After resting in the inn for the night, the next morning Art went to the official room of the lord's hall to await the summons of Viscount Pierre.

Ron had already relayed the words of Viscount Pierre to Art. As a palace guard knight and patrol officer, although Art is not under the jurisdiction of Viscount Pierre, after all, he is the representative of the court and the Marquis in Tignaz in exercising royal power, so Art has no choice but to listen to the training.

But after meeting Art, Pierre did not show too much blame.

"Art, I know that you are also out of helplessness when you run a business, after all, the land canonized to you by the palace is too barren, and it is understandable that you are fending for yourself. But the premise of all this is that you can remember and be faithful to your duty, you have just won some victories in the southern bandits, and at this time you should lead your soldiers to pursue the victory and completely eliminate the bandits in the county. ”

Art sat down and listened attentively, nodding yes incessantly, with an extremely respectful attitude.

"Lord Viscount, I understand what you said. But my soldiers need to eat and drink, need to be equipped with weapons and armor, need to be paid military salaries, need to be treated for their wounds, and need rewards for meritorious service, all of which need to be supported by money. Moreover, I have left the main force of the army in the south to continue to eliminate the remnants of the bandits. ”

"At the end of May, when we exterminated the largest gang of bandits in the county, more than 20 of my soldiers were seriously wounded, and almost all of those who survived were wounded. These soldiers who died in battle need to be comforted by their relatives, seriously injured soldiers need medical treatment, those who survive need to be rewarded for battle, and battle-damaged weapons and armor need to be replenished. You see how many bandits my soldiers have killed, but not how much money I have to spend every day. ”

"I know you want to say that I can lower the salaries of my soldiers and recruit cheap homeless farmers as soldiers, but how can such a group of miscellaneous soldiers only carry farm tools and pretend to be able to beat those bloodthirsty bandits

"Lord Viscount, just by looking at the county garrisons you trained, you know that you are a nobleman who is proficient in military affairs, and you should know how much it costs to train a group of elite soldiers. The garrison army of the county town has the taxes of the whole county and the military expenses of the palace to protect the elite soldiers, and the training of elite soldiers is less than two hundred, if I do not rely on business to make some money, how to feed my soldiers, how to complete the duty of patrol and security assigned to me by the palace. ”

"If the court or the county of Tinets can allocate me sufficient food, military supplies, weapons and armor, I will certainly be able to concentrate on my mission."

Viscount Pierre originally wanted to call Yat to reprimand him, so that he could concentrate on cleaning up the bandits, so that he could also solve a big problem for the court, but he didn't want this guy to come up and complain, so he held back Pierre's unspoken words.

"You don't have to call me poor every time you see me, but I didn't deduct half of your copper coins from the money, food, supplies, weapons and armor that the court asked the county of Tinets to supply you, and you have not been collecting taxes from all over the county recently, and I have never asked you for half of the profits obtained by the bandits, and besides, you found the position of a border inspector yourself, and now you cry to me for being poor and crying miserably."

When Pierre said this, Art was also a little dumbfounded, and the two fell silent for a while in front of and behind the table in the official room.

After a while, Viscount Pierre broke the silence, "In addition to reminding you not to forget the duties of the Border Inspector, there are two other things to tell you about this call. ”

"The first thing is that the court has responded to your exploits in suppressing bandits in the south last month. The Minister of Security of the Imperial Court was very happy when he learned that you had "beheaded" the bandits for nearly 100 years, and asked the court to give you a military reward of 2,000 fennigs, but when this military reward arrived in Tinetz, there were only 1,000 fennigs, and you don't need to ask me why it was less than half, I can only say that I will give you as much as I have sent from above. In addition, the court will write your achievements into a newspaper and spread it all over the world, and your fame is getting bigger and bigger. ”

Pierre said as he picked up a money bag and a copy of the newspaper from the table and tossed them to Art.

Art took the money bag and put it in his arms, and then unfolded the parchment newspaper and read it.

"In May, the Southern Frontier Patrol Officer Art Wood Wells led his troops to clear out the bandits, killing nearly 100 bandits, and the court rewarded him with a generous prize." Art read the inconspicuous short line at the end of the palace newspaper.

"Generous awards? A thousand fennigs were not enough to compensate the relatives of the soldiers who died in battle. Art expressed his displeasure at the court's stinginess.

"It's two thousand phenyles." Viscount Pierre corrected Yat.

Art sneered and put the newspaper back on the table.

