Knight of the Light

early morning.

Friedman Butch woke up from sleep on time. The servant maid climbed onto the velvet cushioned bed, took the ironed coat, and dressed him.

The jacket was hot on the stove, the hot water bottle was stuffed in the boots all night, and the gloves were hidden by the maid all night to ensure that the temperature was suitable for the patriarch the next day.

Every accessory on the clothes will be carefully managed, including the family crest, cuffs, and walking sticks. The maids are like workers on the assembly line, every movement is meticulous.

After completing the ritualization of the process of getting up, the tall and strong patriarch can stand at the window of the bedroom and overlook the whole city from the fifth floor of the city's main palace, which gives him a sense of control.

But this winter was particularly cold and somber.

The panorama of Banshee Castle is gray and black, and there are some ice particles remaining on the roofs of every household. Occasionally, some fireworks appeared from the chimneys and were quickly blown away by the cold wind. Pedestrians on the street walked hurriedly, squeezed their necks and kept walking.

Friedman's bedroom was warm as spring, but the cold wind outside the bedroom shook the windows. He could see several dead bodies lying on the street when he stood high. The cadaver pushed the cart and pryed the frozen beggar out of the ground.

It’s really ‘pry’.

It was too cold, and the corpses were frozen together with the ground. The corpse can't be grasped by hand, so he must take a iron brace to pry it. Only by prying can the body be carried onto the cart.

The corpse recipient's movements are slow, and his hands and feet are not very flexible. Every time he pryed, he would rest, take a breath, and stop for a while before taking the next step.

Every winter, Friedman can see the same scene in the bedroom window, every day. He even knew the corpse collector-a forty-something man in his forties, bent over and humbled, humble and humble, and did this work ten years ago.

Friedman occasionally asked his subordinates to give the corpse some food, but did not tell the other why. He likes to look at the corpse's panic and fear but is at a loss.

The nobleman has such an interesting connection with the bottom.

"Go give the poor guy some bread and give him a cup of hot water. I think he is almost frozen." Friedman called out to the maid and pointed to the corpses a few streets away.

The maid glanced at her and nodded.

Outside the bedroom, the family housekeeper had already waited. When he saw the patriarch walking out of the bedroom, he immediately notified him of important news. such as......

"His patriarch, there are currently thirteen large families in the Northland who have responded to your call to join forces with the trade blockade of Hanfengcheng. They also realized that they can no longer allow Victor Hugo to easily obtain supplies including food.

In addition, you hope that the proposal to form a coalition after the Spring Festival will also be widely endorsed. Five cities are currently sending messengers to discuss the coordination of unified actions.

According to your request, everyone no longer recruits useless serf soldiers, and instead dispatches at least half of the regular military force to fight. According to rough statistics, the coalition will have more than 300 wizards and 2,000 high-level knights. "

Hearing these figures, Friedman nodded his satisfaction. Judging from the battle six months ago, the poorly commanded soldiers couldn't deal with Victor Hugo. If he wanted to restrain him, he had to have high-end combat power.

Hanfeng City has put in a lot of grain in the past six months, and harvested a good harvest in spring and summer. Hugo is not short of grain now. Therefore, it is necessary to cut off the channels for outsourcing grain in the winter, and the other party who consumes the grain will cut off the grain next spring and force it to fight.

According to Friedman's good calculation, he simply defended this winter. Even if Hugo provoked proactively, he shrank in the city as if he could not see it.

After the spring, Friedman gathered enough strength in the north to gather in Banshee Castle, and took the gang of guys in the Principality of Oss together. He will personally supervise the army and supervise the war, without stopping along the way, directly into the cold wind city.

If you don't play with any unnecessary thoughts, you will just work hard. If necessary, the Buchi family will put on the bottom card and pull out the treasure of the town clan-Victor Hugo is too threatening. Without removing him, the north will not be peaceful.

"Is there any good news?" Friedman walked to his study in the city's main palace, where he would stay for a long time and deal with some accumulated affairs.

The butler followed closely, "Our own heavy-duty carriage broke the output of one hundred yesterday. The craftsmen all praised your brilliance and grateful to give them work again. I believe that by the spring of next year, we can get another hundred new cars. carriage."

Instead of speaking, Friedman was a little annoyed at the news. The heavy-duty wagon of Banshee Castle is imitated by Hanfeng City, and many of its components are directly produced by Hanfeng City Forging Yard.

This project was originally carried out in private by a group of nobles. After discovery, Friedman forcibly took it over to increase investment and expand production capacity. Although the imitation is far less portable than the original, it is regarded as technological progress and solves the problem.

But this output...

It's a lot to produce a hundred cars in half a year. It can be summarized according to the information of all roads. The number of original heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages of Hanfeng City has exceeded 1,000. Its total is still increasing rapidly.

The nobles in the North have a hundred horse-drawn carriages. They can’t figure out why they need thousands of horse-drawn carriages. Keeping thousands of coachmen and thousands of horses is also very expensive.

But the cold wind city alone had 500 heavy loads transporting coal in the voodoo swamp, and the rest was still running around in the territory. Cheap and convenient transportation brings intensive movement of people and materials.

In the eyes of the nobility, the leaders are all property and must be bound in a fixed area. Wouldn’t it be a mess to let them run around? But the cold wind city is a free man, Hugo doesn't matter at all, he can go wherever he wants.

Friedman understood the convenience of heavy carriages. But he can learn to imitate the carriage, but he can't learn the population management system of Hanfengcheng. If you really learn, his ruling foundation will collapse.

The Buchi family only needs about 500 heavy-duty carriages, and any more are completely useless and will not be useful.

Hanfeng City made another breakthrough in horse-drawn carriage technology, and made super-heavy six-wheeled carriages that stretched the car body to pull large-scale building wood of a dozen meters or two or three four-wheeled carriages in series to pull five or six tons of coal.

Transport capacity is still rising.

Every time he heard similar news, Friedman felt weird—the cold wind city had more and more new gadgets, and no one could say that he would never see something again tomorrow.

Not only haven't I seen it, but it also gives people a sense of rush, which is uncomfortable.

"Is there any other news?" Friedman sat in the study, knowing that there must be something bad behind the good news.

The butler stood at the large desk and bowed and whispered: "Some people in the family still have some complaints about the tax rate. In addition, the tax police team grabbed many caravans who tried to smuggle goods. The wizards in the city said they increased the tax rate of magic materials. Is absolutely wrong."

Friedman sounded angry and clapped the table and scolded: "Without raising the tax rate, how can the family have the money to pay salaries? There must be those stupid people behind the caravan smuggling goods.

As for magic materials, wouldn’t it be nice for the wizard to buy the goods of the Butcher family? What we sell is cheap. Why use enemy products? Every time they spend a gold coin, they will turn into magic missiles and hit our own heads. "

Listening to the patriarch's anger, the butler could only bow his head and stop talking. The internal interest issue is more complicated than the external contradiction. If it is not handled well, it is internal friction, which is more difficult than fighting.

This close-knit maid knocked on the door and walked into the study, whispering, "Your Excellency, following your orders, the house guard will deliver food to the corpses on the street.

But the security guard said back that the corpse recipient had just been frozen to death and fell to the side of the rickshaw carrying the body. The body was hard. "

Friedman froze for a moment, whispering, "Is it too late, is it too late?"