Reborn: Imperial Officer Promotion Guide

The carriage passed through the unguarded archway and entered the town.

The entire town almost became a refugee camp, with almost no buildings to shelter from the wind and rain.

Everywhere you look, you see tents made of rags.

Wooden barrels and basins were placed under the tent, and damp straw was spread on the wooden boards as a bed.

The naked little child was squatting in the tent, his body covered in dirt, and he was reaching out to pick up earthworms from the mud on the ground to eat.

Their parents may have fled or died.

The other tents weren't much better.

Many women holding babies were dressed in rags, looked malnourished, and could not even squeeze out a few drops of milk to feed their children.

There were even some skinny women selling their bodies in the tents just for a few pieces of black bread.

Even so, few people patronize it.

Everyone was very hungry and there was no more food to be taken out.

The mothers had no milk, so they put their children in wooden barrels. They didn't cry or make a fuss. No one knew whether they fell asleep or were too hungry to cry.

Or maybe he has already died.

There are hardly any young and able-bodied laborers in the town.

Those who were able to move had either already fled or were currently working outside the city.

Thanks to the fact that it is summer now, the weather is not cold.

If they were in the North, this weak group of people might not survive more than a few days due to the cold and hunger.

The carriage whizzed through the town.

Ling tried several times to distribute the food on the carriage to the refugees she met along the way, but was stopped by Hull.

"The little food we have can only save them temporarily. If we want to..."

Before Hull could finish his words, Goliath had already picked up a large bag filled with rations prepared for the journey.

He jumped directly from the moving carriage and walked towards a tent.

The woman in the tent looked at the tall Goliath in front of her and the bundle with a few pieces of bread in Goliath's hand, and immediately forced a smile on her face.

"Traveler... Two pieces of brown bread... I can keep you happy for half an hour... How about that... Pretty cheap, right?"

It can be seen that she tried her best to show her charm as a woman, but hunger had already made her eye sockets sunken.

It's like a skeleton covered with human skin. How can it be charming at all?

Goliath took two pieces of bread from the package, and the woman saw that it was not brown bread.

It's white bread bought from a real bakery!

Unlike black bread, it was sweet. The woman had long forgotten what sweet tasted like, but now she remembered it again.

"One day... I will be with you all day... Whatever you want me to do..."

As long as you eat such exquisite food, you will produce milk to feed your baby.

The woman crawled towards Goliath on the ground like a half-dead corpse.

Even with Goliath's size, if a woman knew the consequences of "accompanying" her for a day, she might get killed.

But now I can’t care so much.

Goliath took out two pieces of white bread and placed them in the woman's fragile palms.

The woman was like a zombie gnawing on a corpse. She swallowed one piece in three or five bites, and without even having time to savor the food, she immediately stuffed another piece into her mouth.

As if she was afraid that someone else would come and snatch her food, or as if she was afraid that Goliath would go back on his word.

Enduring the pain of having her throat stuffed, the woman picked up the bread crumbs that had accidentally fallen on the ground and put them into her mouth mixed with mud.

At this time, Goliath just had a cold face, took out two pieces of bread from his bag, and put them into the wooden basin where the baby was.

He gently touched the baby, who was still slightly warm.

Great... not dead...

He had been like this when he was a baby.

"Traveler...Come on...I'm ready...I'm yours for the next two days..."

The woman's mouth was covered in mud and she gave a dry smile.

He was sitting on a bed made of straw and stretched out his legs, which were swollen due to malnutrition, towards Goliath.

Goliath looked back, and the sight made his eyes wet.

This is how his mother raised him with great difficulty.

Goliath roared, "Come here, everyone who can move! I'll give you food!"

"Everyone has it! Everyone must live well!!! Don't die! Everyone stand up!!!"

Goliath's voice was so loud that even Hull, who was sitting in the carriage, could hear it clearly.

Heer just lowered his head and said softly: "Sorry... Goliath... I almost forgot..."

Ling looked at Heer in surprise. He had never seen Heer apologize so sincerely.

