The Gould family is a typical businessman. Even if individual family members are upgraded to lords, the change in thinking cannot be completed immediately.
How should a businessman govern an area?
Now, due to management needs, Henry Nassau had to give up the substantive direct management of his hometown of Nassau Village. Legally, he distributed his hometown to his youngest daughter, Sophia Nassau, and his two sons had no objection to this matter.
The small hilly river plain in the village of Nassau is now in the fierce fighting area of the Frankish Civil War, and its economy is far inferior to that of the wealthy Netherlands Maritime Area.
Sophia is just a "country girl" who is well protected and like a frog in a well. Although she has a noble status, she is indeed just nobler than those real country girls in terms of status.
Henry essentially transferred the governance rights to the Gould family of Ross, first the Blue Fox and then the Black Fox. The two temporarily served as stewards, so they could smoothly connect with each other.
As for how the nobles of the Gould family govern Nassau Village, this is something Henry is too lazy to think about.
Even in Henry's view, when he brought a group of people to immigrate to the Netherlands, he left the terrible whirlpool of the kingdom's civil war and stayed in a remote place on the coast, with the military protection promised by the Russians, and a worry-free life.
He had no grand ambitions, at least that was true for him and his son. It was fine to live a step-by-step life as a vassal noble.
Obviously, the black fox is very ambitious, while the blue fox has already made some major changes to Nassau Village before his brother arrived.
Half of the villagers left, and the population of all three settlements in the Barony of Nassau dropped sharply to the point where they could only count just over a thousand people including babies.
On the contrary, Blue Fox has nearly 500 men under his command this time. When they get off the boat, they become merchants, and when they get off the boat, they become heavy infantry. They are all strong men. With such a presence, it is not an exaggeration to say that the structure of Nassau Village is like a military camp.
Henry, who had many of his men assisting the immigrants, temporarily left. For this reason, Blue Fox, who stayed in Nassau Village, lost most of its ships.
Of course he still has 200 warriors!
With just this amount of troops, can they go to the territory of the Middle Kingdom across the river to rob? The scale of the war in the north has been very large in recent years, and two hundred soldiers are nothing to a normal battle. However, the real situation inside the European continent is that two hundred highly armed soldiers
The soldiers are already able to act arrogantly.
Adhering to past experience, Lan Hu chose to engage in conservative activities. He is still a businessman at heart. When it comes to how to obtain wealth, the first thing that comes to mind is to buy low and sell high for materials, supplemented by the use of bodyguards to ensure the safety of transportation.
Unlike absolute feudal lords, their method of acquiring wealth is almost exclusively focused on taxing farmers within their territories.
It is natural to ask for taxes from farmers, and it is already advanced behavior to collect business tax, port tax, and tolls from businessmen.
It would be too forward-thinking if the lord personally acted as a merchant and unified the foreign trade of materials in the area under his control.
The nobles are just high-status, and they are all brave and rough. Letting them do business is not as interesting as fighting and hunting.
Of course, there is the most critical point. According to the priest's interpretation of the scriptures, businessmen get something for nothing by not doing production and acting as second-rate dealers. Businessmen are morally spurned by people who claim to be noble. In order to avoid this situation, the nobles at least will not personally
When doing business, the most you can do is arrange your own stewards and trustworthy people to do things. But more nobles don't care about this at all, and hunting and fighting are still fun.
Conversion to the faith of the Frankish world was nothing more than a ruse.
Blue Fox himself understands Latin. He can read the scriptures directly without having to listen to the priests' nonsense. Only God knows whether these priests add their own personal ideas when explaining. At least Blue Fox can understand it himself.
Blue Fox was in Nassau Village, so he didn't bother to go to the monastery in the village. Even if it was a small mass on Sunday, he would only stay there for a token time and then open the closed door and leave.
Every time this happened, Father Conrad was almost furious, but what was the use?
This Norman whose Christian name was Joseph was truly wild, and even if he converted, he really worshiped Saint Andrew. The waving flag said it all.
Indeed, Ross's flag is essentially an "abstract interlaced oar", which Blue Fox interprets as the "Saint Andrew's Cross". In addition, he can sing opposite Father Conrad in Latin, so that the people's thoughts in Nassau Village remain.
There was a violent turmoil in the world, and the so-called "Who should we listen to?"
Who should you listen to? Whoever can bring benefits to everyone should listen to him more. People will never have trouble with themselves on the issue of eating.
