Baron Fourier and three retinues quietly climbed to the top of the hill from the northern slope.

The view here is excellent, and the aristocracy has had a tradition of climbing the mountains here since ancient times. Going through torture, sweating profusely to climb to the top of the mountain, and then looking out over the plains, it will be manly. The baron loved to come to this place when he was young, not only because of the aristocratic tradition, but also because it was very secluded and suitable for thinking. Even in the days when the people were prosperous, only shepherds frequented it, leaving a few trails behind, which have disappeared a lot today. Large flocks of sheep are gone, and the unattended flocks are adapting to life in the wilderness and becoming wild. When a few people rode by, flocks of ownerless sheep jumped everywhere on the rocks on both sides.

Relying on a clear memory, the baron walked through large woods and barren meadows, turned left and right along the bare ridge, and on the edge of a small lake the baron and his retinue rested for an hour, and changed into large cloaks. The baron looked critically at his entourage, although these fools could not do anything, but they had hunted with him, participated in competitive competitions, and still had some mastery of the art of marching, and with the four of them, the baron felt that even fifty farmers and monks could not stop him. But that was the worst-case scenario, and the Baron didn't think he would be discovered if he peeked so carefully.

After resting, the baron and his retinue tied their horses to a tree, and then turned around and climbed uphill. The baron never worried about losing his belongings, especially for things like horses, and every horse in the noble house had a special mark on it. Even if they are stolen, horse thieves only need to show up in town with their horses. will be immediately arrested by the sheriff.

After the last silent climb, several people finally reached the top of the hill.

Dreariness. This was the baron's first feeling after reaching the top.

The baron was sweating profusely. Sweat ran down his head, his eyebrows were wet, his whole face turned red, and several of his retinue were all about the same. However, unlike the baron's gloomy expression, these retinues showed more envy and greed when they looked at the land below: most of these retinues came from bankrupt knightly families or the descendants of noble domestic servants, and when they were good, they could also receive many rewards, and in the years of poverty. The family will be in a dilemma of not making ends meet, not only to bring their own horses, weapons, and armor to respond to the call of the lord, but also to cultivate the land and run the manor. If it weren't for the nostalgia for privilege and honor in their hearts, these retinues would have fled long ago.

The retinue had heard of the abbot's plan and were eager to do so. The dean did not restore all the estates, on the contrary, he completely abandoned some vineyards and workshops in remote areas. Not only did he do it himself, but he also ordered some millers and haper owners in his precinct to do the same, in order to concentrate the remaining people on the large plot of land in front of him. To the average craftsman, this may not be a big deal. The big deal is to change the place to work, but this is different for soldiers and good craftsmen, who often promote good craftsmen and soldiers to manage their small estates and workshops. This is the opportunity, and an experienced soldier can easily get ahead.

These retinues who have been to the city know it. How oily and watery a thriving little estate and mill is for them. It was not too difficult to manage a dozen artisan farmers to reclaim wasteland and run the estate: in particular, the abbot could provide cheap fertilizer and seeds--- the abbot used the harvest of the next few years to negotiate with the ambitious merchants, and received a great deal of support from them, and many Nord merchants were reluctant to do so after the frustration of Little East Lake, and they were happy to finance a man who could restore peace and prosperity to the land.

A week earlier, word had spread of the abbot's folly: people had thought that he had gone to great lengths to repair the bridge, even his own men had thought so, but the fool had built a simple mooring--- with nothing but a wide stone bank and a boardwalk jutting into the center of the river. People ridiculed the abbot for being a fisherman, who had spent so many stones, so many farmers, so much food, that he had built a small mooring place for a long ship to dock.

Confused farmers and craftsmen were immediately ordered to level the ground and cut down forests along the way after repairing the odd structure. It was thought that the abbot was going mad again: he was building a road that would provide two horse-drawn wagons to the small settlement that had just started next to the monastery. The craftsmen and farmers of the dean were miserable, and if it were not for the abundance of food and the wages that did not lose to the small East Lake City, many farmers might have walked away: no farmer had experienced such continuous labor, people were not used to it, and the tradition of laziness and leisure was deeply ingrained in people's minds.

The Valan soldiers acted as overseers, fair and ruthless: they were paid well for their work, and on the contrary, they were beaten by the Valans.

The Kugit were arranged to go to logging and grazing horses. The abbot left only a few leaders with him, and the remainder, after mixing with the Vicchians, were given pastures and woodlands, and only had to pay regular payments to the monastery horses and logs, which were free to dispose of the land at will. When the Kujit expressed their distrust of the dean and did not believe in such a good thing, the dean immediately issued a land deed to the Kujit and the Vykians.

