Chapter 104: Eager Pursuers
The village of Kwen is very large, and the farms are sparsely distributed, making it difficult for the lord to find the center of the village.
There is actually only one street in the center of the village.
This street is made up of shops and markets, and it handles daily transactions and communications within a radius of dozens of miles.
The reason why this is the center of the village is that there are many aristocratic manors around this street.
The Countess's estate is nearby.
As an old noble in the Kingdom of Sarleon, the Countess's manor has been built for more than a hundred years. The overall area is very large, covering thousands of acres.
But her estate was not for growing crops.
There are a lot of grapes planted in the manor, but at this season, the grapes have not yet sprouted, only the green branches are neatly arranged.
Behind the manor is a large oak forest.
This was obviously a winery, and probably the industry that made the Countess's family rich.
Thousands of acres of vineyards are rare, and the lord feels that this is very likely the largest winery in the entire Pande continent.
Kerwin has plenty of sunshine, appropriate rainfall, and rarely strong winds and heavy rains, which is indeed very suitable for growing grapes.
Hundreds of people were working on the manor, and the weeds in the fields were cleared cleanly.
The Countess was among them, wearing a gauze hat and holding a cane, directing the servants to work.
Seeing Leon's flag, the Countess came over.
"Mr. Leon, I never thought you would come to my rural place."
After not seeing each other for more than two months, the Countess looked much more rosy-looking. Perhaps doing farm work and making wine on this estate was the life she wanted.
"I'm here to ask for help, ma'am. I need to buy some food..."
The lord expressed his demands directly, and he thought the Countess would agree.
Unexpectedly, after learning about the situation, the Countess said she was powerless to do anything.
"Brave Shield Castle will indeed give me half of the agricultural tax, but it was fully booked a few days ago - it would have been better if you had come a few days earlier."
“Have they all been sold so early?”
The lord couldn't believe it. He thought he had arrived early. The crops hadn't even been harvested yet, but they had all been sold?
The countess shook off the dirt on her body and looked back at her own vineyard. "Sir Leon should be able to see that I don't need too much food right now. I will sell it to someone who wants to buy it. The agricultural tax is expected to be 300,000 pounds. I don't want to spend a lot of effort on transportation. It would be better to convert it into dinars as soon as possible."
That's true. The Countess doesn't need to maintain an army now. There are only more than a hundred people on her estate, and the local output is enough for her.
"Can you tell me who bought it?"
My lord, I have a headache.
The countess pointed to the east and said, "Mrs. Bella from Changhe Town wrote to me a few days ago and said she wanted to buy it. Her price was quite high."
This made my head hurt even more - why did Madam Bella, a 'pregnant woman', buy so much food? This must have been bought by Alma...
This is a problem. Alma knows how to buy grain, so she naturally doesn't know how to sell it. So the deal with Amy will definitely not be able to be concluded.
The lord was a little unwilling. He looked at other nearby manors and asked, "Madam, you should be in charge of the tax revenue of Kwen Village now. It should be able to produce a lot of food here. Can you help me buy some?"
The Countess shook her head and laughed: "Sir Leon, you probably don't know that Kwen's situation is very complicated and it will be troublesome..."
It is indeed very complicated. The village of Kwen is full of nobles...
Although most of the land in Kwen belongs to the fief of Baron Leofric, and Leofric is indeed the lord here, in fact, the best land in the center of the village is all in the hands of other nobles.
This is not a rare situation. In the Kingdom of Sarleon, this situation is quite normal, especially in villages with good environments and more livable environment.
Yes, Kerwen is a nice place to live.
If you go another two hundred miles west from Kwen, you will reach the famous Goddess Mountain - this is the highest peak in the Kingdom of Fierce Lion and the source of the Tongtian River.
The main peak of this mountain is covered with snow all year round, and there are snow-capped cliffs on all sides. It is said that no one has ever reached the top. The people of ancient Pande believed that this mountain was the residence of the goddess Eunomia, so they named it Goddess Mountain.
