Unknown Knight

Chapter 372: The Killing Spring

In April, the snow in Kudan City has faded away. The warm wind blowing from the south is like a pair of warm hands, waking up all things from the silence of winter. The fields with singing birds and lush grass are full of new green, and everywhere is full of vitality full of hope.

But this spring vitality is still accompanied by solemnity, because this is the northern part of the Kingdom of Vigia. The long winter has made the dormant beasts hungry for too long. When they wake up from hibernation tremblingly and stretch their muscles in the sun, the first thing they think of is how to fill their empty stomachs.

At this time, brown bears, tigers, snow leopards, wolves and even smaller foxes and wild dogs all stare with green eyes and will attack anyone they think can be food, including humans.

Therefore, every spring, wild beasts would invade villages and towns in the territory, attacking and eating people. At this time of year, the territory was not like other places where people lived in the romance of spring flowers and enjoyed the warm sunshine. Instead, they were sharpening their knives as if facing a great enemy, and they traveled and worked in groups, fully armed, and the atmosphere was filled with a murderous aura.

The solemn and murderous atmosphere at the beginning of spring this year is even stronger than at any time in previous years. More than a month ago, Aix rode a sled and arrived at Kudan City when the snow was about to melt. Also coming with him were warriors carefully selected from all over the territory. They will undergo a month-long training in Kudan City, as if preparing for the upcoming war.

With so many elite troops gathered in the camp outside the city, the shouts of their daily training could be heard from far away, filling the entire Kudan city with a strong atmosphere of war. It also made the spies who came to steal intelligence become very active, constantly passing on intelligence obtained through various channels to their lair.

Not only that, the dock at the pier is also speeding up construction, and keels have been erected on all the shipbuilding pits. This has never happened before, making people with ulterior motives wonder about the purpose of these ships and think of a piece of news that was circulated not long ago.

Such a big commotion would definitely attract the attention of surrounding forces in the long run, so Aix simply did not cover it up. He often pulled the troops out for marching exercises with great fanfare, making the surroundings feel like they were facing a great enemy and became nervous. Especially the weaker nobles, they repeatedly restrained their domineering subordinates, for fear that they would accidentally provoke Aix.

After reading the feedback from the surrounding intelligence, Aix couldn't help but laugh and cry, but then he thought that the news that he had resisted Saiga Khan in Sagiche Castle must have spread, which made the surrounding forces so afraid of him. In this case, why not collect some interest first.

So he wrote letters to the boyars around him, saying that he had recently discovered that the military preparations of his subordinates were slack, so he became interested and organized his soldiers to conduct training, hoping that everyone would not be surprised for no reason.

On the other hand, he seemed to mention it in passing, saying that according to the feedback from his caravans, your territory had imposed heavy taxes on the caravans from our territory. He didn't know whether it was intentional on your part or whether the servants and attendants below were deceiving their superiors. He hoped that you could give an explanation.

This letter appears to be nonchalant, but in fact it is telling the other party that I am training the army and everyone is sharpening their knives and preparing. If you don't know what's good for you and lower the tariffs, I may attack you at any time. Don't be surprised then.

Many of the nobles around were descendants of old families with many years of inheritance. How could they not see the implication in Axe's letter? However, the nobles at that time were mostly brutal and cruel, and they did not live a rich life. There were few of them who were gentle, polite, wise, and generous as in later film and television dramas. Those were all made up by film and television dramas to deceive people. Asking these people to spit out what they had eaten was no different from snatching food from a tiger's mouth. Axe was a little too naive.

They have already tasted the sweetness of triple taxation, and through the large amount of taxes collected, they know how wealthy the Territory of Aix is. If they knew they could not defeat them, these nobles would have wanted to take a bite of the fat meat of the Territory of Aix.

As expected, these letters fell into oblivion after they were sent out, and no one responded at all, not even some of the weaker nobles. Moreover, according to intelligence, these nobles also communicated with each other through letters, and those who lived close to each other even gathered together for parties, as if they were forming an alliance.

Seeing the reactions of the boyars around him, Aix couldn't help but sneer in his heart. Originally, he still took into account the friendship of being nobles of the same country and didn't want to tear his face with them easily. He thought that if they gave each other a way out, he could restore the relationship with some domestic nobles and regain their support. However, he didn't expect that they would ignore the past friendship at all.

But thinking back and forth carefully, their reaction was understandable. When they first learned that Aix was missing, they disregarded their past friendship and led their troops to participate in the siege of Kudan City in the name of maintaining orthodoxy. Although the two sides failed to reconcile later, they immediately joined the tariff blockade of the territory. It can be said that they went to extremes and turned completely into enemies with Aix.

Now that Aix wants to make amends, even if he is sincere, the players around him are still unsure. The two sides have completely formed a vicious circle of suspicion.

What's more, Aix now requires them to stop collecting extra taxes from the territory caravans. In the past few years, they have used this method of collecting high taxes to almost take away most of the profits from the goods produced in the territory. Everyone has made a fortune. Who would be willing to let go of the gold coins in their hands easily?

Aix now finally saw clearly the true faces of the boyers around him. Not only were they jealous of Aix's wealth, they also harbored resentment and coveted everything he had, with the greed to divide him up.

If he still thought about associating with these evil wolves, that would be wishful thinking, that would be cowardly and weak, and that would be an insult to him as a time traveler.

Angrily tearing up the information about the surrounding boyers on the table, Aix made up his mind and vowed to sweep all these ignorant fools into the garbage dump of history.

If you were to say which of these boyers Aix hated the most, it would definitely be Rodelaboye, the lord of Kulau City. The fact that this guy dared to rob Aix, who had just become a noble, showed that he was not a good person.

Later, when he was in the most difficult time, Aix took the initiative to lend him a hand regardless of the past grudges. From then on, the two of them called each other brothers and had a very nice honeymoon. Aix once thought that he was the Vaegir noble who was least likely to stab him in the back.

It's just that I didn't expect that as soon as Aix disappeared, he took the initiative to side with King Yarogerk and actively joined the team that bullied Tandre and his widowed mother. He really interpreted the coldness and indifference of the world to the extreme.

Moreover, the city of Kulau controlled by this fellow controlled the big river outside the city. In order to facilitate tax collection, he also built a water fort outside the city of Kulau, requiring every merchant ship passing through the territory to pay more than three times the heavy tax.

You should know that the amount of goods exported through this river accounts for nearly half of the total amount of goods exported from the territory. Rodella's move is tantamount to strangling the economic lifeline of the territory.