When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 606: Wolf Hunt and Wool

"How dare you hit my people?!"

Henderson slapped the wooden table and cursed ferociously.

Henderson really didn't expect that just because he failed to keep an eye on the wolf hunting, more than 20 villagers turned against him in just three weeks.

Just because someone helped you mow two acres of land? Isn't this loyalty too cheap?

Covering his chest, Henderson forced himself to suppress his anger.

He turned his head and saw the morning light shining on the idler's buttocks. A purple spot was clearly visible, and even the outline of footprints could be seen.

"Captain Henderson, you are not kicking my butt, you are clearly kicking your face!" The idle man lying on the bench cried out in grievance. It seemed that his movement was too big and pulled the wound. He could not help but howling.

The other three or five idle men followed suit, as if the kick was directed at them.

Looking at the idle man's dirty voice and bumpy butt, he turned his head away in disdain and asked the villagers beside him: "How many households have joined his harvesting team?"

The middle-aged villager bent over and pressed his straw hat to his chest: "Including our family, there are more than 20 households."

"What do you do on weekdays?"

"It's just helping each other harvest wheat. If you don't take the initiative to ask about the perpetual lease and the 100-household district, he won't bring it up." The villager hesitated for half a second, but gritted his teeth and continued, "It seems that they are going to announce something in the village church tonight. It may be about the perpetual lease."

After listening to the villagers' narration, Henderson frowned and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes to rest, still thinking about his next move.

This Ansel is really capable. Without making any noise, he managed to win over more than 20 families.

These villagers are so simple-minded. Aren’t they afraid of being cheated by these two people whose backgrounds they don’t know?
But no matter what he thinks, no matter what he wants to do, since I know it, there is no reason to let him do it.

Henderson took out two dinars from the cabinet and stuffed them into the man's hand: "These are for you. Go back and don't let anyone find out."

"Hey, okay."

The villager naturally thanked the landlord profusely and left the courtyard holding the dinar.

Watching the villager who reported the news walk out of the courtyard, an idle man suggested: "Why not ask him to write down the names of the people involved?"

"With the support of the new church, the knight will not help. We can't let anyone catch us." Henderson picked up a chickpea and put it in his mouth. "Besides, do I need him to say anything?"

The estate is so small that all the neighbors know which family is involved in the mutual aid team, so there is no need to ask the farmer.

"He's going to hold a prayer meeting tonight, right?" Henderson sneered, flicking a chickpea into his mouth. "Tell the villagers that fox and wolf hunting will begin in mid-September. Anyone who wants to join this year's wolf hunting team should come to my house tonight to discuss it."

Henderson's eldest son agreed and was about to go out, but Henderson grabbed him and said, "There is one more thing. Please help me deliver this letter to the head of Coslan Manor. You must deliver it in person. Don't go into the manor. Wait in the hunter's cabin."

"Okay, Father."

…………

As a person from Pingyuan County, Ansel always felt like he was falling into a valley when he stood on the road at the entrance of the manor village.

The cold wood unique to the Mountain Counties is known for its hardness and is often used for crude furniture and shields.

They are tall and big, without many branches, and are arranged densely together.

Although there are steep slopes of less than 20 to 30 meters on both sides, the sky is just a narrow path squeezed by the towering stepped dark cold trees on the slope, and there is inevitably a feeling of a quiet valley.

Bryson was already familiar with this feeling. He had an acorn wine bag hanging around his neck and would take a sip from time to time.

Lalor was holding two wheelbarrows, and sometimes when he felt hungry, he would ask Bryson for a bite.

Occasionally, Bryson would pass the wine bag to Ansel's mouth: "Take a sip, there's ginger juice in it. Even though it's the end of August in the manor, it's already October in the forest."

But Ansel always refused. As a believer in the Holy Word, he did not prohibit drinking, but he did not encourage it either.

After waiting from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., as the sun was about to reach his forehead, even Ansel couldn't help getting impatient.

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long before the convoy finally arrived.

As the crisp sound of horse bells rang out, Ansel, who had been hiding behind the wheelbarrow, perked up and quickly stood up and walked towards the direction where the bells came from.

Two large carriages were escorted by more than 20 soldiers. When the wheels rolled over the stones on the ground, the whole carriage would bump or jump, and the wool loaded on the carriage would fly into the air. They slowly stopped at the entrance of the village, the horses snorted, and the soldiers driving them jumped off.

He hammered his left chest with his right hand, then swung it parallel to the ground until it formed a right angle with his body. This was the Savior Army's restored military salute from the Aiel era, and it was quite different from the hat-raising salute commonly used in the Empire today.

"You just arrived now. Can you transport all the goods to the next few manors?" Ansel did not embarrass or blame the leading soldier.

