"My lord, seventeen more serfs have fled."

The trembling butler of Berke stood in front of his Baron of Vicchia, trying to speak in a calm tone about the unfortunate thing. He hoped that the baron would only be angry with these serfs and not blame him.

The stone house was blackened with smoke and filled with the smell of burnt wool, and a weary dog snooze with his head resting on the side of the baron's leather boots. In the front hall, the floor was covered with a carpet of Salander, stained with wine and oil, and the baron had heard that soldiers and women had come to the carpet in his absence. The baron's eyes were red, and he sat on a cold, high-backed wooden chair, staring blankly at the empty stone navederick. There was a pot on the table, it was a pot of pork stewed yesterday or the day before yesterday, with sun-dried mushrooms and radishes in it, and after eating, it made people fart vigorously. The baron himself had a saucer with pepper, and these peppers were very strange things, which had to be ground out with a small stone mill, and one of the baron's favorite maids was good at helping him grind the pepper, and his hands were so dexterous that he was not only good at grinding pepper, but also always praised the baron when he did anything else, so that he often lost himself.

But, damn it!

There was a resentment in the baron's heart, and this anger swept away the tender memories of the maid's hand: seventeen more peasants had run!

Could it be the after-effects of the plague? Let people get crazy and run away?

The after-effects, the word left behind by this eccentric Dr. Chanda, were the fashionable words that the Baron had learned in his youth. When the baron was studying in the capital of Burke. A group of pioneer doctors told him that it was like when the tide went out. It will leave kelp on the beach, like crabs, and some will be cured after the disease. It will also leave some symptoms on people: lung disease makes people pale, hemorrhoids make people love to stand, some fever makes people scar on their faces--- pioneer doctor said to the young baron young master that this is called sequelae. With this fresh vocabulary, the baron wrote six poems which he used to deceive the daughter of a knight in the country who had never seen the world, and six months later the baron had a dark-skinned illegitimate child, who was very cute, and who looked like the Salander merchant who had stayed here a year earlier.

At that time, the baron was still very immature. He was still very young, and in great happiness he admitted that this was his own child. People say that good people will always be rewarded, and that's right. When the plague came, the knight's family died cleanly, one after another, and the knight's territory changed three masters a day at the fastest time, and the knighthood was also ranked all the way to the head of the bastard along the succession order--- and when there were not enough males in the family, the illegitimate child was legalized. That he should be given the right of inheritance, so that the family would not be destroyed--- to add to the joy that God had at last favored the baron, and not the illegitimate son: the bastard was also taken away by the plague. The housekeeper of the knight's family carefully checked the inheritance relationship of the illegitimate son, and found that although the bastard was foolish, he did not leave any offspring. So the knight's domain was inherited by the baron. The steward wrote a letter to the baron, informing the new lord of the realm about the situation.

After the baron received the letter. After thinking about it for a while, I remembered the knight's daughter who had played with me many years ago, and I couldn't help but feel disgusted. But it didn't hurt to think about it, so the baron paid for the burial of 'his own' child, and inherited several villages and a tower built on a hill, which contained the armor and swords left by the knights, as well as a dozen spears. The baron wrote to the steward, telling him to sell everything of value, and then gather the rest of the village and move to his own land. The baron owned large tracts of land on both sides of the river, with manors and mills, as well as many small workshops. Before the plague, the baron was very careful to run his territory, six merchants settled in his territory, and every seven days, there would be a makeshift market, at that time, the baron stood on top of his small stone castle, and almost imagined what this place would look like in the future: at that time, there was a need for a magistrate, and he had to be assigned assistants, and he also needed to send people to clean the ground, prohibit the inhabitants from excreting in the open, and at the same time recruit a governor from the city to be responsible for clearing taxes, And bargain with cunning merchants.

Soon after, the baron received a letter from the steward of his subjects, whom he had never seen before, saying that the peasants and craftsmen had gone to the city because of the high wages there, and the new city law required that if they lived in the city for a year, they could become official residents of the city. As for the property left by the knight, the butler wrote that the only thing left by the knight was a pair of armor that was more valuable, and he had been looking for a buyer, but just a few days ago, the armor was unfortunately stolen by a thief, and the housekeeper reminded the baron that the thief was likely to be the local daredevil, Freeman, and finally, the butler wished the baron all the best, and then said that he himself was ready to go to Xiaodonghu City, considering that after the knight's death, all the knight's subordinates could choose to continue to serve the new lord, or change the court, The butler said that after a painful inner choice, he was still ready to change the court, and then the butler wished the Baron to do something in the new realm, and to defend the side for the honor of the king and the council.

This was the last time the baron had information about his new territory, and since then, the new territory has only been under his own jurisdiction on the map, and the baron has no idea what it is. The butler's treachery kept the baron depressed for days on end, and at the same time he had to work in his own court without a competent man to take care of the territory.

