High Above

  Chapter 659 Noble Award

  Everything that the old tax collector said is reasonable. Rather, he really saw through Ian's plan. It's no wonder that the old Baron Ryan has been a tax collector until today.

  But just because some smart people speak the truth doesn't mean that some people like to listen.

  Most people in this world are not willing to listen to the right words.

  —Old Farr, it doesn't matter if you earn enough, we don't earn enough!

   "Maybe they are planning to hit us?"

A female tax official said that she was the eldest daughter of the Doyle family: "The other party is a lord of an alchemist. Spit out part of the money you took... It's not difficult, and everyone can feel at ease after paying some money."

"That's right." The other tax officials also echoed, "Where are these noble lords really in charge? Especially the alchemists, now I guess they just need to rectify their finances, so that they don't have money to let him do experiments... Wait now This momentum is over, we send a large number of thalers, maybe it will be business as usual?"

   This remark caused a burst of laughter. Obviously, this situation has happened many times in Terra, and it does not make these people feel novel.

   "But I still feel uncomfortable."

A middle-aged tax official sighed: "Everyone has worked hard for so long for Lai'an, and then they were fired suddenly—this new lord really doesn't treat us as human beings, and casually wiped out our life's hard work. !"

  Hearing the words, everyone's complexion suddenly changed—don't everyone, just you!

  Everyone is just unemployed and came here to get together and drink some delicious water, but they didn't plan to talk about the decision of the Lord's Mansion!

  This lord is a ruthless character who sees you upset when he talks to you, and burns your head with a gun... Even though he looks young and beautiful, he is also a poisonous flower with thorns.

  Don't splash blood on me!

  Because of the nonsense of those without emotional intelligence, the gathering of unemployed tax officials broke up unhappy. The old tax official shook his head and left with a pipe in his mouth, and the last one to leave was the Ross family tax official who complained the most.

  After the former left the tavern, he went directly to the city hall—the first batch of new tax collectors registered for the exam today. He originally wanted to help these young people who had worked with him, but he didn't expect any of them to be useless.

  In this case, it is better to go home and prepare the test materials after registration.

  The latter is going to buy some wine from another black wine shop that sells alcohol privately to relieve the depression in his heart.

   But on the way, the tax collector of the Rose family suddenly met a cobbler who seemed to have nothing out of the ordinary.

He still knows this cobbler. He seems to be an honest man who moved here a few years ago. He has been working diligently and found a local wife. The child is two years old. The craftsmanship is quite good. She made a bearskin coat for him. .

   "Nick, what's the matter?" He said, "Going to have a drink too?"

   "Yeah, quite depressing."

  The cobbler known as Nick smiled, and he said: "Master Lauren, what's going on, it seems that you are not in a good mood?"

"Don't talk about it. Isn't it all orders from our new lord?" Speaking of this, Lauren was full of depression. He shook his head and walked to the dark wine shop deep in the alley with the other party: "To tell you the truth, I'm not a tax collector anymore..."

  The two came to the basement of the alley and drank two bottles of ale mixed with water. The atmosphere became warm, and Lauren began to vent his depression.

  He didn't dare to complain about Ian, but he didn't notice the flickering eyes of this honest 'cobbler', but he couldn't stop asking about the details, the process of the tax collector's meeting.

  After knowing what the tax official and the family behind him thought of Ian, he left the place on the pretext of having no money.

  The Flameland spy returned to his home and released an unremarkable gray carrier pigeon. After flapping its wings a few times, it went out of the city along the street, rushed into the forest, and flew to the distance at low altitude.

   On the roof of the building farther away, three soldiers of the White People watched this scene with binoculars.

   "Catch now?"

A soldier said, and the captain shook his head: "The little elder (Ian) said that the information of Le'an City will be leaked as soon as it is leaked, and it is really useless to pass false information at critical moments. You can wait until you need it." kill."

   "There is no need to do anything now, just make a watch list."

   "Yeah." The young soldier nodded, and he couldn't help feeling a little emotional: "How did the little elder know that the other party is a spy? If we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, I couldn't believe that the honest cobbler was actually a spy of Feiyan!"

"Have you ever heard of 'The Prophet of Thunder'?" The captain showed off. He once drove the magnetic storm armor to follow Ian to raid the mountain people's position, and now he has a chance to brag: "Our little The elder has a lot of means, who knows if his spiritual power can see through people's movements? He is just like a real prophet!"

   "In short, if there is anything, just do it, he must have a way!"

  The name of the prophet Jiang Lei has begun to spread from the mouths of the mountain people and the residents of Lai'an to the outside world.

   Some people have begun to call Ian 'our prophet lord'.

This can be regarded as one of Ian's strategies. After all, he knows very well that sooner or later he will reveal the truth about his psychic abilities... and although this name is fake, the language is so wonderful, nicknames and pronouns, as well as the actual facts , will indeed gradually become blurred, making people forget their differences.

  By then, they will take it for granted.

