After Balian finished speaking, the priest and his assistant began to perform the burial ceremony. Amidst the solemn beating of drums and melodious flutes, the priest loudly recited passages from the "Sacred Scripture" about entering the kingdom of heaven after death, and paid tribute to those who died in the war.
Warrior prays.
After the ceremony, Bellian asked Mark to take out the things he had prepared in advance. He stood on a high ground and said to everyone: "Here, I announce a policy that any soldier who died in battle and whose family members are serfs will be immediately
Obtain free status.
At the same time, you can also get a house, two acres of cultivated land, and a pension of fifty dinars. If you have children, you can also receive one dinar silver coin and twenty pounds of grain every month as a subsidy before your children reach the age of fifteen.
Household use.”
"Oh my God!"
"This is impossible!"
"How is it impossible? The lord just said it himself."
As soon as Balian finished speaking, everyone exclaimed. They really couldn't believe it, because in their memories, they civilians followed the lord to fight. It would be great to get rewards. How could they be given pensions after death?
.
When they saw with their own eyes that Balian handed over the house deeds, land deeds and money bags containing silver coins to the families of the fallen soldiers, they had no choice but to believe it.
Some of them couldn't hold it anymore and wanted to join the standing army and militia, while the single women also wanted to quickly find a man who was a soldier to marry. After all, soldiers had high status, stable income, and even if they died in battle
, I can support myself and my children by relying on the pension from my lord.
Balian guessed the effect that he would have after doing this. This is what he wanted, to get a group of warriors who were loyal to him and dared to die. Only in this way could his position be stable.
He deeply understands the truth that in order to gain the loyalty of others, the first step is to have strength. No one will be loyal to a weak individual or organization. The second step is to have benefits. Only with benefits will there be motivation to work hard.
After the funeral, the sadness on the faces of the people of Norlandenburg disappeared, replaced by longing for future life and enthusiasm for hard work.
After all, with such a benevolent and charitable lord, what should they be dissatisfied with? As expected, funerals are never held for the dead, but for the living.
After the funeral ended in the morning, Balian and the butler Mark had a simple lunch with the priest and his assistant. Since there was a service in the afternoon, Balian did not dare to prepare much wine for fear that the priest would drink too much and delay the serious business.
It was not that Balian had any malicious suspicions about this priest, but that this priest was addicted to alcohol. Usually in the church in the county town, under the supervision of the bishop and others, he could only drink secretly, but after coming to Fort Nolandenburg, everyone
He responded to everything he asked for, so he naturally drank in retaliation.
Almost every weekend, he would arrive a day early. After arriving, he would drink and get himself drunk. This morning, when Mark asked him to get up, he almost couldn't get up, but luckily he drank a bowl.
After making fish soup with vinegar, I calmed down and didn't delay going to the funeral today.
The priest's name was Dunhill. Mark complained to Balian about his alcoholism. Mark felt that Father Dunhill was not a pious servant of Vulcan. He suggested that Balian talk to the bishop of the county directly, and change it.
A younger and more qualified priest came over.
Balian was actually quite unwilling to let the religious atmosphere in his territory be so strong, but he couldn't refuse Mark, so he had no choice but to ignore the matter. When he attended the celebration banquet in Amundine City some time ago, at the governor's residence, he
I asked the attendant of Lord Siru, the county bishop, about Dunhill and learned about the priest's life experience.
Dunhill was the child of a businessman who had been cooperating with the farm and winery of the Amundine Church for many years. When the businessman and his wife were robbed and killed by robbers on the road, Dunhill was only five years old. The county bishop at the time saw him as pitiful, so he
He was adopted into the church and raised and taught by the priests.
Dunhill was very smart and could recite the entire "Temple" before he was twelve years old. At the age of fifteen, he was already able to independently preside over daily religious affairs. Therefore, he was very favored by the old bishop, but he was also favored by the old bishop.
He was hated by other priests.
After Dunhill came of age, he became a young priest in the Church of Amundine. Not long after that, the old bishop passed away. As soon as the old bishop died, other priests in the church saw that Dunhill had no backer to protect him, so they collectively ostracized him.
, I isolate him every day and do not talk about it, and I also give him a lot of bad work.
Because of this, Dunhill's originally lively character became withdrawn and used alcohol to numb himself. He also made many jokes because of his drunkenness.
But because his professional ability is still good, there are some important occasions in the Amundine Church that require people like him who study the "Holy Scripture" intensively. After several subsequent bishops came, although they did not like the alcoholic and withdrawn Dunhill,
But he was not fired.
