Realm of Power

Du Yu looked at the account book in his hand with a solemn expression. It recorded the grain harvested in his territory this month. Generally speaking, it was very good, but the balance was seriously imbalanced. The rain this year was abundant, and the grain was rarely large. The harvest was bumper, 30% more than in previous years, but this did not make Du Yu happy.

"Is the grain useful?" Du Yu still remembered the scene of watching the new grain being put into the warehouse a few days ago. The family tax collector opened the door of the warehouse, and a pungent smell of moldy grain hit his face, making Du Yu frown slightly. Eyebrow, in front of me are piles of grain bags tied with hemp and piled there like a hill. It is obvious that three different shades of color divide the grain pile into three parts.

The granary warden pointed at the grain pile and said, "The top one is last year's old grain, the middle one is from the last 2 or 3 years, and it's hard to tell what's at the bottom." The granary warden said with an embarrassed look on his face, "Because we always take the grain from the top. Grain, no one knows how long the grain at the bottom has been piled up. The grain in the castle granary is enough to feed the people in the castle for three years."

Du Yu looked at the bags of new grains stacked on top again and felt helpless. The Falcon Territory was a grain-producing area in the traditional sense, which resulted in the territory's economy relying too much on agriculture and almost no commercial economy. Typical rural areas Economic model, because the territory is divided into several pieces, several The tax revenue of this small town is very small, just over 3,000 gold coins. If all the knights under his command had not run away, the money would not be enough to provide annuities for the knights. The account books show that every year, the food hoarded in the castle is used. Only by transporting it out and selling half of it can we fill this big hole.

Thinking about the fact that these knights whose families spent so much money to support them escaped without a trace when the family was in greatest danger, Du Yu couldn't help but feel disgusted with the profession of knights, which was sacred on the outside but dirty on the inside. Seeing the young master's frown, Tax Collector Stannard made a speculative report.

"Each village has heard that there is a bounty and has gathered 200 young adults. Many hunters from the mountains have also participated. The Dukellymore family has agreed to exchange it with the prosperous Aikali Town, which also allows us to increase our number by 1,000 The income of a gold coin, otherwise..." The tax collector did not continue, but he looked like a poor man.

"Mountain hunter?" Du Yu, who was looking through the account book, stopped what he was doing. In fact, Du Yu couldn't understand what was written in this account book at all. Those complicated numbers and hundreds of merchants and tenants' names were confusing. Du Yu felt dazzled and pretended to look through the account book just to show it to the tax collector, so that the tax collector would be less hands-on.

Tax Collector Stannard saw the lord turning his attention away from the account book and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, there are thirty-eight mountain hunters who are willing to participate in the recruitment. These hunters like running around in the mountains." The barbarians used to run away as soon as they heard about the conscription, but this time they ran back because they saw the lord's notice."

It is impossible to completely guarantee that there are no problems with the account books. As a hereditary tax collector, Stanard considers himself to be much more honest than many of his peers. He just concealed some smaller transactions. Although the money It's not much, but it's enough to cover my own expenses. I'm already old. How to safely hand over this position to my son is my biggest concern. The tax collector is a hereditary job.

Du Yu closed the account book on the table. After deducting the daily expenses of 3,000 gold coins, there were still more than a thousand left. Calculating, it was enough to pay the bounty for this expedition. This made Du Yu, who had been worried about not having enough gold coins, give up. Heart.

Du Yu raised his head and stretched his sore neck. After reading the account book, Du Yu had a certain understanding of a lord's source of income. What determines the lord's gold coin income is the checkpoint road tax and town poll tax in his own territory. Others are like robbery. The income from plundering enemy lords, the income from redeeming hostages, and the income from the king's rewards are some uncertain amounts.

The economic area of ​​the kingdom is in the central part near Kyoto, and in the northern territories where border trade is prevalent. It is said that the lords there not only have their own caravans, but also established a huge smuggling network. They are the ones who are most loyal to waging wars. Barbarians The various special products and women are the source of their wealth. In remote areas of the south like the Falcon family, if you want to make money, in addition to fixed taxes, you can only rob enemies and seize land.

