Chapter 3 Genius? Moron?
Du Yu looked at the account book in his hand, which recorded the grains that he had just harvested in his territory this month. Generally speaking, it was still not bad. This year's rain was abundant, so the harvest was thirty percent more than in previous years, but this didn't make Du Yu’s heart happy,
"Is the food useful?" Du Yu still remembered seeing the new grain being stored in the warehouse a few days ago, when the tax collector of the house opened the warehouse door, a smell of mildew from grains rushed to his face. In front of him, piles of grain bags made of hemp were piled up like a hill. With three different colors, he could tell that the three layers of grains were from different years.
The granary guard pointed to the grain pile and said, "the top is the grain from last year, the middle is from the last two or three years, and the bottom is hard to tell." The granary guard said with an embarrassed face. "because we always take grains from the top, no one knows how long the grain at the bottom has been stored here. But the food in the castle granary is enough for the people in the castle to eat for three years.”
Du Yu looked at the bags of new grain being piled on the old grain again, feeling very helpless. Realm of The Falcon was a grain-producing area in the traditional sense. This had led to the fact that the economy in the territory relied too much on agriculture, and there was almost no commercial economy. It was a typical rural economy. Because the territory was divided into several pieces, and the taxes in several small towns were not very high. It was only a mere three thousand gold coins. If it were not for the fact that his knights had already run away, this money was not enough to provide pay for the knights. The account book showed that every year, half of the food stocked in the castle had to be shipped out and sold to fill this big financial hole.
Thinking about the knights that they had spent a lot of money to keep, but they escaped without a trace when the family was in the most difficult time, Du Yu couldn't help but feel disgusted by those knights.
Seeing his young master frown, the Tax Collector nervously said, “every village has heard that there is a reward, so they have gathered two hundred young men already. Some hunters in the mountains have also joined. Lady Kelly Moore’s family has already agreed to use the bustling town of Ekari to exchange for her safety, this also allows us to increase our income by one thousand gold coins, otherwise..." The tax collector stopped with an anxious face.
"Mountain hunters?" Du Yu, who was looking at the account book, stopped working. In fact, Du Yu couldn't understand what was written in the account book. Those complicated numbers and hundreds of merchants made Du Yu feel dizzy. His pretending to look through the account book was just to intimidate the tax collector, so that the tax collector would not steal from him.
The tax collector saw the lord take away his attention from the account book, he was secretly relieved. "yes, there are thirty-eight mountain hunters who are willing to participate in the war. These barbarians like to run around in the mountains, and they used to run away as soon as they heard of the levy. This time they ran back because he saw the lord’s notice."
It was impossible to fully guarantee that there was no problem with the account book. As a hereditary tax collector, Nard Starr believed that he was much more honest than many of his peers. He just concealed some smaller transactions. Although the money was not much, it was enough for his own expenses. He was old. How to safely hand this position to his son was his biggest concern right now.
Du Yu closed the account book on the table, not counting the three thousand gold coins which were needed for the daily expenses, there were more than one thousand left, which was enough for the reward for this expedition. This made Du Yu who had been worried about not having enough gold coins finally relieved.
He raised his head and rubbed his sore neck. After reading the account book, he had a certain understanding of a lord’s income. What determined the income of a lord’s income was the road tax and the town head tax in his own territory. Others such as the income from the looting of the enemy lords, the ransom of the hostages, and the king’s rewards were some uncertain numbers.
The economic area of the kingdom was in the middle of the royal capital, and the northern territory where border trade was popular. It was said that the lords there not only had their own caravans, but also established a huge smuggling network. They were the keenest on having a war. The various special products and women of the barbarians were the source of their wealth. For remote areas in the south like Falcon House, in order to be rich, apart from a fixed tax, they could only loot enemies and take their lands.
"What is this account book!” Du Yu put the account book heavily on the table with dissatisfaction, scared the tax collector to a shiver.
