"What's the use of you giving me a dead man!! You say he's the thief Hus, and you've chopped everyone into meat sauce, who can tell which mongrel he's for? In the official room of the hall of the lord of Tignets, Viscount Pierre scolded Bob, the sheriff of the city.

Bob's chubby face had turned the color of pig liver.

Since the early summer of this year, Viscount Pierre's cart of silk and spices was robbed by a robber named Hus, the embarrassed and angry Viscount Pierre has repeatedly sent sheriffs with town guards to chase after them, but Sheriff Bob usually takes a few of his minions to bully and suppress the good in Tiniez, and he does not have the courage to chase down the bandits outside the city.

So a few days ago, Bob took people to the south and cut down a few homeless people at random, and slashed a slightly more sturdy fellow a dozen times, and brought him to Viscount Pierre in an attempt to fool him around.

Scolding and scolding, Bob is not worried that Viscount Pierre will remove him from his position as sheriff, because he has a strong backer. At this moment, his sister may be in a corner with the noble court vice-minister, albeit secretly.

After Pierre scolded, his mood calmed down a lot, and he didn't plan to continue to entangle with the fat pig in front of him.

"Bob, look at this." As he spoke, he tossed a piece of parchment with the seal of the Minister of Peace to Bob.

Bob took it and opened it and looked at it, shouting excitedly, "When did a Border Inspector pop up?" We also need our support!! Go to his Patrolman, Tignats's policing doesn't need bullshit Patrolmen. Bob looked up and saw that Viscount Pierre had an unkind face, and quickly stopped his roar.

"What are you yelling at? The order of the Minister of Justice makes it very clear that the Border Inspector is patrolling the southern border, clearing out bandits, and defending against the mountain barbarians, and he will not be able to control the city of Tignats and will not be able to take your place. Pierre leaned back in his chair and stroked his forehead with his right hand.

"The palace has no money, but we are required to supply the materials and equipment, and the credit goes back to the Minister of Justice! That old thing can calculate. "Bob is not inferior in exports.

"Bob, shut your foul mouth, the Minister of Peace is not something your bewitching sister can afford to mess with. However, now that we are almost out of content, I have ordered that the commercial tax and the city tax be raised continuously, and that after the winter has passed, fifteen more town guards will be recruited, so that I will have a hundred soldiers, and your security corps will also recruit a few more, and make ten men. Remember, don't recruit any more hooligans, you must at least stabilize the security around Tignets first. The rest will wait until the patrol officer arrives. With that, he blasted Bob out.

"Art Wood Wells, the Wells family, Burgundy doesn't have this family~ Where did it come from?" Pierre picked up the parchment and read it to his mouth.

…………

"Sir, I'm curious, who are you? Following you until now, I feel more and more that you are not simple. Ron lay in the carriage, chewing rabbit meat in his mouth, and said to Art, who was riding side by side.

Art smiled, "I'm also curious, so what kind of person do you think I will be?"

Ron sat up with his side grille, stared into Art's eyes, and replied earnestly, "The first time I saw you, I thought you were a lord who kills people without blinking an eye; After following you to the valley cabin, I thought you were a great forest hunter; During this time in the north, you are more like a politician walking through the court; But outside Tignac and in yesterday's ambush, you're a mighty, chivalrous wandering knight. ”

Art chuckled a few times, pointed to a bloody and purple pinch mark on his neck, and said to Ron, "Have you ever seen a chivalrous knight who was almost strangled to death by a robber?" ”

"Then you killed the robber after all!" Ron still admires his master.

"Ron, you're right, if we hadn't killed that bandit, we would have had our heads in the car right now. You have to remember that the best way to deal with your enemy is to kill him and then make up for it. ”

Ron turned his head to look at the head at his feet, nodded, and said silently, "Kill him, and add another sword!" ”

At this time, Odo, who was exploring the way in front, walked up to Yat with a broad axe and said, "My lord, it seems that there is Tignez ahead. ”

"Well, Otto, watch out for the grain cart." As he spoke, he urged him to step forward......

The stunt of the open space outside Tignets' northern gates has doubled in less than a month, and Otto's shack at the roots of Lucesin is a mansion of an aristocratic lord compared to the dogkenn-like huts made of dead branches and leaves.

