Surrounded by soldiers with guns, the nobles did not dare to raise any objections at all, and all of them were angry but dared not speak out.

"Margrave Aysen."

The grumpy noble took courage and said: "The new system that has been implemented by taking away the territory is undoubtedly on the opposite side of the entire noble family, don't you know?"

The privileges of the nobles come from the land they have inherited from generation to generation. Their interests are so important that they will never be handed over easily.

Owen's actions touched the fundamental interests of the nobles. Not only the nobles of Dongsheng Fortress, but also the nobles in other parts of the kingdom would definitely be afraid.

If things go wrong, Irving may incur joint resistance from nobles from all over the country.

The reason why the nobles present distrusted and resisted the implementation of the new system was more because of the unknown.

Even if there is compensation for taking away the land, they don't know what changes will be brought about after the implementation of the new system, and whether they can ensure the decent life that the nobles deserve in the future.

It is precisely for this reason that the nobles are so resistant to the new system.

Rather than an unpredictable future, they hope to maintain the operation of the old system, so that at least they and their descendants can live a superior life relying on the income from the territory.

"Of course I know." Owen smiled lightly.

"Then you still..."

The irritable noble looked in disbelief and wanted to say something, but was interrupted by Owen raising his hand.

"Let me ask you a question." Owen glanced at the nobles present, "How much is the annual fiscal revenue of your territory?"

As soon as these words came out, all the nobles looked at each other, wondering why Owen asked this.

"What are you?" Owen pointed at a nobleman casually.

"Uh... seven to eight hundred gold coins, I don't know the exact amount, but it's almost the same amount every year."

Then, Owen pointed to another noble and asked: "What about you?"

"I?!"

When he was suddenly called upon, the young noble became a little nervous and quickly replied: "About a hundred gold coins."

Afterwards, he randomly asked several nobles, and after a round of questioning, Owen had a rough idea of ​​their income status.

Due to the different territorial conditions, the financial income of each noble is also different.

The poorest baron had an annual income of less than thirty gold coins, while a handful of wealthy viscounts had an income of thousands of gold coins.

"Tsk, tsk."

After understanding the situation, Owen shook his head in disappointment and said contemptuously: "It's too little. Can the land in your hands only create this little value? What a waste."

This was a naked taunt, which made the nobles present feel a little embarrassed.

"Excluding the property I confiscated from Duke Eddie and the rebels, do you know how many gold coins the Border Guard Town's fiscal revenue had in the past year?" Owen looked at everyone again.

Seeing everyone's curious looks, he smiled, stretched out five fingers and said, "Fifty thousand."

Such a large amount of income can be attributed to the large-scale purchases by luxury business groups, as well as orders for cement steamships, renovation of large wooden ships, etc.

"Five...fifty thousand?!" Everyone was so shocked that their eyes almost popped out.

This number is too exaggerated. Dongsheng Fortress' annual fiscal revenue is only thirty or forty thousand, and the mere Border Guard Town actually exceeds Dongsheng Fortress.

Obviously a year ago, everyone heard that Border Guard Town was in decline, so why did it suddenly rise? And the speed was extremely alarming.

"With the development of Border Guard Town, the future fiscal revenue will only be higher than the figure of 50,000, and it is not impossible to increase it several times." Owen said lightly.

How many times more?! That would be one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, or even more! The nobles present no longer dared to imagine further.

"You are not deceiving us, are you?" the grumpy noble asked cautiously.

"I have no interest in lying to you. If you don't believe me, you can go to Bianzhu Town with me to find out."

As he spoke, Owen turned to look at Viscount Jarvis, who nodded and walked forward in a few steps.

"I have a living example here."

Raising his hand to signal to Viscount Jarvis, Owen introduced: "He is the nobleman under the new system, Viscount Jarvis. He handed over the land in exchange for shares and received this year's profits. The family property suddenly increased several times.

"

Considering that everyone still didn't know what shares were, Irving went out of his way to explain it.

"To be honest, I was shocked when I got the money. There were more than a thousand gold coins in total."

Viscount Jarvis continued: "After the territory was handed over, I stopped caring about it and concentrated on handling military affairs. In this way, I also made a lot of money."

Don't think that this thousand gold coins is the same as the wealthy viscount mentioned above. The two are completely different.

Viscount Jarvis did not take care of the territory's affairs, so he naturally had no corresponding expenditures. This money can almost be regarded as pure profit.

As for the Viscount mentioned earlier, this is his fiscal income for one year, without deducting expenses. Managing the territory requires a lot of capital expenditure, and the net profit is definitely not as much as that of Viscount Jarvis.

The nobles present naturally knew that they were quite coveted for such benefits.

"Did you hear that?"

To strike while the iron is hot, Irving continued to seduce everyone: "Instead of clinging to the territory in your hands, why not hand it over, and I will make the profit cake bigger. In this way, your share of the cake will be bigger than before.

Be big.”

After hearing this, many nobles began to make moves, especially those poor nobles whose territories were not good.

Anyway, the territory can't create much value in their hands. Why don't they just offer it to Owen and then collect the money? Isn't it delicious?

"Well... you just said that we can continue to manage our own territory, right?" A certain young noble asked carefully.

"That's right." Owen nodded, "I will set up a lower-level city hall in Dongsheng Fortress. If you want, you can work there. But I have to remind you that under the new system, those who perform poorly will be removed from their posts.

, replace it with a capable person."

There is no way to continue to appoint nobles. After all, most of them are literate, have some experience in managing the territory, and are familiar with the situation in their territory.

Before the education popularization work can achieve results, Owen needs these nobles to help manage Dongsheng Fortress and the surrounding areas.

At the same time, it is also a test to screen out capable nobles and entrust them with important tasks.

Next, Owen explained to the nobles present the changes in the new system. For example, Dongsheng Fortress will implement the same laws and policies as Border Guard Town, and the title can be retained, but it is only an honorary title, etc.

The nobles also asked Owen a few questions, focusing on the factory. After all, that was an important source of income after they handed over the land.

To this, Owen responded very patiently.

At first, the nobles were very resistant to the new system and were unwilling to hand over their territories. Now, one by one, they are taking the initiative to offer their territories to Europe. There have been great changes.

Well, when there are greater interests in front of you, who cares about the little land in your hands, right?

It seemed that there was no need to use strong tactics. Owen glanced at the soldiers beside him.

After the nobles handed over their land, some chose to exchange it for shares, while others chose to exchange it for money.

Hearing that Irving was willing to provide some help in building a factory, the nobleman who decided to exchange money immediately showed his eagerness to try, planning to open and operate the factory himself and earn greater profits from it.

Can you make money by doing this? It depends on their abilities. Irving will not care about them.
Chapter completed!