Tales of the Reincarnated Lord

　　 Chapter 42 Family Dilemma

　　 The carriage stopped at the gate of the yard. Reddy said to Pat who was in the driving seat, "Here, this is the owner's house."

　　 Then he got out of the car and opened the door. Lorist got out of the car holding Alisa, followed by Sward, El and Sedkamp.

　　 Fatty Shi and Terman, Yuri, and another taxi carriage Steve was in arrived. The group got out of the car and filed into the yard. Pat didn't follow everyone into the house, but instead helped Reddy unload the carriage in the yard and wiped the two Zeno horses with dry cloth.

　　 Reddy was very strange and asked: "What's the matter, why don't you go in?"

Pat thought for a while and said, "I came to see the young master at my grandfather's request. He told me that regardless of whether the young master returns to inherit the territory, I will follow him to protect him, because the heirs of the orthodox blood of the Norton family are only left. He is the next one. No matter what, the young master can't make any accidents."

Reddy laughed: "Big Brother Pat, it’s not that I underestimated you. You are not with the master to protect him, but he protects you. With the strength of your black iron step, you can be in danger when the master is in danger. It’s good to keep yourself from becoming a burden."

Pat blankly gave Reddy a look: "There is a saying in our Northland, even the vigilant beasts have a nap, and the majestic steed can smash. I already know that the young master is Black Iron Locke, Silver Invincibility is great. But no matter how powerful the young master is, it’s just a person. I just need to follow him silently and make a shield. Now I am a black iron, as long as I practice hard, I believe that I can help when I reach the Silver rank. Master is very busy."

　　 "Well said, Pat." I don't know when Lorist came to their side: "Ms. Kress really let you follow me?"

　　 Pat nodded calmly: "If you want to go back to inherit the territory, then I will be your personal guard. If you refuse to go back, then I will stay by your side to protect you."

Speaking of this, Pat laughed self-deprecatingly: "But it looks like you have changed more than I thought. Not only your skills, but your personality has changed. You don't need my protection at all now. Originally, my grandpa and the others I think you must have been unsatisfactory after losing contact with your family for so long. It seems that they are all wrong."

Lorist nodded with deep feeling: "Ten years, so long has passed since I left home in a blink of an eye, and it has been 7 years since I lost contact with my family. For the sake of life, there is nothing that cannot be changed. I have eaten today. A lot of pain. Let’s go, Pat, come in and talk about the situation in your hometown."

　　Sedkamp introduced the status quo of the Norton family in more detail this time. The series of unfortunate incidents caused the family to lose most of the force. Lorist's father was a golden one-star swordsman. Although he was killed and injured when he was young, his cultivation was stagnant, but he was a golden rank after all. His death made the family lose the backbone. And the death of Lorist's eldest brother made the family lose hope. The eldest master was a knight of the golden rank. He was hit by a poisonous arrow in the back when he rushed into the battle, and he was poisoned to death shortly after he took it back. As for the three young masters, when he was young, he fell into a serious illness and couldn't awaken his anger. Only then would he encounter a beast and die because of a horse crashing.

Lorester was very unnatural at this time. He knew that the three young masters of the Norton family were ill because the original owner of his body, Little Locke, pushed him down the well because of jealousy when he was young. Half of the responsibility for the death of the young master was given to Little Locke, and now he inherited this body, and even the responsibility was borne by him.

　　Sedkamp said that when the three young masters encountered Warcraft, the family's only silver three-star knight guard was by the side. Although he fought Warcraft, he was seriously injured and is still recuperating. There is only one silver one-star female knight in the family now, and she is Andre Baisha. The daughter of the deceased family veteran knight Andre grew up with his childhood sweetheart. The master married them, but he never thought that the eldest master would die on the battlefield before getting married. I wonder if the young master remembers the red-haired girl who has been following the young master.

Lorist nodded. The red-haired girl who stayed with her eldest brother in Little Locke's memory was sturdy like a boy. She just pulled off her braids and was beaten by her and gave Little Locke a beating. Left a bitter memory.

　　Sedkamp said that in addition to Miss Baisha, the silver-ranked female knight, the rest of the family are several black iron swordsmen from the garrison, as well as several black iron old men in the castle. The current affairs of the territory are maintained by Miss Baisha, and the chief executive Kress retires behind the scenes due to his old age. Therefore, the family hopes that the second young master will go back to inherit the territory and preside over the overall situation.

