Riding and Slashing

Chapter 106 The Eager Suitor

Kewen Village has a large area, and the farms are sparsely distributed, making it very difficult for the lord to find the center of the village.

In the center of the village, there is actually only one street.

This street is composed of shops and bazaars, and it is responsible for daily trading and communication within a radius of tens of miles.

The reason why this is the center of the village is because there are many noble manors around this street.

The Countess' estate is nearby.

As a veteran aristocrat of the Lion Kingdom, the Countess's manor has been built for more than 100 years, and the overall area is very large, covering thousands of acres.

But her estate does not grow food.

There are a lot of grapes planted in the manor, but in this season, the grapes have not yet come out, only the green shoots are neatly arranged.

Behind the manor is a large oak forest.

This was apparently a wine-making estate, and presumably the business through which the Countess's family had made their fortune.

Thousands of acres of vineyards are rare, and the lord feels that this is likely to be the largest winery in the entire Pendor Continent.

Kewen has plenty of sunshine, suitable rainfall, and few strong winds and rainstorms, so it is really suitable for growing grapes.

There are hundreds of people working in the manor, and the weeds in the field have been cleaned up.

And the countess was actually among them, wearing a gauze hat and holding a cane, directing the servants to work.

Seeing Leon's flag, the Countess came over to welcome her.

"Your Excellency Li Ang, I really didn't expect you to come to my country place."

I haven't seen her for more than two months, but the Countess's complexion has become much more rosy. Maybe doing farm work and making wine in this manor is the life she wants.

"I'm here to ask for help, ma'am, I need to buy a batch of food..."

The lord expressed his needs straight to the point, and he felt that the Countess would agree.

Unexpectedly, after the Countess learned about the situation, she expressed that she was helpless.

"Yongshield Castle will indeed give me half of the agricultural tax, but it has been fully booked a few days ago-it would be nice if you came a few days earlier."

"Is it all sold so early?"

The lord couldn't believe it. He thought he had come early, and he sold them all before harvesting?
The countess shook the soil on her body, and looked back at her vineyard: "Your Excellency Li Ang should also be able to see that I don't need much food now, and I will naturally sell it if someone buys it. The agricultural tax is expected to be paid for." There are 30 pounds, I don't want to spend a lot of effort to transport it, it would be nice to switch to dinars sooner."

This is true, the Countess does not need to raise soldiers now, and her estate only has more than 100 people, and the local output is enough for her.

"Can you tell me exactly who bought it?"

The lord is a bit of a headache.

The Countess pointed to the east: "Ms. Bella from Changhe Town wrote a letter a few days ago to say she wants to buy it. The price is quite high."

Now my brain hurts even more - Mrs. Bella, a 'pregnant woman', what does she buy so much food for?Alma must have bought this...

This is troublesome. Alma can buy grain, but naturally she can't sell it. Amy's business must not be negotiated.

The lord was a little reconciled, looked at other nearby manors, and asked, "Madam, you should be in charge of the taxation of Kewen Village now, and there should be a lot of food here, can you help me buy some?"

The countess shook her head and laughed: "Your Excellency Li Ang, you probably don't know that Kewen's situation is very complicated and it will be more troublesome..."

It's really complicated. The village of Kewen is full of nobles...

Although most of Kewen's land belonged to Baron Leofric's fiefdom, and Leofric was indeed the lord here, but in fact, the best sites in the center of the village were all in the hands of other nobles.

This is not an uncommon situation. In the Sarleon Kingdom, this situation is quite normal, especially in a village with a better environment and a more livable environment.

Yes, Kerwin is a nice place to live.

If you go two hundred miles west from Kewen, you will find the famous Goddess Mountain—this is the highest peak in the Lion Kingdom, and it is also the source of the Tongtian River.

The main peak of this mountain is covered with snow all the year round, and it is surrounded by snow-capped cliffs. It is said that no one has ever climbed to the top. The people of Gupande believe that this mountain is 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 altitude of Goddess Mountain's main peak should be more than 5000 meters. In fact, it is not much higher than the Dengjil Mountains in the south of Maixiangling. The plateau and snow-capped mountains are simply incomparable.

However, because Goddess Mountain is a steep mountain rising from the plain, its relative height is far higher than other mountains, so it looks extremely majestic and magnificent.

Goddess Mountain blocked the monsoon from the west, making the dozens of miles below the mountain perennially filled with thick fog, making it difficult for people and animals to walk, and the fog connected the no-man's land in the south basin.

However, a hundred miles east of the mountains, there is another world.

Because the warm and humid air from the west cannot combine with the north wind, the eastern part of Goddess Mountain rarely produces severe weather such as thunderstorms and storms.

Therefore, one hundred miles to the east of Goddess Mountain, this hilly area beside Tongtian River has a suitable climate and abundant water, making it a very livable place.

Kewen Village is the center of this livable zone.

As a livable place since ancient times, Kewen Village has a very long history.

The Countess's family is a century-old nobleman of Kewen, and her family's fiefdom originally belonged to this area.

