“I will only mention the framework and basic requirements here. The specific implementation will be negotiated and coordinated by yourselves. The overall person in charge is — Balov Mons.”

“As you command,” the chief steward hastily said, placing a hand on his chest.

Roland nodded in satisfaction. After years of experience, Balov had developed the habit of agreeing to any order, no matter how unreasonable it seemed, as long as Roland was determined, and doing his best to implement it.

And the interconnected structure of the Administrative Hall was enough to support the resources needed for "pooling strength to accomplish great things."

"Then listen carefully." Roland signaled Nightingale to paste the prepared white cloth onto the blackboard. "First, the reciprocal migration within the Graycastle Kingdom..."

"Oh..." Seeing the content on the cloth, everyone's eyes lit up.

The white cloth explained several features of the policy in a pictorial form. It was concise, to the point, and with clear priorities, making it completely self-explanatory—this was a rudimentary, manual version of a ppt presentation, and the technical support was provided by Soroya. As a drafting dog who had worked in a design institute, making ppts to fool Party A was just a basic skill. Compared to empty talk that easily lost key information and was boring, this method of explanation was obviously more attractive.

The population distribution of Graycastle had distinct characteristics of the era. After a great noble became a lord, they would gradually build a city, and the surrounding land would be divided among lower-level nobles, and so on. With the growth of population and accumulation of wealth, the consumption of large cities would become increasingly high, to the extent that they were unable to maintain their own supply, thereby shifting this burden to the surrounding villages and towns, ultimately forming a situation where the majority supported a small minority.

This situation not only limited the size of the cities but also made class mobility basically fixed. Those large cities seemed to have a large population and were bustling with activity, but that was only in comparison to isolated small towns. In reality, the total population of the surrounding towns and villages was much larger than the city it supported.

However, Roland was also clear that this backwardness was not right or wrong, purely due to low productivity. In the case where the level of production did not meet the requirements for change, the vast majority of the labor force was firmly bound to the land, and they could only enjoy a small portion of their own output throughout their lives. The rest of the harvest was paid to the nobles to maintain their extravagant lives.

In the past few years when recruiting refugees, the Administrative Hall had also paid attention to the local population changes and made a rough estimate. The final conclusion was that the population of Graycastle should be between two million and four million—during the wars between the Second Prince and the Third Princess, as well as the plagues released by the church, nearly five to six hundred thousand people were lost, and Eagle City in the Southern Territory and Golden穗 City in the Eastern Territory were turned into ruins. Even so, a large population was still scattered throughout Graycastle, and only a small fraction flowed into the Western Territory.

And he now did not intend to let this situation continue.

The distribution and planting of Golden No. 2 wheat seeds would see results in another month, or rather, it could already be predicted that a bumper harvest was coming. High-yield cotton was also fully rolled out in Clearwater Port, and it wouldn't be long before sufficient fabrics could be transported to various parts of the kingdom. Large cities no longer needed ten times their population to supply materials. Now, the output of one person was enough to抵得过 the hard work of ten or even twenty people.

In addition, Graycastle had also completed its nominal unification. Power in various places had returned to the center, and fiefdoms were no longer independent states of the lords, but lower-level administrative organs that obeyed his orders.

Now, it could be said that the soft and hardware for compulsory migration were all available, and the timing for implementation was the best.

The so-called reciprocal migration, simply put, was to provide immigrants with equal conditions to reduce the dissatisfaction caused by forced relocation.

For example, if a relocatee owned a residence and two acres of land in the village, the Administrative Hall would allocate the same resources to him in the newly developed territory after he came to Neverwinter City. This would not only speed up the development of the northwest plain but also effectively alleviate Neverwinter's shortage of manpower.

Of course, no matter how good it sounded, Roland knew that "compulsion" was its true face—whether willing or not, they had to leave their familiar homeland and go to an unfamiliar city with confusion and anxiety. This process was destined not to be so gentle.

Driving people out of the land and letting them enter the cities and devote themselves to factories was not as simple as "liberating shackles." History called this change bloody. First, the land cultivated by the villagers was annexed through recovery, occupation, and eviction, making them have nothing but themselves, and then whips and regulations limited their whereabouts. Some countries even enacted laws allowing the execution of migrants who had been unemployed for a long time to force them to join the major productions.

Although Roland asked himself that he could not do this extent and intended to compensate them after the migration, the original intention of compulsion would not change because of this.

He knew very well what he was doing.

As for the second item, cross-border conscription, it was a foreign version of forced migration.

Unlike Dawn, which was the least affected, Eternal Winter and Wolfheart had both fallen in the church's sweep and had successively lost their legitimate kingdom rulers. According to the information collected by Hiel, the two kingdoms had not yet returned to normal. Local warlords were everywhere, and any powerful great lord claimed that he had found the illegitimate bloodline left by the late king. It was like a fragmented state where no one obeyed anyone.

In this way, the plan for a proxy monarch like Dawn was obviously not feasible.

"Your Majesty, do you mean... mobilizing the First Army?" Balov was slightly startled when he saw the newly changed white cloth.

"Do you think those nobles will sit idly by and watch us 'take away' their property?" Roland took a sip of tea and said as a matter of course, "I think they will care about nothing but power, wealth, and a broader territory—whether it's devils or the war of divine will. Of course, we still have to talk sense, and as for whether they listen or not, that's another matter."

"I will make them listen, Your Majesty," Iron Axe said seriously.

There was no doubt that cross-border conscription was more naked than domestic migration—without the Golden No. 2 to guarantee grain production, the urban ecosystem would collapse due to insufficient supply after a large number of outer-level people were relocated. This behavior was no different from war. The only difference was that the cost of plunder and occupation was much smaller.

The First Army was the most powerful guarantee that the plan could be implemented.

The combined population of Eternal Winter and Wolfheart was about three million. Excluding those unfortunates who died in the church war, it could at least inject 1.5 million fresh laborers into Neverwinter City. This great migration might take several years to complete, but it was the most direct part of the improvement. It was precisely because he had the strength to reach beyond the borders that he set Balov the goal of doubling within a year or even half a year.

"Your Majesty, do you have specific requirements for these conscripted people?" The chief steward asked, "Such as craftsmen, farmers, or literate people..."

There had been similar screenings before, but that was a helpless move when funds were tight, and now the situation was completely different.

"No," Roland stretched out his palm and clenched it into a fist, "I want them all."

"I... understand," Balov wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Next is the last item," he asked Nightingale to change the last white cloth ppt, "The Administrative Hall should encourage the people to have children through publicity, tax cuts, rewards, and other means. Although it is difficult to see the effect in the short term compared to the previous two policies, it is the most important part of the entire plan."

Speaking of this, he paused and looked at everyone with a smile, "Regarding this point, I hope everyone present can start with themselves."