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

But in this era, the price of wool is not low. Most people and even nobles sometimes have to wear linen clothes. The silk in the Central Plains is more than one or two bolts, but the corresponding wool can cost four Solidas per bolt. The high price is evident.

The four solidars actually have moisture, and at least half of them must be covered by wine. This is still in Bordeaux. Because it is close to Iberia, the local money shortage is not too serious. If you change it to a more central area, look, there is no People can afford it.

Because everyone only has wheat grain and livestock, no money and precious metals, or very little.

After taking a sip of wine to soothe his throat, Frasen continued: "Second, regarding His Royal Highness Charles, you already know that I am working for the Duke of Saxony, so you should also know that Your Excellency Feng is His Royal Highness Charlie's adopted son.

Many people believe that he can become the new Paladin in the future, which proves that my master has a close relationship with Frank's master. "

Lowering his voice, Frasen said mysteriously: "Let me tell you the truth, although the West Britain Company does not have shares in His Royal Highness Charlie on the surface, His Excellency Feng will give His Highness an extra sum of money every year." dividends.

Among the 17 people in the first phase, there is actually an agent of His Royal Highness. If there is no accident, in the next two to three years, His Highness Charlie will issue a decree to determine woolen cloth as a currency. Yes, but before that, the woolen cloth has to be circulated in the market.

Just wait, next year or two, our Duke will go to Friesland to open a big workshop. "

"You are really lucky." Curizatus said enviously, "When will you, West Britain Company, be able to participate in shares?"

"Wait until the first batch is sold out. Then I will give you the right to sell directly. I will only transport the goods. When it becomes bigger, I will not care about the goods. I will just sit in Friesland and collect the money."

"Give me the right to sell directly? What do you mean?"

Frasen chuckled: "You only need to pay a contracting fee every year, and I'll deliver the goods to you directly. You can sell as much as you own, even if you contract it out a second time, it's fine."

Curizatus' eyes lit up for a moment, but he was puzzled again: "So you can make money?"

"Of course, we ship by sea without being charged by the tax card, and this way saves time, we can ship more times and go to more places."

After taking a sip of wine, Frasen's thoughts drifted away. With the money he earned from the 177 bolts of woolen cloth, he was going to buy a good ship. He heard that Hamburg was already able to build its own Viking ships. Ask the price, if not, buy one.

Afterwards, when all these woolen cloths are spread out, they will start the grain business, which is Frasen's old profession.

Chapter 268 Pepin's Military Reform

Bordeaux, as an important commercial city in Gascogne, is actually not big. At most, it only has a population of [-] to [-], which is much smaller than Hamburg's population of [-].

The actual area of ​​Bordeaux is not large, and it is basically built around the port of the Garonne River. The most eye-catching ones are probably the cathedral in the town and the residence of the Duke of Gascony.

During this period, when Frasen stepped on the streets of Bordeaux with his legs covered in mud, Frasen often thought of Hamburg in Saxony, and he was deeply impressed by the neat blue brick roads in Hamburg.

If it weren't for the lack of entertainment in Hamburg, living there would be much more comfortable than here.

It’s been almost five days since I arrived in Bordeaux. Kurizatus basically helped Frasen contact people. These days, the two go out together from time to time, drinking and having fun with people in hotels from time to time.

And as the carriages came and went, the goods placed in the backyard of the hotel gradually decreased, turning into piles of Denier silver coins and dinar gold coins, as well as boxes of red wine.

When the goods were basically sold, Frasen calculated the proceeds, and there were nearly [-] gold and silver coins, [-] worth of wine, and two beautiful Egyptian slave girls, which Frasen had prepared for Feng Sen. Gift.

At this point, Frasen was ready to return to Hamburg to pick up the second batch of 200 woolen cloths, but Kurizatus told him that there would be a fair here.

There is no businessman who does not visit the market, maybe it is a business opportunity.

If Frasen hadn't visited the market in his hometown, he wouldn't have heard the news about the Duke of Saxony, and naturally there wouldn't be these things now, so he stayed for two days as a matter of course.