The soldier complained: "The dirt roads in this area are either full of rocks or potholes. The bridges over the streams along the way are too fragile. We swam across several times. Next time, we will send more vehicles and go separately."

"Thanks for your hard work." Ansel pulled out an account book from the carriage and signed his name and stamped his hand on it. "Two loads of wool, two gallons of salt, and a bag of carpentry tools."

After the soldier confirmed it, he ordered the workers on the cart to unload the two loads of wool, and Lalor and Bryson immediately pushed the cart to load and unload.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ansel handed over briefings and letters from the superior order to the soldiers. After submitting this week's report for signature, Ansel began to read the briefing on the spot.

After struggling to lift four large bags of wool and throwing them into the wheelbarrow, Bryson leaned forward and asked, "Any new news?"

"The progress in Kasha County is going smoothly. I guess we will be able to send a group of new people to help soon." Holding the wide paper on both sides, Ansel scanned the paper. "The Holy Grandson has extended our deadline until before the snow closes the mountain, and has also given important instructions. It is better to slow down the situation in South Mound County rather than make things chaotic."

At this point, Ansel's expression suddenly changed, and even wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. Then he cursed for the first time: "What's going on? How did the higher order allow it?"

"Ah?" Bryson quickly leaned over, only to see the briefing read, "…The perpetual lease of Coslan Manor has been successfully implemented, but the armed peasants maliciously resisted the reform, refused to comply with the investigation, and fled into the mountains. All monks, please pay attention to your safety in the near future."

"Is there any problem with this?" Bryson's eyes lit up. "Isn't this a success? We might as well call in the army."

"It's not that simple." Ansel folded up the briefing and stuffed it into his saddlebag, then pushed the cart full of wool with all his strength and walked towards the manor. "Saint Sun warned us before we started that the army is the last resort and should not be used if it is not necessary.

Chanoli tried to send troops to arrest and interrogate people for evidence without any evidence. He was lucky that nothing happened now. If he was not careful, the whole South Mound County would have exploded.

I guess the priests are getting a little anxious because Kasha County is making such rapid progress and we are making such slow progress. "

In fact, the problem Ansel faced was the same problem that Hermann had raised in the Senate.

The Right Seat of the Senate cannot represent all knights and nobles. Horn and Meliati established laws through verbal exchanges, but the knights under these laws may not necessarily enforce them.

These laws put a huge amount of pressure on the knights, and their powers in taxation, agriculture, military and politics were all reduced.

Meliati had a clear understanding of the nobles' average acceptance limit, so she was almost dancing on the knights' bottom line.

If it was the Mound area or the Hotam area, it would be okay, but it is different in the mountainous areas of South Mound County.

The knights here had all fought and shed blood in the Thousand Valley War, and Horn could not ignore their outstanding contributions.

It would have been fine if there was no reward, but instead the knights were asked to cut off their flesh and bleed.

Although the mountain knights recognized Meliati's prestige, in this era of feudal divisions, they could not expect prestige to bring much control.

The most important reason why they accepted the Hundred Household District reform was that they could not defeat Meliati and the Kingdom of Leia.

In the eyes of the nobles who had won but had to accept the reform of the Hundred Household Districts, Meliati was killing three birds with one stone.

He took his own people to Pingyuan County, brought his mistress Horn here, and took these unfortunate knights in.

Some radical knights even shouted out radical remarks such as "Meriati is Horn's dog". In many mountainous areas, the rumor was that "permanent leases and hundred-household districts are just a lie, and their essence is to abolish the status of knights."

Once the pressure is triggered, the knights will revolt, which will fail to achieve their goal but will ruin Horn's plans.

Once they start making trouble, reforms in mountainous areas will come to a standstill for at least a year, because a large number of troops will have to be spent on guerrilla warfare against the local people in the deep mountains and forests.

The situation only leaves Horn with a short window of opportunity. Not to mention wasting a year, even half a year is not enough.

The rest of the mountain counties might even be sympathetic to the uprising mountain people.

If we continue to implement the Hundred Household District reform in other mountainous counties in the future, the resistance will increase exponentially.

This is still a positive view. If the situation gets escalated, maybe several mountain counties will unite and revolt, and then it would be really bad.

Pushing the cart with great effort, Lalor could not care about the conversation between Ansel and Bryson, nor did he understand the twists and turns in it. He just panted and asked, "Brother Ansel, what are you doing with all this wool?"

Ansel did not answer his question directly. Instead, he took a piece of salt from the bottle and threw it to Lalor: "I will host a small collective prayer in the evening. Spread the word that every family who comes can get half a pound of wool for free."

(End of this chapter)