Damn little East Lake City, damn Romanov!

After this damn family became the owner of Xiaodonghu City, they hurriedly damaged their vassals! They colluded with foreign merchants to squeeze the lord's savings to death, and no one could see that the baron had seen the world, and he knew what the Romanovs were doing. He wrote a letter to Count Kalinin, saying that he knew what Kalinin was doing, saying that he had no objection to such a thing, and only hoped that Kalinin would take him with him to squeeze the property of other lords. As a sign of sincerity, he is willing to divorce his wife and become engaged to Miss Yuri's Miss Michella. The baron felt that the letter was full of sincerity. If sincerity is fire, then the letter will burn on its own. If sincerity is water, then the letter will be wet.

The baron sent his letter. And let the housekeeper start arranging the divorce and engagement.

At the thought of having to pay his wife's family a sum of money, the baron's heart began to rain with melancholy, and even his speech became crepe. During his study tour, the baron figured out a habit of relieving his worries: drawing two lines on the paper, one horizontal and one vertical, and then scribbling on them, and then writing a bunch of inexplicable symbols next to it. This kind of incomprehensibility made the baron feel very noble, and the servants helped him to sort out the manuscripts with awe, and those incomprehensible eyes gave the baron great psychological satisfaction. So. Thinking about how to spend his wife, the baron wrote in one night more than ten pages of manuscripts, made by the Salanders, which were said to have been made by condensing the juice of leaves, and were very white, and could absorb the black juice of the quill tip. After a few nights of thinking, the baron finally decided to use a small village and two bags of gold coins, but before he could move all the people of the village, gold coins. The baron knew a merchant who knew the art of cutting coins--- and trimmed the edges around the coins with large scissors and a file, which could squeeze out a great deal of weight, because gold coins were traded not by weight but by quantity. Therefore, the shearing can ensure that the amount of gold coins to be compensated remains the same, but at the same time it can squeeze out some gold--- so that losses can be avoided. I don't know if the coin cutter survived the plague, and if he didn't die, let him deal with the coins.

Finally dispelled a troublesome thing. Another thing came to mind. What about Miss Misella's bride price? The baron's psyche began to rain again, and he began to draw something on paper that no one could understand. Kalinin was a hillbilly. It's true, the place of West Vecchiana is so far from Burke. Surely there isn't even a decent city, so maybe ten bags of gold are enough? No, the baron denied his initial assertion, although Kalinin was a hillbilly, but he finally occupied the small Donghu City, the guilds and nobles of the small Donghu City were very ruthless, Kalinin couldn't take advantage of it--- otherwise he wouldn't have made such a thing as buying and selling. But these guys from Little East Lake will still give Kalinin basic courtesy, and they may bribe Kalinin with some money. Thinking that Kalinin's vision is a little higher than when he was in the countryside in the past, it seems that he has to add two more bags of gold coins. I don't know if this Michalla pleases Kalinin, if he likes it, it will be troublesome, really, once such a thing as marriage is mixed with family affection, it will be troublesome, and it can't even be solved with gold coins, the baron thought hard, what should I do? Kalinin, a wild wolf, will definitely make a foolish gesture, and then extort his money for the damn reason that family affection is hard to give! It's so hateful, the baron can't sleep with hatred, when he thinks of the family association between men now, he actually has to think about what these little girls think in their hearts, and he feels that the world has really changed, in the glorious ancient times, do women dare to say a word? Would a lord extort another lord's clean and decent property for a girl?

Troubles are troubles, Kalinin still has to please.

The baron weighed it for a long time, and finally decided to give the bride price of three villages, a mill in disrepair, a vineyard that could not bear grapes, and eleven bags of gold. However, the clever baron came up with a brilliant idea: Miss Mycera was not yet of the age to be married, and could postpone her marriage for a few years. These bride prices should be agreed, and after the official marriage, they will be given to Kalinin, and after the Messiah gives birth to a child, the heir to these things will be this child, not Yuri. En, this is foolproof, the baron discussed it with his worried butler, and felt that this was really the best way, so he formalized the coping strategy, and only waited for Kalinin's reply to the door.

While waiting, the baron quickly found the family pastor and divorced his wife. The woman who did not dare to disobey her husband cried dry eyes, saying that both father and brother in her family had died of the plague, and that only one uncle had inherited the family property, and that uncle had treated her very badly and would surely torment her. The woman begged her husband not to abandon her, and this rebellious request caused the baron to leave two palm prints on her cheeks. One left and one right, one on each side. The woman finally stopped crying, looked at the baron with dead despair, and begged the baron to give the land to the monastery, and she was ready to dedicate the rest of her life to God.