The next day, Frasen got up early and went to the market.

Compared with the big market in Champagne, the market here is much smaller. There are farmers selling agricultural products, handicraftsmen selling all kinds of gadgets, herbs and honey.

Similarly, there are also some luxury merchants who sell woolen fabrics. Frasen even saw someone dye their woolen fabrics with a layer of low-quality dyes and sell them under the guise of high-end woolen fabrics.

Damn it, six Solidas a horse!

This is also the information exchange center for merchants like Frasen to communicate how to cheat and deceive customers. There is no consumer association at this time. If there is no clue before the end of the market, it will only suffer from this dumb loss.

The warm sunshine flows through Frasen's body like water, making him feel warm all over. Perhaps grapes also love this kind of weather, so Bordeaux can produce high-quality wine.

His eyes swept over the colorful commodities, and the air smelled of vegetables, as well as the smell of cow and sheep manure. In this smell, he could even smell the faint smell of pepper.

Walking along this market street, Frasen was like a hyena patrolling the territory, constantly scoring the various shops in front of him, but soon his eyes were attracted by something very new.

It was a strange kind of cloth. Walking forward quickly, Frasen stroked the surface of the cloth. It was very soft and breathable. This kind of clothing would definitely be very comfortable as underwear.

"what is this?"

"This is a white cloth from India. Do you want it? A dinar a yard!"

"What?! Are you kidding me?" Frasen's eyes widened. "Is this silk made of gold or the loom made of gold?"

"Who knows?" The businessman rubbed his hands, "this cotton is more precious than gold, just think about it, the cotton tree is full of sheep, guarded by huge bats, and it can suck the blood of a cow in one mouthful. A lot of wool is made into cloth, tsk tsk tsk, it will cost the lives of several people."

Frasen was taken aback by the merchant's words: "How did something so far away get into your hands?"

"If you buy it, I'll tell you, after all..." The businessman nodded his head, "The news is not free."

"Give me—one yard, I'll make some handkerchiefs." Frasen took a dinar from his pocket and threw it over.

"Okay." The businessman immediately asked the man to cut it.

And Frasen supported the counter and asked: "Now can you tell me the reason?"

"Of course." The merchant boss said happily, "I bought it from the Count of Roussillon in the south. The governor of Barcelona, ​​our Prince Pepin, wiped out the Basque lords who had betrayed the Franks some time ago. From their This batch of cotton cloth was seized in the hands.

As for how those Basques got it, I guess they got it from those desert herdsmen. After all, they are the only ones who have communication channels with India. "

That's it, Frasen rubbed his head, it turned out to be that lord, I heard that the Duke of Saxony has a deep relationship with His Excellency Pepin, I wonder if he has any way to get the cotton tree, how is his situation now?

Hey, if I hang the sheep on the tree when I go back, can I grow cotton?

"Sneeze!" Pepin sneezed. He looked up at the scorching sun in the sky and frowned. Why did he sneeze for no reason? Could it be a revelation from the heavenly father?

Leading the horse, Pepin walked around the military camp in Girona. After more than a year of development, Pepin grew a head taller than before, and his figure was much stronger.

The sun in Iberia is hot and it is close to the sea. Pepin receives the sunshine every day and eats fish and fruits for every meal. The symptoms caused by rickets are basically cured, but the back that was rickety before the development has indeed been finalized. Nor can it be recovered.

Even though he still couldn't straighten his chest, at least it didn't affect his actions. If he put on a cloak again, he wouldn't be able to find his hunchback without careful observation.

Although the sun cannot see the color, Pepin can still feel its fiery red light, which is as hot as fire. Only when passing by the newly built canal, the heat will be dissipated by the water vapor.

Walking in the barracks, the passing soldiers all gave him saluting eyes, because during the time when Pepin arrived, he not only killed many Basque lords who did not listen to discipline by taking advantage of the chaos of the Basques .

These killed Basque lords, their land was either divided equally by the small lords and tribal people below, or fell into the hands of the Crusaders, and these soldiers recruited by Pepin came from this group.