   As for the dissatisfaction of the tax collector and the family behind it, Ian could have fully anticipated it.

   But he doesn't mind that. Because, as the old tax official said, Ian didn't stop these seasoned guys from taking the exam—as long as they can pass the written test, interview, and 'background check', he certainly doesn't mind hiring these seasoned guys again.

  If they are willing to pass on their experience as tax officials as 'teachers', then Ian welcomes them even more.

   There may be no shortage of other things in the territory, but as many 'teachers' really need as much as they have.

   While the tax collectors were complaining, the construction of Leonland was in full swing.

  A week after the war, the dilapidated city of Laian was almost completely new.

  Even the northwestern urban area, which had been built with a lot of fortifications and magnetic storm coils, was almost ruined by the shelling of the mountain people, and now only the towers of the magnetic storm coils remain.

  According to Ian’s original plan, these towers would also be demolished, but local residents said that these coils gave them a strong sense of security, so they were not demolished in the end.

   And Ian simply built a "Tianlei Square" on the original site of the ruins with the magnetic storm coil as the center. As a commemoration of the victory of the counterattack, it has also become a good place for local residents to hang out in their leisure time.

   In addition, Ian invited a group of craftsmen from Nauman City, and asked them to repair Baron Ryan's castle, and refurbish the damaged parts inside and out.

  In general, it is to completely eliminate the shadow of Baron Ryan in this ancient castle, and turn it into a structure that Ian himself is used to.

  Although the craftsmen often accidentally found some bones and weird body remains during the renovation process, most likely they were left over from the experiments of the baron and those psychic children, but after all, Ian gave them confidence, so they were not too afraid.

  The brand-new lord's mansion is already under construction, and recently, Ian has been living in the city hall to handle government affairs.

   And his busy work is also very simple - to buy food.

  Buy all kinds of food.

  The food shortage in Nanling will continue until next year's autumn harvest. Without food, the leaders will not be able to work steadily.

Even if Ian sent a whole convoy of food, it only met the needs of Lai'an City. Apart from Lai'an City, there are twelve towns and villages in the entire territory, and they can't ignore it. .

So Ian relied on the channel of Boyin Workshop to place a large order to buy low-priced grain in the Quinol Plain—this time, he planned to directly purchase about 1,000 tons of various grains, about half of which were staple foods, and the other half It is soybeans, potatoes and various tubers, and a considerable amount of animal fat.

  These grains add up to about 2,500 talers. It sounds like a lot, and it took up one-fifth of Ian's remaining savings, but in fact, there are quite a lot of discounts.

   You know, even if there is no food disaster, the food in Nanling usually costs close to 3,000 talers.

  Of course, a thousand tons is not much, but this is only the first batch of orders. Before implementing the new agricultural reform, Ian will have enough reserves to deal with possible failures.

In addition, he also disclosed all the orders of the city hall to the public, and even asked the staff to go out to hang up notices-Ian just wanted to let everyone know that there is food and money in the territory, as long as they are willing to work, a bite of food is indispensable .

  Because Ian did bring a whole food team back, no one doubted the authenticity of the order—everyone felt at ease now.

  In addition, Ian also contacted the Yinfang Chamber of Commerce and purchased a large number of construction materials from his old acquaintance, Mr. Yinfang.

   "Ian, what are you going to do?"

Mr. Yinfang couldn't help but turn red when he heard that the young man ordered high-quality building materials that were enough to rebuild an entire block, and the raw materials alone cost more than two thousand talers—this kind of large-scale business is not common, but in order to prevent young people from just Impulsive, he still had to persuade: "If you plan to rebuild the lord's mansion, I don't think you need so much money, and the alchemy laboratory is not in a hurry..."

   "Not really."

  Ian didn't explain too much: "Mr. Yinfang, I hope you can help me find a group of reliable and skilled craftsmen who can build some unconventional buildings and tools, and can sign a confidentiality contract."

   "Is that so?" Mr. Yinfang narrowed his eyes. Ian's proposal was actually very excessive, but he believed that the boy would never give such a condition for no reason.

  He must have some brand new invention or plan.

   "That's fine." The old man said: "By the way, congratulations, 'Messenger of the Dragon God'."

   "What congratulations?" Hearing Mr. Yinfang's slightly humorous congratulations, Ian couldn't help but also smiled—the other party is also a member of the Dragon Worship Cult, so of course he knew the set of arguments discussed by Ian and Elder Manya.

   "Of course it's your official nobility award." As one of the communication bridges between the Dragon Cult and the Lord's Mansion of Nauman City, Mr. Yinfang is well informed: "As far as I know, the letter of commission for Nauman City is already on the way."

   "Then again, Ian, since you have become a nobleman, do you plan to regain the name of the Ceharolvo family, or do you plan to start from scratch and set a new surname?"

   This is a good question. Ian thought about it and felt that he didn't care about it at all, so it was difficult to make a decision.

  Since this is the case, then please contact Elder Purdue.

  (end of this chapter)