Chapter 6

Du Yu stood with a serious expression, flipping through the ledger in his hand. The ledger recorded the grain collected this month from his territory. Overall, it was quite good, but the balance was severely skewed. This year, the rain was abundant, leading to a rare bumper harvest, with a 30% increase over previous years. However, this did not make Du Yu feel happy.

"Is the grain useful?" Du Yu still remembered the scene a few days ago when he saw the new grain being stored in the warehouse. The family tax collector opened the warehouse door, and a pungent smell of moldy grain hit him, causing him to frown slightly. In front of him were piles of grain bags tied with hemp, stacked like a small mountain, clearly divided into three parts by different shades of color.

The warehouse guard pointed to the grain pile and said, "The top layer is last year's old grain, the middle layer is from the past two to three years, and the bottom layer is hard to say." The warehouse guard looked embarrassed and continued, "Because we always take grain from the top, no one knows how long the grain at the bottom has been piled. The grain in the castle's warehouse is enough to feed the people in the castle for three years."

Du Yu felt helpless as he watched the new grain bags being added to the top. The Falcon Territory was a traditional grain-producing area, which led to the local economy being heavily dependent on agriculture, with almost no commercial economy. It was a typical rural economic model. Because the territory was divided into several parts, the tax revenue from the small towns was minimal, only a little over three thousand gold coins. If not for the fact that the knights under his command had all fled, this money would not even be enough to pay their annual pensions. The ledger showed that every year, half of the grain stored in the castle had to be sold to cover the large deficit.

Thinking about the knights who had fled when the family was in dire straits, Du Yu felt a deep disgust for this profession, which appeared sacred on the outside but was corrupt inside. Seeing the young master's furrowed brows, the tax collector, Stanard, reported with a speculative look:

"The villages have heard about the reward and have gathered 200 able-bodied men, including many mountain hunters. The Ducal Family of Du Kailimao has agreed to exchange the prosperous town of Eikari, which will add 1,000 gold coins to our income. Otherwise..."

The tax collector did not continue, but his face clearly showed his concern about the financial situation.

"Mountain hunters?" Du Yu stopped flipping through the ledger. In fact, he could not understand the complex numbers and the names of hundreds of merchants and tenants in the ledger. He was just pretending to read it to make the tax collector less likely to cheat.

The tax collector, Stanard, felt relieved when he saw the lord's attention shift from the ledger. "Yes, thirty-eight mountain hunters have agreed to join the levy. These wild men who usually run around in the mountains always run far away when levies are called, but this time, they came back after seeing the lord's notice."

It was impossible to ensure that the ledger was completely accurate. As a hereditary tax collector, Stanard considered himself more honest than many of his peers. He only concealed some minor transactions, which, though not much, were enough for his expenses. He was old and was more concerned about how to pass this position to his son smoothly. The tax collector was a hereditary and lucrative position.

Du Yu closed the ledger on the table. After deducting daily expenses, there would still be over a thousand gold coins left, which was enough for the reward for this expedition. This relieved Du Yu, who had been worried about the lack of gold.

Du Yu stretched his slightly stiff neck and, after finishing the ledger, gained a better understanding of a lord's sources of income. The main sources of gold were the tolls from the checkpoints and the head tax from the towns. Other sources, such as plundering enemy lords, ransoming hostages, and royal rewards, were uncertain.

The kingdom's economic center was in the central region near the capital and the northern territories, where border trade was thriving. It was said that the lords there not only had their own merchant fleets but also established extensive smuggling networks. They were the ones most enthusiastic about starting wars, as the various specialties and women of the barbarians were the sources of their wealth. For the Falcon Family in the remote southern region, the only way to get rich, besides fixed taxes, was to plunder enemies and seize land.

"This is not a ledger, it's a cry for poverty!" Du Yu slammed the ledger on the table, making the tax collector shudder.

Du Yu looked at the tax collector, who had a pained expression, and asked, "You mentioned that your son should take over your position. Bring him here; I need to meet my future tax collector."

Soon, the fat tax collector, Stanard, led a young man with a striking presence into the hall. It was unexpected that the fat tax collector had such a vigorous son, but it was a pity that the young man's right foot was clearly lame, causing him to limp.

The fat man curiously asked the new tax collector, "You are the tax collector's son, Statuenko? Your father said you served as a squire to the Marquis of Skana for a year. Why did you suddenly decide to return and become a tax collector? Being a knight has a much brighter future."

The young man's eyes darted around, and when he saw Du Yu sitting in the lord's seat, he felt a sudden unease. Du Yu's sharp gaze seemed to see through him, making him feel depressed. "Is this the idiot lord that people talk about? How can someone with such a sharp gaze be an idiot?"

The young man's expression was unnatural as he said, "My lord, I served as a bowman captain under the Marquis of Skana, but I was wounded in the leg by the Kujitians in last year's battle and had to return." Thinking about his valiant efforts that went unrewarded, Statuenko's face darkened, and his hands clenched into fists.

Du Yu, seeing the young man's anger, waved at the tax collector and his son. "You can go now. Since you have served as a squire, you will be my adjutant first. Tomorrow, gather the 200 levied soldiers at the castle, and I will personally oversee their training!"