In fact, the absolute height of Goddess Mountain is not particularly high - according to Li Ang's estimation, the main peak of Goddess Mountain should be more than 5,000 meters above sea level, which is actually not much higher than the Dengjier Mountains in the south of Maixiang Territory, and it is not comparable to the snow-capped plateau mountains in the Misty Mountains.
But because Goddess Mountain is a steep mountain rising from the plains, its relative height far exceeds that of other mountains, so it looks extremely majestic and spectacular.
Goddess Mountain blocks the monsoon from the west, causing the area dozens of miles at the foot of the mountain to be shrouded in fog all year round, making it difficult for humans and animals to move. The fog is connected to the uninhabited area in the basin to the south.
However, a hundred miles east of the mountains is another world.
Since the warm and humid air currents from the west cannot combine with the north wind, severe weather such as thunderstorms rarely occurs in the eastern part of Goddess Mountain.
Therefore, the hilly area beside Tongtian River, one hundred miles east of Goddess Mountain, has a suitable climate and abundant water resources, making it a very livable place.
Kwen Village is the center of this livable area.
As it has been a livable place since ancient times, the history of Kwen Village is very long.
The Countess's family is a century-old noble family in Kwen, and her family fiefdom originally only covered this area.
But by her generation, as a woman she was unable to lead troops into battle, the power of her family gradually shrank, and her fiefdom gradually remained the same as before .
In this situation, one should marry a son-in-law to carry on the family line.
Unexpectedly, the Countess fell in love with Oden, who was just a pioneer lord at the time, and married him.
It's not about marrying a son-in-law, but about getting married.
After marrying Oden, in order to support Count Oden in expanding territory and building Brave Shield Castle, she sold part of the land to other nobles to build manors. In addition to his own abilities, the Countess's strong support played an important role in Oden becoming a powerful earl in the kingdom.
The climate in Kwen is very good, and the nobles of the kingdom are willing to come here to build houses for vacation or retirement.
Therefore, in addition to the Countess's vineyard, there were more than a dozen noble estates in Kwen, all of which were built by nobles above the baron level for retirement...
The nobles came to build large-scale projects, and many free people had to move to the outskirts of the village - the land was occupied or 'bought' so that the nobles could build manors.
The free people who lost their land would regroup and reclaim the wasteland nearby, and the newly occupied areas by these people actually became unowned land - this was illegal reclamation.
These unowned lands did not originally belong to the village of Kwen, so they were redistributed to Baron Leofric ten years ago. This was for the purpose of collecting taxes and to allow lords who could lead troops to fight to protect the property of the nobles.
And because these new territories almost surrounded Kwen, they were all unified under the Kwen Village for the sake of ease of management.
Therefore, Baron Leofric is now the nominal lord of Kwen, but his actual territory is just a large slum in the north of Kwen near the Tongtian River.
And now, probably in order to quickly improve his strength, Baron Leofric has also granted some knights territories and sold a lot of land...
As a result, the entire village of Kwen now has an earldom (the Countess's), a baronial domain (Leofric's), a dozen knightly domains, and twenty noble estates...
It is really hard to say who owns Kwen Village...
Baron Leofric was willing to take over BraveShield Castle and face the risk, probably because he was too lazy to do so - collecting taxes was quite difficult.
The estates of the great nobles could not be taxed, and in order to evade taxes, the free people could "suddenly become" tenants of those noble estates at any time, and the boundary between the two was often unclear.
On the contrary, it was the Countess who sold those manors and was more familiar with the people and easier to identify, so it was relatively easier for her to handle the taxes of Kwen Village than for Baron Leofric .
"Sir Leon, although Kwen Village is so big, I estimate that the agricultural tax I can collect is only about 60,000 to 70,000 pounds of winter wheat. After deducting the daily expenses of my manor and leaving some for planting and reserves, there won't be much left..."
The Countess sighed and shook her head. "Noble estates don't pay agricultural taxes. There aren't many farmers who actually belong to Kwen Village. Baron Leofric only collected over 40,000 pounds last year, which wasn't enough to support his subordinates. So he would rather not have Kwen's tax revenue and go to Brave Shield Castle."
