My Wife Is Great Fief Lord

Chapter 16 Difficulty at the beginning

Gervais ignored Benny, and was the first to walk into the gate of the inner fort. When Gervais stepped into the inner fort, he was taken A gust of cool breeze gently supported me, and I felt that all the heat on my body was blown away by the cool breeze.

He took a random turn around the inner fort, especially the Third Layer where he lived. The interior is still intact and not damaged in the orc invasion. Gervais is very satisfied with the internal situation.

After a while, Gervais exited the inner castle. Because it is not yet able to live in it, you need to find someone to clean it again.

Thomas was assigned to Thomas, and Thomas, accompanied by Benny, went to the town, recruited 20 serfs, and started cleaning inside and outside the castle.

As a nobleman, Gervais is much more relaxed. He is standing on the city wall of the castle, overlooking the mountain. The hillside where the castle is located is already the only commanding height nearby, although there are only dozens of meters, but standing on the castle overlooking the earth.

Gervais really has a glance at the many mountains that seem small, especially since this world is so sparsely populated that the damage to nature is minimal. The sky is blue and clear, and it doesn’t feel hazy when looking far away like on Earth.

The Binhai Town was originally very small. Standing on the city wall, it was sparse and sparse. Compared with the boundless green vegetation, it was like a calm boat in the green sea.

While overlooking the earth, Gervais was constantly thinking about how to build and develop his own territory. His territory is indeed not small, comparable to that of a viscount, but the population is too sparse, only worthy of two. Thousands of people.

And there are still 2,000 impoverished serfs. Gervais believes that as long as the gods are not beautiful, there will be no crops in one season, and 99% of the serfs in the territory will be lost. Will starve to death!

The two thousand serfs depended entirely on the most primordial crops to survive, which meant that even if these people had a bumper harvest every year, the tax of Gervais would always be fixed. He won’t get more tax unless he expands his population base, as Gandalf puts it, expands the population and clears the wasteland.

However, there is a dead end that cannot be escaped. The reason why there are so few people in this territory is because of the invasion of the orc army in the winter season, the main food crops produced here can only be One season of cultivation, the harvest is halved.

If the second season is cultivated, the crops can only mature in the winter season, but then the orc invasion has come, and even if the crops mature, they can only become the food for the orcs. Secondly, because the invasion of the orcs made people feel that this territory has become unsafe, and people felt that their lives were threatened, so they had to leave here.

If this problem is not solved, Gervais will never be able to recruit large numbers of serfs. Where is not farming, why should you come to such a dangerous place to become a serf.

In this world, the sources of serfs are roughly divided into two types. One is that they were looted and sold during the war. The second is that free people voluntarily gave up their status to join the serf industry.

It is incredible to say that the second way is the main source for the lords to recruit serfs.

first It is well understood that population is also a resource in this world. In wars, there are often many soldiers who surrendered, as well as the people of the enemy country affected by the war. After they are captured, they will all be plundered. Go, or be sold as a slave, or become a serf.

As for second, there are actually many free people who are not much better off than serfs. Although serfs have always belonged to groups exploited by nobles, they will be protected by their lords when they are in danger, because They are the private property of the lord.

But the free people are different. They have nothing to do with the lords. When they are in danger, if they want to find the help of the lords, they need to pay high fees, otherwise they will not talk about it.

For example, if the crops fail and the serfs will starve to death, the lord will definitely try to rescue the serfs immediately. But for free people, unless they give up their status and become serfs of the lords, they can only wait to die of starvation.

Freemen living in big cities are better. If you live in the country, unless you have a large field, life will only get more difficult, because everything in the territory, even if it is a Grass is the property of the lords, becoming a serf seems to have abandoned freedom, but as long as you work hard, you can drag out an ignoble existence. Therefore, there are still many free people who cannot survive and become serfs under the temptation of the land.

After becoming serfs, in addition to farming, they can dig wild vegetables, pick wild fruits, and hunt in the territory at will. The lords generally do not prohibit them. The lords were still very ‘friendly’ to their serfs as long as they could pay the prescribed taxes every year.

Gervais’ realm is now equivalent to a run-down company on the verge of closing, and if nothing special, it’s impossible to find a large number of employees to work for him. After all, your treatment is the same as other companies, but there is a risk of bankruptcy. As long as there is no hole in your head, you will definitely not choose him. You can also get the same benefits in other stable places, and no one will be stupid.

The more I thought about it, the more headaches got worse. Fortunately, Gervais got off the city wall and didn’t think about it. He has just come to the territory, and his butt hasn’t been hot, so he can think about it in the long run.