But in her generation, she was unable to lead troops to fight as a woman, the power of the family gradually shrank, and the fiefdom gradually remained in its original state.

Originally, in this situation, a son-in-law should be recruited to pass on the family.

Unexpectedly, the countess fell in love with Auden, who was just a pioneer lord at that time, and married him.

It's not about recruiting, but getting married.

After marrying Auden, in order to support Earl Auden to expand the territory and build the Fort of Valor, she sold part of it to other nobles to build manors - Auden can become a powerful earl in the kingdom, except In addition to his own ability, the Countess' strong support played an important role.

Kewen's climate is very good, and the nobles of the kingdom are also willing to come here to build houses for vacation or retirement.

So, in addition to the countess's vineyard, there were more than a dozen noble manors in Kewen, all of which were built by nobles above the baron to retire...

The aristocrats came and started building, and many freedmen had to relocate to the outskirts of the village - the land was occupied or 'bought' so that the aristocrats could build manors.

The free people who lost their land will repopulate nearby to reclaim wasteland, and the newly occupied place by these people is actually a land without owner-this is illegal pioneering.

These unclaimed lands did not belong to Kewen Village originally, so they were re-entrusted to Baron Leofric ten years ago. This was to collect taxes, and also to allow the lords who could lead troops to fight to protect the property of the nobles. .

And since these new sites almost surrounded Kewen, they were also collectively assigned to Kewen Village for ease of management.

Therefore, Baron Leofric is now the nominal lord of Kewen, but his actual territory is only the large slum area in the north of Kewen near the Tongtian River.

And up to now, probably in order to quickly improve his strength, Baron Leofric has also divided up some knight collars, and sold a lot of land...

As a result, in the entire Kewen Village, there is now one earldom (of the Countess), one baronial realm (of Leofric), about a dozen knightly realms, plus twenty or so noble manors...

It is really hard to tell whose family Kewen Village belongs to...

Baron Leofric's willingness to run to take over the risk of Fort Valiant Shield probably meant that it was a bit of a hassle--it was quite difficult to collect taxes.

The manors of the great nobles cannot collect taxes, and in order to evade taxes, those free people may 'suddenly become' tenant farmers of those noble manors at any time, and the boundaries are often unclear.

On the contrary, the countess, since she sold those manors, she is more familiar and can distinguish them better, so it is relatively easier for her to handle the taxes of Kewen Village than for Baron Leofric.

"Your Excellency Li Ang, although Kewen Village is so big, I estimate that the agricultural tax that can be collected is only about [-] to [-] pounds of winter wheat. After removing the daily expenses of my manor, and leaving some grain and reserves, there is not much left... ..."

The countess sighed and shook her head: "Noble manors do not pay agricultural taxes, and there are not many farmers who really belong to Kewen Village. Baron Leofric only collected more than 4 pounds last year, even his His subordinates can’t even support him. So he would rather not have Kewen’s taxes, but go to Castle of Valor.”

The lord also sighed, this is very troublesome.

Noble manors do not pay agricultural taxes, so there must be surplus food, but it is not easy to talk about buying food for dozens of families.

Wholesale has changed to retail, and you have to find a way to transport it, which is a big head.

Moreover, the harvest of each of the dozens of manors is not too much. After a rough calculation, they will definitely say like the countess that there is not much left.

But the countess is indeed willing to help. She sent people to various aristocratic manors to ask if they could help Li Ang purchase them, but this would not be completed in a short period of time, and the exact quantity was uncertain.

"Your Excellency Li Ang, come with me, this matter will probably take a few days, and you can taste the wine in my estate by the way."

There is no way, although it is troublesome, at least it is a bit off-putting, and there is a local snake to help, so I can only wait here for a while.

At least the Countess's wine was really good.

……

On the other side, the Changhe Town Administrative Office.

Amy is talking about purchasing business.

She originally planned to find the Duke of Alma, but the Duke returned to Lion Lake City, and the person who received her was the son of the Duke of Alma—his own son, Fawcett Horton.

Perhaps Grand Duke Alma is also a nameless...

Look at the names of their two sons, the biological son is called Forster, the illegitimate son is called Fischer, it is easy to confuse at first glance...

Lord Fawcett is now the lord of Ermined Village, which is a subordinate village of Changhe Town and the nearest 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 Ermined, apparently intending to completely control Changhe Town.

Lord Fawcett is still very kind to Amy. After all, if you want to count seriously, Amy can also be regarded as a princess-the princess's daughter, in fact, can also be called a princess (all called Princess).

However, as soon as Amy mentioned food, Fawcett immediately changed the subject by rambling.

"Your Excellency Fawcett, how much harvest can the wheat fields in Changhe Town have..."

"Ah, Miss Amy, the wheat fields in spring are very suitable for traveling. This reminds me of the first time I saw you last spring..."

Basically, it's just playing the piano against the cow... The conversation between the two is not on the same channel at all.

Fawcett did not respond to a word of official business, purely awkward chat.

But 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!"

Fawcett still seemed to have a thick skin, seeing that the two had no common language, he actually jumped out of this sentence directly.

