customs clearance base

Chapter 1623
With a solemn face, Zhao Hu looked at the ledger in his hand, which recorded the grain that had just been harvested in his territory this month.

This year's rain was plentiful, and the grain harvest was rare, [-]% more than in previous years, but these did not make Zhao Hu feel at ease.

The grain in the castle's granary has long been filled to the brim, which is enough to feed the people in the castle for three years now, but the taxes in the cities and towns in the territory are very small, only more than 3000 gold coins.

If it wasn't for the fact that all the knights under his command had run away, the money wouldn't be enough to pay the knights annuities. The ledger showed that half of the food stored in the castle was transported out and sold every year to fill this big hole.

Thinking about the knights that the family spent a lot of money on, but they ran away without a trace when the family was most in danger, Zhao Hu couldn't help feeling disgusted with the knight, a profession that was sacred on the outside but dirty on the inside.

Seeing the young master's tight brows, the tax collector Stad reported speculatively, "I heard that there are bounties in every village, and they have gathered 500 young and middle-aged men, and many hunters from the villages have also participated. The Li family has agreed to exchange it with the prosperous Feishui Town, which can increase our income by [-] gold coins."

"Hunter?" Zhao Hu, who was flipping through the ledger, stopped what he was doing. In fact, Zhao Hu couldn't understand what was written in the ledger. Those complicated numbers and the names of hundreds of merchants and tenants made Zhao Hu Hu felt dazzled, and pretended to look through the account book just to show it to the tax collector, so that the tax collector could do less tricks.

"Yes, there are 38 hunters who participated in the recruitment. These barbarians who like to run around in the mountains used to run far away when they heard about the recruitment. I'm back." The tax collector Stud secretly breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the lord diverted his attention from the ledger.

It is impossible to completely guarantee that there are no problems with the ledger. As a hereditary tax collector, Stad thinks that he is much more honest than many of his colleagues.

I just concealed some smaller transactions. Although the money is not much, it is enough for my own expenses. I am already old. How to safely hand over this position to my son is what I am most concerned about. question.

"You just proposed that your son take over your position. You can bring him here. I need to meet my future tax collector." Zhao Hu closed the ledger on the table, and 0 gold coins were used to get rid of daily expenses. There are still more than 1000 coins left for the cost, which is enough for the reward for this expedition, which makes Zhao Hu, who has been worried about not having enough gold coins, feel relieved.

After reading the account book, Zhao Hu has a certain understanding of the source of a lord's income. The income of the lord's gold coins is determined by the checkpoint road tax and town poll tax in his own territory. The rewards are uncertain numbers, so if you want to have money, apart from fixed taxes, you can only plunder the enemy and rob land.

"You are Starn, the son of the tax collector? I heard from your father that you had been a knight under the Marquis of Nass for a year. Why did you suddenly think of coming back to be a tax collector? Being a knight is comparable to being a tax collector. The tax collector has a future."

Zhao Hu saw the tax collector Stad leading a heroic young man into the hall. He really didn't expect the fat tax collector to have such a handsome son. Unfortunately, the boy's right foot was obviously a little lame, and he walked bumpily. It's a pity to look at it.

When the young Starn saw Zhao Hu sitting on the lord's seat with piercing eyes in the hall, he couldn't help but feel a sudden shock in his heart, as if he had been thoroughly seen by Zhao Hu's sharp eyes, "Could this be the idiot lord rumored outside? How can someone with such eyes be an idiot?"

"I used to be the archer squad leader under the Marquis of Nass, but I was shot and injured my right leg by the Kazakhs in the battle last year, so I had to come back." Thinking of his bloody battle but not being appreciated by the lord, Sta En's originally vigorous face darkened, and the fingers on both sides were pinched together nervously.

"You guys go down first. Since you have been a knight retinue, you should be my adjutant first! Tomorrow, all the [-] soldiers recruited will be mobilized to the castle, and I will personally preside over the training!" Zhao Hu looked at With grief and indignation on the boy's face, he waved his hands at the tax collector and his son.

"This is the true strength of a knight!"

Zhao Hu looked at the young man galloping on horseback in the center of the playground of the castle. Starn, the son of the tax collector, skillfully swung his knife left and right on the horseback. The light of the knife flying up and down was like a chain of light. The scarecrow as the target The heads were cut off lightly by Starn's gorgeous knife-dragging technique, which attracted applause from the peasant soldiers standing around.

