Lord Chronicle

Chapter 7 Hunger or Robber?

A few days later, the much-anticipated auction finally began.Saul worked hard according to the standard procedures, issued a number plate to each bidder, and made a detailed product introduction and distributed it to everyone.Even at his insistence, the sweet-looking Marlene acted as an auction girl. For each product, she would walk around the venue holding a small model or album.The charm of the beauty is really extraordinary, at least the atmosphere in the auction room has been kept boiling.

Sol originally wanted to find a nurse to mix in with the crowd and secretly raise the price to make a fortune.However, there were no suitable candidates in the territory, and everyone had some doubts about the auction for the first time. Doing too much would have the opposite effect, so he finally dismissed this idea.

In order to show importance, Sol personally presided over this auction. It was the first time for everyone to experience this new way of buying and selling, and they all felt the novelty.

"5 gold coins for the first time...second time...third time...deal!"

As expected, the waterwheel and the water mill were taken away by the most powerful representative of the Bahraini collar.When they called out the sky-high price of 5 gold coins, everyone gasped, and no one dared to compete with them.

Although the price is high, the Bahrain Territory is the largest agricultural territory in the kingdom, and they will definitely make a profit if they buy it back, not to mention that they can make products and sell them to others.Seeing Sol solemnly handing over the detailed design drawings to the representative of the Bahrain collar, all the participants were jealous.

Reed was so excited that he almost fainted, 5 gold coins, according to the agreement between him and Saul, he will get 2500 gold coins.However, you can earn such a huge sum of money just by running errands, and there is indeed a lot of "money" in mixing with the lord.

The most eye-catching waterwheel was photographed, and the atmosphere on the scene cooled down, but the manufacturing technology of folding tables and chairs still aroused a lot of interest from everyone. After some competition, a businessman successfully bought it for 8000 gold coins.

And the three golden umbrellas were also very popular. In the end, the three representatives of Bahrain, Paige and Masdi were divided up, and each family paid a high price of 600 gold coins.The two representatives except the Bahrain Territory were secretly happy. Dedicating this thing to the lord's wife would surely escape the punishment of not completing the task.

So far, the auction has come to a successful conclusion, and everyone is happy.That night Sol hosted a banquet in honor of all the participating businessmen and representatives, and actively carried out goodwill diplomacy, promising those businessmen who returned empty-handed that they would give priority to taking care of them if they had new inventions in the future.Never before in Lovell's history had so many people of status gathered together, Vince, who had been invited, felt very relieved, and felt that it was a wise decision to welcome the young master back to the territory.

After the banquet, in the study of the lord's mansion, Lovell's first comprehensive meeting after Thor succeeded to the throne was held.The participants included Jessica, Reed, Manson, Kress, and representatives of merchants and craftsmen in the territory.

Saul first handed over the promised reward to Reed in a high-profile way. Seeing the 2500 heavy gold coins handed over to him, several businessmen who were not selected at the beginning were all very annoyed, and Reed laughed so hard that he couldn't see his eyes. .

Following Sol, he took out thousands of gold coins and rewarded them for meritorious deeds. This time, everyone who worked hard got a share, and the owners of several blacksmith shops were even richer for their contribution to assisting Manson.He is so generous with money, just to establish the confidence of everyone, let them know that it is only beneficial to follow him, and lay the foundation for the implementation of a series of plans in the future.

Real gold coins are the best catalyst. When everyone is holding gold, no one doubts Sol's ability anymore.At this time, even if Sol said that he was a god, they would probably believe it.

After the joy, Saul began to implement the next plan.He said to Reed: "The gold coins are in hand, but we can't be satisfied with this. In fact, there is still a lot of work waiting for us to do. Reed, I hope you will set off tomorrow. In name, you will bring craftsmen to help the Balin collar make waterwheels. But your real job is to go out and do the shopping."

"Your lord, just give orders." At this time, Reed was unequivocal.

"Well, I will give you 2 gold coins. You have to use the contacts you have established this time to purchase a batch of high-quality weapons and protective gear for the territory at the lowest possible price. In addition, you also need to buy a large number of high-quality ores, and Some of the pig iron, and some materials urgently needed by the territory, Jessica will give you a list later. I will let a few people go with you, and you can teach them more, so that you can share your burden."

These people are relatives of the sons of several shop owners in the territory.Sol asked them to follow Reed, but he didn't mean to monitor them. It's just that if Reed keeps monopolizing the financial power, it will cause dissatisfaction with others sooner or later, and it can be regarded as a balancing measure to support them.With the development of the territory's economy in the future, there will be more and more opportunities to do business, and it is true that Reed cannot be relied on alone. This can be regarded as cultivating talents in advance.

