Lord of Winter: Beginning with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 601: Chapter 356: The Impact of Red Tide (Part 2)

Now she lives peacefully with her child, gratefully and reverently calling Louis the true benefactor of the Northern Territory.

Lady Grant stood outside the warehouse, seeing the light in Louis’s eyes.

Her voice was filled with uncontrollable excitement: “If it weren’t for you, my child and I would have starved to death on that permafrost. It was the Red Tide that saved us.”

Louis listened and nodded slightly: “I accept your gratitude. Remember to go back and ensure timely reporting from the warehouse, the Red Tide will not disappoint those it has helped.”

It wasn’t just these demonstration sites; the entire southeastern part of the Northern Territory had a complete economic chain centered around the Red Tide.

This was not by chance, but the result of the complete economic plan that Louis implemented within the Red Tide system.

Through the Council Hall, he established a cross-territory division of labor and trade agreements, unified the planning of resources and labor distribution, preventing internal redundancy and conflict, so that every bit of labor and output could be accurately placed in the most needed areas.

The Red Tide tailored production plans and quotas for various regions according to local conditions, dividing functions based on geographical and resource advantages: some were responsible for raw material extraction, others focused on agriculture and livestock, while others engaged in smelting and processing.

All nobles and residents were integrated into the system, with the production results proportionally compensated, and demands met through material vouchers allocated by the Red Tide Council Hall or settled with unified gold coins.

This system brought unprecedented benefits.

Trade circulation became more efficient, and internal competition was completely eliminated.

Resource allocation was stable, and the prices of grain and iron no longer fluctuated.

The Red Tide’s allocation mechanism allowed resources to form a closed loop within the Northern Territory, and the prosperity of any one place would feedback into the whole.

At the same time, the funds, technology, and transportation network provided by the Red Tide helped regions quickly rebuild, shortening the post-disaster recovery cycle.

In just two years, the southeastern Northern Territory’s economy began to operate autonomously, forming a mutually beneficial “Red Tide Economic Circle,” astonishing all nobles attached to the Empire’s old system with its efficiency.

The northern mining area supplied raw materials, the eastern plains handled grain and livestock, the southern workshops managed manufacturing and processing, and Red Tide City directed and distributed.

All accounts were centrally monitored by the Council Hall, and reports were uploaded to the Red Tide Main City’s database.

The economic body unified, resources complemented each other, competition vanished, forming a unique “Red Tide Economic Circle.”

As a result, the lives of nobles drastically changed; their wealth multiplied, yet they lost independence, but they enjoyed it because everything was smooth and income stable.

At banquets, nobles would laugh and self-deprecate: “We are no longer lords, but shareholders of the Red Tide.”

Thus, all that Louis saw and heard along the way formed a giant picture:

The economy coordinated by the Council Hall, eliminating internal competition.

Education was widespread, allowing literacy and order to take root together.

The separation of military and governance, with knights obeying the Council Hall’s directives.

Resource sharing, trade replaced gold coins with voucher tokens.

The monitoring system infiltrated every village and town, ensuring the rules were not broken.

The Northern Territory became an organic whole.

Wealth concentrated in circulation, with the Red Tide as the core heart, and other territories as organs connected by blood vessels.

Of course, anyone who left the Red Tide would immediately wither.

Every corner of the southeastern Northern Territory was rewritten by the Red Tide system.

The mining areas were no longer wasted due to private noble conflicts, and farmlands no longer lay barren due to heavy taxes.

Teachers taught children literacy in schools and told the “Red Tide Story.”

Villagers instinctively saluted upon seeing the Red Tide flag, knowing that the warm fire, food in storage, and literate children were all bestowed by Louis.

The Red Tide was no longer just a name but the system itself that sheltered them.

So whenever Louis’s convoy arrived, the streets would spontaneously line up in welcome.

Troubadours sang the “Ode to the Red Tide,” children shouted “Long live the Red Tide,” and women tossed garlands before the knights’ horses.

The young members of the Red Tide Knight Order were passionate, surrounded by adoration from the populace.

Yorn and Grey were embraced by the people, truly feeling the honor of being Red Tide Knights.

Yorn rode beside Louis’s carriage, looking at the banners and crowds along the way, his heart filled with pride. This team was his leader’s dignity and the future of the Northern Territory.