Dunhill, who was waiting for the maid to pour the wine, didn't know
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Balian has already investigated his background, and now he just wants more wine. The Sarion wine by Crescent Lake is indeed a good wine. With his income, he cannot afford to drink such wine.
But after Dunhill waited helplessly for a while, seeing that no one came to pour the wine, he asked melancholy: "My dear Sir Balian, brother Mark, do you still have wine? Please give me a few more glasses."
Balian and Mark looked at each other, and Mark immediately understood what Balian meant. According to Balian's instructions in advance, Mark said kindly: "Brother Dunhill, the wine at noon today is indeed gone. Our Nolandenburg
There is only so much Salion wine, all for you to drink.
You see, our lord Sir Balian only had a drink. Besides, don’t you have to pray for everyone in the afternoon? After dinner, you can take a rest, and then teach these lost lambs in the afternoon.”
As soon as he heard what Mark said, the smart Dunhill immediately understood what he meant. He licked his lips, suppressed his alcohol addiction, and after drinking a bowl of soup, he said goodbye to Balian and Mark, and then took his hands
Leave next.
After Dunhill left, Balian also went upstairs to rest for a while, while Mark stayed to let the maids clear the table, and sent guards to ask the responsible persons to come over and prepare for the afternoon meeting.
When Balian woke up from his nap and went downstairs, he found that all his men had arrived. On both sides of the long table in the lord's mansion were sat Balian's main officials. When everyone saw Balian coming down, they quickly stood up and saluted.
After Leon sat down at the head position, he motioned for everyone to sit down as well.
Balian took a look, and on the left was a group of civil servants headed by the steward Mark. There were Lal who assisted Mark in handling civil affairs, Hama, the head of the craftsman's workshop, and Riano, who was in charge of the construction. There were just four of them.
On the right is a group of military attachés headed by Eomer, including Bess who is in charge of the standing army of Fort Noland, Barrett who is in charge of the militia, and Balin who is in charge of reconnaissance affairs. They are also four people.
Bran and Tur were sitting at the end of the long table. Balian asked them to record the contents of this meeting and compile them into minutes and submit them to him. After Balian reviewed them and they were correct, they would copy them and send them to him.
All participants.
The reason why Bellion did this is to learn from the meeting minutes system of previous lives, so that each meeting can have specific matters determined, and then form a plan and urge everyone to do it. Otherwise, like many meetings, it will just start after it is opened.
, apart from taking up everyone's time, talking nonsense back and forth, and passing the blame, nothing can be decided at all.
At the beginning of the meeting, Balian asked Mark to report on the current situation in the territory. Mark stood up and took the cowhide notebook he used to record. Yes, it was a cowhide notebook. Hama saw that Mark always recorded things one by one.
, not only easy to throw away, but also inconvenient, so I cut a few pieces of cowhide, punched holes with an iron awl, and made several notebooks for Mark, which made Mark very happy.
Mark opened the book, turned to the page where he made records, looked at the data and reported: "Master, brothers, let me report to you the population, finance, materials and other conditions of our Norandenburg.
As of last weekend, Norlandenburg had a total population of 1,460 people, including 720 young men, 530 young women, and 210 boys and girls under the age of fourteen.
people.
At present, more than 400 people have lived in Green Hill Village. When the enclosed houses in Oak Village are built next month, more than 400 people will be able to be accommodated. The others will temporarily live in the refugee camp.
It is estimated that by the end of this year, the population of our Fort Nolandenburg should reach 2,000. By then, the master, a real knight, will truly be worthy of his name in terms of the number of people he rules."
When Mark said this, Balian and everyone else laughed heartily. Indeed, if a ruler does not have the people below for you to rule, what will you, the ruler, rule?
It is precisely because of this that Balian tried to increase the population of Fort Norland. Only by bringing people over can we reclaim arable land, build castles, and have the population to form an army. Otherwise, all ideas are just castles in the air.
, simply cannot be achieved.
While everyone was laughing, Mark paused briefly and continued: "Under the wise decision of the master, we cleverly attracted refugees to come and reclaim the wasteland. So far, a total of 6,000 acres of cultivated land have been reclaimed. Since it is summer,
Not to mention the frequent rains, the vegetation grew rapidly, so land reclamation was temporarily stopped.
After the autumn harvest, we can continue to recruit refugees to open up wasteland, and strive to complete the task of clearing 10,000 acres of cultivated land this year. In this way, after next summer and autumn harvest, we can not only achieve self-sufficiency in food, but also sell excess food to the outside world.
In terms of livestock and poultry, after this period of purchasing and breeding the original livestock and poultry, we now have 80 cattle, 15 dairy cows, 120 domestic pigs, 50 sheep, chickens, ducks and geese.
