Chapter 293: Public anger is hard to offend
Anthony wrote a letter recommending Raven and set off from the Nord province towards the royal capital.
Soon after, another letter, also written by Anthony, was delivered to Raven's desk via Old Gordon.
Opening the envelope and taking it out, Raven was immediately angry and threw it aside.
"Sir, is there anything wrong with this letter?" Old Gordon asked.
"See for yourself." Raven said.
Pushing up his monocle, Old Gordon picked up the letter and looked at it, his expression also became strange:
"Master, please forgive me for not being able to maintain my dignity. "Hasn't your Lord Governor taken any medicine recently?"
This means that old Gordon is well-educated and would have scolded someone else.
Because Anthony mentioned in this letter that in order to ensure the stability of the Nordic province, he hoped that Raven would take the initiative to "generously donate" and provide at least 30 million pounds of food to the Governor's Mansion, in order to show the overall integrity of the province. The whole province is united as one.
The grain truck was eye-catching, and it was impossible to hide the fact that Raven had obtained a large amount of grain. Anthony was not the first nobleman to ask Raven for grain, and he would not be the last.
But it is too much for the lion to open his mouth like this.
30 million pounds of grain is enough to keep 100,000 people alive for a year!
"...Master, what should we do?" Old Gordon asked tentatively.
Looking at Old Gordon's expression, Raven smiled slightly: "You should already have an idea, let's talk about it."
Old Gordon nodded and said: "I feel that no matter how bad the content is, this letter is written by the Governor after all."
"Next, I will draft a reply letter on your behalf, saying that we I don’t have that much grain in my hand, so in the autumn tax, the grain portion will be doubled. What do you think?”
The Raven Territory is expected to harvest about 60 million pounds of grain this year, of which about 36 million pounds will be collected. According to the imperial tax, about 7 million pounds will be paid. , if doubled, it would be 14 million pounds.
For Lei Wen, who has a lot of food in his hands, it is not unacceptable.
"It is indeed a mature and prudent plan." Raven nodded.
"Then, what should I do?"
"No, I can reply to the letter, but I won't give him a grain of food."
"But, sir, he is the governor after all... ..."
"So what?"
This sentence stopped Old Gordon from asking, and then his face gradually became enlightened.
Yeah, what about the Governor?
Could it be that if Raven doesn’t give Anthony food, what can he do?
No, not at all.
Nowadays, everyone in the Nord province is short of food. In order to please His Majesty the King, Anthony has refused to reduce or reduce taxes as usual, which has caused great dissatisfaction.
At this time, if Anthony uses the governor's authority again to forcefully demand Raven's food, it will inevitably make other nobles feel in danger, and the already precarious prestige is likely to collapse overnight.
Anthony couldn't bear the consequences.
"But, are you really not paying taxes?" Old Gordon swallowed: "That is against the laws of the empire."
"You can give gold coins." Lei Wen Dingdiao said: "We convert grain into tax revenue based on the past annual grain prices - —It’s just less than 1,000 gold coins.”
“He wants me to be the first person, so I’ll show him another way.”
Anthony gave this to Raven. The letter hopes that Raven will set an example and "fully support this war."
But if Raven really did this, he would definitely become an enemy of the nobles of the province.
Since Anthony is greedy and doesn't care about Raven's life or death, there is no need for Raven to flatter him.
If you don’t hand over the food, you are telling Anthony with practical actions——
Even if I am just a baron, you can’t do anything you want!
"If you have nothing to do, just go and draft a letter for me. Be polite." After saying that, Raven took out a thick stack of documents from the drawer: "By the way, give this to Hyena Megumi. Le, let him send it to the forging workshop and hand it over to Suohe."
"Yes, sir."
Old Gordon took the order and stepped back, handing the document to the hyena, who then hurried to the forging factory.
Now the forging factory is busy manufacturing various weapons and equipment for the recruits, and the work is in full swing and with full firepower.
Several large chimneys are blazing with black smoke. When you get closer, you can still smell the sour smell of sulfur.
The factory is heavily guarded. Not only are there two hundred-person teams guarding the interior, but there are also eagle-eyed guards patrolling the door at all times. Anyone who sees a suspicious person will be captured immediately.
