Life in the territory is much more stable than life traveling outside.

Under the leadership of Simon and Ryan, the construction of the village was carried out in an orderly manner.

Although the severe winter has made it extremely difficult to build the trench corner building and the tavern, Simon always felt uneasy in his heart, urging him to strive to complete the construction of the trench corner building at least before the spring begins.

One day before going to bed, Simon thought carefully about where this feeling of anxiety came from. Perhaps it was a larger-scale Viking invasion and revenge? Or could a war that could break out at any time between Earls Berg and Earls Loon?

The more wealth you have, the more you are afraid of coveting others, the less secure you feel, and the more you want to improve your strength. Everyone knows the principle that a man is guilty of being guilty.

Just a few days after Simon returned to the territory, the feeling of uneasiness became even stronger.

It turned out that it was because the soldiers sent by the old Baron Coother to assist in the village of Folder had completed their garrison after Simon returned to the territory, so he packed up his things and set off on the road back to Dorstenburg.

In this way, including the recruits and new archers selected from the group of refugees sent from Cologne, there are now thirty soldiers and nine archers in the village of Fold.

For security reasons, the village chief arranged only sixteen refugees to join the militia and three refugees to join the Archery Corps.

If too many strangers from the same place join the village militia, something might happen.

In addition, the village chief arranged ten men who did not look so weak and twelve women who had been dealing with the land for many years as serfs, to reclaim abandoned fields and new farmlands around the village, collect manure and dig more "sacred pits".

There are also twenty-two men and eight women who act as construction workers, three children go to work as handymen, and four women go to work in the village workshop.

In the end, there were eight elderly, weak, sick and disabled elderly and patients who were left without arranging their jobs. Because they are now Simon's "property", it is definitely not enough to just stay in the house to eat rice. So the village chief arranged some relatively easy tasks for them, such as helping the chef in the lord's kitchen, helping the lord feed livestock and poultry, working as village watchmen, warehouse janitor, or night patrolmen.

These refugees lived much better in the village of Folder than when begging in Cologne. At least they didn't have to worry about not being able to see the sun the next day because of hunger.

But Simon worried, after they briefly breathed, would they recall their better life before the war?

Some of these refugees must have had a small house in their own village, a field of their own, and occasionally they could eat meat.

Now, they can only sleep in a small wooden house with a capacity of more than ten people, becoming serfs of another lord, eating day after day of porridge and doing important work.

It is certainly better than begging in the streets of Cologne, full of feces, but people are always greedy and uneasy about the status quo.

So Simon went to the village chapel because of this concern and discussed this issue with Father James.

Father James told Simon that Simon's concerns had not yet appeared, perhaps because of the terrifying war and the displaced refugee life that made them temporarily satisfied with the life in Fold Village.

In addition, James reminded Simon that he ignored the important point that only one in seven of these refugees had previously been free farmers and craftsmen, with their own independent houses and their own property.

The rest of the people used to be serfs, and they lived the same life as they are now, and they were even worse.

What the war brought them was nothing more than to transform them from serfs of one lord into refugees, and from refugees to serfs of another lord, who seemed to be a little better for them than the former.

After all, not every lord can make the serfs eat as much as Simon, and does not over-squeeze them.

"Well, it seems that I'm overly worried," Simon breathed a sigh of relief, thinking for a while, and continued, "There are about ten refugees who were free before. I have to figure out what each of them did before. I will use everything and do my best. I will not let those with skills and skills be soldiers, or do serfs and construction workers."

In fact, the village chief also planned to let skilled refugees do their old work in the village of Fold, but if they wanted to become Simon's personal craftsmen, they had to spend money to build workshops for them to buy tools and materials.

All of these things must be approved by Simon himself.

So the village chief could only arrange jobs such as construction workers or serfs for them.

As for the village chief's concern about the excessive number of people from outside the militia, it seems to be nothing in Simon.

Such concerns are nothing more than distrust these refugees, not daring to make them account for too high a proportion of the militia, and even dare not send armor and weapons to them.

Since that's the case, let more villagers from the former Folde Village come to be militias, and let new refugees fill the gaps and engage in production.

