The palace hall of Besançon is very lively.

The Marquis of Ivrea, the ruler of the Count of Burgundy, had not been in the Grand Hall for a long time, and all the military and political affairs of the Count of Burgundy were decided by the court council.

The court council was presided over by seven important court ministers: the prime minister, the military minister, the deputy minister of the court, the minister of finance, the chief of the inner court, the court dà fǎ official, and the minister of the seal, and the daily affairs of the kingdom were decided by these seven important ministers. In case of major affairs, he ordered the lords of the court viscount and above, the earls of the frontier {fiefdoms, distinct court counts}, and the magistrates of the direct territories to rush to Besançon to participate in the palace council.

However, because the Vice-Chancellor of the Court, Balwin and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Bernard, are also the lords of the provinces of Jonah and **, and they are stronger than other court ministers, so the status of the two is transcendent.

The old and tired Prime Minister of the palace sat on the leather chair next to the iron seat in the main hall, and looked listlessly at the important ministers arguing on the seats on both sides of the iron seat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you have been summoned here today to decide on the promotion of the three knights to barons, and you should stop arguing back and forth over those trivial matters." The Prime Minister finally couldn't tolerate the chatter and stopped it.

"Nothing to discuss, Sir Martinus has been serving the Marquis for so many years, and he should have been promoted to baron. And Challis has only been a personal guard for the deputy minister for a few years, what merits are there to boast about? ”

"Not to mention what that is called Art? Wood? Wells, that wild fellow doesn't know how much gold and silver he has spent, and he can get some of our important ministers to speak for him. I think that important minister is too short of money to be so embarrassed. If you are really short of money, you can borrow from the palace tax, and you don't need to rely on bribes to make a living. ”

Bernard, the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Court, was yin and yang, and his words were directed at the Earl Balwin, the deputy minister of the court.

Earl Balwin shook his head and sighed, and replied to Bernard lightly: "God gave us a clever mouth, but some people use it to defecate, it's a pity~"

"You say yes, yes? Master Bernard. ”

The military minister of the court and the court dà fǎ official burst into laughter.

Bernard blushed, got up and pointed at Earl Balwin's face and scolded, "Balwin! Don't think that you can trample me under your feet by taking my phase, you will pay for your words today! ”

Balwin also stood up suddenly, and said in a loud voice: "The only price I need to pay is to spare no effort to purge the traitors in the court, so that the kingdom will no longer be plagued by those villains who hide under women's skirts." ”

Balwin's sentence was a bit heavier, and it was insinuated that it pointed to the young marquise in the inner court.

At this point, the hall suddenly fell silent, and this kind of words were too sensitive when this kind of storm was about to come.

"Balwin! You shut up for me, pay attention to your identity, and don't bring these alarmist statements to the court. ”

The aged prime minister of the palace finally couldn't sit still. After ten years of sitting beside the iron seat, he gradually grew tired of the complicated struggles of the court, and only thought of being able to barely hold on in peace.

In recent years, the old man, who had served the marquis for three generations, was increasingly unable to cope, but he could not tolerate the collapse of the whole kingdom before his eyes, so he did his best to make this sand a ball with this last bit of prestige.

"Yes, Prime Minister~" Balwin can ignore the face of his political opponents, but he can't make the court prime minister airy, at least not yet.

"Omar, you are the Lord of the Seals, and the matter of the lord's promotion is under your jurisdiction, tell me what you think?" Once again, the Prime Minister of the Court brought the topic back on track.

Omar has been in the court for decades, from a small frontier baron to a minister in charge of the seal of a country and the promotion of the Jin lord, relying on the old and sophisticated, and now at this time he does not want to offend, no one dares to offend.

"Prime Minister, I think what the two ministers said, Earl Balwyn and Earl Bernard, have a point, as long as the results of the deliberations of several adults come out, I will give my full support, and I will take care of all the documents at that time."

"Omar, the Prime Minister is asking you to share your opinion on the promotion of the baron, you have to say something useful~" The upright military minister was a little dissatisfied with the sleek style of the Lord of the Seals.

