"Lilia is the head of the family and is in charge of the internal affairs and finances of the territory. When I am not in the realm, Lilia exercises the authority of lord on my behalf, overseeing all the affairs of the family. 500 gold soles a year."

Victor was the first to establish Lilia's unique status, and everyone in the meeting breathed a sigh of relief while quietly observing Sister Alina's expression. These two beautiful ladies have a strong background and noble birth, which is by no means comparable to Lilia. Emotionally and in their own self-interest, the Nelson couple and several village chiefs were a little worried that they would challenge Lilia's position. Now it seemed that they were overly concerned, and Sister Alina looked calm, as if she did not care about Lilia's position.

On the contrary, Lilia was quite happy at first, but when she heard that the annual salary was 500 gold sol, her face changed greatly, and she looked like she was gritting her teeth. With what she knows about Victor, everyone here will have a year's salary, and there will definitely be no less!

How much does it cost?!

Sure enough, Victor smiled at Lilia and continued: "Alice serves as the family liaison officer, responsible for the family's foreign trade, diplomatic affairs with other families, and earns 300 gold soles a year. ”

It would be Alice's turn to be unhappy, she didn't care how much power Lilia had in her hands, and she didn't care about the position of liaison officer. In fact, the Alina sisters were educated as nobles from an early age, serving their husbands, educating their children, managing castles and estates, and holding various banquets and celebrations.

Alice despises the power in Lilia's hands, and in her opinion, Lilia is nominally Victor's personal maid like the two sisters, but in fact she is the butler of the Randall family.

The responsibility of a noble lady is to reproduce the blood of the family, educate the children of the family, and enjoy a comfortable and comfortable life, how can she do the work of a housekeeper?

If it weren't for the sake of pleasing Victor, Alice wouldn't even want to be a liaison officer, and she would be envious of her sister who managed Silvermoon Manor. However, Alice is devastated by Lilia's 200 gold soles more than herself, which she feels shows that she is not as important as Lilia in Victor's mind.

And that's exactly what happened.

Alice didn't dare to play tricks on Victor, so she looked at Lilia angrily until her sister Alina quietly kicked her under the table.

Victor didn't care about his woman, and continued, "Alina is in charge of the Silver Moon Manor and the family castle. In addition, children from the age of 7 and under the age of 15 of the vassal families were required to receive the education of Alina's attendants. Alina earns 300 gold soles a year. ”

The nobles selected outstanding heirs from the vassal families, made them serve as the squire maids of the family, taught them fighting and hunting skills, learned rich social etiquette, educated and cultivated their good living habits, and a sense of honor of loyalty and bravery, which is the squire education. Only the children of vassals who have received squire education can be regarded as a real superior class, and they are often used by the lord, so the vassal family calls the squire education a noble education.

Isn't what the vassals strive to be noble?

The village chiefs were in awe, and even Linda gave Alina a flattering smile, just like a parent flattering a teacher.

Alina's authority is not high, but her influence is very great, she decides the selection and training of the family's attendants, and the vassals of the Randall family will do their best to welcome this lady. This will prompt the Alina sisters to integrate into the Randall family, and the more than 200 vassal families will no longer be monolithic, which will invisibly reduce the influence of the Nelson family among the vassals. The small collective consciousness that is tightly hugged will be pried open until it collapses.

The corners of Victor's mouth turned up slightly, and he said: "Nelson serves as the captain of my escort team, commanding the family guards, and concurrently serving as the chief of the city defense of Randall, and the captain of the city defense of various villages and towns, with an annual salary of 2,000 gold soles." ”

"No, 2,000 gold soles is too much! I can only give 1,000 gold soles. ”

Lilia jumped out and shouted in disagreement, and Linda, who was smiling, immediately rolled her eyes at her, and Lilia glared back unceremoniously, staring at her brother viciously. Nelson was used to pampering his sister, and he said weakly, "Then 1000......"

Victor said angrily, "When this is a grocery store, can you still bargain?

"The Janissaries of the royal capital paid the knights 8,000 gold soles a year, and the knights of the House of York also had an annual salary of 4,000 gold soles. With your current strength, you should also be able to get 4,000 gold soles. However, our Randall family is not rich at the moment, so we can only give you 2000 gold soles first. ”

"Thank you for your generosity. Nelson touched his head embarrassedly and asked, "My lord, I've heard of the city defense officer, but what does the city defense captain who commands the villages and towns do?"

