Imperial Crown

Anthony's letter recommending Raven was sent from Nord Province to the capital.

Not long after, another letter also written by Anthony was handed over to Raven's desk by Old Gordon.

After opening the envelope and taking it out, Raven was immediately amused and threw it aside.

"Master, is there anything wrong with this letter?" Old Gordon asked.

"Read it yourself." Raven said.

Pushing his monocle, Old Gordon picked up the letter and looked at it, his expression also became strange:

"Master, I'm sorry I can't maintain my dignity. Has our governor not taken medicine recently?"

This is because Old Gordon is well-mannered enough. If it were someone else, he would have scolded him.

Because Anthony mentioned in this letter that in order to ensure the stability of Nord Province, he hoped that Raven could take the initiative to "donate generously" and provide at least 30 million pounds of food to the Governor's Office to show the unity of the whole province.

The grain carts were eye-catching. Raven had obtained a large amount of grain. This kind of thing could not be concealed. Anthony was not the first noble to ask Raven for grain, and he would not be the last.

But such a high price was really too much.

30 million pounds of grain was enough to keep 100,000 people alive for a year!

"... Master, what should we do?" Old Gordon asked tentatively.

Seeing Old Gordon's expression, Raven smiled slightly: "You should have an idea. Tell me."

Old Gordon nodded and said: "I think, no matter how bad the content is, this letter is from the Governor after all."

"Next, I will write a reply letter on behalf of you, saying that we don't have so much grain, and then in the autumn tax, the grain part will be doubled. What do you think?"

Raven's territory is expected to harvest about 60 million pounds of grain this year, of which about 36 million pounds will be collected. According to the imperial tax, about 7 million pounds will be handed over, and if it is doubled, it will be 14 million pounds.

For Raven, who had some food in hand, it was not unacceptable.

"It is indeed a mature and prudent plan." Raven nodded.

"Then, shall I do it?"

"No, I can reply to the letter, but I won't give him any food."

"But, sir, he is the governor after all..."

"So what?"

This question stumped old Gordon, and then he gradually realized.

Yes, so what if he is the governor?

If Raven doesn't give Anthony food, what can he do?

No, absolutely nothing.

Now everyone in the Nord Province is short of food. In order to please His Majesty the King, Anthony has not followed the convention to reduce taxes, which has caused great dissatisfaction.

At this time, if Anthony uses the authority of the governor again and forcibly demands food from Raven, it will inevitably cause other nobles to feel insecure, and the prestige that is already in jeopardy may collapse overnight.

Anthony cannot bear such consequences.

"But, taxes, are you really not going to pay?" Old Gordon swallowed his saliva: "That's against the laws of the empire."

"Gold coins can be paid." Raven said: "We will convert the grain into taxes according to the annual grain prices in the past - that is, less than 1,000 gold coins."

"He wants me to be the first to do this, so I will do it in a different way."

Anthony sent this letter to Raven in the hope that Raven would set an example and "fully support this war."

But if Raven really did this, he would inevitably become an enemy of the nobles in the province.

Since Anthony is greedy and doesn't care about Raven's life or death, there is no need for Raven to flatter him.

Not paying grain is telling Anthony with practical actions -

Even if I am just a baron, you can't control me at will!

"If you have nothing else, draft a letter for me. Be polite." Raven took out a thick stack of documents from the drawer. "By the way, give this to Hyena Wheeler and ask him to take it to the forge and hand it over to Sohei in person."

"Yes, sir."

Old Gordon took the order and withdrew, handing the document to Hyena, who then galloped to the forge.

Now the forge is busy making all kinds of weapons and equipment for the recruits, working in full swing and at full power.

Several large chimneys are emitting black smoke, and when you get close, you can still smell the sour smell of sulfur.

The factory is heavily guarded. Not only are there two teams of 100 people guarding the inside, but there are also Hawkeye guards patrolling the door at all times, and any suspicious person will be taken down immediately.

