In the garden, a well-dressed middle-aged man was walking briskly towards the Hunter's chamber.

The man's name was Egg, and he was the chief steward of the Hunt family.

Egger was adopted by the Hunter family since he was a child, and has worked for the Hunter family since Richard's grandfather's time, and his honor and disgrace have long been tied to the Hunter family.

Before Richard was born, the internal affairs of the territory were mainly handled by Iger to assist Viscount Sauter, who was the only one in the group of Hunter family with some internal affairs ability, and had always served as the chief butler of the Hunter family.

Even after Richard took charge of the territory, he still let Iger continue to serve as the grand steward. It's just that power is not as concentrated in his hands as before, and Iger has no complaints, after all, loyalty to the Hunter family is his life's mission.

Arriving at the door of the council chamber, two guards at the door saluted Egger.

"Young Master Richard is inside."

"Hmm"

Iger nodded slightly to the two guards in response.

When I entered the door, I saw Richard sitting in a chair.

"Good day, Master Richard"

As he spoke, Iger gave Richard a standard bow.

"Uncle Egger, no need to be polite."

"Young master, the etiquette cannot be abolished."

Richard could only make a helpless look and beckoned Iger to sit down.

Sometimes people are hypocritical.

Although Richard said that Iger did not have to be polite, if Iger really dared to put up the score of the old ministers and elders in front of Richard, it would definitely arouse Richard's disgust.

Fortunately, Egger is very obedient to his duty and has never overstepped his behavior. It is more important to be loyal and have certain management skills.

Although these management talents are very basic in Richard's view, and they are also empirical management, he is an internal affairs talent, and he understands Richard's new management style quickly, so he still sits firmly in the position of the chief steward in the past few years since Richard took power.

"Uncle Egger, how much food do we have in our hands now?"

"There are still more than 7,000 stone of rye and more than 3,000 stone of green rice in the warehouse, and there is also some stock of jerky."

The staple food of this world is rye and green rice.

"Moreover, in order to attract farmers, the young master has reduced the field tax very low in recent years, and almost all the farmers in our territory have stored grain, and if there is a shortage of grain, they can also collect thousands of stones of grain."

Although the Northland is a bitter cold land, it actually has relatively fertile black soil, and the Daling River and the Xiaoling River originate from the Daxue Mountains further north, and flow through the entire ironwood forest through the Hunter Territory, forming a large accumulation plain in the Northland.

One acre of land can be harvested with one stone and a half in a year.

In recent years, Richard has attracted a large number of displaced people and fugitive peasants from other territories by lowering agricultural taxes, encouraging reclamation, and building water conservancy.

The common land tax in the kingdom was 40%, and in addition to the corruption of the tax collectors at the bottom, it was common for yeoman farmers to leave only half of the harvest, and it was even more difficult for tenant farmers to live if they rented land.

Richard, on the other hand, imposed a 20% land tax on Hunter's territory, and completely abolished all the exorbitant taxes that were used in the name of it.

This is naturally a good thing for the civilians in the territory, and in recent years, the people of the territory of the Hunter Territory have become visibly rich, and almost every family has a few stones of grain.

However, the good governance of the Hunter Collar is not a good thing for the other families' territories, and the impact is not great in the distance, but the Will Collar adjacent to the Hunter family has suffered enough.

Originally, the bitter haha people in the two territories were equally poor, and everyone didn't have any ideas, but suddenly one day, the poor ghost next door began to widen, and the mentality was different.

As a result, many yeoman farmers in Will Collar simply gave up their land and ran to Hunter Collar to reclaim the land, and even many tenant farmers of the Will family began to flee. The whole Will family hates this, which can be described as itchy teeth.

"No, there is enough food."

One stone of grain is about equivalent to 125 catties of grain, more than 10,000 stones of grain, enough for more than a year in Tiemu City, there is no need to break his own rules and levy grain again.

Of course, Richard is not a virgin, and he only tries to maintain the rule that the tax is levied once a year, and if there is a real need, it should still be levied.

"Next, I plan to expand the Iron Wood Forest Guard to 500 people, and Uncle Egger will cooperate with the distribution and placement of equipment."

"Yes"

Iger didn't ask much about the reason, loyalty and doing his own thing well is his greatest strength.

"It's nothing, I'll step back first."

"Hmm"

After Iger left, Richard met with several more people to arrange some things, and finally a man dressed as a civilian came to Richard.

"Brother Cologne, how has the rain been developing recently?"

"According to Master Richard's arrangement, most of the circuses performing in the Northland and some larger restaurants and taverns have arranged our manpower, and we are also actively planting spies in large caravans."

"Now we have more than 30 core personnel, and there are nearly 200 spies on the periphery."

"Okay, it's hard work, Brother Cologne, it's a chore, not as glamorous as the City Guard."

Although the name "Yusidu" is delicate, it pins on Richard's high hopes for this start-up intelligence department.

"Like rain and silk, pervasive."

"It's my honor to serve the young master."

Colon was an orphan in Hunter's collar who was adopted by the Hunter family when Richard was still a child.

The Hunters' territory had only been managed by Richard in recent years, and the former Hunter Territory was often infested with snow bandits, raiding caravans and plundering villages, and Colon lost both parents in the raids.

As an orphan who was adopted from an early age, Colan also received training from the Hunter family from an early age, and also had the experience of practicing martial arts with Richard.

Because of his introverted and careful personality, he was chosen by Richard to be the head of the intelligence department.

"Inadvertently revealed the news of the discovery of iron ore at the bottom of the northern valley to the Will family."

……

"Yes"

Just executing, regardless of why, has always been the style of Richard's men.

They can speak freely when Richard communicates with them in a consultative tone, and when Richard assigns tasks in a commanding tone, they always have only one answer - "yes"

In the northern valley, in the ironwood forests north of Hunter's Territory, some hunters stumbled upon the presence of iron ore while chasing their prey.

Richard did not rush to develop after learning the news, but chose to suppress the news and continue to buy iron at a high price, and the Hunter family was not ready for a full-scale war with the Will family at that time.

Now this news will be the last straw that stimulates the Will family.

……

After Cologne left, Richard in the council chamber was once again tangled.

"Do you want to place the Terran base camp?"

This prompt began to appear as soon as he arrived at Ironwood, but when he left Ironwood, there was no reaction, and after several experiments, Richard came to a conclusion:

The base camp can only be placed on top of the existing castle, and cannot be done in the field as if it were a troop bonus.

But from the bottom of his heart, Richard doesn't want this golden finger to be exposed to the world, the water in this world is not deep, and Richard's psychology is not yet bottomed.

The Hunter family is just a small aristocracy that has just made its mark, and in the eyes of the real big nobles, they are just a few lucky nouveau riche.

If it's just some soldiers who appear out of nowhere, as long as you don't let anyone with a heart see them appear out of thin air, it's not difficult to hide it.

But such a conspicuous building was directly released in this city, and everyone saw that Richard was covering the sky in this iron and wood city, and it was inevitable that someone would spread the news.

But the temptation of a Terran castle is too great, and the crusaders are at the level of knights, and the knights and angels behind them are not going sideways.

Richard lifted his hand and lifted it, and finally put it down again.

"Wait, don't take any chances, there will be better options soon."

The last muttering seems to be trying to convince himself.

……