Hull looked at Ling: "The Highlander tribe where Goliath once lived is also like this now."

"Goliath was the only one of his brothers and sisters who survived to adulthood. In order to support the tribe, Goliath started to rob people on the road when he was twelve years old, taking a few young men who could barely move."

"They only want food...no property...and they don't want to kill people...later..." At this point, Hull suddenly fell silent.

"What happened? ... Is Goliath's former tribe still around?"

Hull did not answer directly, but just looked at Ling with a gloomy expression.

After a while, he finally spoke: "Because of robbing a caravan, their tribe was destroyed by the imperial army... Only Goliath escaped alive and was picked up by a lady of high nobility from the imperial country."

"A few years later, she entered school with that noble lady and became my good friend."

A few minutes later, the carriage passed through the town and arrived at the foot of Hanshi City.

What stood before our eyes was a ruin, and even the outline of the castle could no longer be seen.

The castle completely lacks the defensive functions it should have, and even its residential function is difficult to determine.

From a distance, it looks like a ghost town inhabited by the dead.

The broken walls seemed like they would collapse at the slightest wind, with a few crows standing on them, caw-cawing, making one feel creepy.

"This place used to be very lively..." Hull muttered expressionlessly.

This castle has a long history and was as magnificent as any other castle before it became a plague city.

The town used to be bustling with people, exuding the enthusiasm and vitality that summer should have.

Today, the people in the territory are like emaciated corpses, and the castle has become a ghost town.

Rulers like lords no longer have any meaning to this land.

No matter which noble sits on the lord's seat, he cannot change this.

To the subjects, the lords are useless.

They just worry about their daily lives, earning the little food they need to sustain life every day, and they have done their best just to survive.

"A castle like this can't be inhabited for long. If it collapses, it will cause casualties... The cost of rebuilding the castle and the town is also a huge expense... In this case, it is indeed necessary to increase the tax rate..."

Hull muttered to himself, but he could hear Ling's eyelids twitching beside him.

"You want to raise the tax rate even more?! This time, not only will I not agree, even Goliath will not agree!"

"Teacher, you have seen those people with your own eyes. Do you think they can still afford the high taxes?!"

Hull pondered for a while and muttered to himself: "To be honest, I have no experience in territory management in the past."

Even if they gain territory, they don’t know what to do with it.

Hull was a complete beginner in this area.

In fact, after seeing the miserable condition of those people, Hull was also very sad.

This area is like a dying patient, with no medicine, no food, and only one breath left in his body struggling to survive.

That's why I have to bite the bullet and restore this land to normal. The first thing I have to do is to fulfill my obligations as a lord.

"As their lord, my duty is to collect taxes, maintain local peace, protect the people, and make them prosperous. These things are absolutely impossible without taxes. Moreover, if taxes cannot be paid on time to the superior nobles of West Territory, this land may be invaded by other lords. War and poverty will completely take their last breath."

"I must play the role of their lord, even if I may be hated by them."

Any reform cannot escape the issue of money.

Even if Hull doesn't want a penny, it still costs money to govern the territory.

If we simply reduce taxes, it will indeed reduce the pressure on the people in the short term.

But that was the beginning of a vicious cycle.

Only by managing the territory well can we create a good environment for them to survive and develop.

Then comes the positive cycle.

Even in the poorest areas, there are rich people.

The environment they face is more difficult than war zones like the North.

People who survive in such a harsh environment also have their own special survival strategies and rules.

But from the moment Hull came here, their unusual strategies and rules had to change.

Ling also understood what Hull meant, but she still didn't want to give up.

"Teacher...what about the ten platinum coins you squeezed from Major Schneider? With that much money, you won't have to worry about running out of money to govern the territory even if you don't collect taxes for a few years, right?"

Heer smiled bitterly: "Do you really think the Empire is so kind that it would easily grant a lower-level noble title to a commoner like me? And even be so considerate as to give me a piece of territory as a gift?"

This inevitably requires a lot of arrangements, and this is what Hull hates the most.