After half a year of training, these recruits already looked good, but if there was a Frankish veteran here, he would definitely find something different about these soldiers.

Yes, in addition to fighting bandits and eating rich families, Pepin's most important action during this period was military reform. He needed a guard as strong as the Saxon tooth soldiers.

Therefore, Pepin carried out three reforms, the most conspicuous ones being the changes in equipment.

Pepin added a curtain-like neck guard to the helmets of these soldiers, and reformed the old-fashioned open round helmet with a crown, which was prepared for defense against bows and arrows and melee decapitation.

Because of these neck guards, the lower edge of the old-fashioned round helmet is too far away from the face, and it is easy to be picked off with a gun, which is ineffective, so Pepin changed it to a conical shape that is relatively close to the skin.

In order to protect the nose, Pepin imitated the Vikings and added a small iron bar to the lower edge of the helmet to protect the nose.

Originally, Pepin was going to extend the body armor to make it a type of Feng Sentang armor that extended to the knees, but Benedict told him that he had no money, so he had to give up.

This is the first reform.

Chapter 269 The Vineyard Ten Knots

The second item is to train professional infantry.

After Pepin arrived in Girona, he visited many soldiers and sergeants who had fought against the Xingyue Cultists.

From the mouths of these soldiers, big and small, who participated in the battle, Pepin discovered a problem. The defeats against the Xingyue Cultists were basically a chain reaction that started with the defeat of the infantry.

It is because the recruited infantry is too rubbish, and they are often crushed from the flanks by the Xingyue Cultists with a large number of cavalry archers.

Dispersing a large number of cavalry archers into a half-moon shape and harassing and charging in an evacuated formation is the norm in their tactics. However, those conscripted peasant soldiers were either shot down by bows and arrows or scared away by horses. Few of them stabilized their positions.

Pepin stood beside the school field, looking inside. Behind the low bushes, on the paved school field, several infantry lined up, tremblingly facing the oncoming cavalry, but the cavalry did not charge. , just go around them.

Through this method, one is to train the horse not to avoid the spear, and the other is to train the infantry not to avoid the galloping horse.

But it is unrealistic to rely solely on conscripted farmers and soldiers, they don't have that much time to train.

To this end, Pepin recruited a group of professional infantry, through training to ensure that they will not be overwhelmed by cavalry archers, and they also need to have the ability to protect their flanks, and at the same time be equipped with certain long-range weapons.

To achieve this level, ordinary conscripts cannot do it.

So Pepin recruited these 300 professional infantrymen.

These professional infantry were given money and land, and most of their backgrounds came from the new landlords, that is, after Pepin killed a group of half-bandit Basque villages and stockades, he divided their land equally among the local Basque civilians and crusaders.

They can enjoy the treatment and status similar to knights, but the land of these sergeants is smaller than that of knights, and compared to knights who need to raise horses, they only need to raise armor and crossbows.

Pepin not only gave them land, but also gave them a lot of autonomy and even the opportunity to pursue glory. This group of people is the most loyal to Pepin.

People also gave them a title, wing infantry, because they carried crossbows on their backs, as if they had semicircular wings on their backs.

In addition, Pepin had to ignore the protests of the crusaders or local nobles, and forcibly mixed them into the infantry phalanx. If there were any horses, they would serve as infantry for me, and the extra horses would be used as spare horses for the cavalry. .

The reason is very simple. The local cavalry is really undisciplined. Several times Pepin led his troops to rob... to suppress the rebellion, they were the first to attack and lose first, regardless of the consequences, and almost turned Pepin into defeat several times.

Pepin felt that his hussars were enough, and these people and their personal soldiers were mixed into the infantry phalanx, so that these phalanxes could not be penetrated five rows deep.

This point is similar to Wei Shu's plan to organize the citizen soldiers into the infantry phalanx, because the two faced the same difficulties. The nobles were either riding on horseback or rushing in the first row, resulting in a double-hearted result.

