Just as William was about to rest, Breman called softly outside the camp.
William walked out, "What's wrong?"
"Sir, a letter from Fengrao City."
"Where is the messenger?" William took the letter and asked casually.
"He came over very quickly and almost fainted. I asked someone to take him down to rest."
Hearing this, William opened the letter a little faster. The only one who could send someone to deliver such a letter was Pisius, so was there a huge change in Fenghuo City?
The content of the letter is very small and I read it in less than a minute.
After reading the letter, William's mouth curved slightly.
"Breman, the soldiers have brought enough dry food for how many days?"
"Three days' worth of food."
"No wonder they are in such a hurry, they thought they only had three days..." William said to himself, the smile on his face became more obvious.
Brayman lowered his eyes slightly, staring at the ground, and suddenly heard William's instructions:
"Change the route tomorrow and make a circuit. I will visit other surrounding villages."
"Sir, is it only a two-day detour?"
"clever."
Seeing that Breman understood, William returned to the camp to rest.
That letter was indeed sent by Pytheus, and the content was, of course, about the developments in Fenghuo City.
It turned out that not long after William led his army to leave, there was an undercurrent in Fengrao City. Several nobles summoned their men, not only met several times, but also secretly inquired about news about the garrison and Black Rock Castle.
Pytheus immediately thought of William's plan and followed the trend.
First, he and Guland performed a play together, asking Guland to pretend to go on a patrol in the Right Acropolis and inadvertently reveal the news.
In fact, as soon as he left the city gate, Gulande secretly returned alone.
Perhaps this move completely fueled the ambitions of the nobles, who became more blatant and even sent people to monitor Black Rock Castle.
Little did they know that not only their every move was under the watchful eye of Pytheus.
Even this opportunity was created for them by William on his own initiative.
In the camp, William took off his armor and slept in his clothes. The sword was placed on the bedside, ensuring that he could reach it as soon as he stretched out his hand.
The dark tent cannot stop the divergence of thoughts.
"In the eyes of those people, there are no great knights in Fenghuo City, and there are no people who can support the rafters militarily. It is a good time to take action."
"Besides, without Scott in the royal capital, ordinary people cannot mobilize 2,000 garrison soldiers."
"If we don't break out in this situation, we won't have another chance in the future."
In the letter, Pisius mentioned several people, who were the leaders of this series of nobles.
Without exception, they are all people who have various relationships with Kelly Ford, Tripp, and Byrne.
Perhaps they had become allies with shared interests a long time ago. Although William did not pursue their crimes at the time, they were worried day and night.
The sins they had committed before were like the sword of Damocles, hanging above their heads.
"Come on, come on, let me see how brave you are."
William was very curious whether they dared to attack Black Rock Castle.
And how are they preparing to welcome their return?
What an interesting contest!
…
Two days later, William visited the four surrounding villages, including Milforth at the beginning, for a total of five villages.
The result of the inspection made William very dissatisfied.
It’s not that there are people in the village who are disobedient, nor that there is anything wrong with the village.
There is only one reason, they are too poor!
The village of Milforth is not an isolated case, but a common problem in the Barron Territory.
Due to land issues in the Barron Territory, these villages cannot be built together, so they can only choose to build villages on relatively fertile land. From generation to generation, it seems that they have become deeply ingrained and have no thought of relocation.
After summarizing, William found out several reasons why the villagers were so poor.
First, the land issue.
The soil here is barren and lacks nutrients, so crops that require high land requirements cannot be grown.
Moreover, the yield is low, harvesting is difficult, and the efficiency is low.
There are also various small villages within the royal capital. They usually plant many fruit trees. Although the villagers cannot live a very good life, they can at least ensure their basic food needs.
But in the Barren Territory, most of the crops were screened out first.
Second, heavy taxes!
The Kingdom of Sedes has always regarded taxation as a government affairs second only to the cultivation of the army.
Whether they are serfs, commoners, or noble lords, they must pay taxes to the king at a rate of one-tenth, also called tithes.
And this is just one of all taxes.
In the inner areas of the kingdom, the land is relatively rich and farmers can afford it.
However, this is the Barron Territory, and the land is so barren that it is difficult for farmers to support themselves, let alone pay taxes to the king.
On the way, Brayman once asked this question:
Since the land in the villages is barren, why don't farmers live in the three cities? There are also fields on the edges of the cities that can be cultivated.
William laughed at why he didn't eat minced meat.
Without the oppression of the lords and officials in the village, the peasants would still have a hard time living;
Entering the three cities, various taxes that are only applicable to the urban population will come one after another.
For example, street cleaning tax, window tax, sunshine tax...many taxes that William had never heard of had actually appeared in the Kingdom of Sides.
There is another reason that makes farmers poor, and that is the turbulent environment.
Sometimes it's bandits, sometimes it's aliens, sometimes it's the lord's army...
When thinking of this, William reflected slightly on himself.
He does not want to be a superior lord, but a lord who can hear the voices of the people at the bottom.
Being born as a human being cannot be without humanity.
"The military pension system has begun to slowly improve. The previous results were good, and the progress may be accelerated."
William thought secretly, with a solemn look on his young face that people dare not despise:
"Reforming the pension system requires solid finance as a backbone, and finance is nothing more than two things: increasing revenue and reducing expenditure."
"Although the taxation of the territory is under my jurisdiction, the royal capital is actually the big boss, and the people in the Government Affairs Department are keeping an eye on this."
"So, develop business?"
"Or, use it as a doctrine?"
As he thought about it, William felt like his head was getting bigger.
He had never been a lord before, and he was also a newcomer in governing the territory.
Fortunately, he had a lot more historical memory and more advanced experience than people today.
Returning on horseback, the army gradually approached Fengrao City.
"Brayman, are you in contact with Salvatore?"
"Sir, no contact."
"This is not good..."
The horse moved slowly, and William's body rose and fell. Looking at Brayman, William smiled slightly:
"In any case, you were once a candidate for Thorn Blade, and Salvatore is your knight commander. In the future, you can write to him more often and communicate with him. You can use the carrier pigeon of Black Rock Castle."
"what do you mean?"
"Don't think too much, I just want you to simply communicate with him."
As soon as he finished speaking, William suddenly smiled and said: "Of course, it's okay if you convey my feelings of missing me by the way."