"We'll talk about that later. Victor motioned for Nelson to calm down and said, "Barrett serves as the family's military officer, responsible for the training of the family's soldiers and militia, as well as the management of armaments and supplies. 200 gold soles a year. ”

"Barrett, I'll order someone to build a training camp and a warehouse for armaments. In the future, Randall's military training and military supplies will be independent from Pinghu Town's internal affairs system, and you will be fully responsible. ”

Barrett, the old mercenary, stood up and saluted Victor, "Yes, my lord!"

Victor nodded, turned his gaze to Linda and said, "Linda is no longer the sheriff, she will take over the position of territorial inspector." 200 gold soles a year. ”

"The Ombudsman is my new position, and her duties are to listen to the voices of the people, inspect the affairs of the villages and towns, and supervise the work of the village chiefs, town heads, and sheriffs. Village chiefs and magistrates must not obstruct inspections and inquiries by the Ombudsman in any way, and the Ombudsman has no right to interfere in government affairs. ”

"Do you have any questions?" Victor glanced faintly at the restless village chief and the monkey.

Mo Lin raised his hand and asked, "My lord, is the Inspector like the original deputy leader?"

"That's right. ”

At the beginning, in order to prevent the village leader from using his power to play favoritism and oppress his subordinates, Victor asked the members of each group to take turns to serve as the deputy leader and supervise the words and deeds of the team leader. Today, the members of the division of work have a deep friendship, and it is a bit anachronistic to expect them to supervise each other. At this time, it is necessary to establish an independent monitoring system. It just so happens that Victor wants to replace the sheriff, and he simply appoints Linda as the ombudsman, so that Nelson can be appeased, and the ombudsman and the sheriff can check each other.

The village chiefs have become accustomed to being supervised by the deputy team leader, but now they have only changed their personal supervision, and they don't feel that there is anything wrong with it.

"Munk, my newly appointed sheriff. Victor pointed to the monkey and said, "He is in charge of the security of his territory, and the sheriffs of the villages and towns are also under his jurisdiction." 100 gold soles per year. ”

Everyone's eyes focused on the monkey, and he quickly stood up and bowed and said, "My lord, I will definitely do a good job!"

Victor smiled and said, "The appointment of the village chiefs remains the same, and you are responsible for leading the villagers to complete the labor arranged by Lilia, paying the free folk employees, and arranging their lives. In addition, since Randall's territory is vast and sparsely populated, and there are no dangerous beasts and monsters in the wild, I have increased the actual control area of each village from 300 square kilometers to 400 square kilometers, and you must control the collection of natural resources. ”

"The village chief's annual salary is 100 gold soles. Victor paused for a moment, and then said, "In the future, when you become mayor of the town, your annual salary will be raised to 200 gold soles." ”

"Your Excellency, you are so generous. George, the head of the second village, said excitedly: "This is the first time we have heard that the village chief also has a salary. ”

"There is no Yulu!" Lilia puffed out her cheeks and said coldly: "The village chiefs of other territories don't have Yulu! Only the village chiefs of our Randall Territory have a salary, and they give so much!"

Victor has to pay 4,200 gold soles to the upper echelons of the family every year, plus the expenses for hiring stewards and soldiers, how can there be 6,000 gold soles per year. Lilia thinks that the land is divided and there is no need to pay them any more, but she does not know that this expenditure is the core of Victor's system reform.

Victor didn't explain it to Lilia, and even if he did, no one would understand.

"It's not that easy to get the money. Victor knocked on the table, stood up, and said, "If any of you is not able to do his duty, then I will remove him from his position and let someone else take his place." Do you get it?"

The village chiefs felt a pang in their hearts and said in unison, "I understand." ”

Victor bowed slightly, and said: "Nelson, Barrett, you each assign people to arrange three guards in each village, and they serve as city defense captains and militia instructors respectively, responsible for leading the militia of each village and protecting the safety of villages and towns. ”

"Munke, you have transferred people from the security station, and each village has 3 security soldiers to be responsible for the security of the villages and towns. ”

"From now on, professional things will be done by professional people. Each village chief is only responsible for internal affairs and production, and may coordinate but must not directly interfere in the security and security of the village. ”

The village chiefs were confused, and Mo Lin raised his hand and asked, "My lord, how do we coordinate?"

"In peacetime, production and construction are the mainstay, and when foreign enemies invade, defensive battles are the mainstay. Victor explained: "I divide the security of the territory into three levels, green for security, the village chief in charge of the overall situation, and the city defense captain and security officer to cooperate with the village chief's work. But the militia training shall not be less than 5 days per month."

