I'm not a lord

Chapter 97 A Feast for Crows (First Order Request)
Following Lin En's instructions, the third brother planned to return to White Bear Territory by boat in late August.

But a sudden change interrupted his plan.

The refugees are coming.

As fighting intensified across the country, tens of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes and migrate to peaceful areas.

Sanhe City has a very advantageous geographical location.

It is adjacent to the Jinghe Waterway and has convenient transportation. It is separated from the crown territory belonging to the royal family by an earldom.

At the same time, it is located in the eastern part of the Duchy of the Marsh, away from the war-torn western part.

At this time, more than two months had passed since the Duke of Swamp personally led an expedition to the Crown Territory.

The other two dukes naturally responded as well.

They each sent out an army of 500 regular knights to attack the western border of the Duke of Swamp, poking the Duke in the ass and forcing him to return.

Wars broke out in both the east and west directions of Sanhe City, and thousands of refugees rushed into the relatively peaceful areas around Sanhe City.

According to the laws of the North, refugees are ownerless.

When refugees lived on the lord's land for a full year, they were automatically converted into serfs; if they lived in the city for a full year, they were converted into citizens.

The lord to whom the serfs originally belonged would have no right of recourse.

The third brother knew very well that the biggest bottleneck for the development of White Bear Territory was population.

So he immediately put down his bag and threw himself into the serfs' plundering war.

The process of exile is like the sifting of sand by the waves, where the old, weak, sick and disabled are gradually eliminated.

The refugees who were able to reach Sanhe City alive were as tenacious as weeds. They would sprout new buds with a little rain. They were simply the best cattle and horses.

Population is an extremely important resource in the North, and land without people to cultivate it is worthless.

And war is public information.

Therefore, some lords in the surrounding areas had already sent their capable men to stay in Sanhe City to compete for the refugees.

Not only that, the city's handicraft guilds and churches also took action in order to obtain young and cheap labor.

At one time, countless vultures gathered in Sanhe City, just to get a piece of the most delicious rotten meat.

The third brother was very efficient. With his five younger brothers, he recruited nearly 700 refugees in just over ten days.

Leon vacated one of his houses outside the city to temporarily house these refugees.

But new problems arise.

They couldn't find enough ships to transport these refugees back to White Bear Territory for a while.

"Leon, haven't you got a boat yet? If you don't transport these refugees back to the territory, they will be lured away by the church sooner or later!"

After all, the third brother had only been in Sanhe City for a few months and didn't know many tricks, so he could only rely on Leon's connections to get a transport ship.

The full name of the church is the 'Church of the Three Saints', and its main sphere of influence is the southern border.

The Northern Kingdom did not rely on doctrine to expand its territory.

The conquest of the North and the expulsion of the barbarians were achieved thanks to the lower-class landless knights and artisans' desire for land and status.

Therefore, the Northern Kingdom does not enforce religious belief and strictly prohibits the church from collecting taxes from civilians.

Most of the local lords were pragmatists, and they all had a systematic knowledge inheritance system, and had no interest in promoting religion.

The church developed very slowly in the North, relying mainly on donations from a small number of wealthy believers.

But after more than a hundred years of continuous development, the church has gradually accumulated a certain amount of strength and influence in the north.

There are churches and monasteries run by the church in every major city.

Churches in some cities also accumulated land and population through donations and purchases, and a few churches even formed small-scale private armed forces.

During this wave of refugees, the Sanhe City Church established the "House of the Saints" outside the city, providing free porridge to the refugees, rapidly expanding its influence and taking the opportunity to guide the refugees to convert to the church.

There wasn't much food stored in Leon's mansion, and with the food prices skyrocketing in Sanhe City, he could only give the refugees some thin porridge to keep them alive.

On the other hand, at the "House of the Saints" opened by the church, all refugees, regardless of whether they are religious or not, can enjoy free hot porridge for seven days.

