Lady of the Lord From the East

The first batch of refugees who were taken away was very few. No matter how eloquent Kingsley was, other people didn’t believe what he said, so the first time, Kingsley only brought back about 100 people from the western border. Come on, this number is tiny for thousands of refugees.

In fact, most of the refugees who were able to escape from their own countries to the border and have not died due to various reasons are prime-age laborers, with a small proportion of the elderly and children.

At the same time, it was precisely when they recruited that no matter how old or young they were, they didn't pick people's attitudes at all, but they made people feel more worried. Is there any conspiracy involved? After all, everyone knows that healthy and strong slaves are more valuable and easy to sell. Those who are too old and too young are not wanted. Generally, only if they have some craftsmanship, or if they are young but good-looking, or maybe the whole family sells them together, the elderly and children will appear.

So taking a group of Mr. Knights who are "the old, weak and sick" in the eyes of the refugees seems too suspicious.

They began to believe that he may not have come to deceive people and become slaves, but his behavior is still suspicious and deterrent. As long as there is some assurance that he can survive, he is not desperate, and people who are in a desperate situation will not follow him.

Kingsley, who had only taken a hundred people away, felt that he had not fulfilled the instructions given by the Earl, so in addition to taking away those people, he also left some people behind to continue recruiting people on the border.

Those people were holding His Majesty's hand letter, and there was Earl Williams behind them. Even the surrounding nobles did not dare to offend them easily, but they gave the refugees on the border a temporary respite, and no longer worried about the occasional accident. Someone came to arrest them.

But this is not a long-term solution. With more and more people on the border, it will almost become a leader of its own. If it goes on like this, not to mention other nobles, even the king will not sit idly by, and most likely will not send troops to drive them away. , is to really divide the place where these people gather as their own country.

However, everyone speculates that the latter is more likely. After all, the country next to Prady has perished, and the land is divided by other countries. What if they occupy a piece of unowned land, anyway, no one else I would even dare not come to seize this place at this time. They have been fighting all year round, but they can't compete with Prady in terms of national strength. That is to say, this king of Prady is not a war-loving person, and he has been busy wrestling with Romanov all these years. Fighting bravely, I didn't participate in that war, otherwise, maybe who swallowed who now.

Kingsley sent all the refugees he had recruited back to Sardinson, and he himself rushed back to answer orders and change the guard, taking only a few of his men by sea and land, while the others by land—by boat, but If you want to spend a lot of money, it is still calculated according to the head. Kingsley feels that even if the earl has money, he can't waste it like this, so he made this arrangement.

This caused Kingsley to return to Sardinson for a long time, and the refugee team was still dawdling on the road, and because of the situation he reported, Felix had already arranged people before these refugees arrived. Where to go - of course, to Sloth, where there are few people.

Originally, Felix didn't intend to recruit serfs at first. What he meant was that he would just give these people the status of free people, not for the sake of human rights, freedom and equality. He wanted to do this just out of his own consideration. The status may not sound as good as that of the freedmen, but in fact, as long as they meet a good lord, the life of the serfs is worse than that of the freedmen. Although they have to pay higher taxes than the freedmen, they have priority in renting the lord's land, Being sheltered by lords, and even becoming chief executives and many other privileges, nobles prefer to use serfs under their own names compared to free people, and among these serfs, there are many who have performed well, become aristocratic confidants, and even become knights people.

In fact, the early knights were not considered a privileged class, not only the descendants of nobles could become knights, but when they could call themselves knights as long as they gathered equipment, the proportion of serfs who became knights was higher than that of free people, because they mixed well. The serfs, the net worth is much higher than the free people.

Instead of Felix boasting, everyone knows that he is a good lord. The serfs under his hands are now living a good life, and the lords who were born freemen in the territory are envious of them. Many people can't wait to recommend themselves to be Of his serfs, of course he did not agree to one, because there were enough of them.

Therefore, he really doesn't really need serfs or something. After all, he has thousands of serfs under his control. These people are indeed easier to use than free people, but they also need him to support them. Felix refused to add any more to himself. burden.

