Lothar sat cross-legged on the bed and wiped his hand with a white linen cloth and half a sword.

The armed sword that Count Werner had given him was dead.

The half-sword in his hand was the trophy obtained after killing Abelardo.

Abelardo is dead, though the ransom has been lost.

However, according to the rules, his suit of armor and war horses also belonged to him.

His Arabian horse was no worse than his own Nisaan horse.

Even if you include the depreciation cost, you can sell it for a high price of nearly 100 gold coins.

Prajna suddenly asked, "As a champion knight, what reward is Count Leopold going to give you?" ”

Lothar smiled: "Leopold originally wanted me to be his vassal, Baron Linshan of Vienna, and he also drew me a cake for the future Earl. ”

"But I refused. So in the end, it was exchanged for a financial grant and a promise that when we got a foothold in the Holy Land, they would send us supplies. ”

"The promise is broad, it could be to provide us with weapons, shields, armor and arrows, or it could be grain seeds, blacksmiths and craftsmen."

"There is no specific amount, but how much I can get at that time depends on my performance, and whether it is worth the investment of Count Leopold."

"It's normal."

Prajna nodded, not commenting on it.

"Get ready for bed."

The lights were turned off, and Prajna lay flat on a thin blanket on the ground.

Sleep as you normally would.

But this time, perhaps due to the increased intimacy, the atmosphere between the two is not as alienated as usual.

In the darkness, Lothar stared at the perfect side of the moonlight, and did not fall asleep for a long time, until the other person's eyelashes trembled slightly, and he hurriedly closed his eyes as if he was about to open them.

...

Early the next morning, Lothar visited Count Leopold again, and politely declined the luncheon, requesting his resignation.

From him, Lothar obtained a heavy bag of gold florins, worth a hundred gold florins issued by the city-state of Genoa in recent years, far superior to that of Souledus.

Each of the gold florin coins weighed 3.5 grams, which was 1 gram lighter than the newly minted gold Solid coins of the Eastern Empire.

The gold coin of Sulledus is just a general term, it can refer to the gold coin of Solid or the gold coin of Nomisma, which is a gold coin issued by the Eastern Empire anyway.

By regulation, all Suledus gold coins are 4.5 grams.

It's just that the Suledes issued at different times are also in mixed condition.

The new gold coin of Solid issued by Empress Lagaia of the Eastern Empire is pure gold with full gold content, which is similar to the gold florin coin issued by Genoa.

From this, it can be seen that the empress has the intention of saving the already infamous monetary system of the Eastern Empire, rather than only caring about her own pleasure.

Otherwise, if it continues as before, the markets of the entire Eastern Empire will be filled with the currencies of Genoa, Venice and other commercial city-states.

During this period, the ratio of gold to silver was 12 to 1, that is, one gold coin of full color could be exchanged for twelve silver coins of equal weight.

However, since silver coins are often only more than 1 gram, it stands to reason that one gold florin can be exchanged for about 40 silver dinars.

Of course, in fact it is often not possible to redeem it in this way.

Because of the widespread use of silver tableware, the fineness of most silver coins is worse than that of gold coins, such as a king in Gaul, who once minted a black coin with a tenth of the silver content.

The Eastern Empire also had emperors who issued silver-plated coins with less than one-twentieth silver content, and even bronze coins with no circulating value were still used in some isolated areas.

In this era, due to the fragmentation and the feudal lords who could mint money privately, the currency system was too chaotic.

Generally speaking, however, a pig was worth about 1.5 gold florins during this period.

One gold florin coin can buy fifty pieces of good quality bread without wheat bran and grit.

A high-quality war horse, such as the Nisaan War Horse of Losa, is about 60 gold florins, which is 6 times more than the steppe war horse ridden by the Magyars.

And a top-notch, royal horse, about 500 florin gold coins.

As for the average pack horse, it is worth five gold florins.

The annual rent of the hotel in the city is 6 gold florins.

The cost of a castle is about 2,000 florins.

A set of fine chain mail worn by an elite sergeant or junior knight is worth about 30 gold florins; If it's a custom knight's full body armor, you'll need 50 florins.

A four-wheeled carriage for the royal family costs about 240 florins.

Of course, this is only an approximation, and the specific price will fluctuate with supply and demand. In later generations, there will still be plagues, closed cities and other factors, which will cause prices to skyrocket, let alone the Middle Ages.

Perhaps after a drought, the price of bread skyrocketed hundreds of times under the coaxing of Jewish merchants.

When the Jewish merchants had earned enough money, the shrewd local lords would often find an excuse to put them to death and confiscate all their property.

This will not only calm the boiling resentment, but also indirectly take out every copper from the fingers of the people for their own enjoyment.

