Beast Throne

Chapter 714 Baron Longbottom

Longbottom was a baron, a hereditary peerage.Even though the baron is only the lowest title, if it is hereditary, it can make most nobles jealous.When the father dies, the son succeeds, the son dies and the grandson succeeds, and the grandson dies... Only when the family is passed down from generation to generation can a family be formed.That's right, Baron Longbottom is the current head of the Longbottom family.

There are many nobles in the entire Tianyang Empire, but families with hereditary titles are only rare.Ordinary people usually have two ways to obtain titles, one is to join the army and win with military merit.The second is to become a member of the imperial civil servants, slowly climb up, and when the official position reaches a certain height, it will naturally be sealed.

Both approaches have pros and cons.If you want to win the title with military merit, you can't stay in the stable local army. You must join the border guards and become a member of the border guards.The internal situation of the Tianyang Empire was comforting. Almost all the local armies had become the private armaments of the great lords. If there were no battles to fight, there would naturally be no chance of meritorious deeds.But joining the border guards is different. The two empires are at war every year, and there are wars every year. As long as you have enough strength, it is not difficult to establish military merits.

But that's the problem. You have the ability, so do others, and the enemy is no exception.Unless your strength is unearthly, there is no guarantee that you will not die in battle.Some people used to be bounty hunters, and they always feel that their strength is much stronger than ordinary soldiers, and it is not difficult to obtain military exploits.But once they are on the battlefield, their proud strength and combat experience will not be of any help at all, and may become a drag instead.

Facing a thousand arrows, no matter how flexible your movements are, you can't even try to dodge them.There are also some fighters whose strength is indeed superior to others, and they can kill all directions on the battlefield, but often these people will not survive.The more conspicuous it is on the battlefield, the easier it is to be besieged, and even the special attention of the enemy's masters.Once you are targeted, maybe a cold arrow can kill you.

Therefore, if you want to win a title with military merit, in addition to strength, you must also have enough brains and good luck.If one of the three is missing, it is very likely that one will die on the battlefield.

As for taking the path of civil servants... forget it.Although it is dangerous to win a title with military exploits, it is relatively fair.Nimitz ruled the army very strictly. In the army, he only looked at the rank of the army, and he didn't care about his background. Even Su Zhen didn't have any privileges, just like ordinary soldiers.That's not to mention, Nimitz especially hates the behavior of pretending to be a leader or robbing other people's military merits. Once found, he will be executed immediately.

There was once a rich nobleman who thought he was smart, so he asked his son to join the border guards, and hired several masters to protect him, and credited their military exploits to his son, hoping to win him a title.No matter what he did, it brought disaster to his son in the end. After discovering this, Nimitz deliberately transferred his son and those invited strongmen to the most dangerous place to garrison, waiting for the next defense change None of these people survived smoothly, not even a corpse, and they all turned into handfuls of loess on the wilderness.

Being a civil servant is indeed not life-threatening. It seems that as long as you have the ability, you will always succeed one day.However, the fact is just the opposite. No matter how capable a civil official of civilian origin is, the best result can only be someone else's staff and a stepping stone for others.And those who can really get titles through the civil service system will always only be those who come from big families.

If you choose neither of the two paths, but still want to get the title, there is only one way left—inheritance.However, there are very few hereditary nobles. Generally speaking, families with hereditary titles usually existed when the country was founded, and were conferred by the founding emperor himself.Or maybe his family has irreplaceable abilities, and the empire must use this method to firmly tie it to its own chariot.If these two requirements cannot be met, it will be difficult to obtain a hereditary title even if the power is overwhelming.

The most typical example is still Prime Minister Hippolyte.In terms of status, he is already the head of civil servants, and in terms of background, he is Su Bolai's brother-in-law, and he himself has a very close relationship with Su Bolai.When Hippoly revealed his desire to become a hereditary nobleman, Su Bolai also agreed.But in the end this matter failed, because after Su Bolai brought this matter up for discussion, he immediately received strong opposition from Marshal Nimitz and Grand Duke Burvida of the Griffon, and even several great lords also passed Various ways to express their dissatisfaction.

Even if Su Bolai was stupid, he knew that this matter could not be done, and in the end he had to let it go.Even Hippoly is like this, and it is even more impossible for others to become hereditary nobles.

But the Longbottom family is indeed a hereditary baron, there is no doubt about it.Of course, this also means that the ancestors of the Longbottom family belonged to one of the founding heroes, but they were not very conspicuous, otherwise they wouldn't have just won the title of Baron.Probably the first Baron Longbottom was the confidant of some important person or something. Although he was not very famous, he was not forgotten after all. He still remembered to give him a piece of the cake, although it was only a small piece.

This was enough. While the next Barons of Longbottom inherited their titles from their elders, they also inherited their character of seeking no merit but no fault.After thousands of years, other families have either flourished and become members of the peak power class; or they have completely declined, and even lost their inheritance; .As for the Longbottom family, there was almost no change, they still guarded their one-third of an acre of land, and lived their small life leisurely.

"I should be the last Baron Longbottom. In a few days, there will be no Longbottom family in the world." Chasing away a mouse that had been staring at him for a long time, Baron Longbottom leaned against the wall weakly, and then Think back to the few wonderful moments in your life.

