Teacher Qiao Xiu and everyone present smiled relaxedly. Only Luther's father, the contemporary Pompeii Knight sitting in the main seat, Old Sol, twitched his lips.

I couldn't help but curse in my heart.

"Luther said I had the gold coins ready. He looked so relieved. I don't know how determined I was to ask the old guys for money. I have never borrowed money in my life."

That's right.

According to the original financial resources of the Pompeii family, it was impossible to support such a huge plan of Luther. Although the sales of Pompeii wine were high, it cost a lot of gold coins to hire knights and scholars.

The monthly salary of each junior knight is ten gold coins, while the monthly salary of the intermediate knight Stone Pompey is one hundred gold coins.

The number of guard knights currently employed by Pompeii is a total of one intermediate knight and thirteen junior knights.

Old Sol and Luther had no money to take.

Two hundred and thirty gold coins need to be paid every month.

The original population of Pompeii's family was only about 2,000, but now 10,000 people have to be introduced at once, which is five times the original population.

Plus the later food rations, oxen, farm tools, seeds, etc. to feed the serfs.

Even if he sold Old Sol, it would not be worth that price. In this case, borrowing money became the first choice. This time, it was not Luther who borrowed money from Old Sol or Mrs. Sophie.

Instead, old Thor borrowed money from the other five major families, which can be said to be a loss of face.

God knows that Old Sol has never borrowed money in his life. Fortunately, his face was still quite useful, and he borrowed a total of 5,000 gold coins for the family.

Otherwise, it would not be able to support such a huge plan.

This was the only important thing to do at this meeting. Since the decision had been made, there was nothing else to say. Next, Luther selected several knights as assistants for Stone and Pompey, and some scholars to do accounting and bookkeeping.

And fifty guards were allocated.

So Stone, Pompeii and others were arranged to take action.

After the meeting was disbanded, Luther talked to Lelouch alone for a while. Because the introduction of population was just the beginning, the logistics in the later stage still needed to be done.

For example, buying food, building houses and so on.

But the things involved are not just that simple.

Because Luther and Lelouch are the only two people who know that Luther has real aristocratic ambitions to become a noble.

The conversation took place in Lelouch's mayor's office, a large office with simple decoration.

After arriving at the office, Lelouch asked Luther if he needed tea. Luther shook his head. Then, Lelouch sat in the mayor's seat. Luther pulled out a chair and sat casually in front of the desk.

"The plan is moving forward little by little. I am watching over the construction of Pompeii. Luther, I can assure you that when the freedmen and serfs come in, I will not let anyone starve or freeze to death. But in addition to cutting down forests and increasing farmland, do you have a plan for building a city?"

Lelouch asked.

It was clear to both men that Luther needed more than a town, but a city.

The city of Pompeii.

Developing a town and developing a city are two completely different concepts. Now the construction has just begun, but it is necessary to plan a city.

Luther had actually made some vague plans for this in his mind. Now that Lelouch had mentioned it, Luther might as well explain it.

After pondering for a moment, Luther said to Lelouch, "I plan to build houses on the Pompeii Castle, with the fields that originally belonged to the Pompeii family abandoned for agriculture. These houses can be given to the current vassals and officials of Pompeii, and the rest can be sold to the outside. Of course, these houses cannot be sold for a while, after all, Pompeii is still a rural area in the countryside, and it cannot attract free people to settle down. But we can keep them there first, and when the city develops well, people will naturally come to settle down. Then build a city wall outside. This is my current plan. When the population increases further, we can expand outward. Let the original town become the inner city, and the expanded area become the outer city, becoming a veritable Pompeii town."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Two ambitious people who appreciate each other are about to realize their grand plans.

"Building a city is your job as the mayor of Pompeii. I won't interrupt you here, but I have an idea about one thing."

After laughing, Luther said.

He lifted his right leg and placed it on his left leg, then leaned back against the chair, getting into a more comfortable position.

"What do you think?" Lelouch felt a little hot, so he stood up and opened the window a little wider, and asked.

"Regarding serfs, I think serfs are an unnecessary class in this world." Luther said these shocking words easily.

Lelouch felt extremely shocked. He suddenly turned his head to look at Luther with an extremely surprised expression.

"Why do you have such an idea?"

The so-called serfs were slaves directly under the family. Those who could use serfs were not only the lords, but also the big landowners and wealthy businessmen.

This is officially legal human trafficking.

There are many sources. Children born to serfs are still serfs. People captured during wars with the empire can also become serfs.

There were also those who deceived free people and sold them into serfs.

The advantage of being a serf is that they work for free and are not paid.

The more benevolent noble lords like the Pompeii family treated their serfs in the same way. Every year, the serfs worked hard, and when the harvest came, they handed over all the grain.

Then every month they only issued the necessary rations and daily necessities to prevent the serfs from starving to death.

Under such circumstances, as long as there is land and serfs, wealth can be generated continuously.

Because of such huge profits, many cruel nobles also persecuted the free people in their territories, and tried every means to take back the land and let serfs cultivate it instead.

Then he squandered his wealth recklessly.

It can be said that the existence of serfs is a class that serves the entire nobility, big landowners, and wealthy businessmen. No noble would dislike serfs.

But now Luther said that serfs were an unnecessary class, how could this not surprise Lelouch.

Facing Lelouch's surprise, Luther smiled slightly.

As a modern person, do I have some sympathy for serfs? As a modern person, do I have some contempt for the system of serfdom?

Maybe there is some factor involved, but it is definitely not the case.

Because Luther, as the heir to a knight lord's family and the next generation of Pompey Knights, is himself in a privileged class. Standing in the privileged class, he is not in a hostile relationship with the current system of the Kingdom of Prussia, but a natural ally.

If you want to continue to maintain your privileges, you naturally have to maintain the system.

So the nobles all hated rebellious factions, and Luther also hated rebellious factions.

Luther actually had his own considerations when he opposed the serfdom system.

(End of this chapter)