In any case, Lawrence will not appreciate a being stabbed so he would prefer not to find out about it at all.

“Eternal Guards victorious!”

Lawrence who had been daydreaming looked around and saw that it was his own men chanting. Was it a marching song?

This is nostalgic, it brought him back to the days when he was a recruit in the army after being conscripted. They would march 24km with their field gear while singing songs to keep their spirits up.

“Tears O Tears!”

“Her strength is in honour, our duty to protect our homeland!”

The way in which the soldiers sang the song sent shivers down Lawrence’s spine. Instead of sounding like the lethargic songs he has often heard in road marches when he was a conscripted soldier, it was a song that sounded as if the soldiers believed in it themselves.

“Eternal Guards victorious! Tears oh Tears! Flies the Owl of the Guards above the land of the Black Bay!”

“Eternal Guards victorious! Tears oh Tears!”

Lawrence smiled as the men marched on happily.

“Tell me, Longines, you have been in the military awhile now. What is the usual stipend and food for a soldier?” Lawrence asked and Longines tapped his chin.

“Honourable Carstein, it varies from army to army. The most generous one after the Owl Guards will be Prince Horn of the Wars of the Six Kings and Five Princes. He offered a one silver piece a month and the men can keep any loot they get from sacking.”

“In general, most armies offer maybe 30 coppers a month, or more if the soldiers are the elite troops. Nothing like here, Honourable Carstein.”

“Never have I seen a liege gives an advance on salary for newly trained soldiers and once a man joins an army, his family gets tax exemptions when he is out on deployment. Then, not to mention the free land they get thirty silver pieces a month.” Longines grinned, not that he disapproved of what Lawrence was doing, but it seemed that Lawrence was simply sinking money into the system.

However, what they did not know was Lawrence’s understanding of economics.

Lawrence aimed to drastically raise the living standards of the people living in the Black Bay area. In medieval times, the rapid injection of capital may not become apparent as long as things were controlled and kept under wraps. It was not the same as forging your own currency and attempting to screw over every King and Prince in the vicinity.

By enforcing a minimum wage in the territories here, he ensured that every villager would be able to afford a certain standard of living.

For example, a farmer in King Carmine’s holdings may not be able to see more than 2 gold coins in his life, nor place a pearl necklace in his wife’s hand or to buy decent clothes for winter without some creative use of hay.

Yet, in Tears and Black Bay, thick clothes for the colder tundra seasons would be normal while unemployed people gain assistance from the Town Hall to find a job.

All in all, this made people in Black Bay affluent and with that wealth, they will put it back into the economy through spendings and help kickstart a more productive economy.

As for paying army soldiers well, it was due to his experience in the army as well as that of his knowledge of history.

Lawrence, as a conscript, was given $560 as an “allowance” which the military was clear and quick to let you know early on. The money, after his bills, became a completely insignificant amount and he was hard-pressed to afford anything that cost more than $10 in general without some serious budgeting concerns.

Lawrence had read before that the contribution of Allied soldiers in post-WW2 West Germany as they are garrisoned there has been massive. As allied soldiers were posted there, they had to spend money as they stayed in the occupied territories. If the garrison was insignificant, that will be it, but not when you had hundreds of thousands of men in West Germany.

Now, Lawrence was to become an anointed knight of the Black household, with many terms and conditions dictated by him.

“I wonder, was this how real power felt like behind the scenes?” Lawrence mused as the convoy moved through the Hushed Forest and towards Everett.