But as long as the empire remains the empire, such things cannot be prevented.

If I want to have the power to change these things, now I can only bow my head.

Because of these things, Hull was in a very bad state along the way.

As powerful as he is, there are many things that cannot be changed now.

At least in the core of the empire, he is currently just an insignificant lower-level noble, and his territory is of no importance.

The power of a noble is always linked to the territory he rules.

The border territories need to be used for combat missions.

Such as the rear hinterland such as Westerland and Kraken region.

It is necessary to supply taxes and food to the troops at the front for fighting.

In other words, how much taxes can be paid and how much grain can be produced also determines Hell's status among the nobles and the importance of the Kraken region in the empire.

Either send troops or provide money and food.

This is also the obligation demanded by the empire after distributing the territory to the nobles.

This is why Hull started to arrange the next things as soon as he returned.

Territory development is a big deal, and improving one's influence as a noble can in turn gain a lot of resources to support territory development.

For this reason, Heer let Guleya marry Mr. Manus Giska from the neighboring territory.

It is better to bear the infamy of embezzling a noble family with no offspring than to have all the property and territory confiscated and eventually fall into the hands of other greedy nobles.

In this way, fresh blood will be added to the Kraken area.

It would even be a good idea to merge the two territories and develop together.

"So..." Ling asked tremblingly after a long time with her mouth wide open: "The money...Have you spent all the ten platinum coins?"

Hull nodded. "I've already spent most of it on the arrangements. I've also spent part of it on my foster mother's dowry. The rest has been spent on other things. I should be able to get some feedback in a few days."

"..." Ling was in a daze with her mouth open.

"..." Heer also tilted his head, curious about what happened to this girl?

“Eh——————!? Have you spent it all? So much money!? All gone!?”

Ten platinum coins are enough for a major-level officer and his family to live a carefree life.

It is not a small amount no matter which country it is placed in.

"Yeah." Hull nodded heavily.

"In short, if you don't have it, you don't have it. If you spend it, you spend it. Besides, I hate others looking at my wallet with envy. The money is mine. What does it have to do with you? The plight of the Kraken area needs to be solved by the local residents together. It will never last long if we rely on others to give us warmth."

Even Hull couldn't stay here for long.

He is not an idle noble who can live a peaceful life in his territory. He has a military post and has to report to the central government and then be assigned to serve in other areas.

"I've said before that I can't devote too much time to the operation of the territory. Next, Ling, if you want to help them, you have to help me. I already have a practical plan. All I lack is someone in charge of the execution and enough supervision time."

"To do this, you alone are not enough. You must also find suitable helpers in this Kraken area. In addition, I must continue to look for allies from outside."

Ling nodded heavily. She also believed that with Heer's strength, he could definitely do it.

After all, so many things happened in the North. Although Hull had a bad temper and his train of thought was very abnormal, Ling admired his planning.

It was rare that Hull showed his weakness and said something discouraging like he had no experience in running a territory, so she was willing to help him.

Those people were so pitiful, they followed Her and rose to prominence. Ling was nominally the mistress of this land.

In addition, she also had experienced poverty and lived a very miserable life in the orphanage just like these people.

If it weren't for Mr. Nandar and later Hull's help, the orphanage would have closed down long ago.

The orphanages are closed down, and the children without families may not live much better than these people.

This tragic scene really hurt the feelings of the creatures in Lingxin.

"…By the way, Hale, what is your first step now?"

Hull tapped Ling's head gently: "Didn't I just say it? Raise taxes!!!"

Ling covered her head, and the enthusiasm she had finally mustered was met with a head-on blow from Hull.

"As expected, you are just thinking about making money!?"

Hull shook his head: "The purpose of raising taxes is not as simple as you think. I will only say one thing: I will not spend the money in the territory on myself. Now you should be able to believe me, right?"

"Raising taxes is a must, and it has nothing to do with whether I make any money from it."

As Hull spoke, he pushed open the gate of Hanshi City and walked in.

A guard of the castle, who was also the only guard in the entire castle, had just woken up from his bed at this time.