"You stupid woman!" The baron scolded. "The nearest nunnery is in Burke, how can I send you there!"

"Send me to Lord Innocent." The woman said, "I have heard that Lord Innocent is willing to take care of a female dependant who has been abandoned by the family. and will later establish a convent. ”

"This is not the abandonment of the family, this is the business of the family." The baron majestically taught the ignorant women, although the baron knew that most of the women could not understand.

"What's the difference?" The woman retracted her long skirt, "Baron Fourier, please do your last duty." ”

The baron tilted his head, looked at the woman, and rattled the bell to call the butler Burke, "According to the mistress," I mean do as she wants. ”

Burke's butler sent the hostess away. A few days later he returned to see the baron and said that everything had been done, that the mistress had been settled, and that the abbot of the monastery had sent him a letter back.

The baron didn't even look at it, and threw the letter aside, "It's the former mistress, not the mistress." Remember, your future hostess is Miss Mycella. Who is this stupid Innocent? ”

"A dean." Burke said.

"Nonsense," the baron scolded his servant. "Of course I know he's a dean, what kind of person is he?"

"It's funny," the Burke butler struggled to find a suitable Wikibian word to describe his dean, "very interesting." ”

The baron muttered, 'Stupid Burke'.

He was in a good mood. Won't be affected by the stupidity of Burke's butler. Because in the morning he received a letter from Little Donghu City, and the paint on the envelope was the double-headed eagle of the Romanov family, and the matter was more than half! I wonder when Kalinin is going to get engaged?

The baron opened the envelope with a smile.

Then. Within a few hundred meters of the baron's castle, all the peasants and soldiers heard a startled voice. "Reject me?!"

The lords looked inexplicably in the direction of the castle and did not know what was happening. Let's hope it's not a disaster, and there are enough bad things right now.

For many days, the baron spent the next days in a state of vertigo, and he did not know why Kalinin, a hillbilly, would reject him: his sincerity was many, and he was divorced, and he promised gold coins and villages, and he was only in his thirties, and he was strong, and Mycella would be very happy, so why did Kalinin refuse him? The baron couldn't figure it out at all, couldn't figure it out. These days the baron broke more than a dozen clay pots, broke two long swords, killed a sheep with his bare hands, and wrote many manuscripts. But no matter what he did, the baron found it difficult to dispel his anger.

One troublesome thing after another, the abbot of the abbey sent for his promised gift, and the baron sent the fellow away. Damn it, the new wife didn't get it, the old one ran away, and I had to lose a sum of money! Hell, Innocent, can't you wait! And the people run away every day, and some time ago, a few craftsmen actually came over to ask for higher wages, but they just whipped them and broke the face of one of the guys, and those guys fled, which is really annoying. Now the serfs are even more ridiculous, one of them runs away without paying attention, and the pig herders, sheep herders, pigeon herders, carpenters, all run away, even the free peasants have also run away, and it is said that someone has given them more land. These people must have gone to Little East Lake City!

"Seventeen more runs today!" The baron's anger is like the thunder of midsummer. "How long is Kalinin going to suck my blood?!"

"Well, my lord," said Burke's butler, "people used to run to Little East Lake, yes. But lately, they've been to a different place. ”

"Oh? Where? Dadong Lake City? Or Ivangelodes? These guys aren't going to go to the riverlands! ”

"Dadonghu City? No, they can't feed themselves; Ivan Gorod? No, they were afraid that the outsiders were all spies of the King of the West; Riverlands? No, these people don't have that many ships. ”

"And where did they go?"

"Monastery."

"The Abbey?" The atmosphere in the stone room suddenly tensed, and the baron roared and stood up, "What dean, dare to do such a thing?" ”

The napping dog woke up and found that his owner was angry, so he wagged his tail and looked at him flatteringly.

"Lord Innocent," said Burke, "is the former mistress's protector. ”

The baron looked at him as if he didn't believe what his ears were hearing, "How dare he?" How did he lure those damned peasants over? ”

"He opened the granary, fixed the wages, and restored the manor," said the butler of Burke, "and he treated his people fairly, expelled the merchants who inflated the price of grain, and made a fool of himself by tying the rod to the pillar." He did these things, and then all the peasants ran over. ”

"What is this?" The baron said, "'Five loaves and two fishes'? ”

"If you think so, sir." The Burke glanced at the location of the door and prepared to jump out and escape.

The baron buried his head in the hall and roared quietly, his knuckles clicking.

"Prepare the horses! Prepare the rope! Prepare the hounds! The baron suddenly shouted, like a child anxious to prove himself in a fight, "Gather the farmer!" Gather the soldiers! Gather the knights! I'm going to let this Innocent know that Baron Fourier is not a soft bone! (To be continued.) )