Chapter 42: The Family Dilemma

The carriage stopped at the gate of the yard, and Reddy said to Pat, who was in the driver's passenger seat, "Here we are, this is the master's house." ”

Then he got out of the car and opened the car door, and Lorist got out of the car with Alyssa in his arms, followed by Schward, El and Søderkamp.

Another rental carriage in which Fat Man, Telman, Yuri, and Steve were riding also arrived, and the group got out of the car and entered the courtyard. Pat did not follow the group into the house, but instead helped Reddy unload the wagon in the yard and wiped the two zinomas with a dry cloth.

Reddy was surprised and asked, "What's the matter, why don't you go in?"

Pat thought for a while and said, "I came to find the young master, it was my grandfather's request. He instructed me to follow him to protect him regardless of whether the young master returned to inherit the territory or not, because he was the only legitimate heir of the Norton family, and the young master could not have any accidents no matter what. ”

Reddy laughed: "Brother Pat, it's not that I underestimate you, it's not you who protect him when you follow the master, but he protects you." With the strength of your Black Iron Rank, it would be very good to be able to protect yourself from becoming a burden when your master is in danger. ”

Pat glanced at Reddy angrily: "There is a saying in our northern lands that no matter how vigilant the monster is, there is a time when the monster is awake, and no matter how majestic the horse is, there is a time when it stumbles. I already know that the young master is Black Iron Lock, and the silver invincibility is very remarkable. But no matter how powerful the young master is, he is just one person, I just need to follow him and silently make a shield. Now that I am Black Iron, as long as I work hard to cultivate, I believe that when I am promoted to the Silver Rank, I believe I will be able to help the young master a lot. ”

"Well said, Pat. At some point, Lorist arrived at their side: "Did Mr. Cress really let you follow me?"

Pat nodded calmly: "If you want to go back to inherit the territory, then I will be your personal guard, if you refuse to go back, then I will stay by your side to protect you." ”

Speaking of this, Pat smiled self-deprecatingly: "But it seems that you have changed more than I imagined, not only in terms of skills, but also in your personality, and you don't need my protection at all now." Originally, my grandfather thought that you must have had a bad time in the long time you lost contact with the family, and it seems that they were all wrong. ”

Lorist nodded with deep feelings: "It's been ten years, it's been so long since I left home in a blink of an eye, and it's been seven years since I lost contact with my family. Let's go, Pat, and go inside and talk about the situation back home. ”

This time, Sedcamp gave a detailed introduction to the current situation of the Norton family, and that series of unfortunate events caused the family to lose most of its force. Lorist's father was a golden one-star swordsman, although he was injured in hunting magical beasts when he was young and his cultivation stagnated, but after all, he was a golden rank, and his death made the family lose its pillar. And the death of Lorist's eldest brother made the family lose hope, the eldest young master is a knight of the gold rank, and he was hit by a poisoned arrow in the back when he was fighting in the battle, and he died of poison when he was snatched back. As for the third young master, when he was young, he was unable to awaken his fighting spirit due to a serious illness in the water, and only then did he encounter a demonic beast that was seriously injured and died due to the fall of the horse.

At this time, Lorist was very unnatural, he knew that the third young master of the Norton family was sick because the original owner of his body, Xiao Locke, pushed him down the well out of jealousy when he was young, so that he could not awaken his fighting spirit, and he had to attribute at least half of the responsibility for the death of the third young master to Xiao Locke, and now he inherited this body, and even the responsibility was on his own shoulder.

Sedecamp said that when the third young master encountered the Warcraft, the only family knight with a silver three-star was guarding him, and although he fought and killed the Warcraft, he was also seriously injured and is still recuperating. Now there is only one female knight in the family with one silver star, and she is Andre Bertha. The daughter of Andre, the old knight of the deceased family, grew up with the eldest young master's childhood sweetheart, and the lord engaged them to marry, but he never thought that the eldest young master would die on the battlefield before they got married. I don't know if the young master remembers the red-haired girl who has been following the eldest young master.

Lorist nodded, the red-haired girl who always stayed with the eldest brother in Locke's memory was as tough as a boy, and she beat her up just by pulling down her braids, leaving a painful memory for Locke.

Sedcamp said that apart from Miss Baisha, a silver-rank female knight, the rest of the family was a few Black Iron Swordsmen from the garrison, as well as a few Black Iron Old Men in the castle. The affairs of the territory are now maintained by Miss Baisha, and the old steward, Kress, has retreated into the background due to his old age. Therefore, the family very much hopes that the second young master will go back as soon as possible to inherit the territory and preside over the overall situation.

