What was the key to a family's development and strength? There were many answers to this question, but if one had to be chosen, it would be the governance of the territory.
The governance of the territory was the source of a family's prosperity because even if the family members were extraordinary geniuses, they still had to rely on the taxes collected from the governance of the territory.
If their governance was muddle-headed, then the quality of life of the people in the territory would decline. If they were cruel, then the people would migrate. If they performed well, then the refugees would settle down.
Therefore, to measure whether a lord was qualified or not, the increase or decrease of the population was the best reflection of the problem, and this was one of the things that Sorofia investigated.
But how to investigate? She couldn't count them one by one, right?
Sorofia's method to solve this problem was to calculate the statistics of commodities, which was indispensable to everyone's life, but most people had to buy it from merchants — salt.
People couldn't not eat salt. This was caused by their physiological structure, especially in this era where most people were engaged in manual labor. If they didn't eat salt, they would have no strength at all.
"Earl Eric's territory is not a salt producer. All the salt has to be bought from merchants and sold to the people, so we are very confident in this data. There will never be a major mistake. According to our analysis, the total amount of salt purchased by the earl's territory has been slowly increasing over the past few decades. It is basically the same as an area without war."
"From this data, although the governance of the Earl's territory is good, it is still average. Normally, under such circumstances, Earl Eric's family should be ordinary, but the reality is …"
"The reality is that Earl Eric's family has risen strongly in the past few decades and once again became one of the top five families. They have a great influence on the nobles of the entire Theocracy, even surpassing the Akat Family, which is completely opposite to your prediction."
"Yes, that's why I said it's strange."
Arvin showed a puzzled expression, and Luo Ya was also a little silent.
"The rise of a family doesn't need to talk about other things, but it needs more money. Earl Eric's territory hasn't improved for many years, so where did the money come from? Although the head of the Eric family is an extraordinary, I haven't heard of any secret methods to make money. It's better to say that they are all very low-key, but their forces are indeed constantly expanding. "
"In summary, Young Master Luo Ya, I think … you should be more careful."
The black-haired boy nodded with a solemn expression after listening to his reminder, which was rare for him to be serious.
"Thank you for your kindness, President Alvin. I will be careful. Apart from these, can you think of anything else?"
"Well, I've only read the internal report. How about this? I'll go back and look through Eric's family records. Maybe I can find something new."
"Great, I'll pay the right price."
"Haha, there's no need. As long as you have something that you can't keep at home, you can come and sell it to me. I'll be so happy that I'll wake up from my sleep."
Luo Ya smiled bitterly when he heard the middle-aged merchant's words. He thought to himself that if there was really no other way, he could sell some exquisite items from the Favorability Exchange Area to him. After chatting for a while, Alvin left.
After that, Luo Ya went to Ka Diya to find out more about the Eric family. He didn't expect Ka Diya to give him an internal Eric family research report, which refreshed Luo Ya's understanding of his family.
In the past, the Akat Family had lived in a mansion filled with servants, so he couldn't feel it. However, in reality, the Akat Family's military prowess was quite good. Not only did they have their own regular army, but they also had a militia of over 3000 people. Furthermore, they also had a specialized spy agency. Their combat prowess was one of the best among the Five Great Nobles.
That's right, each of the Five Noble Families was like a small independent kingdom, and their system was a standard model of the Middle Ages. Heathcliff had the absolute advantage of faith in the human world and had the greatest strength, so it was the common master of everyone. The daily life of the Theocracy was actually the nobles arguing in front of the royal family.
Eric used to be the second overlord under the king. Unfortunately, he stood on the wrong side during the war more than a hundred years ago.
When it came to the war between the aristocrats, there was an unwritten rule, and that was that the whole family could not be wiped out.
The aristocrats were elegant, and so were the wars. If they couldn't win, they could surrender and pay a ransom. If they won, they had to leave the other side alive. Unless there were very special circumstances, they couldn't kill the other side.
This was like a covenant that all the aristocrats signed at birth. The purpose was to preserve each other's heritage to the greatest extent. Anyone who broke the rule would be boycotted by all the aristocrats, because no family could last forever.
Just like the War of the Twins more than a hundred years ago, Erick still had ten thousand soldiers under his command. Furthermore, they had chosen the wrong side to follow Prince Vader, and had not directly raised the flag of rebellion. Therefore, the royal family at that time had pushed them to the border, and that was pretty much the limit.
Another important rule written in the code was that the aristocrats couldn't command beyond their rank. As the common master, the royal family could command the five aristocrats and their own aristocrats. This was reasonable and legal. However, if it was a viscount under Eric, that was absolutely not allowed. Doing so was trampling on the dignity of the lord and would be boycotted by all the aristocrats.
Everyone was just looking for a big brother to be the judge, not to be dismembered. If the big brother really dared to use a knife to tear them apart, they could just run away if they couldn't beat him. Wouldn't it be better to take the territory and look for a new big brother?
Because of this, it was difficult to find out the exact military strength of the aristocratic families. According to the research report of the Akkat family, the size of Eric's army had been slowly increasing in the past few decades. This wasn't a big deal, after all, the total population was also increasing. However, what was interesting was that there were more and more mercenaries in their territory.
Although Eric Territory was located at the intersection of three countries, and there was a circle of small countries nearby, it was a good place for mercenaries to make money. However, who among these people were real mercenaries and who were just pretending to be mercenaries, this was still up for discussion.
Regarding this point, the Akkat family's report could only estimate the number of mercenaries, and there was no way to verify it. Luo Ya understood this, and after reading the report, he became completely vigilant.
When Luo Ya looked at the system's promotion again, his mentality was completely different. The strange situation of the Eric family's inexplicable rise gave him a bad feeling. His current goal had changed from high combat strength to a means of survival.
Leveling up could be done in the future, but people couldn't live in the future. Luo Ya was very clear about his goal. Everything he had done so far was for survival.
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