　　 Pat, who was once the guard of the Baron Norton, tells the story of Lorester's father. At that time, Lord Baron heard that the mountain barbarians went down to rob again, so they recruited a cavalry team in the castle, 18 cavalry, this is the main mobile force controlled by the family, plus Lord Baron and Pat, a total of twenty horses. As it was discovered that there were more than fifty gangsters from the mountain barbarians who came down the mountain, Lord Baron sent people to conscript the garrison to go with him, preparing to kill all the gangsters.

Lord Baron and Pat took a step forward because they were riding horses. When they arrived at the destination, they found that the gangsters were not prepared. They calculated that the time was almost up and they were ready to attack first. When the defense team arrived and saw the situation, they would naturally follow. Attacks, under attack on both sides, will surely annihilate these barbarians.

　　 Pat said he had advised the Baron to wait until the garrison arrived before launching an attack, but the Baron refused to listen and insisted on launching an attack. It was relatively smooth at first, and the mountain barbarian was caught off guard, but seeing that the Baron and the others were few, it boosted morale and fought for a while. If the defensive team appeared at this time, the barbarians would definitely be beaten. But the left could not wait for the defensive team, and the right could not wait for the defensive team. Seeing that the casualties of his men were getting heavier, Lord Baron was also anxious, and rushed to kill himself regardless of his illness. At this moment, the mountain barbarians cheered. It turned out that the mountain barbarians came with more than fifty reinforcements. Now the baron and the others can't eat it. Pat hurriedly protected the baron who had suffered several times and evacuated the battlefield. , And the family cavalry all died in battle.

　　 After Pat came back, he realized that the garrison was not out of town. Pat was furious, and went straight to the camp of the garrison by himself, slashing the garrison captain Mart. Now those defensive team members quit. More than a hundred defensive team members surrounded the castle to ask Pat to come out. With years of prestige, Miss Baisha and Chief Kress finally settled the matter down. So when Sodkamp was ordered to come to Morient to look for Lorist, the chief executive sent his grandson Pat also, one to **** Sodkamp all the way, and the other was to avoid him staying in the territory and looking for defense. Trouble with the team.

　　 As Soderkamp and Pat talked about it, everyone knew that the situation facing the Norton family was not ordinary difficulties, but very, very difficult. The first trouble is the wave of monsters in winter. Every winter, the monsters in the wasteland will go to the territory in groups to find food. If it is the demon cows and sheep, the vegetarian monsters are okay, the big deal is that the fields and gardens are attacked. damage. If the winter wolves are in groups, even the castle manor and town will be attacked.

　　 The second trouble is the mountain barbarians. The Norton family’s territory is in the extreme northern wasteland. To the north is the endless black mud swamp, to the west is the Blade's Edge Mountains, and to the west is the sea. The salt used by the people in the North is going through the Blade's Edge Mountains to the beach, and then coming down from the cliff to bring it back to the sea to boil the salt, which is very hard and troublesome. Therefore, the price of salt in the North has been very high. To the south is the Black Forest and the wasteland hilly area. This is also the only passage from the family territory to the outside world, connecting with the territories of other nobles. To the east is the Demon Dragon Mountain Range, which is full of countless high hills and dense primitive jungles. The mountain barbarians are active in this mountain that stretches for hundreds of miles.

　　 It is said that the origin of the mountain barbarians is the descendants of the human race who fled into the mountains to find a place to survive in the Dark Ages. They lived in the mountains and forests for hundreds of years and lost contact with the outside world. They degenerated into the form of a savage tribe and worshiped primitive totems. Rumao drinks blood, the weak eats the strong. Although he has been in contact with the outside world, he is still known for his arrogant and arrogant character.

When the first generation ancestors of the Norton family became the lord of this wasteland, the mountain barbarians began to entangle with the Norton family. From time to time, they went down the mountain to looting and robbed everything. They were more cunning, brutal and harder to deal with than Warcraft. . The Norton family once expanded and set up more than ten reclamation villages on the wasteland, all of which suffered heavy casualties and property losses because of the mountain barbarian attacks, and finally had to abandon these reclamation villages one by one. Like this time, Lorist’s father, Lord Baron, was sickened because the mountain barbarian attacked the only ranch in the family territory and robbed a large number of cattle and sheep.

　　 The third trouble for the Norton family is the territory defense team. Now the family territory has a total population of more than 5,000 people, of which more than 3,000 people live in a town called Beiye Town, which is also the only town in the family territory. Most of the people living in it are the families of garrison members and the survivors of soldiers who served for the Norton family. They occupy two-thirds of the arable land in the safe area of ​​the territory, and only turn in one-tenth of the harvest each year, and nothing else. .

