Chapter Ninety-Seven: Lorist's Intentions

Lorist and Joske were stationed on a hill, looking out at the town of Kitano in the distance.

The gates of Kitano Town were wide open, and a steady stream of traffic poured out of the gates, and the sound of noise and crying could be heard from afar.

"My lord, I have never seen such an arrogant and brazen garrison, and they are actually bargaining with their lords. No wonder your lords say that the garrison in your family domain is a wonder. It's just that I don't understand, my lord, why would you tolerate their existence, in other territories they would have been declared rebellious and defeated by the lord. Joske said.

Lorist smiled: "See, two hundred years, our ancestors of the Norton family never dreamed that their kindness to the people would be exploited by such a big loophole, and leave such an untidy mess for their descendants. But we didn't run in vain in the morning, you see, didn't they send people out? As for the crusade, we will have to endure a little longer, and when the convoy led by Schrader and Bodfinger arrives, we will have the strength to destroy them. ”

Early in the morning, Lorist and Josk escorted five four-wheeled wagons loaded with leather armor, spears, and Imperial silver coins to Kitano. It's just that the four major families who came to greet him are missing Master Dunbasen, according to the head of the Morin family, Master Dunbasen has occasionally felt cold in the past two days, and now he is lingering on the sickbed, so I am sorry that I can only be absent.

However, when the head of the Merlin family handed over the list of members of the newly formed 400-man garrison, Lorist realized that his plan to kill the three soldiers had failed. The guards on this list are basically composed of people from the Maureen family, the Hassan family and the Cupim family, and there is no one from the Dumbasan family, and even the captain of the Dumbasson, who was the vice-captain of the garrison, has withdrawn from the garrison.

Lorist pretended to be curious and asked why the original Captain Dumbasen had withdrawn from the garrison? The head of the Morin family replied that Master Dombasson had decided that after the new town that Lorist was going to build was completed, the entire Dumbassen family would move over, and then Captain Dombasson would take on the position of captain of the garrison of the new town.

Lorist praised the good qualities of the Dumbasen family's forbearance and humility, and after talking nonsense, he handed over the leather armor and spear he brought to the head of the Morin family, and explained that this was equipment for the newly formed garrison, and then pointed to the box full of imperial silver coins and said that the arrears of the garrison's salary that several family owners protested against last time had been brought, and it was a lot of money. It's just that the salary of the garrison will be changed to be paid once every three months, because I am very busy, and it is not worth it to run to Kitano Town once a month for that little money, so please be considerate.

Lorist then asked the Governor of Codan if he had counted the population? The Steward of Codan reported that the registration of the bereaved families of the former family soldiers and the landless residents had been completed, and that there were more than 1,400 people in number, and that they could leave at any time. It's just that because of the adjustment and expansion of the garrison this time, those who have been brushed off from the garrison are very emotional, and many of them do not cooperate with the population count, and the manager of Codan estimates that there are about more than 2,000 people in this part.

At this time, the head of the Morin family made a suggestion, he said that because some of the garrison members were not suitable to continue to serve as garrison members due to various reasons due to this expansion, they were not right to have emotions, but I also asked the family to be more considerate. If the family decides to build a new town, then another new town garrison can be formed to recruit them, and they will definitely cooperate with the family to complete this demographic at that time.

Lorist sneered, they had a really good idea, let the family build a new town, and then recruit them to form a new city garrison, enjoy preferential treatment like the Beiye Town garrison, and continue to be the master without any effort, thinking beautifully.

Lorist deliberately shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said to the three family heads, the family is currently facing a critical juncture, you all know that our Norton family is in a state of war with Viscount Kenmeth, and the family has decided to build a checkpoint wall in the Morgen Hills to keep Viscount Kenmax out of the family territory. So now the family is in great need of labor, and the survivors of the former family soldiers and the landless residents who have been registered will be sent to the Morgen Hills as the main labor for the construction of the checkpoint wall. The construction of the new town will have to rely on the remaining manpower of Kitano Town, excluding the members of the garrison and their relatives.

Lorist said that this time the family decided to expand the garrison in Kitano Town, not to let them shrink to Kitano Town as turtles, but to have several aspects that need the garrison to serve. Of course, the heads of the family should also rest assured that the family will not pull the garrison into the battlefield against Viscount Kenmeth, because the garrison does not have that ability, and the family does not worry about the combat strength of the garrison.

Lorlist's ridicule made the three heads of the house blush on the spot, but the head of the Morin family was treacherous and thick-skinned, so he pretended not to hear, and instead asked Lorist where he was going to use the garrison?

Lorist pointed to the map of the territory on the table and said that the mercenary group hired by the family had already set up camp in Poplar Beach, where the new town was being built. As long as Kitano City mobilizes surplus manpower and sends a garrison of 200 people, a new military village can be set up in this mountain pass where the two mountains meet, more than 100 miles away from Huyang Beach, and the mercenary group will be stationed in the new military village to guard against the mountain barbarians. And there are only two missions left for the garrison of Kitano Town. One is to transport a batch of supplies to the new military village to the mercenary group every ten days, and the other is to take turns to garrison Huyangtan to supervise the construction of the new town.

Of course, the family would not let the garrison of Kitano Town work in vain, and the salary of the garrison members stationed at Poplar Beach every time it was their turn was ten Imperial Silver coins per month, which was almost tenfold. In addition, the bounty for the mercenary group is also valid for the garrison, which is a bounty of one gold coin for the head of an old man of the empire and fifty silver coins for the dead of a mountain barbarian.

