industrial lord

Chapter 180
The snow-covered village looks so peaceful, a vast expanse of white, with no people. Occasionally, a few rabbits will dig through the snow in the farmland to find something to eat.

Hoffman strode forward in the snow with heavy steps, sinking into knee-deep snow with every step, and the white gas from his mouth and nose made him look like a steam engine.

A fence appeared in front of his eyes, he took a deep breath, and finally returned to his hometown.

This is an extremely ordinary village in the south of the Principality of Franken, less than ten kilometers away from Wessen.

Hoffman didn't dare to take it lightly even with such a little way, but he had never learned martial arts, so he could only rely on a dagger and a slingshot to defend himself.

Beside the fence, a rabbit just got out of the gap, and looked curiously at the large moving object in front of it. It looked a bit like a human, but there was a big lump behind it.

Hoffman took the slingshot and stone ball out of his pocket, and pointed them at the rabbit's head.

The farmlands, hills and animals here belonged to the Lord Knight, and he had to pay the skins if he wanted to hunt.

Hoffman carried the rabbit with a broken hind leg to the village. The whole village was quiet, only the footprints around the well and beside the firewood piles, and the faint smell of smoke and fire proved that there were living people haunting here recently.

An old man just came out to fetch water. He was wearing a red thick linen skirt with hay and rags exposed from the cuffs. He saw Hoffman and asked, "Are you back?"

Hoffman just replied, he lifted up his exhausted and disobedient legs, and walked towards his home faster.

"Deng deng deng!!!"

The knock on the door was a little hasty.

The door opened, and an old woman who was wearing a large piece of linen to avoid the cold froze for a moment when she saw her son, and the smile on her ravine face gradually became brighter than the sun in the sky.

She excitedly turned her head and shouted into the house: "Master, my son is back."

Shouting, she pulled her son into the house, then quickly walked to the altar of the God of Light by the fireplace and knelt down, thanking the god for blessing her son's safe return.

After closing the door, an indescribable smell rushed straight into his nostrils and rushed to his forehead, making Hoffman a little suffocated.

For him, he was used to this smell before, but this year he lived in the clean and tidy brother-in-law's house and the dormitory of the carriage factory for so long, but when he came back, he found that he was no longer used to it.

The room was very dark, and the palm-sized flame in the fireplace brought some light to the room. Two pigs and a few chickens slept soundly in the dark place by the door.

Hoffman went to the fireplace and put down his backpack, stirring up some dust.

Hoffman's father sat in a daze in front of the fireplace, his clothes and pants were stuffed with rags, and the cuffs were tightly tied to his thin wrists with a piece of cloth so that the rags wouldn't leak out.

He raised his head and glanced at his son's blacksmith uniform and the backpack as big as a bucket on the ground, frowning and asked, "Are you spending your sister's money again?"

Hoffman proudly said to his father: "I bought these with my own wages."

His father looked at it carefully for a while, and said with satisfaction: "It's promising."

His mother knelt by the fireplace and prayed to the Altar of the God of Light. She stood up and said to him, "Go to the master first. The housekeeper came to ask if you came back yesterday."

Hoffman didn't dare to neglect, he immediately opened his backpack, took his things and left the house, and came to a nice looking two-story house in the north of the village.

He used to think that this was the most luxurious building in the world, and even the Grand Duke of Franken lived in a house with at most one floor more than this one. As a result, when he stayed in Nuremberg for one night on the way to Wessenburg, he was caught scared.

When he went to his brother-in-law's house, he found that the master's house was nothing more than that.

As soon as Hoffman entered the gate, he handed the rabbit he had hit when he came back to the lord's butler, and said in a low voice, "This is for you."

When the butler saw the rabbit with a silver coin growing in its mouth, the corners of its mouth almost burst into ears. He nodded and said, "I've been to the city once, and I'll be promising when I come back."

Hoffman bowed his body, his face was full of flattery, and he replied: "I would like to thank you for letting me out at that time."

As he spoke, a few silver coins in his pocket somehow went into the butler's pocket, and he continued: "My lord, my brother-in-law's place has been short of people recently, you see..."

The butler didn't seem to hear it, because he was a little unhappy, not for anything else, just because Old Birch was a person who could speak in front of Duke Wesson, and his money and status were much higher than himself, while Hoffman The older sister, a woman from a serf family, was attracted by the passing old Birch because of her big buttocks, and she became his wife.

As for why the prestigious old birch fell in love with a serf woman, I can only say that love is amazing.

Wessen State cannot manage the Principality of Franken, but when Old Birch comes to buy trees every year, he will bring some medicinal materials for the lord. In the eyes of the lord, his status is a little higher than that of the housekeeper.

Hoffman saw that the housekeeper was unhappy, so he said, "I heard that Duke Wesson's carriage factory is recruiting people. An apprentice can earn 6 florins a year. If he can read, he will do well for two years." It's not a problem to get 10 florins. My brother-in-law knows the carriage factory very well, and he can go to work after saying hello."

"Really?" The butler immediately became interested, "Didn't you lie to me?"

"Really." Hoffman nodded affirmatively. This is how the coach factory recruits workers, and you can go there without introduction.

What he said touched the heart of the butler. The butler has a son who is about the same age as him. Now the children in the master knight’s family are not up to the mark. Once the master dies, the title will definitely be gone. This place will definitely be awarded by the Grand Duke of Franken to the new The knight, when someone has a new butler, he will be unemployed.

But the steward was still a little worried, and said, "What if you take away too many people and no one is farming?"

Hoffman replied: "This is easy to handle. The price of grain in Wessen State is very cheap now, just use the money to buy it."

This village has many mountains and little land, and its food production is only a little higher than that of the previous Weisenling. It collects [-]% of the rent, and the landlords and serfs are miserable in their respective classes.

Hoffman is a serf like everyone else in the village. If he goes out to join his brother-in-law, he has to pay a tax of 15 silver coins a year, otherwise he is a fugitive slave.

The housekeeper thought about it, and the money bought more food than they had grown in the field, so he said, "That's fine, as long as there are not too many people, if people don't come back, the tax will be returned."

Hoffman immediately thanked the butler, then took out a fresh cucumber from his arms and presented it, saying: "My brother-in-law picked this from Duke Wesson's vegetable garden and brought it back from the Peach Blossom Stone. There are two more Give the root to the master."

"Don't say anything. If Duke Wesson finds out that we are going to be whipped, and we continue to be beaten on the back after being beaten on the other side."

The butler's legs tightened immediately. I've heard about this. When Wesson was leading the arrest of gangsters a while ago, the theft, robbery and blackmail were all hits on the back, and rape and the like were all hit on the back.

"Wait." He said to Hoffman, "I'll take it and put it away first, and I'll take you to see the master later."

The lord of this place is the knight of the Grand Duke of Franken. He was seriously injured several times when he was young. Now that he is old, even though he is wearing a thick cotton coat and the fireplace is crackling, he still feels cold.

The lord sat in the rocking chair in front of the fireplace as usual, half asleep and half awake, and met Hoffman.

It's just that the housekeeper repeated everything Hoffman said in the master's ear, nodding or humming from time to time.

Hoffman felt that the master might not be able to eat the cucumbers he sent.

When he was about to leave, the lady called him away and asked what women's clothing was popular in Wessenburg recently, how much it cost, and which store was good.

Fortunately, before he came back, he went shopping with his brother-in-law and sister. When his brother-in-law bought a winter skirt, he spent half an hour describing to his wife the clothing street in the city and his sister's skirt vividly.

(End of this chapter)