* Bang! *
Wu Ming walked leisurely through the crowd, swinging his scabbard casually. Every time he swung his sword, a farmer would fall to the ground, unable to get up for a long time.
"A true knight!"
Seeing this scene, Amelia leaned against the door softly, completely in despair.
She had thought that Wu Ming was just the second son of a noble who had luckily taken advantage of this opportunity to plot for her husband's territory. She did not expect that such a young noble was already a true knight!
In fact, even a true knight would find it difficult to deal with dozens of people at once.
However, the difference between farmers and trained warriors was too great. In addition, they were simply restrained and did not dare to fight back. Therefore, even if any knight came, he could easily suppress them, just like what Wu Ming was doing now.
* Whoosh! *
Wu Ming finally unsheathed his sword and looked at the remaining farmers, his eyes shining.
"What gives you the guts to dare to attack me? A noble knight who fought against the barbarians, the champion of the spring tournament, and the man who defeated the church's Glory Knight, William Wallace? "
Of course, due to the inconvenience of transportation, the results of the spring tournament had not reached here yet. Otherwise, Wu Ming believed that his takeover would be much smoother. But if he shouted it out, it would be a little intimidating.
"Now, punish yourselves with your disrespectful hands, and kneel and kiss the ground under my feet. Then, I will forgive your previous disloyalty. Otherwise, your souls can only cry in hell!"
His sword flashed, showing that he was not lying.
"You are a true knight! The people need your protection! "
Something that made Amelia even more desperate happened.
The first to yield was the old warrior Georf.
He knelt and kissed the ground under Wu Ming's feet, speaking in a pious tone.
As one of the rare broad-minded people in the territory, he already knew that the madam's plan had completely failed. This was a dark and dangerous world, and a strong lord was needed to protect the people! Women could not do it!
This was helpless, but it was also the reality!
"Very well! As punishment, you only need to be whipped ten times, and I will forgive your previous sins! "
Wu Ming looked to the side. "Who's willing to carry out the punishment?"
"My Lord, I am willing to pledge my loyalty to you and become your humble servant!"
Many of the tenant farmers immediately rebelled. They knelt down and kissed the ground under Wu Ming's feet.
Amelia's entire body softened as she deeply felt betrayed. The sorrow of a woman shrouded her deeply, even making her feel dizzy.
The shocked exclamations of her two daughters resounded in her ears, and then her vision darkened as she fainted.
…
"Mom!"
"Mom!"
After some time, she opened her eyes and saw the decorations in her bedroom, as well as the anxious faces of her two daughters.
"Gods … I seem to have had a terrible nightmare!"
Amelia murmured, "I dreamed that a young demon came and wanted to take everything away from me …"
"I'm very sorry … Madam!"
The old butler with a broken nose stood at the side. His face was wrapped in gauze, and he reminded them with a changed tone, "I'm afraid that's not a nightmare!"
Amelia sighed. She sat up and saw Wu Ming.
"When you fainted, it was this … His Lordship who saved you!" The butler added.
"Alright! You win! "
Amelia said helplessly, "I will leave with my two daughters!"
"Madam, I think you misunderstood me!"
Wu Ming said with a smile.
"Are you willing to marry my daughters, or …"
Amelia blushed, "Do you still insist on your previous request?"
"I do need you … to be my butler!"
After teasing this beauty enough, Wu Ming finally said.
"Butler?!"
Amelia blinked, looking a little dazed.
"That's right … I need someone who is familiar with the territory and has prestige to assist me in managing the territory. As my steward, I will pay you and you and your daughter can continue to live here … Of course, if you are willing, I am willing to adopt them as my daughters. When they grow up, I will also prepare a generous dowry for each of them. What do you think?"
Treating the widow of a former lord well was an unspoken rule in the circle of nobles.
Wu Ming did not want his reputation of being harsh or cruel to spread in the circle. Compared to that, the possible rumors of love affairs were nothing. This was very important.
"I agree!"
Almost without hesitation, Lady Amelia agreed to it.
After all, she was just a commoner's daughter without a family to rely on. Apart from the territory, there was really nowhere else for her to go.
"Celise, Cecil, come, greet your godfather!"
She immediately became spirited, and had her two daughters bow to Wu Ming.
Although she knew that this way, Wu Ming would have custody of her two daughters and could exercise all his authority before they reached adulthood, there was nothing she could do.