Pat, who was Baron Norton's bodyguard, recounted the ambush of Lorlist's father. At that time, when the Baron heard that the mountain barbarians had come down the mountain to rob again, he gathered the cavalry team in the castle, eighteen cavalry, which was the most important mobile force in the family's possession, plus the Baron and Pat, a total of twenty horsemen. Since he heard that there were more than 50 bandits from the mountain barbarians who came down the mountain, the baron sent people to recruit the garrison to go with them, and prepared to wipe out the bandits.

The Baron and Pat took the first step because they were on horseback, and when they arrived at their destination, they found that the bandits were defenseless, and calculated that the time was almost up, and they were ready to attack first, and when the garrison arrived and saw this situation, they would naturally follow the attack, and they would definitely be able to annihilate these mountain barbarians under the attack on both sides.

Pat said that he had advised the Baron that it would be best to wait for the garrison to arrive before attacking, but the Baron refused to listen and insisted on attacking. At first, it was relatively smooth, and Shanman was caught off guard, but seeing that the baron and the others were few, they boosted their morale and fought for a while. If the garrison appeared at this time, the mountain barbarians would definitely be defeated. But the left can't wait for the garrison, and the right can't wait for the garrison, seeing that the casualties of his subordinates are getting heavier, the baron is also anxious, and he personally rushes to fight despite his illness. At this moment, the barbarians cheered, it turned out that the barbarians came with more than fifty reinforcements, and now the barons couldn't eat, Pat saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly escorted the baron, who had received a few beats, to evacuate the battlefield, and the family cavalry was all killed.

When Pat returned, he learned that the garrison had not left the town at all, and Pat was furious, and he broke into the garrison's camp with a single sword, slashing the captain of the garrison, Malt. Now the garrison members were gone, and more than a hundred garrisons surrounded the castle to ask Pat to come out, and Miss Baisha and the old manager of Kress managed to settle the matter with great difficulty by virtue of their many years of prestige. So when Sedkamp was ordered to come to the city of Moriente to look for Lorlist, the old steward sent his grandson Pat over as well, firstly to escort Sedkamp all the way, and secondly, to avoid the trouble of staying in the territory to find the garrison.

As Sedcamp and Pat recounted, everyone realized that the situation faced by the Norton family was not an ordinary difficulty, but a very, very difficult one. The first trouble is the tide of demonic beasts in winter, every winter, the demonic beasts in the wasteland will go to the territory in groups to find food, if it is the demonic bull and demon sheep, these vegetarian monsters are good to say, the big deal is that the fields and gardens are destroyed. If the winter wolves are in packs, even castles, estates, and towns will be attacked.

The second trouble is the mountain barbarians, the territory of the Norton family is in the Far North Wasteland, with endless black mud swamps to the north, and the Blade Mountains to the west, and the sea to the west. The salt used by the Northland people is to go through the Blade Mountains to the sea, and then come down from the cliff and bring back the sea water to boil the salt, which is very hard and troublesome. Therefore, the price of salt in the north has been very high. To the south is the Black Forest and the Heath hills, which are the only gateway to the outside world for the family domain, connecting it to the other noble domains. To the east is the Demon Dragon Mountains, full of countless high-altitude mountains and dense primeval jungles, and the mountain barbarians are active in this mountain that stretches for hundreds of miles.

It is said that the origin of the mountain barbarians is the descendants of the human race who fled into the mountains in the dark ages to find a place to survive, and lived in the mountains and forests for hundreds of years, lost contact with the outside world, and degenerated into the form of savage tribes, worshipping primitive totems. Ru Mao drinks blood, and the weak eat the strong. Although he has some contact with the outside world, he is still known for his arrogant and unreasonable, rough and arrogant character.

When the first ancestor of the Norton family became the lord of this wasteland, the mountain barbarians began to entangle with the Norton family, from time to time they went down the mountain to raid, and they wanted to grab everything, they were more cunning, more ferocious and more difficult to deal with than the monsters. The Norton family once set up more than a dozen reclamation villages in the wasteland by external expansion, but they all suffered heavy casualties and property losses due to the attack of the mountain barbarians, and finally had to abandon these reclamation villages one by one. For example, the reason why Lorlist's father, Lord Baron, had to go out with illness was because the mountain barbarians attacked the only pasture in the family's territory and stole a large number of cattle, sheep and livestock.

The third trouble for the Nortons is the Territory Garrison. At present, the total population of the family domain is more than 5,000 people, of which more than 3,000 live in a town called Kitano Town, which is also the only town in the family domain. Most of the people who live in it are the families of the garrison members and the survivors of the soldiers who worked for the Norton family, who occupy two-thirds of the arable fields within the safe area of the territory, and hand in only one-tenth of the harvest each year, and nothing else.

