Imperial Crown.

Chapter 8 Make Eagle Town Great Again
The sound of the bell echoed over Eagle Town, finally bringing a bit of vitality to this lifeless town. The people of the territory crowded in front of Eagle Castle like migrating ants.

Simon is one of these people. He is seventeen years old and has lived in Eagle Town as long as he can remember.

His father died of an illness five years ago. In order to support his elderly grandmother, mother and sister, he took on the responsibility of supporting the family early on and became a skilled farm worker.

Today was the first time in his more than ten years of life that he heard the bell, and then he heard the order from the guard - the new baron wanted to select private soldiers.

This is a great thing!

Simon heard from the old people in the town that if he could become the Baron's private soldier, he would not only be exempted from the hard work in the fields, but his food, clothing and shelter would also be paid for by the lord, and he could also receive 30 kilograms of coarse wheat flour every month!
Thirty kilograms of couscous!

Enough for the remaining three people in the family to eat black bread for every meal instead of drinking oatmeal porridge!

He was one of the first to arrive at the castle gate, but as the sun rose higher, more people gathered around.

One, two, three...

Simon began to count the heads with his fingers, but soon two hands were not enough, and even two feet were not enough.

So many people!

It was the first time that he realized that there were so many men in Eagle Town. Even if ten people were used, they probably wouldn't be able to count them all, right?

These are all his competitors.

Crack, crack...

The sound of armor colliding was heard, and Simon quickly raised his head and saw the leader's guard, Lord Eric, coming out. A young man with black hair and black eyes, wearing beautiful leather armor, walked in front of him.

There is no doubt that this is the new Baron, Lord Raven!
Simon quickly straightened his chest and raised his head high, hoping that the Baron would notice him.

But the Baron did not see him, but whispered something to Eric, who soon came forward with Link and Goyle and drove the subjects out of the team one by one.

Old Harker, Little Velen, Little Wales...

As his acquaintances were driven away one by one, Simon's heart began to tighten. He prayed secretly to the Lord of Light - please let me stay here!

Soon, Eric walked up to Simon, looked at him with his head held high and smiled, gently hit him on the chest, then walked to the next person without saying a word.

Simon let out a long breath, his heart pounding.

He stayed!
Simon, who had relaxed, gradually discovered the Baron's selection criteria. Those who were driven away either looked too old, too young, or too short, and among the remaining people, although he was not the tallest or the strongest, he could still be ranked at the front.

This discovery gave him a boost of confidence.

Soon, the originally crowded crowd became sparse. Simon calculated that this time, with the hands and feet of four or five people, he should be able to count the number of people, right?
dong dong dong.

Footsteps sounded, and Simon looked over. Lord Raven, holding the hilt of his sword, walked up to the makeshift wooden platform and said loudly, "Congratulations on passing the first round of selection. According to general standards, you are qualified to become my private soldiers."

"But I, Raven, am not an ordinary noble. My standards are more stringent, and correspondingly, my treatment will be more generous!"

“Everyone who can stand here today, regardless of whether they can pass the next round of selection, can receive five kilograms of couscous as a reward.”

"And if you pass, not only will I guarantee your food and clothing, but each of you will also receive an extra 50 kilograms of coarse wheat flour every month!"

Simon's breathing became heavy at this moment, and his heart was beating hard.

Fifty kilos of couscous!
The annual food ration for each person in Xiongying Town is only 200 kilograms, but he alone can earn enough food for three people in a year!

This not only allows the family to have enough food, but also allows for the excess food to be exchanged for many things.

I can buy a blanket for my grandma who suffers from leg pain every time the weather gets cold, and a sunshade for my mother. If I save up for a few more months, I can also buy a new dress for my sister - poor little Nina, she is already ten years old, but has never worn a new piece of clothing!

Simon looked around. Not only him, but everyone was full of fighting spirit at this moment. No one wanted to give up such superior treatment!

Led by Eric, Simon followed the crowd into the castle.

The spacious courtyard was overgrown with weeds, and various things were placed on a piece of temporarily cleared land.

