The Merovingian family was once glorious, this is an undeniable fact, but even the most glorious family will one day decline.

Many down-and-out nobles cannot accept the loneliness of their family and the reduction of their status. This mentality will inevitably lead to many wrong decisions.

For example, he continues to live a luxurious life that his own financial resources cannot support, so that he borrows money to survive just to maintain the so-called aristocratic dignity.

Greedyly demanding all the proceeds from the canal was only one of them, and Count Merovingian even sold the hunting rights in the territory.

All output in the noble territory belongs to the lord personally. Even a mouse is the property of the lord. Serfs will be punished if they hunt and kill them privately.

Usually the Dafa lords would reward the wild animals on their territory, allowing the people to capture them freely.

Usually, after the lord catches a prey, the lord will automatically pay a share as a tax.

This is the first time Brian has heard of the direct sale of hunting rights in the general territory.

The person who buys the hunting rights in the earl territory is a small mercenary. They come here regularly to hunt, process the prey and sell it to designated merchants to earn gold coins.

Although after deducting the share handed over to the earl, not much is left.

But hunting animals is much safer than fighting with the same kind. However, the ground is dead, but the animals on the ground are alive. Some animals that run fast will run to Lansburg next door when faced with being hunted by mercenaries.

Often animals would be hit by arrows and flee to Horton Knight's territory. When the mercenaries came to ask for it, Horton Knight would not care about the prey and would directly return it.

But it's okay once or twice. If it always happens like this, Holden will be impatient. After all, he is a noble knight with the surname of Holden. He is always harassed by a group of mercenaries. Doesn't he lose face?

When the mercenaries came again to beg for prey, or even chased them across the border, Horton Knight would just drive them away.

All the animals that could escape here were large animals, and the mercenaries were definitely not willing to let them go, so they found Count Merovingian who was selling hunting rights and asked him to provide herbal prey.

The earl certainly couldn't handle such a small matter personally. He also wanted to save face, so he ordered the butler to handle the matter.

Usually, the stewards of big nobles also have titles, or were once nobles.

Facing such a little knight, he naturally looked down upon him, but the old housekeeper was a very sober person and knew what his family was like, so he had no right to let him show off.

He politely negotiated with Knight Horton and told the Merovingian family's difficulties, hoping that he would see that they were all nobles and could help each other and not embarrass the mercenaries.

Knight Horton was also a reasonable man, but it was not his family of knights but the entire hilly region that was affected, so he reported the matter to his lord, Viscount Horton.

Although Horton Zijie didn't like it, Molowenbo thought what he had done, but he still ordered all the border knights to rush over to these dying prey if they could, and if they couldn't catch them back, they would throw them on the border.

Let the mercenaries pick it up themselves.

This incident also turned Count Merovingian into a joke, and it spread out among the surrounding noble circles.

The speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional. Brian asked again.

"You are saying that Duke Holman is now deeply in debt. Do you know who exactly Count Merovingian owes money to?"

Horton Knight thought thoughtfully before answering.

"I don't know the details, but the one who can lend him money should be the Orr Chamber of Commerce, which controls business activities in this area.

Behind the Orr Chamber of Commerce is the powerful Duke of Bourbon, so we don’t have to worry about Count Merovingian defaulting on his debts. After all, he is a great nobleman with a history of thousands of years, and he still has some treasures in the family.”

After dinner, Brian asked the butler to bring him a detailed map of the northern part of the kingdom. He asked Knight Horton to explain in detail how the successive viscounts designed the canal.

How much of the Merovingian Earl's territory passed through?

Horton Knight studied the map in detail for a while and carefully drew a line.

From the map, it can be seen that the river section in the Merovingian Earldom accounts for about 1/3 of the entire canal.

No wonder Count Merovingian dared to ask for all the canal tax revenue. He really had the lifeblood of the canal in his hands.

But regardless of whether Earl Merovingian's territory can be navigable or not, Brian plans to build up this section of his territory first, at least to irrigate the northern hilly area.

Brian expressed his gratitude to Horton Knight for putting forward such constructive opinions, and Horton Knight also admitted that this was what he should do.

The originally tense atmosphere between the two had eased a lot after this day of running-in.

After Knight Horton left, Brian returned to his study and started writing a letter. One letter was to Aunt Lina in the royal capital. For things like building a canal, serfs in the territory would need to be recruited, and this would definitely require the approval of Aunt Lina, the real lord.

of.

In order for Aunt Lina to agree to her plan, she also promised to transfer all the tax revenue from the canal to her after deducting normal maintenance fees.

As for the maintenance fee, that is Brian's decision.

Another letter was written to his father, Duke Horsman.

In the letter, he wrote in detail about his plan for Lanesburg and the benefits of the construction of the canal to the viscounty.

I hope to use the family's influence to get Earl Merovingian to agree to cooperate.

If you agree to split the income from building the canal 50-50, but if you disagree, you won't get a single copper penny. I think anyone with a bit of normality will know how to choose.

If the other party doesn't even give the duke face and really can't handle it, then don't do it and directly acquire Earl Merovingian's debts.

Take the IOU and count the soldiers and horses, and collect the debt by force. Anyway, those 300 armored knights will not be used in vain. When the time comes, it will be up to Count Merovingian to choose whether to take land or money.

Of course, you should not go to that step unless necessary. It would hurt the face of the nobles and damage the reputation of the Horsman family.

Write the two letters and put them in the envelope, stamp them with your own magic seal, and today's work is done.

Before going to bed, Brian would take a look at the system's personal properties as usual.

Name: Brian Horsman.

Race: human

Age:18

Strength: Junior Knight

Occupation: Noble Lord (in charge)

Reputation: 22 (obscure)

Spouse: None

Demon Pet: None

Heirs: None

Comment: The young lord strives for his dream.

After a day of inspection, Brian's other attributes have not changed, but his evaluation has changed.

It seems that the system has also recognized Brian's actions today, proving that his actions are in the right direction.

It's just a pity that this system has neither a novice gift pack nor system tasks.
Chapter completed!