The dean does not seem to be in a hurry to deal with the affairs of the hospital.

Every monk was cautiously asking for news, trying to get some out of the mouths of others, but none of them had met the abbot these days, and the abbot had only summoned some farmers, remnant craftsmen, and even Kujits, but ignored the brothers of the monastery. In desperation, the brothers visited the Pietro brothers, who had greeted Lord Innocent, hoping to find out something: What seminary did the dean graduate from? Is it the one in Svadia, or the one in Rhodok, or the one in Burke? Which bishop did he study with? What writings have you written? Have you ever served any adult?

The fat monk Pietro did not know how to answer this, so he could only perfunctorily say to his brothers: "My brother, every word I said to you a few days ago is all that the Count told me, and I have nothing to hide. But I can tell you some of the rumors I've heard: the Abbot seems to have been born in a convent called Oak Village. ”

"Convent?" A monk asked curiously, "Is the dean an an abandoned baby?" ”

Some of the monks began to talk to each other, reminiscing about the famous abandoned babies born in the scriptures, but none of them seemed to be named Innocent, and no one knew why the abbot chose this name, and there must have been a story to sing and cry about.

"That's true. Raised by a group of women', that's what the Count told me anyway. The fat monk said, "When I was in Xiaodonghu City, I was indeed a little surprised to hear the news. So I went to visit Lord Innocent. Ask him how he got into the church because of the family's gift of land. Or is it because of adoption. He told me that his father had no land. Even if there were, it would not be given to the church, so I judged that Lord Innocent should be an outcast, and the Earl had not lied to me. ”

"Poor God!"

"Poor God!"

The monks did not know who began to sigh for the miserable childhood of Lord Innocent, so everyone began to express their sympathy, and no one wanted to be left behind, because they did not know which of them would defect to the dean in the future, and it would not be good to be exposed at that time.

"And what about the convent?" A tall monk asked, "I know about the convent." There are only two, one in Suno, and one in Burke Point. Because of the special situation, it is inconvenient to hire guards, and women themselves cannot protect themselves, so nuns are generally built in the middle of the city, close to the royal palace or noble mansions. The convent you mentioned is actually around a village, and I don't really know that there is such a place. ”

"At first, I thought it was apocryphal." The fat monk said. "Because many of the great nobles like to install their relatives as deans, there are many things that fake seniority. But I found out that Lord Innocent and Lord Kalinin were not related, he was only a courtier, and the Count had no need to bother with outsiders. So I started investigating this place called Oak Village. Later, I really found it. Under the rule of the Puppet King of West Vecchia, I mean the King of the West, near the Blue Water River, there was indeed a village called Oak Village. The convent we didn't know was in that place. ”

"It was still unexpected." The tall monk was unwilling. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you are not blind or deaf. You should know how many battles the puppet king has fought over the years, and where there are many wars. There is actually a convent? I was born in the military, and for a soldier who fights in the field all year round, there is no difference between a nun and a peasant girl, and the middle part of the legs is no different. ”

"Brother Lothar, are you questioning me?" The fat monk was a little unhappy with this aggressive brother, since Lothar came to the monastery, he had always been against the old abbot, and now that the new abbot had arrived, the fellow didn't seem to be ready to change his bad temper at all, "I'm just telling you what I've heard." ”

"If I was asked to greet this dean at that time, then now I will carefully tell you who this dean is and whether he is qualified or not. But you told me to stay and blackmail the poor peasants, to guard against the bandits who would not come to plunder at all, and now I just ask a few more questions, and you can't stand it? There were quite a few brothers standing behind Lothar, these people were faintly supporting him, and it had not been a day or two since the old dean had lost these people, and the fat monk sighed in his heart. Lothar continued, but his tone softened, "Brother Petro, I didn't question you, nor did I question your words, I just wondered about this dean. ”

People all remember the events of the other day, when the abbot took over the monastery in a pair of singles and a pair of tops.

At that time, the monks were staring at the newly arrived abbot near a high platform, and no one expected that the new adult would look like this.

At that time, Lothar suspected that this was another ascetic who had come to mix food and eat, or that he was just a deceitful warlock, so he stepped forward to ask a few words. Unexpectedly, the new Lord Innocent answered fluently, and said exactly what was going on with the arrangement of the monastery and the appointment of Little East Lake City. The man of the monastery was dumbfounded, so he had to bring the fellow a bench and let him sit in the courtyard until his retinue came. But the new abbot did not have such patience, and after sitting for a while, he got up and wandered about, round the room from room to room, and the monks came along the way, panicking, and did not dare to let this man stop, nor let him continue to wander, and hurried around.

