. If he let them manage a large, scattered area, they would probably get confused themselves, and it would be hard to believe they would handle things well.
Arthur's gaze turned to Evelyn. He saw that the tall woman seemed to have something to say, but his request for her to minimize her presence kept her silent.
Arthur extended his finger, emphasizing: "My four hundred peasant soldier families will be evenly distributed among the four military towns. They will become the maintainers of order and the enforcers of my laws!"
"Above this! I will establish the Three Elders system!"
This new term made everyone perk up their ears, and Evelyn's eyes silently turned to him.
"Five families will form one household! From these five households, an old veteran who has earned military merits for me will be appointed as the head of the household!"
"Five households! That is twenty-five families! Will form one neighborhood! From the five household heads, one will be chosen to serve as the neighborhood head!"
"Five neighborhood heads! That is one hundred twenty-five families! Will form one household chief! The household chief will be chosen from among the neighborhood heads!"
"They will maintain order in the military town! And enforce my laws for me! The household chief will report directly to the three officials of the military stronghold!"
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