In this era, a European nobleman could legally have a vast territory, but his subjects were few.

The country of Flanders was divided into two, and the count Baudouin kept only the southern territory, and changed his allegiance to the Eastern Kingdom.

This was the result of the war of 840, and the Count Baudouin did so in order to preserve his power and knew the consequences of doing so. However, he was more worried about the **** blows of the Vikings such as Denmark and Ross than the revenge of King Lothair. Only by betraying Lothair can the Vikings promise not to loot! Baudouin didn't think Lothair in the distance would stand up for him at all, but he really angered the Vikings, and their longships could kill them at any time.

But Flanders, whose territory has been severely shrunk, has only one large city, Ghent, and large settlements such as Antwerp (which was burned down), Brussels and Lille, in addition to scattered rural areas.

Brussels is already the border city of the counties, the demilitarized parish of Maastricht to the east, and Aachen, the resting place of Charlemagne, to the east.

Flanders' defection in the law made King Lothair extremely angry, but after he calmed down, why should he send troops to fight except for a few words of idiots? The local aristocrats have always been strong leaders. He calculated that Count Baudouin would not take the initiative to cause trouble, so there was no substantial threat to him.

Then in the spring of 841, the garrison of Aachen increased, and this was the attitude of King Lothair.

Such an attitude alone was enough to make Baudouin nervous, and as a last resort, he also strengthened the defenses of the border town of Brussels.

Thanks to the geographical presence of the small Maastricht parish on both sides, the Maas River is also divided into two sides, it seems that the two sides are just hinting at each other's attitudes by adding troops from the air.

Baudouin will never take the initiative to cause trouble. He suffered a sap in the war last year, and he is actively licking the wound due to the great loss of troops.

He lacks trust in the Vikings, and the public's attitude is also highly vigilant. Only a group of domestic travel merchants are daring and want to take the initiative to find Vikings to try their trade.

Because, the summer wool cutting season in the country has arrived.

What is the biggest problem now? Make money!

In this era when military aristocrats and priests ruled the world together, there were no pure civil servants around Count Baudouin. At the time of employment, the eldest son of the knight who participated in the war and died in the battle automatically inherited the title, and Baudouin took the opportunity to promote some leaders. He trusted his eyes and felt that some of the boys he had selected would become qualified fighters in the future.

Fortunately, there is a steward serving the Baudouin family, whose status concept corresponds to the court minister of the Frankish court.

The housekeeper is responsible for instructing the servants to take care of the daily life for the master, and also manage the finances. After all, the wise Count spends his time patrolling his territory every year. The so-called circuit court is set up to punish injustice, to visit and monitor the lower nobles, and even a very simple reason - hunting and sorring.

Coincidentally, this year's housekeeper was named Pepin. Butlers are also hereditary. Because there is no need to avoid names, a name can be passed down from generation to generation.

The housekeeper Pepin III was really faithful in taking care of the Count's purse. He didn't dare to think anything wrong. It was this honesty that made him seem really harmless to humans and animals.

This is indeed the case. The housekeeper, Pepin, has no power ambitions. He carefully manages the treasury. However, the war last year has exhausted the funds.

One day, on a fine afternoon, Baudouin specially summoned his housekeeper. When he made this decision, he had a hunch that his money was about to run out.

What is a rich nobleman? The lower-level nobles changed their allegiance to others, and in the end, the big nobles had no titles and could only become dogs who lost their families. This is what Baudouin fears most.

"How much money do we have now?" He could sense the financial strain on the butler's face, but he still had to investigate it himself.

Pepin shook his head and said nothing...

"say?!"

"Yes... our treasury... has bottomed out."

"I feel it." Baudouin spit hard: "Exactly... how much?"

"My lord, you still have less than two hundred pounds of silver."

"Ah? That's all? Where did the money go?!" Baudouin couldn't believe his ears, he jumped up and grabbed the collar of the key.

Pepin was also taken aback, and continued to listen to the questioning of the adults. "Could it be that a thief misappropriated it?"

Baudouin hinted that his housekeeper was not clean, but the latter was not angry, so he was pulled by the collar to explain.

About how much money was given to the nobles who died in battle, how much food was spent on resettling the refugees, the expenses for purchasing new weapons and organizing new guards, and even the extra allowances paid to the border city guards...

"Sir, you are very kind. Without your help, many people would not be able to survive this winter. But if you continue like this, the last money will be exhausted."

"You're right!" Baudouin let go angrily. He realized that he had done too much and didn't want to be soft-spoken, and asked again, "What should I do now? If I don't have money, I'm going to perish my country!"

"Yes!" Pepin also came prepared, so he deliberately asked in a low voice: "Then, my lord, do you believe in the Normans?"

"They? I don't want to believe it. At least not completely."

"Then what do you think of Lord Lothair?"

