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

The chaotic footsteps gradually changed from slow to rapid, and as they got closer, even the ferocious faces of the soldiers on both sides could be clearly seen.

"Boom!"

"Whoosh-"

The ear-piercing sound of blares rang in the ears of the soldiers on both sides, and continuous arrows landed between the two formations.

The soldiers who had experienced the previous war immediately stopped. Everyone knew that the Duke of Saxony had arrived at this time, but they still had a tense posture, as if they could rush out and kill at any time.

With a leisurely smile, Feng Sen rode his flying mane into the tense atmosphere slowly and complacently: "I take the title of Duke of Saxony and Great Chief of Saxony, with the power bestowed on me by the gods, vassals, I order You suspend the duel."

In the queue of personal soldiers, Earl Tecklenburg said loudly: "Your Excellency, I admire your dignity and force, but this is a private matter between me and him. This is a duel before God. I can't think of any reason for you to stop us."

The chief of Hildesheim said loudly: "Your Excellency, the Earl of Tecklenburg pretended to be a bandit and plundered my tribesmen as slaves. I saw it with my own eyes in his team. This is my Just war."

Halfway through the chief’s words, the Earl of Tecklenburg immediately retorted loudly: “That tribesman converted to the righteous faith, could speak Frankish, and came to me as a freeman. Land, now he is my subject, and it is wishful thinking to hand over my subject to you."

"Okay." Feng Sen's voice was not loud, but he overcame the quarrel between the two: "Although one of you is a Frank and the other is a Saxon, you are both my subjects and you are colleagues.

I don't want personal fights to break out among my colleagues, because you are equally honorable, and your soldiers are set up to resist foreign invasions. If they die, what if your subordinates rebel?If the bandits rob, how will you end up?

I'm not here to stop your duel, I just hope to change the way of duel without hurting the fundamental way. "

Chief Hildesheim squeezed out from the line of soldiers: "Then I can fight one-on-one, that Frank, do you dare?"

"Why don't you dare?" Earl Tecklenburg replied, walking out of the queue with a long sword on his shoulder.

Feng Sen still didn't agree: "You are all noble nobles, how can you be like mud legs? Besides, I can't bear the fact that people who should have contributed to my dukedom will die at the hands of my own people."

"Then what does Your Excellency the Duke want to do?"

Feng Sen laughed immediately: "I have a proposal. In my homeland of Siris, there is a game called Cuju, which is as popular as hunting. The bravest warriors put on armor, without weapons, and fight like a real war, so it is called a game for warriors."

The Earl of Tecklenburg's mouth twitched slightly: "Just use the game to determine? Is this a bit of a joke."

Chief Hildesheim took the opportunity to taunt: "Don't you dare? If you don't even dare to play a game, then return my tribal people to me as soon as possible."

The Earl of Tecklenburg roared angrily: "Damn it, you coward, who dare not dare, Your Excellency, how do you fight this competition?"

Beckoning to the guard cavalry behind, Feng Sen snapped his fingers: "It's very simple, I'll ask my men to demonstrate it to you."

Driven by the guards, the large circle of onlookers was cleared out of an open space in the middle of the growing number of onlookers, and a few bars were sprinkled with white ash on the ground.

Feng Sen's subordinates lined up in two teams, each wearing armed clothing and leather armor, holding up a shield, and 25 people stood on each side.

"Kick-off!" Before the nobles around Feng Sen could react, Feng Sen gave an order, and a ball sewn with cowhide was kicked out.

"Cuju originated from our soldiers competing for heads on the battlefield. A group of soldiers got a head and had to bring it to their own general for registration, while the other teams had to intercept him, thus it evolved into what it is today.

But you can think of this as the two sides forming an army formation, and the ball holder is the vanguard, who will launch the attack and break through the enemy's formation. "

Off the court, the tall and burly Feng William kicked away two intercepting soldiers, but before rushing out for a long time, the leading Slavic running back slammed straight up. Feng William was caught off guard and was knocked upside down in the air.

"You can think of this scene as a battlefield. Behind the two sides are the baggage or their respective villages. The offense and defense take turns. Whoever can protect their own village and break through to the enemy's village is the winner, but they fail to break through within the prescribed rounds. , you need to rotate offense and defense.”

This time, Feng William's side was still the first to attack, but the main attacker was replaced by a Tang Dynasty soldier. He quickly supported the opponent's shoulders, crossed his body, and rushed towards the opposing bottom line touchdown zone.

