People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 248 Home Confiscation and Court Meeting

Early in the morning.

Lothar woke up from meditation, feeling that his mind was very active, without the slightest sense of sluggishness when he just woke up.

Look up.

Prajna, who was reading an ancient book with a worn cover, looked at the right time and said, "Good morning."

Lothar replied, "Good morning."

And a little curious: "What book are you reading?"

"The Gallic War."

Lothar said "Oh": "Are you going to start learning how to lead troops to fight?"

Gaul War Chronicle is a military book written by Gaius Julius Caesar describing his experience in conquering Gaul.

Banruo pointed to the two old books on the table: "Well, there are also Civil War and Long March. I have finished reading these two books. You can also read them in your spare time."

Lothar said sternly: "When I finish dealing with the trivial matters at hand, I will seriously calm down and read."

It may have been wandering outside the door for a long time, or it may be a real coincidence.

As the top assassin, Celinina's footsteps came in a timely manner.

Then, there was a knock on the door: "My lord, are you awake?"

"Come in, the door is unlocked."

Cellina walked into the room.

She is wearing a coat today that looks like a hooded trench coat from later generations, and a linen shirt inside, which is in line with the characteristics of this era.

Although there was no emotion on her face, Lothar could still tell that she was a little nervous.

Fringila, who had just opened her eyes in a daze from the bed, stuck out her head and asked, "Nina, are you going shopping? I slept a little late last night, and I want to sleep a little longer."

"Go on to sleep, Flynn, I can't play with you today."

After Celinina comforted Fringila, she looked at Lothar again.

Her voice was somewhat reserved: "Sir, I heard from Rangna last night that you plan to entrust me with the task of resettling refugees?"

"Yes, I have this idea. I wanted to tell you last night."

Lothar paused slightly, and asked, "Is there any difficulty for you to come to me so early?"

Celinina nodded slightly: "It's my lord, I haven't done anything like this, and I'm worried that I might screw things up."

"If you haven't done it, it doesn't mean you can't do it well."

"I never thought that one day I would lead troops to fight."

Lothar pointed to the chair opposite and motioned for Celinina to sit down: "How is your cultural level? Besides Chinese, what other languages ​​and characters do you know?"

Celinina was slightly stunned, and said a series of words that sounded hot, but still pleasant to the ear.

"Is this Italian?"

Lothar was a little dazed.

He came to the Holy Land via the Veneto sea route, and did not take the traditional Messina route, so he did not personally visit the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula.

For Italian, his impression still stays in the North Apennines.

Celinina's face was reddish, she twisted her hands together, and said softly, "Sorry, my accent is a bit heavy."

Lothar joked, "Fortunately, you didn't put your five fingers together to make that gesture?"

Otherwise, it will remind Lothar of Lord Corleone in the movie "The Godfather".

"Is that so?"

Celinina gestured and said seriously: "This is really useful. Sometimes when we can't distinguish each other's dialects, we will use gestures to communicate."

Lothar joked: "So sign language is the real common language on the Apennine Peninsula, right?"

Probably because his attitude was really reassuring, and Celinina, who was sitting tensely, gradually relaxed.

She continued: "I can speak some Austrian and Gascony. I was trained as an assassin there."

Lothar was thoughtful: "That means you can speak some Germanic and Gaulic languages, that's enough."

"The people who are entrusted to you for resettlement this time are all Franks. If you know these three languages, you will be able to communicate with most people."

The Frankish Empire established by Charlemagne included northern Apennines, Gaul, and the entire Germania, which happened to correspond to these three languages.

Lothar continued: "Can you write Latin?"

Celinina nodded and said, "Well, many of the family's classics are recorded in Latin."

There is an inheritance relationship between Italian and Latin, but this inheritance relationship is farther than the inheritance relationship between ancient Chinese and simplified Chinese.

Usually, mastery of Italian is by no means the same as being able to read and write Latin.

From this point of view, Prajna is the most knowledgeable and talented of all people.

She can speak almost any language and understand all classics.

"Resettlement of citizens is actually the same as resettling immigrants in the New World. Your family is rooted in the New World. You should be familiar with this kind of thing."

Cellinina was slightly stunned: "Sorry, my lord, I went back to the Two Sicilies to receive traditional training when I was very young. Then... the family was destroyed."

Lothar's face was slightly stiff, and he said softly: "I'm sorry to mention this—but Miss Cellinina, you have to have confidence in your own talent, this is not a very difficult thing."