Even if these refugees were to rebel, they were just a group of serfs wearing linen clothes, holding hoes and pitchforks, and they had to face Fold soldiers who had killed people and had blood, armor, iron spears, swords, axes and shields.

What's more, Simon won't squeeze them to the point where they must rebel. What reason do these extremely resilient refugees live a reasonable life?

So Simon decided to ask the village chief to inform all the villagers of the former Fold Village that the militia and the archery team would recruit twenty more people, requiring young and middle-aged people to be both men and women.

As for the vacant posts of the former Fold Village villagers who recruited militia, after the Trench Corner Tower and the Tavern were built, the more than 20 refugee construction workers would fill it.

……………………

It is a German tradition for both men and women to be soldiers. These tough village women who work hard all year round and who are big and thick waists are quite interested in joining the militia and the bow and arrow team.

After the village chief released the news, three women who met the requirements and two young men joined the archer team led by the hunter Bill, five women and ten men joined the militia led by Miller and Fatty.

"Fatty, Miller, the militia still needs to train every day, but the intensity does not need to be as high as in summer. In addition, if the meat is not available, chop the meat and internal organs into fine pieces and cook them into porridge. This is also considered meat. As for Bill, they go out to hunt every day, so don't worry." Simon ordered the two of them.

"And you, Gabriel, I have selected four young men from the militia. They will follow you to learn riding and become our scouts and cavalry in the future. So are you, and you will train every day!"

"Leave it to me, lord!" Gabriel curled the corners of his mouth confidently.

Just kidding, if he was an old mercenary cavalry who had been on the battlefield for many years, he would just go back to England to farm.

"In addition, our timber reserves are indeed almost used up. In two days, I will personally go to the logging farm under the name of Lange in the south and order a batch of wood to come back." Simon stroked his beard and frowned.

To be honest, Simon didn't want to meet his elder brother Lange.

It always makes him feel uncomfortable when he gets along with Lange. He can feel that Lange is always on guard against him, just as he is afraid that Simon will assassinate him and seize his first heir to the Baron.

After all, except for the short time spent together in childhood, the two brothers were separated most of the time.

Lange was sent to Count Berg's castle as a knight attendant, and he gained knowledge and connections.

Simon was originally going to be sent to a relative of the old Baron Coorthor as a servant, but Simon's mother was really reluctant to let him go and tried her best to dissuade him. In addition, the old Baron himself also liked Simon's youngest son, so he simply let Simon stay in Dorstenburg to grow up.

Just the summer when Lange came to adulthood, he returned to Dorstenburg to attend his Knight Canon.

However, Simon Jr. noticed that unlike the lively and cheerful Lange in his childhood, Lange is now becoming gloomy and silent.

Little Simon also noticed that there were a few ugly scars on his back, and those scars Simon had only seen similar ones on servants who had been whipped by the whip. God knows what he had experienced at Earl Berg.

On that day, Lange's knight enthronement ceremony was held very well. He received a complete set of new equipment that made Simon look straight, a long iron sword with a cold light, and was granted two wealthy village farms in the Baron's lord, a logging farm on the Rhine River and a pottery workshop in the town of Dusseldorf.

As his first heir, after the old baron passed away, he will justify the title of Baron Dorsten, owning Dorstenburg and three other villages under his father's name, as well as other assets and real estate.

Everyone was cheering and celebrating Lange, but Lange's face didn't seem to be very excited, and he just smiled slightly.

The old Baron Koother was quite happy to see this. He believed that Lange had now become a calm and rational man, and could control his emotions even at his enthronement ceremony and remain calm.

But Simon, who was standing behind his father and mother, was a little numb by Lange's intentional or unintentional glance.

Perhaps Lange had already stubbornly believed in his heart that Simon, the second son who grew up in Dorstenburg, had a relationship with his parents many times better than his eldest son who grew up in Earl Berg. If his younger brother, who seemed harmless, secretly harmed him...

Simon sighed.

All the misunderstandings and knots started from the moment they separated when they were young, and a wall also began to separate the two of them from that moment, becoming stronger and stronger as time went by.
Chapter completed!