The weather is getting warmer in late April, and the valley is full of greenery inside and outside. The banks of the stream outside the wooden castle are full of blooming flowers, and the buds of wild grass are growing crazily.
On the flat grass beside the stream, the kitchen servant of the mansion was lighting a fire to roast several skinned honey-smeared hares. Two hunting dogs lay aside and their eyes kept moving along with the roasted rabbits.
A large piece of newly woven woolen felt rug was spread on the lawn next to the bonfire. The rug was filled with wine, bread and dried fruit preserves. Lottie's personal maid Camille and Salt's little daughter Kriz were cutting and plating the food with silver forks and knives. The peasant woman who looked like a wet nurse next to Camille was holding the baby wrapped in soft wool to feed the baby.
In front of the stream bank a little further away, Art was sitting on a special low stool, holding a fishing rod in his hand and staring quietly at the goose feathers floating on the water. Lottie held a piece of raw silk satin in her right hand, and in her left hand held a fine needle and gold thread to outline a picture of the Virgin and the Child.
This is a rare reunion for Art and his family. Now Art not only has to train the army but also take care of the civil affairs construction of the valley. He must also participate in the general affairs outside the valley. It is rare to spend two days in the wooden castle in a month. In order to spend extremely precious time with his wife and children, Art has given up his favorite hunting and picked up the fishing rod specially made for him by the old carpenter Bud to fish in the stream and small pool.
The couple were fishing and knitting, chatting without a word.
"Dear, I heard that you wrote a letter asking your father to pay back the taxes in arrears over the years to the county, is that right?"
Matt raised the fishing rod, glanced at the bait and threw it out again, "Yes, I also took the lead in paying back the taxes owed by Wincheston Manor, Southwest Farm and Lane Manor over the years to the county, totaling 110,000 pfennigs."
"I read the newspaper sent from the North. Is it because the palace ordered various places to pay taxes? But I don't think there are many places that are willing to obey the palace order and pay back taxes, right?" Lottie was able to enter Art's official room, so she was able to get this news from the newspaper sent from the North.
"That's right, most provinces and counties will ignore this edict. That's why Viscount Pierre is the one who stands out from the crowd. This is the time to attract the attention of the Marquis the most. The entire county has been in arrears with taxes of more than 1.5 million pfennigs over the years. As long as he can collect one million, he will be praised by the Marquis."
“The Marquis will only praise Viscount Pierre for his good management of the county. Why are you joining in the fun? How can you do it?” Lottie knew that her husband would not do anything without profit.
Matt laughed, "I have discussed with Pierre. As long as I pay the tax first, the other lords in the county will not dare to say "no". As long as I do not object, no one in the county will dare to resist Viscount Pierre. That bastard Bazel is dead, and the Dean family has been destroyed. Now the county is much cleaner. Pierre has two hundred county soldiers in his hands. If anyone dares to resist, the weapons held by the county soldiers can kill people. "
"As for the income, my money is the bait on the fishhook. Pierre will secretly return all the taxes I paid, and he will also take one-sixth of the tax share. That fish is not small."
“And only if I let Pierre complete this matter successfully can he have enough merit to obtain a fiefdom. He will not leave Tynets until he has a better home. Only then will I have the opportunity to become the warden of Tynets County..."
Before he finished speaking, the goose feather float in the pool rose and fell violently twice. Art screamed and suddenly lifted the fishing rod, and the fishing line was pulled out of the water with a hiss -
Empty rod!
Lotti couldn't help covering her mouth and laughed, "My wise and brave Baron, don't lose the bait and fail to catch the fish."
Att sat for a whole half an afternoon without catching even a loach. He threw the fishing rod and shouted towards Ron, the captain of the guard, who was laughing and teasing with Lottie's personal maid Ollie downstream of the stream: "Ron, you know this. What do you want to do to make the girl happy? Did you catch any fish? I’m going to make fish soup for the lady myself at noon!”
Ron stopped flirting with Ollie when he heard Art’s voice. He picked up a wicker fish basket and replied with a smile: "Master, my fish basket is almost full!"
Matt was stunned for a moment, sat back on the low stool, and cursed: "You guy, you stepped on dog shit. I can get the job done even if I'm flirting with you~"
Lotti stopped laughing and scolded softly: "You are so impatient when fishing, I don't know how you can keep your composure when hunting."