At that time, because of the vast territory and sparsely populated territory, the Norton ancestors also vigorously recruited homeless people to buy slaves and release them as subjects in order to develop their territory, and they treated the leaders who were willing to join the garrison very well. Although the wages were not high, the family was exempted from servitude and poll tax and other miscellaneous taxes, and the fields were distributed to their families as long as they handed over one-tenth of the harvest of the fields each year.

Even as lords, the Norton family still has to fulfill their obligations as imperial nobles to the Crisson Empire, in addition to sending troops to fight when the empire needs it, they also have to pay field tithes for their territory, that is, one-tenth of the harvest of cultivated fields in the territory must be handed over to the empire. At that time, the other nobles in the empire basically set the harvest tax of the fields at 50%, plus various taxes such as poll tax, transaction tax, entry tax, fishing tax, firewood tax and salt tax, etc., so that the lord could barely survive.

The Norton family's favourable treatment of the garrison members meant that they did not receive any benefit from the families of the garrison members other than paying tithes on the Empire's fields. At first, it didn't attract many lords to join, after all, becoming a garrison member meant risks, and the annual winter Warcraft Tide was a big test. However, with the stability of the territory and the expansion of the safe area, people with good intentions found that the benefits of becoming a member of the garrison were extremely numerous, so becoming a member of the garrison became a hot trend in the territory. The Norton family was originally happy, but as time passed, they realized that something was wrong and began to spiral out of control.

In general, it is customary for the people of Gelinthia to separate their children and live independently after they have become adults. Seven or eight siblings still lived together after they got married, and in order to enjoy the treatment of the families of the members of the garrison, some of the members of the garrison even asked the family to give their brothers and sisters land.

The Norton family regretted it at this time, but the head of the family at that time considered that the garrison had also made a great contribution to the family territory, and only limited the amount of land distributed to the families of the members of the garrison, ten acres per person, which was only barely enough for a family of three to make ends meet in the northern land that was harvested once a year. I thought that this would limit this momentum, but unexpectedly, what those members of the garrison really valued was the exemption of their families from labor and all kinds of miscellaneous taxes, and they used the status of the families of the garrison members to fish and hunt in the territory, boil salt and smuggle without handing over their income, and lived a more nourishing life than the Norton family.

For more than 100 years, these garrison members have been retired from their fathers and their sons, and their brothers have died and their brothers have been replaced, making the number of garrison members a hereditary profession. There are more than 100 small civilian families in Kitano Town, with one or twenty small ones and thirty or forty people in the big ones, becoming a big local force in the family territory.

The Norton family thought about dealing with the garrison, but they had to give up because they were too deeply involved with the family. The maids in the elephant family's castle manor are basically the daughters of these civilian families, and many of the family soldiers recruited by the family in the territory are family members of these garrisons. If there is any trouble, the garrison will soon get the news. If the Norton family wanted to use force, the result would probably be a defeat for both sides, and the Norton family would become a joke in the aristocratic circles.

It is because of these concerns that the matter of solving the garrison has been delayed, and if the Norton family owner is strong, as long as he does not touch the bottom line of the garrison, that is, if he does not cancel the treatment of the garrison members and their families, the garrison will still bow down and willingly obey the order. When Lorist's father and eldest brother were there, the garrison obeyed orders very much, and even the eldest young master ordered them to send people to fight with him everywhere and obediently obeyed orders. But the eldest young master died in battle, the old man was seriously ill, and after the third young master took over, the garrison began to violate the yin and yang, like the third young master patrolling the territory and encountering a demonic beast, several garrison members who followed him immediately ran away, so that the third young master fell off his horse and died without anyone to take care of him.

Especially last year, the garrison's disobedience led to the annihilation of the family's cavalry, and the baron was seriously injured, and even intensified the siege of the family castle, demanding the surrender of the head of the family's guard, Pat, who wounded their captain. In a sense, such an act is like rebellion. The Norton family lost their family force and had to make compromises. Solving the territorial garrison has become a major problem for the next Norton family master.

The fourth trouble is the territorial dispute, the south and the Norton family's territory are bordered by the Viscount Kenmeth, it stands to reason that the northland is mostly wilderness, and it doesn't matter if there is more or less, but the Morgen Hills, the boundary where the dispute occurred, is the location of the Norton family's copper mine, which is the only source of wealth that the Norton family can maintain at present, how can it be willing to give it up, for which the two sides have had several armed conflicts, and Viscount Kenmax suffered a big loss.

