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

"Look, Commander, this is our cutting yard. These slaves are all ancient Prussians from the north. Although they look clumsy, they have a lot of energy in their work." The little official pointed to a small square in front of the round tower.

In a small square, slaves in thin sackcloth were sweating profusely cutting grass, including ryegrass and soybean straw, as well as ordinary green grass and alfalfa.

These slaves wear shackles on their legs, and use a tool similar to a guillotine to numbly cut the bundles of hay into thin sections, while some old slaves with slightly more clothes are responsible for transporting them, and their legs do not have shackles.

Feng Sen originally wanted to let out a long sigh, but after thinking about it, isn't this the savage slave he captured from the north? Who will the cat cry and the mouse cry for?

For the rise of Saxony and Feng Sen himself, only one generation of slaves can be sacrificed. If you want to gather enough strength quickly, how can you not sacrifice?

There is no way to do this. It is better to build a castle with blood than to shed blood when the sword is added to the body. When the world is stable in the future, most descendants of slaves will be able to live the life of ordinary medieval peasants again.

Thinking of this, Feng Sen's thoughts became clearer, and he asked the Lombard official: "Are these chopped raw materials thrown directly into those silage towers?"

"Of course not." The little official hurriedly said, "We will also put in distilled ant juice, juice from animal pancreas, and fermented urine, and then mix them together, let it stand for a while, and then pour it in from the feed port of the silage tower."

This should be the secret recipe handed down from the ancient Roman period. Although Feng Sen didn't understand why adding these things would make the silage more delicious and easier to store, but since it works, unless further research and development is required, don't touch it for now.

"Then tell me about the construction of the silage tower."

"Here." The clerk bowed forward and made a gesture of invitation, and came to the front of the silage tower, "The whole body of this silage tower is made of red bricks. A layer of cement cannot be opened every day and must be sealed, which costs a lot.”

"Why is that?"

"I don't know, it's just that the agricultural officer above told us so." The clerk smiled awkwardly, "But I guess it's for heat preservation and waterproofing."

Waterproofing and heat preservation are only one of the reasons, but there is another important reason. Feng Sen guesses that it should be to create an oxygen-free environment, because according to his memory, lactic acid plays a major role in silage.

"Look, Commander, this is a new silage tower." The clerk pointed to a new silage tower and said.

This silage tower is thicker than the previous one. At the bottom of the wide semi-ground tower, a thick layer of straw is spread on the ground, almost as thick as the sole of a foot.

And a dozen slaves were holding a pressure rod, compacting the mixed grass one by one, and several large slaves were holding wooden hammers to compact the silage grass.

"The straw is laid on the ground to absorb the juice." The clerk smiled and walked to the side of the material inlet. "These slaves will tamp the silage grass layer by layer until it reaches the top of the tower, but they can't completely fit the top of the tower. They have to lay another layer of straw, and then use soil to seal the top and make it firm."

"Then what are these ditches for? Drainage?" Feng Sen asked, pointing to the slaves who were digging ditches.

"Your Majesty has good eyesight. These people are digging canals to drain water, but to prevent moisture, not to drain the water in the tower."

Following the little official around the silage yard, Feng Sen left contentedly.

On the way back to Lüneburg, Feng Sen was in a good mood, but Wang Sima and other civil servants behind him ran with him for a day, and he was so tired that Wang Sima could only ride in a carriage because of a twisted waist.

"How is Thuringia at present?" Feng Sen asked Wei Guanzhi beside him. This Wei Guanzhi was Wei Xunzhi's cousin and belonged to Jingzhao Webster.

Wei Xunzhi was now sent by Feng Sen to a place to be the county guard. Wei Xunzhi couldn't avoid his relatives, so he recommended this scribe who was summoned by Feng Sen's prestige to Feng Sen as secretary.

Needless to say, this kid is much better than Wei Xunzhi. He arranged Feng Sen's schedule in an orderly manner, and the outlines and small discussions he wrote for political affairs were also to the point. He was much better than his cousin who repeated "It's all up to the commander-in-chief" every day.

"It's still the same. The ones above are under the care of Duke Hedwin, and the ones below are under our control." Wei Guanzhi said without hesitation, "However, some time ago, Duke Hedwin seemed to have written a letter asking Charlie to send an inspector of the kingdom, but our people discovered it in advance and intercepted it. Now the well water does not violate the river water."