But he is reluctant to throw away these ready-made populations. There is always a shortage of people in his territory, and the surrounding noble territories have long been dissatisfied with his behavior of always robbing people. Now everyone thinks about the free people in their territory. It has also improved their treatment to a certain extent, because they are afraid that these people will go to the Williams family's territory again and make their own territory empty.

So if he wants to recruit a large number of free people from other territories, it will naturally become difficult. He can only expect free people from other places farther away who can't survive because they can't survive. There are still relatively few such people, after all. If the distance is too far, those people have not seen the real appearance of Sardinson, and naturally they are more looking forward to going to other more prosperous areas.

Although the king agreed with him to send people to recruit those refugees from foreign countries, he did not agree with these people entering the country as free people. He was worried that there were spies sent by other countries among these people, and the free people could move freely in the country. Being restrained, even if it is a foreigner, as long as he pretends to be a Prady man, it is very convenient to inquire about the news, and he will not allow this, so Felix wants to recruit people, only serfs and slaves without freedom. He had to keep people in his territory and couldn't easily let them out of the county.

Of course, after becoming a serf, what to do is up to Felix himself, not even the king.

These 100 refugees thought they were serfs in name, but in fact they might be branded as slaves when they got there. It was sent to Sloth by the person who came first to convey the news, and then the configuration was disrupted. The family was placed in the serf fishing village living here, and the serf village chiefs of the two fishing villages were arranged. Responsible for the care and placement of them.

"It depends on whether you want to arrange for them to go out to sea with you to fish or farm. Anyway, I'll leave it to you."

These thousand local serfs in Slot, who were almost starved to death, are now all fat and strong. They can't see the sadness and despair of a year ago. Even an old man who is over fifty years old walks with Feng, everyone is busy doing things every day, whether it is fishing and drying salt or driving a hotel to sell all kinds of seafood to passing merchants, everyone has a smile on their faces and is full of enthusiasm, not tired at all, in the words of the old man , they have lived for so many years, there has never been a better time than now.

There is no resistance in the fishing village to the new batch of serfs. If they were not full before, they might have worried that the arrival of people would lead to insufficient food, but now, they only worry that there are not enough people who can do things, and they will not be able to do well. Completing more and more work, as long as the people who come are willing to work, they will not refuse. Anyway, when these serfs work, they eat a big pot of rice with the workers who repair the wharf. They have two meals a day. Special peasant women are in charge of cooking. As long as you take your own bowls and chopsticks to pick up the food at the time, you don’t have to bring a lot of food, but as long as you can eat it, you can continue to add it after eating a bowl. It used to be a lot thicker. Basically, people with smaller appetites can eat it in one bowl. Only those in the prime of life need to add gooey, and besides gooey, there are other side dishes. Because they live by the sea and eat by the sea. , in addition to the gooey meal at noon every day, they also have sea fish and other seafood to eat, and from time to time they add some meat, vegetables and fruits sent from other places, and the food is richer and more nutritious than before. People have grown a lot of meat.

And settling the new serfs is not a troublesome thing for them. After several months of repairs, the two fishing villages are no longer in their original shabby appearance, and there were many empty houses in their fishing villages. Although no one lives in those houses, whether it is out of nostalgia or planning to have a place to live in the future, the serfs have simply repaired these houses. Now that the new serfs have arrived, the village chief of the fishing village will place these people. Live in an empty house.

Those who had just turned from refugees to serfs, originally followed the **** team to Sloot tremblingly, and halfway died because of the original appointment from Sardinson to Sloot, thinking that things were really serious. They thought the same, those who recruited serfs were actually liars. They tricked them into being slaves or doing worse things. They didn’t know how bad it was, but they thought this kind of thing was the best thing for human beings to do. You are the scariest one.

When this group of people walked towards Slot, they all thought they were going to die, but when they got there, they realized that things were completely different from what they thought.

Without being pushed out to be branded as slaves as they thought, there was no worse thing they had in mind. Everyone was assigned and resettled in two fishing villages in a very ordinary way. Here are some shelters that can shelter from the wind and rain without leaking. The house can live in, there is food to fill their stomachs, and no one will whip them when they work. The serfs around them are not particularly enthusiastic but they are not repulsive. The hands-on communication, slowly, they also integrated into it, and they are no longer afraid every day.

