Damn it, this boss really has no normal skills.

Chapter 509: Do you really have mercenaries in Blackwater Territory?

It is precisely because of their vested interests that the Viscount can still remain shameless even after things have come to this point.

"Mr. Recruiting Officer, I can get the equipment and stuff... I grit my teeth and... barely... gather them together, but I really don't have these 1,000 soldiers!"

The recruiting officer remained unmoved and just asked a question in return.

"Really not?"

The Viscount confirmed immediately.

"Really not!"

The conscription officer did not speak, but exhaled and took two steps around the "military formation".

He shook his head and whispered.

"Damn it, even if we are recruiting soldiers for Ma Run, we can't use soldiers of this level..."

The Viscount was still very anxious and didn't hear what he said clearly, so he chased after him two steps.

"Sir, what did you just say?"

"nothing."

As if he had made up his mind, the recruiting officer stopped and looked back.

"Your Excellency, this is making it very difficult for me to handle."

"Your Excellency... please be flexible."

The Viscount had no choice but to raise the title a little higher, and then quietly took out a purse and stuffed it over.

The recruiting officer looked down and did not take it, but pushed it back.

The Viscount gritted his teeth and took out two gold coins and placed them on top.

"Would you like to think about it again?"

Seeing this, the recruiting officer frowned and simply took a step back.

"Viscount, this is not about money!"

"You! You don't want to drink the toast, so you have to drink the forfeit wine, right?"

Seeing that bribery failed, the angry viscount decided to use intimidation.

"I tell you, I know the Duke of Le Guang! Do you know the Duke of Le Guang?"

He threw out his backstage loudly, gritting his teeth.

"Look, you don't know how to tell you that my sister is his mistress! I am his brother-in-law, so don't push me too far. Be careful of me..."

But unfortunately, Li Guang’s name might scare away many people, but definitely not the person in front of him.

"Ha, what can you do if you're pushed into a corner?"

The conscription officer snorted coldly, and without further ado, he took out a certificate.

"Let me tell you, I'm a pioneer. I don't mingle with your noble circles, so your threats, dukes and barons, are meaningless to me!"

The Viscount's brain suddenly froze.

"What, you're a pioneer?"

Although the recruiting officer is an extension of the king's power and naturally enjoys the protection of the king's orders, he must be given enough face wherever he goes, whether it is the duke or the prince.

But this kind of work that is bound to offend people has been difficult to do since ancient times. Therefore, in the team of recruiting officers, in addition to the absolute confidants of the king and the two ministers, the larger proportion are actually "professional recruiters" hired from the pioneers.

For the Sun King, there were four advantages to hiring them in large numbers.

The first is that after half a year of playing, players no longer care what these damn nobles think, and they even hope that these insects will die, and they will definitely be ruthless, even deadly!
The second advantage is that the pioneers are completely indifferent to their own interests. They only care about the commissions issued by the king and the reward tasks provided by the system. They are not afraid of offending the kingdom's nobles with complicated interests.

The third reason is that for various reasons, those who can get this position are usually high-ranking officials of various countries. They are experienced and are real professional counterparts. These little tricks of the nobles... cannot escape their eyes!

The fourth is that they really know how to cut sausages. Even those noble confidants who claim to be geniuses have made many operational mistakes, causing tension in the region, but the areas they are responsible for have not had even the slightest accident.

As a result, the plan to reduce the power of the feudal lords not only did not cause any trouble, but instead made a huge profit. In one go, the Sun King collected taxes for nearly half a year, which made the old man very happy.

So after fleecing the nobles of the East, he simply raised the amount he demanded from the nobles of the North, and divided the extra money into 70% and 30%, with him taking 70% and giving 30% to the pioneers.

It may sound a little, but this is the most fertile area in the vast kingdom. Any bit of it would bring tremendous wealth.
Now everyone was more dedicated to taking advantage of the nobles. After all, this was not just fleecing the sheep, it was clearly killing the New Year pig!
After the northern nobles cut off some of their own flesh and blood with sad faces, in order to commend the achievements of these recruiting officers, the Sun King simply gave each of them the title of "Knight of the Kingdom" and a medal of honor.