Innocent** wore a pair of semi-wet pants and hands behind his back, constantly commenting on the monastery.

Passing by a huge mural, Innocent commented, "Isn't there anyone taking care of these murals?" Why are these angels' ** brushed off? ”

When he noticed that some of the monks' rooms were covered with crumpled rolls of cloth, and the air was full of fishy stench, Lord Innocent smiled strangely, then withdrew, and gently criticized, "How can the monks' rooms be so dirty? Don't you have anyone to clean up? Send them more strips of cloth, they look like they have a bad cold. ”

When Innocent noticed some rat droppings on the floor, and a few cracks in the floor. He squatted at the place of the breach and instructed the people around him, "Why is the ground not polished?" Broken floors are not a reason. Find someone to make it up. ”

Later, when Innocent heard laughter coming from a room, he pushed the door open and entered. "Why is there still no one here who is out of bed? What time is it now? ”

There were three beds in the room, each covered with a large blanket made of canvas with the words Hail Mary written in the same font. There was a body writhing underneath the blankets, and the dean asked the people around him to lift the blankets, but they all blushed and said that they didn't want to disturb his brother's rest.

So the dean took matters into his own hands.

After the first Hail Mary blanket was lifted, a handsome monk hugged two ** women. The monk made a playful gesture of squeezing his eyes at the dean, "Hey, who is this guy?" The guy asked his brothers with a smile.

When I was told that this person could be the new dean. The handsome monk thought it was a funny joke, and put his arms around the two women and giggled for a long time, then the smile slowly stiffened on his face, "Wouldn't it?" ”

Innocent said, "Yes." Then he threw the blanket back and turned back to the people around him, "Write down the name of this person and tell me later." Don't try to fool me, this guy's thing is the shortest I've ever seen in my life, like a pea. It's still a small pea, the kind that has been dried in the sun. He's just like a eunuch, and I'll remember him for a long time. ”

Then, the dean rubbed his hands. The second Hail Mary was opened.

The monks all craned their necks behind the abant's left and right shoulders, squinting in anticipation.

Below is a fat monk as fat as a boar, with a mountain of flesh on his body. With each movement, the flesh on his body began to shake together. Like a trembling pudding. A beprising little girl lay on the monk's belly, seemingly only eleven or twelve years old. At this time, she turned back and smiled ghostly at Lord Innocent, Innocent had never seen such a heartbreaking smile, and he knew how much this little girl had been through behind this smile. Without saying a word, he picked up the little girl, had her washed and locked up, and covered the boar monk with a blanket.

Finally, Innocent turned back to the monks and asked, "You say, what's in the last one?" ”

The monks looked at each other, and Lothar said in disgust, "We have been humiliated enough, what more can we have?" Dirty stories of men and women. ”

Under the leadership of the old abbot, such a ** has become a semi-public matter in the monastery. Lothar didn't believe that the new dean could make any changes, and felt that the new dean was making things difficult for herself.

"Really?"

Innocent unfurled the last piece of Hail Mary.

Below are the two monks.

Everyone in the room gasped, and although they had heard of this sin of Sodom, it was the first time that everyone had watched it together. People drew crosses on their chests, lamenting how their brothers could be so far wrong, and that two people were so far wrong, it was just a mistake on top of a mistake.

Innocent threw the blanket back, turned around and walked out of the room.

The monks' faces were gloomy, they didn't expect that the ugliness that had been covered for a long time would be exposed by this guy as soon as he came, and they really didn't know how to deal with him in the future.

Innocent took his own time and toured the kitchen, the priest's hut, the majolica storage room, the library, and a small arsenal, which Innocent looked at with curiosity, from iron armor, masks, shields, short swords, crossbows, and longbows.

"How many people can be armed with this?"

"There is no problem in arming thirty men," said Lothar, "more than enough to deal with small bandits." ”

"Well, it's more than enough to deal with bandits." Innocent repeated a sentence, intentionally or unintentionally, and then withdrew.

When Innocent was about to take a look at the vault, the monks tacitly stopped him, and until it was finally confirmed that this guy was the dean, the vault would never see the light of day, otherwise it would be unclear if there was anything wrong with the gold coins in the future.

Innocent no longer forced the monks to open the door, walked around the cross platform of the central church, and walked out through the other door, the crowd behind him began to relax at this time, and sighed, but felt that the pressure on his body did not subside much.

Later that day. The panting Dean team finally arrived exhausted, and conveyed to the brothers the arrangements for Little East Lake City.