On the westernmost side of the ground, there are large stones that have been cut into shapes, divided into three pieces from small to large. The small one should weigh about 30 kilograms, and the largest one is probably about 100 kilograms, right?
In the middle is something like a single-plank bridge, about one meter high but more than twenty meters long.

There was a wooden table on the east side, on which were placed three longbows and two tubes of feather arrows.

Eric stood at the edge of the stone and shouted, "Follow me, start here, one by one!"

Among the people present, Eric doubted the reliability of these tests, but chose to carry them out anyway; the subjects who were brought here were even more confused and could only follow Eric's orders in a nervous mood.

Only Raven was calm and composed. He moved a chair and sat at the door of the hall.

"Lord Raven." Old Gordon came up and said, "Isn't the selection standard you set a little too low? There are ninety-three people here. Each person needs fifty kilograms of coarse wheat flour per month, which is four thousand six hundred and fifty kilograms per month and fifty-five thousand kilograms per year..."

Raven interrupted him with a smile: "Mr. Gordon, you are worrying too much. In my opinion, it would be great if one third of these people can stay."

Gordon frowned. "Sir, I have no intention of questioning your judgment, but based on these few items, I'm afraid..."

He didn't finish his words, but the meaning was clear enough.

"I know what you mean." Raven said, "The three stones are 30 kilograms, 60 kilograms, and 90 kilograms respectively. As long as you can lift the middle one and put it down five times in a row, you will pass. Most people can do this."

"And the last bow and arrow was just to see if anyone has some talent for shooting."

As he spoke, he pointed to the single-plank bridge and said, "But the level in the middle is not so easy."

Gordon still didn't quite believe it: "Sir, these people are serfs. They are good at walking in the ridges without stepping on the seedlings. How is it possible..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a scream and someone fell off the single-plank bridge in the middle and landed heavily on the ground.

The second one stepped forward immediately, but not long after, he fell down again.

Then came the third one, who held on a little longer but still slipped just before reaching the finish line.

"This..." Gordon pushed his monocle: "Sir, what is going on?"

Raven smiled and said, "A secret."

He already had a plan in mind on how to select soldiers.

These subjects have been doing farm work for a long time and have absolutely no problems with their physical strength. If they were to be judged by the standards of ordinary nobles, then these subjects of appropriate age would all be qualified soldiers.

But Raven couldn't afford to support so many people.

Now is the busy farming season, and these people are the main force in agricultural activities. If they are all withdrawn, this year's harvest will probably be greatly reduced.

Although agriculture does not make money, it is the real foundation of a country or a territory. Ensuring food self-sufficiency is the instinct of every lord.

That's why Lei Wen has to choose the best from the best.

There were no physical examinations in this era, and the long-term hardship of the people would inevitably accumulate various hidden diseases, especially in the waist and legs.

The balance beam in the middle is based on this consideration.

After experiencing the intense activity in the first level, the second level requires them to calm down and concentrate on maintaining balance. Once their concentration is distracted, or if there are any diseases in their legs, feet, or waist, they will not be able to persevere.

“Ouch—”

"what--"

People who failed in the second round failed one after another. Although it was soft grass, the pain was still unavoidable, and screams were heard one after another.

The sound came through the window and reached Denise, who was handling paperwork in the castle.

She was wearing a very homely long gauze dress today, with her hair draped over her shoulders. She couldn't help but frown when she heard the sound outside the window. She threw the quill back into the ink bottle with a shaking hand, and leaned back in the chair, revealing a large area of ​​the white skin on her chest.

She stood up and walked to the window. She looked at the people gathered in the castle, raised her eyebrows, and said disdainfully: "A gangster can only lead a group of gangsters. I'm afraid the reputation of the Griffith family is over."

Closing the window, Denise lay back on the soft bed.

She had a nightmare.

In the dream, Raven successfully trained his troops, and he led his men to bully men and women in Eagle Town, looking for women from house to house.

She just stayed in the castle, watching Eagle Town descend into chaos, but she was helpless and couldn't even leave.