Hyena is Raven's chief guard, and this time he came on business, but even so, he still underwent a detailed body search, and after entering the factory, his route was strictly restricted.

Especially, they are not allowed to touch the second isolated workshop.

"Has it been half a year?" The hyena couldn't help his curiosity: "What on earth is being tinkered with in there?"

The gray dwarf leading the way was named Fabin. Hearing this, he screamed: "Hey, it's confidential, confidential, understand? Even I, the supervisor, don't know what's in there, so don't ask around!"

"I can hear it, Binxi, don't be so loud." The hyena covered his ears and said.

"I've said it many times, my name is Fabin, not Binxi!" Fabin was very dissatisfied.

"Oh, really?" The hyena scratched his neck and pointed to another gray dwarf not far away: "Isn't he called Fabin?"

"That's..." Fabin rolled his eyes and gave up the argument: "Well, in the eyes of you guys on the ground, we gray dwarves all look the same, right?"

The hyena coughed awkwardly, which was regarded as acquiescence.

Fabin was speechless for a while, and then asked after a while: "Then how do you distinguish Bowell and Sohei? Even in the eyes of us gray dwarves, the two of them look similar."

"There are different levels of blackness."

"ha?"

"Just, you know the kind of sunglasses issued by Hawkeye guards, right? Bowell is that kind of black; So black, it's more like a burnt potato."

"ha?"

Fabin didn't understand that the same person could be hacked in different ways.

But when he saw Sohei and Buvel, he still had to admit that what the hyena said made sense.

Bowell is shiny and black, while Sohei is a bit... well, dull.

It was the first time that Fabin could distinguish compatriots in this way. Fabin felt a little dizzy: "Hey, two heads, I brought them here, so I'll leave first."

He wanted to find an angel's light to shine on him to see what kind of black magic he was.

But while walking, he suddenly jumped up and slapped himself.

Confused!

The biggest difference between Sohei and Buvier is that Sohei has a beard! ?

This sudden move made the hyena a little confused: "What's wrong with Binsi?"

"Maybe he drank too much bad wine." Bowell said, "Don't worry about him. You are here to deliver something. Just leave it to me."

"This is what the Baron has designated to be handed over to Sohei," the hyena said.

"Did you see it? Leave it to me!" Sohei elbowed Bovel aside, took the document from the hyena's hand and started to look through it: "By the way, the big ax you customized will take some time. I recently came up with a new idea."

The hyena shrugged: "You forge it, you decide. Anyway, what I get in the end is a good weapon."

As he said that, he leaned closer to Suo Hei and probed, wanting to see what was written on the document.

Bowell's head squeezed in: "Let me see, you don't even know a few words, why are you joining in the fun?"

The hyena pouted and walked aside.

He really couldn't understand it anyway.

Suo Hei stroked his beard with one hand. Doubts slowly began to accumulate in his red eyes. His fingers stopped on page 3 of the document, reluctant to turn the page.

"Why are you reading so slowly..." Bowell said, turning the page for Sohey.

Then Suo Hei opened his arms with a snap: "Don't make trouble for me."

"You!" Bowell was about to argue, but Sohei glared at him and suppressed him.

Bowell had no choice but to stop and stand aside with his arms folded glumly, sighing silently.

Originally, he and Sohei jointly led this group of gray dwarves, but as time passed, their status slowly changed.

Buvier opened a jewelry store of his own, but business has been very bad. The high-end jewelry he made could not be sold at all, and he was always losing money, which made him deeply immersed in self-doubt.

Sohei is completely different.

From the moment he forged the "best sword in the world", he seemed to have been inspired by something, and his forging skills improved rapidly.

And after transforming the hand crossbow and creating mithril soft armor for the lord, his forged fighting spirit directly broke through to the second level.

After this time, the weapons Suohei forged became more and more ingenious, and he gradually became the go-to person in the factory.

Even Bovel had to admit that Sohei seemed to have won the love of the Forge Lord.