Outside the carriage was a sea of drums, shouts, and floral rain, while inside, there was only the faint sound of pen strokes.

Louis sat in the carriage, gently tapping his fingers on the ledger, his gaze sweeping over the circulation ratio of the Red Tide vouchers and the material statistics.

He calmly looked at these data, listening to the noise outside, as if calculating the next step in the layout.

Bradley sat beside him, softly explaining what each piece of data represented.

After listening, Louis simply said, “Very good, the Red Tide’s cycle is taking shape.”

Bradley was silent for a moment, then lowered his voice, “Do you really plan to implement this system throughout the entire Northern Territory?”

Louis turned to look at him, “It’s only a matter of time.”

Bradley gazed at the distant snowfield, his expression complex.

In his mind flashed the enthusiastic faces along the way, the songs under the Red Tide banners.

This young lord was building not just power but an inescapable order.

“This will be a more thorough rule than Duke Edmund’s,” Bradley said softly, with reverence in his tone, “relying not on swords or family prestige, but on a system that makes everyone unable to leave you.”

Louis simply smiled slightly, “That’s an exaggeration.”

……

After leaving the core area of the southeastern Northern Territory, the carriage tracks changed from smooth snowy paths to bumpy muddy ice roads.

The wind grew colder, and the wheels creaked loudly over the frozen ruts.

The last Red Tide watchtower stood on the hill, its flag fluttering in the wind.

The knight guarding the tower saluted upright, until the convoy disappeared into the snowy mist.

Through the carriage window, Louis looked back to see the red of the flag gradually fading in the gray and white.

He silently drew a boundary in his heart: “Here is the edge of the Red Tide.”

Going further north, the scenery of the towns visibly declined.

The watchtower was unmanned, the flagpole crooked, and the tax collectors of the old nobility donned their fur coats again, shouting about taxes at the street corners.

The residents by the street showed fear and hesitation when they saw the Red Tide convoy, unsure if they were about to be recruited again.

Yorn pulled open his cloak, observing the grimy-faced people, his brow slightly furrowed: “It’s like waking up from a dream and returning to a nightmare.”

Louis’s gaze remained calm: “This is the reality of the Northern Territory.”

Before entering further northern territories, a few small lords along the way had already received the news.

Upon seeing the Red Tide banners and the orderly formation from afar, they first felt fear, hurriedly tidying their clothes, and bowed in the cold wind to welcome them, while the grandeur of the scene made their hearts tremble.

When they heard it was Louis himself, their expressions changed instantly.

Flattering smiles and praises surfaced on their faces.

After all, who in the current Northern Territory didn’t know that Louis was the master of the new order?

As long as he bestowed a little surplus grain, their families could live for several generations longer.

Louis only nodded lightly and ordered people to give them some sacks of grain, dismissing them.

Not everyone could be saved, nor was it necessary to save everyone.

Upon entering the further northern villages and towns, the air was filled with the scent of dry grass, rotten wood, and ash.

The streets were fragmented, with snow and mud mixed into icy slurry, and the houses were dilapidated, with faded Ancient God symbols pasted on the wooden walls.

Children in the Red Tide influenced areas would salute proactively and recite the community rules in unison, whereas here, the children ran barefoot, as thin as shadows, chasing one another.

Elders huddled around a fire, whispering prayers, murmuring old forbidden Evil God curses.

Inside houses, fires were reduced to ashes, and mothers held their children for warmth, their eyes empty.

Some people were making soup with rotten grains and bark, the air filled with the smell of burning and despair.

In the distance came the cries of an infant, thin and long, as if tearing through the cold wind.

Bradley, standing by the carriage, flipped through the record book, the pen tip suspended in the air, looking at these scenes, his voice low and nearly swallowed by the wind: “This is a place without a system.”

Yorn and Gray rode side by side in the convoy, looking at the desolate land, an indescribable oppression rising in their hearts.

They were used to the brightness and order of the Red Tide, and everything in front of them felt like another world, making them uncomfortable.

Yorn rode closer to the carriage, his voice somber: “Boss, the frontier of paradise is still too narrow.”

Louis did not respond, just lifted his gaze to the distance, “Then let the Red Tide go further.”