After living for almost a month, these people never mentioned their former country again. They were quickly assimilated into the new environment, wearing the same clothes and eating the same food as the locals. His words and deeds are also getting closer to the serfs of Sloth. In addition to speaking with an excessive accent, he occasionally speaks the dialect of his original place of residence. There are almost no traces of the original.

And let go of their worries, the new serfs whose lives have improved naturally began to think about their original relatives and friends. At first, these people followed Kingsley because they didn't want to involve others, but since life is so good now, They naturally hope that their relatives and friends can also enjoy this peaceful life, although it is a bit hard, but peaceful and peaceful, without worrying about war and famine.

So some people ran to ask the village chief of the fishing village, saying that they hoped to go to the border to bring more people back.

And there was more than one person who proposed to go to the village chief to talk about this.

The reason why they brought it up so directly was because when they came from the border, they knew that Mr. Knight who bought them at that time left someone there to continue recruiting, and that group of refugees always fought and forcibly recruited them. The labor force in their family forced them to endure wars and famines, and the nobles who finally broke down did not like them, and naturally they would not easily believe in the recruitment of knights under the hands of a noble who had never heard of them.

So these people volunteered and said that they could go to the frontier to help the earl, let their relatives and friends know that life here is different from what they thought, not only not bad but also very good, so that they are willing to accept recruitment.

"With our actual example, they will definitely believe it, and they will definitely be willing to become the serf of the count."

This is indeed a good proposal, but of course the village chief cannot be the master, so he just relayed the requests of these people to the steward in charge of supervising them. The two lord knights of the knight squad in charge of patrolling will send someone back to inform the Count.

It was reported from one layer to the next, and finally Felix knew the wishes of these people. It happened that he was also having a headache about recruiting at the time, because the king wrote him a letter not long ago, reminding him that soon, he would The border has sent troops. If he can't take people away from his side, then there will be no chance after that.

The reason why the king was willing to tell him before he started was not only because of what he had promised, but also because half of the several noble territories near the western border belonged to Duke Romanov, and even his own territory was there. However, under the instigation of Romanov, there are more and more nobles who want to take the land and bring those people, even the king can’t keep pressing this area. The matter is not dealt with, so he also hopes that Felix can get all the people away, so that even if they get the land, there will be a shortage of people to cultivate, even if the land is finally taken by the Duke of Romanov, it is only a matter of time. There is just an extra piece of useless place. If he wants to operate, he has to relocate the population to the past. At the same time, he will also be responsible for the scope of the border, which can weaken the power of some Romanov Dukes.

Of course, if Felix can't recruit everyone and take them away, then the king will change his strategy. Even if he doesn't get the land, he will drive everyone out. Anyway, Duke Romanov can't be cheap.

Obviously, because of Andrew's previous marriage, the relationship between the king and Duke Romanov has become more and more rigid, to the point that even if it hurts others and not oneself, it has to cheat the other party.

And Felix, who received the letter, is also having a headache. He himself is very willing to bring everyone back to Sardinson. Although thousands of people sound like a lot, his Slot is still empty, let alone settle in. Thousands of people, 30,000 to 50,000 or more are all right, and even the current population of Satinson is far from being saturated, so naturally the more the population, the better.

But when it comes to recruiting foreign refugees, he has indeed encountered a lot of trouble. Because those refugees have just suffered hardships, they are still very wary of the nobles, and they don't believe the words of the people he sent to recruit. The nobles on the side obstructed them intentionally or unintentionally, and even deliberately said Sardinson's false rumors in private, making their recruitment more difficult. If there is no better way, he can only regretfully abandon this group of people.

At this time, the refugees who were recruited before volunteered to help recruit them. He agreed without thinking about it. Then, in order to seize the time, he directly sent those refugees who said they were going to the ship, and let them go as quickly as possible. They hurried to the frontier, lest it be too late, the king would indeed send troops to drive away the refugees.

With this group of volunteers who went there, the recruitment process became smoother.

