Volume 2: The Road to Dragon Feast Chapter 131 Three and a Half Men
Murphy's fiefdom was near Ravenstern, a city in the south of the Kingdom of Alterac. On the way to Stormwind City, Murphy discussed with Sigrit and Darabonba. The three of them went back to their fiefdoms to arrange the aftermath, and then met at Southsea Town, the southernmost town of the Kingdom of Alterac, and took a boat directly from Southsea Town to King's Port in Stormwind Kingdom.
After the discussion, the three of them each led their troops and set off.
It has to be said that the mobility of cavalry is excellent. Murphy and his 18 knights galloped all the way and arrived at their own fiefdom in just a few hours.
Entering the valley and speeding along the paths in the woods, you can see the loose outline of Songmu Village in the valley from afar - as well as another small village next to the village.
Hey, what’s going on? Why is there another village?
Murphy was a little puzzled. He slowed down his horse and approached quickly with his knights. Soon he could see clearly.
It is not quite accurate to call it a village. It is more like an earthen enclosure surrounded by wooden houses and wooden walls. It is located not far to the northwest of Songmu Village. It is not large in area, but the architectural layout is quite neat , and it is obviously carefully planned. Several farmlands have been reclaimed around the earthen enclosure. Several farmers are working in the fields, and several others are making smoked fish and meat in the enclosure.
But more farmers were doing queue training, about forty or fifty of them, and an old man with a resolute face was directing them to march in formation.
General Liu (Soldier): "Stand up straight, raise your head, and stand tall. Look at how you stand now. March in step - turn left - turn right! One, two, one, one, two, one!"
Following the slogan, the forty or so farmers actually practiced quite well.
Mo Fei was thinking where did these guys come from? Suddenly he saw two old men coming out of a wooden house. Hey, isn't that the You Ran Nan Shan Ke?
At this time, You Ran Nan Shanke and two other old men also discovered the cavalry team here.
General Liu reacted quickly, "Everyone, take up your weapons and form a battle formation!" With a loud shout, the farmers hurriedly rushed to the wall. Fifty or so farmers each picked up a spear and lined up in three dense rows at the entrance of the earthen wall. They were obviously just a group of level 1 farmers, but they actually looked like a military formation.
Murphy was startled and thought to himself, what the hell is going on?
Knight Roland behind him saw this and hurriedly gave an order. The eighteen knights immediately formed a charge formation. Even though the number of troops was reduced by half, it was too easy for level four soldiers to fight level zero soldiers. They could win by simply crushing them without any brains.
The old man commanding the opposite team was not afraid at all. He stood at the front of the team holding a warrior dagger, and actually looked like a general. However, the portrait on his head betrayed his true strength - he was just a level 6 warrior.
However, You Ran Nan Shan Ke recognized Murphy and rushed out of the crowd, shouting to stop them: "Don't be impulsive, don't be impulsive, we are all on the same side."
Murphy waved his hand, telling his knights not to be nervous.
He dismounted and looked at the scene in front of him in surprise, "Uncle, what on earth are you doing?"
The You Ran Nan Shan guest breathed a sigh of relief, "Hey, young man, you're back. Long time no see. Are these your cavalrymen? They look quite elite.
This is Lao Ge , this is Lao Liu, they are both my old buddies, come on, don't be so nervous, this is the brother Aidan I mentioned, he is also a local landlord. "
The two old men also came over and greeted Murphy.
One of them is called Zhuge Jianguo, and he is a level 5 mage.
One of them is General Liu, a level six fighter.
These two names are quite distinctive. Like You Ran Nan Shan Ke, they are both old men with gray hair.
Add to that the seventh-level hunter Youran Nanshanke, and the three small accounts to create such a big mess, it's really amazing.
"Hey guys, what's going on here?"
The leisurely Nanshan guest began to explain, "Since a few days ago, the village has been constantly driving people out. They are all poor farmers. We felt sorry for them, so we gathered them together, built a few houses for them to live in, taught them how to hunt and fish, and asked them to help with farming, so as to at least give them something to eat.
As a result, more and more people came and gradually the movement spread. Later, the village chief was afraid to do so and sent militia to drive them away. We had no choice but to organize the people to arm themselves for self-defense. "
General Liu also interrupted and said, "Young man, is that Goodman your subordinate? Don't get angry if I say something unpleasant. This Goodman is not a good person. He is just like the landlord bully in the model opera. It's fine to drive these people out, but he doesn't even let them make a living on their own, saying that the land here belongs to His Royal Highness the Prince.
