The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

After resolving the dispute over the post station, Isa's journey continued. The nobles in the major cities of Anjou had already killed a number of them when the new land law was implemented. The remaining nobles also quickly realized that times had changed, and they all changed their course, no longer caring about the land in their families, but instead began to cultivate the next generation of talents, and became much quieter.

The higher the nobility, the more humble they have become, while the lower and middle nobility remain as arrogant as ever.

Perhaps because of the peaceful handover, those nobles who were not well-informed were still daydreaming about bullying their neighbors as before, believing that a change of emperor would not affect them.

Even in many areas of Anjou that were not significantly affected by the war, the rural nobles became even more arrogant, believing that the new emperor was nothing special.

However, the so-called peaceful handover was not peaceful at all. Linde only promised Alberto that he would no longer attack the royal family and people of Anjou, but those nobles were not considered commoners in Linde's eyes. Many nobles who opposed the new land law and the new noble title inheritance law were hanged by Linde. He sent troops quickly, as if it had been premeditated.

Linde controlled the situation well, preventing the regional noble rebellions from escalating further. This was mainly due to the disparity in strength between the two sides, which was also why the great nobles of Anjou remained silent. The emperor's sword still hung over their heads. The era of noble wars was over, and if they didn't change course and focus on cultivating the next generation, their family titles would be gone in two or three generations.

There is nothing more foolish than launching a rebellion against a founding emperor who has just driven out the dragons of Sauron and the demons.

You must know that His Majesty is still very young, and he will live much longer than those old nobles. He might actually be able to watch these old nobles perish because they can't keep up with the times.

However, due to the information gap, and the fact that rural nobles were not the main focus of attention, or rather, before railways and communication machines were laid to the towns and villages, the empire was temporarily unable to control these rural nobles, which made the rural nobles the most arrogant and domineering group.

These rural nobles, unlike the prominent high-ranking nobles, still felt that they were located on the frontier and that the emperor had no jurisdiction over them. So, while the high-ranking nobles kept quiet, these rural nobles were even more unruly than before.

If you were to ask these rural nobles what gives them the right to be so audacious, it would be the long-standing family integration and intricate network of interests that have woven a protective umbrella for them. Many rural nobles even talk at length about their importance, constantly hypnotizing themselves and other rural nobles into believing that even if a new emperor were to come, he would still have to rely on them to rule the border regions.

Of course, those who knew about the change of emperor were already considered to be among the more well-informed. The Randolph family's location had avoided the previous wars and suffered relatively little loss, so they didn't know much about the new empire. In fact, many within the family still believed that it was still the Anjou era.

The Randolph family was just one example among the many border noble families in Anjou. There were many other noble families with complex situations. These noble families were located in remote areas, without external pressure, abundant resources, or central control, and they lived lawlessly on their own lands.

Looking at the farmers toiling in the fields and the emaciated serfs, Isa couldn't help but shake her head and sigh, only glancing at the priests of the Church of War who accompanied her.

The priest understood immediately, as she had done this many times along the way. The priest immediately set off for the nearest church to ask the local nobles to emancipate the serfs and for the church to provide them with basic protection.

In an effort to bring more people to the factories, Anjou had followed Linde's example and liberated the serfs, but the results were not ideal. Only the area around the Anjou capital was liberated. For these rural areas, the serfs were still the private property of the local nobles. Even though the imperial order had been issued, these nobles simply ignored it.

Isa, who originally wanted to solve the problem of child labor, found that such scenes were too common in the countryside, so she traveled with many stops and starts, and even took a long detour. She has not yet reached Anjou's former capital, but instead has gone further and further to the outskirts.

Most of the villages around here are like this. To paraphrase a phrase from Lin De's previous life, most of these places are "unaware of the Han Dynasty, let alone the Wei and Jin Dynasties."

Most territories might only travel out once every few years by the lord's carriage to purchase supplies before returning. However, a few years is enough to change the world.

"Where is the next village?"

After replenishing their supplies, Isa asked the attendant beside her, "It's Hidden Mountain Territory, Your Majesty. I suggest we prepare first. Hidden Mountain Territory has no proper roads, and it's full of mountains, making it very difficult to travel."

When the servant unfolded the map, Isa realized that she was almost at the border of Anjou.

Although Hidden Mountain Territory is located on the southwestern border between Anjou and Cape, and theoretically belongs to Anjou, it has never been developed because it is surrounded by mountains and has few resources.

Incidentally, this place is very close to where Margaret asked Lind to build the railway. It is probably because the dragons were secretly exerting their influence that Anjou has always had poor control over this place, which also allowed this place to remain unscathed during the war that swept across almost the entire continent.

However, now that the dragons have gradually begun to emerge, there is no longer any need to hide this dragon's lair. Therefore, this ambiguous territory naturally needs to be clearly defined. Unfortunately, although Hidden Mountain Territory is very close to the dragons' homeland, it has not actually benefited from the dragon railway because of the many mountains separating it. In fact, they may not even know what a railway is, let alone that they and the dragons are actually only separated by a range of mountains.

If the Randolph family were the quintessential country gentry and nobles, then Hidden Mountain Territory was the quintessential secluded place, or rather, a forgotten place.

"I never imagined we'd be getting further and further away from the Anjou Center."

Isa looked at the map and smiled helplessly.

"Your Holiness, shall we return directly to the capital of Anjou?"

"I asked the attendant beside me."

After thinking about it, Isa decided to go and take a look first.

"Now that we've come this far, let's go see what the real border is like, so that our Emperor can have some understanding, won't you?"

Since she was already there, Isa decided to head to this hidden mountain territory to take a look.