Throne of the North.

Chapter 9 Chaos in the Northern Province

What should I do if I have no money and no food?
It was impossible to starve to death, so the only thing I could do was to borrow money from my neighbors.

Strictly speaking, the Frozen Territory does not have any neighbors. After all, there is an endless winter to the north, and to the south one has to cross mountains, forests and swamps to see the nobles of the North Wind Province.

But now they are the only ones close to the frozen land.

"Let Deren and Arnold come to see me."

Soon, the knight guard captain Deren and the carpenter Arnall appeared in front of Ryan, and he looked at Deren first.

"I will give you twenty people. You will lead them and other apprentice knights to hunt in the surrounding areas. Try to get enough meat before it gets cold."

After saying that, Ryan looked at Arnold and said, "I know you have a unique talent in planting. My requirements are not high. Try to plant crops that can mature in a short time. I don't ask for anything, as long as I can eat and be full."

"Your will is at our disposal." The two men left with obvious excitement, because this meant that they had initially gained rights in this barony.

Finally, Ryan's eyes fell on Brand.

"Brand, go organize all the knights and squires now and come with me to the North Wind Province. We will visit our neighbors."

Brand was very fast. When Ryan walked from Rhino Horn Mountain to the foot of the mountain, he was already waiting with thirty people.

Looking at the scattered knights and servants, Ryan frowned, then turned around, stood on a big rock and roared.

Ryan, who possesses the strength of a knight, has a loud and majestic voice.

"Look at what you look like, do you look like an army? I think you are just a bunch of mud-legged people!"

"Now! Immediately! Line up five people in a row and six people in a column!"

As the number ten counted down, Ryan drew the iron sword from Rosen's waist and came to the side of his army.

"I just want to see a line of people in front of me!"

Ryan raised his sword and when he walked to the third row, he pointed the sword at a young man with half of his head exposed.

"Ryan, Severon..." Ryan called out six names in a row.

"Are you trying to make me think there are a lot of you?!"

After that, Ryan pointed at the remaining twenty-four people and said, "If you can beat them, each of you will get one gold coin."

"You can't win. When we come back, all of you will go and carry rocks for me!"

Being asked to do slave work as an apprentice knight or a knight's squire was not a physical punishment but a violation of dignity. All six of them blushed in the face in an instant.

There are no slaves in the Frozen Territory yet, and it would be absolutely unbearable to lose face in front of the civilians at that time.

There was no surprise. With six against twenty-four, the six had no chance of winning and were quickly defeated.

"Five, four..." Ryan's voice sounded like a devil in everyone's ears. At this moment, no one dared to hesitate.

Looking at the team that had been re-formed, Ryan did not go down to check, but nodded with satisfaction.

In the military, nothing is more important than the words "obey orders and follow discipline".

"If one person makes a mistake, the whole team will be punished. Remember, you will go to the battlefield in the future. If you can't even coordinate well, you will all die!" "I don't want you to die on the battlefield, not to mention that you are my personal guards. When the time comes, you will die in front of me."

Ryan's voice was cold, but it made old Beard's eyes hotter than ever before.

As a noble lord, it is common for aristocrats to enjoy themselves and exploit common slaves all day long.

An aristocrat who knows how to recognize people and use them well, and who can complete things from beginning to end, is a talent among the aristocrats and an outstanding aristocrat who can keep a family's reputation alive.

An aristocrat who can achieve this and also understand military affairs is an extremely rare aristocrat, a top aristocrat who can leave his name in history.

At this moment, he seemed to see the rise of the Frozen Territory and the Ryan Family becoming the shining star of the empire.

Looking at the knight's squire who finally looked somewhat presentable, Ryan nodded with satisfaction.

"set off!"

The decision was made not long ago and the action was hasty, but Ryan was not too worried.

The reason is simple, because this is the Beifeng Province. Beifeng, which has been part of the empire for decades, has always been in an extremely chaotic situation.

How to prevent chaos? The laws of the empire strictly forbid nobles from attacking each other's territories. In the entire empire, only the North Wind Province had no less than ten open battles between noble armies.

Although every sign of their power would be suppressed by other nobles, this also proved that the people of the North Wind Province were tough.

This is happening openly, but it is even more rampant in private.

But the amazing thing is that with such simple folk customs, no noble has died there in the past few decades. Even a barony that was shattered and a baron who was left alone was easily released, and now he still stays in his territory and exploits the serfs.

In addition to the competition for interests among the nobles, there are also the original indigenous nobles of the North Wind Province, that is, the many nobles in the area once known as the Dukedom of the North Wind.

After Meyers occupied the North Wind Province, the original owner of this land, the Duke of North Wind and his family were taken to the imperial capital and could never leave the imperial capital for the rest of their lives.

Of the remaining minor nobles who followed the Duke of the North Wind, some defected to the Empire early on, some became wandering nobles, seeking seats and territories in some southern kingdoms, some died in the war, and the last part became rebels and became thieves in order to regain their territories.

Ryan suspected that the assassin who assassinated him was the last remnant of the North Wind.

It was even possible that someone in the empire had contacted them and wanted to kill them in exchange for helping them regain their noble status.

Otherwise, assassinating an imperial noble, especially a baron conferred by the royal family himself, would be a slap in the face of countless nobles in the empire.

With such a huge risk, it is impossible to have huge benefits.

Poor and cold are how the southern provinces of the empire perceive the Northern Wind Province, but only the nobles in the Northern Wind Province truly understand that this place is just cold and chaotic.

The nobles will never be poor. They will try every possible way to exploit their subjects and slaves. Moreover, there are many minerals in the North Wind Province, but because it is too chaotic, the efficiency of development is extremely low.

In order to obtain those minerals, many nobles exploited slaves to death to mine. If there were not enough slaves, they would send free people to mine.

It is precisely for this reason that so many escaped slaves appear in the swamps and forests near the Frozen Territory.

It can even be said that only a small number of slaves escaped. After all, the vast majority of slaves never dared to have any thoughts of escaping, even if the lords and nobles required them to mine with only a few hours of rest a day and only gave them very little food.

(End of this chapter)