"Interesting, this Hedwin is really interesting." Feng Sen thought about it carefully, and suddenly laughed, "Our next trip is to go to Magdeburg, right?"

"Yes."

"That's right, write a letter to the nobles of Thuringia, saying that I will set up a banquet in Magdeburg, invite them to the banquet, and hunt together by the way."

"Here!"

Chapter 389 Hedwin's Distress

On the long wooden table is a row of expensive beeswax candles, under the candlesticks are plates of delicious food, and a barrel of expensive wine from Gascogne is being served by the waiter for the nobles present , Cup by cup.

"Give me another glass." Watching the waiter fill up the wine for himself, Hedwin didn't drink it down this time, but just took a small sip.

Surrounded by a crowded crowd, as well as nobles and knights from Thuringia, but at this moment, except for some Thuringian nobles who had relied on him to surrender, most of them gathered around Feng Sen, as if Feng Sen was their lord.

"Drinking so much in the first place?" A Venetian merchant named Giancarlo walked up to Hedwin with a glass of wine.

Heidewin watched Feng Sen's knight from Thuringia dance with his shoulders crossed on the table to please Feng Sen. He didn't speak, but just took another big sip.

"I need to be so drunk that my eyes are blurred to ignore a scene like this."

Giancarlo shrugged: "People are all Mu Qiang. You came to power by surrendering, and this Duke of Saxony came up by killing all the way. Naturally, people fear and respect him more."

"The family motto my father left me is 'survival is more important than anything else.'" Heidewin glanced at Feng Sen who was surrounded by him in distress, "But people call my father Heidewin the wolf, but I It was the little fox Heidewin, my father spent his whole life expanding the territory of about three villages, and I only took half a year to become the Duke of Thuringia, but people still respect my father."

"No one thinks highly of a sycophant," Giancarlo said mercilessly.

Heidewin is really good-tempered, and he insisted not to get angry: "Didn't the Duke of Saxony lick Charlie's ass?"

"But he killed and conquered almost all the previous chiefs and nobles, and now the whole of Saxony is under his control, who dares to disrespect him?"

"Then why can't I do this?"

"Are you kidding?" Giancarlo asked back, "Saxony is full of pagan tribes, and all of your subordinates are nobles who believe in the same faith. Your Excellency Anthony's success cannot be replicated by you."

This is the difference between Thuringia and Saxony.

The original Thuringia has always been under the rule of the Huns. Around the late 4th century, the power of the Huns gradually declined, so the Thuringians established their own in the fertile Thuringian Basin in Unstrut. kingdom.

It existed until 531, when the old friends of the Thuringians, the Saxons, united with the later suzerain Franks to destroy it, making Thuringia part of the Merovingian dynasty of the Frankish Kingdom.

Since then, Thuringia has donated [-] pigs to the Frankish royal family every year.

It's funny to say that 300 years later, the old friends of the Saxons, the Thuringians, united with the Franks to conquer Saxony and make it a part of Frank.

However, only three years later, the old friends of the Thuringians, the Saxons, united with the Franks again to suppress their uprising and rebellion.

But it was precisely because of the early surrender and the appointment of a Frankish Radulf as Duke of Thuringia by the Merovingian dynasty that Thuringia has gradually transformed from a tribal principality to a feudal principality.

In this process, it took only five years for Feng Sen to go through continuous wars, while Thuringia took about 100 years.

Because of this, the feudal system and economic system within Thuringia is almost a replica of the entire Frankish Kingdom. Their earls have quite a lot of land, with large manors and fields, almost all of which are manors.

Unlike the previous earls of Saxony who decreed not to leave the castle and turn left 200 meters to find a pagan tribe, the earls of Thuringia still have quite a lot of power.

In the original tribal principality of Saxony, a tribe often had the following configuration: on the surface, the land controlled by the tribe belonged to the entire tribe, but in fact, most of the tribesmen and all slaves in a tribe were equivalent to Work for the top warrior caste and tribal chiefs for free.

Because although the land is owned by the entire tribe, this group of warrior castes, priests and leaders, has the right to distribute it, and it just so happens that they also have weapons in their hands.

Feng Sen's feudalization is to split up the tribe and turn it into a mile-by-mile atomic settlement, and it is to turn the tribe leader into a landlord. Although he is a landlord, he still belongs to the free people rather than the nobles.

Frank's feudalization in Thuringia turned tribal peoples, including slaves and priests, into free people and serfs except warriors and leaders, and tribal leaders directly became nobles who ruled the area.