Seeing that in front of the sideline, three linebackers rushed forward and pinned down the body of the Tang Dynasty dental soldier, but just when the nobles were sighing for the warrior's fall, an accident suddenly happened.

The Tang soldier threw the ball to Feng William in the distance just before he was thrown down, and the situation was reversed instantly. Amid the cheers of the nobles, Feng Weilian charged forward with big strides, knocking over countless opponents' interceptions, and successfully smashed the ball heavily into the touchdown zone at the last moment of being thrown down.

Amidst the cheers of the crowd, Feng Sen turned around and said to the two of them: "My subordinates will teach your soldiers the rules of the competition. How about continuing your duel on the third day after Christmas?"

In the expectant eyes of everyone, the two looked at each other and nodded viciously.

2Chapter 16 We've Got Arianism

The second floor of the Bremen church.

Fields' study seems to be a shrunken church, and the door of this small church is a pointed wooden window. Around the wooden window is a curly garland of acanthus leaves and striped white pointed columns. Above, you can see the statue of the Virgin with Isaiah in her arms.

A few pigeons were pecking at the wheat grains that Fields sprinkled in front of the window lattice, while Fredges stood a little farther away respectfully, waiting for Fields' reply.

Filtz was a lot fatter than before, and he was almost completely different from the violent priest who smashed people with a meteor hammer before. He looked kindly and kindly, as if he knew I was me today.

"How's the progress in Hamburg?" Filtz turned his head with a smile and asked Fredges while the pigeons were pecking at the palm of his hand.

"At present, I have learned more than 300 Chinese characters and more than 200 bytes of Chinese." Fredges took out a booklet for daily practice from his pocket, "This Chinese character is also like our Carolingian lowercase font." , divided into uppercase and lowercase, uppercase characters are more complex but more beautiful, like paintings, while lowercase fonts are relatively abstract, but with fewer strokes, it is easy to write."

After taking the booklet from Fredges, Fields did not open it, but asked with a smile, "Have you tried it? How does it feel?"

After thinking about it, Fredges replied: "The logic of the words of Seris is not very strong, and it can even be said that there is no clear logic in the construction of sentences.

But the strange thing is that they can also communicate without making too many mistakes, and often one or two words can express a lot of meaning, which is very suitable for recording and writing, but not suitable for communication.

In other words, there is nothing to learn about grammar, but the fixed collocation and pronunciation are very difficult, but Bishop Kelvin (Zhenhui) taught us to use the Latin alphabet as phonetic symbols and phoneticize the words of Seris, which is easy to learn too much. "

Fields casually flipped through two or three pages: "Your Excellency Alcuin ordered you to find a way to create a new Frankish font, do you have any idea?"

"It's a little bit." Fredges nodded, and turned the page in Fields's hand to the end. "With the current Frankish font, it is difficult to create ideographic characters, so we learned the method of Seris writing. For the time being, we will spell the words into a square character according to the alphabet. Later, we will slowly delete and evolve, just like the Siris lowercase, separating the pronunciation from the text."

Taking a casual glance at the newly coined text, Fields asked, "How is church life in Hamburg?"

Fredges did not speak, and there was a sudden silence in the room, inaudible except for the creaking of the monks outside as they marched on the wooden floor.

A gust of wind blew up and down the heavy curtains by the window, and those pigeons seemed to feel something, and raised their heads to look into the distance.Fredges lowered his head, sometimes frowning, sometimes pursing his lips, with a hesitant expression.

"What's wrong? Why don't you talk?"

After adjusting his posture and helping his slipped robe, Fredges bowed: "Eastern Falia is a land that the heavenly father has never set foot on. There are Confucian scholars from Sires and priests from Saxons. Under the influence of these, the Church of Hamburg is also very different from other places.

They are very similar to the Celtic church, they are more open to heresy, assertive and confident. Under the leadership of Kelvin priests, any topic about God can be discussed, and the priests are also willing to argue and guide lost lambs, such as those Confucian scholars and Saxon priests.

Bishop Kelvin held defense meetings every week, and everyone discussed theology, Confucianism, and Heavenly Father according to the topics. Confucianism is indeed a subject no less than Greek philosophy. I learned a lot about Confucianism and guided many Confucian scholars to convert. "

After waving his hand to drive those pigeons away, Fields asked strangely, "Then why did you hesitate just now?"

After taking two steps forward, Fredges lowered his voice: "Bishop Kelvin set up an anonymous discussion meeting. He set up a box in the defense hall. Anyone can write down words and put them in the box. The next day, Bishop Kelvin will post the words in the box on the wall for everyone to discuss."