He said bluntly: "What do you think is the most important thing for resettling the people?"

Celinina thought for a moment, then tentatively said, "Share the fields?"

"Yes, the land of New Habsburg is more fertile. If it is allocated here, it should be allocated less. If it is allocated in a remote place, it should be allocated more."

"In addition, the new residents are all self-cultivated farmers. Coupled with the tax-free policy and free rental of agricultural tools in the border area, the taxes they can collect are far less than the income in the early days."

"So, we can't give them too much land just because of a thought of benevolence, because they may not be able to cultivate it all. If it is abandoned, it will increase their burden."

Taxes are collected according to land share.

Celinina frowned, nodded and said, "I see, is there anything else you want to remind me of?"

Lothar raised his hand, subconsciously wanting to pat her on the shoulder, but he felt a little abrupt when he raised it halfway, so he stopped.

"I know that you are worried about messing things up, but it is not easy to make a good job of resettling the people, and it is also difficult to screw up, so just do it with confidence."

After Lothar finished speaking, he raised his tone again: "Jeanna, stop eavesdropping outside, and come in too."

Jeanne walked in the door awkwardly.

Lothar said to her: "I said it last night, since you are responsible for expanding the army, in addition to training, conscription is also your responsibility."

"You have to communicate with Celinina about this matter."

"You can select some experienced veterans from the new people as the backbone, but the number should not be too many, because as young laborers, they will need to contribute to reclaiming wasteland and building houses."

"In addition, the three cities of Hebron, Alandre, and Firorn need to train the city militia. They will maintain law and order in peacetime and assist in defending the city during wartime."

"Because urban citizens are often richer and can bring their own weapons and equipment."

"Of course, you can also pay money in exchange for exemption from service, which is equivalent to the shield tax paid by knight nobles. In this way, we can save part of the expenses for training the standing army."

Every freeman who settled in Lothar territory has the obligation to serve.

Serfs and pagans were not required to serve in the army, but were pure supporters, but this was not to be envied, because they were customarily heavily taxed.

"There are also peasants and soldiers trained by the commanding knights, and you can also select some excellent performers as the backbone."

"In a month's time I shall see a new standing army fully manned--three hundred light infantry, one hundred light cavalry, and five hundred heavy infantry."

Light infantry refers to projectile arms including slingers, archers, javeliners, etc.

Heavy infantry refers to the arms that form a frontal formation and maintain the front line.

"Light and heavy" is distinguished by occupation, not by the weight of equipment.

Jeanna exclaimed in admiration: "It's a big deal, expanding the army to nearly 1000 people in one go, where did you get rich again?"

Lothar said unhappily: "You don't have to worry about money. There are a lot of old weapons and armor stored in the arsenal. If you don't make good use of them, they will rust."

That being said, Lothar does have a lot of surplus money on hand, but resettling the people and reclaiming wasteland are all net investments at this stage, which can be said to be a waste of money.

The number of directly subordinate fiefdoms has increased, but it has become a burden.

Sometimes, Lothar also has to admit that although the enfeoffment system is not conducive to centralization, it is absolutely worry-free!

Jeanna said sternly: "Since you have said so, then leave this matter to me. Give me a month, and I promise to return you a decent army."

It's not bad to be able to look good for a month.

Lothar nodded, and looked at Cellinina again.

She no longer refused, and said seriously: "I will do my best."

Lothar waved his hand and said: "Don't try too hard, the number of recruits should not be too many, too many will be too heavy for the current burden in the territory, so limit it to less than 5000 people."

That is to say, the Eastern Crusaders are still worrying about overpopulation.

If it were placed in the Northern Crusades, a bunch of border lords would have a large piece of land empty, and it was precisely the shortage of self-cultivating farmers who came to cultivate it.

But it is a pity that compared with the Iberian Crusades and the Eastern Crusades, the participants in the Northern Crusades are too few, limited to the three Scandinavian countries and the North Germanic region.

The most elite territories of Germania are in the southern Swabia and Bavaria regions.

...

afternoon.

Outside an inconspicuous mansion.

Following Lothar's order, a group of fully armed crusaders smashed open the gate of the mansion, and rushed in like wolves and tigers.

Some knights, who are nervous, have been gearing up for a long time, and want to take this opportunity to make a small fortune.

Hans hesitated, and said in a low voice, "I'll go in and have a look."

Lothar frowned, he knew Hans was kind.

