This failed tracking attempt left Jerok extremely frustrated, but Yun Zhe didn't see it that way. In the short term, the population loss problem had clearly been resolved, and that was enough. Yun Zhe also needed time to integrate and assimilate these new refugees.
When the two dragged their exhausted bodies back to the tent, Gao was already waiting at the entrance. He hadn't slept a wink the night before, conducting a surprise interrogation of the person in charge of managing the refugees' food supplies. He had indeed discovered serious corruption. He had also uncovered the latest movements of the refugees. The nearly five thousand households that had gone missing weren't all abducted; most had gone to Donic City, while a small number had returned to the capital.
“Suna was the commander in charge of managing the grain. One day, he suddenly discovered that there was a lot of grain left over from the purchase. After investigating, he found that there had been no omissions. So, he came up with a plan. He reduced the amount of grain to be purchased for the next day and distributed both days' worth together. In this way, he had two gold coins and four silver coins left over for the first payment. However, he did not hand over this surplus money. Instead, he shared the money with the soldiers distributing the grain. So, for the past ten days or so, he had been doing this, and he had saved up ten gold coins for himself.” Gao stated this without any emotion.
Ten gold coins is a huge sum of money. All the refugees in the world only spend twelve gold coins a day.
Yun Zhe recalled that when he first came to this world, a baron from the Pas family earned only a little over three hundred gold coins a year.
“It’s time to make a rule,” Yun Zhe paused. “I don’t care about others, Gao, you take note: from now on, in my territory, any official or military officer who embezzles more than one gold coin will be hanged, and those who embezzle ten gold coins will be burned at the stake.”
Gao paused for a moment, then quickly wrote it down at Yun Zhe's prompting.
"It has always been lords who issue decrees to require the people to do this or that. This is the first time a lord has issued a decree to require himself to do the same." As Gao thought this, he wrote down what Yun Zhe had said on a piece of paper.
"Sir, what happened last night? I didn't see any of your signals all night." Morrison looked exhausted. As Yun Zhe's reinforcements last night, he had been lying in wait outside the tent area all night, but there was no movement at all. They went to check, but found no more traces. After searching for a long time and alarming countless refugees, they finally returned to the starting point and waited for news from Yun Zhe.
Yun Zhe scratched his head awkwardly. The defeat last night was so intense that he forgot to inform Morrison and the others. Yun Zhe opened the tent and saw that the two girls had just woken up and were rubbing their eyes sleepily.
"Stay in the tent and don't move around," Yun Zhe said. He then went to the table, quickly wrote a few lines, and then took the paper and led the three of them toward the castle.
“Things are more complicated than we thought, Morrison. Strengthen the defenses, double the number of guards. Gao, re-investigate the population. Put the city wall project aside for now. After that, everyone go farm and tidy up the tent area. You all go ahead and get busy. I need to find a place to think things over.” Then Yun Zhe handed the paper to Jelock. “Go and post this. If someone responds, bring her to me. I’m in the castle tower. Just bring her up.”
Gerald opened the paper and saw that it was recruiting a female nanny to take care of daily life. The key was the attractive salary: one gold coin per month.
"Sir, isn't this price a bit too high?"
"Oh, how much does it usually cost?"
Jelock was surprised that Yun Zhe asked him, "I'm not quite sure either, but these kinds of jobs rarely pay more than ten copper coins a day."
"Sir, if you pay five copper coins a day, people will come and do it, and they'll be scrambling to do it," Gao said to Yun Zhe in a low voice, glancing at the paper.
Yun Zhe was surprised by the price. Although one copper coin could buy a lot of things, five seemed a bit too few.
"Then let's make it six silver coins a month, with meals included. After all, I am a baron, so the price should be higher."
After dealing with these trivial matters, Yun Zhe began to reflect on what he had seen and heard the previous night.
Clearly, those messengers bringing news of death were with these human traffickers. But what exactly was their relationship? Subordination? Cooperation?
Now he's a thorn in their side, but why? Could it be that this vampire has had some connection with them before?
Following this line of thought, Yun Zhe naturally thought of the Mad King's Sword. They came for this sword last time, so what does it have to do with the vampires from that distant country? Is their relationship just a simple collaboration? This vampire has collected so many king swords; is it merely a hobby?
Human traffickers have infiltrated the homeless population and even approached me to discuss cooperation? Is this their usual practice, or just a spur-of-the-moment decision?
Yun Zhe couldn't figure it out, so he could only take out the diary and see if he could find anything in the vampire's diary.
Just then, Gao brought a girl to the tower. The girl was dressed as a peasant woman, with her chestnut hair tied into the simplest braids. She had an ordinary appearance and a face covered in black and gray, and she certainly looked like a vagrant. However, she did not have the demeanor of someone who had worked in the fields. In particular, her fair and slender hands were without a single callus.
Yun Zhe frowned slightly. Could it be some down-on-her-luck noble lady who came here to loaf around?
"Can you do housework?" Yun Zhe asked bluntly.
The girl's eyes flickered. She had originally been a tutor in a noble family in the capital. Before the capital fell, she had fled with that family, but they were attacked by thieves at night and separated from the main force, ending up with Yun Zhe. She had mingled with a group of other citizens scattered from the capital near the city walls, living a hand-to-mouth existence until today when she saw Gao reading aloud from a document at the city gate. Summoning strength from who-knows-where, she was the first to rush to Gao and volunteer. Unexpectedly, Gao actually agreed.
She hadn't done housework in a long time, only when she was a child, but since she entered the Royal Academy, she hadn't touched such chores again.
But she nodded nonetheless.
Yun Zhe's brows remained furrowed, and his voice was stern. "Answer me honestly, what did you do before?"
Perhaps because she really couldn't lie, she was so nervous she almost cried. "I used to be a tutor! I... I haven't done any work in a long time... I only came here because..."
Seeing this, Gao couldn't help but get angry. He hadn't expected that the only one who had offered to help was also a thug. However, he couldn't show his anger at the moment, so he could only grab the girl's clothes and try to pull her behind him.
"Sir, I'll go find another one right away!"
"Wait a minute," Yun Zhe interrupted Gao, and looked the girl over carefully again. "What do you teach as a tutor?"
“Writing…history…” the girl answered hesitantly. But she had a vague feeling that she still had a chance, and her mood calmed down a bit.
Yun Zhe nodded. "Can you cook?"
"I only know some simple things..." The girl felt guilty, but she had to work hard for the job in front of her.
Yun Zhe smiled silently. "Alright, you're the one!"
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