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

"Yes, our Department of Stormarn has sent more than 20 chiefs and more than 30 messengers to visit His Excellency the Earl of Hamburg."

"Okay, the lord is about to see you, you all tidy up, and I will take you to see the count."

Stuffing the ring secretly into the leather pouch he was carrying, Iopa shouted and summoned the messengers and chiefs, and followed the slave overseer towards the "Tang Ren Village".

The so-called Tangren Village is actually a new urban area planned by Feng Sen. It is located on the north bank of the Alster River and the east bank of the Elbe River.

A delta-like area by the river will become a future industrial zone, which can develop various industries and commerce with the help of water power.

The area further north of the Ulster River will be the agricultural area, where these Saxon slaves live, while the area near the castle in the south of the agricultural area will be the garrison of the Jingnan Army.

Iopa and others followed the Saxon overseer, walked across the long wooden bridge across the Alster River, and came to the north bank of the river. After more than three months of development, this place is completely different from the several Frankish villages on the other side of the river. .

The Tang-style bungalows with unified form and unified planning stand on a flat ground. They are neatly arranged in a square form, with gray walls and black tiles, and angels and crosses erected on the eaves.

Walking on the dirt road paved with river sand, Iopa looked around with his eyes wide open. He touched the gray bricks on the wall with his hands. It was much stronger than the brick house in his old home, but he didn't know if it was warm or not.

"These wall bricks are all ordinary plaster bricks, and they are only glued with clay. The really good bricks are used to build the Lord's new castle." The slave overseer said with some pride, "I heard from the Lord that after the cement workshop is completed next year, new houses will be built, and the soldiers will move to live in the blue brick house."

"Then, what about these houses?"

"I heard from the slaves of the master's close servants that one is given to meritorious soldiers, such as the auxiliary soldiers this time, and the other is given to the slaves released by the amnesty, such as me two years later." The supervisor knocked on the outer wall of the house, "Let's go, the house of the lord is beautiful."

Following behind the overseer, Iopa probed his head and looked around. Some Saxon slaves with their hair tied up were doing hard work on both sides of the road. The wool and shredded sage can also keep out the cold.

Following behind the overseer, the first thing Iopa saw was a tall mansion, which was in the shape of a square. The walls on both sides were covered with white ash, and black tiles were laid on the walls in a herringbone shape.

This one-entry courtyard covers an area of ​​more than an acre, and has not yet been completed. According to Feng Sen's plan, this house should be a three-entry courtyard. This three-entry courtyard will be expanded to form a larger Feng Mansion and a new Hanyi.

Messenger and entourage were kept out, and only those chiefs were qualified to enter this three-in-one courtyard through the gate.

In the courtyard in the middle of the courtyard, Feng Sen took off his thick armor, and only wore a jacket and panties, sitting lazily on a grand master's chair.

His hair was wet and he looked like he had just taken a shower.

"Your name is Iopa?"

"Yes, Your Excellency the Earl." Iopa bowed his head respectfully and responded, even though half a year ago, he didn't even want to come to Hamburg to meet the new Earl.

Feng Sen was playing with the wine glass in his hand. He took a sip of the wine, looked at Iopa with a smile, and said slowly: "Your village has eight other villages. Originally, you would use the annual barley and cattle Part of the sheep was paid to the former Count Nicholas, but this autumn, my storeroom was empty, and I didn’t see half a head of cattle or sheep..."

"Your Excellency, this year..."

"Bang!" The wine glass in Feng Sen's hand hit the ground violently, and the fragments scattered, "Come here, kill them all for me."

At the same time Feng Sen said this, more than 20 heavy armored men sprang out from the rooms on both sides. Before the group of chief messengers could react, they were firmly pressed to the ground and their weapons were searched. .

After a whirlwind, the knives and axes reached the necks of the chiefs.

Chapter 36 The chief was never a slave!

The knees were pressed hard on Iopa's back, his hands were cut behind his back, and his head was pinned to the ground by thick hands covered in armour.

He still didn't understand what happened. The new earl clearly gave various rewards to the sons of the Saxon chiefs. Isn't this a gesture of favor?Why, why...Worden, am I going to die here today?

Iopa was shaking. He tried to struggle twice, but he didn't move.