　　 Because the ancestors of Norton had a large territory and sparsely populated, they had also vigorously recruited refugees to buy slaves and release them as leaders in order to develop their territory, and they treated the leaders willing to join the garrison very generously. Although the salary is not high, the family’s labor, poll tax and other miscellaneous taxes are exempted, and the fields are distributed to their families, as long as they hand in one-tenth of the harvest of the fields each year.

Even as a lord, the Norton family still has to fulfill its obligations as an imperial nobleman to the Christian Empire. In addition to sending troops to fight when the empire needs it, they also have to pay a tithe for their own territories, which is the farming land in the territories. One-tenth of the harvest must be handed over to the Empire. At that time, other nobles in the imperial territory basically set the harvest tax on the fields at 50%, plus various taxes such as poll tax, transaction tax, city tax, fishery tax, firewood tax and salt tax. Reluctant to survive is already a compassionate lord.

　　The generous treatment of the members of the garrison by the Norton family means that apart from paying the tithe on the empire’s fields, they did not get any benefits from the families of these garrison members. At the beginning, it didn't attract the people to join. After all, becoming a defensive team meant risk. The War of Warcraft every winter was a big test. However, with the stability of the territory and the expansion of the safe area, the interested people found that the benefits of being a member of the garrison team are so great that becoming a member of the garrison team has become a hot trend in the territory. The Norton family was very happy at first, but over time they realized that something was not right and started to lose control.

　　 Generally speaking, the people of Galinthia are used to separate their children and live independently after they become adults. And these families who became garrison members died and did not divide their families. Seven or eight brothers and sisters still lived together after they got married, just to enjoy the treatment of the families of garrison members, and even some garrison members justified their families to give them. Brothers and sisters distribute fields.

The Norton family regretted it at this time, but the Patriarch at the time considered that the garrison team had also made a great contribution to the family territory, but only limited the amount of land granted to the family members of the garrison team, 10 mu per person, which was collected once a year Beidi can barely provide for a family of three. I thought that this could limit this momentum, but unexpectedly, what those garrison members really value is the exemption of labor and various taxes for their families. With the status of family members of garrison members, they are fishing and hunting in their territories, cooking salt and smuggling. Without turning in his income, his life is more moist than the Norton family.

　　 After more than a hundred years, these garrison team members are fathers retreating and sons to enter, brothers and dead brothers are replaced, and the garrison members have become hereditary professions. In Beiye Town, there are more than 100 small and medium common people's families, with a small number of ten or twenty people, and a large number of thirty or forty people, which has become a powerful force in the family territory.

　　 The Norton family thought about dealing with the defensive team, but they had to give up because they were too involved with the family. The maids in the Xiang family castle manor are basically the daughters of these civilian families, and many of the family soldiers recruited by the family in the territory are also family members of these guards. If anything goes wrong, the garrison will get news soon. If the Norton family wants to rely on force, the result is likely to be two defeats, and the Norton family will become a joke in the aristocracy.

Because of these concerns, the resolution of the defense team has been delayed. If the Norton Patriarch is strong, as long as the bottom line of the defense team is not touched, that is, if the treatment of the members of the defense team and their families is not cancelled, the defense team still bows down and is willing. Obeying orders. When Lorist’s father and eldest brother were both present, the garrison was very obedient, and even the eldest master ordered them to go out and fight with him obediently. But the young master died in battle, and the master was seriously ill. After the third young master took over, the defense team began to go against the sun. Just like that time when the third young master patrolled the territory and encountered a warcraft, the few defensive players who followed him immediately fled, and even the third young master He fell off his horse and died without care.

　　 Especially last year, the garrison did not order the family cavalry to be annihilated. The Baron was seriously injured, and even more severely sent people to besiege the family castle and demanded to hand over Pat, the Patriarch who had injured their captain. In a sense, such behavior is like rebellion. The Norton family lost their family power and had to compromise. Solving the territorial garrison team has become an urgent major issue for the next Norton Patriarch.

The fourth trouble is the territorial dispute. The land bordering the Norton family territory is the Viscount of Kenmes. It is reasonable to say that the Northland is mostly wilderness. It does not matter if it is more or less, but the Morgen Hills where the dispute occurred is the Norton family. The location of the copper mine is the only source of financial resources that the Norton family can sustain. How can they be willing to give them their hands? For this reason, there have been several armed conflicts between the two sides, and Viscount Kenmes suffered a great loss.

