Under the light of the Chuyang, on the snow-covered mud path north of the Opalhausen logging farm, a team of fully armed soldiers escorted several trucks of logs, led by a young man in full-body mail and Dorsten family heraldic burqa, heading towards the endless black forest to the north.

"You lazy people, hurry up, hurry up, don't be too slow," Miller shouted to the soldiers, then wiped the fine sweat from his head, turned his head to look at Simon on the horse next to him, "Master, how long will it take for us to return?"

"If it was fast and there was no accident in the middle, we should be able to return to the village of Fold in the evening." Simon said thinking.

"That's really great. I don't want to camp in the wild overnight and be targeted by the damn robbers!" Miller breathed a sigh of relief, and the worry on his face eased a lot.

"In fact, we don't have to worry too much about the robbers. They won't be stupid enough to grab a batch of logs that are difficult for them to take off as stolen goods, or horses and carriages that are obviously belonging to the log farm. What's more, all this is escorted by an elite team of soldiers." Simon said, looking at the log carriages driven by horse breeders at the Opalhausen log farm.

Since Miller has gone through a trip to Dresden, whenever he embarked on the journey again, he has become extremely cautious, and even to the point of being suspicious.

It is difficult for him to free himself from his constant state of tension in a short period of time.

Even if he was sleeping in the safe attic in his father's mill, he would not take off his strong chain mail, and he also had to put a dagger in the place within his reach.

Any small movement can instantly wake him up from his half-sleeping state.

Since returning to the village of Fold, Miller was depressed to find that this skill that once saved his life soon became his biggest trouble. Every time he woke him up in the middle of the night, he always had the sound of his brother getting up and going to the bathroom and the noise of his father and mother making unconcealed joy.

That's why Simon analyzed with Miller and tried to relieve his worries.

"Master, what you said makes sense." Miller nodded in agreement.

Simon didn't speak anymore, but just rode his horse silently and followed the convoy, his thoughts back to yesterday.

Just yesterday afternoon, Simon arrived at the logging farm. Under the guidance of the foreman, he found Lange, who was hunting in a nearby woods that had not been cut down.

Lange did not end his hunting early, but instead asked his servants to give Simon a hunting bow and a pot of hunting arrows, and invited Simon to gesture with him to see who got more pheasants.

Although Simon's former body owner was a guy who would go hunting in the woods as soon as he had time, it would be easy to win Lange in hunting, Simon knew that his brother was very small and the old baron would die one day, and Simon didn't want to offend him first in a small game that was optional.

So, when he returned to Lange's small hunting camp in the forest in the evening, Simon carried only one pheasant in his hand, while Lange's two servants each carried two pheasant in his hand.

Lange's expression remained unchanged, but Simon could feel that he was very proud and very happy.

Simon thought to himself that this would be fine, so he would be happy. When discussing the log business later, see if he could lower the price a little, at least not stumbling himself.

In order not to let Lange find an excuse to make excuse, Simon specially placed the gold ring that Prince Otto gave him before his trip in the bedroom storage box of the Wooden Fort Tower, and replaced it with a broken chain mail that was seized from the Norman Pirates last time.

However, Simon obviously underestimated his brother's stinginess.

After a harmonious dinner time, Simon made a request to acquire a batch of logs and vaguely mentioned his current embarrassing economic situation.

But Lange was unmoved. He said that he had seen with his own eyes how wealthy Simon's territory was after defeating the Norman Pirates.

In addition, he also told Simon his difficulties, saying that after the beginning of winter, the business of the logging farm was not easy to do, the orders were greatly reduced, the workers were paid more in winter, and the operating costs were greatly increased.

Finally, Simon, who had bargained for many times, had to purchase a batch of logs at Lange at the original price.

After the talk, Lange continued to stay in the camp, while Simon followed a servant of Lange to the logging yard to find the foreman to get the goods.

When he returned to the logging yard, Simon found that there were many carriages coming to pick up the goods on the open space.

When Lange's servant talked to the foreman, Simon pulled a worker to ask about his compensation and the recent business of the logging farm, but the answer he got was different from what Lange said.

The workers' remuneration has not changed after the winter, and the business of the logging farm has not been much depressed.

Before the beginning of winter, many merchants came to place orders, and after the beginning of winter, more lords from other places in the Earl's corps sent people to buy wood.