The title is not high, no matter how nice it sounds, it is just an empty title without even fiefdom or salary, but its significance is definitely not small.

You have to know that before this, although there were players who obtained the title of knight, at most they were Duke Knights appointed by Duke Jueqiao.

Outside the southern border, or even just a little bit north, it doesn't have much value.
And now, what has fallen upon them is the title of Knight of the Kingdom, which is the most valuable among all the knightly titles. This means that the king has officially accepted this group of strange "pioneers". From now on, the nobles will no longer be able to find reasons to deny their existence and influence in the kingdom.

Thus, in a win-win situation between the Sun King and the conscription officer, the entire eastern and northern borders of the kingdom were in mourning for a while, and the nobles, both big and small, who were forced to sacrifice their own flesh, were in chaos. No one even dared to hold the customary banquets, for fear that the king would find a reason to impose additional corvee labor on them.

But amidst the chaos, there was still one area of ​​aristocratic territory that remained safe and sound. After taking in refugees from nearby territories, it even showed a rare growth trend, like a bright spot amidst the green.

That’s right, this is the Blackwater Territory owned by Princess Eleanor, located in the southeast of the kingdom by the sea, a land that sounds like it is rich in mercenaries.

The composition of the Black Water Collar is actually quite complicated, because this noble collar with irregular shapes is actually a "platter".

To be specific, until thirty years ago, there was no Blackwater Territory here, but rather four noble territories consisting of one earl and three barons.

But for some reason this earl lost his mind and not only did he have connections with the Church of the Evil God, he was also caught by the Church of Holy Light.

The glory of that time was the "Two Saints Reigning" period, with Anton VI at the peak of his political career and Queen Meryl at level 80 in martial arts.

Moreover, the Church of Holy Light still has strong ruling power across the country and will not allow the cockroach-like evil gods to jump around in its own territory.

So this stupid earl was caught as an example. If it weren't for the ministers' pleading for him, the heads of his entire family would have been chopped off like soldiers at the drop of a bean.

But even so, the earl's title was stripped by the king, his entire family was demoted to commoners, and his territory was nationalized to be distributed in the future.

As for the other three barons, their descendants were not ambitious enough. After the death of the old baron, they died of old age and naturally returned to civilian status.

It was precisely because the bad luck of these four families collided together that the Sun King was able to successfully find a piece of land in the east of the kingdom that met the standards for a princess and give it to Eleanor.

Although this "East" is a little too far south, and what good land can a baron family have? So most of it is rugged and broken mountains and difficult-to-develop swamps, and only the earl's land is a little bit lucrative. But as everyone knows, since you have reached the bottom of the valley, naturally no matter which way you go, you can only go up, so after Eleanor took office, she casually implemented a few benevolent policies and secured her position as the boss.

There was no way. Although the king had previously arranged governors for these four fiefdoms, due to the provisions of the kingdom's laws, their salaries were only related to the size of the region and had nothing to do with personal performance.

Therefore, as long as no one in the region rebelled, the consuls would naturally be ruthless and take advantage of the situation. They were pure practitioners of laissez-faire, and Eleanor could be stronger than them with just a little movement.

And because Eleanor was a newly appointed vassal, according to convention she would be exempted from taxes and corvee labor for three years. So even if there were huge waves in the surrounding areas, it had nothing to do with the new Blackwater Territory, and everyone was busy farming.

But what matters most, after all, is Eleanor’s background.

Twenty years is neither short nor long, as it is enough time for a new generation of people to stand on the stage of the kingdom. But it is definitely not long either, as the old Iron Armored Warriors from that time have not all died.

So when they heard that the Sun King had fulfilled his promise and that Marquis Changge's orphan daughter had actually become a princess, these old guys were completely excited and flocked from all over the world to help.

Of course, they didn't come here to pretend to be weak and cry loudly in public, but to recruit all the people and buy weapons in secret.

Then, with the help of his own son, he massacred the surrounding nobles, and sent brainwashing packages to people all over the world, claiming to be civilized.

They really came here to carry out construction, development, and to implement the will of their former Iron Legion.

Although twenty years have passed after all, many people from that time are no longer the same as before.

Or they are so poor that they don't even have the money to send a congratulatory letter.

