After resting all night in the hotel, Art went to the official room of the Lord's Hall early the next morning to wait for Viscount Pierre's summons.

Ron has relayed the words of Viscount Pierre to Art. As a palace guard knight and patrol officer, although Art is not under the control of Viscount Pierre, he is the palace and the Marquis who exercise royal power in Tinets after all.

Representative, so Art had no choice but to bite the bullet and listen to the training.

But after meeting Art, Pierre didn't show too much blame.

"Art, I know that you are doing business out of helplessness. After all, the land entrusted to you by the palace is too barren, and it is understandable for you to make a living on your own. But the premise of all this is that you can remember and be faithful to your responsibilities. You have just been here

You have won some victories in the suppression of bandits in the south. At this time, you should lead your soldiers to pursue the victory and completely eliminate the banditry in the county."

Art sat down and listened carefully, nodding his head in agreement with an extremely respectful attitude.

"Lord Viscount, I understand what you are saying. But my soldiers need to eat and drink, they need to be equipped with weapons and armor, they need to be paid military salaries, they need treatment for their injuries, and they need rewards for their meritorious service. All of these need to be supported by money. Besides, I have already

Leave the main force of the army in the south to continue to clear out the remaining bandits."

"At the end of May, when we wiped out the largest group of bandits in the county, more than 20 of my soldiers were killed and seriously injured, and almost everyone who survived was injured. These soldiers who died in the battle need to comfort their families, and the seriously injured soldiers need to be comforted.

They need treatment, the surviving soldiers need battle rewards to cheer them up, and the weapons and armor damaged in the battle need to be replenished. What you see is how many bandits my soldiers killed, but you don’t see how much money I need to spend every day."

"I know you want to say that I can lower the soldiers' pay and recruit cheap homeless farmers to act as soldiers. But such a group of miscellaneous soldiers can only carry farm tools and pretend to be brave. How can they defeat those bloodthirsty bandits?

"Lord Viscount, just by looking at the county garrison you trained, I know that you are a nobleman who is proficient in military affairs. You should know how much it costs to train a group of elite soldiers. The county garrison has the tax and tax of the entire county.

The palace's military expenditure is less than 200 to train elite soldiers. If I don't make some money by doing business, how can I feed my soldiers and fulfill the duties of patrolling the border and security assigned to me by the palace."

"If the court or Tyniec County can allocate sufficient food, military supplies, weapons and armor to me, I will definitely be able to concentrate on completing my mission."

Viscount Pierre originally wanted to call Art to reprimand him and let him focus on killing the bandits, which would also solve a serious problem in the palace. However, he didn't want this guy to just come up and complain about what Pierre didn't say.

I held it back all my life.

"You don't need to call me poor every time you see me. The palace asked Tyniec County to provide you with money, food, supplies, weapons and armor, but I didn't deduct half a copper coin from you. Recently, you have also collected bandit suppression taxes from various parts of the county.

Fu, I have never asked you for more than half of the war profits obtained by Fenney's suppression of bandits. Moreover, you found this position of patrol officer on your own, and now you are complaining to me about your poverty."

Art was speechless when Pierre said this, and the two of them fell into silence for a while in front of and behind the office table.

After a while, Viscount Pierre broke the silence and said, "In addition to reminding you not to forget your duties as a patrol officer, I also have two things to tell you."

"The first thing is that the palace has responded to your military exploits in suppressing bandits in the south last month. The palace minister of security was very happy after learning about your record of "killing nearly a hundred bandits" and reported to the palace to allocate two thousand fen to you.

Ni's military reward, but when it arrived in Tyniec, only one thousand pfennigs were left. You don't need to ask me why half of it was missing. I can only say that I will give whatever the higher ups sent me.

You. In addition, the palace wrote your achievements in newspapers and spread them around the country, and your reputation grew."

Pierre said as he picked up a money bag and a newspaper from the table and threw them to Art.

