Chapman's words alerted Feng Chou, and he changed his plans to deal with this territory.
Chapman proposed a plan to divide and transfer the territory and bribe the officials of the city hall.
The Chapman family's land of more than 200,000 acres was divided into more than 20 manors. These manors were of different sizes, but most of them were of the size of a knight's territory.
Unlike the small lords in remote areas who needed to gather their territories for defense, in a safe area like Casablanca, the lords generally preferred to disperse their territories for easier management.
Most of the manors of the Chapman family were of the size of a knight's manor to 20,000 acres. There were no manors of the size of a Baron's manor, and a few smaller manors were enclaves on the periphery of the territory.
In fact, there were many enclaves further away, but because these enclaves were outside the influence of the evil spirit disaster, they had long been confiscated by the judges to compensate the losses of other nobles.
In the following half a month, under Chapman's guidance and guidance, Feng Chou bribed a few officers of the Noble Committee in the City Hall who were in charge of the transactions of small fiefs, as well as a few judges of affairs.
Not all the judges were believers of the God of Light.
In fact, in the legal circle of Casablanca, there were only a few true believers of the God of Light. After all, this was not the Empire of Light, and the belief of the God of Light was not allowed to dominate the entire legal circle.
Under the cover of these officials who had accepted the bribes, Chapman transferred the family's territory to Feng Chou's name one by one. These transfers seemed to be of the size of a knight's territory, and did not involve the transfer of titles. Because Feng Chou had a higher title, it did not attract the attention of the higher-ups of Casablanca.
In the end, the two successfully completed the transfer of territories.
However, after completing the transaction, Feng Chou did not let Chapman go. He made a new deal with the other party.
In the previous transaction, Feng Chou discovered that this Mr. Chapman was a very outstanding talent in handling affairs. He was proficient in the management of the territory, familiar with trade and law, familiar with the management model of Casaranca City Hall, and familiar with the local upper-class society …
What was rare was that this gentleman knew when to advance and when to retreat. He was not greedy, and he also shared a secret with Feng Chou.
Feng Chou proposed to hire him as the butler of Wood Manor, which he had just purchased, and entrusted him with full responsibility for the management of Wood Manor.
Although Mr. Chapman had many enemies in Casalanca, his ten years in the slums had changed his appearance. As long as he did not appear in the upper class under the name of Upton Chapman, no one could recognize him.
After this transaction, Mr. Chapman had also established some basic trust in Feng Chou. After considering it for two days, he accepted Feng Chou's invitation.
After having a butler, Feng Chou hired an honest and hardworking graduate from a gentleman school in Casalanca to be the clerk of his territory. He asked him to assist Chapman in taking over Wood Manor.
After finalizing the steward and clerk of the manor, Feng Chou gave Chapman the right to appoint and dismiss the other officials of the fief.
He also found the headquarters of the Sword of Salma mercenary group and hired twenty people from the second-tier members of this mercenary group to serve as the patrol guards of Wood Manor.
At the headquarters of the Sword of Salma mercenary group, Feng Chou received a letter from Captain Stewart. In the letter, the other party explained what had happened to Allen and apologized to Feng Chou for not fulfilling his obligation to protect Allen.
Feng Chou naturally expressed his understanding hypocritically.
Chapman did not disappoint Feng Chou. With the cooperation of the patrol guards, he took only half a month to completely take over Wood Manor and successfully establish the management structure of the manor.
Wood Manor was a typical manor in a safe human area. It was more like a village than a fortress in a remote area.
The manor lord's villa was located in a quiet river bend. The main building of the villa faced south, and the bend of the river flowed a mile in front of the villa.
Inside the villa, as soon as one entered the door of the villa, there was an open square garden. The square was so large that the door of the villa was more than fifty meters away from the villa building.
In the center of the square was a large garden with a diameter of more than thirty meters surrounded by a stone fence. A stone road started from the door of the villa and split into two at the side of the garden. It circled around the garden and closed on the other side of the garden before finally reaching the main gate of the manor.
On the periphery of the square was a neatly built shrub belt.
The walls of the villa were made of thick brick and stone. There was a sentry tower at each of the four corners of the wall. These were the only defensive facilities in the villa.
The main gate of the manor was a cast-iron gate that could be opened to allow two carriages to enter at the same time. Next to the gate was a gatekeeper's house, which was also the rest stop for the patrol team.
After the stone road passed through the main gate of the manor, it split into two again. One led to the bend of the river a mile away, where there was a small pier.
The output of the manor could be transported down the river through this pier to the Alvindale River, and then to Casablanca through the Alvindale River.
The water transport was always the lowest.
The other road circled around the walls of the manor and led to the village behind the manor.
The village was located in the middle of a large field behind the manor. It was a village with about a hundred families. The entire village was centered around an altar-sized chapel of the Goddess of Agriculture. Around the chapel was a small square. Around the square were the necessary facilities for a village: a mill, a grocery store, a blacksmith shop, and a small tavern.
Among them, the mill and the grocery store were the property of the lord. The tavern belonged to a retired mercenary who was said to be a strong professional. The blacksmith shop was a business passed down from generation to generation in the village.
In the past few decades, Alvindale, especially the society of the big city and its surrounding areas, was undergoing profound changes. With the rise of the city's business class, the demand for the free trade of land was increasing day by day. At the same time, due to the development of trade, it promoted the development of the city's industry and commerce. Various factories and workshops in the city sprouted up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. These factories and workshops absorbed the city's labor force like a sponge.
The lack of labor force prompted the city's business class to promote the release of the restrictions on the territory's citizens. They promoted the freedom of the half-serfs to obtain the right to move freely in order to obtain more labor force.
These changes, especially the passing of the law to liberalize the citizens, made the situation of the farmers in the villages around Casaranca a little better. The overly demanding lords would face the awkward situation of having no one to farm for them. Of course, the city's factories and workshops were not very attractive to the farmers. The huge labor intensity was daunting.
The popularity of commercial companies in the territory accelerated the flow of new technologies to the countryside. New farming tools and farming methods with higher efficiency, the use of new alchemy fertilizers, and the improvement of water conservancy facilities with alchemy cement were all rapidly changing the appearance of the countryside.
These changes were also clearly reflected in the Wood Manor.
For example, in this manor, the land was not like the outlying areas where it was divided into small pieces and distributed to different households. Instead, the entire land of tens of thousands of acres was connected into one.