Reborn Dragon Vein Warlock, Genius Beauty Mage

Thanks to Christine's vigorous publicity, news of the wealth of Barony Stuart spread wider and wider.

Some of the freedmen who were unhappy with their lives in the original aristocratic territory because of the high tax rates also came to hear the news, and then they discovered that the Stewart Baron was really as rumored.

In fact, just because there are not so many excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the people have gained a lot of benefits, not to mention that the tax rate is at least 10% or at most 20% less than other lords.

Barony Stuart alone earns 5,000 gold coins a year from selling tea bricks. How many people do other lords have to earn to earn so much money?

Although Kristen lives a luxurious life and spends a lot of money studying at the Mages Guild, she is the only one in the Stewart family.

Which other aristocrat doesn't have several children, and their annuities, education expenses, carriages, horses and servants add up to a lot. Besides, don't the aristocratic couple themselves spend any money?

Baron Stewart's expansion of Port Salzo required a large amount of labor, and the more than 100 families of freedmen who moved here and there were simply not enough.

This reputation of wealth spread, and not only the nobles and free people were paying attention, but some thieves were also interested.

But the problem is that Christine has expanded the size of the standing soldiers in the territory, which has resulted in more soldiers guarding and patrolling Dragon Claw Town and some critical places.

Those thieves are at best third- and fourth-level professionals. After all, those who possess fighting spirit at the fifth level either loyal to the nobles and seek a knight's reward or operate in capitals or cities in various counties. They also look down on the little money in villages and towns.

Generally, formally trained militiamen are equivalent to first-level physics professionals, standing formal soldiers are second-level, squad leaders are third-level, and a few talented ones can reach fourth-level and become knight attendants.

Therefore, once these thieves who are less than fifth level are exposed, they are no match for many soldiers, let alone the cavalry in the territory.

Compared to their counterparts on land, pirates in Brittany are very rampant.

This is because the Kingdom of France is located in the middle of the mainland coastline, and ships going north and south must pass through it. And Brittany is a peninsula surrounded by sea on three sides, with many seaports, so pirates are naturally willing to rob in this area.

The navy of the Kingdom of France is actively engaged in eradication, but it is impossible to prevent thieves for a thousand days, let alone on the vast sea. Although it has achieved success, it cannot eradicate the scourge.

There are many groups of pirates, large and small. Among them, one group of pirates who calls themselves Redbeard Hull is considered a relatively large force, with three three-masted sailing ships, five two-masted sailing ships, and more than 500 people.

I found some pictures of British sailing boats online and got a rough idea of ​​them.

After learning that the Baron of Stuer was building the Mage Tower and expanding the Port of Salzo, Redbeard Hull summoned several pirates to join forces and rob the Port of Salzo.

Some people may be surprised. Salzuo Port is a larger village. Is it okay for you to have so many people robbing it? The construction of the mage tower requires the use of a lot of rare materials, but now even the main stone body has not been finished. The rare materials are kept in the territorial castle. Are you going to grab the stones?

Redbeard Hull naturally had his own reasons for doing this, because he sent people pretending to be sea merchants to conduct reconnaissance at Salzuo Port and mastered the information.

Most of the naval battles in this world are gang wars, and pirate ships also use stolen civilian ships. As long as it is not the distinctive pirate leaders and others disguised as merchants, there is no way to tell them apart.

From the information brought back by his subordinates, we learned that due to construction, Sarzuo Port had stored a large amount of building materials and tools. Stones and wood didn't matter, but those tools and nails were urgently needed by the pirates.

Pirates must have weapons to rob, and they also need tools and nails to repair ships, but they are in short supply of these.

Because the mines belonged to the nobility, they controlled the raw materials. On the mainland, ironware is a monopoly of nobles and is one of their important incomes.

Let alone ordinary people, they are not qualified to buy iron tools in large quantities. Even if the chamber of commerce purchases farm implements and tools in bulk, they must give a reasonable reason. As for weapons, what do you want from one merchant to buy so many? If caught, it would be impossible to deny it under the magic of lie detection.

In this case, adventurers, mercenary teams and other professionals can get themselves a set of equipment, but pirates will never be able to buy it in large quantities. The weapons they use now are all bought in small quantities at high prices on the black market, snatched from businessmen's guards during robberies, and fused iron farm tools and made them themselves.

In particular, large iron products exposed to sea salt and water vapor are more likely to rust and rot, and have a shorter service life.

According to reports from subordinates who went to inquire about the large amount of iron products stored in Salzuo Port, not only is it enough for everyone to forge a new weapon, but the remaining iron tools are enough for the entire pirate group to use for three years.

More importantly, they found out that there were a large number of copper bars stored in the Mage Tower construction site. Another form of copper they have seen too much is copper coins, which means they are all money.

In fact, these copper bars are materials used during the construction of the mage tower. They can not only increase the strength of the building but also serve as a channel for magical energy, so a batch of them must be stored at the construction site.

Under normal circumstances, having fifty soldiers guarding the construction site is already under strict supervision. After all, there are fifty soldiers and thirty militiamen at the port who can provide support at any time.

But there were more than a thousand pirates gathered by Red Beard Hull. He felt that even if the weapons and equipment were not very good, they could take down Port Salzuo with a pile of people.

His plan was also very simple, which was to send four ships disguised as caravans and dock at the port until night before taking action.

Others took boats and parked not far from the coastline first, and waited for the boats to approach when it was getting dark. The pirates either took small boats or swam ashore. After all, the hills where the Mage Tower was built were very close to the coastline.

The reason why we do it at night is because there is an elf mage in charge of the construction of the mage tower during the day. When the mage is there, you don't dare to rob. Even if there are many pirates, the mage can't kill them, but if a few ships are sunk, at least half of them can't escape. Lost.

After dark, even pirates who deal with ships every day dare not enter the Salzuo Port. If they accidentally hit the rocks, they will be blamed.

As for why the pirates were not hidden in the cabin, it was because after the ship docked, tax officials would come on board to inspect the goods and collect taxes. If someone is hiding and is discovered immediately, then it will be no different from a force attack.

Several other pirate leaders all agreed with Redbeard Hull's plan. After all, among pirates with average prenatal education, Hull, who was the second son of a small businessman family, was said to be a highly knowledgeable talent.

Just as he said, Red Beard Hull immediately chose more than a hundred decent-looking pirates to dress up as three caravans, and drove a three-masted sailboat and three brigantine sailing ships to the port of Salzuo.