Art took the money bag and put it in his arms without even looking at it, then unfolded the sheepskin newspaper and read it.

"In May, the southern border patrol officer Art Wood Wells led his troops to eliminate bandits and killed nearly a hundred thugs. The palace rewarded him generously." Art read an inconspicuous short line at the end of the palace newspaper.

"A generous reward? One thousand pfennigs is not enough to compensate the families of the soldiers who died in the battle." Art expressed his dissatisfaction with the stinginess of the palace.

"It's two thousand pfennigs." Viscount Pierre corrected Art.

Art sneered and put the newspaper back on the table.

Viscount Pierre ignored Art's mood and continued: "The second thing is to give you advice. You are just a newly promoted knight, but as far as I know, you have more than fifty elite soldiers, and I

I heard that you still have a large number of peasant soldiers in training in your territory. Together with patrol soldiers and border guards, this force is already half a baron’s standing army. I don’t care what you do to feed these dozens or hundreds.

Open your mouth, what I care about is how you can let the lords around you sleep peacefully. I am now managing Tyniec County on behalf of the palace, and I do not want turmoil and fighting among the lords in the county."

"In addition, I heard that you have recently detained passing caravans at the border. Although the territory of Stone Bridge on the border is a fief granted to you by the palace, it is not appropriate to intercept the caravans, right? And the caravans you impounded mostly carry

They are goods from the South traveling north. Do you know who are the people behind these caravans? Have you thought carefully about it?"

Art did not expect that the expansion of his power had begun to have negative effects, but this was an inevitable thing during the expansion. "Thank you, Lord Viscount, for your kind advice. I know what every step I take means."

Pierre felt that he had said enough, and often he would just be a calm bystander.

"It's good that you know yourself. In addition, you and the caravan you are bringing with you should sleep with your eyes open for some time to come."

"Jerry, send Sir Art away for me."

............

Returning to the hotel from the lord's hall, the caravan manager Salt has already led everyone to load all the goods into the car and stand ready.

Art walked up to Salt and ordered: "Go ahead and tell all the caravan guards to sleep with their eyes open from today on."

Then he turned to Ron and Felix, who were approaching, and ordered: "You two select a few smart and brave guards who can ride horses from the convoy to form two sentry groups, and take turns patrolling within two miles of the convoy.

, if you find any abnormality, send the alarm on Pegasus."

"Where's LaVine? LaVine!" Art yelled at LaVine, the deputy steward who was checking the cargo loading.

Raven quickly ran to Art's side.

"Laven, starting from today, every day when you light a fire for cooking at noon and when you camp at night, you will take your guards to form a caravan formation, just like the formation in the birch forest in the south. During the day, Ron and Fei

Lix will be responsible for exploring the road, and you will be responsible for the sentry position at night. You are from the legion, and all sentry duties must be done in accordance with the legion's requirements."

"Yes! Sir."

............

Since leaving Tyniec County, the convoy led by Art has been cautious all the way. However, there have been no bandits attacking or people with evil intentions eyeing the convoy along the way north.

After walking like this for five days without any danger, Art finally encountered a vicious wolf showing its fangs in an autonomous city called Engelberg in the south of Lucese.

Engelberg is one of the few fully autonomous cities in the county. Since it is close to Lucerne and the business is not prosperous, Art has never paid attention to this city, which is not much larger than the county town of Tyniec.

But this is where the trouble starts.

Early the next morning when they were stationed outside the city, the convoy camp was surrounded by more than thirty city guards who rushed out of the city.

The leader was a guy who claimed to be the city tax officer. He claimed that Art's convoy did not take the initiative to pay the newly promulgated commercial tax to Engelberg City, so he was ordered to come and collect the commercial tax.

Art has walked on this road many times and once brought a caravan through here. In the past, as long as the caravan did not enter the city, Engelberg did not have the authority to collect commercial taxes.

"My convoy has not entered the city, why should I pay commercial tax to you?" Salter argued with the sheriff who came to "tax".