A lord will divide his land into large and small manors, and then appoint knights or stewards to manage the manors (occasionally appoint barons to manage several manors).

The stewards will divide the manor into pieces of land, including the manor land and the allotment. The allotment is cultivated by ordinary freemen, but the price is to cultivate the land of the lord for free.

As for slaves, let alone, they don't even have land, and they might have to help free democrats with housework.

Then part of the income of the free people and the manor was turned over to the manor owner, and the manor owner turned over part to the lord, and the lords continued to turn over part to the Duke of Thuringia.

This middleman subcontracts layer by layer, no wonder there is no money.

Like Feng Sen's lijia system, there is basically only one layer of middlemen, or even no middlemen, and the Shaofu directly serves Feng Sen himself.

To achieve this, you need a certain number of educated officials, and you must have the administrative experience and system to deal with centralization and local lijia. Most importantly, you must be able to provide the resources needed by the officials to maintain their loyalty.

Therefore, in Saxony, the salaries and status of officials were provided by the shogunate, while the bonuses and maintenance silver for officials were provided by the Shaofu, that is, Feng Sen himself.

Of course, Frank's feudalization of this paramilitary system of enfeoffment also reduced unnecessary losses caused by circulation.

But the problem that Heidewin is facing now is that this chain is always broken "after the manor owner turns over part of it to the lord". As the Duke of Thuringia, Heidewin's income and life basically have not changed much compared to when he was an earl before.

Hedwin didn't have the strength and courage to deal with these rebellious Norse lords by himself, and these Norse knights were backed by the Queen and Feng Sen.

Should Charlie's influence be used to interfere?It's not that Hedwin didn't try, but he was either intercepted and killed by the "remnant rebels of Hadrad", or by "dissatisfied tribesmen", or by "cruising Sorbian cavalry".

"So what are you going to do in the future?" Giancarlo took a sip of the wine. "If this continues, maybe one day, on a certain path, you will be intercepted and killed by a group of 'Hardrad remnants of unknown origin'."

"That day was yesterday, and that road is the way I came to Magdeburg!" Hedwin squeezed the wine glass tightly in his hand, "They shot my horse to death, and I was only two miles away from Magdeburg! Although they claim to be Hadrad's remnants of the rebels, which rebels would call themselves 'rebels'?"

"What are you talking about?" A gentle voice sounded from behind Hedwin, and Hedwin's wine glass almost fell out of his hand.

"We're talking about the Hadrad rebels." The Venetian merchant subtly continued Hedwin's words, "These Hadrad rebels are too rampant, intercepting and killing a kingdom inspector is not counted. After that, another inspector of the kingdom was robbed."

"That's right. At the beginning, I suggested that His Royal Highness Charles move all the nobles of Thuringia out of Thuringia, but His Royal Highness Charlie is too kind and does not want to let the nobles stay away from their hometown." Feng Sen said regretfully, "As for Regarding the issue of the inspector of the kingdom, I have an idea, and I wonder if Your Excellency Hedwin will approve it."

"Your Excellency, please tell me."

"I think..." Feng Sen touched the beard on his chin, "Perhaps, we can also implement the Lijia system in the Thuringia region? You see, in Saxony, there has never been a remnant of the Vidukind rebel party. Because Lijia came to comfort and monitor them, they were helpless.

It just so happens that His Royal Highness Charles is also considering whether to carry out the reform of the Lijia system or a similar system. If you take the initiative to carry out it, won't this deepen your impression in front of His Royal Highness Charlie? "

"Then what should we do about the issue of the Inspector of the Kingdom?"

"You can serve as the inspector of the Kingdom of Saxony and Thuringia, no matter how rampant those rebels are, they won't be able to break into your castle, right?" Feng Sen smiled brightly, "Your Excellency Heidewin, what do you think? "

Hedwin swallowed, and the smile on his face stiffened a bit: "I might need to think about it..."

"It's okay, think about it slowly, the banquet is still very long, there is plenty of time." Smiling and patted Hedwin on the shoulder, Feng Sen turned and left.

But he didn't go far, just found a table anywhere, jumped on it, and under the gaze of everyone, Feng Sen gently tapped the copper cup in his hand: "My guests, thank you for coming, for being able to support my banquet, thank you!"

"Thank you for your hospitality!"

"An unforgettable event, Your Excellency the Duke!"

