Jiajing, the viscount, was quite popular in Athena, and he hung out the noble runes and put on the aristocratic clothes he wore when he met Roland in Punksa City, which soon attracted many wealthy businessmen who had strong financial resources but had no noble status.

A wealthy merchant not only generously funded Jiajing with a lot of gold, but also hired a lot of mercenaries to escort Jiajing all the way and return to Star City safely.

In Athena, the awarding of noble titles was very strict, and no matter how rich a person was, it was difficult to obtain a knighthood without the recommendation of others.

And those who can confer titles, except for the emperor, are only eligible for the lord of the territory. In many cases, wealthy merchants could not buy a knighthood even if they had money.

If you want to get a knighthood and become a nobleman, get rid of the commoner status that has followed you all your life, and become the upper class of the empire, in addition to the granting of lords and emperors, you can only establish meritorious deeds by joining the army.

Because only by becoming a nobleman can they be qualified to have a personal guard, so these wealthy businessmen racked their brains for the title, as for the Yanjing family, although they had never heard of it, they all guessed that he was a new nobleman, and a discerning person could see at a glance that this was a title granted by the lord.

To be able to get the lord's appreciation and grant the title, presumably the relationship with the lord is very unusual, so Jiajing, a new nobleman, is especially sought after and flattered by these people, and the rich businessman who hired someone to escort Jiajing back to pick up the stars also revealed that if Jiajing could let the lord of the stars also grant him a title, he would immediately move to the stars and give Jiajing a big gift.

Jiajing also understood this after Lao Ke's reminder, and couldn't help but think of their proverb that "the people don't fight with the rich, and the rich don't fight with the officials", after all, power is such a thing, if it is not honestly locked in a cage, it is the ultimate goal that many mortals flock to.

After that, on the way back to pick up the stars, Jiajing and their lives were extremely comfortable, and the expenses along the way were paid by the rich businessmen who came to tie the knots, and they were also taken care of by several servants sent by the rich merchants. If Jiajing hadn't politely refused, the rich businessman would have even wanted to give his favorite cat man concubine to Jiajing to sleep.

After more than 40 days of trekking, Jiajing and the others finally crossed a distance of 10,000 kilometers and returned to the Star Picking City south of Athena from Punksa, which was in the north.

Jiajing has been away from the star picking for more than half a year, and in half a year, a lot of things can be changed, but compared to the historical star picking city, half a year is just a gap in white light.

The Yan Jing family is by no means famous in Jing, and it is rarely heard of in other parts of Athena, but in Star Picking City, it is a new aristocrat who is becoming more and more famous.

Yan Mei's little girl's management ability far exceeded Jiajing's expectations, with the assistance of the mercenary Medier, and with the help of the power of the city lord Cafirot, she united most of the taverns in Star Picking City, specially made the original liquid for her, and then transported it to the heavily defended Badaling Distillery for distillation, and then transported it back to the Yihong Tavern in Star Picking for sale.

Yan Mei had already moved their winery to Badaling, originally she wanted to discuss it with Jiajing, but she couldn't find Jiajing's whereabouts, so she simply made her own decisions.

The huge interests of Yihong Tavern not only caused the strength of the various factions to covet day and night, but also attracted many foreign forces.

After Yi Hong became famous, the number of times Star Picking City was attacked by bandits from the Great Wasteland more than tripled compared to usual.

The Bistro is also often infiltrated by thieves who try to steal the secret recipe for making the wine.

Annoyed, Yanmei finally asked Cafirot to relocate the winery.

Cafirot was both happy and annoyed.

Although the better the interests of Yihong Tavern, the higher his income, but the harassment of those bandit gangs is really a headache for him, and there are not many troops to pick up stars, and now there are even other noble forces behind those bandit gangs secretly supporting, and the target is of course Yihong, an old hen who can only lay golden eggs.

After thinking about it for a while, Cafirot finally agreed to Yan Mei's request, but he had to send five hundred city guards to help Yihong garrison Badaling.

Although Badaling is located in the great wilderness outside the city, it is better than the terrain in danger, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the five hundred city guards are enough to defend Badaling.

The overall number of soldiers in Star Picking City is only 5,000, and Cafirot sent one-tenth of his troops to garrison Badaling, which shows the importance he attaches to Yihong.

Yan Mei's request to relocate, on the one hand, was forced by the forces that stole the secrets of winemaking, and on the other hand, it was precisely because she wanted to get rid of the control of Cafirot.

Although Yihong is beautiful now, it is all built on the foundation of Cafirot, and when Cafirot sees them unpleasantly, he can uproot them at any time, and Yihong Tavern will naturally fall into his hands.

After all, the 100% benefit is definitely much greater than the temptation of 50%, and the lesson of the Sean family's blood has long been deeply imprinted in Yan Mei's mind.

Regarding Cafirot's proposal to send troops to help garrison Badaling, Yan Mei politely refused.

Badaling is now the territory of Viscount Jiajing, and Jiajing, who has become a nobleman, can naturally recruit his own escort team, that is, the so-called private soldiers to garrison Badaling, so he does not have to use the country's army.

Although the star picking is a fief of Cafirot, the city guard still belongs to the state.

As for how many private soldiers he had, few people knew anything other than Cafirot and a few henchmen.

Use the nation's army to help a viscount garrison the province.

Although it's not a big deal, it's always a bad deal to pass it on, and Cafirot is not afraid of where Yihong can run, so he simply lets her.

In his eyes, Yanmei, a little girl, can't do anything big.

The viscount can only recruit a thousand soldiers at most, and it won't be much of a climate.

Speaking of which, we have to mention the establishment of the nobles' private soldiers in the Western Regions Continent: although the number of private soldiers that the nobles of the various empires on the continent can have is not quite the same, it is not much different overall. The Athena Empire stipulated that nobles could have private soldiers. The lowest-ranking baron can only have a hundred private guards of the guard, while the viscount can recruit a thousand private soldiers, the earl is two thousand, the marquis is three thousand, and the duke is five thousand.

But this is only the surface scale, generally speaking, a marquis, in addition to two thousand private soldiers, also has diners, followers and other talents, and the actual number of private soldiers is estimated to double. This is just theoretically speaking, the private soldiers they can have, to support an army, the money consumed is very huge, the number of private soldiers owned by ordinary nobles, most of them are less than half of the empire's allowed, if Jiajing, the viscount, has enough financial resources, it is enough to recruit a thousand private soldiers and many diners and mercenaries, and garrison Badaling to prevent foreign invasion.