Early in the morning, Du Yu came down the mountain and saw a group of people gathered in the main hall of his castle. A young man was riding a horse in the center, skillfully swinging his sword from side to side, the flashing blade like a chain of light. The straw dummies used as targets were neatly cut by Statuenko's elegant sword techniques, drawing cheers from the surrounding peasant soldiers.

"If the knights who stormed the hall had been on horseback, I wonder if I would still be standing here," Du Yu thought, impressed by the smooth sword techniques and the skillful use of the sword from horseback, even though Statuenko was just a squire.

He wondered what the regular knights, armed with sharp spears and heavy two-handed swords, and clad in full armor, would be like. No wonder the kingdom's main fighting force was still the knights. The cheap cannon fodder made up of peasants could not stand a chance against these war machines trained from a young age.

"My lord, what do you think of these new recruits?" The experienced old steward, who had served the knightly family all his life, was not impressed by Statuenko's show. He was more concerned about the task of levying soldiers.

Du Yu looked at the gathered peasant soldiers, mostly able-bodied men, holding various weapons, from farming tools to butchering knives. When the lord arrived, they tried to look spirited, but the long-term malnutrition was evident on their faces and bodies. Their hair was unkempt, their faces sallow, and the formation was chaotic. Du Yu frowned. "Can such a force fight? I bet Statuenko could defeat them alone!"

"Ah! This is really..." Du Yu sighed. There was no choice; this was the best force he could muster, even after selling everything he could.

On the right side of the formation, a group of archers dressed in various animal skins caught the fat man's attention. Although they were thin, they had strong right arms and sharp, intimidating eyes. These were the mountain hunters from the villages, and they looked more like an army, but their animal skins reminded Du Yu of "Rambo."

Thirty-three Rambo! Great, very powerful, Du Yu thought, using mental victory to boost his morale. He waved at the guards pushing a cart full of weapons. "Bring out the weapons we have prepared. I cannot let my people go to war like this."

This time, Du Yu brought out two hundred weapons from the castle's armory to equip his first unit. As a long-standing knightly family, they had plenty of weapons, accumulated over the years and taken from enemies, totaling about a thousand. Even a lean, fat hen had some bones!

The peasants curiously surrounded the cart full of weapons. A few picked up a short sword, pretending to swing it, but their excited faces turned grim. "My lord, isn't this a bit too short? This is a defensive sword for archers. We will be killed before we can even reach the enemy."

The entire cart was filled with short swords, only half the length of a regular sword, and tall wooden shields used by archers. These were defensive weapons for archers and could not be used in direct combat. If they faced charging cavalry, the enemy's long spears could pierce them from three meters away.

As an adjutant, Statuenko also picked up a short sword from the cart, swung it a few times, and looked at the other items, his face turning green.

"Let's unload the equipment from the cart first," Du Yu said, waving at everyone. The jiggling fat on his face made Statuenko more convinced of his guess. "It's over. I've heard the current lord is an idiot. I shouldn't have taken this money."

Du Yu looked at the stunned soldiers, took a tall wooden shield from a nearby rack with his left hand, and a wooden short sword with his right, and gestured to the still dazed Statuenko. "Come, let's spar!"

Statuenko hesitated for a moment, then took a wooden spear from the weapon rack and assumed a defensive stance.

Du Yu agilely charged forward, using his large shield to pin Statuenko, who was holding the spear, close to him. "Bang!" Statuenko's three-meter-long spear was blocked by the shield in the first strike and could not be used again. The spear was useless for sweeping, and he could only keep retreating until he was against the wall, watching the large shield in front of his nose, helpless. Du Yu had already closed the distance to within a meter, using the shield for cover.

Everyone watched intently. It was clear that at this close range, Du Yu's short sword was deadly. A small, quick thrust could easily kill Statuenko.

The peasants, who had been laughing, stopped when they saw the once-mighty Statuenko defeated by the "idiot" lord using a despicable but effective move.

Everyone realized how dangerous a short sword with a large shield could be. Even a knight like Statuenko was forced into a corner by this tactic.

Using a large shield to close the distance and then delivering a fatal blow with a short sword, this Roman infantry formation tactic, with its large shields, javelins, and short swords, was like a hidden blade that struck unexpectedly.

This had left a deep impression on Du Yu and was the purpose of his training. The javelins were being made by the castle's blacksmiths, and 200 men could form a small formation. This special unit would surely surprise the enemy.

Du Yu threw the short sword and large shield to the ground. "You have one month before you go to war. If you want to return alive and get a rich reward, this is your only chance." The peasants looked at the weapons with a newfound enthusiasm, replacing their earlier disdain.

"A knight's head for a gold coin, a lord's head for a piece of land." Many peasants were after the silver coin for a head, though the gold and land were tempting, they did not think they could defeat the heavily armored knights.

However, Du Yu's demonstration made these distant goals seem achievable. The desire for glory, gold, and land stirred in their hearts. Many peasants pushed and shoved to get on the cart and choose their weapons. Statuenko, who was still dazed against the wall, watched Du Yu's retreating back with a shudder. "Is he a genius or an idiot?"