Chapter 278 Recruiting Talents Next

Keane. Rhine was able to serve as a commander in the Iron Furnace for 30 years. Naturally, the real surname is not as fierce as it seems. No matter how attractive Leon's conditions are, he should also consider the key gains and losses.

After all, being an official official of the kingdom and a knight serving as a lord are completely different things.

"Mr. Keane, you don't have to rush to answer..." Leon smiled and said, "I welcome you to join us at any time and become a member of the new Salling!"

He was promoted from a baron to an earl in two consecutive ranks, completing a leap that others could not reach in his life. He also had a vast territory that was commensurate with the title, and his strength expanded so fast that it was shocking.

But Leon is very clear that there are two concepts: having a territory and mastering a territory. The Iron Furnace Castle area is not the city of Sal in the mountains. It has a large population and all forces are crisscrossed. It is not too much to say that it is a hot potato.

For him, the most important thing is the talents in all aspects to help him rule and master the new territory, and the old lion knight is undoubtedly an excellent candidate, so Leon did not hesitate to offer a sky-high salary of 100,000 gold coins.

But the hot Keane was not immediately knocked down by money, which made Leon appreciate him more and more. At the same time, he did not want to force him, otherwise it would be self-defeating to cause the other party's rebellious psychology.

"Okay!" The old knight nodded. After all, he still couldn't ignore the ** of 100,000 gold coins.

The handover of the iron furnace fort was very smooth. In fact, this work began as early as half a month ago, but it took Leon to come in person before completing the final work.

All 3,000 garrisons withdrew from the Iron Furnace Fort. Concordia and Rose led 500 thunder beast soldiers to take over the small fortress on the edge of the southwestern province, and it will officially disappear from the military sequence of the kingdom.

On the tallest building in the center of the fortress, the flag fluttering in the wind was replaced by the thunder beast war flag, which marked the beginning of Leon's rule over this new territory.

The real test for Leon has just begun.

... At night, the former gerber headquarters of the Iron Furnace.

The tallest and best building in the fortress has now become the residence of Count Leon, Lord of Sal. Although it is already very deep, the study on the fifth floor is still lit.

"According to the current preliminary statistics, our new territory has eleven small towns and hundreds of villages, with more than 100,000 hectares of farmland, but the yield is not high, so the tax that can be collected every year is very low."

In the study, Corinne sat behind the oak desk and introduced to Leon: "The population of the territory is about 100,000, of which nearly 30,000 are iron furnace castles, most of whom are workshop workers and their families."

"The trouble is that we can't collect commercial tax from the iron furnace fort, and we have to invest at least hundreds of thousands of gold coins every year. In addition, according to the agreement with the kingdom, we need to pay an additional 500,000 gold coins of mining tax every year, and we must also guarantee the supply of weapons and equipment to the kingdom, which is another huge expense!"

Corena rubbed her eyebrows, looking like she had a headache.

After following Leon back to Sal, the fox girl from a famous family was appointed by Leon as the chief financial and tax officer of the new Sal and took charge of the financial power of the territory.

She is not only a powerful magician, but also a shrewd businessman who is fully qualified for this position.

However, even with considerable experience, Corinne has a considerable headache about the current situation faced by Salling.

"Brother Leon is a lord. Why can't he collect taxes from the iron furnace?" The rose next to her asked.

Tonight, Leon summoned his confidants to hold a secret meeting to discuss the construction plan of the new territory.

Concordia, Rose, Aklan and Cher, who had just arrived from Sal, attended the meeting.

"The situation here is very complicated. Although Leon is the lord, he can't forcibly tax those workshops and shops." Corinne smiled bitterly, "Unless we offend all the forces here."

The iron furnace castle has a history of more than 200 years. Its predecessor was an adventurer town. Later, due to the discovery of rich mineral deposits in the nearby mountains and the threat of dark places, it gradually developed into the current fortress city.

The Kingdom, the Senate, the military, the mercenary trade union, the Tomund family, the Kingdom Chamber of Commerce... all have their own industrial workshops in the Iron Furnace Fort. The high-quality ore excavated from the mountains is smelted, or forged weapons or sold directly to the southern human country.

Due to complex reasons, all the workshops in the Iron Furnace Fort do not need to pay taxes, and there are also their respective areas of influence. The kingdom sends gerberies to protect the safety of these mining areas, and a large amount of money is invested in this every year.