The brothers were very unhappy with the abbot's approach, feeling that he was "squandering the property of the Church of God without reason." The dean impeached such brothers, locked them up, or sent them to Xiaodonghu City. The abbot wrote to Kalinin that he was unable to discipline the priests. More than a dozen priests had been sent away, but it was nothing for these people, and when Abbot Innocent assigned his brothers to take care of the manor or recruit craftsmen, they were passive about the order, saying that they would stay in the church and pray instead of going out to do meaningless mundane things. Now, for those brothers who were expelled. It's just a matter of continuing to pray in a different place.

For a while, there were rumors. The monastery is running out of food. I don't know who got the news out, but this caused quite a stir among the craftsmen. Although every time the food was distributed on time and in sufficient amount, there was always a lot of doubt in people's hearts: people never saw a cartload of grain coming from outside the monastery, on the contrary, every time they saw a cart of food being taken from the monastery. There was a lot of talk after nightfall, and the Varan soldiers even caught a few locals who were about to sneak into the warehouse to see what was going on.

The news from inside the vineyard also deepened suspicions: the craftsmen in the vineyard were already working on the restoration of the wine cellar and a stone bungalow where the press was stored. The supply of stone was in abundance at first, and although it is not known where the abbot of the monastery got the cheap stones, the stones were good and sufficient, and the work of the craftsmen was not affected by the shortage of stones. But more than a week ago. The carts of stone were no longer visible, the stone was dwindling day by day, and the craftsmen who hammered the stones into the desired shape disappeared, which was speculated to be the cause of the depletion of monastic property.

The artisans in the vineyard confirmed the news, and the dean told them to rest for a week, and they were idle and worried: in the past, a week's rest for no reason was a precursor to dismissal. The men slipped around the settlement. Squandering what is in his hand continues, used to buy wine, to find women--- there are already some merchants from Little East Lake City here who peddle snacks such as grilled fish and drink alcohol, in addition. Prostitutes also began to appear around. The monks were very angry at this situation.

The taverns that appeared here made people have to admire the merchants' sense of smell, and once there were people somewhere, it would not be long before they were inhabited. These merchants would come from afar in their carts and build a makeshift market out of stakes and thick cloth. After selling out the goods that they can sell, they will leave like migratory birds. Of course. If this place can continue to prosper and even become a small town, these merchants will also start to consider buying real estate here and living here for a long time.

The tavern was enclosed with four befriended logs, one of which was cut in half, causing one corner of the tavern to collapse.

The logs were tricked by a winemaker who poured out a Kugit lumberjack with water-mixed mare's milk wine, and when the lumberjack woke up and found himself at a loss, because he had drunk only two logs at most, he came to the winemaker to settle the score. At that time, the wine merchant was directing a few drunken farmers to help him erect the pillars, ignoring the lumberjack. This disregard angered the Kugit man, who drew his logging axe and angrily slashed one of the pillars, and after a few dozen slashes, the man destroyed a quarter of the tavern's columns. The soldiers arrived in time to stun the Kujiit with sticks and drag him away, otherwise the loss of the tavern pillar might have climbed to a half.

Despite the odds, the tavern managed to open with great difficulty, and it was known as the Triumvirate Tavern. Although the layout of this tavern is terrible, so that half of the people inside have to hang their heads when drinking, otherwise they will be hit on the head with a thick cloth, but this is a tavern anyway. Everyone likes to come here after a long job to drink a little fake wine to relieve fatigue, although some of the wine tastes like sour grape juice, but it can give people a little comfort.

The tavern accelerated the spread of rumors.

On the first day, people heard from the craftsmen of the vineyard that the stone had been reduced to the point where it was impossible to continue working;

The next day, it was said that the abbey was left with not a single stone to spare, and that the abbot of the monastery was ready to dismiss the craftsmen of the vineyard;

On the third day they heard that all the food of the monastery had been taken to buy stones and wood, and now that there was no food, stone, or wood, all the people would lose their work;

On the fourth day it was heard that the abbot of the monastery had executed a brave Kugit, supposedly a lumberjack, who had been arrested for his insistence on checking whether there was grain in the storehouse, and many could testify that the soldiers of Valan had arrested the Kugit in the street;

On the fifth day, it was said that the abbot of the monastery had nothing left, and that no one would receive a grain or a coin for the next month.

On the sixth day, a Varan soldier got drunk and wounded a stonemason who was swearing Innocent for being ungrateful. Obviously said that he would hire him for at least half a year, but it turned out that it was only two months now. I want to dismiss him. The Varan soldier demanded an apology from the stonemason for slandering the Dean, but the stonemason refused. The Valan soldier immediately smashed half of the stonemason's teeth with his fist, and his entire face was covered in blood. That night, more than a hundred rumors spread around the settlement that the Varans were killing people in the streets.

Early on the morning of the seventh day, the people got up on time, finished breakfast, and then revolted.

