In the tavern next to the church square in Besançon, Ron pushed the door and walked into Arte's room, wiped the sweat oozing from his forehead, and said, "Sir, the Minister of Peace still refuses to see us, but after several delays, his butler finally accepted the gift we sent."

Art stood up from his chair and picked up the wine glass on the table, "As long as you are willing to collect money, you can do it." It seems that my immediate boss, the Minister of Public Security, has also become a centrist, and I want to not offend either side, for fear that neither side will get good in the end. ”

"Master, you are already a baron of the frontier, and you can appoint officials on your own, why do you spend money to expand the duties of the border patrol officer and the size of the border patrol team?" Ron was puzzled by the fact that Arte had bribed the Minister of Justice to expand the scope of the Inspector's duties.

Art raised his head and took a sip of wine, and praised: "It is still the best quality wine from Podol, and it will not taste right to drink this wine and drink other wines."

"Ron, if it's just a barren valley fiefdom, I won't be able to fulfill the mission that the Deputy Prime Minister has given me. Moreover, the valley is too closed, the valley is only our foundation, and if we want to develop in the long run, we must firmly guard the trade routes in the south. And my power of mercy is only useful in the Barony of the Valley, and there must be a justifiable reason for controlling the trade lanes. Now that we have established a Boulder town camp for the patrol team to garrison, why don't we find a foothold on the issue of patrol officers and patrol teams? ”

"Once I have the permission of the sheriff, I will increase the size of the patrol party to fifty people, and set up patrol posts along the border post to the Tignets trade route, and once the sentry posts along the way are completed, the whole trade route will be truly in my hands. At that time, I will be able to control the entire eastern trade line of the country~"

"But the Dean family and the aristocratic merchants who profit from that "golden river" can sit idly by and watch us manipulate the trade paths? Our eagle eye in Besançon reported that the people of the Dean family have been in and out of the Count of Bernard's mansion a lot these days, and it is reported that the old Dean has also been invited by the Marquise to enter the inner court~ Although the evil wolf of the Dean family is moving a little less in the south, their movements in Besançon are getting bigger and bigger. Ron said.

"Do you know what the Dean family has done in the court?" Art asked.

"The palace is too heavily guarded to find out the news of the inner court, but our hawkeye has bribed a servant from the Earl of Bernard's palace who often comes here to drink, and through the servant, he has heard some of the conspiracy between the Dean family and the Earl of Bernard."

Hearing this, Art put down his glass and asked, "What conspiracy?"

Ron recalled, "It seems that the Dean family spent a lot of money to build something called the Assasin faction in the province of Thorne, the fief of the Count of Bernard. As for what this "Assasin" was, the servant didn't figure it out, after all, he was just an ordinary servant, and even the slightest secretive thing would take them away. ”

"Master, although we don't know what the Dean family is holding back, we have to guard against it!"

Art sat back in the chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the wooden table, and said in his mouth: "Assasin~Assasin~ How do you feel that you have heard this word somewhere~"

Art looked down and searched in his mind for a long time, unable to remember what it was, "Ron, give Besanson's Hawkeye an order that they must find out what this "Assasin" made by the Dean family!" And any news related to the House of Dean or the Earl of Bernard will have to be brought to you through the Continental Comptoir. ”

"Yes, sir, I'll arrange it. But I'd like to talk to you about whether we can increase our pay and mission pay for the Hawkeye in Besançon. This is the capital court, and the Hawkeyes often need to pay bribes to the servants of dignitaries and dignitaries to find out the news, and they often have to invite people to eat and drink in the tavern, which is too expensive, and the Hawkeye's salary is not enough to collect news. "Ron is now in charge of the entire intelligence network, and of course he has to think about his people.

Art nodded and said, "You have a point, I agree with your suggestion." In a moment, you go to the fat man (Angus friend, tavern owner, Hawkeye), who is the head of the intelligence point in Besançon, and the two of you will come back to me after discussing a specific amount and a feasible distribution plan. ”

"By the way, sir, there is one more thing I must report to you."

"Say!"

"The last time the Northern Caravan came to see you in Besançon, our Eagle Eye in the caravan gave me a message."

"What's the news?" Art looked up at Ron.

"It's about the other two shops that Lord Galvin gave you......"

"There must be something wrong with those two shops! It's been almost half a year to make a profit of less than 20,000 fennig~ How is this possible? And I have already checked the account books, and the books brought back through the caravan must be forged false accounts. ”

In the Wooden Fort of the Valley, the lord's wife, Lottie, sits in the official room of Art on the first floor of the mansion and talks to Cooper, the civil magistrate and steward of the Valley.

"Madame, Lawrence said that he had personally visited them, and confirmed that the two shops were indeed in dismal condition, and that the shopkeeper had to sell the large quantity of goods that had been hoarded in the center at a discount. Lawrence has always been reliable and should not do anything to deceive us. Cooper hurriedly explained to Lottie.

"Uncle Cooper, the problem shouldn't be with Lawrence Steward, but he is not a Salter steward and has no experience in dealing in merchant, and he also knows very little about the ability of merchants. What I suspect is that there is something wrong with our two shop managers~"

"This lady, I don't know anything about the trade of goods, how do you think we should deal with it? Now we don't have people who are good at business, and if we just get rid of those two stewards, I'm afraid we won't be able to find a suitable manager for a while," Cooper heard Lottie's words, and he also made a difficulty.

Lottie put down the account book in his hand, thought for a while, and then looked up and said to Cooper: "Uncle Cooper, you should send someone to Sapburg and bring all the wives and children of the two shop stewards to the valley, and say that I remembered that their husbands were working hard outside and took them to the valley as guests. The rest will be decided when my husband returns. ”

Cooper thought for a moment, and couldn't help but look at the lord's wife differently, "Madam, I will ask Bass to send a garrison of peasants to Sapp to fetch them." ”

"Uncle Cooper, I also found a problem." Lottie took out a ledger of food and supplies for the newly built villages in the valley.

"This is the account book of the grain collection of the newly built village, according to the previous share of grain for each new tenant, one pound per day for each young and strong person, and half a pound for the children. After the beginning of spring, the task of cultivating land was arduous, and the number of young and strong people increased to one and a half pounds per person. But I calculated the grain consumption for the last month, and even according to the highest share, the newly built village received an extra 120 pounds of grain in a month. Originally, this bit of food was nothing to the valley, but we could not tolerate people making small moves in the supplies that belonged to the valley. ”

Cooper wiped the sweat from his forehead and replied, "Madam, during this time, I have focused all my energy on the construction site of the Beiguan Military Fort, and I really didn't pay attention to the movement of the newly built village. I'll immediately take someone to inspect the new village and get rid of that guy in charge!" ”

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Chapter 223: Cleaning Up the House Thieves