Simon speculated that the increase in the lord's orders should be related to the war that Earl Berg planned to launch against Earl Loon after the beginning of spring.

"Langer is such a stingy bastard. When he was happy, he couldn't bear to give up even one son in his own brother. Is this what he learned from Earl Berg?" Simon complained in his heart, shook his head, and pulled his thoughts back to reality.

…………………

Eventually, Simon returned to the territory safely and handed the wood to Ryan for him to arrange for use.

In the following days, the engineering in the territory continued, and the life in the territory was still dull. Except for a serf who was not open to his eyes, he actually dared to hunt secretly in the woods. He was caught by the hunter Bill, and was captured by the stolen person. Then he was sent to Simon like a dead dog by two militiamen.

Simon was a little angry. Legally, all the properties in the village of Fold and the surrounding land belonged to Simon. The behavior of this serf was tantamount to directly stealing and embezzling Simon's own property.

Simon passed many places during his trip to Dresden, and he knew in his heart that he was already good enough for his constituents.

Simon allowed them to have enough food, and they had clothes to keep warm in winter, and the work they did was not like that kind of heavy work of pressing. Even so, what Simon couldn't understand was why such a thing happened?

"Young Master, you can't just rely on kindness to govern the territory." The fat man reminded Simon.

"Yes, if you don't take any ruthless action this time, the second, third and fourth poachers will soon emerge like bamboo shoots after a rain, endless. Because they know that even if they violate the laws, the kind Master Simon will not punish them much." Simon frowned and thought, with a general idea in his mind.

On this day, in front of the finger rack that had not been used for a long time on the edge of the village, several militiamen holding spears brushed away the snow dust and spider webs, thinking about how to use it.

Simon took Father James and a militia escorting the prisoner to the front of the stern rack, and slowly walked up to the stern platform under the gaze of the villagers who were watching the fun.

"It seems that some people regard my generosity as concessions, my kindness as weakness, and are becoming increasingly rampant, until they defied the laws and regulations of the territory, until they ignored the authority of his lord!"

Simon's increasingly deeper face and louder voice made the villagers present tremble in their hearts. They couldn't help but look at the "strange" lord again in a daze.

"I have always been kind to my own people, and to the enemy with ruthlessness. I bet that no one among you wants to be an enemy of me, but now, this guy is the exception."

As soon as Simon finished speaking, he pointed to the militia in front of the execution rack and kicked the prisoner to kneel on the ground.

"This old bastard deserves it!"

"It's really worthy of sin!"

The villagers whispered.

It seems that they don’t like this poacher very much. I guess he is notorious in the village and has done a lot of stealing things.

"Bert, a serf, committed the crime of poaching. In addition, when he was escorted back, he was talking nonsense and attempted to frame others. The crime was exacerbated. With the approval of the lord, all his personal property was confiscated and sentenced to one week of prison. During this week, everyone can laugh at him and humiliate him in front of the slaughter." Father James said loudly to the villagers.

After saying that, the two militia struggled to take off the warm clothes Simon gave to the Vikings on the prisoner Bert.

"He's dead, ha, I really didn't expect that the rogue Bert would have today. I bet with you that he won't live for two days!"

Seeing Bert, who was only wearing a thin layer of linen, being tortured on the torture rack, some villagers said gloatingly.

"Let this Tiankill poacher calm down in the snow and ice, and think about what stupid things he did."

……………………

Several heavy snowstorms hindered the progress of the project like a stumbling block, but Simon would rather provide construction workers with more firewood, food and cold-proof clothing on these difficult days than let the project progress.

Sometimes when the militia teams are not practicing in groups, they will also go to the construction site to help.

The construction of the tavern was temporarily shelved. Simon now only wants to build the powerful trench corner building. Only in this way can he fill the growing sense of uneasiness in his heart.

"I really don't know what kind of situation you will face after spring." Simon often stood on the wall of the wooden fort and looked at the white open space near the village and the unfinished corner tower on the west side of the village wall, and said to himself.

The serf named Bert was found frozen to death on the verb rack on the third morning of the punishment. However, no one cared about his life and death, and his final fate was nothing more than being buried in the wilderness outside the village.

Simon doesn't care. It's a very cost-effective deal to re-establish his authority with a serf who is not so obedient and is not popular with everyone.

In this way, winter has passed halfway through without realizing it.
Chapter completed!