The lord also sighed. This is very troublesome.
The noble estates do not pay agricultural taxes, so they must have surplus grain, but there are dozens of them, and it is difficult to negotiate with each family to buy grain.
When changing from wholesale to retail, we have to find a way to transport it, which is really a headache.
Moreover, the harvests of each of the dozens of estates were not that much. After a rough calculation, they would definitely say the same as the Countess, "There won't be much left."
But the Countess was indeed willing to help. She sent people to various noble estates to inquire whether they could help Leon purchase the goods. However, this would not be something that could be completed in a short period of time, and the exact quantity was also uncertain.
"Sir Leon, come with me. This matter will probably take a few days to complete. You can try the wine from my estate while you are at it."
There is no other way. Although it is troublesome, at least there is some plan, and there is a local boss to help. I can only wait here for a while.
At least the Countess’s wines are actually pretty good.
…
On the other side, the Changhe Town Administrative Office.
Amy is discussing purchasing.
She had originally planned to look for the Duke of Alma, but the Duke had returned to Lion Lake City, and the one who received her was the Duke of Alma's son - his biological son, Fothergill Houghton.
Perhaps Archduke Alma is also a bad namer...
Look at the names of their two sons. The biological son is called Forster, and the illegitimate son is called Fischer. It is easy to confuse them at first glance...
Lord Fothert is now the lord of Erminede Village, which is a subordinate village of Changhe Town and the closest large village to Changhe Town, located between Changhe Town and Fletcher Village.
Grand Duke Alma has not been idle in the past few months. He let his own son take over Erminede, obviously intending to completely control Changhe Town.
Lord Fawcett was still very kind to Amy. After all, if you counted carefully, Amy could also be considered a princess - the daughter of a princess, who could actually be called a princess (all called Princess).
However, as soon as Amy mentioned food, Fothergill immediately changed the subject by talking about something else.
"Mr. Fothert, how much can the wheat fields in Changhe Town yield?"
"Ah, Miss Amy, the wheat fields in spring are perfect for a trip. It reminds me of the first time I saw you last spring..."
It's basically like talking to a cow...the two people's conversation is completely on different channels.
Fothergill didn't respond to a single word of business, it was just a pure awkward chat.
After a few words, the topic gradually turned to a strange direction...
"Miss Amy, you may not know that I am your most ardent suitor!"
Fothert seemed to be quite thick-skinned. Seeing that the two of them had no common language, he actually blurted out such a sentence.
This is not unexpected - Fawcett was also a member of the Order of the Lion.
Many young Lion Knights have ideas about themselves, and Amy can certainly see that...
If we talk about the conditions listed separately, Fotherg's conditions are actually very good.
He is the heir of the first duke of the kingdom, with a large family and a great fortune; he has received the most rigorous education and is quite talented; he leads the family's elite cavalry and is quite skilled; and he is also quite handsome...
There are not many young people like him who come from a wealthy and powerful family, are both talented in literature and martial arts, and have good looks.
But the problem is that Amy doesn't like these noble knights, and she is not an ordinary noble girl - how can she be an ordinary girl who is interested in swordsmanship and deception...
So, she simply ignored Fothergill's intentions: "I'm sorry, Mr. Fothergill, I don't intend to talk about these topics..."
But at this time, Fothert brought up Amy's needs again: "Don't you want to buy food? I can show you my sincerity - I can supply you with 300,000 kilograms of food, I just hope you can respond to my pursuit..."
This is why Amy doesn't like these Lion Knights - they only rely on their family background to do whatever they want and completely treat women as commodities.
So Amy frowned and got up and left, saying a swear word she had just learned from the Lord: "Let your sister respond to you!"
Amy used to not swear, but Mai Xiangling's 'college entrance examination' made her realize that being too gentle and polite is often not a good thing, so she has been speaking more freely in the past few days.
Unexpectedly, this swear word brought her into big trouble - Fawcett's face turned pale and he slammed the door, blocking the entrance.