They came with a bunch of lackeys to drive us away, so we had no choice but to train all the farmers and give each of them a spear, so that we could at least use it to defeat those lackeys.
I am puzzled. Even if they are royal relatives, they should be given a chance to live. In ancient times, officials forced the people to rebel. It is the 21st century now, why are people going backwards? "
General Liu was quite excited.
Murphy was speechless. Goodman was an NPC, how could he become a landlord bully? And why did he drive the farmers out? As for the lackeys, they should be the 20 militiamen in Songmu Village.
He thought that there must be some reason behind this, and he couldn't just listen to the one-sided words of the three old men in front of him.
"Don't worry, uncles. I'll go and ask what's going on."
As he said this, he was about to go find Goodman to ask for clarification. Before leaving, he could not help but take a look at the earthen wall in front of him and the farmers around it. He didn't know how these three old men did it, but they actually built such a large stronghold. It must have cost a lot of materials to build so many houses and walls. So where did they get the materials?
And why are these NPCs so obedient?
He was puzzled, but did not stop. He soon rode into the village. When he arrived outside the village, he found that the population of Songmu Village had obviously increased a lot. In the past, only two-thirds of the fifty wooden houses in the village lived in them, but now they seemed to be full. The farmlands were full of farmers working hard, and their number had obviously increased a lot .
He vaguely guessed what was going on.
When we arrived outside the village hall, we saw from afar twenty militiamen standing guard outside in strict vigilance. It seemed the situation was quite tense.
He walked into the village hall and immediately called Goodman over.
Goodman (Village Chief): "Your Highness, how may I help you?"
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "What's up with those peasants out there?"
"Oh, Your Highness, I was just about to report to you that ever since you lowered the village's tax rate to 0%, the village's population has continued to grow and soon reached the village's population limit, so I had to drive some of the extra farmers out to fend for themselves ."
As expected, Murphy thought.
The population growth in this game is inversely proportional to the agricultural tax rate. The lower the tax rate, the faster the population grows, and the higher the tax rate, the slower the population grows. If the tax rate is too high, or if there are natural disasters or man-made disasters, there may even be negative growth.
Previously, Murphy didn't care about that little income, so he adjusted the village's tax rate directly to 0%, which resulted in a population explosion. The village's population cap was only 500, and there were already nearly 400 people before, so it was easy to become full.
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "Can't we build more houses and cultivate more farmland?"
Goodman (Village Chief): "But Your Highness, building houses and cultivating farmland require resources, and the population limit of a level 1 village is only 500. Only by upgrading to a level 2 village can the population be increased to 1,000, but doing so requires a lot of resources, including gold coins..."
Murphy had a clear memory of this. The fiefdom system of this game was simply a waste of money.
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "What's that dirt enclosure outside?"
Goodman (Village Chief): "You mean the refugee camp? It was set up by those trouble-making adventurers. They gathered a lot of villagers and even occupied a large area of land outside the village. I sent people to drive them away, but unfortunately failed."
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "Why drive them away?"
Goodman (Village Chief): "Because the forests and lands around Songmu Village belong to His Royal Highness, how can we let them occupy them for nothing? These shameless guys are still fishing in the river and hunting in the forest. These are all the prince's property. If they were adventurers, it would be fine, but those useless farmers dared to do this. It's simply unreasonable.
It's a pity that there are too few militiamen in the village, otherwise I should really kill them all. Fortunately, His Royal Highness the Prince is back. I hope His Royal Highness the Prince will quickly drive away those refugees, otherwise they will become bandits and pose a threat to the village.
Although we can hire adventurers to clean up later, there are too few adventurers born in our village, so I'm afraid we may not be able to clean it up completely."
[System prompt: Triggering the fiefdom mission 'Drive out the refugees'. A large number of refugees have appeared in your territory. These people are a destabilizing factor for the village. Please deal with them as soon as possible. If the refugees are not incorporated or cleared out within a week, they will automatically transform into humanoid monsters such as robbers, thieves, and bandits, and the security level of your fiefdom will be reduced.]
Damn, there is such a setting? Murphy was speechless. This is forcing players to become black-hearted lords.
No, this is forcing players to spend money.
The current situation is that you either spend money to upgrade the village, drive these farmers to death, or wait for them to become bandits.
