In the upper camp, a dozen alchemical crows rose and fell in a clearing, feasting on their food, chopped fresh meat and plump wheat grains.

The guards in the camp were not surprised by this, and now everyone knew that this large bird, called the Dust Falcon, was a domesticated pet of the Lord Lord, and it was very useful.

In Victor's Collar, the guards can now use the Dust Falcon simply. When the escort team goes out on patrol, they will take a Dust Falcon with them, and if they need to send a message to the camp, they just point in the direction of the Dust Falcon and make a special gesture, and the Dust Falcon will fly back to the camp with the letterhead. After completing the mission, the Dust Falcon will fly back to the patrol, and it can remember directions and scents, which is much more flexible than the Red-eyed Crow, making it a favorite companion of the guards.

Victor scattered the golden grains of wheat on the ground, and the alchemy crows scrambled for it. Looking at these big, energetic birds, Victor couldn't help but smile.

Victor currently has 8 Alchemy Militia, 19 Alchemy Auxiliaries, 25 Alchemy Crows, and 5 Alchemy Mastiffs, and there are 3,350 Gold Soles left in the Alchemy Tower. In Victor's opinion, the alchemy crow is the most cost-effective alchemy unit. It was these alchemy crows that allowed his orders to be passed on to every escort team within tens of minutes, could maintain unimpeded communication with various villages, and helped him monitor the edges of his territory to prevent unknowable threats.

And the Alchemy Mastiff is the least cost-effective unit, and although they are powerful and intelligent, they have obvious limitations. The first is that their size is too conspicuous. Secondly, their main weapon is 8-10 cm long fangs, which can be used against small and medium-sized targets, but it is difficult to kill them with one blow against large targets. Canines generally eat their prey alive when they catch it, and that's why. The most important thing is that the alchemy mastiff is 800 gold soles each, and the lifespan is four years, with an average of 200 gold soles per year, which is the most expensive of all alchemy creatures. As a result, Victor was reluctant to produce more mastiffs.

Scattering the last handful of wheat, Victor clapped his hands and headed for his office. When he walked into the room, Lilia, Nelson, was marveling at the huge bear skin, which they had been looking at for half an hour.

Seeing Victor come in, Nelson excitedly asked, "My lord, it's unbelievable." How did they do that when a ferocious bear was shot so easily?"

When Victor called Nelson to identify the bearskin, Nelson couldn't believe his eyes, only a ferocious bear could have such a huge bear skin, and then he examined it carefully, and found that the bear skin was extremely tough, and the sword was difficult to hurt, and he could confirm that it was a fierce bear skin.

Ferocious animals are extremely difficult to hunt, they are extremely fast, and they have excellent endurance. Crucially, the ferocious animals are very sensitive and can avoid almost most of the traps. A ferocious bear like this, Nelson admits that he is no match for it, and that an ordinary crossbow can't even shoot through its thick skin. Now, the invincible monster has been shot, and even its skin has become a trophy.

Nelson knew that Victor had a secret force under his command, and it was these people who went on a patrol mission in the mountains, but they did not expect that they not only completed the mission, but also hunted a fierce giant bear.

Victor stroked the smooth and shiny thick bear skin, and said casually: "They are just lucky, this giant bear is mating with a female bear, and it happened to be bumped into." ”

Although Victor has something to hide, the nature is the same, anyway, he died for the she-bear.

"Nelson, I don't know much about the leather of ferocious animals. How much do you think this skin can sell for?" asked Victor with a smile.

Nelson reluctantly touched the bear skin and said, "My lord, leather is a relatively cheap commodity in the Kingdom of Dord, but a fierce bear skin like this in complete condition will sell for at least 10,000 gold soles, after all, the leather of a fierce animal is very rare. As for what price Gambis will sell, I don't know. ”

"So much money?"

Victor was taken aback by the price, 10,000 gold soles was a huge amount of money, with which at least 8 more alchemy militias could be produced.

"Don't sell it, this bear skin can make a set of leather armor for Victor. Lilia hurriedly objected.

Lilia's intimacy touched Victor a little, with his current physique, he can fully equip chain mail, but it will affect agility and speed to some extent, so Victor still chooses leather armor, and the ferocious bear skin is an excellent material for making top-grade leather armor. For Victor, though, money is the most important thing right now.

Victor shook his head and said, "The bear skins must be sold, because we are about to expand the Guard. ”

Nelson's eyes lit up and he grinned, "My lord, is this true?"

"Victor, no, now that there are not enough manpower in the territory, how can we expand the guard at this time?" Lilia said to Victor, ignoring Nelson's eyes.

Victor tapped lightly on the table, the expansion of the Guard had been his deliberate decision.