"Godfather!"
The two lolis called out sweetly, and Beatrice, who was beside them, snorted coldly in dissatisfaction.
"As for you …"
Wu Ming looked at the pitiful old butler and casually made a decision to demote him. "You will be the butler's assistant!"
… …
The people of Karros soon learned of a shocking piece of news. They had a new lord.
The new lord was extremely powerful, a true knight, and had even defeated the church's Honorable Knight and an entire mercenary group. Rumors always became more exaggerated as they spread.
With the protection of this powerful knight, they should not be harassed by those damn bandits and barbarians, right?
After being led by the butler's assistant and Jorv to swear allegiance to the new lord in batches, all the people's hearts calmed down.
The people offered their loyalty and taxes to the lord, and the lord was responsible for protecting the people under his rule. This was also a mutual power and obligation.
In the Age of Darkness, even if a powerful lord was cruel, as long as he had power, there would still be an endless stream of people pledging allegiance to him, just for a little bit of safety!
The scourge of a lord was not even worth mentioning when compared to the entire barbarian community, the ferocious beasts, and the dangerous environment.
"This is my Karros territory!"
Wu Ming rode on his horse and began to patrol his territory. The butler's assistant beside him kept explaining to him.
After one round, he had a direct understanding of his territory.
The entire Lockas territory had an area of nearly a thousand acres, much larger than the fiefdom of an ordinary knight in his previous life. In other words, it was nearly four million square meters, or six thousand acres of land.
Of course, most of it was mountainous and hilly, and the cultivated land was only about two thousand acres.
In the entire territory, there were ninety tenant farmers and two freemen families. One was proficient in blacksmithing, and the other had a scholar.
Apart from these, the territory also had a water mill, livestock stables, storehouses, manor, and court. These were all public buildings, and nominally belonged to him, the lord.
But the most important thing was that as a lord, apart from owning all the forests, rivers, and pastures, Wu Ming also owned one thousand acres of the two thousand acres of cultivated land as his private land.
The people under him, or rather, the serfs, had to first cultivate his land before going to work on their own barren land.
In fact, even the land did not belong to the serfs. It was only because they had paid taxes that the lord could not arbitrarily deprive them.
"This is even more ruthless than the exploitation of the great landlords in ancient times!"
Wu Ming sighed in his heart.
It could be said that in the lord's fiefdom, apart from a few freemen families who had a certain amount of private property, everything else belonged to the lord.
"This efficiency of exploitation is a little too low …"
As an experienced transmigrator who had gone through the influence of his previous life, Wu Ming was naturally very dissatisfied with this kind of efficiency, "You can't wait to tie all the serfs to the land and turn all the people into slaves. Why not just implement slavery and be done with it? What a retrogression of history. "
He naturally had a lot of golden ideas that could make money, but all of them needed people! He needed craftsmen, people with skills to work for him!
"Now … I have already been conferred the title of a knight, and have entered the threshold of the aristocratic circle. Some of the previous plans can be carried out …"
In any case, it was just farming, developing handicraft products, glass, refined salt, improving wrought iron, and so on. Even if Wu Ming was not completely familiar with them, he was still 70% to 80% confident.
"Of course … First of all, I have to promote my authority!"
What could make people feel authority was naturally iron and blood!
Doing this to his own people would only gain fear and resentment, but to the outside world, he would gain cheers and wealth.
"Jorv!"
Wu Ming said to the old warrior, "Call all the good lads in the fiefdom over!"
In the territorial court, Wu Ming was like a judge, looking at the many curious, respectful, and uneasy youths below him. He suddenly smiled, "From today onwards, you can choose to go to Jorv for warrior training after your farm work. Those who do so will be rewarded with a loaf of oatmeal bread after the training!
"And after the spring ploughing is over, I will lead you to suppress the surrounding bandits and barbarians!"
His words stirred up a thousand ripples, but he raised his hand and suppressed his voice. "I promise you, as a feudal lord, that those who perform outstandingly in the future battles will obtain the chance to become free citizens and have their own land!"
Being half a step ahead of the times was a genius, but one step ahead was a lunatic!
Although Wu Ming wished he could directly liberate all the people in the fiefdom, he knew that this was impossible. He had to take things slowly.
In the future, refinement and division of labor were the main direction, and this required a free population!
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