This is actually not a surprising situation - Fawcett was also a member of the Knights of the Lion.

Many young lion knights have thoughts about themselves, of course Amy can see it...

If we talk about separate conditions, Fawcett's conditions are actually very good.

He is the heir to the first duke of the kingdom, with a big family and a great career; he has received the strictest education and is quite talented; he leads the family's elite cavalry unit, and his skills are very good; in addition, he is also quite handsome...

There are not many young people who are rich and powerful, capable of both civil and military skills, and good-looking.

But the problem is that Amy doesn't like these noble knights, and she is not an ordinary noble girl—how could it be an ordinary girl who is interested in swordsmanship and deception...

Therefore, she directly took Fawcett's intentions as air: "I'm sorry, Mr. Fawcett, I don't intend to talk about these topics..."

But at this time, Fawcett brought up Amy's demand again: "Aren't you going to buy food? I can show you my sincerity - I can supply you with 30 catties 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 run amok, and completely treat women as a commodity.

So Amy frowned and got up and left, and said a dirty word that she just learned from the lord: "Let your sister respond to you!"

Amy didn't swear at first, 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 spoken a lot more in the past few days.

Unexpectedly, this swear word caused her a lot of trouble - Fawcett's face changed drastically, he closed the door and blocked the door.

"Amy! Are you spying on me? You have spies by my side!?"

Amy is stupid, what's going on?
Is this a casual swear word that hits the truth?
I know that the homes of these great nobles are relatively chaotic, but I didn't expect to encounter them like this...

The rule of not swearing among nobles seems to come from the painful experience of the predecessors, not out of etiquette...

This is the administrative office of Changhe Town, the official office.

Amy didn't bring the Mettenheim people into 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 Fawcett, who was blocking the door with a grim face, took a step back, and put her hand on the hilt of her waist.

"Get out of the way, Fawcett, I don't know what you're talking about!"

But Fawcett had already frowned, pulled out his sword, and his eyes showed a dangerous light.

"Amy, you actually know this... I don't want to be like this, but you can't leave here now!"

Amy also drew out her sword. She knew that she was definitely not Fawcett's opponent, but looking at the situation now, Fawcett probably wanted to detain her.She wasn't going to let it go.

"Fawcett, think about it carefully, if something happens to me with you, what will happen!"

Amy bowed slightly, holding a sword in both hands in a defensive posture.

Fawcett's eyes were uncertain. After hesitating for a long time, he changed his face, put away the sword in his hand, and opened the door.

Amy ran out quickly, ran all the way outside the administrative hall, called Klose who was waiting outside, and planned to leave Changhe Town quickly.

She felt that it might be dangerous for her to stay here.

But just a few steps away, she stopped again.

She saw Fawcett coming out of the gate of the administrative hall. The lord had been staring at her, and the entourage beside him was holding a horn in his hand.

On the opposite side of the administrative hall is the garrison camp.

The encampment flew the banner of Duke Alma, and there may have been thousands of troops garrisoned there.

And a cavalry team of at least 200 people wore Fawcett's four-sword coat of arms, which was just 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 went to the deserted wilderness, it would be really troublesome...

In Changhe Town, Fawcett did not dare to do anything - Fawcett could not let anything happen to Amy, and did not dare to detain Amy publicly.

Otherwise, not only Baron Godric will kill him, maybe even King Ulrik will kill him, and a large-scale civil war may even break out in the kingdom.

Amy's mother was a princess after all.

But if you leave Changhe Town and go to the plains and wilderness, a dozen or so swordsmen probably won't be able to stop two hundred cavalrymen, and they won't even be able to run away.

In some unknown place, Klose and the others were silenced, and then Amy was arrested. No one would know that he did it.

Maybe it can still be said to be a bandit...

Even Fawcett's cavalry may not know exactly who they are killing - these cavalry from Lion Lake City certainly don't know Amy.

Anyway, after studying with the lord for more than two months, Amy has been able to consider these situations.

So Amy didn't go out of town.

She thought of the way the lord would solve the siege of White Hart Castle.

"Klose...follow me and line up the line."

Amy said calmly: "Let's go kidnap!"

Klose nodded.

He didn't know what kidnapping Amy was talking about, but his advantage was that he would do it even if he didn't understand.

Afterwards, Amy looked back at Fawcett contemptuously, rode on her horse, and walked in line towards the main castle inside Changhe Town.

When a dozen or so Mettenheimers marched in the middle of the road in a neat line, the hunky male guards with an average height of over 1.9 meters looked quite energetic.

There is no such a strong guard of honor around the king...

It was obvious that this little girl had an unusual status, so everyone on the road gave way to both sides of the road.

A businessman has already recognized that this is Lord Godric's daughter, as well as Klose and the others, and is waving to them.

Fawcett looked at Amy with a livid face. He didn't expect Amy to go out of the city, and deliberately ostentatiously.

Seeing her heading towards the main castle, Fawcett gritted his teeth and followed with a dozen followers.

(End of this chapter)