"You swineherd from Avar! How dare you treat us like this!" Chief Ante next to him was not as calm as Iopa, but was struggling frantically. He gritted his teeth and looked at Feng Sen ferociously. "Do you dare to kill me? Do you dare to kill us? Kill us, and the chiefs of Stormarn will rise up together and restore us..."

In the next second, the black boots hit Ante's temple like a whip, interrupting his words.

Lying next to Ante, Iopa was only more than one meter away from him. He could clearly see that the moment Feng Sen kicked out, Ante's left eye was densely bloodshot and crawled out of thin air. .

When Ante's head fell heavily on the ground, the right half of his face was already sunken. Under the pressure of the eye socket, the right eye was overwhelmed and fell out of the eye socket, bounced twice on the ground, and fell in front of Iopa.

The boots stepped on Ante's neck, Feng Sen's black boots pressed lightly, and there was a tooth-piercing creak, and Ante was completely silent.

"Did he send auxiliary soldiers to participate in this expedition?"

"Yes, but it's dead."

"Set up a loyalty card for his son, choose an orphan from the prisoner of war to inherit the incense for him, Wang Sima, you go outside and say that Chief Ante intends to rebel, assassinate the Earl of Hamburg, and was subdued by other chiefs. He has already been executed, Ah Cheng , You take two hundred cavalry, wipe out their villages, kill all the men, and bring back the women to those old slaves as wives."

"Here..." Wang Sima and Zhang Shicheng clasped their hands at the same time and said "here," and then they left.

Sitting back on the chair again, Feng Sen smiled at the chiefs and said, "Before I went home, I told my soldiers: Don't be in a hurry to remove the armor, maybe there will be another battle. I'm sitting here today with the intention of killing all of you and your clansmen. I'm afraid the other chiefs won't think of it. I haven't rested yet when I come back, so I'm going to kill them."

"What do you need? We are willing to pay double the amount of wheat, cattle and sheep." Since he was pressed to the ground, the chief's speech was a little slurred.

Feng Sen slowly walked in front of him: "What did I do to make you disrespect me so much? You don't even want to call me - Lord Lord."

"My lord!" Chief Aisa shouted loudly, "We have realized our mistake, and we are willing to pay fines or blood money."

In the era of Charlemagne, one of the earl’s main sources of income was the fines paid by his subjects. According to the law at the time, the earl could get one-third of the local fines, and blood money, that is, the redemption money after murder. However, this is rather vague. It can be counted as a fine or not.

"Let him go." The two soldiers on Chief Aisa's back let him go.

Feng Sen lifted Aisa from the ground and patted the dust on his body: "Don't be afraid, my people, although you are a Saxon tribe, you live in the territory of Han, and you are also my subjects."

Aisa swallowed, bowed and saluted, "Thank you for your kindness."

"Come on, sit down." Feng Sen enthusiastically pulled Chief Aisa to the chair next to him and sat down, pouring him a glass of wine himself.

Seeing Aisa sipping wine in trepidation, Feng Sen sat back on the grand master's chair again, crossing his legs with a half-smile: "I am a person who respects life and loves peace, and most of the time, I am kind.

I am only angry with two kinds of people, one is heathen and the other is non-Han.Becoming a believer in God means submitting to the Father on your behalf.Becoming a Han means submitting to me on behalf of you and submitting to the Frankish Kingdom, in both cases we are brothers and sisters. "

"My lord, we all understand the orthodox faith of becoming the Heavenly Father, but I don't know what this Han person means?" Aisa asked cautiously.

Feng Sen laughed and pointed to the hair on his head: "Look at my hair, tie it up like this, and wear our clothes, I will consider you a Han, you are Saxon Han, and we are pure-blooded Han .

In Hamburg, as long as they are Han people, they don’t have to pay other taxes, and the superior Han people don’t even have to pay taxes, they only need to perform military service, but if there are non-Han people, they have to pay an additional non-Han tax. "

"My lord, I want to become a Han Chinese." Iopa immediately shouted.

"I'm very glad that you can call me Lord Lord, but I hope you will think more about being a Han Chinese." Feng Sen waved his hand, and several soldiers let go of Iopa.

The chiefs were overjoyed when they saw this scene, and immediately shouted: "My lord, I want to become a Han Chinese, my lord, I want to convert to my heavenly father."