"Amy! Are you spying on me? You have spies around me!?"
Amy was stunned. What was going on?
This random curse word hits the nail on the head?
I knew that the homes of these nobles were messy, but I didn't expect to encounter something like this...
The rule of not swearing among nobles seems to come from the painful experience of their predecessors, rather than from any etiquette...
This is the administrative hall of Changhe Town, an official office.
Amy did not bring the people from Mettenheim to the government hall. After all, Amy didn't think anything could happen to her here.
But who knew it would be like this...
Amy looked at Fotherg, who was blocking the door with a ferocious look on his face, and took a step back, putting her hand on the hilt of the sword at her waist.
"Open the door, Fawcett, I don't know what you're talking about!"
But Fossett had already frowned, his sword drawn, and a dangerous light flashed in his eyes.
"Amy, you actually know all this...I don't want this to happen, but you can't leave here now!"
Amy also drew her sword. She knew she was no match for Fawcett, but looking at the situation now, Fawcett probably wanted to arrest her. She did not intend to surrender.
"Fother, think carefully about what the consequences will be if something happens to me here!"
Amy bowed slightly, holding the sword in both hands in a defensive posture.
There was a changeable look in Fotherg's eyes. After hesitating for a long time, he changed his expression, put away the sword in his hand, and opened the door.
Amy ran out quickly, all the way to the outside of the administrative office, and called Klose who was waiting outside, intending to leave Changhe Town quickly.
She felt that it might be dangerous for her to stay here.
But after taking a few steps, she stopped again.
She saw Fothergill coming out of the executive hall door. The lord had been staring at her, and the attendant beside him was holding a horn in his hand.
Opposite the administrative hall is the garrison camp.
The camp was flying the flag of Archduke Alma, and there were probably thousands of troops stationed there.
One of the cavalry teams, which consisted of at least 200 men and wore Fothergill's four-sword cloak, was right outside the camp and could be seen directly.
Amy immediately realized the real danger - if she took Klose and the others away from Changhe Town and into the deserted wilderness, it would be really troublesome...
In Changhe Town, Fawcett didn't dare to do anything - Fawcett couldn't let anything happen to Amy, nor did he dare to detain Amy publicly.
Otherwise, not only would Baron Godric kill him, but King Ulric might even kill him, and the kingdom might even be plunged into a large-scale civil war.
Amy's mother is a princess after all.
But if they left Changhe Town and came to the plain wilderness, a dozen great swordsmen would most likely not be able to stop two hundred cavalrymen, and they would not be able to escape even if they ran away.
In some unknown place, he killed Klose and the others, and then captured Amy. No one would know that he did it.
Maybe it could even be called a bandit suppression campaign...
Even the cavalry under Fothert might not know who they had killed at that time - these cavalry from Lion Lake City certainly did not know Amy.
After all, after studying with the lord for more than two months, Amy is already able to take these situations into consideration.
So Amy didn't leave town.
She thought of the way the lord had relieved the siege of White Hart Castle.
"Klose... follow me and line up the team."
Amy said calmly: "Let's go kidnap someone!"
Klose nodded.
He didn't know what Amy was talking about kidnapping, but his good point was that even if he didn't understand, he would still do it.
Then, Amy looked back at Fothergill with contempt, mounted her horse, and marched in a line towards the main castle inside Changhe Town.
When a dozen or so Mettenheim men formed a neat line and marched forward in the middle of the road, this team of strong male guards with an average height of over 1.9 meters looked quite spirited.
Even the king doesn't have such a strong guard of honor around him...
It was obvious that this little girl was of extraordinary status, so everyone on the road moved to the side of the road.
Some merchants had already recognized that this was Lord Godric's daughter, and they also recognized Cloze and the others, and were waving and greeting them.
Fothert looked at Amy with a grim face. He didn't expect that Amy would not leave the city and deliberately show off in public.
Watching her go towards the main castle, Fothert gritted his teeth and followed with a dozen followers.