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There are 470 eggs in total, and nearly 300 eggs can be collected every day.
With the reproduction of these livestock and poultry, by this time next year, the number will not be small.
Oh, by the way, there are also some material data we currently have, let me tell you about them.
At present we have silver coins and copper coins totaling 330,000 dinars, 220,000 pounds of grain reserves, 50,000 pounds of pig iron, four large ships, and seven small fishing boats of our own construction. There are no horses or carriages.
Increase.
Sir, there are big problems in terms of farmland and housing. We are letting the people in the territory live and cultivate wasteland, but it is not clear whether it belongs to them. I think it is better to clarify it as soon as possible." After Mark finished his report, he sat down.
Balian took a sip from the water glass in front of him, and then said to everyone: "During this period, I have mainly focused on military training and combat. Mark led everyone to do many things. During this period, you
Time has been hard work.
Mark, Lal, Riano, Hama, Bess, Barrett, Balin, and Gamlin are all responsible for making Nolandenburg what we are now. I have decided to reward eight of you with a palace.
The houses in Green Hill Village are for you and your family to live in.
In addition, each of you will be rewarded with thirty dinars as a bonus for your hard work during this period. By the way, each of the eight of you will be allocated ten acres of cultivated land, so that you can have a house to live in, land to farm, and money.
flower."
When Mark and the other eight people heard about the reward given to them by Balian, they quickly stood up and thanked him. Mark quickly retreated and said that he did not need to share a house. Now that the housing in Nolandenburg was tight, he was single and could live with Balian.
There is no need to allocate a house to him, it should be allocated to more important people.
After hearing this, Balian was very moved and nodded to win Mark's request. However, in recognition of Mark's profound righteousness, Balian promised in public that he would renovate a better house for Mark in the future.
After this episode, Bellian cleared his throat, opened his leather notebook, and began to talk about his plan, "Mark has already said the main things just now, and I don't have much to say in detail. I want to focus on the following two points.
First, the issue of the distribution of houses and farmland. I will never give houses and farmland to people who come to Fort Norlandenburg without any reason. They are different from the families of warriors who died in the war. They cannot receive houses and farmland for free.
My idea is this, new people who join Norlandenburg are considered as family units. If there are more people in the family, they can own a house. If there are less people in the family or if they are single, they can only live in a house with others.
The house they live in is not provided for free. It can be purchased for one hundred dinars. It is best if the full payment can be made. If not, we allow installment payment, such as paying it off in ten years, or even twenty years or more.
All is fine, we just need to charge a very low interest rate.
For example, if you repay it over ten years, you will have to pay back ten dinars every year. On top of the annual principal repayment, you can also pay three to five dinars in interest. In this way, many people will be willing to buy a house. After all, they will live in a house.
Living in such an enclosed house is not only comfortable, but also safe.
The same goes for cultivated land, which will not be distributed for free. Those who join Norlandenburg, regardless of whether they are adults or men, can be allocated three acres of cultivated land, and each child can be allocated one acre. Farming is tax-free for the first three years. Starting from the fourth year, every acre will be allocated.
We will collect ten pounds of grain from the land. Mark, you and I will discuss this standard after the meeting to see if it is appropriate.
During non-peak farming seasons, when people participate in militia training, land reclamation, construction and other work, not only are they provided with food, but some labor fees can also be considered to prevent them from working for free, which can make their lives less stressful.
Furthermore, as the territory's industry and commerce develops and our income increases, we can also reduce or reduce some farmers' taxes. Of course, this is all a matter for the future.
As for the soldiers and officers of the standing army, they certainly cannot be like them. Soldiers who have been in the army for one year are given two acres of farmland. If the soldier dies in battle, the farmland will be inherited by his family.
In addition, if soldiers buy a house, the loan will be interest-free. Soldiers who die in battle will be given a yard directly to their families.
At the moment, these are my personal thoughts. After this meeting is over, Mark, you can discuss it with Riano, Lal, and Hama to see what is appropriate. I just gave a clear direction and general outline.
After you have discussed and determined the methods, specific implementation details, and precautions, formulate a plan and show it to me.
By the way, Mark, among the people we brought back this time, there are some merchants and merchant apprentices. You can choose some suitable ones from them to be your subordinates.
After a while, it is estimated that many businessmen will discover that we have a castle and residents in Nolandenburg. These people will not only come over with goods to trade with us, but also purchase the things in our hands, such as animal skins.
, wood, etc., you need people who can write, understand calculations, and have business experience to help you."