"That man? I don't like him. As soon as he gets his hands, he will hit me. At that time, I may surrender."

"The price of surrender must be that you have to pay a huge sum of money to ensure that your family's power will last forever." Pepin, who was managing the finances, spoke to the point, and Baudouin was speechless for a moment.

Pepin continued: "So you need money anyway, either to expand your army, or to pay tribute to Lothair in the future. I don't understand the battle of the great nobles, I only know that you need a lot of money now."

"So what? You! Get me money! I want wealth as soon as possible."

"That's why you summoned me? I do have a way."

Hearing what his butler said, Baudouin let out a long sigh of relief: "What should you do, say it. As long as you don't violate your beliefs, it's fine."

Pepin's method was very straightforward, that is, to organize an official caravan in the name of the earl to directly sell wool to the Normans. Specifically, it is looking for the so-called "Russ shop", which directly deals with the big merchants in Rus.

It sounds outrageous, but in fact the conditions are there, it's just that the Flanders must have great courage and hope that the peace promises of the Rus and Danes will come true.

"Who was the king before the disaster? It's you! My lord, those farmers have been sheltered by you. Now that life is stable, you have a reason to reclaim the benefits. This year, our wool is completely embargoed on Lothair, and you ordered Block off the roads and prohibit all traveling merchants from selling wool. You collect this summer's wool and gather in the rejuvenating port of Antwerp. And I will take the initiative to find Ross merchants for you."

The housekeeper is by no means a person who only talks and does not practice. Since he has proposed a plan and is willing to implement it, Baudouin can't think of an easier way to make a fortune than this. adventure.

In this era, merchants were spurned by the church, and any act of unearned gain according to their beliefs was unjust. The devout priests would not have dealings with merchants, but the nobles needed these merchants to provide necessary supplies.

The local church disliked Pepin's family, and criticizing him was a jester. It was regarded as a mistake by the priests to get a certain benefit from financing the count for the count. Baudouin needed this kind of person very much, but considering the public opinion of the nobles and priests, he couldn't possibly give the Pepin family any title. Even if the housekeeper was hereditary, the housekeeper of all generations was at best a housekeeper.

But who will ever be willing to be a lowly person?

Pepin, the steward, was temporarily given significant powers so that he could go to the various villages to collect excess taxes in place of the earl.

The cavalry escorted him, who was suddenly well-dressed, to the village outside Ghent. He ordered the villagers to assemble and announced the tribute quota for this year.

The 11th tax is the most traditional tax method. One-tenth of the peasant's various output is paid to the church, and one-tenth is paid to the Count Baudouin. Currently, the country is divided by war, and the sprawling Utrecht diocese is also divided. The peasant's 11th tax is paid to the Bishop of Ghent, and another version of the 11th tax is paid to the earl, so that the peasant actually becomes five taxes and one.

In addition, there is the most traditional poll tax, which is paid directly to the earl. Pepin made a high-profile announcement: "You have all been sheltered and escaped the war, so you must pay the poll tax for the next three years. You may not be able to get enough food, so use wool to deduct it!"

What can farmers do? Even if the Count's army can't defeat the Normans, they can easily pack themselves up, and what's worse is that the farmer can't logically prove that the Count's order is wrong.

The farmer disobeyed his lord? Such an act would be hanged and defined by the priests as a foolish thing that must go to hell.

It is now the wool cutting season, and the villages that have experienced disasters hope to "return blood" by cutting wool this summer.

Since ancient times, villages have harvested wool and processed it themselves. The wool will be boiled in boiling water to degrease, air-dried, and then stuffed into sacks and sold to merchants.

Farmers themselves cannot consume so much wool, so the prevalence of decent clothing in rural Flanders is actually extremely high, both young and old are wool clothing. It's just that wool can't be eaten as food, the local land is not fertile enough and easily eroded by sea water, and it is more profitable to engage in animal husbandry than to grow grain, but wheat is the foundation of survival.

In normal years, their grain is barely enough to eat, and they rely on the sale of wool raw materials and semi-finished products to make money to buy additional grain. However, the largest textile center in this area is in the Cologne area. Merchants purchase goods from Flanders and transport them to Aachen and Cologne. Merchants just transport raw materials, and they earn a lot with one hand.

It's good to make money! Asking too much is not religious enough!

Many people think this way, they want to make money but also face, but for the Pepin family, anyway, the family's reputation has always been bad, what is face? Now that he has been praised by the Count, let the wicked do it to the end.

Pepin asked for a three-year poll tax, and the public was respectful on the surface, but behind the scenes they were scolding this old guy and his whole family to hell.

go to hell? After death.

Pepin couldn't care less, he felt that since he had already done a great villain, he might as well do it to the end.

So all the villages received orders, and people didn't quite believe that the Count was so harsh, and they were more willing to believe that this Pepin was deliberately overweight by a greedy person.