How could Reed not know this, he agreed without even thinking about it, and the shopkeepers beside him who had been hanging for a long time finally let go of their hearts and nodded secretly.The last trace of jealousy disappeared without a trace.

After the merchants left, Sol asked Manson to continue building items for the territory after the ore arrived, and to guide the blacksmiths in their forging techniques.Sol is not satisfied with buying everything, no amount of money is enough. His dream is to build his own craftsman team one day.

Manson naturally agreed. For him, he received unprecedented attention in Lovell.Not only are there always fresh things to create, but also generous remuneration, so that one's own value can be brought into full play.Is there anything more pleasant in life than satisfying the founding nature and earning a lot of money?
Thor finally asked about the security situation in Kress's territory, and told him to be careful, the adventurer's guild's revenge would come at any time.At this moment, Kress admired him as the lord so much, he repeatedly patted his chest and agreed.

However, he said worriedly: "At this time of the year, the activities of monsters in the mountains will be frequent, going down the mountain to steal crops and attack livestock. In previous years, the Adventurer's Guild would take advantage of this time to catch them intensively. Without them this year, it may be difficult to rely on the garrison alone." To deal with so many monsters. Yesterday, when the two brothers of the Maya family were working in the field, they were bitten by a horned wolf, and now everyone is very worried."

Sol held his head in distress and said: "Is there any mistake? People come to make trouble, and Warcraft is not idle. Everything will wait for Reed to buy back the materials. You let the hunters in the town not have to go hunting in the mountains. Set up more traps outside the town, deal with them temporarily, and Jessica will replenish them for the losses."

At the same time, he thought to himself that it would be much easier to let Manson get the wire out.But this is a technical job, let's wait until Lovell's own technical team is trained.

Sol discussed some things with them again, and the crowd dispersed.

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When the procurement team led by Reed set off the next day, Sol held on to his hand and urged him to save money as much as possible. The money was hard to come by, and he managed to earn more than 6 gold coins, one-third of which was removed at one time. one.

Seeing Huahua's gold coins being sent out, Sol couldn't help but feel distressed. He finally knew how important the piles of numbers in the game are.His earnest appearance is like a loving mother sending her son on a long journey.

After sending Reed away, Sol devoted himself to the construction of the territory. The crops are ripe and need to be harvested in time to prevent them from being ruined by monsters; many houses in the town need to be repaired; and they have to organize the sale of herbs collected by the residents. An important annual income; in addition, you have to guard against the Adventurer's Guild...

"Ahhh, you're so busy!" Many times, Thor's howl would be heard unexpectedly in the lord's mansion.

But what should come will come after all.On the seventh day after Reed left, Sol organized the owner of the pharmacy to purchase herbal medicines, and after a busy day put them in the warehouse, he was exhausted.

He had just climbed into the bed and hadn't slept for three hours when he was awakened by the noise outside.Getting up in a daze, Marlene ran in just as she saw a red light in the center of the town.

"Master Saul, it's bad, some robbers have entered the town."

"Bandit!?" Sol was shocked and got up quickly.

"Someone set fire to the town, and the garrison on duty rushed over, just in time to see a group of sneaky guys trying to escape. They fled quickly, and we didn't catch any of them. Kress led people to chase them into the mountains gone."

Jessica also came in and briefly explained the situation to Saul.Compared with Sol, who is still in a daze and disheveled, she is much more capable.The clothes are neat and energetic, and the rapier that Saul bought from Manson as a gift to her is slung around her waist, and she looks heroic.

What are you doing, come during the day, it doesn't make you sleep comfortably.Complaining irresponsibly in his heart, Sol rubbed his sleepy eyes, hurriedly undressed and followed Jessica out.

A garrison named Brown has been waiting outside.Jessica asked, "How's the situation?" As she spoke, she stretched her elbow and bumped into Sol, who was viciously yawning, and the muscles on his face twitched in pain.

After giving Saul and Jessica a strange look, Brown replied, "The grain warehouse was set on fire. Fortunately, the grain was not transported in after the harvest, and only an empty house was burned. The captain has led people to chase it."

Glancing at each other, Sol and Jessica were secretly glad that if the fire burned the food, it would cause a lot of panic.Rubbing the sore spot, Saul asked, "Is anyone hurt? What did these robbers steal?"

Brown shook his head and said, "No, we arrived in time, and they fled before they could grab anything."

Sol nodded, and said to Jessica: "Go, go and have a look at the scene." At the same time, he felt something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was.

When the three arrived at the scene of the fire, the fire had been extinguished, half of the grain warehouse was burned, and the scorched gap stared at the surrounding firefighters like a big deformed eye.The warehouse is no longer available.

"Lord." Seeing Thor, the vice-captain Pochi hurried over.