"Count Srein, since you have spoken, you must have a lot of ideas, so could you please tell us?" The prime minister of the palace said to this sergeant minister, who was dressed in armor and had a great figure.

Srayin has been leading troops in battles all the year round, and has a high reputation and prestige in the whole country, and his personality is straightforward and not good at scheming, and he belongs to the impartial stalwarts, but in today's court meeting, he is firmly on the side of Balwin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the promotion of lords has always been based on military merit, not that I protect the soldiers and officers in the army, imagine if there were no soldiers and officers fighting on the battlefield to resist foreign enemies, you would still be able to sit in this hall and quarrel?"

"I think that both of them, whether it is Charis or that Art, they have made great achievements on the battlefield, and their merit books are the thickest on my desk. Not to mention the rest, just the reconquest of Solburg in Provence and the recapture of Valonburg from the Swabians in the east are enough to make the two of them promoted to barons, I think what we need to discuss today is not whether the two can be promoted, but whether to give the new barons a fief~"

"As for Sir Martinus, I can only say that he has found a powerful cousin."

The Minister of Military Affairs has a natural sense of identity with those who have made military achievements, and as a Minister of Military Affairs, he is to cultivate a large number of elite soldiers and excellent commanders for the country.

Bernard, where would he give up, he sat sideways, took a sip of the wine glass on the wooden table beside him, and sneered, "It seems that there is more than one minister who has received a huge amount of money today, it is better to fight, as long as you dare to kill and plunder, there will be money to fill the holes in the stomachs of those ministers." ”

"Bernard, don't always say such useless things, and if you have any objections to the promotion of Sir Charles and Yat, give some real reasons." The prime minister has become a little impatient with the chickens and dogs between the two factions.

"Reason? Good. I won't talk about that little thing in Challis, he is our Balwin's confidant, and Lord Balwin's cronyism wants to install his cronies in the country, everyone can understand, I agree for the time being. ”

"But that Art is something! How can you be promoted to baron? Just because he followed the army to fight a few good fights? Just by colluding with bandits to rob around? Just rely on him to be a profiteer to make money? Just because he killed his fellow nobles? In one breath, Bernard listed all the wrongdoings of Art over the years.

"Bernard, don't talk nonsense, everything has to be well-founded!" Even the Prime Minister felt that Bernard was guilty of weaving too much.

"Your Excellency, our words are well-founded. Last July, several estates in the southern county of Tinets called the Dean family were suddenly attacked by a group of bandits of unknown origin, who broke through the estates, killed many innocent civilians and looted all the belongings of the estates. Someone later secretly reported that the bandits were instructed by the black-robed border patrolman. ”

"In the early winter of last year, a nobleman from the province of Lucesine bought a shipment of goods from Provence for the winter, and when he passed through the border post in Arte, he was forced to cross the checkpoint because he was disgruntled and extorted, and those people actually colluded with a group of bandits to rob the convoy, killing more than a dozen guards and robbing a large amount of money."

"According to the follow-up investigation, all the clues point to our Lord Art, who is in charge of clearing out the bandits."

"As for the killing of innocents, I think you remember the crime of that barbarian at Wincheston Manor two years ago? This is a fact that cannot be escaped. ”

"And according to local insiders, several squires in a village in the southern county of Tinets rebelled a little because they were dissatisfied with being deceived by this guy named Yat, and as a result, the squires were killed as soon as the barbarian left."

"And Baron Bazel's butler, what a gentle and kind old fellow, who was slain in the woods not far from home. Not long after the old butler was killed, this Art led people out of the dense forest. It's quite a coincidence. ”

"As for looting goods, I don't think I need to say much about being a profiteer. It is no secret that a knight does not show off his chivalry, and relies on secretly controlled bandits and his subordinates to forcibly seize trade and suppress opponents. ”

Bernard poured out all the wrongdoings he knew of in one fell swoop, and with these horrific charges, he did not believe that Balwin could achieve his goal.

Everyone in the hall turned their heads and felt incredible.

"Ahem~" The prime minister coughed and stopped everyone's discussion.

"Balwin, is what Bernard said true?"