Lottie turned her head and glanced at the two loving young men, Ron and Ollie, and suddenly remembered something, and said to Art in a serious voice: "Baron, since you asked me to be responsible for the internal affairs of the territory, I have to tell you something."
Matt picked up the fishing rod on the ground again, checked the bait on the hook, and asked with interest: "Oh? My respected Internal Affairs Officer, do you have anything important to talk about?"
"Someone proposed to me a marriage with the commanders of your legions, and there were more than one or two."
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"All the Lord Knights! Including the trainee knights."
"They want to get rid of all the problems at once. Is it not the conspiracy of my father-in-law?" Art laughed out loud.
"There is no formality! My father has no energy to pay attention to these trivial matters."
"How? Should we agree to those noble squires?"
This question is more Art was stumped. Several of his core officers and civil affairs officials were not yet married. They were either busy fighting wars or building construction. Many officers and officials took advantage of their holidays to go to the county or villages for entertainment. This was indeed not a long-term solution.
"This~ the matter of marrying a wife cannot be decided by me in just one sentence. It mainly depends on the guys' own wishes."
After pondering for a long time, Art raised his head and said to Lottie: "In this case, next month, in the name of the Baroness, you invite the squire lords of Sapp Castle, Andermatt Castle and the county's good friends to bring their families to the wooden castle to hold a spring dance. At that time, I will arrange for the lone commander of the legion and the civil affairs A single official will attend so that everyone can get to know each other more at the dance, which is more appropriate than directly specifying a match. If there is a match, you, the internal affairs officer, will be responsible for contacting both parties. Everything needed for their wedding will be funded by the civil affairs. Well, we can also hold a collective wedding. "
"Spring Dance~Group wedding, haha, I never thought of it, it seems you really have a lot of flowers and plants in your head～"
...
"From today on, you are no longer the children of soldiers and farmers. The flowers and plants in your mind should be thrown away as soon as possible. What you have to learn is the ladder to another world - writing. I know that in your eyes, these strange symbols are definitely not as interesting as the flowers and plants in the fields. But you must remember that this is something that will never be possible in the eyes of others. If it were not for the Baron, you would never have such a precious opportunity in your lifetime."
“You may not know what entering this school means to you, so let me tell you. Entering the school means that you will enjoy the right to read that only the nobility and the church have; entering the school means that you will bid farewell to the fate of peasants. You will no longer devote your life to the land and the plow like your father and ancestors; when you enter the school, you will gain access to promotions. You may become officials, stewards, affairs officers, or even become knights like Master Cooper or become God's messengers in the world like me!"
“This is not a beautiful vision promised to you, but a real honor that someone has already received. Not to mention that everyone can be as lucky as Mr. Cooper, at least the apprentices who have walked out of the school know that your seniors have entered the military and civil affairs to become officers and officials, enjoying the benefits of both military and civilian affairs. "The deacons in the newly built villages also came from this school..."
In the Valley Mubao Parish School, Father Hamish was teaching the second batch of apprentices in the parish school. It was obviously because these children did not study seriously that Father Hamish taught them diligently.
These half-year-old children were brought back from outside by caravans, and some were stranded in the first batch of apprentices, but most of them were selected from the families of officers and soldiers in the military and civil affairs systems.
Apprentices from the first phase of the parish school basically entered the military and civil affairs systems as trainees and became low-level military officers and clerks or even deputy managers under civil affairs officials. After three to five years, these children will become the backbone of the military and civilian affairs.
A boy of twelve or thirteen years old raised his hand. Hamish closed his eyes and asked, "Weislo, what do you want to say again!!"
The boy touched his head and said embarrassedly: "Father Hamish, you can tell me everything. "I know, my father once said the same thing to me, but every time I see those symbols on the board, I will think of them as earthworms, and then I will think about whether to catch them to feed the chickens or take them for fishing~"
The boy's words made other children laugh.
Father Hamish patted the long table in front of him with the Bible in his hand, "Quiet, quiet!"
The apprentices slowly became quiet.
"Weislo, your father Salt is a great business officer. He is good at calculations and writing, but why can't you inherit some from your father? If you are asked to learn arithmetic, you can't even remember the numbers, and if you are asked to learn words, you treat it like an earthworm. , let you learn to forge, and you don’t know how to swing a hammer. Apart from a clever mouth, what other advantages do you have?” Father Hamish really hates iron, and the representative of the apprentices who stayed in the second period is Salt’s precious son. He is smart and articulate, but he doesn’t study seriously.