"Do you know where the robbers came from?" Jessica asked in a low voice.

Boqi shook his head: "Lowell is very poor, and there are many monsters in the surrounding mountains, so there have been no robbers. I don't know where this group of people came from tonight. Everyone is very strange."

Surprised, Thor immediately thought, could it be someone from the Adventurer's Guild?It is indeed very possible that the other party pretended to be a robber to set fire, and then used the advantage of capturing monsters before and being familiar with the terrain in the mountains to escape.

Pulling over Jessica and Pochi, Sol whispered, "This is most likely done by the Adventurer's Guild, so please keep quiet now, so as not to cause everyone to panic. If you have anything to say, wait until Kress returns."

Jessica and Pochi nodded in understanding and walked away.Since only an empty warehouse was burned, the residents who heard the news were not much moved, but the news that the robbers had stolen in made everyone a little worried, but under Jessica's comfort, it did not cause much trouble.

At this moment, Buck, a farmer who lives in the west of the town, suddenly ran over, "It's not good, my lord, a group of people took advantage of everyone's going to the town to fight the fire, and secretly dumped the wheat piled on the edge of the field." Move away and escape into the mountains!"

"What!?" For a moment, everyone present was stunned.

After 10 minutes, looking at the field with only a piece of wheat grass left, Sol was speechless in a daze.This field was harvested by Jessica two days ago, and all the wheat was packed and piled in a few straw sheds beside the field, and it hadn't been put into storage yet.Now the huts are empty, with only a layer of wheat grains on the ground.

Just now I was still thankful that the food was not burned, but it was stolen in a blink of an eye.The wheat here is almost 300 catties, accounting for one-fifth of the town's grain for the past six months.It was possible to transport them all away in such a short period of time, and there were at least [-] people on the other side, plus those who set fire to the town to make trouble, the entire gang of "robbers" was unexpectedly huge beyond imagination.

In fact, the grain reserves of each family plus the reserve grain of the territory, the loss of these grains is not a big problem.But what was troublesome was the chain reaction caused by the food being stolen. Now the blind man knew that a huge group of thieves had quietly approached Lovell, and all the residents present were talking about it, and the situation was getting out of hand.

Knowing that this situation cannot continue, Sol jumped onto a mound and said loudly: "Listen everyone, Kress has led people to chase those robbers, and we will definitely catch them. Please don't worry about the food. , I will send people to buy food outside the territory, and I will definitely not let everyone go hungry this year."

Vince who came over after hearing the news also said: "Yes, everyone, don't panic. Although Lovell is poor, he hasn't been hungry for many years. Now the young master will not let everyone have nothing to eat. Everyone go back."

After all, Sol now has some prestige, and with Vince added, everyone was finally persuaded and gradually dispersed.

Judging from all signs, the other party does not seem to belong to the Adventurer's Guild, because it is impossible for them to have so many people.And grabbing food is of no use to them.What is the background of the other party?Really a robber?A bandit who goes down the mountain to grab food?
The many questions made Sol feel a headache, damn, even if this is regarded as a game, there are too many emergencies, right?In a dilemma, Kress and others who went out to chase people finally came back.

"Did you find anything?" Jessica went up to her and asked.

Kress shook his head: "The other party is as flexible as a monkey and familiar with the terrain in this area. We were quickly thrown away. But I found this halfway." He took out a dagger.

This dagger is about two feet long, and the workmanship is very good. When you hold it in your hand, you can feel a chilly air coming out of your body.There is a small bat crest on the hilt of the dagger, which looks rather weird.

Seeing the dagger, Jessica showed a horrified expression on her face: "This is it!?"

Sol leaned over his head, secretly thinking that it was just a dagger, is it worth such a fuss.He took it and looked it over and over again, and murmured: "It's just a little sharper, why are you so weird?"

Unexpectedly, when these words came out, everyone looked at him like a monster, and it took a long time for Boqi to explain: "My lord, don't be joking, this is the special dagger of the famous 'Night Shadow Troop' of the Lulin Empire. "

Only then did Sol realize that he had just said something stupid again.As a close neighbor of the Dinar Kingdom, the Lulin Empire has always been the kingdom's mortal enemy, and the two sides have fought continuously for hundreds of years for territorial expansion.I am a dignified lord, and I have also studied at Almuk College, so it is strange that I don't recognize the opponent's weapons.

"Night Shadow Troop" is a rather mysterious army in the Lulin Empire army. Legend has it that all soldiers in the army have received professional thieves training and are proficient in assassination and stealth skills. They specialize in collecting intelligence and sneaking into other countries to assassinate noble officials.As soon as they were mentioned, I don't know how many people turned pale, so they got the title of "Night Shadow".