Viscount Pierre ignored Yat's emotions and continued: "The second thing is to give you advice. You are just a new knight, but as far as I know, your elite soldiers have more than fifty, and I heard that there are still a lot of training peasant soldiers in your territory, plus border patrol soldiers and border guards, such a force is already half a baron's standing army, I don't care what you feed these dozens or hundreds of mouths, I care about how you can make the lords around you sleep peacefully, I am now managing Tinets County on behalf of the court, I don't want to fight among the lords in the county. ”

"In addition, I heard that you have recently seized passing caravans at the border, and although the territory of the border stone bridge is a fief given to you by the palace, I am afraid that it is not appropriate to intercept the merchant travelers, right? And most of the caravans you seized were carrying southbound goods from the north, do you know who the people behind these caravans were? Have you thought it through? ”

Art didn't expect that the expansion of his power had already begun to have a negative impact, but it was inevitable on the way to expansion, "Thank you Lord Viscount for your kind advice, I know what every step I take means." ”

Pierre felt that he had said enough, and that many times he would only be a dispassionate bystander.

"It's good that you know yourself, and besides, it's best for you and the caravan you take with you to sleep with your eyes open for some time to come."

"Jerry, send Ser Art away for me."

Back at the inn from the lord's hall, the caravan steward Salter had already loaded all the goods into the cart with everyone.

Art walked up to Salt and ordered, "You tell me to go down and sleep with my eyes open from today onwards."

Then he turned to Ron and Felix, who were approaching, and ordered, "You two will select a few clever and brave guards from the convoy to form two sentry groups, and take turns patrolling the two miles around the convoy, and will warn Pegasus if you find any abnormality."

"What about Raven? Levine! Art yelled at Lavin, the deputy steward, who was inspecting the loading of the cargo.

Ravan hurried to Art's side.

"Raven, from this day onwards, every day when you make a fire at noon for cooking and camp at night, you will take your escort to form a caravan wagon in a chariot formation, just like the formation in the birch grove to the south. During the day, Ron and Felix are in charge of exploration, and at night the sentry is in charge of you, you are from the legion, and all the sentinels are done according to the requirements of the legion. ”

"Yes! My lord. ”

Since leaving Tinets, Yat's convoy has been cautious, but no more robbers or ill-intentioned men have been eyeing the convoy all the way north.

After five days of walking without any danger, Art finally encountered a wolf with baring its fangs in an autonomous city called Engelberg, south of Lucesen.

Engelberg was one of the few fully autonomous cities in the country, and because of its proximity to Lucesen and its lack of commercial prosperity, Art never cared about a city that was not much bigger than the county town of Tignets, but this is where the trouble began.

Early the next morning after being stationed outside the city, the convoy camp was surrounded by more than 30 city defenders who rushed out of the city.

The leader was a guy who claimed to be the city's tax collector, and he claimed that Art's convoy had not voluntarily paid the newly promulgated commercial tax to Engelberg, so he had been ordered to come and collect the commercial tax.

Art had traveled this road many times, and had passed through here with caravans, which had no power to collect merchant taxes as long as the convoys did not enter the city.

"My convoy didn't enter the city, so why should I pay you a commercial tax?" Salter argues with the sheriff who came to "collect taxes".

"If you passed through here three days ago, you really don't need to pay a merchant tax, but lately banditry has been rampant, and in order to protect passing merchants, the Archon just issued a decree three days ago, starting from two days ago, as long as the southern caravans passing through Engelberg City and its surrounding area within half a mile will be protected by Engelberg City, and of course they will have to pay commercial tax if they accept asylum. Otherwise, what will we do to feed the army and shelter you caravans? ”

As he spoke, the tax collector pointed to the dozens of armored City Watch soldiers surrounding the convoy, and his meaning was very clear, if the convoy did not take the initiative to pay, they would use force to levy.

Salter looked at the dozens of vicious soldiers around him, and knew that the other party must have come prepared, and it was for this convoy.

"Your Excellency, do you see?" Salter turned to Yat, who had been silent, and whispered to ask.

Art whispered a few words to the caravan's deputy steward, Lavine, and then stepped forward to look at the tax collector with a raised face and a nose, and asked, "How much did the Dean family give you?" ”

"You don't care how much money he gave me!" The tax officer suddenly said that he had leaked his mouth, and quickly changed his words: "I mean that no one gave me money, I acted on orders." ”

"Acting on orders? The consuls in Engelberg were not stupid enough to change the laws made by the citizens' council at will. The autonomous territory given by the court to Engelberg City is the domain of the marquis of the city outside the city walls, and you dare to come out with the city army to plunder the caravans? Have you seen who the owner of this caravan is? Yat's tone was not high, but his tone was very tough.