For the kingdom, the area of Iron Furnace is a burden, so I am happy to classify it as Leon's territory.

They divide the richest areas in the east, throw away their bones and leave meat, and can also collect a large amount of taxes from the territory of Leon every year.

And the Rhine family threw this territory to Leon, which is also a hidden evil. Corinne didn't know enough about this territory in advance.

But Leon will never be dissatisfied with this. If there is no problem, how could such a large territory fall into his hands?

"Also, we must quickly build a new army, otherwise once the beast disaster breaks out, we will not have enough strength to destroy the monsters and dark elves from the ground." Concordia said in a low voice.

"The task of expanding the territorial army is up to you!" Leon said categorically, "You can also recruit from mercenaries and adventurers. We give higher salaries than the regular army of the kingdom, but there must be strict standards. It's better to lack than abuse!"

Concordia nodded. The wolf knight, who originally belonged to the Corinthwar family, is now the strongest knight under Leon and one of the most central subjects.

"As for the Iron Furnace Fort, I have another plan to let the soldiers increase patrols to avoid any bad events." Leon said, "Concordia, Aklan, go back and rest first!"

After Concordia and Aklan left, there were three women in the room, Corinna, Rose and Cher.

In fact, there is another woman lurking in the corner of the shadow of the room. The black elf rarely appears in front of people, guarding Leon's residence like a ghost.

The atmosphere in the study is a little strange, because the three of them are inseparable from Leon.

"What do you want to say?" Corinne said with a smile.

Among the three, she is the oldest and the smartest. Of course, it can be seen that Leon has something to communicate with them in private.

"I want to marry the three of you after the summer harvest festival!" Leon said in a positive tone.

His voice was not loud, but it exploded in the ears of the three women like thunder, and he was stunned for a moment.

Although both Corinna, Rose and Cher are deeply in love with Leon, it must be true that it is not Leon.

But no one expected that Leon would be so direct, and he would marry three at a time!

The Bemon orcs fight all year round. There are more women and fewer men in the population. For the sake of racial reproduction, the kingdom encourages more births. It is common for a couple to count wives, especially the nobles often have several wives and concubines.

As the current count of Leon, there is no problem in having three wives, but it is rare to marry three at the same time.

But this is also Leon's style. He thought that no matter which one he married first, it might make the other two sad, and holding three weddings was even more wasteful, and it was the most appropriate to solve it once.

The most important thing is that in the situation of strong enemies, there is a long way to go, and Leon doesn't want to focus too much on the love between men and women, so he adopted this method of cutting the chaos with a quick knife.

"I know it may not be romantic enough, but I'm sincere to each of you..."

Leon took out a small box from his arms and walked to Corinne.

He knelt down on one knee, opened the box and stared at the other party and asked, "Corinna, will you marry me?"

In the brocade box, a beautiful diamond ring flashed brightly.

Crystal tears immediately surged into Corinna's eyes. She stretched out her trembling hand and took the ring: "I do!"

There is no cowardice and reservedness, because similar scenes have appeared many times in her dreams. Although Leon's sudden proposal seems too domineering and lacks romance, her heart has already fallen for the other party, and she can't say a word of refusal.

Leon smiled, got up and hugged her in his arms and kissed her deeply.

After a kiss, he hugged Corinna to the rose, took out another brocade box, and knelt down on one knee.

"Rose, would you like to marry me?"

Corena couldn't help laughing, but Rose's pretty face was so red that she almost bled.

Although she has the closest relationship with Leon, the leopard girl's mind is still quite pure.

However, under the encouraging gaze of Corinna, Rose still took the ring and said in a mosquito-like voice, "I do."

The last one is Cher.

Among the three women, Cher's surname is the most gentle. Although she was also blushing, she agreed to Leon's proposal without any hesitation.

At the end of this rare proposal process, Leon opened his arms and hugged the three people at the same time and smiled, "Okay, from today on, you three are good sisters. Who will accompany me in the evening?"

The front was okay, but the last sentence made the three women blush at the same time. Rose broke free from his arms, took Cher's hand and ran away: "This matter will be handed over to Sister Corinna!"

Leon smiled and circled Corinna, who also wanted to escape, in his arms: "That's you!"

"It's beautiful!" Corinna said anguedly, "I'm going to sort out the accounts of the territory in the evening. You can sleep alone!"

The pulse of warmth flows silently in the room, which is intoxicating.

(to be continued)