Chapter 191: Fang of the New King

Pei Luo took a sip of the black tea, leaned on the soft lord's chair, and let out a long breath. ( >])〉?〉

It has been more than two months since he took over the Longsong Fortress, and he found that he liked this hall more and more. The stepped structure allows him to overlook the officials and attendants standing below from the main seat, and he is satisfied with the feeling of being in power.

In the first month, some minor nobles would jump out to openly question themselves, or plan riots secretly—of course, most of the behind-the-scenes people who provoked them came from the elk and wolf families. Pei Luo followed his father's suggestion and sent all the troublemakers or underground rats without titles to the gallows, while the minor nobles with titles were imprisoned and expelled from the Western Region after the family paid a ransom.

After this set of thunderous means was implemented, the situation quickly calmed down. After all, apart from the Honeysuckle family, the knights of the other families were all arrested and sent to Border Town, so it was impossible to resist Peiluo's policy on the face of it. Afterwards, he divided part of the interests of the fortress to compensate the loss of the big family during the arrest, so that all the nobles temporarily formed a relatively stable interest group.

Now, apart from 30% of the income of the fortress being handed over to Border Town, the remaining 70% is used to maintain the operation of the city, 20% to appease the rest of the nobles, and the Hermon Territory gets the remaining 20%.

Now, the portrait hanging behind the lord's seat has been replaced by the fourth prince Roland Wimbledon from the Duke of Ryan. He is looking forward to one day being able to hang a portrait of himself—Pelor Hermon.

If you can completely own Longsong Fortress, your own Earldom can be integrated with the fortress and become a veritable dukedom. You can also save 50% of the surrender and appeasement, and invest in the operation and trade of the fortress, in exchange for more lucrative income. s return.

Of course, the premise is that Roland can successfully ascend to the throne and become the king of the entire territory of Graycastle.

"My lord," a guard walked into the lord's hall and handed over a letter, "this is news from Border Town."

Hearing the word Border Town, Pei Luo immediately sat up straight.

He took the envelope and smoothed the thin papyrus. From the poor quality of the paper, it could be seen that the letter came from the eyeliner he had planted in the serf team.

The result of the battle more than two months ago was unimaginable. Although Pei Luo did not go there in person, he heard a bizarre story from his father. In order to find out the reason for the Duke's failure, he arranged many confidants in the hands of the people he sent to the town. They disguised themselves as craftsmen, herdsmen or serfs, and sent back the information they saw to the fort one by one.

He believes that other families will certainly do the same.

But so far, except for the two men disguised as serfs who are still sending new information every month, the craftsmen and herdsmen have no news, as if they have disappeared.

Did they betray him, or were they all eradicated after being discovered by the prince?

He shook his head and focused on the secret letter.

The content of the letter was written in charcoal, crooked, and there were traces of being soaked in water in some places. It seemed that it was written secretly while working.

The first paragraph says that an iron tower of unknown purpose is being built on the bank of the Chishui River. There is a huge iron tank stacked on the top of the tower, and there are currently three erected, each of which is close to the height of the fortress wall. The blacksmiths seem to have completed the production of the iron tower in the town, and it was already a whole when it was transported to the river. Then there will be soldiers of the First Army erecting baffles around the iron tower, and it will be erected magically the next day.

"Construction"...that's the word again, Pei Luo thought, it was the same in the last secret letter, just looking at the information, it seems that the prince is building the town non-stop, last time it was building roads and bridges, this time it was building iron towers. Could it be that His Highness is willing to spend all the golden dragons looted from the fortress castle in one go? And the purpose of the iron tower is still unclear... You must know that the spy among the hidden serfs is not a real serf, but a well-informed personal guard. If it is a sentry tower or an arrow tower, he will be able to spot it at a glance.

Probably because the iron tower has not been fully completed, it is hard to judge, Pei Luo shook his head, maybe there will be more detailed information next month.

He moved his gaze to the next paragraph.

The letter stated that a large merchant fleet stayed at the small town dock for a week and left eastward with unknown ownership. During the stay a large pile of ingots and saltpeter was unloaded from the ship.

Buying saltpeter is easy to understand. From summer to the second month, it will become very hot. A large amount of saltpeter is consumed to cool down the castle. It can also be used to freeze wine and juice. As a royal nobleman, I definitely don’t want to let myself sweat all day long. As miserable as a farmer in the field.

However, the purchase of ore ingots made Peiluo feel a little surprised. Frontier Town was originally the place where ore was produced. I remember that when he went to the town as an envoy before the Moon of Demons, Prince Roland even exaggerated, saying that he would double the total amount of ore sold. , As a result, instead of exporting ore, they have to import ore ingots?

Reminiscent of the iron tower that was as high as the fortress wall in the previous section, he found that he was getting more and more confused about what His Highness the Prince wanted to do.

But when Pei Luo saw the last paragraph of the secret letter, he was stunned.

Border Town held several open-air theater performances in the square in the past two weeks?

No tickets were charged, the name of the play was unheard of, and serfs were encouraged to watch. What surprised him the most was that among the performers was Miss May, the star of the West who had disappeared recently!

What's happening here?

May's disappearance is a big news in the fortress recently. Several dramas that should have starred in her have been replaced with female roles, and the nobles left halfway to express their protest. The theater had to issue a notice, claiming that May left the theater without telling anyone, and her whereabouts are currently unknown. As soon as the news came out, the drama-loving nobles in the Western Territory were in an uproar.

In the end, she went to Border Town? There is no theater there! And performing for commoners and serfs... It was hard for Pei Luo to imagine such a scene for a moment, and Miss May in his impression was not an easy-going actress.

After much consideration, he decided to write a letter to His Royal Highness Roland to formally ask him about the matter. As a theater lover, I haven't seen the wonderful performance of the Star of the West for a long time, and even the chance to invite Shirley is much less. Since the drama was performed publicly in the town square, it is not surprising that it was seen by the merchant. It happened that the merchant came from Longsong Fortress, so the news reached my ears. The personal guard in the house.

Just when Pei Luo was about to ask his attendants to draft the text, a knight walked quickly into the hall and said anxiously, "My lord, the guards at the watchtower at the east gate have discovered that a team of knights is approaching the fortress!"

"Knight? Can you tell where it came from?" He stood up suddenly.

"The opponent is holding the banner of the tower and two guns, my lord," the knight replied, "if they are not pretending, they should be the troops of the new king." (To be continued.)