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Chapter 20 The Surviving Village

"My lord, according to the investigation of the cavalry, three of the five local villages survived, namely Winter Wolf Village, Licorice Village and Binghe Village. It is roughly estimated that there are a total of 300 people living in the three villages."

At noon the next day, Ronan checked the information sent by his subordinates in the cleaned main hall of the castle.

These are all the information recorded and sorted out by the old Motou after the cavalry dictated their own experiences.

In fact, he had already checked the situation of the surrounding villages through the crow last night, and now he was comparing the two sides.

The ability of his subordinates is not bad, and he has not missed anything that should be noticed.

Ronan knew that this was the work of Old Mo. Without his arrangement, the cavalry would at most know which villages had living people, and it was impossible to estimate the village population.

The situation in the Cold Wind Territory is much better than Ronan expected.

There are still three villages with a total of more than 2000 people alive. In the past, the total population here was only in the early [-]s.

The Black Death did not completely kill the villagers here, but was carried over by them.

After comparing the three villages that survived with the two villages whose villagers died.

And after reading the tax records of the previous lord in the castle, Baron Exeter, Ronan roughly understood the reason.

The two dead villages are closer to the castle and occupy almost all of the farmland in the Coldwind Territory.

The other three villages had no choice but to hunt in the wild in order to survive without land to grow food.

But one thing must be clear, the law of this world empire stipulates that all resources in the fiefdom territory are nominally owned by the lord.

In other words, regardless of whether Baron Exeter has the ability to develop the Cold Wind Territory, every plant, tree, bird, fish, and animal in this land is his property, and no one else can touch it without permission.

This law varies from person to person, just like Ronan, the woodland rivers he passed along the way are actually owned by the owner in name.

But he doesn't care about breaking the law. He should be hacked and caught. His men are strong and strong. You can ask those lords who are too busy to take care of themselves to come to him to protest?

But ordinary villagers can't do it, they are powerless to resist the baron's men.

In response to this situation, Baron Exeter specially formulated a hunting tax.

That is, he will mercifully allow the villagers of these three villages to go hunting in the frozen soil and collect fur as tax.

So the people in these three villages need to hand in the furs to the baron soldiers stationed in the two villages close to the castle.

And use animal meat and local villages in exchange for some bread, necessary oil and salt, and clothes to keep out the cold.

Without these, it is difficult for them to survive in the permafrost where supplies are scarce.

Since Baron Exeter held the only channel to trade with the Blackrock City caravan, the villagers in the village could only accept the choice he gave.

Ronan guessed that the Black Death should have been transmitted to Cold Wind from the caravan in Black Rock City.

The caravan infects the soldiers who came into contact with the trade, and then falls two nearby villages.

On the contrary, the three remote villages were spared.

In fact, the infection of the Black Death was not as serious as imagined. The disease in the kingdom is mainly bubonic plague.

This is caused by the bites of infected fleas on black rats. The plague bacillus carried by the fleas enters the human body through the bites, causing the Black Death.

This kind of patient generally does not infect other people through daily life. As long as the source is cut off and the dead body is properly disposed of, the disease can be prevented from spreading.

The most terrible thing is the infected person of pneumonic plague, who can spread the infection to others through droplets.

The good news is that pneumonic plague has a stronger lethal effect, and people usually die in less than a day.

This is also the reason why so many people survived in those three villages. With the Baron running away, the Blackstone City caravan no longer came, and the source of infection was cut off.

Ronan raised his head and turned his gaze to the other side.

The crow under his control was sitting on a tree branch in a village, looking at the crowd below.

This is Licorice Village. After a team of cavalry arrived here in the morning, all the villagers here knew that they had a new lord.

"From today onwards, we are the subjects of Lord Ronan, everyone remembers his name clearly, do you hear me?"

In the center of the village, on the assembly square, the village head standing on a high platform shouted loudly.

"understood--"

There were only a few casual responses from the crowd surrounding the village chief.

Lord's name?How many ears of wheat can this thing be worth? Compared with this, they care more about the hunting market, which is related to their survival after the cold winter comes.

It will be winter in less than a month, and the river will be frozen, and the snow will cover all animal tracks.

The village chief also knew what everyone was thinking, he sighed and said nothing.

For this new lord, he was very happy in his heart, because it meant that the business road leading to Black Rock City would be opened again.

In order to avoid the disease, they have not traded with foreign countries for more than half a year.

Hunting worn-out weapons need to be purchased, damaged cotton-padded clothes need materials to be filled and mended, and the salt in every household has long been exhausted.

The village head only hoped that when the new lord came to collect taxes, he would be a little more considerate of them.

Let them save enough food to survive this cold winter.

Through the crow, Ronan looked at the crowd in the village, more than [-]% of them were tall and middle-aged young adults, but their faces were a little listless.

The rest consisted of children, women, and a small number of elderly people. Judging from the old and wrinkled face of the village chief, he was the oldest here.

According to the records in Ronan's hands, the village head is already 70 years old this year, which can be called a longevity in this era.

The people in this village are very physically fit, Ronan thought in his heart, yes, they are not fit enough to survive on the frozen soil.

He has known the beasts on the permafrost. The woods here are full of large wolves with a length of more than two meters - winter wolves, as well as giant bears that can easily kill knights, and dexterous white foxes that can skillfully bite off the necks of their prey .

In addition, the strong reindeer and musk ox are not easy to mess with, even the weak snow rabbits are full of escape and camouflage skills.

The only way for ordinary people to hunt them is to rely on skilled experience and set various hidden traps in suitable positions.

In other words, the people here only need a little training and equipped with various trap weapons to form a powerful field force.

I have to find a way to collect enough food quickly, and then take all these people under my command.

After knowing the details of these villagers, Ronan's emphasis on them is completely different.

These are all rare talents. Whether it is to form an army or the development of the frozen soil, they all need their participation and assistance. He will feel heartbroken for a long time if he dies.

Speaking of which, with the collection of the hunting tax, Baron Exeter can still be so poor, Ronan suddenly thought.

Due to the difficulty in obtaining raw materials, this white fur is so precious.

Ronan had seen it in Triumph City. A white fur coat made of winter wolf fur could sell for hundreds of gold coins.

Although this is due to various factors such as the unique status of Triumph City and the long distance, there is no doubt that the fur here is extremely valuable.

It seems that the Viscount Pecks of Black Rock City is not a good person.

Just like the villagers here can only trade with the Baron, the Baron can only trade with Black Rock City.

The big fish eat the small fish, and the small fish eat dried shrimps. In the end, all the benefits are swallowed by the city standing in front of them.

(End of this chapter)