At the end of the Tang Dynasty, it was a feudal town, but in Western Europe

During the period of the Five Barbarians, a large number of Germanic barbarians violently invaded the hinterland of Rome, and the Vandals forcibly occupied Iberia, but later the Visigoths occupied the Aquitaine region on the condition that they defeated the Vandals.

After that, the Visigoths did expel and defeat the Vandals, occupied most of Iberia, and established a new Visigothic kingdom.

In this way, the barbarians from Gotland in the North Sea, the northernmost part of Europa, actually occupied the Iberian Peninsula, the southernmost part of Europa.

At the end of the 6th century, the Visigothic king abandoned the Arianism and converted to the Orthodox Church. While completely becoming the Father, he also quickly abolished it. As a result, the Arab invasion in the early 8th century was as smooth as a knife.

In 750 AD, the Abbasid Empire massacred the Umayyad family, and Abdullah, the last descendant of the Umayyad Caliphate, moved to Spain in embarrassment.

After a battle in La Liga, this Abdullah actually defeated Yusuf, the governor of the Umayyad Maghreb in Andalusia, successfully conquered most of the land in Iberia, and established the After the Umayyad Dynasty, the daily life of scolding the East Puppet began.

And in 778, that is, six years ago, the Saracens princes from Spain went to Paderborn, hoping to get the support of Charlemagne-they thought of the emir of the Umayyad Dynasty after the military rebellion, and out of concern for the land Considering the conquest, Charles granted their request.

But it was a failed expedition. Roland, Charlemagne's most trusted general, was attacked and killed by the Basques in Ronces Valles. This has always been an indelible pain in Charlemagne's heart.

In June of 784, Pepin came here.

What if I can avenge Uncle Roland?Pepin looked at the calloused palms of the reins.

If this idea had appeared three years ago, Pepin probably just wanted to show himself in front of his father, hoping to get his approval, but this time, he wanted the title and prestige, and he wanted people who looked down on him to tremble in front of him. Pile the heads of those who despise him into a hill, just like Feng Sen.

Of course, Pepin also hopes to get his father's approval, but his purpose is no longer so simple.

"Uncle Benedict, is that Girona in front?" Pepin asked the priest Benedict beside him, pointing to the looming city wall between the dry forest and the mountains ahead.

Benedict from Aniana raised his head slightly. After looking around for a while, the middle-aged priest in plain linen and black robe nodded solemnly: "Your Highness Pepin, that's Girona."

A smile appeared on Pepin's face: "Holy warriors, Girona is ahead, cheer up, don't let others look down on us. Think about the sweet and sour wine. When we arrive in Girona, I will give each of you a glass!"

"Oh oh oh——" Thinking of the sweet and sour wine in their minds, the knights became energetic, and even quite a few saliva surged under their tongues.

As a Benedictine monk, Benedict frowned with some dissatisfaction. He always felt that while Pepin domesticated these wicked boys, he was also "domesticated" by them. Not only the language, but also The movements and expressions also became rough and greedy.

As a veteran minister who served Charlemagne for ten years, Benedict was a little worried about the methods of this fledgling tiger: "Your Highness Pepin, what are you going to do when you come to Girona this time? Those Basques are not easy to mess with."

With a polite smile on his face, Pepin replied slowly: "Don't worry, Priest Benedict, I've already thought about it. I have three strategies."

Pepin held out three fingers to Benedict: "Benedict, behead, and dog."

Chapter 232 The Spirit of Bannermen

When the news of Pepin reached Feng Sen, it was already the end of July.

Feng Sen was lying on a rattan armchair, reading this rewritten letter with relish by the sunlight reflected outside, which came from Iberia thousands of miles away.

"What is Jieshuai looking at?" Zhenhui, carrying a book of scriptures, had just attended the defense meeting of the priests in Magdeburg. Judging from his blushing and thick neck, as usual, the opinions of the priests and Confucian scholars were still very fierce.

Feng Sen shook the paper in his hand and said with a smile: "This is a letter written by Pepin, and a letter from a local priest. I asked someone to transcribe a copy and let the merchant take it to Saxony."

"how?"

"Pipin has two hands." Feng Sen pointed to a paragraph of Latin on the paper, "He has completely muddied the water in the Spanish border."

