Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence

Of all the Dragon Blood Stones mined from the territory, Su Li would get seventy percent.

That's how powerful lords are in this world. They don't need to pay anything; just open their mouths, call upon the servants belonging to the fifty-odd knights to mine, and seventy percent of what's mined belongs to the lord. The servants who do the mining get ten percent, and their masters, the knights, get twenty percent.

This is already Su Li being generous. Otherwise, according to the traditions of this world, it's a nineteen percent tax. Ninety percent of all wealth in the territory belongs to the lord.

The three most famous aspects of the Empire are: Glory, Faith, and the infamous nineteen percent tax.

Of course, that's the stipulated tax rate, but in reality, very few lords actually enforce it that strictly.

Most lords nominally collect ninety percent, then return twenty or thirty percent. This isn't something that slaves and commoners are entitled to, but rather the virtue and reward of the knightly lords.

Don't think this kind of operation is ridiculous. The reason it's said that most people operate this way is because there's still a considerable portion of noble territories that genuinely collect the full nineteen percent tax! And the farmers in their territories don't necessarily live any worse than the farmers in other earldoms. Generally, these places that genuinely collect the full nineteen percent tax are truly blessed lands, with various divine blessings. The farmland can yield four or five harvests a year, and there are even legends of some territories that can yield six harvests a year!

Don't ask if the soil can handle it; don't inquire too much about the affairs of the gods. Their nuclear-powered farmland doesn't adhere to the physical rules and scientific principles of your previous life.

In these situations, the knightly lords genuinely step up when needed. To protect the territory and its people, the knightly lords mount their warhorses, raise their lances, and even if facing tens of thousands of orcs or a sea of undead, they can advance fearlessly and trample the enemy.

However, most of the border prince's territory is undeveloped, with no divine blessings at all. The fertile land of the Black Forest foothills, which can yield three harvests a year, is considered very good.

Su Li collecting nineteen percent tax and then returning thirty percent is equivalent to him collecting sixty percent, with the commoners retaining forty percent. This is already a very good life. In comparison, it's much better than the reclamation farmers under Cao Cao. Cao Cao's reclamation also took six or seven out of ten, but his reclamation soldiers didn't have land that yielded three harvests a year, didn't have such fertile and vast plains, and didn't have so many opportunities to improve their lives.

Overall, if you could be a farmer or manor lord under Su Li's rule, life wouldn't be too bad.

However, currently, Su Li doesn't need to consider taxation too much. He hasn't even appointed a tax minister, because right now, the pioneer territory is all his servants and serfs, and all the property belongs to him.

So Su Li didn't think much, directly collected all the Dragon Blood Stones, and said to Hilde, "Let's go take a look at the fishpond construction site."

Deathclaw excitedly flew over from the side, jumped onto Su Li's shoulder. While Hilde went to fetch the horse, Su Li smiled and stroked Deathclaw's head, and said, "That's right, there's you too. This Dragon Blood Stone also has a share for you, no! Four shares for you. I'll tie a Dragon Blood Stone to each of your four claws, and strive to make you grow into the most magnificent griffin in the world!"

Su Li is willing to make this investment. Griffins are different from knights cultivating, who also need to cultivate their bloodline. Their main combat power comes from their huge size and strong physique. Being more powerful and more robust is the most important guarantee of a griffin's combat power.

Soon Hilde brought two horses, and they quickly arrived at the construction site of the East Bank Reservoir. On this construction site, servants were stripped to the waist, working enthusiastically.

A Dragon Blood Stone is worth at least 20 gold coins. They have already mined more than a dozen, and even if calculated at one-tenth of the reward, they have obtained 20~30 gold coins, an average of half a gold coin per person! Praise the gods for their favor, thank the lord for his generosity, this is almost three months' salary for them. Working one day is equivalent to working hard for three months in the past, how could this not be enthusiastic?

Seeing Su Li riding over, Laun and Frederick immediately came up side by side to greet him, respectfully saluting on the roadside: "Greetings to you, Lord, may the Goddess of the Blazing Sun bless you with eternal strength and health."

"My loyal ministers, may the gods also bless you. How is the situation here?" Su Li jumped off his horse and walked towards the reservoir with them.

"As you can see, Lord, these greedy servants are not building a large-scale project, but they are very deep, so they have mined a large number of Dragon Blood Stones." Laun pointed to the deep pit in front and introduced: "Because we have to take into account the progress of the project and the fish farming in the fishpond, this small reservoir is divided into two halves, and now the place for raising fish is only four or five meters wide."

Su Li was in a good mood, so he had a sunny attitude towards everything, and said with a smile: "This may not be a bad thing, it can leave us more mining space, let's mine all the Dragon Blood Stones first. In addition, don't dig under the fishpond, let the Dragon Blood Stones inside stay below, maybe under the influence of the dragon's aura, the fish raised in the fishpond will be larger and fatter."

A four or five-meter fishpond is enough to raise hundreds of fish. After the nearby Dragon Blood Stones are mined, the fishpond can be expanded by a few meters tomorrow. At this rate, maybe a considerable reservoir can be mined in a few months.

Frederick said regretfully: "It's a pity that we don't have ogre mercenaries here. If we had dozens of ogres, our progress would be greatly accelerated."

"Ogres." Su Li pondered slightly, and couldn't help but recall the famous characteristics of ogres in this world.

This race is noisy, greedy, fond of boasting, carefree, irritable and belligerent, and always acts with the goal of filling their unusually strong stomachs.

Another famous thing about them is their love of wandering around. Mercenary groups of dozens or hundreds of ogres can be seen in every corner of the world. Contrary to most widely held views, ogres usually integrate well into most societies they encounter. During their decades of foraging, they will try to wear clothes in the local style and follow local customs as they understand them, because this may make it easier for them to eat their next meal.

In the Empire, they often join the armies of various territories. In those more prosperous cities, hiring ogres as labor is just the most common daily phenomenon. The Halfling Merchant Guild (construction contractor) effectively monopolizes the cheap ogre labor market in many towns and cities in the Empire, which makes their business competitors very distressed.

If there could be an ogre engineering team, it could indeed greatly increase the development speed of the territory.

While Su Li was thinking about this, another good news came from the territory in the evening.

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There were indeed no ogres, but trolls, the knights dragged back three of them!

When the security patrol team slowly returned from afar, the three huge blue-gray behemoths dragged behind them instantly ignited the enthusiasm of the entire territory.

Hunting giant beasts has always been one of the greatest romances of the human empire.

When three huge river trolls, four or five meters tall, were dragged into the territory, a large number of servants and serfs rushed up, cheering enthusiastically, welcoming them on both sides of the road.