Amber Sword-Chapter 527: Act 13 Territory (7) (Part 2)
Capítulo 527: Act 13 Territory (7) (Part 2)
When Crenxia lowered her head, the maid corps commander flicked her flame-like long hair and cast a somewhat dissatisfied glance at the guy. She thought to herself, don’t drag us down with your obsequiousness, but she reconsidered and found no fault to refute him. Although she disliked the silver-haired middle-aged man’s remarks, she had to admit that they seemed to be true.
In fact, ever since they took that step that night, they knew the outcome today. But Brand was also right, having offended one lord, how could they dare offend another? The only thing to blame was their impulsiveness during the afternoon suppression by Gruding, leaving the other party a pretext.
She couldn’t help but hum softly and glanced at the other person again. Earlier when they heard about the tax policy newly issued by the young lord, these few people were somewhat perplexed—Vorn nobles fundamentally did not need to win people’s hearts this way. Moreover, they understood that this approach was actually rather meaningless. Because if Brand could contend with Count Rangdenier, then even if he did nothing, these people wouldn’t dare oppose such a powerful lord. If not, then everything would be in vain.
But if they extracted more taxes, at least in the short term they could gain more income—having money, this lord could maintain more private soldiers.
“Doesn’t he understand this?” she could not help but think. But Brand certainly understood; in fact, the young man was quite familiar with the operations of a territory in the Amber Sword. The triadic relationship formed by capital, resources, and construction: capital coming from trade and taxes, and the income from mines; while resources and population are the focus of development of a territory. Tonyger was rich in timber and silver, with the Lengshan Barony alone having nine logging sites and a silver mine. Additionally, there were two quarries and numerous estates and workshops within the territory—however, aside from silver, these assets were considered destitute in most areas of Erune. If not for the Shafelund Silver Mine, this baron might be seen as no different from a beggar in the eyes of most nobles.
But this was exactly why Brand despised Gruding, unwilling to change even when being so lowly. Under his management, the entire Tonyger’s production mode was nearly a half-century behind Erune’s production level. The vast Fir City had fewer than twenty blacksmiths, including apprentices—the monthly production limit of Fir Castle wouldn’t exceed ten sets of chain armor or leather armor according to the documents left by the previous lord. It’s worth noting that Erune’s magic and technology were insignificant compared to those standing at the peak, the Empire, and Tonyger was considered out of the mainstream within this kingdom, one could fully imagine the barren land of this territory located at the southern border of the Jandener Region.
Just like Sir Sempal from the Geography University of Lantoniyan once mentioned, in the entire southern kingdom, the only thing worth mentioning was silver. But this silver couldn’t all fall into Gruding’s hands; apart from Count Rangdenier, the Royal Family and Holy Temple also divided a portion. What fell into our poor baron’s hands was very little.
However, Brand knew that if he could act swiftly, he could completely control the output of Shafelund Silver Mine for about two to three months. He couldn’t imagine how much money that would be; even in the game, he had never been a lord, let alone managed a mine’s operation—these were long dominated by large guilds, in front of those real, professional giants, even RMB warriors and face fighters shivered.
Brand guessed that one or two million Thor should not be a problem.
With this amount of money, the annual tax revenue of the Lengshan Barony, less than 270,000 Thor, certainly wouldn’t matter in his eyes. He instructed Antitina to reframe the tax policy, principally waiving taxes to win people’s hearts, but the real consideration went far beyond this—since he was already standing on the opposite side of most nobles, he had more reason to win the support of ordinary subjects. But more than that, Brand focused on long-term benefits. What he needed was not only the hearts of the people but also the population. Lighter taxes would help rapidly increase the population, and he needed more subjects to cultivate the yet barbaric and primitive land.