Hyena is Raven's head guard, and he came here on business, but even so, he was carefully searched, and after entering the factory, he was also strictly restricted in his route.
Especially no contact is allowed in the second workroom which is isolated separately.
"Has it been half a year?" The hyena couldn't bear his curiosity: "What is going on there?"
The gray dwarf who led the way was named Fabin. When he heard this One sentence screamed in a shrill voice: "Hey, it's a secret inside, do you understand? Even I, the supervisor, don't know what's inside, so don't pry around!"
"I can hear you, Binsi, don't be so loud. "The hyena covered his ears.
"I've said it many times, my name is Fabin, not Binsi!" Fabin was extremely dissatisfied.
"Oh, really?" The hyena scratched his neck and pointed at another gray dwarf not far away: "Isn't he the one named Fabin?"
"That's... "Fabin rolled his eyes and gave up the argument: "Well, in the eyes of you guys on the ground, we gray dwarves all look the same, right?"
The hyena coughed awkwardly, Even if it is the default.
Fabin was speechless for a while, and then asked after a while: "Then how do you distinguish Bowell and Sohei? Even in the eyes of us gray dwarves, they look similar."
"The degree of blackness is different."
"Huh?"
"Just, you know the kind of sunglasses issued by the Eagle Eye Guard, right? Bowell is that kind of black; Sohei If it were, it would be more like a burnt potato.”
“Huh?”
Fabin didn’t understand that the same black could be used in different ways.
But when he saw Sohei and Buvel, he still had to admit that what the hyena said made sense.
Bowell is black and shiny, while Suohei is a bit...well, dull.
It was the first time that Fabin could distinguish compatriots in this way. Fabin felt a little dizzy: "Hey, two leaders, I brought them here, so I will leave first."
He I want to find an angel's light to shine on me to see what kind of black magic I am.
But while walking, he suddenly jumped up and slapped himself.
Confused!
The biggest difference between Sohei and Buvier is that Sohei has a beard! ?
This sudden attack made the hyena a little confused: "What's wrong with Binsi?"
"Maybe he drank too much bad wine." Bowell said: "Don't worry about it. He, you are here to deliver something, just leave it to me."
"This is what the Baron has designated to give to Suo Hei," said the hyena. "Did you see it? Leave it to me!" Sohei elbowed Bovel aside, took the document from the hyena's hand and started to look through it: "By the way, the big ax you customized will take some time. I recently came up with a new idea. ”
The hyena shrugged: "You forge it, you decide. Anyway, what I get in the end is a good weapon."
As he said that, he approached Sohei. I also want to see what is written on this document.
Bowell's head squeezed in: "Let me see too, you don't even know a few words, why are you joining in the fun."
The hyena pursed its lips and walked aside. .
He really couldn't understand it anyway.
Sohei stroked his beard with one hand. Doubts slowly began to accumulate in his red eyes. His fingers stopped on page 3 of the document, reluctant to turn the page.
"Why do you read so slowly..." Bowell said and turned the page for Sohey.
Then with a snap, Sohei opened his arms: "Don't make trouble for me."
"You!" Bowell was about to argue, but Sohei glared at him and held him back.
Bowell had no choice but to stop and stand aside with his arms folded glumly, sighing silently.
Originally, he and Sohei jointly led this group of gray dwarves, but as time passed, their status slowly changed.
Bowell opened his own jewelry store, but business has been very bad. The high-end jewelry he made could not be sold at all, and he was always losing money, which made him deeply immersed in self-doubt. .
But Sohei is completely different.
From the moment he forged the "best sword in the world", he seemed to be inspired by something, and his forging skills improved rapidly.
And after transforming the hand crossbow and creating mithril soft armor for the lord, his forging fighting spirit directly broke through to the second level.
After this time, the weapons Suohei forged became more and more ingenious, and he gradually became the go-to person in the factory.
Even Bovel had to admit that Sohei seemed to be loved by the Lord of the Forge.
The Eagle Feather Sword and the Eagle Eye Half Armor are both independently designed by Sohei and have received unanimous praise and praise.