The dinner was as sumptuous as the Petro monk had introduced at the beginning. During dinner, Lord Innocent noticed that the men who had been caught by him in the afternoon were also present. The guys didn't seem to care about their ugliness, but were smiling and playing with the brothers around them, or whispering about the dean's funny visit today.

Lord Innocent briefly introduced his name, and then motioned for the brothers to take turns to introduce themselves--- originally the Pietro monk was about to stand up and introduce himself to the dean, but was pressed down by Innocent.

From the left-hand hand, the Lothar brothers were the first to introduce themselves, who, after being captured in Riverland, swore to renounce military life and enter the convent service. Thus the Burkes were pardoned. After Lothar, the brothers introduced themselves, and the attitude of these men was quite modest, and Innocent noticed that none of them were born into nobles, and the family did not give land to the monastery. When it was the turn of some of the brothers, their attitudes began to become a little unreasonable, and in the afternoon the handsome monk who held the two girls in his arms laughed and said that he had nothing to introduce, while the boar monk buried his head in a pile of boiled mushrooms. There was no intention of speaking, but the pair of monk lovers smiled and said that they were from the Creon family in Little East Lake City, one was the young master, and the other was his entourage.

After listening to the introduction, Innocent listened to the introduction. Begin to ask questions about each person's situation. Surprisingly, Innocent seemed to memorize everyone's name and birth at once, and he asked the children of the nobility about the succession of their families. Ask the military-born where they were stationed, and ask the farmer-born monks if they knew how to read and if they could preach alone. This makes one wonder if he knew about other people's situations in the first place.

"Everybody," Innocent said, after taking a brief look at the situation of everyone present. "Who of you knows how much land there is in the monastery, how many dependent farmers and nobles there are?" ”

"There are more than three hundred families of farmers under our direct control, my lord," replied Lothar, "and they live in six or seven villages and estates. Before the plague, the population was close to 1,200 people, but now there are probably only 900 people, and many artisans have fled to the cities. ”

"Oh," said Innocent, "I already know about it, and the Petro brothers told me on the way here. ”

"Do you want to arrest them and come back?" Lothar asked expectantly, "I think it's necessary." When Lothar saw Innocent's curious expression, Lothar added, "I have detailed information about these people, and they are all on the roster. Many of the peasants had interacted with them and knew where they were hiding in the city. If you want, I can take someone and get them all back. ”

"What are you going to use to capture them?" Innocent asked curiously.

"Rope and flail, plus an ox cart," said Lothar, "I can take a few brothers with me, more than enough, and deal with a few craftsmen who get in the way."

"You're a big soldier." Innocent commented.

The brothers around him let out a low chuckle, which made Lothar feel as if she had been stung by a scorpion, and she couldn't help but lean forward towards Innocent, "Your Excellency, you should call me a soldier." ”

The Valan soldiers on either side of Innocent stretched their right hands to their waists on the left, held down their swords, and looked at Lothar warily, "Brother, you're getting too close. ”

The distant monks, clutching crumbled bread and pouring wine, looked with interest to see what was going to happen, but to their disappointment, Lothar immediately gave in.

"Yes, sir." Lothar sat up straight, "Am there something wrong with me?" ”

"It's right to bring them back," Innocent said, "but the people who come back with ropes and shackles, they have a chance to run again, and go further." Will you go all over the world looking for them? It's impossible. ”

"How are you going to catch it?"

"With higher commissions, warm beds, and cheap land," Innocent said, "these people will be squeezed everywhere like a gale." ”

It turned out to be a cliché, and the monks evaluated the new dean's intentions in their hearts, and then the attentive people began to think about how much benefit they would get from these new actions. Isn't it possible to share a little bit yourself.

"I'm afraid your intentions are a little ill-conceived," Lothar didn't directly retort. Instead, there was a pause to make Innocent think he was being cautious about it. "You just asked me a question from the noble, and I haven't had time to answer it yet. There were sixteen knights and two barons around the monastery, one of whom had been killed in battle, whose land had been confiscated by the city of Little East Lake, and the other who had sworn allegiance to the city of Little East Lake. Their land is intertwined with our dogs' teeth, and they have many estates, wineries, mills, fish ponds, and pastures. Taxes in all of these places have already been fixed, and you can't change the price of employment unless you coordinate all of them. One more point. I don't think you'll be able to attract the peasants if you raise your salary, the soldiers of the noble knights are good at managing the peasants, and the peasants can't just come and work for you just because your place is good. Those craftsmen who can be hired freely, even if you raise the commission, will not be able to absorb a few people, but it will ruin your reputation. ”

Some of the brothers here didn't understand Lothar's words at all, and they didn't want to understand them too much. Anyway, it's just some mess about the land, as long as the farmer can hand over the grain on time, who cares how the grain comes from, as for the craftsmen. If you run, you run, and of course it's best if you can catch it, but if you can't catch it. There's nothing to do, there's always someone to do the work. The monks always had someone to feed them on.