How the people understood it was their business, and what Pepin wanted was wool.

Due to the order of the count prohibiting all traveling merchants, the merchants who dared to go to the village to buy wool were arrested by the army, and their people were thrown into prison in Ghent, all their property was confiscated, and all their children were sent to the monastery. Some people have encountered such bad luck. The speed of information transmission between businessmen is faster than that of arrows. No one dares to go to the village to buy various materials in a short period of time. Some businessmen take risks and cannot leave the country smoothly.

Count Baudouin didn't even know that he was creating a "wool monopoly", but he himself took people to hunt in the coastal woodland west of Ghent, thinking about hunting wild boars to meet his own meat needs.

Pepin deliberately lowered the purchase price, which was twice as low as the price offered by the travel merchants on weekdays! If he hadn't considered the inability to exhaust the pond to fish, he would have gone further.

The wool began to gather in the city of Ghent, and it was continuously sent to Baudouin.

The yellow-brown burlap sack on the trolley was stuffed so tightly that as long as the hemp rope was unfastened, it was the yellowish wool that had been compressed as hard as possible.

Just touching the first batch of goods made Baudouin's scalp go numb. Looking at the butler, Pepin, who was standing aside with a smile without saying a word, he had thousands of questions that he wanted to ask clearly.

public suffering? All this is the will of the Lord.

Baudouin felt that if he could ask for a promise of "no attack" from the Norman army, it was enough for the people to give their money gratefully, because peace did have a clear price.

The wool was deducted from the 11th tax and the three-year poll tax, and Pepin was very rude to withhold the part of the tribute that should have been paid to the church in Ghent. He even prepared a speech, the so-called "You are the servants of God are you extremely greedy for worldly wealth". The priests lived a life of asceticism and could not starve to death anyway, and there was indeed no priest to ask where the money went.

To outsiders, this Pepin was an insatiable villain, a villain who might become like Judas, and even the Bishop of Ghent personally suggested to Baudouin to distance himself from such villains.

bad guy? Who is the bad guy? The bad guy is the one who can't make money for me. My butler is obviously a nice guy!

Of course, Baudouin didn't say this to anyone, and asked his family to refrain from making any comments on related topics.

It was another early summer night, the world was at peace, at least there was no sign of trouble here in Flanders, and the border cities were all at peace.

Dinner was roasted hare with oatmeal. Baudouin was an earl. He was beaten badly last year by King Rurik of Ross, and so far he has only had a hard time.

Baudouin will never forget the great peace talks in Hamburg at the beginning of this year. He completely accepts the outcome of the peace talks, and he is addicted to the wonderful meals provided by the northerners.

brutal? Are people who can cook beautiful dishes really barbaric? At least when it comes to eating, Baudouin is very envious of the Ross people, and now he has stained glass tableware sent by the Ross King on his dining table, thus showing his noble identity. He is also clear that glassware is nothing to the Rus people, and even many ordinary warriors have such noble utensils in their homes.

"You're doing well now." He summoned Pepin and complimented him.

"I... just did my duty."

Pepin's hands were folded together, his robe was like a stake, and the feathered fart hood could hardly hide his curly gray hair. He was indeed old.

"Now that the wool is arriving, how will it be sold. Do you already have a plan?"

Pepin said without hesitation, "Yes. I sent fishermen to Utrecht, and I found out that the Normans were building their brand new Durist, called Rotterstad or something."

"Did they hurt the fishermen?"

"No. There was a misunderstanding at the beginning, and we released it after we figured out that it was ours. There is enough information to prove that the Ross merchant is really here! Moreover, the Baron of Nassau has just arrived in Utrecht~www.mtlnovel.com ~If Nassau hadn't sent people to roam Rotterstad, our fishermen would have been killed..."

Pepin said a lot, he was giving a briefing. Baudouin's mind was in a mess. It seemed that the Rotterstad of the "New Durist" was obviously a wasteland near the sea, but it turned out to be a sweet pastry where various forces gathered?

Pepin received information that the baron emigrants of Nassau, the merchants of Rus, the natives of Utrecht, the natives of Groningen, the Danish immigrants, and the Danes who had just robbed Britain and were eager to sell their stolen goods were all wandering at the mouth of the Laine River. back. They each have their own purposes, and the Rotterstad being built is enough to provide an opportunity for people from all walks of life to communicate.

How could such a good thing be rare in the Country of Flanders?

It's just that before Pepin went in person, he slapped him **** the chest: "I'm about to leave. I want to discuss carefully with the Ross merchant, and try to sell all the wool at a high price this year."

"Very good! Go do it!"

Baudouin didn't say anything immediately, the truth was that he wanted to give the Pepins something good after the event. Award a title? Do not! Perhaps, a boy from the Pepin family could be found to be engaged to his youngest daughter, and family marriage was the greatest reward.