Chapter 349 — The Exiled Heretics

In the lord's study of the Cecil Territory.

The recent population immigration reports had been delivered to Gao Song's desk. Gao Yang read every figure on them with uncommon concentration.

The situation was much as he had expected. With the arrival of the Month of Revival, a new wave of immigration had begun, and this time the number of refugees entering the Cecil Territory far exceeded the number of purchased farmhands and slaves.

News that the Cecil Territory accepted refugees had spread through the whole of autumn and winter, and by now it had reached every corner of the southern provinces. Even the most poorly informed common folk knew that the frontier territory hard against the Dark Mountains was absorbing outsiders almost unconditionally, and that anyone on that land had a chance to obtain land, a house, and the status of a free citizen. Throughout the Frost Month of the previous year, Gao Heng had pushed this matter forward without stinting any effort, and now at last the results were showing.

Knight Byron had used his old mercenary connections to post a great many hiring notices across the south, and he had honored every single transaction. The merchants who ran ships and caravans had tasted profit in the process and built up sufficient trust in the Cecil Territory, and so the work of ferrying refugees entered a kind of virtuous cycle.

By now there was no longer any need for Knight Byron to send men out himself. Fixed "immigrant caravans" traveled between the various territories conducting this "newly risen trade." Those caravan masters who were bold and careful and on good terms with the mercenaries could find displaced people in all sorts of places, or petitioners who for various reasons wished to go to the Cecil Territory. Carrying permits issued by the Duke of Cecil, these merchants transported such people to the Cecil Territory free of charge, and then collected payment from the civil administration office according to the number delivered. Some mercenaries even laid down their swords, bought a few covered wagons, and began doing similar business, gathering refugees and immigrants and sending them to the Cecil Territory. It had become a regular trade...

And in the course of this, Gao Yang had struck out several times against lawless and reckless behavior, executing in a single batch those criminals who sought to traffic in people or mistreat immigrants. This set the rules for the "trade," and stamped the notion that Cecil's laws were strict into the minds of those merchants and mercenaries.

But what pleased Gao Yang more than the growth in numbers was the improvement in the occupational structure of the new immigrants. In the previous year, those who moved into the Cecil Territory had been almost entirely slaves and vagrants with no skills at all. People like artisans and scholars would under normal circumstances never sink to the point of homelessness and selling themselves into slavery, so such skilled talent had all been "poached" at great expense. But among the most recent batches of arrivals, there had already appeared skilled craftsmen who came of their own free will. The appearance of such people meant one thing: the Cecil Territory's appeal was growing.

People held stubborn suspicions and prejudices about this land at the foot of the Dark Mountains, and that would be hard to change in a short time. But the Cecil Territory had truly established its footing here, and it offered exceptionally generous treatment to skilled talent. Driven by sufficient profit, human suspicion and prejudice would give way.

At the close of winter, the Cecil main city had a population of over fourteen thousand. For this era, that was already enough to call it a "medium-sized city." But for the Cecil Territory, which was rapidly building up its magical-industrial system, that population still left no small gaps in establishing a full industrial system. Now, as more and more people moved in and the immigrant structure kept improving, the population problem that had always plagued Gao Song was finally beginning to ease.

Setting down the report, Gao Yang breathed a gratified sigh, then stood up to stretch. But just as he was about to rise, the study window swung open of its own accord, and a cold draft blew into the room.

Gao Yang raised his hand and rapped at the air: "Can't you come in through the door just once in a while?"

Amber's figure flickered into being with that flick to the head. The half-elf lady clutched her skull and glared at Gao Yang with utter displeasure: "Why is it that everyone in your Cecil family likes to knock people on the head? The other day I played a joke on Rebecca and she wanted to hit my head with a stick too. Can't you leave some good family precepts for your descendants?"

"Knocking people on the head is not a family precept I left behind. 'Knights are tougher than mages' is," Gao Yang shot the fellow a glance. "Out with it. What's going on? At this hour you should be wandering the city slacking off."

"I was patrolling the territory for you!" Amber retorted, eyes wide. Then she raised a hand toward the dock district. "A new ship came in at the docks. It's carrying a group of people who want to settle here... but the situation is a bit complicated. The registration office couldn't make up its mind, so I came to find you."

"An immigrant ship?" Gao Qi frowned, unable to see what was worth reporting about such a thing. "So long as it's not vicious infectious disease cases, the categories of criminals we're forbidden to admit, or people trafficked here against their will, just register them and send them to the buffer camp. And even for the three cases I just mentioned, there should be corresponding procedures, shouldn't there?"

"A new situation," Amber said, spreading her hands. "Heretics persecuted for their religion..."

Gao Yang: "...Huh?"

Soon he and Amber arrived together at the dock district in the north of the city. On the brand-new concrete-paved open ground of the docks, he saw soldiers keeping order, the ship's master explaining matters to the soldiers, and those new immigrants with their worried faces and haggard looks.

"The lord is here! The lord is here!"

Someone quickly noticed Gao Song's figure—a two-meter-tall bulk was conspicuous anywhere, after all. The gathered onlookers immediately saluted and drew back. Gao Yang walked to the center of the incident, and first swiftly took the measure of those "heretic immigrants" who were plainly in a state of unease.

There were over twenty of them, men and women, and a few children. Their dress varied: some wore ordinary coarse hemp cloth, while others wore woolen coats that were quite fine for this era. But on the whole, their clothing marked them as belonging to the middle or upper-middle ranks of commoners.

And these people, who should have lived without want, had clearly been through a long and uncomfortable journey. Their faces were pale, their looks haggard, their hair tangled and greasy, their cheeks sunken, and they shivered in the cold wind. The way they looked around them was frightened and fearful, all the more so when they saw Gao Song. It was the look of people under prolonged mental strain, forever anxious for their lives.

Seeing their condition and recalling what Amber had told him on the way, Gao Yang began to guess at what these people had been through. At the same time, once these "refugees" had confirmed the identity of the noble before them, they knelt and bowed one after another. The ship's master too, a big man with a full beard in a brown coat, knelt down, saying: "Lord, I only handled bringing these people here—"

Gao Yang raised a hand, cutting off the excuse and smooth talk the ship's master was about to begin: "Everyone stand up first. Where are these people from?"