When a few people passed by with a grain cart, hungry wolf-like eyes were projected around the shack. Art rode with his sword in front, Ron half-sat with his bow on top, and Odo's axe followed. Nervously passed all the way, and when they arrived at the city gate, they saw a few city guards in the doorway, and the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

A city guard who looked like a small officer with a short sword on his waist slipped his belt and swayed over to stop Art's horse, looked up at the man on the horse, and shouted, "Dismount!" Goods enter the city to pay business tax, and people enter the city to pay city tax. ”

Yate didn't have the slightest intention of dismounting and paying taxes, he now has an official position appointed by the palace, even if it is just a civilian official, it is not an ordinary civilian, he pointed at the grain cart behind him with his sword, and said fiercely: "This is military rations, you dare to collect taxes?" ”

patted his chest again and said, "I am a border patrol appointed by the palace, do I need to pay taxes when I enter the city?" ”

When the junior officer heard this, he immediately became angry, since he became the leader of this squad, no one dared to talk to him like this, border patrol officer? There's a patrol officer out there!

"If you ride a broken horse, you will be considered a master? Can there be lacquered papers? The petty officer decided that the guy in front of him was posturing and trying to evade paying taxes.

"Otto, take out my lacquered papers." Art said to Otto with a smile.

Otto took a bloody head from the carriage and threw it into the arms of the petty officer, who was startled and fell to the ground and rolled in front of the Atema.

Art turned over and dismounted, bent down and grabbed the head on the ground, and brought it to the little leader, "Look closely, this is my lacquered paperwork." ”

The petty officer was speechless by the sudden start.

Yat turned sideways to a few spear-wielding guards behind the petty officer and said, "I am a border patrol officer appointed by the Minister of Peace of the Palace, and I am going to Tignets to take up my post today, so get out of the way." So saying, he handed the head to Odo, turned on his horse, and drove forward, but the guards had to put away their spears and make way for them......

Art rode on the horse, and there was a lot of emotion in his heart, every time he used to enter the city, he was smiling and trying to pay a little less tax. Today, Tignets was able to step straight in, and Art liked it.

————————

"You're Art?"

"Your Excellency Viscount, I am Art Wood Wells, and this is my letter of appointment." Art respectfully handed the letter of appointment to Pierre.

Pierre took the letter of appointment with one hand and said, "What's the matter with your neck?" He noticed a deep bruise on Art's neck.

Art recounted the day before he was ambushed by several bandits in the northern woods.

"My lord, that's the way it is, now the heads of those two guys are at the door of the hall."

"Well, it seems that the Minister of Justice has sent you to patrol the border by looking for the right person. Art, where are you from? I don't seem to have heard that there is a Wells family in Burgundy. Pierre looked down at Arte's letter of appointment and asked casually.

"My lord, I'm not a Burgundian, I'm a Lombard." Art replied.

"Lombards, then how are you~"

"My lord, my father was Bishop Olof Hannes' religious guard in the Holy Land." Art could not reveal his identity for the time being, so he revealed the identity that Bishop Orlof Hannes had fabricated for him, and presented the bishop's private letter to Viscount Pierre.

Pierre took the private message, opened the paint and read it carefully, and said "no wonder" in his heart, then put down the private message and straightened his back to Art and said: "No wonder you are so heroic, it turns out to be the religious escort of Bishop Orlov, thank you for your concern for me, please greet Bishop on my behalf." ”

Pierre, a lord and nobleman, had long heard rumors of Orlov's imminent ascension to bishop of the diocese of Lucesen. However, Tignets did not belong to the diocese of Lucernes, and he would have given Bishop Orlof enough respect, but only that.

"Yat, the Minister of Justice, and the Bishop of Orlov all want the support of the Inspector of Tignets and the southern region, but you must know that I nominally manage fifteen villages in one city, four forts, but except for Tignets and the two small estates nearby, the rest of the places are the fiefdoms of the lords and lords, and I have no control at all. My food and taxes are barely enough to sustain the city of Tinets. Pierre was afraid that Art would ask for money and food.

"In addition, as you can see, now that the southern continent is full of war, Tignets has almost become a camp camp for exiles in Provence, and I have to squeeze out money and food to help the displaced people to prevent them from making trouble. In addition to money, food and materials, I will give you whatever I can give the rest! Pierre looked at Art with a sincere expression.

Art had already guessed that Pierre would not give him any substantial support, but he still made a look of extreme disappointment, bowing his head and being silent for a long time.

"My lord, but before leaving, the Minister of Security told me that the Tinets region would definitely give me support, and let me let the Marquis see a stable southern border within a year, if there is no money, food and materials, my patrol team will not be able to be formed at all, how can I return to the Minister of Security and the Marquis." Yatra came out of the tiger skin of the Marquis and the Minister of Justice.

"Art, it's not that I don't want to support you, but you see, what has become of Tignets? I've raised taxes three times, and now I'm just trying to maintain the status quo. Pierre crossed his arms and looked embarrassed.

Art bowed his head again and fell silent.

