Rekmund woke up early, and when he woke up, he came to the courtyard with a heavy battle axe, and he always maintained the habit of getting up early to practice martial arts.

There are still snowflakes in the sky, this light snow has been falling since last night, and it has been raining all night, and a thick layer of snow has accumulated in the yard.

Because of the snow, the yard was very dark, just like the night.

Ignoring the snow, Quickmond ignored the falling snow and began to practice martial arts in the middle of the dimly lit courtyard.

The heavy tomahawk sliced through the air, whining and whining, and the wave of air it brought up swept the snow into the air, and then fell on Reykmund's naked body along with the falling snow.

Redmond is tall and strong, his muscles are as clear as marble carvings, the snowflakes fall on his body, they are immediately melted, the melted snow mixed with sweat, flowing down the ravines between the muscles, due to the strenuous exercise, the muscles on Redmond's body began to turn red and hot, the snow absorbed the heat and was transpired into a white mist, surrounding Redmond's body.

After the axe was played, Rekmund then practiced his sword, flail and war hammer, until it was getting bright, and then he stopped, and he threw his weapon to the servant to take care of it, and took the servant's robe and draped it over his body, and he did not close the robe, but left it open and strode out of the courtyard—the Persian winter seemed to Rekmund like a joke.

Redmond had a large shaved head and a thick brownish-red beard on his chin, which had been carefully combed and braided into three braids that hung down to his chest.

Redmond sat at the table and enjoyed his breakfast while listening to the officials report on the affairs of the city, and he was not dining alone, but the thirty or so Norman knights under his command were also in the hall, and the highest ranking sat at the same table as him.

"Alright, it's okay, you can go down!" Redmond sent the official away, and then grabbed a large piece of kebab directly with his hand, brought it to his mouth and tore it, the greasy juice trickled down the corner of his mouth to his beard, and then dripped on his chest, but Redmond didn't care, wiped it with his hand casually, and then continued to concentrate on eliminating the steak in his hand.

His knights were no better, and the soup they ate splashed one by one, filling the whole hall with the rich smell of meat.

Rekmund and his knights were eating soundly, and a Persian officer came to report.

"General, a caravan has appeared outside the city and asked to enter the city to take shelter from the wind and snow."

"Caravans?" Redmond frowned, after the snowfall in previous years, there would be no caravans in the north.

"Which caravan is it? How many of them are there? Redmond asked cautiously, slowing down his steak.

The Persian officer bowed his head and did not look at the rude appearance of the lord of the city

"It was a caravan of Turkic people called Gitak, who came every year. There were more than fifty people, five carts, and a dozen horses. ”

Redmond thought for a moment and felt that the fifty or so people were not a threat

"Let them in, but tell them that the tax on entering the city has been doubled, and that a third of the goods and horses will be collected for military supplies."

The Persian officer looked up in surprise

"So much? What if they don't want to leave? ”

Rykmund smiled

"Then kill them all, and leave all the goods behind!"

The Persian officers shrunk their necks, and the generals now behaved more and more like bandits—as if they were robbers before they were loyal to the governor.

"Kill them all? But..."Once this kind of thing spreads, no merchant will dare to come to Canalan in the future."

"Afraid of what? Didn't you let you do it at the gates of the city, and wouldn't you wait for them to leave the city limits before you did it? Luckmond waved the half-nibbled steak in his hand nonchalantly.

And such an operation? The Persian officer was dumbfounded, and thought that it was indeed feasible, even if someone found out afterwards, he could push it on the robbers.

"The general is wise, and his subordinates know what to do." The Persian officer left with a burning heart, as if he could take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

Gitak waited anxiously at the gate of the city, and the officers who had just defended the city had collected his passage papers and entry taxes, but they would not let him into the city, and left them here to dry, which he had never encountered before.

"Alright, come in!" Just as Gitak was about to abandon the gate in front of him and try his luck at another gate, the officer's shout came from the tower.

The gates opened, and Gitak entered the city with a caravan, and the soldiers guarding the gate came to the wagon, as usual, to extort money under the pretext of inspecting the goods.

The carriage was covered with leather and wool on the surface, and silk and porcelain underneath, which were meant to be used as bait, but now was not the time to put the bait.

The men in the carriage secretly handed the money bags that had been prepared long ago to the soldiers who came to inspect the goods, so that they could relax their inspection, and this scene happened to be seen by the Persian officers who walked down the tower.

"This caravan seems to have been overdone."

The Persian officer didn't think much of it, he was now bent on squeezing more oil and water out of this caravan.

"Why did your caravan arrive so late this year?"

Before Gitak could reply, he heard the Persian officer continue.

"You came too late, it's cold now, and it costs a lot of firewood to entertain you, so the entry tax has risen, and you have to make up the firewood money!"

When Gitak saw that the officer had not returned his papers, he knew what this man was doing, so he put on a wry smile.

"I make it up, I make it up. I don't know how much money is this firewood and grass? ”

"Well... Three times, you have to pay three times the city tax, you must know that it is very troublesome to go out of the city to collect firewood in winter. The Persian officer said with three fingers

Geitak looked surprised—this time he was really surprised.

"It's... All right... I'll give! Gitak pretended to hesitate for a moment, then gritted his teeth and agreed.

This time it was the turn of the Persian officer to be surprised, but he did not show it, but put forward a second condition.

"Recently, my general is expanding his army, and all merchants must pay half of their goods as military expenses, and your horses must also be paid half!" Rykmund demanded only one-third, and when it came to the Persian officers, it became half.

At this time, not only Gitak and the caravan guys, but even the soldiers, they were dumbfounded, they didn't expect their boss to be so shameless, and then something that surprised them even more happened.

The merchant's face changed for a while, and at last he seemed to have made up his mind.

With a forced smile on his face, Gitak said to the Persian officer

"My lord, most of the villain's goods are wool, and I think the general can't use them, and those horses are old and weak, and the general can't use them..."

Before Gitak finished speaking, he saw the Persian officer's face slightly cold, with a sneer on the corner of his mouth, staring at him with the eyes of a dead man, his heart couldn't help but tremble, and he quickly increased the speed of his speech

“… But the villain is willing to pay for the redemption, as much as he wants! ”

The Persian officer looked surprised, and out of the corner of his eye, he glanced casually at a few carriages.

Gitak paid a large sum of money, finally retrieved the paperwork, and headed for the city with the caravan.

The Persian officer weighed the heavy money bag in his hand, looked at the distant carriage and sneered in his heart

"Wool? Fool it! ”