"If the knight who rushed into the hall that day was on a horse, would I still have a chance to stand here?" Zhao Hu saw that Starn, who was only a retinue knight, possessed such smooth knife-dragging skills, And the skillful ability of left and right swords on the horse, secretly thought: "I don't know what kind of power those regular knights with sharp spears, two-handed swords and heavy armor will be. No wonder the main combat force of the empire It’s still knights, ordinary troops mainly composed of peasants can’t compete with these war machines that have practiced killing since childhood.”

"My lord, what do you think of these recruits?" The well-informed old butler didn't care much about the young man Starn's showing off. As an old man who has served the orthodox knight family all his life, these showing off are nothing but fancy tricks to make money. The task of recruiting soldiers this time is what the old housekeeper cares about.

Zhao Hu looked at the peasant soldiers who had been summoned, most of them were young and middle-aged men, holding all kinds of weapons in their hands, ranging from agricultural tools to butcher knives for killing pigs, although all of them tried their best to pretend to be energetic , but long-term malnutrition still caused these farmers to be very messy.

Among them, standing on the right side of the team are dozens of archers dressed in various animal leathers. Although their bodies are relatively thin, they have a thick and well-developed right arm and sharp and frightening eyes. The hunters of the village are gone.

"Take out all the weapons equipped this time. I can't let the people in my territory kill the enemy like this." Zhao Hu waved to the guards behind him who were pushing a cart full of weapons.

This time Zhao Hu decided to move out [-] weapons from the castle's armory to equip his first army. As a veteran knight family, there is nothing else, but the weapons and equipment are still piled up in the warehouse. To accumulate, many were seized from the hands of the enemy.

"My lord, isn't this a little too short? This is a defensive sword for archers. We were killed before we could hit the enemy." The peasants surrounded the carriage full of weapons curiously, originally excited His face was a little gloomy.

As an adjutant, Starn picked up a dagger from the car curiously, waved it a few times, and then looked at the other things in the car, his face turned green ugly.

The entire carriage is stacked with short swords that are only half the length of the sword and one-man tall wooden shields for archers. These armors are equipped for archers on the battlefield, and they cannot confront the enemy head-on. I stabbed you two meters away to make you feel cold.

"First remove all the equipment on the carriage." Zhao Hu waved to everyone in full view.

Zhao Hu held a human-high wooden shield in his left hand and a wooden dagger in his right, and pressed Starn, who was holding a spear in front, close to him.

"bump!"

The three-meter-long spear in Starn's hand was blocked by the shield after the initial blow, and there was no chance to stab it out. Beside the wall, he gritted his teeth and watched the big shield dangling in front of his nose, but there was nothing he could do.

Because Zhao Hu has already rushed within one meter under the cover of a large shield, within this short distance, the short sword in Zhao Hu's hand is absolutely deadly, and only one assassination with a small movement space can kill Sta Well easy to kill.

The farmers who were laughing and laughing at the beginning stopped laughing when they saw the majestic Starn in front of him being knocked down by the idiot lord with such a despicable but effective move. The short sword is so dangerous!Even Starn, a knight, was cornered by this tactic.

Use a large shield to quickly approach the enemy to shorten the distance, and use a dagger to give the enemy a fatal blow. In a highly intensive melee, the infantry phalanx with a huge shield for self-defense and javelins, daggers and other close combat weapons, It's like raising a hidden sharp knife handle and popping out a fatal blow inadvertently.

This is the memory that left a deep impression on Zhao Hu, and it is also the purpose of Zhao Hu's training this time. The javelin is being made by the blacksmith in the castle, and 200 people can just form a small square formation. Able to surprise the enemy.

"There is still one month before you will go to the battlefield. If you want to come back alive and get a generous bounty, this is your only chance to practice well." Zhao Hu threw the dagger and giant shield in his hands On the ground, when the peasant soldiers looked at some weapons, their eyes replaced the contempt with fanaticism.

"A knight rewards a gold coin, and a lord rewards a piece of land." Many farmers came for the head of the silver coin. Although the front one was very tempting, these farmers didn't think that those killing machines in heavy armor were the ones they could do. Thought.

However, Zhao Hu's demonstration just now made these goals that the farmers felt so far away suddenly seem within reach.

(End of this chapter)