In principle, you still have to pay the tithe, and it is double the tithe! One part is given to the priest of the village, and the other part is given to the nobles.
Taxes must be collected during the autumn harvest, which is still very early.
Sophia is the de jure ruler of the barony. She is indeed just an ordinary girl who knows nothing about being a ruler. The governance rights were all given to Blue Fox, and after Henry left, he really did whatever he wanted.
Blue Fox really couldn't stand the poor infrastructure environment in Nassau Village. He wanted to transform the settlement to provide a better garrison environment for his brother and the corresponding army, and even provide a stable rear base for the army. It stands to reason that
It was natural for farmers to serve the lord, and he also wanted to recruit all local farmers, including boys and women who could do farm work.
There is nothing wrong with little boys doing farm work, and even women must be mobilized. This is too shocking for Nassau Village.
Father Conrad called on the women in the village not to listen to those calls and not to blaspheme.
Originally, these women supported the priest on this issue, but Blue Fox directly used the army.
Blue Fox is very particular. He claims that all his actions are supported by Sophia Nassau. In fact, everyone knows what is going on.
Those village women who did not want to be seen in public were forcibly pulled out of their homes and given some tools to force them to work. Older women were also forcibly organized and asked to wash clothes by the river and set up pottery urns and iron pots to cook for the workers.
.
"I am forcing you to do this! You have not violated your beliefs. If you punish people first, you must punish me first. You must do what I ask. Those who disobey will be imprisoned, and those who cooperate will be rewarded."
Blue Fox embodies his cold side, and the people in the village have no choice but to obey his arrangements.
Of course, those who obey are not at a loss!
In the Swedish world, especially the Onkras tribe in Lake Mälaren, the ancestral home of the blue fox, the locals are mostly honest farmers, and they do not have a strong business atmosphere like the Mälaren tribe. Due to the limitations of the times and environment, the Swedish world
The number of slaves captured is not large, and most of the so-called slaves are debt slaves (serfs). However, there are still many young laborers who need to survive. They will serve as mercenaries for wealthy businessmen and leaders, work as coolies for craftsman families, etc., and make money by selling their physical abilities.
These young men are rebellious, brave and fierce, so they are hired as mercenaries and are perfect servants. In exchange, the host family must pay money.
You contribute money and I contribute effort. Such an employment relationship is natural in Sweden and the Danish world. Even the Russians, who immigrated en masse and controlled the eastern Slavic world, still pursue this trick and even play tricks. The so-called state-owned factories in various industries such as
Mushrooms appear one after another after the autumn rain.
Blue Fox gives cash rewards to all villagers who participate in labor. The commission is half the price in the northern world. Even so, it is already a huge reward for these villagers who are extremely short of cash.
This old northern man with a fat face speaks Latin. Even if it is blasphemy, he will bear the divine punishment. Moreover, this man really gave money, and the brand-new iron tools he got can be used while working for them.
own housework.
The poor villagers got advantages and gradually became willing to do things for the Russians.
In Blue Fox's plan, living in Nassau Village is just a stopgap measure. What he really wants to do is to organize an army to capture the city of Koblenz on the other side of the Inn River, and then move Ross's shop there. This move has great implications
Risky, he wanted to demand more stability. After careful consideration, he pragmatically decided to transform Nassau Village to ensure that there was still a way out if he failed to capture Koblenz.
He brought a lot of silver coins with him, which was the start-up capital for the construction of Ross's store, and it was also the first intervention of external capital in the history of Nassau Village.
Blue Fox first built a walled military camp. He did it very carefully and even paved the ground with gravel inside the wall to make it harder to replace the soft mud.
Pine trees were deeply embedded in the mud of the river bed of the Lan River. A number of brand-new trestles were built in the riverside area, and some wooden boards were laid on the shore. Even a simple wooden human lever crane was erected, which immediately began to carry the stone.
In the settlement of the third barony, a small number of fishermen in Llandstein tried their best to catch fish, the Baden-Ems quarry tried their best to transport large rocks or shoveled gravel upstream, and the village of Nassau became a large construction site.
Even if Blue Fox brought advanced technology and bought local labor with a large amount of real silver coins, the embarrassing thing is that the number of labor here is still seriously insufficient, and heavy manual labor is in urgent need of a large amount of wheat and salt. The village of Nassau also needs a lot of wheat and salt.
It is not a wealthy place. Although the future is promising, it is really poor now! Moreover, when Henry left with the able-bodied villagers, he also took away a lot of valuables, so that what he left to his little daughter was a poor mess.