At present, the planning within the territory is on the right track, and it has also formed an alliance of interests with the York family. The Yorks' spies also withdrew. Victor also provided the York family with several advanced blueprints for this purpose. Fortunately, these blueprints are not sensitive technology, and leaks do not matter. Most importantly, Victor wants to keep the secrets of alchemical humans. If, allowed to continue to operate in the territory of the Yorkist spies, it is difficult to ensure that the alchemy humans of Mune will not be exposed under their noses.

Victor wrote a letter to Sylvia, fabricated the origin of these technologies, and shamelessly threw the pot on Sophia's head, just to disguise the existence of alchemical humans. Victor believes that Sylvia will not doubt the content of the letter, and that the content of the letter is the most reasonable explanation, and even if there is a loophole, Sylvia will complete it according to her own logic. No matter how smart a person is, he can't doubt what he doesn't know, and the alchemical creatures are things that the York family doesn't know.

Now that the nail has been removed, Victor can rest assured that he can boldly enrich his strength, and the first step is to recruit more people.

Victor pondered for a moment and said, "Remember, Master Edwin said that we can't control more people without enough strength. Therefore, if we want to recruit more people, we must first expand our armed forces, not to mention that our territory is very large, and we need more soldiers to control it. ”

The hereditary barony, with an area of about 5,000 square kilometers and a population of about 10,000, the baron's full-time guard generally does not exceed 300 people, as well as 1-3 knights, and about 10 trainee knights. The area of Victor's territory is 12,000 square kilometers, the population is more than 2,000, and there are 100 guards, including Nelson, who is comparable to a knight, 8 alchemy auxiliaries, and 5 alchemy mastiffs. Although Victor has no knights, Victor's high-end force is not slightly weaker than ordinary barons, and the silver heavy crossbow gives Victor the ability to fight with knights, and the heavy crossbow can easily shoot a violent bear, so shooting an ordinary knight is not a problem. The problem now is that Victor's territory is too large, and he is still preparing to mine refined iron ore and oil wood in the mountains far from the center of the territory, so more ordinary soldiers will be needed.

Nelson nodded repeatedly, convinced of the lord's decision. Linda had already complained to him more than once that the vigilantes were too understaffed and asked for his guards to be reinforced. Nelson had a headache, the guards needed to patrol too much, and they had to send someone to act as a coachman.

Lilia also nodded, "We do need to expand the number of soldiers, especially Sister Linda's security team. Recently, freedmen have been moving to our territory, and the freedmen garrison has taken in more than 70 people. It is estimated that there will be people coming later. ”

Victor was not surprised by the arrival of the freedmen, it was the season of warm land, the vegetation was luxuriant, and wild plants could be dug everywhere, and it was the time for the freedmen to move.

"Divide these new freedmen according to the method taught by Barol, ask them one by one, and try not to let the spies get in. In addition, these people should not be allowed to participate in the work of the village, but only to carry out the work of carrying and building roads. Victor commanded.

Lilia frowned and said, "Victor, if we don't let these people participate in the work of the village because of the problem of secret agents, then our manpower is still not enough. Even recruiting freedmen from Blackcastle would not eliminate the problem of spies. ”

"Who said we're going to recruit freedmen from Blackcastle?" Victor laughed. Seeing Lilia and Nelson looking at him with puzzled eyes, he said again, "Aren't there still more than 600 people in Pinghu Village?"

Victor, of course, knew that recruiting the Lords from Blackcastle would have to have a large number of spies, and probably not just York. But there are very few spies in Pinghu Village, even if there are them. Who would pay attention to a free private land? Even in the early days of Victor, the York family installed a few spies for special reasons.

"My lord, are you ready to attack Pinghu Village?" asked Nelson with a blazing eye.

Victor said coldly, "I'm going to summon Baier one more time, and if he still refuses to come to me, then I'll have to send him to the Lord of Light." ”

Victor had planned to reclaim Pinghu Village two years later, mainly because of the intervention of the Chebman family. Ten days ago, the old knight of the House of York had brazenly killed two Chebman agents and expelled one. This was a warning from the House of York to the Earl of Chebman. Victor decided to take advantage of the situation and take advantage of the time when Count Chebman was shocked to take Pinghu Village into his pocket.

Moreover, under the suppression of the alchemy mastiff, Pinghu Village can no longer provide purple cane to the Chebman family. Victor believes that if he starts with Pinghu Village now, it is estimated that the Chebman family will not have any reaction. Anyway, the mountain camp has already won the favor of the Chebman family.

"My lord, I'm going back and gathering my men and making a battle plan. Nelson said excitedly, he didn't believe that Bayer would answer the call, the guy had already turned down the lord's many summonses.

