Xiao Chen just performed a group charm spell, but with his strength as a great magician, he can already control the power of the magic with ease. There will never be a situation where the people around him are overly charmed and behave in strange ways.
He simply controlled the other party's good impression of him to the level of trust, so that they would feel willing to confide in him when they saw him.
Judging from the boss's performance, this magic was used just right. Although he was still hesitant to speak, he finally spoke.
"Why is there trouble?" Xiao Chen asked.
The shop owner stroked his slightly bald head and said, "Because the way Baron Paragus manages his territory is very different from that of other nobles."
The boss pointed to a plate of grilled intestines in front of Xiao Chen and said, "Other lords treat their subjects as food that can be chewed and swallowed, but Lord Paragus treats us as this plate. You will swallow the food into your stomach and eat it all, but you will protect your plate well and don't let it be broken or damaged."
"Because it is a useful tool?" Xiao Chen asked.
"Almost. Maybe a little stronger than a tool, after all, Lord Paragus is willing to listen to us. You have to know that lords like this are very rare. However, his behavior is not a good thing in the eyes of other lords. So there are many things that Lord Grapas does not allow us to talk about. If I didn't think you were kind and reliable, I would not say such things to outsiders."
"No one wants to look like a bad guy compared to others." A guy dressed as a hunter nearby said. After hearing what the tavern owner said, the others slowly gathered around.
"But those guys are bad guys, the kind that are so rotten that they are dripping with stinky water. My wife's brother told me about the tax collectors in their village who whipped people's backs to collect debts. I wanted to smash those lords with a hammer. This kind of thing will never happen here with Lord Paragus." said the sturdy blacksmith.
Another middle-aged man who looked a bit prestigious said, "Not only Lord Paragus, but also the Fengwen family has been running this place for a long time and they have always been very good lords. They never oppress us like other nobles, nor do they just collect taxes without caring about our lives. But Lord Paragus does the best. For example, Lord Paragus will lead us all to dig ditches and build dams. Do you know why the grain from our Goyo town can be supplied all the way to Suero and is fought over by many merchants? It is because our water conservancy is better than other towns, so the grain we produce is naturally more and better."
The tavern owner said, "Evans is the manager of our caravan, and he has the most experience."
The middle-aged man named Evans nodded with a little pride and continued, "Lord Paragus arranged a public granary in our town. A portion of the grain collected in lieu of taxes is usually stored in it. If there is a disaster or a family encounters any difficulties, the grain will be distributed to them. This warehouse sounds simple, but it has saved many families in times of emergency."
"And the agricultural guild is really important to us farmers." A farmer-like man said, "Lord Paragus recruited several old farmers to stay in the guild. Although they are a little incapable of farming, they can teach young people how to grow crops. They taught my son how to farm, and now he is a little better than me."
His son was a young man sitting next to him. He said, "The agricultural guild does more than just this. Every year they pick out the best crops and save the seeds for everyone to use the next year. And the guild can also lend money to those who can't afford to buy seeds. They can pay back the money after they have a harvest."
His father said: "Yes, since the establishment of the agricultural guild, our lives as farmers have become much better."
The craftsman was quite old, and looked almost sixty years old. He said, "There is also a militia. If Lord Paragus hadn't let us organize a militia, how could we live such a peaceful life? There are so many mountains around here, and the roads are so complicated. In the past, there were often bastards like bandits running down from the mountains to rob us and kill us.
You young people don't know that when I was a child, bandits rushed into the town in droves. If everyone wanted to save their lives, they had to hand over valuables from their homes, not only things, but sometimes even women! But later, Lord Paragus organized a group of warriors, and we were no longer afraid of bandits. I remember that it took five years to completely wipe out the bandits around here. People from outside who came here to do business were afraid of being robbed by these people, but since then, the caravan merchants have been much safer, which led to the subsequent food and timber business."
Evans said, "You see, this is why the people here respect Lord Paragus. He never talks nonsense, but just gets things done. Every time he accomplishes something, our lives become better. Over the years, everyone's lives have become better. Who would think that he is not a good lord?"
Xiao Chen felt more and more strange as he listened to their descriptions. What these people did sounded very familiar to him. Even most of the things they did themselves were done by the time travelers, but they just had different names and ways of saying them. But you must not underestimate these seemingly simple things. All these practices have backgrounds and reasons in history, and the time difference between them is also very large. Xiao Chen felt that it was not something that could be developed naturally by one person or one family.
And this baron, it seems, has pushed the production method of this territory forward by hundreds of years with his own efforts. In this world, only the Chinese have done the same thing. Could it be that... this baron is also a time traveler
Xiao Chen suppressed his shock and asked, "When did all these changes begin?"
The farmer said, "That was when I was very young, maybe more than 20 years ago. At that time, the Baron returned from the capital and was ready to start managing this territory. Earlier, life here was not easy.
But after the Baron came back, everything seemed to have changed. He invented new things one after another, and then we followed his lead and tasted the obvious benefits, and we have been doing this until now." (To be continued)