Chapter 27 The Greedy Baron

The barony where the hideout is located is crescent-shaped. Rand is not sure what its official name is, but he calls it the Crescent Barony.

The Baron of the Kingdom of Lensa stationed here was looking at the military report and knew that withdrawal was inevitable.

He thought he would be very depressed, as he was also one of the most radical war advocates in the country.

He was the first group of military nobles to lead the army into the Northern Alliance.

But later, because he offended his superiors, he was ostracized and ended up being stationed in this remote rural area.

But now it seems that compared to those nobles who put all their fortunes into the front lines and fought desperately but got nothing in the end, his current job is extremely comfortable and lucrative.

After arranging for his tax collectors to collect a large amount of taxes, the cost of his military expedition was fully recovered, and there was even a lot of surplus.

He knew that there had been unrest in the village below recently, but what did it have to do with him?

Anyway, he was about to evacuate and didn't want to care about the mess below.

The lives and deaths of those ordinary people below had nothing to do with him anymore. There was originally a slight possibility that when the meat was distributed after the war, this piece of land, although remote but still relatively rich, would be given to him.

But since the Torch Church began to mediate, this has become completely impossible.

Today, the Torch Church still holds total religious authority in all countries. If they come forward to mediate, a ceasefire is certain.

In other words, those nobles who put all their fortunes on the line in an attempt to gain military merit and then share the territory and wealth after the war almost all lost everything.

However, he, a baron who originally had no hope of gaining military merit, actually made the most profit, at least he had already made a huge profit.

So, it seems that he can still plunder again? He is about to leave, and because of the ceasefire agreement that will definitely be signed, even if his actions here are outrageous, the Northern United Kingdom will not restart the war and come to Lunsa to catch him.

There must be some left over from the last plunder, and now is the time to put the remaining wealth into your own pocket.

…

Rand learned very quickly that the baron was going to collect taxes again. Since he had already started planning to kill the baron, he naturally had spies in the town.

This baron actually wants to skin the people again. Damn, even Zhou Yu is not as cruel as you.

Rand immediately arranged for the Tauren, a secret army, to take shelter in the rear hideout, and then adjusted the supplies and personnel situation in the former Takina Village, now hideout No. 3.

Now that hideout No. 3 is also under Rand's control, there is no need to set up hideout No. 2 to disguise hideout No. 1.

The situation between villages was chaotic, and the towns had no intelligence system, so Rand was not worried at all that his hideout would be discovered.

Even giving this greedy baron a little wealth would make him feel sick.

But now is not the time to take action. The Torch Church has just participated in the mediation, and it will take some time for Rensa to withdraw its troops.

If he killed the baron now, he might have to face Lenza's investigation team.

Moreover, if the baron hid in the castle, he might not be able to kill him. This would be much more difficult than dealing with the tax collector.

This time, there is finally no need for Taner to pretend to be the village chief on behalf of Rand to deal with the tax collector, because with Taran, who is the village chief himself, to face it, he can only act in his true colors and will not reveal any flaws.

There was still some time before the tax collector arrived, so Taran asked Rand for instructions.

This mysterious envoy of God is kinder than imagined. Since he and his villagers joined the hideout, although they have to work harder every day, they have never been treated harshly, and their daily food and supply rations are also sufficient.

Therefore, he was still quite grateful to Rand, as for the villagers who were lost in the previous attack on the hideout.

It can be said that they had brought this upon themselves, and Rand was already being magnanimous by letting those who had managed to survive go.

For them, as long as there is a way to survive, they will not think of resisting.

Seeing Taran coming to ask for his advice, Rand also had something to say.

The humiliation that Taner had suffered in his place had left him with a deep psychological shock, and he was not willing for his subordinates to endure humiliation for him.

"Save some face," Rand said. "You represent me now. You don't have to be servile. Let them collect whatever taxes they want."

Taran was not trusted enough at this time, so he did not know that Rand had long wanted to kill the baron here.

Or perhaps in the eyes of the villagers of this era, the nobles were so high and mighty that unless they were truly forced into a desperate situation, they would probably never have the urge to directly resist.

After all, the combat power of a knight in full armor over ordinary unarmored villagers is too exaggerated.

Taran was very anxious at this time: "But if they take too much, we won't survive until this fall."

Rand smiled and said, "Don't worry, I will take care of everything. We can all live well until the wheat harvest."

After saying this, he looked at Taner who was studying the new doctrine beside him, and felt that he had to conform to the image of a messenger of God, so he reluctantly added: "The Mother Goddess will lovingly teach us and help us."

Then he took Tanner away. Rand always felt that there was no need for him to act anymore. Tanner might have already seen through that he was a fake messenger of God, but he didn't know why he didn't expose him.

Maybe it was his love for the sect! If he exposed himself, it would inevitably lead to internal strife in the sect, so for the sake of the overall situation, Taner endured the humiliation.

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Since the messenger had made the promise, Taran was still a little worried, but he did not intend to disobey the messenger. As the messenger had said, he now represented the messenger's face to some extent.

As for which god this messenger was, Taran was very concerned before, but now he is relieved. Although he doesn't know the specific name, judging from Rand's performance, he thinks he must be a kind god.

The tax collector came soon after Rand took Taner away. This time it was a different person, and he brought five or six knights with him.

This tax collector was not as arrogant as the previous one, and was even a little uneasy because this time the baron asked him to take away all the wealth without leaving any room for anything.

Even for a profession like his known for its greed, this seemed a bit exaggerated, so he begged the Baron to give him a few knights as guards, otherwise he felt he would not be able to leave the village alive.

Sitting on a tall horse, looking at the somewhat flattering Taran, the new tax collector said: "Let all your villagers come out."

Taran's smile froze for a moment. He would only say such things when he was a bandit or robbing.

Taran, who suddenly felt something was wrong, did not say much, but obediently called the villagers to come out of the house.

There was no specific amount of tax to be collected. Under the protection of the knights, the tax collector, along with his assistants, began to plunder from house to house.

Taran's face changed drastically. Neither he nor Rand had expected that this baron would take all the taxes again. Perhaps bandits and robbers would not be so ruthless when robbing. He came over and said anxiously: "You are robbing!"

A guard knight sneered, swept his lance across, knocked Taran away, and left a bloody wound in his abdomen.

The villagers were suddenly a little agitated, but looking at the knights' sophisticated armor and lances that were longer than their height, they did not dare to move.

Soon, the tax collectors loaded almost all the food and money in the village onto ox carts and took away all the livestock.

In fact, the knights were allowed to kill all the villagers directly, but when they saw that they did not move, they felt that killing them would wear out their weapons and the cost would not be worth it.

After the tax collector left, Taran staggered to his feet, covering his wound. He didn't even realize that he was so thick-skinned that he could actually stand.

The villagers immediately gathered around with gloomy looks on their faces. They had all thought that their lives were about to get better.

In just such a short time, they were left with nothing.

Taran looked at the desperate villagers, covered his abdomen and panted slightly, saying: "The Lord of God will arrange everything."

He didn't know how to appease these villagers who suddenly had nothing, so he had to bring up the messenger of God, hoping that this would give them some hope.

Now he had to go see the messenger of God as soon as possible, otherwise the village might not have any dinner tonight.

(End of this chapter)