"Look, this is the notice issued to us by the stupid lord, who not only wants each of us to pay for food, but also wants us to contribute all the ordnance and weapons to equip his soldiers. Baron Batu reclined on his large three-tiered eiderdown bed, and the maid squatted at the end of the bed trimming his nails, his face was extremely ugly, and he held a piece of parchment in his hand and handed it to a young man in front of him.

"It's easy to pay for food, but we can't hand over weapons and equipment, and if we don't have ordnance, we can't even guarantee the safety of our own lives. The young man frowned, read the warrant issued by Rand, and felt a little more annoyed in his heart.

"He dreams that I won't pay money or food, and I see what he can do with me. "Although Rand is the lord of the Airway Domain, Batu has lived in the Airland since his ancestors, and his power is deeply rooted in the local area, and he does not take the half-airborne Rand seriously at all, and the previous lords have respected Batu, which further fuels Batu's arrogance.

"He is the son of the Duke of Winton, and you just don't look down on him anymore, and you have to give the Duke of Winton this face. The young man paused, and then continued: "We can completely hand over to him the inferior obsolete armaments and moldy grain, anyway, these things are useless to us, it is better to sell him a favor." ”

"......" Baron Batu pondered for a while when he heard this, it is not good to have too much trouble with Rand, after all, Rand is still nominally the lord of the empty realm, and in order to get by on face, he can only do so.

"Do as you say, who made him the son of the Duke, hehe!" Baron Batu sneered twice, his tone was full of extreme disdain for Rand's behavior of relying on a good father to get honor and status, and he didn't think that his title was also inherited from his father.

......

"This is what they handed in?" Rand looked at the pile of moldy and spoiled millet in front of him, and the pile of armor that he didn't know how old it was hundreds of years, and his teeth itched with inexplicable hatred.

"My lord, the nobles did not cooperate, this is the result that could have been expected. Payne kicked the rusty helmet, and a scrawny rat was frightened and sprang out, and Payne was quick to raise his foot and kick it out of the door, "These armors are estimated to have been stacked for more than ten years, and the inner layer of leather armor has long since rotted, and the armor pieces have also been rusted, and even beggars will not pick it up when thrown on the street." ”

"These grains are just used to feed the mules, and they don't even look at them. ”

Although he didn't have great expectations, this result was still a little unacceptable to Lante, and he really couldn't understand why the nobles were so stingy, knowing that there was also a part of the land that Lante wanted to defend.

"These old fellows, indeed, are a bunch of parasites, as Touron said, and I will not allow this good thing to happen in my territory if they only enjoy their rights and do not want to fulfill their obligations. "Rand didn't plan in the first place, these nobles who value their lives more than anything else can help them, as long as they are willing to donate some money or contribute some food, Rand will turn a blind eye and let them take refuge and escape the war mission.

But if they don't give face like this, then Rand will have to find a way to sort out these guys who don't know how to lift.

"Payne, what are the chances of success if I take back the property fields of those nobles?" Rand touched his chin, he has been thinking about a question recently, that is, why the air ferry is rich in iron ore, but it has never been able to get rich, there is only one reason for thinking about it, that is, the number of nobles in the air ferry is very large, their fief area accounts for almost one-third of the area of the air ferry territory, and occupies a lot of minerals, fertile fields, resulting in most of the annual income of the air ferry domain into the pockets of these nobles, and as a lord, Rand fell into a very embarrassing situation, there is no money available in the treasury, and he can't even take out the expenses for making weapons or building city walls, otherwise Lan Te would not have thought of setting up a name at allto collect tolls for merchant ships on the shoals.

If you want to change the barren status quo of the Kongdu Territory, it is necessary to recycle the property and fiefdom in the hands of the nobles on a large scale, and the cost of buying it with money is too great, and it is afraid that the revolt of the nobles will lead to civil strife.

If you want to do something against these nobles, it must be fatal with one blow, and you can't give them a chance to breathe, and the troops that Rand can use are too few, once the nobles counterattack, I am afraid that it will be difficult to control the chaotic situation with only six hundred soldiers.

These nobles were canonized by the previous or even several lords, and Rand was completely indifferent to them, and there would be no psychological pressure on them to do it, and Rand would not want to risk his life to fight with the barbarians, and there was a group of nobles behind him who hid behind the strong city wall and held the little maid on the bed to count the money.

Through Tourang, Rand has a general understanding of the strength of these nobles, there are four noble families with relatively large power in the Kongdu territory, among which Baron Batu's family background is the most solid, and the private army alone exceeds 100 people, and the other three are not as good as Batu's family, but they are not far behind.

Rand roughly estimated that if the nobles joined forces, the number of troops they could use would be more than five hundred, which was a force to be reckoned with.

"My lord, with all due respect, the chances are almost nil, those old misers will never allow anyone to get their hands on their property and their wealth, have you ever seen a dog guarding their food? they are more greedy than a hungry dog. Payne shook his head, reluctantly stating the fact.

"This matter, I can't ...... it" Rand sighed in disappointment, wanting to bring the benefits into his own hands and take back the power assets of those nobles, he could only take it slowly like boiling a frog in warm water, try not to stimulate the sensitive nerves of the nobles, and wait until his own strength was accumulated, and then kill him with one blow!

"Ship these things outside the walls of Cabin Town and burn them as fuel. Rand didn't look at the pile of garbage in front of him again, and waved his hand at Payne in order.

"Yes, sir. In addition...... "Payne deliberately pulled his long tongue, but the smile on his face could not be concealed," there is one more thing to report to you. ”

"Good things or bad things?"

"This news promises a surprise!" Payne deliberately sold off, "Guess what?"

"Yes, Payne. You dare to whet my appetite now, it looks like I'm going to have to reassign you a job, there's a shortage of coal shovelers in the smelter, you see......" Rand squinted at Payne, and deliberately pulled a long tongue.

"You're as boring as your father......" Payne shrugged his shoulders and said, "The crossbow machine has been successfully built in the early hours of this morning, and the first ballista will be assembled by tonight at the latest, my lord, is this good news?"

The manufacture of the ballista machine was completed, and Rand suddenly felt that his heart beat a little faster, which was really the most exciting news he had heard in the past few days, the crossbow machine was the most important part of a ballista, and Rand also polished the aiming equipment for it, and carved the scale according to the size, with this, the accuracy of the ballista can be improved to a higher level.

Rand almost couldn't help but want to try out how powerful the repeating ballista was, this was the first weapon he made in this world, and it was also his hope that he could hold the cabin town, and there could be no mistakes, after the ballista was made, it was necessary to adjust the angle, the tightness of the bowstring, and the curvature of the crossbow arm, and the strength of the arrows was very different due to different strengths, which needed to be modulated by Rand himself, and taught the craftsmen by hand, if the ballista was mass-produced in the future, Rand would not have the spare time to squat in the assembly room all day。