It is impossible for man to think logically, and thinking purely logically should be a characteristic of God.

– Otto Weininger (Austrian philosopher)

When the Marquis of Bedouin, who had 10,000 standing soldiers and nearly 20,000 guards, led his army to a distance of only five miles from the county town of Brojansson, the excitement that had been haunting him a few days ago finally dissipated.

At this time, the problem before the Marquis of Bedouin was not how to protect himself, but how to fulfill the promises he had made to the fallen nobles, and those high-profile promises that had risen to the occasion were now to be fulfilled by practical deeds.

Ordinary barons and knights, who were reluctant to even call nobles, could be sent away as long as Bedouin gave them a few petty profits, and the remaining eight counts and thirty-seven viscounts were not so easy to dismiss.

The viscount, who is second only to the earl, is the backbone of the imperial aristocracy, they are numerous and not weak, and the strength of a viscount family is at least equal to more than three baron families, which is not as simple as one plus one plus one equals three.

The viscounts who followed the Marquis of Bedouin, each of whom contributed no less than a hundred escort warriors to him, and more importantly, these perennial viscounts had unparalleled influence over the barons and knights who were once their subordinate.

In other words, if the Marquis of Bedouin had fulfilled his promise to the barons and knights, but not to the viscounts, the angry viscounts would have been able to convince the barons and knights to stand in opposition to the Marquis of Bedouin.

The highest viscounts of the lower nobility have this ability, and it is needless to say that the counts who belong to the ranks of the higher nobles are not much to mention, you must know that the Marquis of Bedouin's brother Marquis Bernard was not 'killed in battle', and the Marquis of Bedouin was a count himself.

Even in the imperial capital, where there are many nobles, the number of high-ranking aristocratic families will not exceed 300, and more than seventy percent of them are earl families with relatively low status; even if the status of the imperial capital earl is higher than that of the local earl, the strength of the local earl will not be weaker than that of the imperial capital earl.

The local counts with fiefs had no shortage of money and private soldiers, and they were like emperors in all local provinces, and in the face of such a group of truly powerful nobles, Bedouin's promises were not small before he received their support.

A viscount's fief is normally about a medium-sized town, and an earl's fief is a number of towns of varying size, and by this standard Bedouin would need sixty or seventy towns to keep his promise.

The province of Browjansson, which has only one capital and three counties, has less than eighty towns at full capacity, and all of them are in the hands of Bai Feng's henchmen, and the Marquis of Bedouin himself does not know how to 'snatch' the ownership of these towns from Bai Feng.

Although the Marquis of Bedouin has expressed his indifference to Bai Feng and his confidence in completely controlling the province of Brojanson on various public occasions many times, the Marquis of Bedouin, who lacks confidence, really does not dare to directly attack Bai Feng's henchmen who remain in the province of Brojansson.

The deterrent power of the nearly 300,000 elite army under Bai Feng's command made even the 10,000 standing army soldiers under his command be borrowed from the Marquis of Bedouin, and he felt terrified from the bottom of his heart;

As for Charlemagne's support, in the eyes of the Marquis of Bedouin, Charlemagne, who was far away in the imperial capital, could not have much influence on Bai Feng, who had a heavy army, and the last mutiny of the Fire Legion was the most typical example.

Even the Fire Legion, which is a royal legion, will launch a mutiny against itself at all costs, where can the standing legion under Bai Feng go? Thinking of this, the Marquis of Bedouin's teeth hurt!

No matter how entangled the Marquis of Bedouin's heart was, the distance between him and the county town of Brojansson was still shrinking little by little, and the down-and-out nobles who followed the Marquis of Bedouin were elated, as if their glory and wealth were ahead.

As time went by, the Marquis of Bedouin arrived at the county town of Bronjansund, with a swaying procession behind him, and among the cronies left by Bai Feng in the county, only the civil affairs officer Hess and the treasurer Shalach stood at the gate to welcome the Marquis of Bedouin.

The military officer Moritz and the secretary Heinrich did not go to the city gate to greet the Marquis of Bedouin, nor did they deliberately do anything to prevent the Marquis of Bedouin from entering the city, they just lived their own undisturbed lives as usual.

In fact, this arrangement itself was the result of the deliberations of Heinrich and the other four, and if the four officials all went to greet the Marquis of Bedouin, it would seem a little too enthusiastic, and it would not be respectful enough to go only one, so there was a scene where Hess and Shalach went to greet him together.

"Viscount Shahlah, you are the financial officer of our province of Brojansson, and you must have a good understanding of the tax situation in the province, can you tell me what the current tax rate of our province of Brojansson is, and how much tax can be collected every month?"

The Marquis of Bedouin, who did not intend to meet and seize the power of the province, deliberately showed an approachable appearance, and even Shah, who had not been knighted by the Reich at all, was called Viscount of Shalah by the Marquis of Bedouin, who deliberately wooed him.

This kind of co-optation not only made the down-and-out nobles around the Marquis of Bedouin jealous, but also made Shalach himself frown slightly unconsciously, but, considering the position of the Marquis of Bedouin's position as governor of the province, he still replied in 1510:

"Your Excellency the Governor, General Bai Feng has set a three-year tax exemption policy after recovering the province of Brojansson, so the province is now in a state of tax exemption, and even our monthly salary is paid by General Bai Feng for us. ”

"It is not easy for General Bai Feng to lead his army to recover the province of Brojansson, how can we let him keep paying the salaries of officials at all levels for our governor's palace?"

"The people are not living well, and they have been ravaged by the orc army, so they should be exempted from taxes for three years, but the Sophia Chamber of Commerce is a non-governmental business organization, and they should pay no less in taxes. Viscount Shahlah, what do you think?"

"This ......" saw that the Marquis of Bedouin put the object of tax collection on the Sophia Chamber of Commerce, and Shalah, who knew the Sophia Chamber of Commerce, had a deliberate refusal, but he also understood that it was really difficult for himself and others to fight against the determined Marquis of Bedouin.

Rather than break with the Marquis de Bedouin on this matter, it would be better to spend a small amount of money to pass the past, and after a little consideration, Sharah replied: "Your Excellency, with the size of the Sophian Chamber of Commerce, they are to pay a tax of five thousand gold coins a month. ”

"Five thousand gold coins?" Marquis Bedouin, who was slightly shocked in his heart, he had long known that the Sophia Chamber of Commerce was not small, but he didn't expect that the Sophia Chamber of Commerce could hand over five thousand gold coins every month, which was not a small amount!

Marquis Bedouin, who has a lot of experience in accumulating wealth, is also an old fritter who has been in the imperial capital for many years, how could he directly accept Shahach's offer; after pretending to think about it, Marquis Bedouin shook his head and refused:

"Viscount Shahah, I have some understanding of the scale of the Sophia Chamber of Commerce, with the operating conditions and distribution density of their Chamber of Commerce, five thousand gold coins per month is really too little, so you go and negotiate with their person in charge and let them hand over eight thousand gold coins every month. ”