Lord: Marry the villain's daughter at the beginning?

This was the fourth time Jefferson had come to Gray Collar this year. Looking at the gray-white buildings, the clean streets and the busy pedestrians, Jefferson felt somewhat numb.

In fact, although Jefferson is also a viscount, the actual territory of Farson Town is much larger than the viscount's territory. However, compared with the gray-collar workers, Jefferson still feels a little inferior.

Because the territory given by Grand Duke Lars was very large, but most of it needed to be developed and reclaimed. Perhaps Grand Duke Lars did not expect that the reclamation of land by Gray-collar Workers would be so fast.

The extremely low taxes have led many merchants at the Champagne Fair to choose to settle down in Gray and White Collar or open branches.

Some shops even allow the use of gray-collar workers' "work points" as currency, because doing so can obtain subsidies specially issued by the lord.

These measures have made gray-collar workers no longer a useless place in the eyes of businessmen, and even many itinerant merchants will take a detour here.

Without realizing it, Gray Collar had taken a big chunk of the town of Fassen.

But Jefferson doesn't care much, because at least for now, Gray Collar and Farson Town still have a mutually beneficial relationship, and cooperation is a win-win model.

The previous few times Jefferson came to Gray Collar were for sugar trade matters, and the last time was to purchase Gray Collar's large water truck.

The keel waterwheel had been imitated when Jefferson first came to Gray and White Collar, but after imitating the large waterwheel, Jefferson found that the cost was even higher than the one sold by Gray and White Collar, so he simply gave up struggling.

This time, Jefferson not only came himself, but also brought along businessmen and some nobles who had close ties with the town of Fassen, because what Lind mentioned in the letter was a huge business with even greater profits than sugar. Thanks to Lind's long-standing good credit, Jefferson did not dare to neglect him.

"This way, please, Lord Viscount."

Lila was still wearing a maid outfit as usual, taking on the role of receiving guests and leading the Jefferson team towards Lind's lord's tent.

But no one, including Jefferson, dared to look down on the maid in front of them. Those dishonest businessmen even put their hands behind their backs to show their gentlemanly manners.

Because Jefferson had repeatedly warned before coming, this head maid can be said to be the de facto second-in-command of Gray Collar. To use an analogy, she is equivalent to the king's secretary. Although she is not often seen, the specific implementation of Gray Collar's policies is handled by Lila.

A group of soldiers marched past the delegation in neat steps.

This team of soldiers were all wearing armor made of woven metal rings connected to each other, that is, chain mail, and all the armor was standardized and almost exactly the same, giving the soldiers a solemn beauty when they were lined up, so much so that Jefferson took the initiative to slow down his pace and observe this team of soldiers.

"Ms. Lila, can I ask why all your gray-collared soldiers wear the same armor? Don't your soldiers need to bring their own armor?"

Jefferson's question may seem strange today, but it was actually very normal in the Middle Ages. From the knights to the serfs, those who followed the nobles to fight had to provide their own armor and weapons. It was heresy to distribute armor to their soldiers.

"These soldiers are professional soldiers, funded by the lord, so their equipment is provided by the lord."

Lila did not hide anything, but answered Jefferson directly.

If there was any army in the Middle Ages whose equipment was almost the same, it was only the professional soldiers who were fully dedicated to their jobs. They were usually the king's army or corps, and the top ones at that.

"Then why don't you provide plate armor? Or is this chain mail only worn during training, and then replaced with plate armor during combat?"

It's no wonder that Jefferson asked so many detailed questions. The territories upstream were training professional soldiers, so even if the relationship between the territories downstream was good, tensions were inevitable.

"The Lord said that plate armor is too heavy. Now the main task of the soldiers is to go into the mountains to suppress bandits. Wearing plate armor to climb mountains is somewhat inconvenient."

Lila answered very cleverly, and Jefferson nodded.

In fact, in addition to this reason, plate armor has a low cost-effectiveness, is difficult to replace when parts are damaged, and plate armored infantry is basically a lump of iron. Plate armor still needs a horse to exert its power.

However, as mentioned above, most of the soldiers recruited by the nobles are required to bring their own armor, so plate armor that focuses on personal defense and does not care about applicability is the mainstream in today's world.

“They are all enchanted weapons!”

A knowledgeable merchant in the team gasped. The armors worn by the soldiers in the territory were all enchanted. Although they were all the lowest-level enchantments, it was already very exaggerated to be able to equip all soldiers.

Jefferson was also stunned, and subconsciously asked: "Where did you get the money for so many enchantments?"

Although he heard that Gray Collar had made a lot of money by digging up a magic stone vein, Jefferson thought that this way of spending money was too wasteful. After all, they were all low-level enchantments with extremely low cost-effectiveness.

But Lila seemed to have an answer to every question, and said confidently: "You will know when you meet the Lord."

Jefferson swallowed his saliva, wondering how many surprises Brother Lind was going to give him, and what kind of business could support such a luxurious army.

Now Jefferson feels that his new wife is not attractive anymore, so he wants to meet his brother Lind as soon as possible.

These soldiers left quickly, as if they did not see Jefferson's team. After all, their task was to maintain the security of the territory in addition to training, and it was impossible for them to stay in one place all the time.

Then, Jefferson and the others who had looked away saw a large crowd of people gathered in the central square of Gray and White Collar.

"Ms. Lila, is there any event going on there?"

As a champagne aristocrat, Jefferson is very open-minded and has a very keen sense of smell. He can sense such a huge flow of people. If a store is opened in this square, it will definitely make a lot of money. But Jefferson's sense of smell is also very sharp in physics. In addition to the hidden business opportunities, Jefferson also smelled a hint of blood.

"Those were the bandits that the Lord sent people into the mountains to look for the barbarians and refugees and eliminated along the way."

Lila continued to explain very responsibly.

"Most of the bandits were thrown into the mines to dig, but a small number of leaders were extremely evil. The lord decided to read out the crimes of these people in front of all the people in the territory and then sentence them according to the laws of the territory."

While Lila was explaining, a clerk on the podium in the central square had already begun reading out the crimes of the bandits who had been brought up.

Jefferson was sweating profusely after hearing all the stories. The bandit's crime was nothing compared to those of his nobles. If this bandit fell into his hands, Jefferson would probably release him to show his kindness, and then secretly recruit these people as his black gloves.

But Brother Linde was actually ready to kill directly?

As the crimes were read out, the clerk directly announced the verdict - unforgivable crime, death penalty, to be executed immediately.

"Good! Good!"

"Kill him! My sister was defiled by him!"

"Don't let him go!"

The people in the audience were all filled with righteous indignation after hearing about the crimes committed by the bandits, especially those mountain people who were "kidnapped" by Linde to become white-collar workers. They were the ones most affected by the banditry.

As the butcher's knife fell, many people who had suffered from the attacks of these bandits burst into tears and knelt on the ground, shouting "Long live the gray-white collar, long live the lord."

This scene made Jefferson's scalp tingle. Jefferson felt that sooner or later he would have to kneel on the platform to be judged, and those surging people would drown him like a wave.

"move."

Jefferson urged.