"Oh?" Zhenhui took the letter from Feng Sen and read it carefully.

Feng Sen explained from the side by combining personal letters and the priest’s testimony: “After Pepin arrived in Girona, he first came to the door in person and invited six nearby Basque border lords to a banquet one by one, but only four came.

So under the watchful eyes of everyone, Pepin and his crusaders hid in wine barrels, pretended to deliver wine, entered the stronghold of the Basque lord, first killed the Basque lord's personal brigade, and then set fire to it. A lord was burned to death in his own home.

As soon as the lord died, Pepin sobered up. He cried and said that he was just making a joke, but he accidentally missed and killed a man who was said to be his subordinate with a sword on the spot. People, avenging the lord who died unjustly, and then happily divided the lord's property and population with the lords present. "

"Although this method is strange, what's the purpose? It's just killing people to build power? It's not worth it. Is it too radical?"

"In this world, there is no good or bad between radical and prudent, as long as it works or not, true knowledge comes from practice." Feng Sen flipped through the letters of the priests, "These letters are often only a few words, so we can't see the situation clearly and don't have enough information. We can't figure out the situation.

But judging from the results, once the lord died, the remaining Basque lords quickly split into several camps from the original monolith, and the Saracens (Arabs) in the south and the nearby Visigoths and Basques were all mixed in. "

"My brain turns quickly." Zhenhui read it carefully and couldn't help laughing.

"Hmm... hey, Great Monk, how is the debate going today?"

"It's still the same. The quarrel is about worshiping Confucius and ancestors. Is it idol worship? Today, the quarrel finally came to fruition. Confucianism is just a pure moral philosophy. Worshiping Confucius is just to express the worship of the sages, and it is just like people's reverence. Aristotle, to carve his statue is an act."

Zhenhui rubbed her big bald head: "As for ancestor worship, it belongs to idol worship, but in fact, the essence of ancestor worship is to worship heaven, and heaven is the heavenly father, so ancestor worship is fine, but you can't worship privately, you can only worship Go to the cemetery in the church to worship together."

After shaking back and forth on the wicker chair for a while, Feng Sen stood up, opened the window, and let some hot wind blow into the cool room: "Do you think the old priests in Rome and His Royal Highness Charles' Paladin Scholars can agree to this set of things?"

"The spread of the gospel is always tortuous. You can take it a little bit. The old men in the church understand that in the core parish, they strictly abide by the rules, but in the missionary area, they can even have dual beliefs and even 'God rules the sky, Odin rules the earth'" Acquiescence." Zhenhui handed the volume of scriptures to Feng Sen's nose, "But if we think it's okay, Charlie must also think it's okay."

"I'll streamline a copy later and send it out." Feng Sen nodded, flipping through the messy volume of meeting notes.

Zhenhui just wanted to continue talking, but was interrupted by a continuous shout from outside. He walked to the window suspiciously and looked towards the school field in the distance.

"Bjorn, the fire chief of the third team, is fighting Hans. They have a duel every weekend, just leave them alone." Feng Sen said without raising his head.

Feng Sen's summer camp teaching activities are much easier than the original Hamburg school teaching. With bilingual young soldiers to teach, there is no need to be as troublesome as teaching the first batch.

The summer camp wakes up at 05:30 every morning for morning exercises, and has breakfast at seven. After a short rest, queue training and weapon teaching will begin. Feng Sen has spent a lot of money to provide them with enough protein and sugar, and meals include eggs and oil.

In order for these eggs to be worth the money, Feng Sen naturally had to train these bannerman children to death, marching five kilometers across the country, marching fifteen kilometers and night marching, push-ups, horizontal bars, stone locks... In this more than a month During this period of time, many youngsters who were in their puberty just grew half a head taller.

Of course, the most practiced is the queue and discipline, the uniform clothing and language, the standard movement rules down to the centimeter, and the realistic attitude carved out of a mold. This is what Feng Sen wants to train.

What he wants is not a group of children who can fight, but a group of core talents who can reversely shape the identity of banner people and follow their own ideas, so Feng Sen has always focused on thinking.

After the queue and physical training in the morning, one hour of rest for dinner, the hot afternoon, classes in the shed, learning Chinese, learning military regulations, learning mathematics, learning common sense, Feng Sen must at least ensure that each of them can Proficient in addition and subtraction within twenty and multiplication and division within ten.