Or they may change their hearts, become stinking, and drown in this big dye vat.

It has even turned into dry bones in the tomb, and even the grave cannot be found.

But even if only one out of ten survives, we can still gather a fairly reliable professional team that is capable of handling any affairs in such a small fiefdom where so much needs to be rebuilt.

And it wasn't just the old veterans who came to help out, but also a large number of pioneers.

There is no way, the story of the Iron Army is really too sad.

For the White Eagles and the European Alliance, this is a tragic story of heroes who fought hard but were ultimately defeated by reality.

The empathy that is born out of this is enough to attract some true saints to come and work for free, let alone simple fundraising.

But for the Chinese people, this is a tragic song about heroes and heroic people, which can be associated with a lot of history.

With such sentiments, it is natural that they would take the initiative to come forward to assist the heroes' descendants to continue this kindness.

But more players, with the sympathy and respect that a human being should have, chose to come here and contribute to Blackwater.

With people, things and land, Eleanor's career ushered in an unprecedented period of growth.

Besides, Ji Ming could pass by quietly in other people’s territories, but this was Eleanor’s new home, and since he was here, he couldn’t not come in and sit down.

But when he ran to the main city of Blackwater Territory, he found that there were more familiar people here than he had imagined.

"Oh my god, Brother Tiaozi, why are you here?"

As soon as he entered the door, he saw Canglang directing people to move and unload things.

Canglang turned around and took a closer look, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

"Hey! As expected, you are here too."

Then he took Ji Ming to a newly opened teahouse nearby and introduced him to his colleagues stationed at this intelligence station.

Although Ji Ming had been busy with other things during this period, he had always directed his subordinates to deliver intelligence to the Foreign Affairs Bureau on his behalf.

So in the eyes of these Foreign Affairs Bureau members, although Ji Ming cannot be said to be comparable to James Bond, he is definitely at the level of a legendary intelligence officer.

Therefore, they were naturally very enthusiastic when they met, and they all hoped that this young senior in the intelligence community could give them some pointers and improve their professional skills.

Ji Ming: How would I know the intelligence? I just asked them to collect some valuable information and mix it with the worthless ones and hand it over.

But he certainly couldn't say that, nor did he dare to fool them, so he had to talk about some random things and barely get away with it.

It just so happened that Canglang had finished the matters at hand and took him to the Foreign Affairs Bureau's real base in Blackwater Territory.

"what?"

Ji Minggang was stunned when he heard this. Turtle, this teahouse is not your real base? How deep must the real base be hidden?

Then he was taken all the way out of the city by the wolf.

...Could it be that the Foreign Affairs Bureau has built a secret fortress in the nearby valley?

Then he discovered that they were heading not towards the rugged mountains and forests in the west, but towards the great plains in the north.

...Could it be that Brother Tiaozi is still thinking about the last time I led him to raid the Southern Insect Conference, and decided to dig an underground maze here?

But the answer was neither, when he was taken to the newly established settlement and saw the sign on the tallest building.

"Uh, when did we become so open and aboveboard?"

There was a very explosive line written on the sign, which would never be hung so high in the real world - Blackwater Arsenal.

"Why do you say that as if we are stealing? We are building this legally, okay?"

As he spoke, Canglang sent a screenshot to Ji Ming. Ji Ming opened it and found it was a contract.

The content of the contract is simple.

If the Yangyue Foreign Affairs Bureau, as a foreign investor, wants to set up a factory in Heishui, it must complete the three phases of the project and invest a certain amount of gold coins.

As the lord of Blackwater Territory, Eleanor must protect all legal rights of the Yangyue Foreign Affairs Bureau in Blackwater Territory and provide necessary assistance and support when necessary.

Therefore, it is reasonable and legal for the Foreign Affairs Bureau to build a player settlement with the arsenal as its core. Even the local workers who participated in the construction were hired only after the lord gave his approval.

And according to Canglang's account, it was not just China that had signed a similar contract with Princess Eleanor.

White Eagle, European Alliance, Rossiya... As long as they are pioneering forces that can afford projects and large-scale investments, they basically have a similar document.

"Ah, this... a different world-specific investment promotion?"

(End of this chapter)