With Feng Sen's nod, the soldiers let go of the chiefs one after another.

However, Feng Sen sneered at what they said. This group of barbarians, just like Charlemagne said, will never understand what promises and allegiance are.

"Don't worry, my friends." Feng Sen continued to take a sip of wine, "I understand your eagerness, but I always believe that under the threat of a sword, any pretense of oath can be forgiven. In other words, under the sword, you can lie at will to save your life."

"We will keep our promise, my lord."

"I, I'm going to tie my hair now."

"I know you are in a hurry, but don't worry." Feng Sen tapped the wine glass with a knife, "Words and deeds are more powerful than the threat of a sword.

So, I hope that you and the chiefs of the 95 villages and clans on this list will come to Hamburg this winter. We will conduct a two-month winter camp to experience the life of the Han Chinese orthodox believers, and then you can decide whether you want to be a Han Chinese or a believer in Heavenly Father. "

"This period?"

"Board and lodging included."

"Then I will definitely come."

"Is that a deal?"

"A word is settled!"

Feng Sen laughed. He never expected this group of people to keep their promises. He just hoped that these chiefs could leave their base camp temporarily, so that the hundred households could have a chance to seize their power.

As for the chiefs, it's not about killing them, nor forcing them to convert. On balance, they won't turn their backs. So what if they live in Hamburg for nothing?

"Okay!" Feng Sen applauded and laughed, "However, we Han people have a habit of drinking blood wine after making an agreement, that is, drinking blood to form an alliance."

At this moment, two soldiers of the Jingnan Army brought over a barrel of wine. Feng Sen cut a big gap in the barrel with a knife, and then he pointed at Chief Ante: "Blood, please take it yourself." Bar."

The original lively scene suddenly quieted down. Amid Feng Sen's increasingly dangerous smile, Iopa walked out first, pulled out the knife he had put on his chest for eating, and poked a hole in Chief Ant's chest.

Dropping blood into the wine glass, Iopa walked up to Feng Sen, raised the wine over his head, and knelt down: "May Heavenly Father bless you, my lord."

As he spoke, he drank the light red gin wine in one gulp.

Afterwards, each chief stepped forward, left knife marks on the corpse, dripped blood, and toasted Feng Sen with the same gesture as Iopa.

"Very well, I have prepared the residences for the chiefs. I am not strong enough to drink. I want to rest for a while. Go and settle down first."

Feng Sen stretched his waist and stood up from the chair. He patted Iopa on the shoulder and said with a smile, "I'll trouble you to deal with Chief Ante's body. I hope you can make the right choice."

Chapter 37 Drunkenness of the Earth and the Air Defense Shelter

In the two-story castle in Lübeck, the sea breeze from the Baltic Sea blows in along the window sills on the second floor, blowing the curtains on both sides of the porch. The salty and wet smell of the sea is mixed with the smell of coke in the room, but it feels a little fresh.

This is a hall with an area of ​​more than 100 square meters. Compared with Feng Sen’s Hamburg, the first floor of this castle is made of stone, while the second floor is made of wood. From the outside, it looks a bit like the foundation of a Tang-style building.

Vidukind sat at the front of the rectangular table, and on his left sat Ragnaro, who was missing half a leg, and on his right was Erard from Frisia, the son of the former Frisian king Bubo.

Several waiters poured malt wine for them, then exited the hall quietly and closed the door.

"The leaders of the Sorbs and Veleti have not come yet?"

"They're so far away, maybe it won't be until next month."

Wearing five gold rings on his thick fingers, Vidukind shook the wine in the wooden cup: "I am not a believer in Heavenly Father, and I don't have so many complicated etiquettes and hypocritical politeness. What we are talking about is the issue of knives."

The grey-haired Elad cleared his hoarse throat: "I heard that your territory and the samurai you recruited were plundered this winter?"

"Yes, the despicable Franks hired a group of Avars. They act like the wind and dare not fight my warriors head-on." Widukind took a sip of his malt wine with a smile, "But they didn't hurt my core strength, they only dared to loot around the periphery, and my subordinate Albion has already expelled them. They are just flea-like clowns."

Ragnarok's mouth twitched.

"The reason why I called the two of you here should be clear to you." Widukind's expression gradually became serious, "Prince Elad, your father was killed by the cruel Franks 50 years ago, have you not forgotten it?"