When he came to the clearing, Jimmy was working hard to roast two chickens, the two chickens that Benny had caught.

Benny tells Thomas that both chickens were bought in the country and now want to honor Lord Gervais. Thomas was worried that his Lord Baron’s lunch was missing, of course, he took two chickens without thinking.

When Gervais found out, he didn’t believe what Benny said, regardless of whether others werelieving or not, but he accepted the chicken, because he had eaten dry food for two days and missed the heat very much. Food.

The situation in the town, it is estimated that even if you have money, you will not be able to get good ingredients in a short time. I ate these two chickens first, and then sent Thomas to the town in the afternoon to see if there were any. There is nothing good to buy. As for Benny and the others, they still need to know tomorrow.

He had already planned in his mind that he would need to interrogate all ten guards separately tomorrow, especially the seven guards. Gervais felt that the information that Gervais could ask from their mouths would definitely be better than Benny and him. The henchman got there exactly.

Only by ensuring that the people around him are reliable, can he develop his territory with peace of mind, and his personal safety can also be guaranteed.

Thomas and Jimmy were sent to him by Alice, so it should be believable. Even if the two may be Alice’s spies, Gervais doesn’t care, because the only thing he needs to keep secret from others is cheat.

cheat panel Gervais was tested at Fort Baron Gandalf, that time he opened the panel in front of the servant, but found that the servant was unaware and could not see the existence of the panel, so he just used When rewarding, pay attention to hiding, so there is no risk of exposing cheat.

The three guards who followed him were all his father’s most trusted subordinates, so there was no need to worry about loyalty questions. Now all he needs to do is clear the Viscount Castle from the unscrupulous among the ten guards.

……

Twenty serfs worked very hard. Although some places have not been cleaned yet, Gervais’s bedroom, study and other areas where nobles are active have basically been cleaned. .

There are only a few parts that have not been cleaned, that is, those places that are not used yet, and it is not too late to clean them tomorrow, such as guest rooms and some storage rooms.

Unbeknownst to Gervais, it was for this reason that Benny was temporarily spared.

As the day got dark, Thomas dismissed eighteen of the serfs, giving three coppers to each of them as instructed by Gervais, and in the continuous praise of Lord Baron’s generosity, let him These serfs went back to Binhai Town.

According to Thomas’s own idea, there was no need to give so much money, because these serfs belonged to Gervais, and they occasionally worked for their noble masters and charged so much money, then It is definitely going to be hung on the town square as a flag for everyone to see, to warn those serfs who are not high-minded enough.

Eighteen serfs took the copper and left happily. As for the other two young serfs, they were temporarily stayed after Thomas consulted Gervais.

They will continue to clean the rest of the places that have not been cleaned, and even after cleaning, the two can temporarily serve as servants in the castle.

When Gervais came over, except for the five of them, he didn’t bring anyone else. Recruiting maids and maids will have to wait until the day after tomorrow. Therefore, these two serfs were spotted by Thomas and temporarily served as servants in the castle during the past few days.

……

Dinner can already be eaten in the restaurant of the inner castle. After the castle was breached by the orcs, the orcs just killed everyone in the castle and took all the Gold coins and food, I am not interested in furniture or those works of art, so I keep a lot of them.

The valuable artworks have been taken away by Count, and these leftover tables, chairs and benches, which Count despised, still remain in the castle.

The furniture used by the Viscount is of course made of high-quality wood. Although the count is not eye-catching, it is also not Mortal Grade. It has been placed for several decades and scrubbed out. It has not been rotted over time, or eaten by insects and ants.

These leftover furniture in the castle can be regarded as a small leak for Gervais. Even if one of the third furniture was damaged in that year, the preserved 2/3/2022 furniture is not worth it. less money.

Like the long table in the restaurant, not only the material is very good, but also the workmanship is very fine, and there are many patterns about Knight carved on each table leg. Compared with such a table, the table in the Gandalf restaurant is simply a civilian version of the table.

The food at night is no longer just barbecue. Of course, chef Jimmy is not only barbecue. The first two days were limited by ingredients, so he could only eat it.

This afternoon, Gervais gave Thomas a gold coin worth and asked him to go to the town to buy urgently needed supplies. Food is the most important thing. They set off from Gandalf Castle and traveled lightly. They only brought enough dry food and a few sets of clothes, and nothing else.

Gandalf gave Gervais the money before he left. In addition to the supplies that will be sent over a while, Gandalf also gave Gervais twenty gold coins for the purchase of saphire blue spiritworm. , and for Gandalf, who was hollowed out, twenty gold coins are not a small number.

With these twenty gold coins, Gervais’ current dilemma has been greatly alleviated.

(End of this chapter)