"Don't worry, there won't be any fierce resistance. Victor said confidently.

Victor plans to use the alchemy mastiff to lure Baier out, and then snipe him with a heavy crossbow of Thoryin, and the remaining diehards are not enough to deal with, and the Pinghu village that loses Baier will not fight against the lord's army at all.

Just as Victor was ambitiously preparing to implement his plan, he did not know that a terrible crisis was quietly approaching.

——————————————

"Madame, more than 1,300 people in all, led by the Holy Warrior Claude, marched towards Victor. ”

Shaks, the sheriff of Blackcastle, looked at Countess Sylvia with a sinking face.

"With so many people, how can they supply on the way?" Sylvia asked faintly, looking out the window.

Shax replied, "Claude has raised a large amount of grain from the Velpan family, as well as a dozen wagons. Rumors about Victor's division of work were also spread by Robbie, the steward of the Velpan family. ”

Sylvia turned to the Earl of York and Agent Achill and asked, "What do you think?"

"Shaks, you are such an idiot!" The Earl of York scolded angrily, "Why didn't you find out about the conspiracy of the Velpan family?"

Shax was speechless, this time was the season for the free people to move, and most of the free people who were mobile were lazy and couldn't find work to do, and dozens or hundreds of people would not pay attention to the flow of Xia Xax. But organizing the migration of thousands of people at once, Xia X immediately investigated clearly, but there were holy warriors from the church inside, and he didn't dare to take more measures. Instead, it was reported to the Countess as soon as possible.

"Well, it's not Shaks' fault, we all ignore that Victor's division of work system has a fatal flaw, it's too easy to promote vassals! All free people will go crazy about it, it's not a conspiracy, it's a conspiracy, and there's no solution. Sylvia shook her head and sighed.

Sylvia was a little annoyed, the vassal system had gone through thousands of years before it gradually formed a model of three generations of promotions. Due to the passage of time, many lords, including Sylvia, have forgotten why they were promoted for three generations, and only habitually adhere to this tradition. As a result, she did not find the fatal flaw of the division of work system, but this flaw was caught by someone with a heart.

"Ma'am, Baron Victor is in big trouble! there will be more freedmen pouring into his territory, and with the people of the church inside, many countermeasures will not be used!" said Achill, "The baron's rule will collapse!"

"What then, will those lowly outcasts destroy our purple cane?!" exclaimed the Earl of York, and his heart was cut at the thought of the destruction of countless precious purple canes.

Sylvia shook her head and said, "Now is not the time to feel sorry for Purple Cane! Baron Verpan wouldn't be any better than a straw bale! It must be Queen Catherine who can see through the weakness of the division of work system, and the question now is, what will she do next?"

Sylvia continued: "I'm afraid that the freedmen in other realms will also be moved, and more and more freedmen will move to Victor's territory, and people will starve to death, there will be turmoil, and things will be big. Victor will be held accountable as a liege. Then, the question of his lack of a castle will be brought up for discussion. Victor will then be taken back to the Senate for questioning. In this way, the queen took control of Victor again. ”

"What a powerful and vicious queen!" Sylvia sneered and commented.

The Earl of York gasped and asked, "What then?"

At the beginning, Sylvia plotted against Verpan in order to exacerbate the rift between Victor and the Princes, but she did not expect Catherine's counterattack to be so unsolvable. If Victor is given more time, he may be able to survive this crisis, but now Victor does not have this ability at all.

"Inform the Blood Fox that he will lead people to blend in with the freedmen, and that they must not be allowed to storm Victor's camp, and that Victor's safety must be ensured. ”

"And then?" asked the Earl of York, frustrated his hands, confident that Sylvia would be able to solve the problem.

"And then we'll watch!"

"Ahh

Sylvia chuckled, "Otherwise, what can we do? Do we force the freedmen to come back? or kill them all? The Church won't allow us to do that!"

Catherine's calculations, Sylvia didn't care. Catherine captures Victor's Achilles' heel, and Sylvia also captures Catherine's weakness. As long as Sylvia insisted on keeping Victor in Blackcastle, Catherine would be helpless.

"I'm not as good as you when I play the rules, but I only talk to you about strength!"

Sylvia looked out the window, where the gardener tended to her rose. These roses were transplanted from the crystal flower room, some of them have withered, and some of them are thriving.

Dark red surged in Sylvia's deep blue eyes, and the dead roses, under the gaze of the countess, gradually turned into ashes and scattered with the wind.

"Victor, let me see what you are capable of, and if you can't solve it, I'll collect you in the flower room. ”

Sylvia's eyes are charming and her face is pink.