“Your father told me that if you can’t read a hundred words before summer, he will send you to the construction officer to work with the war slaves!” Hamish carried out the boy’s father.
Weisrow immediately paused and sat back on the low stool obediently.
When the sound of reciting scriptures rang out in the wooden castle parish school in the valley, the sound of work trumpets also sounded in the newly cultivated farmland in the southern valley.
Spring plowing season has arrived. Under the supervision of a squad of standing peasant soldiers holding spears and swords, hundreds of war slaves (slaves) who have been farmers are pulling plows, holding hoes and shovels in the fields. Since the recruitment of refugees has basically stopped, among the newly cultivated land last year There are still nearly 1,600 acres left unallocated for rent. Of course, these lands cannot be left idle. Therefore, with the consent of Art, the Civil Affairs Bureau selected more than 100 war slaves under the Construction Officer and transferred them to the Tunnel Official as temporary serfs. This year's grain harvest will also be fully collected by the Civil Affairs Bureau.
There are not many residents in the valley, but there is no shortage of labor in the valley. Almost every time the army fights, they will capture and select a group of enemy soldiers to return to the valley to serve as war slaves. These people must cultivate fields, repair and build houses, cut wood for workshops or carry goods for caravans. Anyway, wherever hard labor is required, these war slaves must do it unconditionally.
To be honest, these people lived a worse life than the serfs outside, but the strange thing is that not many people chose to escape.
The reason is simple - they don't want to run away, and they can't run away.
First of all, Art knows that people's patience has limits, so his oppression is not unlimited. Most of the enemy soldiers who were able to avoid execution on the battlefield and were selected as war slaves were relatively honest enemy soldiers. At the beginning, Art told them that the price of survival was to undergo a two-year war slave transformation, and promised that they would regain their free status after passing the two-year transformation. The war slaves at least had something to look forward to;
Secondly, although the war slaves worked like animals every day, they basically did not have to worry about freezing to death and starving to death. The construction officials would not let them eat enough to have the strength to cause trouble, but they would never let them work on an empty stomach. The food they received every day was just enough to support a day of heavy work.
Finally, there were harsh punishments. Once a war slave dared to resist and cause trouble, he would face punishments as small as being imprisoned and without water or food, or as serious as having his hands and feet chopped off and leaving them to be fed to wolves in the wild. As for escaping, no one tried, but they all became food in the bellies of wild beasts in the mountains and forests and ghosts under the swords of peasants and soldiers.
In addition, the civil administration would occasionally provide the war slaves with some meat and wine after completing a certain task. The parish priest Hamish would also go to the war slaves from time to time to preach God and self-salvation. The construction officer also placed spies among the war slaves...
With all these things, the war slaves gave up their useless struggle over time.
Looking away slightly, on the hilly peninsula southwest of the busy spring plowing field, more than sixty newly captured war slaves, under the strict supervision of two small teams of fully armed peasant soldiers, used heavy hammers and pickaxes to chip away at the rocks on the left and right sides of the hill, turning both sides of the hill into cliffs.
At that time, if you want to enter Wellsburg built on a hill, you will have to find a way from the gentle slope on the front, surrounded by rivers on three sides. This will greatly improve the defense of Wellsburg, and the stones obtained by digging the cliff will also be used to build Wellsburg.
civilian Cooper inspected the castle construction site accompanied by construction officer Lawrence. He held a castle foundation design drawing in his hand and said: "Lawrence, the master has high hopes for Wellsburg. He repeatedly emphasized that the foundation of the castle must be solid. We would rather spend a few more years to ensure that Wellsburg is built into the strongest castle."
"Don't worry, old butler, I won't let you down."
Cooper nodded, glanced at the war slaves who were working bare-chested, and ordered: "These new war slaves are not violent yet. "Don't worry, these garrison soldiers who are responsible for guarding are all carefully selected by Mr. Bass. There will be no problem in dealing with these surrendered soldiers." And we won’t give the war slaves enough food during this period, so hungry people won’t cause trouble.”
While Cooper and Lawrence were talking, a burst of cheers came from the workshop area below the hill. After a while, the steward of the weapons workshop hurried to Cooper, "Master Cooper, the workshop’s first set of self-made full-body plate armor has been assembled!"
"Let’s go and take a look~"