"That's a novel idea. What's the problem?"

"I found that recently, a group of people with the pseudonym prefixed by Yin Xiu always refute the Trinity Theory. I suspect that there are a lot of Arius heresies in Hamburg. The controversy about the Trinity is now the most common dispute on the list, and many young apprentice monks have been shaken."

"What else?" Fields' eyes widened, "Won't Kelvin stop it?"

Fredges shook his head calmly and said: "Bishop Kelvin thinks that the more arguments are made, the more they argue, there must be someone who can refute their theories, and when the time comes, they will know who is the truth. The rush to stop them now will only make people think that we are afraid of them."

"That's true." Muttering in his mouth, Fields leaned back on the back of the chair, pondered for a while, "I will write to His Royal Highness Charlie about this matter, and you continue to think about the matter of the Frankish writing. You don't need to worry about other things. Your main task is the matter of the Frankish writing."

"Okay, I pay my respects to you, I'll go first, Your Excellency the Bishop."

"go Go."

After bidding farewell to Fields, Fredges went downstairs slowly. Although he reported the incident to Fields, he always felt that something was wrong, and he felt a little hairy and worried.

"Boom."

It wasn't until he felt the impact of his body that Fredges realized that he was so engrossed that he accidentally knocked down a passerby.

He looked up at the somewhat short black hat monk, and quickly stretched out his hand to pull him up: "My brother, are you alright?"

"It's okay." The short monk lowered his head, seemed to have a cold, and his nasal voice was thick. He didn't accept Fredges's help, stood up on the steps by himself, and left in a hurry.

Thinking that the monk was in a hurry, Fredges didn't doubt him, and walked forward on his own, but stopped after taking two steps, and turned his head to see the monk's back, but the black hat The monk has already left, even his back is gone.

Fredges frowned. Although he couldn't see his face clearly just now, why did his figure and posture look familiar?

When Fredges was still remembering where he had seen it, Feng Sen was standing in front of the window, squinting, watching the nobles who kept entering the castle.

"Don't move." Pulling Feng Sen's waist, Gisela painstakingly tied the belt around Feng Sen's waist.

Gisela was wearing a wide indigo skirt and a gray-purple cloak, sticking to his arms, carefully arranging his clothes, and behind Gisela, Arvo was holding a hot The towel, with a tight bare buttocks, was wiping his body.

Feng Sen's eyes flicked over several earls and chiefs. They laughed at Yan Yan, and they were happy for the arrival of Christmas from the bottom of their hearts. I don't know if they can still laugh after the banquet is over?

Glancing at the gradually darkening sky, Feng Sen smiled lightly, took Gisela's hand, hugged her waist, and kissed her deeply, until Gisela's face flushed.

Holding up Gisela who was a little dizzy, Feng Sen said with a smile: "It's time, let's go down."

2Chapter 17 Earl Reform at the Christmas Dinner

In the Bremen church, twenty or so Saxon chiefs, big and small, were gathering together and whispering. Most of them were wearing fur and wool coats, with disheveled hair, and there was a muddy smell when they were pestered there.

"Is this the first time we've met the new warchief?"

"Didn't Chief Vidukind publicly announce before he left that he gave the title to that Sirisian?"

"If I ask you, he's not on our side. He's always sided with the Franks."

"Hmph, pay taxes, pay a fart!"

"Hahahahahaha."

In the small circle of the Saxon chief there was a rapid burst of continuous laughter.

On the opposite side of the Saxon chiefs, Earl Frank stood clearly behind the table, holding a glass of beer each. Although equally rough, he was much more civilized and hygienic than those Saxons.

The Earl of Eresburg filled a glass of wine in a horn cup, stood by the pillar of the church, and whispered to another earl.

"Your Excellency, Count Eresburg, are you sure that this will not offend His Excellency the Duke?"

"What are you afraid of?" Earl Ernesburg grabbed the man's shoulder. "That's because he didn't make sense. He is Widukind's son-in-law, and he helps the Saxons everywhere. It's okay for the Saxons not to pay taxes, but we have to pay taxes. Is this reasonable?"

The little earl shook his head dully.

"That's right." Earl Ernesburg patted him on the back, "Don't worry, we will all speak up when the time comes, he can't punish us all, don't worry!"

After seeing off the little Earl, the Earl of Eresberg started looking for the next prey in the crowd. Soon, he aimed at the Earl of Paderborn's court, and walked up in two or three steps. The Earl of Eresberg was about to say hello, but he heard the waiter shout:

"The full guardian of the land of Saxony, Count Hamburg, Count Magdeburg, Count Lüneburg, Count Dessau, Count Stade, Count Stendal... Military Chief of the Eight Banners Legion, Anthony Forester Von Lausan is here."