In fact, Viscount Kenmeth was not in charge of it, and the territory of the Norton family was personally demarcated by the founding emperor of the Krisson Empire, and the Morgen Hills were clearly within the territory of the Norton family on the map of the canonized territory. However, the territory of Viscount Kenmeth was canonized by the second prince belonging to the nobles of the Northland five years ago, and I don't know whether it was careless or deliberate, and the Morgen Hills were placed on the side of the viscount. It stands to reason that the second prince should resend someone to distinguish the boundaries between the two sides, and as a latecomer, Viscount Kenmax must back down. But for some reason, the second prince got into trouble, and only said that the two sides would negotiate to solve it on their own, and he would no longer care about this matter. As a result, the two sides started to fight with knives and guns, and the Norton family won a big victory.

Now that the Norton family is in decline, Viscount Kenmax has begun to toss again, especially after a cousin of his became the mistress of Duke Lukins, the Grand Duke of Northland, the year before last, somehow got in touch with the Duke, and even fearlessly drilled a mine on the other side of the Morgen Hills to mine the copper resources belonging to the Norton family. And the Norton family can only endure this breath and ignore it.

If Viscount Kenmax knew the true situation of the Norton family, he was afraid that he would immediately swallow the Norton family's copper mines. Without the income from the copper mines, the Norton family's finances would soon go bankrupt. This is the fifth trouble of the Norton family, which can also be said to be a financial crisis.

Ten years ago, although there was such a thing as a garrison in the Norton family's territory, the family was not those nobles who could only live by looting the lords, the family relied on its own force to hunt monsters to obtain furs, and the specialties of the Northland relied on the family caravan to go to Moriente City to trade, and the income back and forth every year was extremely considerable. At that time, the family cavalry numbered as many as 200 people, and the equipment was neat, and the Norton Iron Cavalry was famous in the Northland.

But the good times didn't last long, seven years ago, the caravan led by the third uncle of Lorist was robbed and all killed, so that the family lost the most important financial income, and then the eldest young master took the family iron cavalry to fight for the second prince in all directions, and the eldest young master died in the battle to escort the corpse back of the family cavalry only dozens of people, of which more than half were disabled. In order to compensate for the family's years of accumulation, more than half of it was consumed.

Adding fuel to the fire was the second prince sending a herald, and the ownership of the Norton family was handed over from the Christian royal family to Duke Luggins. If the family's Iron Rider and the eldest young master were still there, the Baron would definitely refuse to accept this order as a matter of course, even if it was at war with the entire Northland nobles, because the Norton family was loyal to the royal family of Crisson, not a certain prince.

When the eldest young master was still there, the second prince enveloped him in every way, and he didn't expect that as soon as he died in battle, the second prince turned his face and denied people, did not mention the bereavement reward, and handed over the Norton family to Archduke Lukins as an object, which was both ironic and sad for the Norton family. But at that time, all the nobles in the Northland belonged to the second prince, and the Norton family was powerless to resist, so they had to acquiesce to the reality.

Duke Lukins is not a member of the Krisson royal family, he not only has to levy tithes on the noble territories under him, but also war taxes, blood taxes, territory preservation fees, etc., which add up to almost half of the income of a noble domain. Other nobles were fine, but it was difficult for the Norton family to collect these additional taxes on the garrison and their families, but instead to pay for them the equivalent of three-tenths of the income of their fields, and if it weren't for the balance of the income from the copper mines, the family would have been in deficit long ago.

Even though the war has ended, the Duke not only did not reduce the levy, but also added a restoration tax, which means that this tax is collected in preparation for the restoration of the Krisson Empire, and it is unknown when it will be prepared, maybe it will be collected for decades and hundreds of years. Now that the family's main routes to the outside world are on Duke Lukins' territory, the Norton family has to endure it again.

When Sedcamp and Pat finished briefing on the entire Norton territory, everyone was silent, even Telman, who advocated that Lorist go back to inherit the territory, was silent, it was clearly a fire pit, and whoever jumped into it would die.

Fat asked Pat and Sedkamp, "Did your family ask when Locke would arrive to inherit the territory?"

Pat replied, "My lord died in March of this year, and it took us more than three months to get from the Northland to the city of Morent, because the road was not very smooth, and we encountered robberies, slave traders, territorial conflicts, etc., and took a long detour. It took more than a month to find the young master in Moldant City. Before leaving, my grandfather instructed me that if the young master wanted to go back to inherit the territory, he must arrive before March next year. If we don't go back by then, the family will have to choose one of the children born to the lord and the maid as the heir to the family. ”

Shi Fatzi nodded: "That's fine, the matter is not urgent, you will follow Locke first, and observe for yourself which choice is really good for Locke." At the same time, it also made Locke think about what direction he should choose to take in the future. Let's do it first. ”