"What kind of account book is this? It's just crying for poverty!" Du Yu placed the account book heavily on the table in dissatisfaction, making the tax collector tremble in fright.

Du Yu looked at the tax collector with a miserable look on his face and asked, "You just asked for your son to take over your position. Please bring him here. I need to meet my future tax collector."

Soon, the fat tax collector Stanard led a handsome young man into the hall. I really didn’t expect that the fat tax collector would have such a handsome son. Unfortunately, this young man’s right foot was obviously a little bit... He's lame and has a bumpy walk. It's really a pity to look at him.

The fat man looked at his new tax collector curiously and asked curiously, "Are you Statunko, the tax collector's son? I heard from your father that you worked as a retinue knight for Marquis Skarner for a year. How could you do this? Suddenly I thought of coming back and becoming a tax collector. Being a knight has a better future than being a tax collector."

The young man's eyes turned around and he saw Du Yu sitting on the lord's seat in the hall. He couldn't help but feel a sudden feeling in his heart. Du Yu's sharp eyes seemed to be able to see him thoroughly, which made him feel depressed. "Could this be the idiot lord rumored outside? How can someone with such eyes be an idiot?"

The young man looked unnatural and said, "Sir, I once served as the captain of the archers team under Marquis Skarna, but my right leg was shot by the Kugits in last year's battle and I had to come back." Thinking of his bloody battle, he Not being appreciated by his master, Statunko's originally heroic face darkened, and his fingers on both sides were nervously kneaded.

Du Yu looked at the sadness and anger on the young man's face and waved his hands to the tax collector and his son. "You go down first. Since you have been a knight's retinue, you can be my adjutant first. Tomorrow, all the 200 soldiers recruited will be mobilized to the castle. I will personally preside over the training!"

Early in the morning, Du Yu came down from the mountain and saw a group of people gathered in the middle hall of his castle. A young man was riding a horse in circles. It was Statunko, the son of the tax collector, who was skillfully riding on the horse. Swinging the knife left and right, the light of the knife flying up and down is like a chain of light.

The scarecrow heads that served as targets were cut off easily by Statunko's gorgeous knife-drag skills, which attracted cheers from the peasant soldiers standing around. "If the knight who rushed into the hall that day was riding a war horse, I wonder if I would still have a chance to stand here?" Du Yu saw that Statunko, who was just a knight in the retinue, had such smooth knife-drag skills. , and the skillful ability to perform left and right cuts on a horse, I couldn’t help but feel speculative.

I don’t know what kind of power those regular knights who hold sharp spears, carry two-handed swords for close combat, and are heavily armored will be. It’s no wonder that the main force of the kingdom’s combat is still knights. The cheap cannon fodder troops mainly composed of farmers cannot defeat them at all. Compete against these war machines that have practiced killing since childhood.

"Sir, what do you think of these new recruits?" The well-informed old butler did not pay attention to the young Statunko's showoff. As an old man who has served the orthodox knight family all his life, these showoffs are just some fancy tricks to make people laugh. Pediatrics, this task of recruiting soldiers is what the old housekeeper is concerned about.

Du Yu looked at the peasant soldiers who had been summoned. Most of them were young and middle-aged men, holding a variety of weapons in their hands, ranging from farm tools and rakes to pig-killing knives. When he saw the lord arriving, although they all worked hard They pretend to be in high spirits, but long-term malnutrition still leaves traces on their faces and bodies.

His hair was as fluffy as chicken coops, his face was yellow, and the whole formation looked messy. When he saw Du Yu, he frowned slightly, "Can such an army fight? I guess Statunko can defeat them by himself!"

"Hey! These days are really..." Du Yu sighed. He had no choice. Even such an army had to scrape together pieces of iron. Standing on the right side of the team were dozens of people wearing various animal leathers. The archer caught the fat man's attention,

Although these people are relatively thin in body, they have thick and well-developed right arms and sharp and frightening eyes. These should be the mountain hunters in various villages mentioned by the tax collector. These people have a bit of an army look, but their bodies The animal skin costume made Du Yu first think of "Rambo"

Thirty-three Rambos! Very good, very powerful. Du Yu used the spiritual victory method to cheer himself up. Du Yu waved to the guards pushing a cart full of weapons behind him, "Bring out all the weapons equipped this time. I can't let the people in my territory." This is how the people kill the enemy.”