"If you passed here three days ago, you really don't need to collect commercial taxes, but bandits have been rampant recently. In order to protect passing business travelers, the consul just issued a decree three days ago. Starting from two days ago, as long as you pass through Engelberg City,

The southern goods caravans and the surrounding half-mile radius are all protected by the city of Engelberg. Of course, you have to pay commercial taxes to accept the protection. Otherwise, how can we support the army to protect you caravans?"

As he spoke, the tax officer pointed back at the dozens of armored and armed city guard soldiers surrounding the convoy. His meaning was very clear. If the convoy did not take the initiative to pay, they would use force to collect the money.

Salter looked at the dozens of vicious soldiers around him and knew that the other party must have come prepared, and that they were coming for this convoy.

"Sir, what do you think?" Salter turned to Art, who had been silent, and asked quietly.

Art whispered a few words to Raven, the deputy steward of the caravan, then stepped forward and looked at the arrogant tax collector, and asked: "How much did the Dean family give you?"

"You don't care how much money he gave me!" The tax officer suddenly let it slip and quickly changed his words: "I mean no one gave me money, I was just following orders."

"Acting on orders? The consuls in Engelberg City are not stupid enough to change the laws enacted by the citizens' assembly at will. The autonomous area given to Engelberg City by the palace is within the city walls, and the territory of the Marquis of the city outside the city walls. How dare you take the city without permission?

The army came out to rob the caravan? Have you seen clearly who the owner of this caravan is?" Art's tone was low, but his tone was very strong.

The tax officer didn't expect that the reckless man in Dean's mouth actually knew the boundaries of the citizens' assembly and the autonomous city. He lost his aura and became arrogant, "Just tell me whether you want to pay the commercial tax or not! My soldiers are already waiting.

I’m getting impatient!”

This is a clear steal.

Just when Art attracted the attention of the tax officer, Raven and Ron Felix had returned to the convoy, gathered the caravan guards together and quietly took out the weapons in the car.

Art took out a deerskin money bag from his arms, picked up the money bag and shook it, the silver coins in the money bag jingled and made an attractive crunching sound.

The tax officer thought that Art had given up defeat when he saw that his army was outnumbered, so he stared at the heavy bag of money in Art's hand.

"Then Mr. Tax Officer, how much commercial tax should I pay?" Art asked with a smile.

The tax official was already sure to win, and the other party knew the general situation quite well, so he replied in a slow tone: "Seeing that you have a good attitude, I will not pay the fine for your tax arrears this time. Seeing that you have a lot of carriages, I will pay it."

Five thousand pfennigs in business tax."

"What? Five thousand pfennigs!!!!" Salt instantly became furious after hearing the tax officer's words.

Art waved his hand to stop Salt, lowered his head and slowly searched for it in his money bag for a long time, pulled out the shabbiest copper pfennig and threw it to the ground.

"Take the money and get out of here." Art stared at the tax collector coldly.

The tax official looked at the old copper pfennig on the ground, his face turned purple.

"Bastard, you think I'm a refugee!!!" the tax official pointed at Art's nose and cursed.

"If you were a refugee, I would consider giving you another one."

"A bunch of desperate bastards, today I will teach you to respect the strong. Come on!" the tax official ordered the city soldiers around him to take down the convoy.

At the moment when the tax official shouted the order, the driver of the motorcade instantly drew his weapon from the carriage, and relied on the carriage to form a formation to confront the city soldiers.

The city soldiers were frightened by the sudden turn of events and stopped moving forward.

The tax official also didn't expect why the unarmed coachmen suddenly turned into soldiers and stared blankly at the convoy in front of them.

"You~you~do you want to resist the law? Aren't you afraid of being punished?"

"Being sanctioned? You should be sanctioned, Lord Tax Collector. A tax collector led his army out of the city to rob a baron's caravan without the permission of the consul and the constable. If you kill several more cities in a while,
To be continued...