After a while, Pierre said helplessly: "Otherwise, I will allow you to go to the villages and towns in the county to collect the security tax, and how much you can collect depends on luck." In addition, you can set up a card on the southern border trade route to collect a year's business tax, and all the money you receive will be used for your patrol needs. ”

Art secretly cursed in his heart, all the villages and towns are the lords of knights and lords, not to mention whether they can receive security tax in the villages that are frantically oppressed by the lords, it is estimated that before they enter the village, those lords who regard the territory as a forbidden territory will have to lead their troops to rush out; It seemed feasible to set up a card to collect the merchant tax, and in normal times the city of Tinets paid a tax of ten taxes, and even if the part paid to the court was excluded, it would receive nearly thirty marks (about four thousand five hundred pfennig) a month, which was enough money to sustain sixty or seventy soldiers for a month. But now that the south is in turmoil, the north-south trade route has been cut off, and most of the merchants have stopped their trading activities, except for a very small number of large caravans with armed escorts who dare to cross the chaotic southern border to Burgundy to trade. By setting up cards at the border to collect taxes, Art encounters only beggar-like outcasts and large caravans that he cannot afford to provoke.

"My lord, you know the current situation, it is impossible for the lords to receive the security tax, and now that the southern war and trade routes are cut off, it is useless to set up cards at the border to collect taxes."

"And what do you want? Tell us what you think. Pierre was getting impatient.

"My lord, the patrol team is in charge of patrolling the southern border, and it is impossible for us to be stationed in the city of Tignac, so I would like to ask you to assign a small piece of land that is not owned by a feudal lord at the foot of Mount Lamel and Pore, forty miles south of Lane, to the patrol team, and allow me to recruit displaced people to open up wasteland and cultivate land for military purposes." Yate made the first request.

Pierre thought about it, the border area at the foot of Lamel and the Boge Mountains, which was already the southernmost part of the Count of Burgundy, had been neglected for many years, and it didn't matter if it was temporarily allocated to Arte, and nodded: "It's a wasteland and dense forest that no one cares about, as long as you can grow food, all will be yours, and I won't take a grain of grain." But you'll have to recruit them outside Tignac. ”

"Tignets doesn't give me supplies, and my soldiers have to survive, so the seizures of the bandits are for my own use and will not be handed over."

"As long as you can get it, I agree."

"Finally, I hope you will allocate me five hundred pounds of food, ten spears, three broadswords, five hammered battle axes, and a number of winter coats, and a few more bows." Art knew that Pierre could not afford to allocate so many weapons, he was just asking for a sky-high price.

"Don't think about food, I know you brought a cart of grain from the north. If it weren't for the fact that you're going to form a patrol team, I'd like to take half of it. As for weapons, I can give you eight short spears, a broadsword, and three battle axe hammers, and no winter coats. ”

"Don't be in a hurry to thank me, I'm conditional. First, you must assemble a patrol team of no less than 10 people before next year's spring wheat planting and start patrolling the southern border to maintain law and order. Second, you are not allowed to plunder the outcasts' caravans in the name of patrolling, and if you have the guts to rob the lords' villages, then you can do it. Thirdly, the bandits you hunt down must be handed over to me first, and I will put them to death or escort them to the court. Of course, I don't take credit for your work in vain, an ordinary bandit is sixty pfennigs, a small leader of the bandits is two hundred pfennigs, a big leader is five hundred pfennigs, and the pursued thieves are counted separately. However, you need to be able to prove that they are bandits, so it's best not to cut off some heads to cheat money. ”

"How?" Pierre stared into Art's eyes.

Art thought for a while, felt that the conditions were not too much, and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, let's do it, you're now the security patrol officer of Tignats's southern border." After that, he picked up the brass bell on the table and shook it, and the guard outside the door pushed the door in.

"Jerry, take this new Border Inspector to the Clerk and tell him to send a notice announcing the Border Inspector's appointment."

Art followed the guard to push the door out, a round-headed and fat-faced guy was walking through the door, the two passed by, the fat-faced guy glanced at Art, and turned his head into the house hatefully.

Sheriff Bob looked indignant as soon as he entered the house, "My lord, you actually gave that guy a weapon and asked him to set up a card to collect taxes!" ”

"Bob, do you see the head outside the hall?"

"See"

"Do they look like the heads of bandits?"

"I didn't look closely, but there was a similar one."

"That's it, they came with a private message from Bishop Olof Hannes and two bloody "gifts", can I let him go back empty-handed? If you can bring me the head of a real robber, I'll give you a weapon. ”

"My lord, I~"

"Okay, if you have something to say, let's retreat if you have nothing to do."

"I'm here to discuss with you about increasing the salaries of the vigilantes......"

......