Warlord: King of All Clans

The Lords' Conference in the northern cities is a tradition that has been passed down from the era of the kings.

The northern people in the Age of Kings belonged to the city-state system. A city-state was a large clan, and the surrounding vassal villages and small clans would participate in the chiefs' meeting held by the city-state clan every year.

At the chiefs' meeting, the small chiefs and heads of each clan would take this opportunity to trade with each other, resolve conflicts, and discuss laws.

After entering the Imperial Age, the economy and productivity of the North increased significantly. The Lords' Assembly, which evolved from the Chiefs' Assembly, was no longer the center of trade, but it was still the main place for dealing with conflicts between lords and enacting laws.

The Lords' Conference has also become a link of communication between city-state lords and fiefdom knights, so it is held every month.

Rigolav had always stressed that Ulian should attend more Lords' Conferences in Isenbol, but in the past two years, for various reasons, Ulian only went once, following behind Rigolav to see what was new.

Because he was not yet an official feudal knight, Uliyan did not even have the power to vote by raising his hand at that time.

How things change. Last year, Hewan was always thinking about getting into the aristocratic circle, but now, no one can stop the nobles of Isenbol from getting into Hewan.

In addition to the basic laws of the empire, the North also has the local laws of the earldom. In addition, there are special decrees enacted by local lords' conferences based on local customs.

For example, the tax rate in the imperial law was 10% levy, which was originally a very light tax. However, when it came to the North, the Grand Duke of the North had to make a living, so it became 10% levy.

The Earl's Mansion also had to make a living, so the tax became 10.3%. After it was passed on to the local city-state lord, it became 10.4.

In the low-output North, this is already an extremely high tax rate, and many knight lords simply cannot afford it.

But in fact, the empire's tax law has long been in name only, and the Grand Duke of the North has not paid taxes to the royal family of the South for hundreds of years.

The Earl of the North almost became an independent kingdom. Due to the strength of the Grand Duke of the North, it only paid tribute every year to express its nominal submission.

The earldom is completely autonomous, and all taxes collected belong to the Earl's Palace.

Therefore, the lords' meeting after the autumn harvest every year is a place for the feudal knights to cry poor, negotiate with the city-state lords, and then adjust the tax rate according to the harvest of the year.

This taxation law, which was based entirely on self-consciousness and was extremely crude, was more advantageous to the more powerful the fiefdom.

Apart from the unproductive refugees in Riverbend, half of the official subjects work for the lord's industry. They have advanced tools, technology and organizational skills, and their productivity is almost three times that of the subjects in other knight territories.

As for the number of subjects and annual output, Lord Isenbol had no way of investigating it, and he just accepted whatever was reported by Hewan.

Even though Hewan now has a population of over ten thousand, it is not impossible for Rio to rule as a corner flag with one hundred households and pay taxes with the output of all the farmers.

In fact, Hewan has never paid any taxes. Since the development of Hewan, the three-year tax exemption period has not yet expired.

The same is true for many large square flag families. They clearly have a population of over ten thousand, but they conceal their population and only pay taxes based on the scale of three or five ordinary knight territories. This undoubtedly creates a fundamental conflict of interest with the Earl's Mansion.

In addition, there are conflicts between corner flag chiefs and conflicts between square flag families, all of which are mediated by the Lords' Assembly.

As usual, the Lords' Assembly is held next to the Isenbol Arena.

This is a circular hall with an open air in the middle. Through the huge stone pillars, you can hear the fighting sounds from the arena next door.

Before the conference, the lords of Isenbor would watch a competition in the stands of the arena and wait for all the lords to arrive.

The entire arena is mainly divided into two events, one is the horse battle between knights, and the other is the foot battle between gladiators.

The North has a strong martial spirit. A proletarian knight who has passed the knighthood test but has no fiefdom can only demonstrate his bravery in the arena and gain the appreciation of his lord, apart from making achievements on the battlefield.

According to custom, the knight champion of Isenpol would often be granted a manor by the Lord of Isenpol and become a fief knight.

Some square-flag knights with considerable wealth would also use their family's extra manors to support the strong.

A manor was usually run by a dozen or twenty tenant farmers or serfs, enough for a knight to maintain his armor and meet his living needs.

But forget about being directly granted the title of knighthood, as that is a power only available to earls. A regular knighthood has a population of one hundred households, and the military service is the flag service. Not only does one go to the battlefield himself, but he also has to bring a team of soldiers with him.

At this time in the arena, a famous gladiator from Isenbol was fighting against a captured orc prisoner.

This muscular gladiator is an elite heavy-armored warrior, while the orc is an orc warrior. Neither of them is a transcendent.

The fight was exceptionally intense, but Leo took a few glances and shook his head.

If it was the battle he had just come across, the skills contained in such a battle would be enough to keep him glued to the battle.

But with the inheritance of the Sword Master and after being on the battlefield for a long time, this kind of confrontation became a little dull.

"Why, isn't this the kind of strong man that the wealthy Hewan needs?"

At this time, a slightly joking voice came from behind Leo. It turned out that the square-flag knight Rigolav had arrived.

Leo quickly lowered his head and just laughed, "Godfather!"

Following his movement, the row of Wind Knights around him took off their helmets and patted their chests in unison.

To be on the safe side, he brought all ten Wind Knights with him, and they were wearing armor the whole time.

The heavy scarlet armor looked particularly hideous and terrifying, and even Rigolav, who was usually calm, was frightened.

He had already been shocked once when he went to the river bend and saw the Rose Knights serving Olivia.

But they are all light cavalry. Although they wear enchanted silver armor and ride unicorns, at least they do not have the murderous feeling of the Iron Blood Legion.

Through Ulyan's letter, Rigolav learned that there were ten more Wind Knights in the River Bend, but what emerged in his mind were ten of his third brother Solovy.

But a tank soldier driving a tank and a tank soldier retiring and returning home are two completely different concepts.

The already tall and burly Wind Knight, wearing the heavy scarlet armor, was simply an enchanted iron sculpture. He stood at the door, making others take a detour.

Looking at the gladiators fighting to the death in the arena, Leo shook his head, "Riverbend is no longer short of fighters."

Even if they recruit soldiers, they will recruit honest and law-abiding soldiers, not gladiators who are used to competitive life.

Leo knew a little about the market and bought one such gladiator, which was enough for him to arm five regular infantrymen.

The regular infantry trained in Hewan now will be defeated by the fierce and warlike gladiators in single combat, but the legion combat is enough to crush most of the local armed forces.

Leo would rather recruit a large number of refugees, settle them, slowly train the militia, and gradually transform them into regular infantry.

Rigolav was just saying it casually. Ulyaan would write him a poorly written letter to show off the river bend, which made him very annoyed recently.

Of course, Ulyaan's showing off was not malicious. He was demonstrating his military strength to his allies so as to reassure Rigolav, who was in a bad situation during this period.

But Rigolav was also a proud man, and the more Ulyan tried to reassure him, the more he felt looked down upon by his old subordinate.

So when he saw Leo, he felt inexplicably angry and his tone became a little unfriendly.

But when he thought of his adopted son, who was also the adopted son of the Grand Duke of the North, Rigolav felt much better and nodded, "The meeting will start soon. Listen more and talk less, and don't cause trouble."