The people who thought they would never see each other after they left suddenly came back, but their appearance was very different from before. When they left, these refugees were all skinny and skinny, with sick and numb faces. After a month, seeing them again, all of them have grown flesh, and all those who are sick are healed. All of them are smiling, and at a glance, they will know that they are not going to suffer, but to enjoy happiness.

These refugees who came back are mainly to take their relatives and friends away for a new life, so as soon as they arrive at the place, they scream and search for their relatives, and then they are happy when they find their family members and cry. They talked about their life this month, no matter how eloquent they were, but when it came to the life of the last month, these people really expressed their true feelings, and they were very attractive.

Their family members naturally believed 100% of these people who were willing to sell themselves for their sake, so seeing that they were doing well, they came back to pick them up specially, and they all moved away with them.

To be honest, their life on the border was not easy. It was winter when everyone came here. After a few months, the food they brought has been eaten up, and the new serfs sold their money for their families and exchanged them for it. The food is almost bottoming out recently, and other people have even gone to dig up the bark of wild vegetables to eat, but it is just the beginning of spring, there are few things to eat in the wild, and they have arrived in a new place, without agricultural tools, to open up wasteland Not to mention that it has become very difficult. I don’t know where to replace the seeds for spring ploughing. In addition, the surrounding nobles will send people to harass them from time to time. Life here is really getting worse and worse, and the atmosphere on the border is getting worse. It became more and more depressing, and from time to time there were news of people missing. Many people were guessing whether those missing people were eaten or sold secretly. Everyone lived in fear every day.

And at this time of lack of connection, many people sold their wives and children because they couldn't stand it, and even sold them as slaves to slave merchants who came to collect slaves, because the price of slaves was higher than that of slaves. Serfs are high, they can get more money.

Before these new serfs came back, most of their families had already planned to sign up with the people in Sardinson County. They felt that, at least if they went to Sardinson, they might meet those who had already left. family.

Now that they came back suddenly, it also proved that Sardinson's side is really a good place.

It wasn't just them who were tempted. Those who lived close to them all came out to check the situation when they heard the movement. They found that those who had been bought before came back. They were surprised at first, and then they found out that they were all It seemed that they were all doing well, and they couldn't help but envy and curiously gathered around to listen to them. Soon, more and more people gathered around them and asked about their recent experiences.

"Didn't you go to that Sardinson? Why did you suddenly become a Sloter again?"

"Lord Earl has two territories, Sardinson and Sloth. There are fewer people on Sloth's side, so they arranged us there."

"Is that place really as good as you said? It's not a lie, is it?"

"Of course not, you haven't been to Prady, you don't know, Sardinson is famous in Prady, where the owner, Earl Williams, is the richest and kindest nobleman in Prady, where people live That's good! Being a serf in his territory not only divides the house for us, but also provides us with food every day. Even when you serve, as long as you complete the scheduled part, you can get paid if you exceed it. I heard During the Chinese New Year, they even send New Year gifts to all the serfs, do you know what they are giving? Wheat and meat! And one gift is several kilograms!"

This sounds like a lie.

The new serf, who was said to be lying, didn't do it. He took out a bag of wheat and handed it to his family: "What am I lying to you for? Look, this is what I earned by helping at the dock this month. I can do carpentry, help with cutting wood, etc., after deducting this month's tax, and gave me several large copper coins, I exchanged those for wheat and brought it to you."

It could have been cheaper to replace grains such as rye beans, so that the family could eat more, but they couldn't bring too much on the boat, and the people who escorted them on the way back didn't think so. I was short of food for them, so I gritted my teeth and bought these wheat, let my family have a good meal, and then went back with them.

The food in front of you, even if the weight may be less than two kilograms, makes the eyes of the refugees who have not eaten enough for a long time turn green. , Immediately stuffed the wheat into his arms, protecting him to the death, for fear that someone would come and **** it.

This is the food that his youngest son brought back, and it was exchanged for the money he earned himself. They must not lose it.

And his child is still saying: "Father, my carpentry is still from you. If you go to the port or work in the construction team, you will definitely earn more money."