Amidst the shouts of the waiters, Feng Sen walked down the stairs, and the nobles and priests in the hall immediately stopped their movements and bowed their heads to show their respect.

Feng Sen was wearing a Frankish vine-edged gown, a belt with gold tassels around his waist, and a Han Chinese cape on his head, holding his arm, and Gisela, dressed in traditional Saxon clothing, followed slowly downstairs.

In this era, the nobles generally had little culture, and some even despised culture. They were proud of being brutal and barbaric. Charlemagne himself could not read a single word, let alone these earls and chiefs.

So Feng Sen didn't do any auditorium or etiquette, he let go of Gisela's arm, he just held a copper wine glass, stepped on the solid wood tabletop with one foot, and started the Christmas speech directly.

"Every year on this day, we light the lights and gather with our families to celebrate together.

Isaiah is "the light of the world" to believers of the Father, and we should celebrate his birth in this way. I know that many of you here are not believers in the Father, but that's okay.

Isaiah mentioned in the Gospel of Luke that a Jew was robbed by robbers, seriously injured, and lying on the side of the road. The priests and Levites passed by but ignored him. Only a Samaritan took good care of him regardless of sectarian barriers, and even paid for the Jew to be sent to an inn.

Isaiah reminds us that all are equal in the eyes of our Heavenly Father.

To me, the world taught by the Heavenly Father is like a big family, and our Royal Highness Charles is like the head of the family, and he appointed me as your brother and sister to comfort and educate you, no matter what your beliefs are, this is my duty.

In Saxony, my brothers and sisters, I am incredibly proud of the indomitable spirit with which you have worked so hard to overcome this year, and thank you for your role.

I hope that in the next year, you can continue to move forward with the spirit of hardship and pioneering. Everyone, I wish you a Merry Christmas, cheers! "

"Cheers!" Adhering to the customs left by the ancient Romans, the nobles present laughed, raised their glasses high, and drank the beer or wine in the glasses.

After drinking the beer in one gulp, Feng Sen poured out the wine glass. Amidst the laughter and cheers of the crowd, he indicated that there was not a drop of wine in the glass. Then he jumped off the table, put down the glass, and came to the center of the hall.

"Everyone knows that His Royal Highness Charles sent me here to carry out the reform of Tang affairs and gave me full powers. I hope I can implement a better law to make our country stronger and our nobles richer.

And everyone has seen these days, I have indeed made Saxon strong again!But this is not enough. Next year, I am going to issue an order, so I would like to ask you, the counts here, for your opinions.

The seven earls of Frank, you have been operating here for a long time, and you are willing to sign a contract with me to use your land as a real seal. After the decree is issued, you enjoy [-]% of the tax in the area, and the remaining [-]% to the tax collectors.

Do you have any suggestions or opinions on this law? "

Yes, Feng Sen held a banquet in Bremen to entertain all the nobles, and it was just for this vinegar that he made dumplings.

Thanks to the Frankish monarchs, the "Count" at this time is only a public office and not a title. Perhaps in other duchies, the status of nobility is legally guaranteed, but here with Charlie, it is just as he said.

On the territory of the kingdom, "only freemen and slaves exist."

Only in non-Frank core territories would there be legally guaranteed nobles, but in Charlie's eyes, they were freedmen with some money and slaves.

In other words, in Frank's core territory, there are only tyrants but no family.

So at this time, it is much easier to take the monarchy and centralize power than the group of big and small, like a pile of rotten feudal lords in the later period.

Because at this time, the real power and responsibility of the earl is equivalent to that of the magistrate.

Due to Frank's manor economy based on real objects, Charlie did not pay wages. Instead, he set aside a part of the land from the royal family's territory to maintain the life of the local governor, which is equivalent to the job fields that the Tang Dynasty gave to the local governor.

But the problem is that due to the unclear distinction between Frankish officials and nobles, occupational fields are always mixed with endowments/fiefs, coupled with the shortage of precious metals, corruption is rampant, and transportation is cut off. In the later period, it gradually became hereditary.

Imagine a scene like this: a county magistrate in the Central Plains manages both soldiers and personnel. The roads are not good, and the emperor runs around. Sometimes the previous county magistrate dies, and the emperor will not know until seven or eight years later, and then it will take another three to five years for the new county magistrate to come.