"Your generosity and grace are breathtaking and the fun time has begun!"

"Hahahaha." Feng Sen laughed boldly, "Just now, I got a piece of good news. At this moment, I can't wait to share it with you."

During the banquet, the North knights once again sent words of support and laughter.

"We're curious what your happy news is. Could you tell us?"

"We can't wait!"

Feng Sen raised his glass: "Congratulate! The Bohemians who protected those damned Sorbs have surrendered. Our general Han Shizhong has won victory in Bohemia. Let us celebrate this moment!"

Chapter 3 Do you know how I have lived these five years?

"Do you know why I came here for you?" Alcuin's voice was steady and gentle.

Malarjiji didn't feel like an outsider at all, and sat directly on a pile of stacked scriptures: "Is it because I poisoned a member of the Gerard family?"

"That's the old earl's only young son."

"I know." Malajiji opened the document in his hand, "I also know that he is trying to unite with some nobles to start a rebellion."

"But this is still going too far." Alcuin said unhurriedly, "You are too impatient."

Sitting on a solid wood upholstered chair, Malargiji did not speak for a long time, and then he said to Alcuin as if casually: "The Bohemians surrendered to the Seres."

The brilliance of the setting sun shines through the mosaic glass, reflecting blurred colors on the floor of the scripture room. Alcuin sat in front of the scripture table, copying the new-style Frankish little by little.

This kind of Frankish combines the configuration of Carolingian lowercase letters and Chinese characters to form a special pictograph. Everyone can see at first glance that this is actually the letter of the original line from left to right. Squeeze together from top to bottom.

In addition, many characters and pronunciations were borrowed from Chinese characters, which disgusted Malarjiji.

"I've heard." Alcuin's voice was devoid of any emotion.

"My eyes and ears told me that this time, His Excellency Anthony did not fight, but sent his subordinates to fight, and when he sent troops, more than half of the soldiers were from Hipporians, Masovians, and Pomeranians."

Malajiji gently turned over a page, just like a daily chat, while casually scanning the documents, he continued to say: "At least there are no less than fifty Slavic tribes who have provided soldiers for him. Eight banners were set up in Vileti and Opolit, and now the Sorbs and even Bohemia are going to set up eight banners."

"Well, I also know about this." Alcuin still carefully copied the New Frankish Bible word by word, "But the lords of Villetti are all Lombards, and the Eupolites just learn from Saxony. Forget it, their queen is Her Royal Highness Lyudmila."

"Whoa-"

Malajiji flipped through the book again, and this time his movements were a little unusually loud: "Really? Are the Lombards in Villetti really the local lords? Then why do more than half of the Lombard nobles live in Hamburg? Does Eupolite really belong to the queen? And whose child does the queen have?"

Alcuin finally stopped sliding the quill on the paper: "Don't speculate too much."

Malajiji closed the document in his hand: "Do you still want me to continue? Your Excellency Alkun, if I go on, I'm afraid I have to talk about the reasons why these Slavic tribes are willing to follow that Siris."

Alkun sighed, put the quill back into the ink bottle, and turned to Malarjiji: "Your eyes have been gradually eroded by hatred."

"No." Malajiji retorted decisively, "If this continues, the whole of Frank will be eroded. If you stand in the light for too long, you won't be able to see things in the dark."

"Malarjiji, if you are worried about the rebellion of His Excellency Anthony, there is no need, Saxony is not as large as the territory of His Excellency Pepin..."

"The territory of Thuringia is less than half the size of Saxony. Hasn't he rebelled?"

"Malajiji, you must know that His Royal Highness Charlie made a promise to make His Excellency Anthony a member of the Carolingian Dynasty. If one wants to write a family tree, his name must be included in the Carolingian family." Alcuin His tone became bad.

Malajiji smiled sarcastically: "A Carolingian who intercepted and killed the inspectors of the kingdom, a Carolingian who assassinated and expelled four earls appointed by His Royal Highness, and a Carolingian who compared himself to a pagan god..."

"Malajiji!" Alkun stood up, "If you repeat some pretentious things, it means you are also responsible!"

Malajiji looked up at Al Kun, but narrowed his eyes.

After staring at Malarjiji for a few seconds, Alkun sat down panting, "Every noble has a pile of shit behind his ass, the bigger the title, the more so...you are blinded by hatred, Paul is a good boy , but there is no evidence to prove that he was His Excellency Anthony who killed him."