Du Yu looked at the scared tax collector and asked, “you want your son to take your place? Bring him here. I need to meet my future tax collector."
Soon, the fat tax collector Nard Starr led a dashing young man into the hall. Du Yu didn't expect that the fat tax collector would have such a dashing son. Unfortunately, the boy's right foot was obviously a little lame.
Du Yu looked at his new tax officer curiously and asked, "are you the son of my tax collector, Thun Starr? I heard from your father that you used to be a squire and serve the Marquis Cuscuna for a year. Why do you suddenly want to be a tax collector? Being a knight is more promising than being a tax collector."
Looking at Du Yu who was sitting in the lord’s seat in the hall, the young man’s heart suddenly sank. Du Yu's sharp eyes seemed to be able to see him thoroughly, making him feel a sense of depression. ‘Is this lord really an idiot like the rumor says? How can a person with such eyes be an idiot?’
The young man had an unnatural expression. "My lord, I used to be an archer squad leader under the Marquis Cuscuna, but in last year’s battle, I was shot in the right knee by the people of Khuzait. So I had to come back." Thinking of his bloody fighting, but not being appreciated by the lord, Thun Starr's dashing face dimmed, and his hands were tightly clenched into fists.
Du Yu looked at the resentment and anger on the young man's face and waved to the tax collector and his son. "You may leave first. Since you used to be a squire, you can be my adjutant for the time being. Tomorrow, gather all the two hundred soldiers who have been recruited in the castle. I will personally conduct the training!"
...
Early in the morning, after Du Yu came down from the mountain, he saw a crowd of people gathered in the middle of his castle. There was a young man riding his horse around the field outside the hall. It was Thun Starr, the son of the tax collector. He swiftly swung his sword from side to side on the horseback. The light of the sword was like a chain of light.
The head of the scarecrow used as the training target was easily cut off by Thun Starr's impressive sword technique, which attracted applause from the peasant soldiers standing around.
‘If the knight who rushed into the hall that day was riding on a warhorse, I wonder if I still have a chance to stand here?’ Du Yu saw that Thun Starr, who was just a squire, possessed such an impressive sword technique, he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of power the regular knights with a sharp spear, carrying a two-handed sword, and wearing full-body heavy armor would have.
No wonder the kingdom’s main combat force was still knights, and cheap cannon fodder troops dominated by peasants would not be able to compete with these war machines that had practiced killing since they were young.
"My lord, what do you think of these new recruits?" The experienced old butler was not impressed by the show-offs of the young Thun Starr. As an old man who had served a knight family all his life, these show-offs were nothing but fancy plays. The task of recruiting soldiers this time was what the old butler cared about the most.
Du Yu looked at the assembled peasant soldiers. Most of them were young. They had various weapons in their hands, ranging from rakes for farming tools to butcher knives for killing pigs. When they saw him coming, although all of them tried to show an energetic look, the long-term malnutrition still left obvious traces on their faces and bodies.
Their hairs were messy like chicken nests, their faces were pale, and the whole formation looked disordered. Du Yu frowned slightly. ‘How can such forces fight anyone? Probably Thun Starr can defeat them all alone!’
"Sigh, this is hopeless..." Du Yu sighed. This was the army that he gathered using money. But soon, dozens of archers wearing various animal leathers on the right side attracted his attention.
Although these people were relatively skinny, they had a thick and muscular right arm and sharp eyes. These should be the mountain hunters of the various villages that the tax collector talked about. These people looked more like an army, but the animal skin on them made Du Yu first think of "Rambo"
‘There are thirty-three Rambo! Very good, very powerful.’ Du Yu cheered himself up in his mind. He then waved to the guards who were pushing a cart full of weapons behind him. "Take out all the weapons from the warehouse. I can’t let my army fight without weapons."