Startled by the crowd that had gathered, the Valan soldiers immediately abandoned the area where they were scattered and used screws to communicate with each other. Retreated to the bank of the river. It was the newly renovated mooring, guarded by armed monks and Varan soldiers, and the monastery was the most heavily staffed.

The crowd gathered more and more, and soon more than 200 people with tools were rushing through the settlement. The crowd ransacked the Triumvirate Tavern repeatedly, draining everything they could drink inside, not even knowing which fool had drunk the lamp oil. Stimulated by the drinks, the crowd became more courageous and full of strength. Then there was a big fight over whether to go to the mooring point or to the monastery, wounding more than forty of them, and the rest decided to go to the docks first.

The Valan soldiers hurriedly erected their horses and formed a wall of shields with shields and spears. Vigilantly watched the drunken craftsmen and farmers who were hurrying around.

In retrospect, bloodshed was inevitable: the Valan soldiers never hesitated to use force when threatened; The farmers and craftsmen had never seen blood. So much so that it was too brave. Once the two sides come into contact, they will definitely clash. There is a good chance that the dean's hard work will be in vain.

At this time, it was Lothar who saved the situation.

When the crowd approaches. Lothar ordered the Valan soldiers to withdraw from their horses and spread out on both sides, revealing their anchorages.

The Varan soldiers were very resistant to Lothar's orders, although this Lothar was a soldier and could get along well with the Valans, but he was not a Valan after all, and he did not show the talent to convince them like the abbot. However, the abbot had ordered the Valan soldier to obey Lothar's orders if anything happened to him on the convent territory while he himself was away; If something happens outside the monastery, follow the arrangements of the Gothic superintendent.

The Varan soldiers began to carry out their orders the second time they were ordered to withdraw from their horses.

The soldier's show of weakness made the crowd wonder for a moment, but then they became more excited and swarmed towards the anchorage.

However, the moment they arrived at the mooring, they all stopped.

They looked up blankly, bewildered at a beautiful longship anchored at the mooring, and in the middle of the river, two more longboats were at anchor, waiting to dock. The longship approached the plank road, which was filled with white stones, which were separated by yellow straw, and filled the boat to the brim, and the side of the ship was pressed deep into the water; The other two were loaded with sacks of grain and cloth.

The peasants on the docks were carrying the stones, and when they saw their drunken settlement companions, they were even angrier than the Valans, "You fools, come and help!" ”

Although more than a dozen people insisted on fighting, most people's doubts and fighting spirit were immediately shattered, and the curious crowd spent half an hour observing the dock and the longboat, and then spent another two hours before scattering and returning to their workshops, estates, or forest farms.

The baron heard about it on the way, and the baron was more than happy to see it: he did not believe that there was no bloodshed that day, and now the fools must have hated the dean so much, and as soon as his soldiers appeared, the craftsmen would immediately support him and defect.

It had taken him two days to gather a team of thirty men and nine horses, which he had placed around a windmill mill that had been abandoned in the monastery. Now, the last thing he had to do was to survey the terrain so that his soldiers could break through to the monastery as quickly as possible, catch Innocent before the Valan soldiers could react, and then take him away.

The baron's plan was to extort at least twenty bags of gold from the abbot, of which no more than half were cut off the edges.

Dreariness.

Once again, the feeling welled up in the baron's mind.

Although there were people working in every corner of the corner, if you raised your eyes a little, you could see that the surrounding plain was lifeless, and so many villages and towns had been abandoned. There may be only half of the rest of the world, and the Baron misses the unrestrained women and the smell of scones in Burke, the stinking market of Little East Lake, and the dead friends and their wives.

There was a boat parked at that little mooring, hell, how could there be a boat here, and what was even more strange was that the craftsmen were actually building an avenue, and what was this doing? The baron was curious. The baron then discovered that the artisans, though scattered, were organized around a settlement, and that if they approached the main road from the southern grove and then burst out, they could break through the stunned defenders and the resisting artisans to the monastery.

The baron took one last look at the land below, sniffed, and led his attendants down the hilltop.

The baron planned to attack in the afternoon, and he constantly motivated his three men to prepare them for a battle to the death. Under the baron's infection, the four of them gradually became the same blood boiling, and they were all ready to do a big job.

The warriors were unsheathed with their swords unsheathed, and their morale was high.

At that time, the four fields were desolate, and the wind was blowing. The four warriors are determined to defend the dignity of the nobles, the laws of the world, and the glory that has inspired the nobles from ancient times to the present day with courage and sword! In the future, people will remember today, and people deserve to remember today! People will remember that there was once a brave Fourier and his three retinues in the world, and they fought side by side for that noble honor!

The four warriors were overwhelmed with emotion.

Then, they found that the horse had been stolen. (To be continued.) )