In the garden, a well-dressed middle-aged man was walking quickly towards the Hunter family’s meeting hall.
The man’s name is Iger, and he is the butler of the Hunter family.
Iger was adopted by the Hunter family since he was a child. He has been working for the Hunter family since Grandpa Richard’s time. His honor and disgrace have long been tied to the Hunter family.
Before Richard was born, the internal affairs of the territory were mainly handled by Egger, who assisted Viscount Sauter. He was the only one among a group of big bosses in the Hunter family who had some ability in internal affairs. He has always been the chief steward of the Hunter family. .
Even after Richard took charge of the territory, he still let Egger continue to be the chief steward. It’s just that the power is not as concentrated in his hands as before, but Iger has no complaints. After all, being loyal to the Hunter family is his life’s mission.
Arriving at the door of the chamber, two guards at the door saluted Egger.
“Master Richard is inside.”
“Yeah”
Aige responded with a slight nod to the two guards.
After entering the door, he saw Richard sitting on a chair.
“Good day, Master Richard”
As he spoke, Egger made a standard bow to Richard.
“Uncle Egg, no need to be polite.”
“Master, the etiquette cannot be discarded.”
Richard could only ask Egger to sit down with a helpless expression.
Sometimes people are just hypocritical.
Although Richard told Ige not to be polite, if Ige really dared to act carelessly like an elder in front of Richard, it would definitely arouse Richard’s disgust.
Fortunately, Ige abides by his duties as a minister and has never acted beyond his bounds. More importantly, they are loyal and have certain management skills.
Although these management talents are very basic in Richard’s opinion and are also based on experience management, he is an internal affairs talent and understands Richard’s new management methods quickly, so he is still firmly attached to Richard after he has been in power for several years. Sitting in the butler’s seat.
“Uncle Egg, how much food do we still have in hand now?”
“There are still more than 7,000 pieces of stone rye and more than 3,000 pieces of stone blue rice in the warehouse, and there is also some stock of dried meat.”
The staple foods of this world are rye and green rice.
“Furthermore, in order to attract farmers, the young master has lowered the land tax very low in recent years. Almost all farmers in our territory have grain reserves. If there is a shortage of grain, we can collect thousands more dan of grain.”
Although the Northland is said to be a bitter cold land, it actually has relatively fertile black soil. The Daling River and Xiaoling River originate from the Snowy Mountains further north, and flow through the entire ironwood forest and through the Hunter Territory. , forming a large accumulation plain in the north.
In one year, one acre of land can yield a harvest of one stone and a half.
In recent years, Richard has attracted a large number of refugees and fleeing farmers from other territories by reducing agricultural taxes, encouraging reclamation, and developing water conservancy.
The prevailing land tax in the kingdom is 40%. Taking into account the corruption of low-level tax officials, it is common for homesteaders to only keep half of their harvest. Life is even more difficult for tenant farmers who rent land.
But Richard implemented a 20% land tax in Hunter Territory, and completely abolished all the exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes with clever names.
This is naturally a good thing for the common people in the territory. In recent years, the people in the Hunter Territory have become visibly richer, and almost every family has a few stones of food.
However, the good governance of the Hunter Territory is not a good thing for the territories of other families. The impact at a distance is not great, but the Will Territory, which is adjacent to the Hunter Family, has suffered a lot.
Originally, the Kuhaha people in the two territories were equally poor, so everyone had no idea. But suddenly one day, the poor guy next door started to get richer, and their mentality changed.
As a result, many yeoman farmers in the Will Territory simply gave up their land and went to the Hunter Territory to reclaim it. Many tenant farmers of the Will family even began to run away. Everyone in the Will family hates this with all their teeth.
“No need, there is enough food.”
One stone of grain is roughly equivalent to 125 kilograms of grain, and more than 10,000 stone of grain is enough to cover the expenses of Ironwood City for more than a year. There is no need to break your own rules and collect grain again.
Of course, Richard is not a holy lady. He just tries his best to maintain the rule of levying the 20% field tax once a year. If it is really necessary, it will still be levied.
“Next, I plan to expand the Tiemulin Guards to 500 people. Uncle Egg will cooperate with the equipment distribution and placement.”
“Yes”
Iger didn’t ask too much about the reason. Loyalty and doing his own thing well were his greatest strengths.
“There’s nothing wrong, so I’ll leave now.”
“Yeah”
After Egger left, Richard met with several people one after another to arrange some things, and finally a man dressed in civilian clothes came to Richard.
“Brother Kelun, how is the development of Yusidu recently?”
“According to Master Richard’s arrangements, most of the circuses performing in the North and some larger hotels and pubs have arranged our manpower. We are also actively placing spies in large caravans.”
“Now we have more than 30 core personnel and nearly 200 peripheral spies.”
“Okay, thank you for your hard work, brother Colen. This is a hard job, not as glamorous as the city guard.”
Although the name “Yusidu” is delicate, it expresses Richard’s high hopes for this start-up intelligence department.
“Like rain, like silk, it penetrates every hole.”
“It is my honor to serve the young master.”
Colen is an orphan from the Hunter family. He was adopted by the Hunter family when Richard was still young.
The territory of the Hunter family has only been managed by Richard like an iron barrel in recent years. In the past, the Hunter territory was often haunted by snow pirates. They attacked caravans and plundered villages. Coren was among the snow pirates. Lost both parents in the attack.
As an orphan who was adopted from an early age, Colen also received training from the Hunter family and had the experience of practicing martial arts with Richard.
Because of his introverted and careful personality, he was chosen by Richard to be the head of the intelligence department.
“Inadvertently revealed to the Will family the news that iron ore was discovered at the bottom of the northern valley.”
……
“Yes”
Just execute without asking why, this has always been the style of Richard’s men.
When Richard communicates with them in a consultative tone, they can speak freely. When Richard assigns tasks in a commanding tone, they always have only one answer – “yes”
The Northern Valley is in the ironwood forest north of Hunter Territory. Some hunters accidentally discovered the existence of iron ore while chasing their prey.
After learning the news, Richard did not rush to develop. Instead, he chose to suppress the news and continued to buy iron materials at high prices. At that time, the Hunter family was not ready for an all-out war with the Will family.
Now this news will be the last straw for Will’s family.
……
After Colon left, Richard in the meeting hall was once again entangled.
“Would you like to place a human base camp?”
This prompt began to appear as soon as he arrived at Ironwood Fort, but there was no response after he left Ironwood Fort. After several experiments, Richard came to a conclusion:
The base camp must be placed on the basis of an existing castle. It cannot be done randomly in the wild like receiving troop rewards.
But from the bottom of his heart, Richard does not want this golden finger to be exposed to the world. The water in this world is not deep, and Richard has not yet found his psychological bottom. After so many years of hard work, he has never been able to escape from the big world of the North. scope.
The Hunter family is just a small noble who has just made a fortune. In the eyes of the real big nobles, they are just a few lucky upstarts.
If it were just some soldiers who suddenly appeared, it would not be difficult to conceal them as long as they did not allow anyone to see them appearing out of thin air.
But with such a conspicuous building directly in this city, in full view of everyone, even if Richard covers the sky with one hand in Ironwood City, it is inevitable that someone will spread the news.
But the temptation of a human castle is too great. Tier 4 soldiers like the Crusaders are at the level of knights. If there are a few knights and angels behind them, wouldn’t it be a mistake to go sideways?
Richard raised his hand again and again, and finally put it down again.
“Wait a little longer, don’t take risks, there will be a better choice soon.”
The last murmur seemed to be trying to convince himself.
……