But Innocent was quite concerned about Lothar's words, "These knights and the baron. How many farmers do you control? ”

Innocent's question hides a lot of exciting and frightening hints, "My lord? ”

"How much do you know about them?"

Lothar thought for a moment, "I once served one of the knights, and I followed him to Berke to buy shields and hire craftsmen who knew how to make wine. The knight was often ridiculed for not being able to make wine or produce cloth on his land--- and his family's land was one of the worst of all the knights around. He controlled more than ninety peasant households, two villages, and a large wooded area along the riverbank. In addition, he had a dozen families of hunters, pig breeders, beekeepers and pigeon keepers in the forest, and in general he had about a hundred families of farmers and craftsmen, more than four or five hundred. And all the surrounding nobles controlled the population, estimated at 20,000 people, or even more, scattered throughout the plains to the west of Xiaodonghu City. ”

"Brother Pietro told me that many knights in the plague have no heirs and have given away their land to the monastery, right?" Innocent asked.

"It is true," said Lothar, "but perhaps the Pietro brothers are not quite accurate." The land bequeathed by the nobles is not all their land, and after the death of a member of this branch of their family, there will always be relatives to inherit the title, and when they can't find a suitable relative, the title will also be inherited by their lord, so most of their land cannot reach the name of the monastery. But even so, we were given four parcels of land, including a small village destroyed by the plague, two burned mill fields, and a useless pine forest," said Lothar, dumbfounded, "and it was worthless anyway, and the lords always liked to give them such land." ”

"What do they want?"

"It's usually just a matter of taking in a few family members," said Lothar, "like the 'lovers' over there," Lothar said with disdain, "and the two Creon birds have been thrown to us, and they've been messing around since the first day, and they've been messing around with it since the first day. These noble lords don't know what to think, they are frightened by the plague, and they want to ask God for mercy, so they use the poorest land to glorify the church and use the worst guys to serve God, which is really incomprehensible! ”

The children of several aristocratic families in the distance glared at this side dissatisfiedly, "Lord Abbot, you should ask Brother Lothar, what have you contributed to the monastery after living for nothing until now?" ”

Lothar didn't expect that her words in a low voice would still be heard, and she couldn't help but be a little annoyed, and turned around and ridiculed the noble children over there.

The young master of the Creon family was already angry, and he stood up, "You are just a soldier, or have you been captured, what is there to be proud of?" The land that my uncle gave to the monastery was clean and rich because my father was stationed at the mountain pass and was wounded. I don't know why you're slandering me so much, you're like that as soon as I come in, I've never offended you. If you want a duel, just come to me. It didn't occur to me that being a soldier is mainly about hurting others with your mouth. ”

Lothar waited for him to finish before he retorted, "At least I won't make others happy with my mouth." ”

There was another round of laughter.

"Alright," Innocent said after everyone had had laughed enough, knocking on the table and telling everyone, "you don't have to argue. My brother," Innocent asked the young man of House Creon, "are you going to spend a few years in the convent and then go home to inherit the title?" ”

The young man said presumptuously, "What are you kidding, I have four brothers, each of whom is in good health, how can it be my turn." ”

"That's good, if you want to stay here for a long time, then you have to think more about your brothers and listen to their thoughts, instead of refuting them directly."

"Yes, sir." The young man said, "If I was treated fairly, of course I would follow your advice." ”

Innocent said to Lothar again, "Brother Lothar, please don't be embarrassed by that young man, this is not a barracks, you don't need to let others fear you. ”

Rosa nodded nonchalantly, "To be honest, I don't want to spend a day with this kind of, please send me out to capture the craftsman, I'm best suited for this." ”

"You have a better job." Innocent did not mean to favor Lothar at all, he did not speak for the noble-born brother just now, and at this time he did not seem to be in a hurry to please the commoner-born brother, he waved his hand, and several farmers who helped the cook brought two large buckets, and used a wooden spoon to take turns distributing food to the brothers present, filling the bowl with fish soup, and pouring boiled shrimp puree on the bread slices.

Innocent generously said: "My brother, these are fresh fish and boiled shrimp, I specially bought them for everyone, let go of your appetite, come and taste them!" (To be continued.) )