After seven days, as long as the refugees were willing to convert to the church, they would receive land and food and become serfs under the church. The third brother was really anxious. The refugees who were housed in the mansion had learned of the existence of the Saint's House, and some even climbed over the wall in the middle of the night to seek refuge with the church.

"I know you're anxious, but don't worry. I've tried my best to find a ship!"

Leon was also very anxious, but with his connections and status, it was still difficult for him to get a boat.

What Sanhe City lacks most now is not food, but paddle boats for transportation!
Only a very small number of merchants with strong capital can afford to maintain a fleet, and most merchants only temporarily rent ships and crews when needed.

As a black market merchant, Leon rarely went out to purchase goods, so he did not have his own fleet.

When transporting illegal salt from Baixiong Territory, they would find partners to temporarily borrow a boat.

It is the busy business season now, and with the influx of refugees, Sanhe City's transportation capacity is temporarily in short supply.

Often, as soon as a ship docks, it will immediately load cargo or refugees and leave the dock.

According to the information Leon had, the one with the biggest investment was Jingtieling, located south of Sanhe City.

Earl Jingtie is subordinate to the Duke of the Valley. He owns several high-quality iron mines and is very wealthy. He purchased a large amount of grain in advance and now has rented more than 20 ships to transport refugees into the territory day and night.

Mining is hard work, dangerous and pays little.

Unless they can't survive, not many people are willing to do it.

And refugees are just those who can't survive.

So, where are the boats in Sanhe City right now?
Leon tried his best. First, he spent a huge amount of money to buy more food to stabilize the refugees. Then he spent nearly half a month to finally gather six paddle boats.

During this period, some of the refugees in the mansion fled, some died, and there were only a little over 600 people left.

It would take more than ten days to travel from Sanhe City to Baixiong Territory by water, and another group of people might die by the time they arrive.

When the third brother was preparing to arrange for the refugees to board the boat, three refugees found his mansion outside the city.

"Sir, do you need anyone else?"

The brown-haired boy in the lead was dressed in rags and covered in dirt.

He was holding a little girl who was less than ten years old on his left hand, and a middle-aged woman in her thirties was following behind him.

All three of them were thin and dirty, with flies and mosquitoes circling above their heads.

"Sir, I can do anything. I only ask you to give my mother and sister a bowl of porridge."

The boy's cracked lips trembled slightly, and there was infinite pleading in his eyes.

The girl next to him had a pale face and was as thin as a dead leaf that could be blown away by the wind at any time. The little strength she had left was concentrated in the small hand that was tightly holding the boy.

As for the middle-aged woman behind them, her eyes were ashen, her cheeks were sunken, and her cheekbones were protruding, making her look particularly haggard and vicissitudes of life.

A skinny young man with two luggages might be given some porridge by the church, but they would never keep him in for a long time.

What the church wanted were adult male serfs who could go to work in the fields immediately, not middle-aged women who could not have children, or boys and girls who had not yet grown up.

As for the mines, there is no need to mention them. Earl Jingtie only wants male refugees without families. They are cheap and useful. Anyway, they will be scrapped after working in the mines for a few years.

They must have hit a wall many times and finally found this house when they were left with no other options.

The third brother stared at the boy carefully for a moment. He could see the blood-stained cuffs and the faint vigilance and coldness in the depths of his eyes.

This young man was able to flee to Sanhe City with his frail mother and sister. He must have had conflicts with other refugees on the way and probably killed people.

"How old are you? What's your name?"

"Fifteen, Lucas."

"Okay, come aboard with me."

The third brother was very familiar with this look. There were also many refugees with similar looks in the mansion behind him.

Although he was born into a knight family, he had been living in the lower class since childhood. Later, he traveled across the northern border with Lin En and met all kinds of people.

The serfs of White Bear Territory are indeed qualified soldiers. They are physically strong and their loyalty is guaranteed, but compared to these refugees, they lack a bit of ruthlessness.

The third brother was confident that he could train some of the refugees into excellent soldiers.

He knew that his eldest brother was expanding the army in the territory, and it would be no problem for him to support two family members with the income of one soldier.

(End of this chapter)