The tax officer didn't expect that the reckless man in Dian's mouth actually knew the boundaries between the citizens' council and the autonomous city, and he lost his aura for a while, so he began to be arrogant, "You just say that you don't pay commercial taxes!" My soldiers are already waiting impatiently! ”

This is the Ming robbery.

Just as Art was attracting the attention of the tax collector, Lavin and Ron Felix had already returned to the convoy, gathered the caravan guards together, and quietly took out the weapons on the car.

Art pulled out a deerskin money bag from his bosom, picked it up and shook it, the silver coins in the money bag clanged with an enticing crunch.

The tax officer thought that Art had already admitted defeat when he saw that he was outnumbered, and his eyes stared at the heavy money bag in Art's hand.

"And how much business tax should I pay, Mr. Taxman?" Art asked with a light smile.

The tax officer was already bound to win, and the other party was quite knowledgeable, so he replied in a slow voice: "Seeing that your attitude is good, this time I will not pay the fine for your tax arrears, and seeing that you have a lot of carriages, you will pay five thousand fennigs of commercial tax." ”

"What? 5,000 pfennig!!! Salter listened to the tax officer's words and was instantly furious.

Art waved his hand to stop Salter, lowered his head and slowly searched through the money bag for a long time, pulled out the most worn copper fennig and threw it on the ground.

"If it's given to you, take the money and get out." Art stared coldly at the tax collector.

The tax collector looked at the worn-out copper fennig on the ground, and his face was purple.

"Bastard, you and I are a fugitive !!" The tax collector pointed at Art's nose and scolded.

"If you're an outcast, I'll consider giving you another one."

"A bunch of deadly mongrels, today I will teach you to fear the strong. Give it to me! The tax collector ordered the city soldiers around him to take down the convoy.

At the moment when the tax collector shouted the order, the driver of the convoy instantly drew his weapon from the carriage and relied on the carriage to form a formation to confront the city soldiers.

The soldiers of the city were startled by the sudden change and stopped one after another.

The tax collector didn't expect that the unarmed drivers just now had suddenly turned into warriors, staring blankly at the convoy in front of them.

"Do you want to resist the law, and are you not afraid of being punished?"

"Under sanctions? You'll be the one to be sanctioned, Tax Collector. Without the permission of the consuls and magistrates, a tax collector led an army out of the city to plunder a baron's caravan. If you kill a few more city soldiers in a while, I'm afraid you won't be able to explain it to your commander, and if the palace knows that you have crossed the border to send troops, I'm afraid you won't be able to save your head!! ”

Arte's words poked at the tax officer's sore spot.

The tax collector was indeed one of the officials who Dean went north to buy, and Dean gave the tax collector a thousand pfennigs of silver, and asked the tax collector to try to seize a caravan of southern goods from the south, promising to pay another 3,000 pfennigs afterwards. In Dean's mouth, this helpless young knight is just a wild dog that preys on his mouth. So the tax collector found a few petty officers in the city guard army, gathered these thirty or so soldiers with a few good meals, and quietly ran out of the city to earn money.

It was thought that a single intimidation fraud would make the convoy obediently hand over a huge amount of money, or impound the convoy after the other party refused to pay the money. Whether the money is paid or not, the tax officer can get a big windfall.

But the situation did not seem to be as rosy as the tax collector had expected, and aside from the status of the other party's knight lord and the coat of arms on the convoy flag, the tax collector was afraid of the twenty or so coachmen and a few elite retinues who suddenly took up arms. He went out with the soldiers in the city in private, and these soldiers were only with him pretending to be strong and strong, and if there were a few dead and wounded in a real fight, he would not be able to explain.

The tax officer's face turned from flush to purple red, and then from purple to iron......

Just when the two waves of people picked up their weapons outside the city and were in a stalemate, a city guard ran out of the city, and the city guard and the tax collector muttered a few words in their ears, and the tax collector glanced at the city guard, and the soldier nodded.

"I remember you!" The tax collector put down a cruel word, beckoned to retreat to Engelberg with the soldiers defending the city. 11166 net

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Chapter 148: The Tiger