This is a troublesome matter that can be solved with money.
Although Father Conrad has some objections to the Russian Blue Fox who exposed his true nature, life will go on as usual, and Nassau Village is indeed facing some difficulties now.
On an ordinary day, Blue Fox, wearing casual clothes, went to the monastery.
After receiving the letter, Conrad thought that this guy suddenly had a conscience and wanted to confess, so he hurriedly sat in the confessional and waited through the wooden fence and the wooden window for the blue fox to feel heartbroken.
Where did Blue Fox come to confess? He shouted several times in the monastery, and was then invited to the confessional by the little priest on standby.
"Oh, here you are," he said in Latin.
"My child, sit down." The wooden wall has a small window and is equipped with a wooden fence. The bald Conrad is sitting behind the wall wearing a "little melon skin hat".
Just when Conrad felt that this man was finally going to confess and repent of the blasphemous things he had done during this period, unexpectedly the other party did not say "I was wrong", but asked directly and abruptly in this sacred place: "
I find that we are running out of food. What should we do? Is there a good place to get food nearby?"
Such a question immediately choked Conrad. After an awkward silence for a while, Conrad stood up directly behind the wall and said with a straight face: "Forget it! If you want to talk about this, let's change it."
Talk locally.”
It is fair to say that Conrad made some mistakes. He was also a man of temper. In the priesthood, he was forced to suppress his own heart. Do you want to talk about war and trade in sacred places? This is the most serious blasphemy.
Of course, it is a reality that there is not enough food to eat, and even the monastery cannot survive the summer famine alone.
Conrad appeared in a moment, glanced at Blue Fox and asked him to go outside and have a good chat.
Even if you eat black bread to survive, you must first have rye. Recently, Blue Fox has mobilized the entire village's labor force to do heavy physical labor. Of course, it has given considerable rewards to attract the villagers to work actively. The Russians have built a building by the river.
A wooden fort, pier, and even improved roads in the village are said to be the next step to transform the villagers' housing.
Many actions are firstly beneficial to the Russian people's life here, and secondly, they have indeed improved people's lives. At the cost, the village's inventory of supplies is being consumed at an unprecedented rate.
The food brought by Blue Fox himself was not enough to eat, and the inventory in Nassau Village was not enough. Under such circumstances, Blue Fox still had a lot of money in hand, and people could not survive by chewing silver coins.
He just wanted to know whether there were other noble territories near Conrad and whether he could buy food.
The angry Conrad was in a bad mood under the scorching sun. He curled his lips and muttered: "You can go to Coblenz on the other side of the river and rob their warehouses and seize food. Anyway, that's what you came for.
Go attack Lothair's territory, Ludwig won't say anything anyway. You will never listen to the attitude of our priests, what else can I do for you?"
Blue Fox didn't want to be angry with a helpless middle-aged man, so he asked: "Now is not the time to attack Coblenz. I just want to know where to buy food recently. The one who came upriver is Count Ingau.
Territory? I have fought with them, but I don’t know if their territory can buy the food we urgently need.” He also added solemnly: “Purchase wheat with silver coins very peacefully.”
"If you really have a peaceful attitude, there will be no problem." Conrad's attitude softened.
"Very good. Let's cooperate! I will provide the people and you will provide the guide. If it is better to take the water route, we can buy food to alleviate the current troubles."
"Yes, but I have conditions."
"condition?"
"No matter how much grain you want to buy, you must provide one thousand pounds of wheat for my monastery."
"So many?" Lan Hu was surprised. Then he thought about it and found it even more strange: "Aren't you unwilling to cooperate with a businessman like me?"
"Now and then, if our survival is threatened, it is not against faith to do such a thing. There is not much food in the monastery, and we have to ensure that we can continue to live before we get the tithe from the autumn harvest. There are only ten of us.
, a thousand pounds of wheat will last well for three months.”
"That's fine. If you provide a guide, it's best to take my people to the nearest place to buy food."
The blue fox soon learned a place name - Lorchhausen on the Rhine River.
Lorchhausen is the western frontier of the Count of Leingau. Unlike the village of Nassau, which is a barony, this place is directly managed by the Robert family of Leingau.
Since Ludwig successfully returned to Mainz, the imprisoned Robert regained all his power. A series of disasters made Robert have a deep grudge against Ludwig, but he still did not want to give up his territory, even if his strength
It has been greatly weakened.