If you can't bear the condemnation of your conscience and can't bring yourself to massacre, then you can only spend money to upgrade the village. This must be a conspiracy of the game company.
But wait, why are these three old men not restricted by the rules? They can even organize the farmers. Could it be that the leisurely Nanshan guest said before that there is no sword in the hand but a sword in the heart, and as long as you don't think too complicated, you can succeed?
Mo Fei thought to himself, aren't you guys cheating? He really couldn't figure out what the principle was, why couldn't he do it?
He thought for a while, and suddenly an idea came to his mind. This might be an opportunity.
Since these three old guys can break the system rules, why not just let them be the village chiefs? Anyway, this fiefdom is a bonus for the title of prince. It doesn't matter even if it is ruined. It would be nice if some results can be achieved.
Just do what you want to do.
Murphy returned to the earthen wall outside the village again. General Liu was still on guard with the refugees. Strictly speaking, these farmers were not even militiamen. Their weapons were just wooden spears. The spear heads had been burned and polished by fire, and they looked quite sharp.
He picked up one at random.
【Simple wooden spear (rough)
Attack power: 1-11.
Item Introduction: A wooden spear made from burnt and polished wood. Although it is poorly made, it can still be used as a weapon, at least much better than using bare hands. 】
No need to ask, this thing must have been made by those old guys.
"I say, uncles, come over and have a chat."
General Liu (Soldier): "Well, I was right, wasn't I? That Goodman is a bully."
Murphy shook his head and said, "It's not his fault, actually. He's just an NPC, just like a robot, he has to follow the rules. If the population is full, it's full, there's nothing he can do."
Zhuge Jianguo (Mage): "We all understand the principle, but why do we feel that something is not right? How come there is no place to live in such a large area around the village? If there are not enough houses, just build more. There are forests all around, so we can get as much wood as we want. If all else fails, we can dig up the soil and make bricks. Can a living person be suffocated to death by urine?
Look, we are doing pretty well here.”
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "Hahaha, that's true, but this is also because the uncles have advanced skills and can do what ordinary people can't do. Ordinary people can't do these.
Since you guys said so, how about this? I will give the position of village chief to you. How it develops depends entirely on your performance. How do you think?
Uncle Zhuge will be the village chief, Uncle Liu will be the village militia captain, and Uncle Youran Nanshanke will be the village policy advisor."
All three were surprised.
Leisurely South Mountain Guest (Hunter): "Young man, do you really want to let us manage the village? Although I don't know much about the game, this fief is quite valuable. What if it gets damaged? I think we should just forget about it. We just want to get together in the game and enjoy the scenery. I don't want to ruin your business."
Zhuge Jianguo (Mage): "Don't worry. I'm retired now and have nothing to do. It's not bad to be a village chief for fun. Otherwise, what should we do with these farmers? We can't just leave them to fend for themselves. Look at these people. They don't look very smart. They are stupid and dumb. If we don't care about them, something bad will happen to Kendi."
General Liu (Soldier): "That's right. I'm a General Liu who is familiar with the Art of War. What's a mere militia captain?"
You Ran Nan Shan Ke (Hunter): "Come on, forget it. When you were in the army, you couldn't even become a company commander. How dare a mere platoon leader call you General Liu?"
General Liu (Soldier): "What do you know? A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier. I didn't get to fight in the battle, so all my skills were wasted. When I fought with that old bastard Goodman yesterday, I led the troops well.
I don't think this world looks like a peaceful and prosperous era. There are so many refugees in such a good year. Sooner or later, the world will be in chaos. Maybe I can become a general by then, don't you think, Old Ge?"
Murphy was quite happy to see that the three of them agreed.
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "Then it's settled. Come on, I'll arrange positions for you."
Taking the three people to the village hall, Murphy directly assigned the position of village chief to Zhuge Jianguo. It seemed that this man must have been a cadre before and was quite capable of managing things. Although it sounded like General Liu had only been a platoon leader before, he was still qualified to command the militia.
As for You Ran Nan Shan Ke, he obviously didn't want to get involved, but his two old friends had already started working, so he could only hang out with them.
Murphy made all the arrangements and prepared to set off.
Aidan (Prince of Alterac): "Then I will leave Pinewood Village to you old veterans."
Zhuge Jianguo (Mage): "Don't worry, young man. I used to be a section chief. It's just a small village, I can manage it."
Murphy nodded, pulled the reins, and galloped away with his eighteen knights.