The Eagle Feather Sword and the Eagle Eye Half Armor are both independently designed by Sohei and have received unanimous praise and praise.

Today, Sohei no longer serves Raven just because of the existence of the contract. He explores and opens up his own forging path here, and is truly addicted to forging.

"Bowell, come here and take a look." Suohe suddenly said.

"Ha, now you know how to call me." Bowell said in a nonchalant manner, but still walked to Sohei: "What's going on?"

"Read it for yourself first, and then we'll talk about it after you've finished reading it." With that said, Sohei thrust the document into Buvel's hands.

For him who is not good at words, this is an apology.

Although he and Bovel would quarrel when they were together, as a partner who broke out from the dark area together, Sohey still valued Bovel.

Recently, he has also noticed a change in his temper, and he is increasingly unable to allow others to dictate the casting of weapons.

This is not good, but it cannot be changed.

Suo Hei had a vague feeling that he was about to touch the legendary "wall of masterpieces" and was about to create his first masterpiece that would be handed down from generation to generation.

But he could never catch that glimmer of inspiration, so he became more and more impatient.

"Genius..." Bowell's voice was a little excited: "A work of genius! How did our lord come up with this!?"

This document is strictly a blueprint.

Prosthetic limb design.

In the design concept, this kind of prosthetic limb has built-in magic crystal, which can be operated and used through Dou Qi. If the craftsmanship is sophisticated enough, it can be almost indistinguishable from ordinary human limbs.

If made from the right materials, it's even better than the original limb for most people.

At least steel doesn't bleed.

"This design is perfect." Bowell frowned and asked, "What do you want me to see?"

Sohei turned to the sixth page of the design: "I want to change this structure."

Then, he talked about his modification ideas.

"Hiss..." After listening to Sohei's imagination, Boweier took a breath: "This involves the change of core use. If there is a mistake, the whole design will be completely scrapped."

"Are you really going to do this?"

"Of course." Sohei said seriously: "I have a hunch that this is the right thing to do!"

Boweier was a little worried and looked at the hyena: "Did the Baron tell me anything else?"

"No, he just asked me to send this thing." The hyena said indifferently: "If you don't have any questions, I will go back and report."

Sohei nodded and said firmly: "Go, tell the Baron that if I change the design without authorization and cause property losses, I am willing to bear it all."

Hyena returned to Eagle City and repeated the dispute between Sohei and Boweier, as well as Sohei's last words.

After hearing this, Raven just laughed it off and did not interfere.

The newly designed prosthesis cannot be completed overnight, and time is still passing.

It's strange.

The ground was just eaten bare by locusts the year before, but in the summer, cicadas still chirped tirelessly.

They seemed to be driven by something in the dark, and they returned on time every summer.

This year's rain was quite abundant. Although the locusts ate the surface plants, they also left a lot of feces and corpses. The fertility of the land was supplemented to a certain extent, so that the grain in the land grew surprisingly well this year.

It was June, and there were still two months before the grain was harvested, but the tax reduction that the nobles were looking forward to had not come, but another fact was obtained: Anthony took the initiative to express his determination to His Majesty the King that the Nord Province did not need tax exemption.

This attracted unanimous complaints from the nobles.

Just when Raven was about to be the first to speak out again, Viscount John took the lead in making a statement-

There was a shortage of food in the territory, and people had already begun to starve to death. His Newsno Territory had no food to hand over this year!

With Viscount John taking the lead, the nobles of Nord Province responded one after another, starting with Mansa County where John was, followed by Wert, Bell, Arag...

Until it gradually spread throughout the province.

Earl Tyrone only came out to say some bland words, and obviously did not intend to stand on Anthony's side.

In the end, Anthony had to order in the name of the governor to "generously" cancel the in-kind tax in this year's tax collection.

"This is called public outrage is hard to offend."

Raven, who received the news, had an undisguised smile on his face and tapped his fingers on the table.

"It's time."

"Hyena, let Simon come to see me."

...