For the bannerman teenagers who can't even tell the left and the right, this is really a bit difficult.

In the evening, singing in the dining hall, having dinner, and telling stories around the bonfire, this is the favorite part of the young Banner people, they do not know that there are so many myths and heroic deeds in this world.

There are so many deeds of these heroes, and the stories are far better than the ancient heroes that the old priest can't tell clearly. Many bannermen teenagers often have tears in their eyes, just like Bjorn doesn't like Jing Ke but likes Fan Yuqi.

In the story, the Bannerman teenagers memorized countless awkward words and phrases: "A man who is a confidant dies", "Words must be believed, deeds must be resolute", "Wu Fan feeds the lamb and kneels", "Repay grievances with virtue, how can you repay virtue?" "Everyone is mortal. , or heavier than Mount Tai or lighter than a feather" and the "banner spirit" that Feng Sen sums up at the end of each story-loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, righteousness, and faith.

For these second-year middle school boys who have no spiritual entertainment, this sense of morality and honor is overwhelming, and the worldview full of revenge and sacrifice is simply poison, which makes them unable to extricate themselves.

And after hearing that Feng Sen was going to train them to be "banner fighters", the training and study during the day were obviously much more serious, and the resistance was much less.

"But there are not many days left like this." Feng Sen stood up and looked at Bjorn who was beaten by Hans with a wooden sword in the distance.

"Yeah, it will be over tomorrow." Zhenhui said with emotion, "Summer is almost over."

Chapter 233 A Magical Year

"Feng Hansi! You wait!" Wearing a gray summer camp uniform, Bjorn stood at the gate of the camp with a bruised nose, and shouted to Feng Hansi, who was drinking with his colleagues in the pavilion in the distance, "One day, I will take back my animal bone necklace. Now I just leave it to you for safekeeping, so don't lose it."

"Get out!" Feng Hansi stood up and yelled at Bjorn angrily, and there was also a bruise on his face.

Sitting down again, Feng Hansi took a sip of the cool beer, and suddenly found that several young soldiers around him looked at him with strange eyes, and cursed in a defensive manner: "This brownie candy can't be shaken off if it sticks. followed his way."

"Hey, drink and drink." This group of teenagers, who were only fifteen or sixteen years old, raised their glasses and drank the light beer that was so strong that it almost lost the taste of alcohol, and kept teasing.

Today is the end of the summer camp. Usually the young soldiers in Hamburg trained them hard enough, but now they are about to leave. On the contrary, many bannerman students couldn't bear to leave and took the initiative to find the young soldiers to say goodbye, and Bjorn was one of them. One, it's just that his way of saying goodbye is a bit special.

Sitting in the pavilion, Feng Hansi looked into the distance. Outside the camp, the children of the Bannermen who used to walk without a proper course now walked forward habitually. The pace was almost carved out of the same mold. Than, already rules and a lot of spirit.

"We have to go too, and we have to go back to Hamburg to continue studying."

The bannerman left, and so did the young soldiers, but Feng Sen couldn't leave. He wanted to stay in Magdeburg to handle and arrange affairs here. When the autumn harvest approached, those leisurely days gradually disappeared in Feng Sen's daily life.

Everything seemed to press the fast-forward button, as if in a blink of an eye, autumn passed and time turned into November.

For the old residents who originally lived in Saxony, 784 was a magical year with good weather, but the changes were also amazing. First of all, the newly cultivated fields increased day by day.

Due to the five-year non-official rule for newly reclaimed land, coupled with Saxony's vast land and sparsely populated population, countless new settlements continued to be born. Some thousand households also creatively came up with income-generating methods of renting farm tools and cattle, which further promoted the process of this large-scale reclamation.

Based on the reclamation situation in the counties of Hamburg, Bremen, Stade, Lüneburg, Dannenberg, Stendal, Magdeburg and Dessau that Feng Sen has mastered, nearly [-] acres of land have been reclaimed in one year.

Among them, more than 1 mu of land was opened by the bannermen of Baihusuo, more than 1 mu of land was opened by free people, and more than 9000 mu of land was opened by Feng Sen's slaves. During the Christmas banquet, Feng Sen According to the situation of opening the field, the serfs who performed well among them will be promoted as the next coat.