"Yellow represents vigilance, indicating that there are monsters or bandits in the wild. At this time, the village chief should cooperate with the work of urban prevention and security, and lead the villagers to go out to work on the premise of ensuring safety. ”

"Red represents danger. The village chief and the sheriff must unconditionally obey the orders of the captain of the city defense, cooperate with the army to resist foreign enemies, mobilize supplies, hold the villages and towns, and evacuate the people!"

As soon as Victor finished speaking, the village chiefs began to exchange ears, "This method is good!"

"Your Excellency is wise!"

"I'm relieved!"

Seeing this, Victor couldn't help but laugh, he didn't expect the system to change so smoothly, the village chief was completely unaware of what they had gained and what they had lost.

As early as the time of designing the hydraulic project, Victor began to design a new system, not because he was disgusted with the vassal system, but because he did not have vassals at all.

The vassal system is based on the objective reality that the ruler has no control over the local whip, and expands the ruling area through the means of layered feudalism, forming a political pattern in which the stars hold the moon. But Victor has no such problem, Randall territory is 9,000 square kilometers in size, 121 kilometers long from south to north, 75 kilometers wide from west to east, 7 villages and towns in the territory are distributed on the banks of the Heihe River, and the farthest village from Pinghu Town is only a three-day walk. If he was on horseback, it would only take a day for Victor's orders to be conveyed to any part of the territory, not to mention that he also had alchemy crows.

Victor sits on the Alchemy Tower, has thousands of alchemy creatures under his command, and has the ability to fully control the territory. Since there are no loyal and capable vassals, and the vassal system itself is an inefficient political system, then simply implement centralism!

If centralism is an iron-clad official of the yamen, then the vassal system is an iron-clad official of the yamen.

Although the lord has the right to appoint and dismiss the village chief and town chief under his command, few lords will intervene in the affairs of the village and town, and the position of the village chief is passed down from generation to generation by the vassal family, and they are the real emperor of the soil.

Victor first separated the military power, political power, and legal power of each village and town, and then concentrated it in his own hands, and then changed the military system to a conscription system.

Vassals did not need to be paid, were loyal, and had outstanding abilities. Not to mention the huge cost of recruiting soldiers for Victor, loyalty is difficult to guarantee, and the combat effectiveness is even worse. But the problem came back to Viktor, who had no vassals! He had no other way but to merce soldiers.

In fact, recruiting soldiers among the freedmen is just to cope with the current situation, and Victor's real source of soldiers comes from the mountain mercenaries, so that they can fight through actual combat, keep the weak and strong, and then select loyal and brave backbones to form an army.

The choice of conscription was forced out of desperation, but it shook the foundations of the vassal system. If you can spend money to recruit soldiers and talents, why hand over the rights completely?

At this point, Victor designed a new system, a centralized system in the guise of a vassal system. Victor calls it a lease-hire system.

The lease employment system has the characteristics of both the vassal system and the centralized system, and it is a combination of the vassal system and the vassal employment system. Victor rejected the notion of vassals, vassals, and freemen, and promoted advocates, helpers, supporters, and outcasts. The core of this system is to convert the displaced people into supporters, select talents from among the supporters, make them helpers by means of employment, and after a period of investigation, turn the good and loyal helpers into advocates by canonizing the land.

On the surface, this is still a vassal system, but in fact it is not.

First of all, the fief is no longer tied to the right office, but a permanent lease agreement for the land. If the vassals have no talent, then they can only farm honestly and train the next generation to be qualified to return to the core of power. In the face of external competitors, vassal families must study hard, constantly improve their own abilities, and never dare to slack off.

Secondly, the lease and employment system is quite flexible, not limited to territorial development, but also can be integrated with the free folk merchant group, and finally form an invisible centralized empire.

Finally, it took hundreds of years for a lord to raise a qualified vassal family, and the lease-hire system was directly open to the large group of freedmen, and it developed much faster than the vassal system to promote available talents. Due to the centralization of power, it was also several times more efficient than the vassal system.

There is also a downside to the tene-hire system, it requires money, lots and lots of money!

In the entire human kingdom, only Victor can currently implement the lease and hire system, because his pioneer leader does not have traditional vassal forces, and he also has the world's most basic force and advanced production technology - Alchemy Tower!

"Is there anything you need to add?" asked Victor slowly, and seeing that no one raised his hand, he said again, "Then disperse." ”

The monkey bowed to Victor and was about to leave the village in the midst of the chief, but was stopped by him.

"Lilia, Nelson and Linda stay. Monkey, you stay too!"