"Ahaha, how could I not recognize it? It's just that the atmosphere is too dignified. I'm just kidding." Sol hurriedly shouted, trying to hide it.

Fortunately, I was shocked by Kress's discovery, and no one really pursued it.Passing the dagger back and forth, everyone's face was solemn. At this moment, everyone had only one thought: Has the Lulin Empire invaded Lowell?

In fact, as the westernmost territory of the kingdom, Lovell and the Lulin Empire are only separated by a western mountain range, and the two can be said to be close neighbors.But just because the western mountains were separated, neither side could reach the other side, and it would be a big joke to lead an army over the western mountains. Therefore, the Lord Lovell never worried about this issue.The conflict between the two kingdoms in the west only happened occasionally in the relatively peaceful Silwo Plain.

However, it is one thing for a large army to enter, and it is another thing for a small-scale "Night Shadow Troop" to sneak in.If the other party is as magical as the legend says, it is not impossible to cross the western mountain range.

Thinking of this possibility, everyone couldn't help but feel chills in their hearts. After all, the territory has improved under the leadership of Master Sol. Are they going to face the enemy's invasion immediately?If a war breaks out, Lovell, with a population of less than 2, may not even have a chance to resist, and will be crushed to pieces.

Swallowing his saliva, Kress said with difficulty: "What should we do now?"

Jessica was silent for a while, and said decisively: "It's too dangerous, organize everyone to evacuate immediately."

As soon as these words came out, everyone was in a hurry, and Pochi was about to take someone to the town to inform the matter.Seeing that everyone seems to have been frightened by the "Night Shadow Troop" of the very Laozi, Sol can't laugh or cry.

"Stop!" He yelled as he stepped in front of everyone.

"I said, you don't have to be afraid of this, right? Think about it calmly, if the night shadow army really came, why did they only steal food, didn't hurt anyone, and didn't attack Kress who was chasing them? A dagger It can’t explain anything at all, if the other party is just a group of hungry people stealing food, but we are scared to run away, this embarrassment is too great? I, the lord, will also be laughed at by my peers.”

His words made everyone calm down. Indeed, if you think about it carefully, there are too many doubts in it.A guard whispered: "Maybe they came to steal food because they ran out of food when they climbed the mountain."

Boqi immediately retorted: "If that's the case, they can just rush in and grab it. Why do they have to do so many tricks. Besides, the Yeying troops won't make such low-level mistakes of scaring the snake away."

Jessica said affirmatively: "Indeed, we can't jump to conclusions about whether it's the Yeying army or not. But it's definitely not the hungry people. Let's not say that the hungry people are not so capable, and where did so many people come from?"

Seeing that everyone was finally willing to calm down and think about the problem, Thor breathed a sigh of relief.He yawned: "Anyway, this matter must be investigated carefully, and the news must not be leaked to the town. The body is the capital of the revolution. After you have a rest, you can take care of these thieves slowly."

After saying that, he ignored everyone's astonished gazes, and leisurely went back to sleep.

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The next day, Jessica urgently mobilized the residents to grab the remaining food, and sent a garrison team to guard day and night, and organized adult men to monitor the town and outside the town to strictly prevent the presence of bandits.Compared with this diligent and capable steward, Sol, who is a lord but only knows how to sit in a daze in the study, can be said to have no self-consciousness at all.

Even so, more than 1 catties of grain were confiscated within a few days.The other party seemed to be very aware of the emptiness of Lovell's defense. Unless they encountered the defense team, they would not be afraid at all when facing ordinary residents without weapons.

In this way, the shortcoming of the garrison team's scarcity of personnel is fully exposed. Often thieves are found on the other side, and when the team members rush over, this side has been looted.Several times of confrontation did not take advantage. Although the defensive players are highly skilled in martial arts, the opponent has many people, and the other never confronts them head-on.

Several times down, although several people were injured, but still did not catch a single person.In this way, the thieves stole a few livestock one day and robbed an orchard the next day. They used Lovell as a supermarket and took whatever they wanted. Fortunately, no ordinary residents have been hurt so far.

In the next half month, everyone was exhausted, and the whole town was turned into a lifeless place, and the doors and houses were closed at night, making it look like a dead city.Kress and Jessica tried their best, but they still couldn't stop it effectively.

Sol also had quite a headache. After observing these days, he can be sure that the other party is indeed a group of thieves, but the scale is too large.Moreover, this group of people seemed to be only interested in food, and rarely broke into houses to rob property. Their abnormal behavior made people very disturbed.

"Ahhh, is there any mistake? Could it be that these thieves are reincarnated from evil spirits? Why is my luck so bad, I always encounter strange things that are rare in a thousand years!" Sol yelled angrily.

(End of this chapter)