Raven's appetite grew bigger and bigger, and he took the Eagle Town priest Lacus as a plaything, and finally blocked her in the door with his men.

Bang, bang, bang - the sound of banging on the door continued, making Denise's heartbeat quicken. The moment the door opened, Denise screamed, "Don't dream, I would rather die than get into your bed!"

Denise sat up in shock from the bed, breathing heavily, her clothes soaked with sweat and becoming almost transparent, sticking to her body and feeling sticky.

The knocks on the door continued.

“Who?” Denise asked impatiently.

"Mom, it's me!" Weisdong's voice rang out.

"Okay..." Denise sat up, found a dark piece of clothing to wrap herself up, and opened the door.

Before she could ask, Weisdong burst in, laughed and said, "Mom, it's a pity you weren't there!"

Denise was stunned and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's about Raven's training!" Weisdong sat on the chair, his eyes almost invisible because of his fat, shining: "This is the first time I've seen such a stupid person!"

Denise felt a little curious: "Has he already chosen someone?"

"We've finished the selection. There are more than 30 of them in total." Weisdong said, "The selection process is not very interesting, but the training afterwards is really fun!"

"Those peasants may look like decent people, but they are just a bunch of brainless animals."

"Raven actually wants to equip these animals with leather armor! Oh my god! That's a disaster!" Weisdong said with his hands dancing, "This is the first time I've seen people's fingers be so clumsy. Let alone leather armor, some people can't even wear leather helmets, and they cover their crotch armor on their foreheads."

"Under Eric's guidance, everyone finally put on a full set of leather armor. But as soon as they started moving, their shoes fell all over the floor. Several people fell down, and some even started fighting over who stepped on whose foot!"

Denise was very happy to hear this and asked, "What happens next?"

Vesdon was talking thirstily, so he picked up the cup on the table and took a sip of water:

"Then Eric beat them until they screamed like animals, and then he had to teach them how to tie their shoelaces. God, it was so hard for Eric. The hands of those animals were as dirty as donkey dung!"

"When things finally looked good, Raven asked them to line up in three rows, but those idiots didn't even understand 'sort by height' and lined up like the Eagle Mountains. Eric had to use a whip to correct them one by one."

"'Turn left' and 'turn right' were not really orders, and they all didn't understand. They all turned in different directions, and two of them bumped their heads together and almost kissed!"

"If you ask me, the monkeys in the circus are more obedient than them!"

As Denise listened, her brows gradually darkened. Although she had never heard of this method, from Weston's description, Raven was indeed doing it in a certain order.

Could it be that he found out how the Griffith family trained their private soldiers?

Seeing his mother's worried look, Weisdong smiled and said, "Mom, you don't really think Raven can train anything, do you?"

Denise said with some concern: "There are exceptions to everything."

"There is absolutely no exception to this matter!" Weisdong waved his arms, the fat on his face trembling: "He is just a gangster, what real ability can he have?"

"If he can train his soldiers, I will jump off the top of the castle to cheer him up!"

Raven certainly didn't know about Visdon's bold words, otherwise he would have felt a little better.

As it grew darker, Raven rejected Gordon's proposal and chose to dine with the selected soldiers in the hall.

As he expected, the number of subjects who were able to pass the test and become his private soldiers was less than one-third of the total number. In the end, only thirty-four people barely passed the test.

So Raven included Goyle and Link in the team, divided it into three teams, and roughly renamed the teams "classes". Goyle, Link, and Simon, who performed best during the selection, were appointed as class leaders respectively.

The cook was exhausted preparing food for more than 30 people, and of course he didn't care about anything fancy. Each person was given a big bowl of vegetable soup with bacon and unlimited black bread.

"Everyone, sit down." Raven asked Eric and the three squad leaders to sit down, picked up the black bread, broke it open and threw it into the soup, then started eating.

To be honest, today's training was not fruitful. The low quality of these subjects even exceeded Raven's expectations. Most of the thirty-four people could not tell the left from the right, and their execution was also poor.