Today, Sohei no longer serves Raven just because of the existence of the contract. He is exploring and opening up his own forging path here, and is truly addicted to forging.
"Bowell, come here and take a look." Suohe suddenly said.
"Ha, now you know how to call me." Bowell said in a nonchalant manner, but still walked to Sohei: "What's going on?"
"You go first Take a look for yourself, and we’ll talk about it after you’ve finished reading it.” As he said that, Sohei thrust the document into Bovel’s hands.
For him who is not good at words, this is an apology.
Although he and Bovel would quarrel when they were together, as partners who broke out from the dark area together, Sohey still valued Bovel very much.
Recently, he has also noticed a change in his temper, and he is increasingly unable to allow others to dictate the casting of weapons.
This is not good, but it cannot be changed.
Suo Hei had a feeling in his mind that he was about to touch the legendary "wall of masterpieces" and was about to create his first masterpiece that would be handed down from generation to generation.
But he could never catch that glimmer of inspiration, so he became more and more impatient.
"Genius..." Buvel's voice was a little excited: "A work of genius! How did our lord come up with this!?"
This document is strictly a blueprint.
Design drawings of prosthetic limbs.
In the conception of the design drawing, this kind of prosthetic limb has built-in magic crystal, which can be operated and used through Dou Qi. If the craftsmanship is sophisticated enough, it can be almost indistinguishable from the limbs of ordinary people.
If made from the right materials, for most people it can be even better than the original limb.
At least steel doesn't bleed.
"This design drawing is perfect." Bowell frowned and asked, "What do you want me to see?"
Sohey turned the design drawing to the sixth page: "I want to change this structure. . ”
Then he talked about his own revision ideas.
“Hiss…” Bowell took a breath after listening to Sohei’s thoughts: “This involves a change in the core purpose. If there is a mistake, the entire design will be completely scrapped. ”
“You really want to do this?”
"Of course." Sohe said seriously: "I have an intuition that this is the right thing to do!"
Bowell was a little worried and looked at the hyena: "Didn't the Baron give any other instructions?"
"No, he just asked me to deliver this thing." The hyena said nonchalantly: "If you don't have any problems, I will go back "Resurrected."
Suo Hei nodded and said decisively: "Go ahead and tell the Baron that if there is any property damage caused by my unauthorized changes to the design, I am willing to bear the responsibility."
The hyena returned to Eagle City and recounted the dispute between Sohei and Buvel, as well as Sohei's final words, intact.
After Raven heard this, he just laughed it off and did not interfere.
The newly designed prosthetic limb cannot be completed overnight, and time continues to pass.
Strange to say.
Obviously the land had been gnawed bare by locusts the year before, but this summer, cicadas still screamed tirelessly.
They seem to be driven by something, and they return on time every summer.
This year's rain was quite abundant. Although the locusts gnawed away the surface plants, they also left behind a lot of feces and corpses. The fertility of the land was replenished to a certain extent, so that the food growth in the ground was surprisingly good this year.
The time came to June, and there were still two months before the grain harvest, but the tax relief that the nobles were looking forward to never came. Instead, they got another fact: Anthony took the initiative to express his determination to His Majesty the King, The province of Nord does not require tax exemption.
This caused unanimous complaints from the nobles.
Just when Raven was preparing to make a splash again, Viscount John took the lead in making a statement——
There was insufficient food in the territory, and people had begun to starve to death. His New Snow Territory, There is no food to hand in this year!
With Viscount John taking the lead, the nobles of the Nord province responded one after another. The first one was Mansa County where John was located, then Wirth, Bell, Arag...
Until it gradually spread to the entire province .
Earl Tyrone just came forward and said some mild-mannered remarks, and obviously did not intend to side with Anthony.
In the end, Anthony had to order in the name of the governor to "magnanimously" cancel the tax in kind from this year's taxation.
“This is why public anger is difficult to offend.”
After receiving the news, Raven had an undisguised smile on his face and tapped his fingers on the table.
“It’s time.”
“Hyena, let Simon come to see me.”
……
(End of this chapter)
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