"Of course not." Elad's eyes cocked up. "I was only nine years old at the time, and I witnessed the brutality of the Franks. They smashed our idols, burned our priests alive, and forced us to pay the so-called tithes...

Damn it, they have to collect tax when we sell a piglet, and they also have to collect tax when we collect a bushel of wheat. If I make a bundle of firewood, they will take one away. "

"It's all shit, these priests!" Speaking of this, Elad cursed through gritted teeth, "They claim that everything was created by the heavenly father, and that everything should be given a tenth to God. Such a god is too greedy! Our God only needs to be sacrificed once a year, but the tithe is paid every three months, or even every month!"

"Without Charlemagne, these priests are just two-legged lambs." Widukind drew a conclusion unhurriedly, "There is an old Saxon proverb, which says that a common enemy can turn strangers into friends. I think we all have an enemy called Frank. This enemy is extremely powerful, my friend.

Facts have proved that our strength alone is not enough to support us to defeat Frank, but if we can form an alliance, we can surpass Frank! "

Vidukind grabbed Elad's wrist, with a sincere face, as if he was a prince full of justice: "The Frisians have been silent for too long."

Elad broke away from his hand: "The reason for the silence is that it is not yet time."

"Then when is the time?" Vidukindra took a chair and sat across from Elad, holding Elard's hand knee to knee, "Charlemagne is stronger than ever. He conquered Lombardy, he conquered Friesland, he conquered most of Saxony, and he is even about to conquer Iberia to avenge the Basques!"

Widukind's voice became sharper and sharper. He stood up from his chair, put one foot on the table, pointed out the window and waved his hands: "The damned Franks are despicable and powerful. They bought the chief and oppressed us. Saxons, let the Franks and even the Avars shit and piss on our heads! How could Woden allow his warriors to be subjected to such humiliation?

We can't wait any longer. Under the pressure of the sword, our tribesmen have to convert to the teaching of the heavenly father and learn the Frankish language. Every day that passes, they are getting stronger and we are getting weaker.

If things go on like this, who still remembers Widukind, the chief of Saxony, and Bubo, the King of Frisia?

The reason why I keep rebelling and rebelling is to let the Saxons remember me and let them know that the Principality of Saxony used to be a place that only belonged to the Saxons. If I don’t revolt again, who will know that Saxony was once the exclusive homeland of the Saxons in the next generation? "

Speaking of this, Vidukind's voice softened, and he sat down again, bringing his face very close, his voice full of sadness: "Ailad, my friend, how many of your tribe members still remember What about the former king Bubo and the former kingdom of Frisia?"

The expression on Elard's face was a bit stiff, he lowered his head, for a while, the hall was silent, until he raised his head again: "How many people can you win over?"

"The Sorbs have long wanted to enter the Frankish territory to plunder, and because the Eupolites have captured Magdeburg, the Villetti are already furious. They will help us contain the Kingdom of Eupolites and the local Frankish army in the southeast."

Vidukind pointed to himself: "The Weldon massacre angered the Saxon nobles. I can guarantee that at least [-]% of the chiefs in the East Falian (Estphalia) tribe are willing to support us. Thirty percent of Glia's chiefs were willing to send troops.

I myself recruited and trained two thousand warriors near Lübeck and Schleswig, and hired five hundred Slav cavalry from Kievan Rus.

In addition, the Norse people in Scandinavia will send 500 Viking warriors who will sail down the Elbe River to avenge Hamburg's raid on Kiel, if you will Join us, then from Friesland, we can even threaten the core area of ​​Frank.

I believe that there is no way for Charlemagne to grow four hands and four legs. "

"Give me an exact time."

"April."

"It's too early, and the tribesmen won't be willing to go out with me."

"Then give me a moment."

"June."

"Early June, before June fifth."

"Okay, I can basically mobilize the Frisian chiefs east of the Lauworth River, and there may not be so many west of it."

"No matter how much, every power is precious."

Ragnaro limped and closed the window, and sat back at the table. He looked at his cousin who had been silent since he swore an alliance with Elad, and asked, "What are you going to do with those Avars?"

"Seres." Vidukind tapped his temples with his fingers, "Although they resemble Avars, they are not Avars."