A simple "run-stop" command can turn the three queues into a mess.

But there is an advantage, that is, these people do not have their own ideas, as long as you are willing to spend time and effort to train them, you can always train them into something good.

The atmosphere at the table was a bit dull. Raven stuffed a piece of black bread into his mouth and looked at Simon with a smile: "How is it, are you used to it today?"

Simon didn't expect Raven to ask him about this. He swallowed the food in his mouth without caring about the heat and stammered, "No, no problem, sir!"

"Don't be so nervous." Raven said with a smile: "You are my soldier now, just call me sir."

"I have just arrived in the territory and I don't know much about it. How is life at home?"

Simon was so nervous that he could hardly think: "With the fifty kilograms of semolina you give me every month, it will be much better!"

Raven's heart moved, and he asked, "Was life difficult before?"

Goyle and Link had already begun to wink at Simon, but Raymond's mind was blank at the moment and he couldn't pay attention to anything at all: "Yes! Sir!"

"There were four of us in our family, and each person only had 200 kilograms of coarse wheat flour as food every year. Most of it went into the mouth of a strong laborer like me. My grandmother, mother and sister had to go hungry."

"My grandfather starved to death three years ago just to give me food!"

After these words were spoken, the entire hall fell silent, with faint sobbing sounds coming from some of the tables.

After all, this kind of life is what they lived every day before.

Raven's heart was also heavy. He was also born in the countryside in his previous life. He knew how fast food would be consumed in the absence of supplementary food. He also knew that a strong laborer must be the first person in the family to be fed.

But he still underestimated the extent of poverty in Eagle Town.

Raven patted Simon on the shoulder and asked him to sit down, then stood up and said, "As a lord, I must apologize to you. It is my fault and the Griffith family's fault to let the people under my rule starve."

"But! This all happens for a reason!"

Raven lowered his voice and glanced at the crowd: "Why are your families starving? Because our Eagle Town is too poor! Why are we poor? Because our territory was forcibly occupied by others!"

He asked himself and answered with great force: "Because we are too weak!"

"If we are strong enough, no one will dare to take our land, and we will be able to take back the wealth that originally belonged to us!"

"You are my personal soldiers, and also the soldiers of the Eagle Territory!"

"I train you not only for my own glory, but also to enable Eagle Town to have enough strength to protect itself and make Eagle Town great again!"

"I, Raven Ota Griffith, hereby promise." Raven's voice was clearly transmitted to everyone's ears: "As long as you are loyal to me and obey my orders, then I guarantee that each of your families, and every household in Eagle Town, will be able to eat enough and wear new clothes!"

Empty words would not move these subjects at all, but Raven's words were not empty, because with their official selection, fifty kilograms of coarse wheat flour for the first month had been delivered to their respective homes!

And at this moment, their bowls were filled with broth that they would never dare to think of in normal times!

Simon was the first to stand up: "We are willing to follow you, Lord Raven!"

Then more private soldiers stood up: "We are willing to follow you!"

"Okay!" Raven shouted, "Bring the wine!"

Jars of wine were brought up and poured into everyone's bowl. Raven raised his bowl high and said, "Everyone, cheers, to our future!"

More than 30 men shouted in unison: "For our future!"

As soon as he took a sip of the wine, Raven immediately felt cheated. The taste was sour and astringent, just like swallowing a large mouthful of hawthorn without sugar. His facial features were almost twisted together.

This is not wine, it's clearly vinegar!
Did the cook secretly change the wine?

He was about to get angry, but he saw that every private soldier, including Simon, had an expression of enjoyment on their faces, and even Eric looked very satisfied.

As the banquet continued, Raven pulled Eric to his side and whispered, "How do you like this wine?"

"Excellent, sir!" Eric said with a red face, "A jar of this red wine is worth five silver coins and seventy copper coins!"

Raven was stunned for a moment, and then his eyes suddenly lit up - that was the light of money!

This piece of junk is worth so much money?
Then I will become rich! ?

……

(End of this chapter)