Although Feng Sen did not mention Wei Shu's reform in his notes, the situation and problems faced by the two are basically the same, and the answers are naturally similar.

The third item is the reform of grassroots officers and military discipline.

Grassroots officers such as corps leaders and captains were elected by soldiers at the grassroots level, while centurions and above were appointed by nobles.

When going into battle, the winged infantry lined up on the two wings and the back, serving as a supervising team. Once the infantry in front fled, the rear team would directly kill the front team.

In terms of military discipline reform, Pepin did not make too much progress. He just simplified the 54 bans and seventeen cuts recorded in Feng Sen's book into five bans and seven cuts. Pepin's statement.

There is bound to be resistance to reform, especially those nobles and nobles who have been incorporated into the infantry. They have long been resentful. In the recent period, those nobles even secretly called Pepin Gobo.

In Latin, Gobo means hunchback, but Pepin is not ashamed, but proud, and even put Gobo in his middle name.

"A person should not be noble because of his name, but his name should be noble because of the person." This is what Pepin said when he abandoned the castle banquet and was talking with the soldiers in the barracks while having a simple meal.

In any case, in the hearts of ordinary soldiers, Pepin's prestige is much higher than those of the lords and priests sitting in the city.

But only Pepin dared to play like this and could still suppress the priests and nobles below. After all, he was Charlie's son, and he also played a great role in the Saxony war.

Most importantly, although Pepin's drinking and killing were relatively young at the beginning, with Benedict's teaching, Pepin's political methods became more and more skillful. With Benedict's help, he carefully maintained the political balance in Girona.

Although Benedict was a monastic priest, he had a lot of court life and governance experience after all, so teaching Pepin was naturally very simple.

Although we talk about military reforms, it is not realistic to complete these military reforms in just one year.

The implementation progress of these three reforms is not uniform. For example, the helmets have not been completely replaced, and only half of the armored soldiers have replaced Pepin helmets.

Of course, these reforms basically belonged to crossing the river by touching Feng Sen. From the two points of Pepin's increase of the neck guard and the lengthening of the body armor, we can see the strong flavor of Seris.

In order to implement these reforms, Pepin not only spent all the money obtained from killing the border lords, but also borrowed a lot of people and money from the church and his elder brother Charles and the Earl of Roussillon.

After squatting for more than half a year, it's time to move.

Mid-February 785.

This is a sunny day that is common in Iberia, with gusts of sea breeze and the sound of seagulls.

And in a vineyard near Girona, green grapes hang down on a wooden frame, sweeping across people's cheeks, and a few bees are flying on the grape frame, looking for possible nectar.

In an open space in the vineyard, there is a table with a three-pronged silver candlestick, and the yellow-white beeswax has a jade-like texture in the sunlight.

And behind the candlestick, there is a portrait of St. George.

Pepin, three Basque lords, four Crusader nobles, two priests, ten people were kneeling before the portrait of St. George.

Each of them had serious eyes, and their fiery eyes were locked on Pepin at the front.

"As the Father sees, St. George is first.

Nian Pepin, Orton, Souris... and ten people, although they have different surnames, are all holy warriors of the Lord. Before the Lord, we respect and love each other, just like half-brothers.

That being the case, we are willing to become righteous brothers and work together to save the poor and help the needy, report to Isaiah, and bring peace to all believers.I don't want to be born in the same year, the same month and the same day, I just want to die in the same year, the same month and the same day.

St. George is in front of me, and I have learned from this heart. If there is any treachery, you will fall into hell, and you will never be able to redeem your sins!Amen! "

"Amen!"

Surrounded by several priests, ten young men in their prime stood up frantically, bit their fingers, and dripped their own blood into the wine.

"Drinking this wine, you and I will be like brothers! I am not asking you to submit to me, but to share your merits and glory with me." Filling a glass of wine with blood in a copper wine cup, Pepin turned to everyone He swore loudly, "As long as you don't let me down, I will never let you down! Let's go together in the mountains of swords and seas of fire, and enjoy the glory and wealth! Cheers!"

"cheers!"

"cheers!"

"Big brother!"