So all the possessions of Lothar now consisted of a hundred gold florins, eighty gold suledes, nearly five hundred silver dinars, two silver wine cups given to him by Otto, two steppe horses, a Nisaan horse, an Arabian horse, and two pack horses.

As well as a surplus set of fine chain mail and barrel helmets.

A significant portion of the silver coins were ransom payments for Hans defeating his opponents.

That's about enough money to arm ten sergeants in leather armor, armed with iron swords and spears, and hire a small mercenary group of between thirty and fifty men to serve them.

"Sure enough, fighting a war is burning money, and it is not so easy to make a name for yourself in Jerusalem."

"The battlefield is not comparable to the arena, and the role of individual bravery can never be compared to that of a well-trained army... At least I'm not as good as Hans. ”

Lothar counted her small coffers and sighed.

If she is a melee and defensive minion, she can protect herself on the battlefield, but it is a little difficult to expect her to sweep through invincibility.

When he returned to the inn, Ryan had already settled the room bill, packed all his bags, and waited outside with his horse.

"My lord, this is your mount, the food and fodder for the mount are ready, when are we leaving?"

Ryan bowed humbly, his face full of awe.

Moder approached the horse and bent down, ready to act as Lothar's pedal so that he could mount.

Ever since Lothar defeated Abelardo, the werewolf knight, yesterday, he and Moder had looked at themselves very differently than before.

It's like a god.

Hans, on the other hand, remained the same as usual, unchanged.

In his opinion, it was a matter of course for Lothar to kill the werewolf, even the famous gatekeeper of hell served the lord, and a mere werewolf was nothing at all.

Lothar's face stopped Moder's behavior: "Stand up, Moder!" ”

"If I need a slave, I will buy it with money, but I need a brave warrior now, not a lowly slave, and never behave so lowly in front of me."

"Ryan, so do you."

Under the somewhat stunned expressions of the two, Lothar turned on his horse and snorted coldly: "Let's go immediately!" ”

In fact, a loyal servant can often exert good power on the battlefield, such as the Mamluk cavalry of the Ayyubid Empire.

But Lothar could not accept this kind of abuse at all.

He is still a long way from fully integrating into this world, but Lothar would rather never fit in.

...

In the afternoon, Lothar and his party stopped in front of a small town.

It was a town that had been burned by flames, devastated and ruined, and the pungent smell of smoke and burnt smell made the group frown.

The detached man fell on the side of the road, and dense black flies lay on the mouth, nose and wounds of the deceased, in and out.

As soon as the sound of horses' hooves approached, a black storm was immediately set off.

The predatory wild dogs were tearing at the corpses that had been somewhat decomposed by the summer heat in the rubble, and even when they saw people, there was no fear at all.

The experienced veteran Moder said in a deep voice: "These robbers have just left, and there are still embers in the ruins. ”

Lothar frowned and said, "Don't the border patrol team at Fort Baben care?" ”

"It should be managed, you look at a few corpses, there are strangulation marks on his body and neck when he wears armor, he should be a sergeant, but the armor has been stripped off."

"Can you find it?"

Lothar's tone was calm, such things happened every day, this was a microcosm of this era, not only robbers, but also nobles fighting with each other, often plundering villages.

All men and women were captured as serfs, and the old, weak, sick and disabled were all killed to reduce the burden.

The lives of untouchables have been worthless since ancient times.

Modell observed carefully for a while, nodded and said, "No problem, they are not in a hurry, and they also brought prisoners, baggage, livestock, and the speed is not fast." We follow these few ruts and we will definitely find them. ”

Lothar looked back and said to the crowd: "It has been said that in war, the nobles provide weapons and equipment, the rich provide money and food, and the poor provide their children; After the war, the aristocracy made great achievements, the rich reaped more money, and the poor had to search for the graves of their children. ”

"The best war is no match for the worst peace."

Lothar's gaze swept over the corpses, an old man still holding a farm tool that had been cut off by a sharp blade, and an arrow piercing wound to his neck.

But the arrow must have been recovered in the end.

The life of such a pariah is not even worth the burial of an arrow.

"But war will never go away."

"I can't change this era, but I swear that if I become a lord, I will do everything I can to protect the people of my territory, eliminate bandits, and keep the enemy out."

Ryan and Moder had surprised looks on their faces.

In this era, there are very few people who can say the word "people".

Serfs are also considered people?

"Moder leads the way, and we set out at once to capture this group of robbers and send them to hell in the name of the Father."

He must admit that a large part of the pursuit of robbers is to complete the milestones.

But a significant number of them still hope to save those who have been taken captive.

Kill those cruel robbers, blood for blood, tooth for tooth.