However, Robert's current situation is extremely embarrassing. The core area of the earl is in Wiesbaden and Mainz, but it is here that Ludwig's Bavarian army continues to control, and the financial power is also controlled by the king. The earl is simply
With only one title, it was difficult for his family to fulfill its position as a great lord. A great nobleman who was ignored by the king lived like a joke. In addition, he was severely traumatized mentally. He evacuated from Yingao and joined the new king. He was already in the
Figured it out.
Robert, who was released, moved the count's residence to the Taunus Mountains north of Wiesbaden and settled in a village at the foot of the mountain. The so-called founding of the town of Taunusstein. Others were released, and their ambitions were gone.
, he criticized the defeated Ludwig in the most vicious terms behind his back, but on the surface it was a complete showdown. He was a great nobleman, and being imprisoned was already the maximum punishment. If he was killed, it would definitely cause many nobles to express their hatred for Ludwig.
Massive rebellion in Greece.
Ludwig, who knew the stakes well, knew that this guy was rude to him, so what could he do? Just let him go freely.
Robert's family temporarily lived a life like salted fish, far from being confused, at least they no longer interfered with political affairs. He even thought that once Lothair defeated Ludwig in the civil war, he would immediately be loyal to Lothair
you.
What he can still control now are some villages in remote areas and continue to gain the allegiance of local knights. He cannot collect taxes from individual knights. Fortunately, because his strength has dropped to the extreme, he does not need to save money by maintaining a cavalry team of hundreds of people.
Starting from a huge amount, by directly controlling the villages and collecting taxes, it was quite easy to live a wealthy life.
Among them, remote Lorchhausen is such a village.
Blue Fox and Conrad reached a cooperation. A long boat towed five small local fishing boats, and a team of nearly thirty people headed for Lorchhausen, not far from Nassau, on the upper reaches of the Rhine River, and successfully arrived there.
Food was bought.
Lorchhausen, which is purely on the Rhine River, cannot provide much food, but the local area provides some wine. The fleet continues to rush along the river to the upper reaches of the village with real money and silver, because it is going under the banner of Nassau Abbey.
The purchase of food naturally received the cooperation of the monasteries in the villages here. After all, the monasteries have always maintained contact with each other. They knew the news about the changes in Nassau, and now they saw the priest leading a group of Normans who had converted to the faith to appear and trade.
You have to do it well and ask all kinds of questions.
This is not a business, it is just an adjustment to the supplies of each monastery!
The priests found excuses for themselves to make sure they were not blaspheming their faith, so they took out the grain and charged silver coins. What surprised the Russians who were ordered to do this was that the local grain price was much cheaper than in the northern world. After all, this was a richer grain-producing area.
Now. In fact, this is not the case. It is actually that the currency in circulation in the Frankish world was rarely used in remote areas, and many places lacked cash, resulting in the currency value of the current currency in circulation being very high. The Russians came with hard currency, and the villagers who sold grain looked at them with disdain.
After all, food is their only surplus property. In the past, there was almost no chance of converting it into more stable silver coins, but now that they have the opportunity, they cannot give up.
So, when the fleet came back, the load was huge, the long boats were piled full, and the small boats towing them were also loaded with enough.
The dilemma of food shortage for a period of time was solved. At that time, as part of the remuneration, these food began to enter the stomachs of the village workers, and Master Lanhu was really willing to give up.
Who can refuse a good thing like building a house and paving the way for Joseph Blue Fox, who can speak Latin, so that he can have enough to eat every day?
With this move, Blue Fox gained huge fans and all the people in Russia became good people.
After the farmers had eaten enough, the little girl Sophia Nassau began to eat delicacies. She began to slowly look like the "Gould family woman" that Blue Fox was familiar with, and her withered cheeks slowly bulged up. After all,
This little girl is my younger sibling, so it is natural for her to gain weight.
This material purchase was paid for with good Frankish silver coins, which were also mixed with some Eastern Roman silver coins of poor quality. This was a thief behavior by the Russians, but the currency values of the two were exactly the same.
The news quickly reached the ears of Robert, who was retiring in the Taunus area. When he learned that this was what the Russians called it, he was shocked at first and felt the absurdity of the world. After calming down, he really could no longer lie down leisurely.
"Damn it, how did these guys get under my nose? Is this a conspiracy between them and Ludwig? I'll find a chance to meet the Russians..." he thought.
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Chapter 1093 Blue Fox has a way to conquer Nassau. Read it for free.