Yes, the refined internal classes of the Eight Banners emerged spontaneously. The most notable ones are the upper coats who can follow the bannermen to fight and the lower coats who can only farm and run errands.

During this period of time, Feng Sen's control area plus the land reclaimed by other lords, the entire Saxony has opened up at least [-] mu of new fields, but this is because Saxony is sparsely populated and there are still many lands suitable for reclamation that have not been opened up. That's why there is only a progress of [-] mu a year, and I'm afraid it won't be so fast in the future.

In fact, since the middle of this year, many people have reported the problem of water shortage in Xintian. Before the area accessible by the artesian canal is mined, Feng Sen has to plan ahead and prepare plans for water trucks and water pumping.

Secondly, what impressed the old residents the most was the increase in population. The wave of immigrants from Franks greatly enriched the human resources of Saxony. The core area controlled by Feng Sen alone increased the population by nearly 1 people, most of whom were Franks, and some were Slavs and Norse.

The news that "there is a battle group called Eight Banners in the south that can send land" has spread in many Viking circles, and many Norse youths who can't eat and live in despair have also jumped on the ship of the West Britain Company and headed for Saxony.

This is only in Feng Sen's territory. Many of these people who came from Frank were recruited by local manor owners, fief owners and nobles. It would be good if half of them could reach the area controlled by Feng Sen.

All in all, Feng Sen estimates that the total population of Saxony has exceeded 35, but this is not enough, and with the forced marriage of soldiers of the Eight Banners, Saxony's first wave of baby boom is coming soon.

Long before the first wave of baby booms, the first wave of infrastructure boom had swept across Saxony. With the gradual spread of brick and tile technology and the impact of forest land reclamation, a large number of building materials such as wood and bricks appeared on the market in Saxony, and the prices were low.

Hamburg is expanding spontaneously, Magdeburg is expanding spontaneously, and the Han soldiers who have won the dividends of the war are also spontaneously spending a lot, buying slaves, mansions and concubines.

You must know that Feng Sen gave the dental soldiers nine thousand solidar rewards, as well as fields, slaves, and trophies. Many dental soldiers began to marry three-bedroom or even four-bedroom concubines, and some even raised concubines. outer room.

The far-sighted dental soldiers bought shares in Feng Sen Salt Mine and West Britain Company, or invested in other private workshops or caravans. Although Feng Sen did not allow them to do business directly, Feng Sen still turned a blind eye to this indirect operation model.

In addition, Feng Sen himself is also engaged in infrastructure construction. During this year, the construction department started construction everywhere, and built three roads with a total length of nearly 20 kilometers, a port in Lune, and the key project Gistacht barrage under construction.

If you want to get rich, you need to build roads first, and the transportation is convenient. Not only are supplies more accessible, but even businessmen are more willing to come.

At present, the price of Seris paper in the market is gradually stabilizing, hovering between 105 deniers and 120 deniers, but there is still a price but no market. Feng Sen is considering whether to expand production.

The salt mines have also begun to produce white salt, but these salts are coarse salt, and the price is not as high as Feng Sen imagined. After calculating the cost, it will take about four or five years to pay back. Therefore, whether to build a salt mine purification production line has become a difficult problem that Feng Sen must face.

These things are progressing steadily and do not require too much supervision.

Among the remaining matters, the one that caused Feng Sen the most pain was the circuit court. As the Duke of Saxony, he also had the duties of a judge, but what he had to deal with was not the lawsuits of the low-level people, but the lawsuits between the lords.

Why I handed over the finances to my wife, but the housekeeper snatched away my wife and all the money. Why there is a big honeycomb between my territory and that of the lord next door.

What Feng Sen wants to play is the role of the patriarch of the feudal family, try his best to adjudicate these public cases, appease everyone's emotions, and rely on this method to continuously create a sense of presence in front of the people and the lord. This is Frank's tradition, and what is useful is useful , but torture is also real torture.

After the autumn harvest, Feng Sen finally bid farewell to the painful circuit court and returned to Magdeburg. Before his butt touched the bench, he learned another important news-Bolenus came with a large pack of people. Magdeburg defected to Feng Sen!

