Everyone in the territory was disappointed that only Feng Chou had come.
After introductions, Feng Chou knew that the two men in old ceremonial robes were the steward and the clerk of the territory.
The steward was an old man with white hair, wearing a white ceremonial robe and a wrinkled triangular hat. The clerk was not young either, but he seemed to be having a hard time. His ceremonial robe even had traces of carefully hidden mending.
Generally speaking, if the owner was not present, the steward would be the chief steward of the territory, managing all the affairs of the territory. The clerk was responsible for recording the territory's affairs and accounting expenses, and was the steward's supervisor.
The burly man in the ill-fitting old armor was the squire of the territory. Qiankun Pagoda's scan told Feng Chou that he was a level four warrior.
About twenty households lived in the narrow enclosure, responsible for cultivating the 1500 mu of farmland.
Not far away, in a corner of the enclosure, there was the sound of animals crying and the smell of manure.
Depending on a small number of people to cultivate a large amount of land, animals were sometimes more important than people.
In the center of the enclosure was a small three-story stone castle. Although the castle was not large, it looked like it had been built with care. As long as there was enough food and weapons, even if there were ten times more enemies, they would not be able to take it.
Not far from the stone castle was the most decent house in the enclosure. In front of the brick house, there was a big stove, and smoke was coming out of the stove.
Next to the stove was a burly middle-aged man, leading two strong young men around an anvil, hammering a piece of red-hot iron.
This middle-aged man should be the blacksmith of the territory. A territory could not be without a blacksmith, otherwise production would not be able to proceed. In this world, blacksmiths had a very high status. They were often free people, and in terms of status, they were on equal footing with the squire. In such a small territory, even the steward did not dare to offend the blacksmith.
Qiankun Pagoda's scan showed that the blacksmith was the second level four warrior in the enclosure. His two sons were also level three warriors.
The Claire Family did not live in the castle. In fact, three generations ago, the family had already left this dangerous and dirty castle and moved to the city. They handed over their territory to the steward, clerk, and squire. This was normal among the small nobles.
What the Claire family had to do was to hire mercenaries every year to escort caravans to the territory to transport food and sell it in Antalya City so that the family could maintain a decent life in Antalya City.
If the crops that grew well outside the enclosure were normal and could be maintained until the harvest was harvested, such a piece of land could bring a gentleman more than two thousand crowns in income in addition to maintaining its normal operations.
According to Qiankun Pagoda's estimation, the purchasing power of this amount of money, if converted to Earth's currency, would be around 200,000 RMB. However, at least one-third of this amount would be spent on hiring mercenaries.
In such a remote territory, mercenaries had to be hired almost every month to clean up the nearby wild creatures that were spying on their territory.
According to the rules, if the lord did not live in the territory, then the steward, clerk, and squire who protected the territory had the right to live in the castle.
The steward invited Feng Chou to rest in the castle, but Feng Chou politely refused. Thinking of Leo's memories of the smell in his father's castle, Feng Chou was afraid that he could not stand it.
He asked the squire at the entrance of the castle about the gnolls on the mission.
The squire described the situation to Feng Chou in a long-winded manner.
About two weeks ago, a farmer found gnoll footprints by the river. The squire immediately organized the militia to follow the footprints. They found a large number of gnoll footprints in the forest northwest of the north bank of the river.
When Feng Chou asked how many footprints there were, the middle-aged man with the oily face and red beard was slightly stunned. He said vaguely, "Uh … About a dozen, who knows?
You know, those footprints scared the hell out of us. My militia has no walls, so they can't beat the gnolls. "
According to Feng Chou's orders, Qiankun Pagoda, who had been monitoring the squire's physical condition, immediately reported to Feng Chou that the squire was lying.
Leo grew up listening to the stories of mercenaries. His father, Knight Erik, had been a mercenary for many years in order to hone his skills. Most of the civilian knights and squires under his command were old acquaintances from his time as a mercenary, including that traitor.
Therefore, Leo knew very well that when accepting a mission, the mission information provided by the employer was not worth trusting. If a rookie took the information provided by the employer as the truth and rushed in without investigating, then he was not far from death.
Even when Feng Chou accepted the mission for the first time, the girl named Emily reminded him that the employer's information could only be used as a reference. Before starting the mission, he must investigate and find out the truth. She also advised Feng Chou to join an old mercenary group.
Feng Chou, who was full of secrets, could only cruelly reject the girl's good intentions. Emily was so angry that she did not want to talk to him anymore.
Since he was already mentally prepared, Feng Chou did not feel too much of a ripple in his heart regarding the other's lies.
As long as he brought back enough evidence, the mercenary union would naturally seek justice for him.
This kind of small lord would not dare to offend the mercenary union unless he was confident that he could defend his territory.
Since he was sure that the other party was lying, Feng Chou did not bother to ask any more questions. He asked for directions and left the territory.
Feng Chou rode his horse and followed the small path upstream. At the end of the farmland, he saw some messy footprints on the riverbank on the other side of the river.
Feng Chou rode his horse across the small river that was more than ten meters wide and more than a meter deep.
When he reached the other side of the river, Qiankun Pagoda told Feng Chou that there were indeed Gnoll footprints on the ground.
Tracking was no doubt an old profession for Qiankun Pagoda. Not many people could escape the tracking of the Quark Scanner.
Feng Chou followed the footprints into the forest.
After about a hundred meters into the forest, Feng Chou saw a large patch of messy footprints.
Qiankun Pagoda quickly reconstructed the scene based on the footprints at the scene.
Qiankun Pagoda turned the restored scene into an illusion and projected it into Feng Chou's vision.
Feng Chou saw a group of Gnolls chasing a large bison not far in front of him. The bison's body was full of arrows.
Just when the bison was about five or six meters away from Feng Chou, a burly Gnoll roared angrily and threw a large spear. The spear accurately pierced the bison's back.
After suffering such a heavy blow, the bison fell to the ground.
The group of Gnolls swarmed forward and quickly killed the bison.