This time Du Yu moved 200 weapons from the castle's arsenal to equip his first army. As a veteran of the knight family, there was nothing else, but these weapons and equipment were still piled up in the warehouse, with accumulated accumulation over the years. Yes, many of them were seized from the enemy, about thousands of them. It seems that the fat hens also have some small bones!

The farmers curiously surrounded the carriage full of weapons. A few farmers curiously picked up a dagger and danced pretentiously. Their originally excited faces were a little pale, "Sir, is this a bit too short? This is for bows and arrows. Equipped with a defensive sword, we were killed before we could hit the enemy."

The entire carriage was piled with daggers that were only half the length of the sword and human-high wooden shields specially designed for siege soldiers. These were armors equipped for archers on the battlefield. They would not be able to confront the enemy head-on. If they encountered The attacking cavalry, the opponent's spear can stab you to the core from three meters away.

As the adjutant, Statunko also curiously picked up a dagger from the car and waved it in his hand a few times. Then he looked at other things on the car and his face turned ugly green.

"Unload all the equipment on the carriage first." Du Yu waved to everyone in full view. The white and trembling fat on his face made Statunko more and more sure of his guess. "It's over. It's been long ago." I heard that the current lord is an idiot. If I had known better, I wouldn’t be greedy for this money.”

Du Yu looked at the stunned soldiers around him, took down a wooden shield as high as a person from the wooden frame next to him with his left hand, and held a wooden dagger in his right hand. He waved to Statunko, who was still in a daze, "Come on, let's Let's try a duel!" Statunko hesitated for a moment, took out a wooden spear from the weapon rack at the back, and placed a crossbar in his hand.

Du Yu rushed forward quickly and used the big shield in his hand to press Statunko, who was holding the spear in front of him, close to him. "Touch!" Statunko held the three-meter-long spear in his hand. After the initial blow was blocked by the shield, there was no chance to strike out.

Sweeping the spear didn't use any force at all. He just kept retreating helplessly until he retreated to the wall. He gritted his teeth and watched the big shield swinging in front of his nose, but there was nothing he could do. Because Du Yu had already relied on the cover of the big shield to rush within one meter,

Everyone watched all this intently. Everyone could see that within this short distance, the dagger in Du Yu's hand was absolutely fatal. Only a stab with a small space for movement could easily kill Statunko.

The peasants who were originally laughing stopped laughing when they saw Statunko, who was still majestic in front of them, being knocked down by the idiot lord with such a despicable but effective move.

Everyone found that the dagger with a large shield was so dangerous! Even Statunko, the knight, was forced into a desperate situation by this tactic.

The large shield for protection quickly approaches the enemy, shortens the distance and uses the dagger to give the enemy a fatal blow. In the highly intensive melee, the Roman infantry phalanx tactics with giant shields for self-defense and close combat weapons such as javelins and daggers are like raising the sharp handle of a knife and hitting you with a fatal blow when you are not paying attention.

This had left a deep impression on Du Yu, and was also the purpose of Du Yu's training this time. The javelin was being made by the blacksmith in the castle. 200 people could form a small square. This special force would definitely give the enemy a surprise.

Du Yu threw the short sword and giant shield in his hand on the ground. "You will go to the battlefield in one month. If you want to come back alive and get a generous bounty, practicing these is your only chance." When the peasant soldiers looked at these weapons, their eyes replaced the contempt with a kind of fanaticism.

"One knight is rewarded with one gold coin, and one lord is rewarded with a piece of land." Many peasants came for the head of one silver coin. Although the front was very tempting, these peasants did not think that those heavily armored killing machines were what they could think of.

But Du Yu's demonstration just now made these goals that the peasants felt far away and unattainable suddenly seem within reach. The ambitions in their hearts were beating, glory, gold coins, and land! Many peasants jumped onto the carriages and selected weapons that suited them. Statunko, who was leaning against the wall in a daze, looked at Du Yu's back as he turned and left, and felt a sense of fear. "Is this a genius, or an idiot?"