So, Master Feng, who had been tired for two months, had to bid farewell to Gisela's soft body and go to meet Bolainus who had come all the way.

Chapter 234 Bolenus and Byzantine Immigration

The outer wall of Magdeburg is composed of a rammed earth wall on the first floor and a wooden wall on the second floor. In the eyes of the noble Byzantines, such a city is really different from the great city queen Constantinople. small gap.

But in this world, how many cities can reach the level of Constantinople?

"It's just a bigger farm!" Looking at the watchtower behind the wooden wall, a skinny Greek guy complained in disdain and pain.

Carla patted him on the shoulder: "Okay, Eugene, do you still want to stay in Constantinople? Don't be stupid, those damn Latin businessmen will drain your blood and peel off your skin Take it and sell it for money!"

"We are Rome, the Latins should be the ones who should get out!" After seeing this wild scene, Eugene covered his face in collapse and sobbed softly.

As a high-achieving student who graduated from the University of Constantinople, his life should be like His Excellency Tarassios, first becoming a low-level judge, then a senator, then a senior secretary, and finally a chief nobleman, and gradually ascended to the throne. Upper Rome's highest peak.

But now, just because he accidentally gambled with others after drinking, he was set up by a group of Latin businessmen, and had no choice but to borrow a large amount of usury.

The loan was actually not much. He thought he could earn it back through the wine trade. He also had a well-funded vineyard in the Aydin area.

But the war in 782 ended everything. Under the leadership of Harun Rashid, the Abbasid army advanced all the way to the Bosporus Strait, approaching Constantinople, and Queen Irina was forced to beg for peace. tribute, and agreed to donate 8 dinars per year in annual coins.

Eugene's vineyard was destroyed in the war, and the best time to repay the loan was delayed. The usury loans lent by Latin merchants began to roll at death rate, rolling to an amount that Eugene could not earn in his entire life.

Now, the mansion has also been sold, and the fiancée has also run away, leaving nothing but a lot of knowledge.

In desperation, Eugene had no choice but to abandon Constantinople, his hometown that he loved, hated, and nostalgic for. He sold the burned vineyards in exchange for travel expenses, and took a few guards (bankrupt soldiers), Follow your friend Carla, and set off to the wild west.

Eugene was afraid that he would never have the chance to return to Constantinople in his life.

Standing beside Eugene, Carla helplessly comforted the unfortunate young man. Among the more than 600 people they brought from Byzantium, most of them were bankrupt and deprived of their land, and the rest were primary school teachers. , scribe, and the only one who can be called a scholar is Eugene.

Eugene, who was born in a noble family, has excellent accomplishments in water conservancy engineering and agriculture, which is why Eugene is confident that he can use the output of a vineyard to pay off his debts. However, all of this is gone now.

Kara patted Eugene on the shoulder: "Don't cry, the Duke of Saxony is coming soon, a genuine Sirisian, don't you want to meet him? Besides, he is your future lord, and you don't want to be a slacker from the beginning." Annoyed him."

Eugene immediately showed the demeanor of a noble family, wiped away his tears within three seconds, recovered his emotions, and put on a gentle posture, as if the things just now did not exist, which made Kara feel dizzy.

Accompanied by a group of dental guards and attendants, Feng Sen in a short cloak appeared in Bolenus' sight.

"Welcome, immigrants from the Eastern Empire." With a smile on his face, Feng Sen shouted to the group of immigrants from the Eastern Empire, "I have prepared hot water, food and beer for you, and you will be here Find your place, please!"

After Feng Sen finished speaking, he made an invitation gesture to them.

Immigrants from the Eastern Empire walked behind Feng Sen towards the interior of Magdeburg with anxiety and vague expectations.

In the eyes of many immigrants, this ancient city is definitely not as splendid as Constantinople, but it is much better than expected, with consistent houses, clean and tidy houses, straight and wide avenues, Pedestrians, vendors and stalls coming and going.

Magdeburg is also a city built according to the Tang style, and there are also folk squares of the same size, and clear water flows continuously between the ditches on the roadside.

"Long time no see, Bolenus." Riding on the back of a white horse, Feng Sen said to Bolenus with a smile, "I thought you were going to take my money and run away."