The three heads of the family discussed with each other for a long time, but they did not give Lorist an answer. In the end, Lorist was impatient, he said that he could give the three heads of the family a month to think about it carefully, if they were unwilling to participate in the construction of the new town, the family would not be reluctant, but after the new town was built, there would be nothing to do in Kitano Town, and the family did not care and did not intend to pay attention to what the residents of Kitano Town had and what attitudes they had.

In the end, Lorist asked for a batch of wagons to be requisitioned in Kitano Town to send the combs and lost homes of those registered former family soldiers to the manor castle, but Lorist did not expect that this simple request would be resisted by the three heads of the family. At this time, Lorist was furious, and he asked the three family heads if Kitano Town was ready to put up a banner of rebellion, if so, it was very simple, the Norton family would rather pay a great price to ask the surrounding lords to send troops to attack Kitano Town, destroy Kitano Town and quell the civil strife.

Lorist's tough attitude startled the three heads of the family, and they hurriedly stepped forward to ask for mercy, explaining the reason for the boycott. Originally, they were worried that these wagons that had been recruited to transport people would be requisitioned by the family for free when they arrived at the manor castle, and that they would lose a lot of money.

Lorist didn't expect that it was this reason, it was really laughable, he didn't expect that these three major families in Kitano Town would rather offend his lord for dozens of carriages, I really don't know if it was courage or short-sightedness, at this moment he became more and more disgusted with these garrison families in Kitano Town.

Alright then, said Lorlist, I won't enlist, I'll hire your carriage to transport those people, an hour's journey, just send people to the open space in front of the manor castle, and I'll pay for the transportation of a carriage of Imperial silver. In addition, in the name of the Norton family, I pledge not to levy your carriages.

Hearing Lorist say this, the three heads of the family quarreled again, but this time they were arguing about how many carriages their families would produce, for fear of losing this opportunity to make money. After arguing for a long time, they finally agreed on the share of how many carriages each family would produce, and then ordered people to go down and prepare the carriages to start transporting the more than 1,400 people.

"My lord, I still don't understand. I think with our current strength, it is enough to wipe out the garrison of Kitano Town, you don't have to appease them like this at all, the more you put up with them, the more they don't take you seriously. Josk said, looking at Kitano.

Loris nodded: "You're right, Joe, if there is no Viscount Kenmax to cause trouble for us, and there is no castle construction site in the Morgen Hills, then I may lead you back to the family manor castle and maybe I will directly attack Kitano Town." But not now, because after we concentrate our forces to deal with Kitano Town, the damage will definitely be very heavy, Kitano Town is not a garrison of other territorial nobles, they have been operating Kitano Town for more than 200 years, although the garrison is only 200 people, but if we attack, the number of people who can go into battle in Kitano Town is not less than 2,000, and because of the relationship between the garrison family, they will not easily admit defeat and surrender, they will only fight with us. In that case, even if we defeat the garrison, the casualties will be heavy, and we will not have the strength to build a castle and defend it in the Morgen hills. ”

"There is only one town in our family territory, Kitano Town, and the family can only compromise with them before. I decided to expand Kitano's garrison in order to divert the population of Kitano and provoke conflicts between them. I used the excuse of building a new town in Huyang Beach, just so that the big families in Kitano Town could eliminate dissent and dominate Kitano Town. In that way, the large population of Kitano Town can be said to be divided into two parts, and we will have half the enemies we have to deal with. ”

"I gave them leather armor and spears, and paid them the arrears, firstly to appease them, and secondly, to make them think that I was not prepared to deal with them, so that they would not cause trouble for us in the territory. What we need now is time, it will take time to build the castle site, it will take time to deal with Viscount Kenmeth, it will take time to train the soldiers of the clan to form a new guard unit, and it will take time to wait for the arrival of the Knight Schrader and their convoy of northbound. Therefore, what is needed within the family domain at the moment is stability. ”

"Your Excellency, you didn't really decide to build a new town in Poplar Beach, did you?" asked Josk.

"Why not?" Lorist smiled, "My father and brother have long planned to build a new town in the family territory, so that the family can get rid of the burden of Kitano Town and lay the foundation for solving Kitano Town. It's just that they had an accident and couldn't complete the plan, and the address they chose to build a new town was Huyangtan. I looked at the map of the family's domain and found that Poplar Beach was indeed the most suitable place to build a new town. Building a new town there would be a doubling of the territory actually controlled by the family, and the only threat was to consider whether it would be invaded by the mountain barbarians, and I hired the mercenaries who surrendered to set up a new garrison in the mountain pass to eliminate this threat. ”

"But at present, this new town is just an idea, or it can be said that it is an excuse to divert the population of Kitano Town and intensify the conflict. The most important thing for us at the moment is to build the castle site on the other side of the Morgen Hills, even if the castle site over there is completed, the next thing to be built is the mountain town over there, according to the development plan of the Morgen Hills formulated by the Kenmaz family. After the construction site of that castle is completed, I am ready to use it as the main city, and then build a new mountain city, defeat the Kenmasse family, find a new channel for foreign exchange and trade, and meet the arrival of the northbound convoy will become the focus and task in the future. ”

"As for the new town here in Huyangtan, if Kitano Town is willing to contribute, then we can first do a good job of preliminary preparations, such as collecting stones, wood, and various equipment materials for refining green cement, etc., which cannot be completed in a year or two. During this period, the manpower diverted from Kitano will definitely conflict with the garrison that oversees them after work, and Kitano will be isolated, and it will be much easier for us to clean them up when we want to. ”

"Your Excellency, you are so sinister. Joske said.

"You've won the prize. Lorist replied.

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