As a matter of fact, Viscount Kenmes didn’t take care of it. The Norton family’s territory was personally delineated by the founding emperor of the Christen Empire. On the map of the canonized territory, the Morgen Hills is clearly within the territory of the Norton family. . However, the territory of Viscount Kenmes was conferred by the second prince who belonged to the Northland nobles five years ago, and I do not know whether it was careless or deliberate that Morgen Hills was placed on the side of the Viscount. It stands to reason that the second prince should re-send people to distinguish the boundaries between the two sides. As a latecomer, Viscount Kenmes must give in. But I don't know why the second prince made muddy mud together, and only said that he would let the two parties negotiate and resolve it by themselves, and he would no longer care about it. As a result, the two sides took action, and the Norton family won.

Now that the Norton family is declining, Viscount Kenmez has begun to toss again, especially after one of his cousins ​​became the mistress of the Duke of the Northland the year before, and somehow got in touch with the Lord Duke. He set up a mine on the other side of the Morgen Hills and mined the copper resources belonging to the Norton family. And the Norton family can only bear this tone and ignore it.

　　If Viscount Kenmez knew the true situation of the Norton family, he might immediately annex the Norton family copper mine. And losing the income of the copper mine, the Norton family finances will soon go bankrupt. This is the fifth trouble of the Norton family, which can also be said to be a financial crisis.

Ten years ago, although there was a garrison in the Norton family territory, the family is not a nobleman who can live by hunting and leading the people. The family relies on its own force to hunt and kill the beasts to obtain fur, and the specialties of the North rely on family merchants. The team went to Morente City to trade, and the annual revenue was extremely impressive. At that time, there were as many as two hundred family cavalry, well equipped, and the Norton cavalry was famous in the north.

But the good times didn't last long. Seven years ago, the caravan led by Lorester's third uncle was robbed and killed by robbers, causing the family to lose the most important financial income. Then the young master took the family cavalry as the second. The prince fought in all directions, and there were only dozens of family cavalry left waiting for the young master to **** his body back, and more than half of them were disabled. In order to comfort the family for many years, more than half of the accumulated consumption.

　　 What added fuel to the fire was the second prince sending an order, and the ownership of the Norton family was handed over to the Duke of Luckins from the Crown Prince Christon. If the family's iron cavalry and the young master were still there, Lord Baron would certainly refuse to accept this order, even if he would fight with the entire Northland nobles, because the Norton family was loyal to the Christen royal family, not a certain prince.

When the eldest young master was still there, the second prince came to him in every possible way. Unexpectedly, as soon as he died in the battle, the second prince turned his face on his face and refused to recognize him. He didn’t even say that he didn’t receive any compensation, and he also handed over the Norton family as an object to Grand Duke Lucins , This is both ironic and sad for the Norton family. But at that time, all the nobles in the Northland belonged to the second prince, and the Norton family was unable to resist and had to acquiesce in reality.

Duke Lukins is not the Crown Prince. He not only levies field tithes on his noble territories, but also war taxes, blood taxes, territorial preservation fees, etc., which add up to almost half of the income of a noble territory. . Fortunately for other nobles, it is difficult to deal with the Norton family. They cannot levy these additional taxes on the garrison and their families. On the contrary, they have to pay for these people a fee equivalent to three-tenths of their income from their fields. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com If it hadn’t had a copper mine to maintain its income balance, the family would have been in financial deficit.

Even though the war is over, the Duke has not reduced the collection but added a restoration tax, which means that the tax is collected to prepare for the restoration of the Christen Empire. As for the time of preparation, it is not known. Maybe it will. Collected for decades and hundreds of years. Now that the family's main points of external communication are on the territory of Duke Luckins, the Norton family has to bear it again.

When Sederkamp and Pat finished introducing the situation of the entire Norton Territory, everyone was silent, and even Terman, who advocated Lorist’s return to inherit the Territory, was silent. This was clearly a fire pit, who jumped Who is going to die?

　　 Fatty Shi asked Pat and Sedkamp: "Does your family require Locke to arrive before he can inherit the territory?"

Pat replied: "Master passed away in March this year. It took us more than three months to reach Moriente from the North. Because the road was not peaceful, we encountered robbery, slave traders, territorial conflicts, etc. Shaoyuan Road. It took more than a month to find the young master in Morient City. My grandfather told me before leaving that if the young master wants to go back to inherit the territory, he must arrive before March next year. If we don’t have that time If you go back, the family can only choose one of the children born to the master and maid as the heir to the family."

Fatty Shi nodded: "That's good, things are not too urgent, you should follow Locke first and observe for yourself which choice is really good for Locke. At the same time, let Locke think about it. He should choose. What direction is the way to go in the future. Let’s do this first."

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