This time Du Yu took out two hundred weapons from the castle’s warehouse to equip his first army. As a veteran knight house, he might lack something else, but he didn’t lack any weapons. The warehouse was full of weapons that they had looted from their enemies over the years. There were about a thousand pieces, it seemed that even if the Falcon House had become fat hen now, it still had some bones left.
The peasants were curiously surrounding the cart full of weapons. Several peasants curiously picked up a dagger and waved it pretentiously. Their originally excited expression disappeared. "My lord, isn’t this a bit too short? Those are short swords for archers. If we use them, we will be killed before we even touch anyone.”
The entire cart was stacked with this kind of short sword and chest-high shield that was used to siege a castle. These were armors that were for archers on the battlefield. They couldn’t use those weapons and armors to face the enemy head-on. If they ran into an impacting cavalry, the opponent's spear could stab them from three meters away.
As the adjutant, Thun Starr also curiously picked up a dagger from the cart, waved it a few times, and then looked at other things on the car, his face turned ugly.
"First unload all the equipment on the cart." Du Yu waved to everyone. The shaking fat on his face made Thun Starr more sure of his conjecture. ‘This is bad! This lord is really an idiot. I was completely blinded by the money.’
Du Yu looked at the dumbfounded soldiers around him. He took a tall wooden shield with his left hand, and held a wooden dagger in his right hand. Then he waved his hand to Thun Starr who was still in a daze. “Come, let's have a try at sparring.”
Thun Starr hesitated. In the end, he took a wooden spear from the weapon rack behind.
Du Yu rushed forward swiftly, pressing Thun Starr with the spear in front of him with the big shield.
“Bang!”
The three-meter-long spear in Thun Starr’s hand was blocked by the shield at the first blow, and there was no chance for him to stab the spear forward. It was even more impossible for him to sweep with the long spear, so he could only reluctantly retreat until he reached the wall. He gritted his teeth and watched the shield sway in front of him, but he couldn't do anything to it. Because Du Yu had already rushed to within one meter with the cover of the big shield.
Everyone looked at all of this intently, and everyone could see that within this short distance, the short sword in Du Yu's hand was absolutely deadly. Its movement required only a small space, and it could kill Thun Starr before the shield easily.
The peasants who had been laughing and joking saw Thun Starr who was still awe-inspiring earlier being knocked down by the idiot lord with such a despicable, but very effective method, they all stopped laughing.
Everyone discovered that the short sword with a large shield was so dangerous! Even the knight Thun Starr was driven into desperation by this tactic.
Quickly approach the enemy with a large shield, shorten the distance and give the enemy a fatal blow with a short sword. In a highly intensive melee, the Roman infantry phalanx with a large shield for self-defense, javelins, short swords and other close combat weapons for offense, was like a sharp sword hidden in the dark, it could give an enemy a fatal blow at any time.
This formation had once left a deep impression in Du Yu’s mind, and it was also the purpose of Du Yu’s training this time. The javelins were being made by the blacksmith in the castle. Two hundred people could form a small square formation. At that time, this special unit would definitely be able to give their enemy a pleasant surprise.
Du Yu threw the short sword and big shield on the ground "In one month, you will be on the battlefield. If you still want to come back alive to get the reward, mastering this is your only opportunity." When the peasant soldiers looked at the weapons again, there was a kind of fanaticism in their eyes instead of disdain they had shown earlier.
A knight for a gold coin, and a lord for a piece of land. It was very tempting, but many farmers came here for a third reward, a head for a silver coin. Although the previous two rewards were very attractive, these farmers didn't think that they would be able to kill those heavily armored killing machines.
But Du Yu’s demonstration just now made these goals that farmers felt remote and unreachable suddenly become within reach. The ambitions in their hearts were jumping vigorously. Glory, gold coins, and land! Many farmers hurriedly jumped into the cart to choose the weapon they wanted. Thun Starr, who was leaning on the wall, looked at the back of Du Yu who turned and left, and felt panic, "Is this man a genius, or a moron"
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