Chapter 432 Current Situation in Rapid City
Unlike the worried citizens here, Armand walked briskly in the Uffizi Palace with a few documents tucked under his arm.

His footsteps stepped on the marble steps covered with red carpet, his palms brushed across the smooth oak handrails, and Armand stood in the corridor on the second floor and glanced at the official residence in front of him with emotion.

The Uffizi Palace is the ancestral property of the Magdie family. It has three floors, 45 meters high, a total of rooms, and adopts a corridor-style design.

The U-shaped palace has three long corridors, each with a series of coherent rooms on both sides, each with unique murals and reliefs.

As you walk along the corridor, you can see brightly colored panels on the walls and various ceramic crafts and statues of saints hanging on the walls or placed on the tables.

The first floor is the public space, including various storage rooms, meeting rooms, accounting rooms and offices.

The second floor contains various artworks and crafts collected by the Magdi Chamber of Commerce over the years, including statues, paintings and books.

The third floor is the living room of the main members of the Magdi family, and it is also the area where Horn is currently working.

The mansion was later sold during Catherine's father's generation, but after Catherine returned to power, the original buyer returned it as a gift.

After being renovated later, it became Catherine's second residence besides the Pitti Palace in the port area.

Fortunately, the Pitti Palace was transformed into a tower during the war and burned down in the battle with the church army, while the Uffizi Palace was preserved.

Currently, the entire administrative team of the Salvation Army has moved here at Catherine's suggestion.

After greeting the sentry guarding the stairs, Armand came to a study on the third floor and knocked gently on the oak door.

"Please come in."

The monk secretary at the door opened the door and Armand strode in.

This study is about 200 square meters and has two entrances, the inner and outer entrances. However, Horn removed the inner door, so visitors only need to wait at the inner porch.

In the spacious room, a huge ivory carving hangs on the wall, and a three-meter-long chestnut table is placed horizontally in the center of this magnificent room.

The long table was cluttered with various documents and maps piled up half a meter high.

In the gap between these mountains of books, Horn sat upright on a soft-backed chair carved with gold foil, unconsciously turning a wooden feather pen in his hand while listening to reports from Jeshka, Hakuto and others.

On Horn's left, Catherine, wearing her crystal glasses, leaned over the chestnut table, quietly reading the correspondence and regulations of the Papal States.

Jeanne, who had just returned from Gouhu Township, held the pen awkwardly and copied the homework text left by Horn.

But judging from the frequency of her nodding and the saliva flowing from the corners of her mouth, she must have been sleeping for quite a while.

Without interrupting the report, Armand nodded to the people present, then sat down to listen and wait for his turn.

"...We have almost finished clearing out the betrayers and the guides. There are still many suspects, but we haven't continued investigating."

Horn could clearly feel Catherine's body trembling beside him. He glanced at her as if he didn't care and then asked, "Why don't you continue investigating?"

"Rich businessmen are all in danger right now. If we investigate further, I'm afraid that the scope of the case will be too wide and ordinary people will be dragged into it, causing unnecessary trouble." René lowered his eyebrows, and there was no sense that he was the dreaded Cheka leader.

The group of wealthy merchants who had betrayed the city had basically been taught what loyalty was by the Savior Army using the Holy Gun, and more than 10,000 gold pounds were seized from their homes.

The reason why René called a halt now was, on the one hand, to prevent joint liability from involving a large number of innocent people, and on the other hand, because he was afraid that the Cheka would be blinded by money and create false cases.

"Then let's pause for a moment. The atmosphere in the city has been set off." Horn glanced at Armand who was sitting next to him obediently. "Don't leave yet. I have something to talk to you about later."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

René walked straight to Armand, and the two looked at each other, and the corners of their mouths suddenly trembled twice at the same time.

They were all old friends who had known each other since the Moulin Rouge Village days. Although they looked mature beyond their years, they were all in their teens, which was the age when they were most tense.

This younger age of bishops is actually the norm within the Salvation Army.

But most of the time, these young priests were more of nominal leaders, and their role was to supervise and convey Horn's ideas. There were almost no third young priests with real power like René and Armand in the Salvation Army.