"No, just let them play freely. The owner of this mansion is a Jewish businessman named Friedman. He has a very bad reputation. He is not only engaged in human trafficking, usury, and opening casinos, but also hoards the most food. As a businessman, it is most appropriate to use him as an example to others."

"Besides, if you don't feed your subordinates with their family's money, who will do their best for you in the future?"

Hans was slightly startled, hesitated for a while, and said, "I want to save those women and children. There are always innocent people in this mansion."

Lothar frowned and said, "Okay, with you watching, don't let them go too far."

Speaking of which, this Jewish businessman was also unlucky.

Human trafficking, selling black slaves and prisoners of war.

Usury and opening casinos are not a crime of death—at least, not for the whole family.

However, even though they are all hoarders and speculators, they all have backers, but these Jews don’t have one, at least not on the surface, so if they don’t trouble these people, who do they turn to?

Bad luck is bad luck.

But wronged?

Not wronged.

In this era, ten loan lenders lined up and hung on the gallows one by one, at most half of them could be wronged.

As Lothar said, the first one simply picked a notorious Jewish businessman to make an example of.

The second one is much more honest.

In front of the sword, he quickly handed over the food obediently, but no matter what Hans asked, he refused to reveal the mastermind behind it.

"Forget it, there's no need to worry about who instigated it. Even if this kind of thing involves the church, I won't be surprised."

Lothar frowned, treating brothers of the same clan should not be as drastic as treating pagans, and his core interests were not in Jerusalem.

The forces of all parties here are intertwined. In Lothar's view, it is more comfortable to deal with heretics with a sword in hand.

He glanced at the man tied up by the soldiers: "Mr. Keitel, since you voluntarily hand over the stored food and donations, a virtuous person like you will definitely not engage in usury, so let's leave now. "

The bald Jewish businessman named Keitel suddenly showed the expression of the survivors after the catastrophe: "Yes, I am a voluntary donation of food to alleviate the famine in the city."

"My lord, thank you for your kindness."

When going out.

Lothar's footsteps paused slightly: "Mr. Keitel, if you want to live longer, it's best not to engage in this dangerous business anymore."

A wry smile appeared on Keitel's face: "Master Earl, once people like us get on the boat, is there any chance to get off again?"

Lothar was silent for a moment.

"Then you can only pray that next time, you can still come up with the 'money' that will save you from disaster."

keep going.

He really has no choice, the big nobles or bishops who are backed by him, as long as Keitel can no longer provide them with enough benefits, his end will be very bad.

The great nobles and clergy, these big men have to take good care of their feathers, so that they have the value of these Jewish merchants.

At this time.

A knight in a blue robe ran towards this side: "Please step aside, I want to see the Earl."

Lothar recognized the other party's identity at a glance: "Long time no see, Kevin Knight, why are you here?"

Knight Kevin took off his helmet respectfully. After saluting, he said in a low voice, "My lord, my lord invites you to be a guest in the manor to discuss tomorrow's court meeting."

"Okay, I see, please wait a moment."

Lothar looked at Hans and asked, "Do you understand what I did?"

Hans nodded: "I understand, we are not here to seek justice for the victims, but to stop the 'food shortage' problem in the city."

"Yes, don't expand it. The current situation in the Holy Land is to seek stability."

Lothar patted him on the shoulder: "I will leave the next thing to you. This is also a test for you."

Hans gave a "hmm" and said solemnly, "I will do well."

After doing this, Lothar turned over and got on his mount, and said to Knight Kevin: "Let's go, I haven't seen Baron Godfrey for a long time, is he in good health?"

Lothar did not see Baron Godfrey in the witch and knight competition yesterday, which is obviously abnormal.

Kevin Knight's face was a little heavy: "It's not good, my lord has an old injury again, these days at home, his legs hurt so bad that he can't even ride a horse."

Lothar frowned.

Even if the factor of his friendship with Baron Godfrey is excluded, the old baron is also his most important political ally at the moment.
"Have you invited Bishop Ulding of the Order of St. Lazarus?"

"Not yet, my lord has been recuperating in the country manor some time ago, and he just came to the city in a carriage today."

Lothar breathed a sigh of relief: "That's okay, Bishop Urdin's medical skills are obvious to all Jerusalem."

Kevin Knight looked calm: "If you say the same, I will feel more at ease."

Lothar reacted: "Why, this is because I am afraid that Bishop Ulding's reputation will be flattered by me?"

Kevin smiled awkwardly, and said, "Don't dare."

(End of this chapter)