Baron Paragus fell silent. He knew very well that the power of his territory was much stronger than that of Cavesong Town. However, fighting with the enemy would cause diseases, and he had no way to guarantee that his soldiers would not get sick. What would it matter if he won in this situation? The people in the town would still be infected by the plague. However, he was too unwilling to hand over his territory to the Chinese. He had poured more than 20 years of hard work into this town. He had dragged it out of the mud step by step and turned it into the richest town around.
"Can I contribute some money and ask the Tower of China to protect us?" asked Baron Paragus.
Xiao Chen laughed silently, "You are a wise man. I don't want to beat around the bush. China Tower wants control over the entire region. This control will come sooner or later, if not now then later. This time maybe you feel that we have caught your weakness and are taking advantage of you. But next time if we adopt a tougher approach, the result of controlling the surrounding villages will be the same. The only difference is that if that happens, you may suffer two additional losses. The first is that in a plague, who knows how many people will die. The second is that the next time we come, we will use the army to conquer."
"You are threatening me! A threat without any bottom line! This fiefdom has always belonged to our family. You have no reason to claim the power here. This, this goes against the basic principles followed by the nobles and mages of the kingdom!" Avadia clenched his fists and yelled at Xiao Chen.
Xiao Chen looked at Avadia's angry face but was not angry at all. He said: "I have read a lot about the history of wars on this continent. The real conquerors do not need reasons. I want this land, so I get it. Just like the founding king of the Kingdom of Iberia, Allen I, did he give any reason for conquering this territory? Or did the royal family of the Purple Eagle Empire or the Black Dragon Empire give any reason? Even Hastings in the Seven Towers era almost ruled the entire continent. Did he give any reason
Perhaps they had reasons, and perhaps some of those reasons were somewhat noble for humanity as a whole, but they had no obligation to tell them to the conquered.
Besides, don't tell me about the noble principles. It was the little queen of the Iberian Kingdom who broke up with us first, so we are in a hostile relationship with the kingdom, so we don't need to care about the noble principles of the kingdom. "
Xiao Chen's words were very straightforward, but they were full of confidence. Avadia was intimidated by his momentum and could not say anything to refute.
Baron Paragus faced Xiao Chen's calm but pressured gaze and asked, "What if I surrender to the Tower of China and become its vassal?"
Xiao Chen said: "We don't need vassals. The Tower of China does not need or allow any lords to exist within its territory."
"You want to turn all places into the direct territory of the Mage Tower?" Paragus asked.
Xiao Chen said, "Yes. I believe that since you have managed Goyo Town to what it is now, you must have enough knowledge about this topic. I have learned that you also managed Goyo Town in the same way. You no longer divide the territory among the knights, nor do you require the knights to serve you. Instead, you set up a trading company and let them get shares from the trading company. You also give them a portion of the profits from grain and timber trading in exchange for them giving up their control over the people.
The manpower originally belonging to the knight village can be managed by you in a unified way, so that you can concentrate their strength to build water conservancy projects, manage forest farms, and do things that were impossible to do when the manpower was separated.
Then, you selected and hired strong and capable people from the free people to form a warrior group, so that you don't need to rely on the knights for force, and you should also hire some good mercenaries and add them to your warrior group, so that even if you don't use the knights, you will have a strong army. In this way, you can deter those greedy bandits and jealous neighbors.
Everything you do has a lot in common with the way we manage our towns, which is why Goyo is what it is now, isn’t it? "
"How do you know so much?" Baron Paragus was shocked. "Who told you all this? This is impossible. No one else knows such details."
Xiao Chen said: "I talked to a lot of people on the way here. Although no one told me anything specific, from the signs in various aspects, I guessed your ideas and methods for doing these things. Because we ourselves also do things according to similar ideas."
"I don't quite understand. What does this have to do with you?" said Baron Paragus.
"Finding common ground will naturally help mutual understanding. Your Excellency Baron, you don't quite understand what the China Tower is like, right?" Xiao Chen asked.
"I haven't left this town much in recent years." The baron nodded and said, "Although some merchants have brought your products, I have never seen anyone from the Tower of China before you sent someone to notify us of your surrender.
They say you are good at business and have strong military power, but I don’t know anything else. Some people also say you come from far away. But the news brought by merchants is always mixed with a lot of nonsense, so it’s hard to take it seriously. ”
"It's understandable, especially when you want to hide your differences from others. You will naturally keep a low profile." Xiao Chen nodded, "However, if you visit us and have a good conversation with our teachers, you will find that we have more in common than you think. For example, this painting..." Xiao Chen stood up and walked to the painting, pointed at it and asked, "Who painted this painting?"
Baron Paragus didn't quite understand what Xiao Chen meant, but he followed him to the painting and said, "This is a painting by my ancestor, Feng Wen, the founder of the family. There are not many things about this ancestor that have been passed down, but there are many objects that have been passed down. My great-grandfather liked the ancestor's painting very much, so he hung it here.
He made most of the decorations in the house, and except for the ones my father sold, most of the rest have never been moved. This house has been like this for as long as I can remember.”
"I have never seen paintings of this style in the mainland. But I am sure of this style. Do you know what it is called?"
The Baron shook his head.
"Chinese painting." (To be continued)