Of course, in the eyes of the Savior Pope, these young men are all future warriors and belong to the second generation of elites. The real pillars at present are still the group of Jeshka and Hakuto.

Jeshka, who had just returned from Gouhu Township, unfolded the briefing in his hand, sat on the cushioned chair opposite Horn, and moved his butt uncomfortably before speaking:
"At present, several major manors and nobles in Gouhu Township have been captured. The roads and both sides of the canal in the entire Gouhu Township are currently under control..."

"The remaining Black Hats are still looting manors and loan sharking monasteries. Some of them are Juanno's followers, so we didn't attack them..."

"Currently, most of the nobles in Gouhu Township have fled, and some have formed various bandit knight teams, constantly harassing our roads..."

"How long will it take for Rapid City and Fort Jeanne to be connected?" Horn waved his right hand twice as he spoke.

“It’s connected now, but it’s not guaranteed to be safe due to attacks by bandit knights.

Currently, the Black Hat Group is stationed in the Gouhu Township area to clean up the remaining church forces.

If we want to completely clear it, it will take at least three or four months, but if we just want to ensure the safety of the road, I think one and a half months will be enough."

"It's a bit slow... How about this." With a sigh, Horn took out a document and wrote two words, "I allow you to recruit a 150-man ranger from the squire knights as a reconnaissance unit directly under the Black Hat Regiment.

...Well, I will send you the Holy Gun Cavalry, and you will complete it within three weeks, is there any problem?"

"No problem." Jeshka said, patting his chest.

"There's no joking in the army." Horn smiled and put the warrant aside, handing it to the monks to break down the tasks and write them into formal orders, which he would then send to Jeshka.

After finishing the matter in Gouhu Township, Horn waved to Hakuto, who was the last one standing and waiting, and said, "How is the cleanup work in Rapid City going?"

"The remaining small groups of enemies in the nearby suburbs have been cleared out. Except for the port area outside the city, the four major areas in the city have been cleared."

The city of Rapids is divided into four main neighborhoods, which are what Hacuto calls the "big districts", namely the Holy Flower District, the Plaza District, the Cross District and the Holy Spirit District.

These districts are easy to distinguish and are named after landmark buildings. For example, Santa Maria del Fiore is where the Cathedral of Santa Maria is located, and the Piazza del Campo is where the Piazza della Signoria is located.

There are four or five, or as many as seven or eight blocks under a district. For example, the Uffizi Palace where Horn is currently located is in the Fox Skin District under the Piazza District.

This name was probably given because hundreds of years ago, this place might have been a fox fur trading market, and most of the names of these blocks came from this.

“What about infrastructure assessment?”

"As for the residential buildings, the damage is not serious and they can be used again after some repairs. The problem is the Cross District, which is located at the South City Gate and was the worst damaged.

But it just so happened that the area was a gathering place for craftsmen and workshops, and a large number of handicraft workshops were burned down by the fire. There were enough houses to live in, but there were not necessarily jobs.

According to the estimates of those guys who are good at calculating, after this war, the economy of Rapid City will experience a major setback.

It may cause 8000-10000 people to lose their jobs, including craftsmen, laborers, notaries, money lenders...

They said that at least in the next two or three years, the average income of people with jobs in Rapid City will drop by at least 30%, and astrologers agree with this idea.

Horn looked at Catherine beside him. Catherine seemed not to have heard him and continued to read the document in her hand quietly.

"Please hand in the briefing for this matter. We will summarize it in a few days and then discuss it collectively."

Hakuto faced Horn according to etiquette, stuck his butt out, turned his back and closed the door, shutting out the roar of anger caused by Jeshka poking his butt with a pointed shoe.

Horn stood up, holding onto the table: "All of you, please go out for a while."

The attendants and monks in charge of clerical work left the room one by one, leaving only two monks of the Holy Fathers sitting there.

"Tell me about it." Horn stretched and stood up to pour Armand a glass of iced mint water. "How is the Saint Catherine Project going?"

(End of this chapter)