I went to the farthest small manor, then another, and finally to the medium manor.

There was no one else to accompany him except Granty. But in this way you can see many things clearly.

When the time comes, you can compare it with the return of your subordinates, and you can know whether many details are true or false, and whether there is any concealment.

Of course, this kind of thing can never be eliminated, but it can be eliminated little by little.

The small manor, to put it bluntly, is a large circle of cultivated land roughly enclosed by a fence wall, which is entwined with vines, which can probably keep out the beasts that spoil the grain and steal the chickens and ducks, and the little ones can climb over it.

There were some houses built in the small manor, all of which were very simple, and even the best houses where the manor steward lived were barely up to the level of ordinary citizens in Bijin City. However, although the warehouse is not beautiful, the size is not bad.

Medium manors are better, and the best houses are the ones that are intended for the knight lord or even the baron lord to live in. It's not grand or anything, but it's neat and spacious.

It covers an area of about 2,000 square meters, has a yard of more than ten acres of land, and the house has a good second floor, which can be used as a storage room.

However, there has been little substantial reinforcement of the fence on the periphery of the medium estate.

"From now on, this will be our home. ”

Luo Ming looked at all this and said with some emotion.

He turned around, looked at Granty, who was blushing for some reason, waved his arms, and confidently declared:

"Wait and see, since this is our home, then I will build this place into a place that the whole county, and one day even the nobles of the whole country will envy and the commoners will yearn for!"

"And then use this as a 'base' to expand your power?" asked Granty rhetorically, using a word he had said before.

"Yes, this is our first base. ”

Lormine had been using the word "we" all along, and although it was a little game of words, it did work, and Grant no longer had any doubts about it.

Just as the two of them stopped to look at the manor, two men rode up to them.

"Excuse me, is it Lord Luo Ming?" the two of them asked, dismounting.

"That's right, I'm the new lord. And this is the Knight of Grandi, a noble swordsman, and you must not neglect it in the slightest. ”

It turned out that these two people were the stewards of the manor, and the servants subordinate to Luo Ming, who also served as the captain of the manor's guards.

Under their leadership, Luo Ming took a look around the manor.

At the same time, the steward described the history of the manor, the layout, the anecdotes, the servants, and so on.

"If you count those two small estates, you can get about eight hundred silver coins a year—that's about eighty gold in net income. ”

To sum up with this sentence, the introduction of the steward is over.

To be honest, this net income is not bad.

After all, he is just a knight, and with such an annual income, after deducting a year's daily expenses, he can almost afford an ordinary war horse and decent armor. It takes ten years to train three or four good cavalrymen, and for people in this world, they have already surpassed the well-off to become rich.

"IMHO, we can only collect grain, not money, from the land. You have to sell it in exchange for gold and silver.

Food prices and prices fluctuate from year to year, and you say so accurately, I don't need to remind you of this, Mr. Steward. ”

Rollin was silent, but it was Granty who said it—of course, she didn't usually care that much about such things, but Lormin asked her to help jot down a few words to play the role of a "villain", and she played it with great interest.

"Ah......" The steward made a somewhat embarrassed voice, he looked at Luo Ming's face, but he didn't see any signs, and he himself seemed overwhelmed.

Is it possible that you should not go to argue with a sword master? What Miss Sword Master said is true, he is completely unreasonable, and even if he is cut down, no one will help to uphold justice.

Granty continued: "There is still half a day left today, please go to the treasury first, and then check the account books, so that there are many things that will not be clear in the future." ”

In other words, this kind of steward knows how to settle accounts, and he always has to deal with merchants several times a year, which has an advantage over ordinary knights and small nobles, and it is inevitable that he will be a little greedy for ink.

As the saying goes, when the water is clear, there are no fish, but if you really have to check it strictly, it will not be good. Even if he was caught stealing a few pieces of bread, he could be killed on the spot by the enraged lord - after all, stealing a penny and 10,000 yuan is stealing.

Originally, there was nothing wrong with checking the accounts, but the young swordsman in front of her seemed to know how to settle the accounts, and she looked like a ruthless person who couldn't tolerate a little sand in her eyes, and cold sweat flowed from her forehead at that time.

"Well, this steward will also be our domestic servant in the future, so don't frighten him so much. He is not an enemy on the battlefield, and if he only takes a few pieces of bread to satisfy his hunger, will you also be tied up and burned to death as a cultist?"

Luo Ming played the round with a slightly pleasant face, and then said: "The account book will be sent to my room later, and I can flip through it casually when I have time."

I believe that they are all people who know how to measure, and they will not risk being chopped off or even hanged for that little profit. At most, it's just a few pieces of bread and two glasses of wine to satisfy your cravings, and I don't care about such trivial things. ”

It seemed to be playing a round, but Luo Ming's meaning had been clearly conveyed to the steward.

If you're a little greedy, a few pieces of bread and two glasses of wine or anything will be fine, I can turn a blind eye and let you continue to be the steward of this manor.

But if a big deficit is found, then don't blame me for being unsympathetic, cutting off your hands or even directly arresting you and hanging you.

In order not to be found out about this huge deficit, the steward would definitely scrape together a sum of money and plug the hole as much as possible, which made him vomit most of the embezzled money.

He would definitely have secretly left a little bit of it himself, but now Luo Ming didn't have the heart to chase it to death.

There are only so many people under his command, and the total number of literate people may not be ten, and it would be a big loss to really force a steward to death.

Why did Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty dare to kill corrupt officials, because under the imperial examination system, there were thousands of people who wanted to be officials and had certain talents, killed a corrupt official, and there were more than a dozen waiting to take over.

The Kuomintang did not dare to strictly investigate corruption, one was because the top brass took the lead in making a big profit, and the other reason was that Jiang Guangtou "cleaned up the party" several times, which caused the Kuomintang to have a shortage of numbers, and if a few corrupt officials were killed, there would be no replacement for them at all.