Balwyn had already guessed that Bernard would pull these things out, he was not in a hurry or impatient, and got up slowly, "Bernard, you have a mouthful of evidence, can you come up with evidence?" You are an insider, who is the insider? Is it the Dean family who send a lot of money to your mansion every month and rely on the Chancellor of the Exchequer to avoid business taxes? ”

"You!" Bernard pointed at Balwyn and choked.

"What am I? Am I right? I won't say much about you, but I'll tell you about the charges you have just accused Sir Art. ”

"You can't produce evidence for the charges you fabricated against Sir Art, but I can produce evidence of the crimes of your henchmen, the Dean family. Since you say that Sir Art colluded with the bandits, let's start with the bandits. ”

Balwin took out a parchment document from his cuff and slowly opened it, "Last summer, the Dean family recruited private soldiers to harass the garrison camp under the command of the palace southern border patrol officer and the border mining under the name of the palace guard knight Art, this was originally a private war between small lords, and there is nothing worth talking about. However, when Pierre, the magistrate of Tignats, led his troops to mediate, he ran into a group of bandits attacking the garrison camp of the patrol team, and the bandits were annihilated by Pierre's troops and captured several bandit leaders. This gang of bandits is not simple, they are all hired by a nobleman named Dean~"

"Ladies and gentlemen, this document is the confession of several bandit leaders......"

............

As twilight falls, Besançon, the capital of the Count of Burgundy, is still a lively scene.

In the Earl's mansion west of the city, Earl Balwyn was talking secretly with Yat in the official room.

"Challis has been promoted to the rank of Baron of the Court Soldier {salaried and unfiefdomed}. Your matter is also basically a foregone conclusion. However, things did not go as smoothly as I thought, and Bernard's bastard was very powerful at court, and with the support of the Marquise behind him, his opposition was particularly tough. Several ministers debated over whether or not to promote you to barony for an entire afternoon. ”

"In the end, it was only after I revealed your true identity that you were the only son of a baron in northern Lombardy, and that the court agreed to promote you to the rank of baron of the frontier after I revealed your true identity, the only son of a baron in northern Lombardy, and a deep hatred for the extermination of the Duchy of Lombardy."

"Although the title is a border baron, the court is unwilling to give you another fief. The court has decided to grant you a fief of all the valleys where your knights' fiefs are located, and I know that it is a barren valley at all, and it is at the junction of Lombardy, Provence, and our Burgundy, and many places are not even clear, but it is better to have a fief than nothing. ”

Art was silent for a moment, then stood up and bowed, "I'm already very grateful to my lord." ”

"However, see if you can let the court expand my fiefdom on the border of the southern wasteland~"

Balwin waved his hand repeatedly, "No, I've already tried, if that place is just a wasteland, it doesn't matter if it's sealed to you." But in just one year, you have turned it into a border town that guards the gates, and now Bernard has set his sights on your town, threatening to collect commercial taxes on that town~"

"How can that work!" Art didn't want the court to interfere with his territory.

"Rest assured, I have verbally rejected Bernard and said that if he wants to collect a commercial tax, he will exchange his two estates with you for a fief."

"This time, in addition to the identity of a frontier baron and a barren valley, I also won you a military position as a military adjutant in the eastern border of the palace, which can lead the troops as an adjutant of the legion in wartime, has the right to recruit and assemble troops in the eastern region, and can also receive a monthly salary of two hundred pfennig from the court."

"Thank you, sir! I will do my best to serve your lordship! Art showed faithfulness.

"You have been waiting in Besançon for the next few days with peace of mind for the court to promote you to the rank of baron, the letter of appointment and the letter of tact of the fief. In addition, even if the lord above the baron is a vassal, according to the regulations, you have to go to the palace hall to meet the marquis, but the marquis is lying in the inner court and has not participated in the court meeting for a long time, so the matter of the audience is also handled by the seven important ministers. You have to go to the other ministers these days, Bernard, you can't ignore the other ministers. Especially with the military minister and the court official, the two of them really speak for you. ”

"Thank you for the reminder." Art replied respectfully.

Balwin waved his hand, "Okay, you stand down, I'm tired after arguing with Bernard for a day." By the way, remember to tell Bishop Orlof the good news of your promotion to baron......"