The Longbottom family owns their own territory, which is very small, a small town the size of a palm, with only a few hundred residents.There are eight thousand small lords like him in the empire, but there are few who are richer than the Longbottom family.It's not because the Longbottom family is good at experience, nor is it because the territory is rich in resources, but because the location of the Longbottom family territory is good.

Baron Longbottom's fief is located outside the imperial city, which can barely be regarded as the outskirts of the city, and everything else is average, but there is a river that just flows out of the imperial city, passing by his small town.A small town outside the metropolis, plus a small river with plenty of water, just met the basic requirements for establishing a cargo transfer station, making Baron Longbottom's town a treasure in the eyes of many businessmen.

The first Baron Longbottom was very self-aware, knowing that his own level was limited, and doing business would only make the family decline faster, so he directly leased the entire town to those commercial families and asked them to set up inns and warehouses in the town, while he himself Then he became a hands-off shopkeeper, and didn't care about anything except collecting rent.In addition, he also established a family rule, no matter how much someone else pays, he is not allowed to sell the family territory, otherwise he will be deprived of his status as the head of the family immediately and directly expelled from the family.

I have to say that the first Baron Longbottom was still very wise, and the rules he set ensured the success of the Longbottom family.While other families were either rising or falling, the Longbottom family relied on that treasure land to still live a happy life.

Of course, there are other big families who are greedy for this place, and they want to take it from the Longbottom family by means of robbery if they can't buy it.But this is not a problem. Every time this happens, Baron Longbottom will put on his best and most formal clothes, bring the treasures he usually accumulates, and visit other hereditary nobles.

Although most of the hereditary nobles in the imperial city have fallen, there are always powerful ones, such as the Griffin family who are the hereditary dukes.Because they belonged to hereditary nobles, those big families would generally lend a helping hand to keep the territories of these small families.

As long as the territory is still there, it's okay to bleed a little. The small families still understand this truth.

Thinking of this, Baron Longbottom, who was dying of hunger and could hardly keep his eyes open, miraculously smiled.During his tenure as Patriarch, he also encountered a crisis, but he resolved it without paying any price. It was the most correct thing he did in his life.

When Baron Longbottom first became the head of the family, the chamber of commerce that leased the family territory lost a lot of money due to a wrong decision and had to withdraw from the imperial city.Of course, in the eyes of Baron Longbottom, this is not a matter at all. If a chamber of commerce withdraws, there will naturally be more chambers of commerce waiting to enter. His territory will not have to worry about finding tenants.The only headache for Baron Longbottom was choosing one of the many rent-seeking chambers of commerce.

Generally speaking, it is not difficult to make a choice. First of all, you must choose those chambers of commerce that belong to the Tianyang Empire, because this will be protected by the laws of the empire.Secondly, it doesn't matter who bids the most.However, after a few days of careful consideration, Baron Longbottom, regardless of the opposition of other members of the family, leased the territory to a foreign chamber of commerce - the San Siro family.

What a wise decision this is!Whenever Baron Barton thought of this, he couldn't help laughing out loud.It is precisely because of choosing the San Siro family that the Longbottom family has had smooth sailing for decades.

There was once a newly promoted family who climbed the path of the eldest prince, and directly passed a message to Baron Longbottom through his superiors, wanting to buy his territory as their base for entering the imperial city.With the face of the eldest prince there, those nobles who had helped the Longbottom family in the past all stood by and watched, even though Baron Longbottom begged his grandfather to sue his grandmother, it was useless.But just when Baron Longbottom had completely lost hope, the new family suddenly stopped buying.

Afterwards, Baron Longbottom found out that the reason why the family stopped was because the patriarch of the San Siro family, a female magician named Ferrin, kicked open the door of the new family and took a contract with the new family. On the patriarch's nose.

"The San Siro family leased the territory of the Longbottom family for 100 years. No one is allowed to make trouble before the expiration date, otherwise the consequences will be at your own risk."

This was the first sentence in the contract, and it was at this time that Baron Longbottom understood that in the eyes of the female Patriarch Ferring, all those who refused to let her rent the territory should be responsible for the consequences, not just them. Just the Longbottom family.

Obviously, the new family was scared, and even the eldest prince didn't respond.

It may not be so glorious to rely on tenants to keep the territory, but in Baron Longbottom's mind, this only shows that he has a good vision, at least better than everyone in the family.If he hadn't fought against all opinions at that time, the territory would definitely not have been kept.Without the territory, the Longbottom family is basically over.

"I can't die, I have to hold on for a few more days." Probably inspired by the "wiseness" from the past, Baron Longbottom decided to use his last strength to stand up and choose a few relatively fresh pieces of meat from the pair of carrion as his own. food.Trapped in the arena for so long, people with a slightly weaker body have died of starvation, exhaustion and disease, and only Baron Longbottom, who has a strong digestive ability, can survive.If you want to survive, you have to eat no matter how unpalatable it is. If you don’t eat carrion, then you yourself will become a pile of carrion.

But this time Baron Longbottom failed to pick the piece of meat he wanted. Just when he climbed in front of the pair of rotten flesh, his body suddenly lightened, and he disappeared together with the pair of rotten flesh.

At the same time, a huge bottomless pothole appeared in the arena, swallowing one-third of the residents in the blink of an eye.

(End of this chapter)