Vikings: Lords of the Ice Sea

Chapter 241 Investigation Report
A week later, County Lundinium began a land survey, with a total of twenty survey teams.

Upon arriving at each settlement, the survey team's first task was to gather the residents and register all their information in detail using a standardized questionnaire.

Subsequently, the investigators went to the fields, measured the area of ​​the fields with measuring ropes, and drew up a map.

For a long time, farmland in rural areas has generally been long and narrow, making it relatively easy to measure. Of course, they also encounter some irregularly shaped plots of land, and can only make rough estimates to arrive at an approximate area.

As the chief sergeant, Seibert was assigned to various places to observe the land surveying work. Watching his juniors' hardworking backs, he suddenly recalled something from many years ago.

At that time, Ivar was in deep financial crisis, so he asked Vig for help and borrowed five students to help clean up the accounts, one of whom was Seibert.

After finishing organizing the accounts, the students were surveying land in the countryside near Duflin when they were attacked by local gentry. They escaped by running fast enough.

Thinking of this, Seibert looked at the idle soldiers. So far, no attacks had occurred, and the soldiers and investigators were generally not very vigilant.

However, based on his own experience, sooner or later, some local gentry or self-cultivating farmers who would suffer losses would act rashly and attempt assassination or even open attacks.

"Hopefully, these soldiers will be able to exercise restraint and prevent things from escalating."

As time went on, the surveying work in County Rendene was successfully completed, and the reports from each survey team were sent to the Cabinet, where they were recorded and compiled by clerks and eventually put into a parchment book.

According to statistics, County Rendynewme has a resident population of 61,305 people in 12,020 households.

Of these, urban residents accounted for 8%, while the remaining population was distributed in the vast countryside. Self-cultivating farmers accounted for nearly 30%, border farmers/thatched cottage farmers accounted for 20%, tenant farmers accounted for 20%, and slaves accounted for 10%.

Subsequently, investigators and soldiers were dispatched to Cambridgeshire in the north to continue this large-scale search operation.

The further away from the capital, the more indifferent the people became to the investigators, especially some gentry whose interests had been severely damaged. They began to secretly conspire, and some even spread rumors that they wanted to drive out the greedy and harsh Viking king.

The conflict escalated until late July, when someone finally lost control and attacked investigators with a stray arrow.

Looking at the corpses lying on the ground, Seibert was furious. "I've emphasized the danger of this job many times and told you not to be alone, but hardly anyone listened to me. Now look what's happened. There will be a lot of trouble to come!"

Upon receiving the message, nearby rangers and infantry came to reinforce. The experienced rangers quickly pinpointed the approximate area where the killer was hiding.

A ranger officer came to ask for instructions: "Sir, what should we do?"

Seibert straightened his back on horseback, gazing at the distant manor with its wooden walls. Considering the overall situation, he didn't want to escalate the situation and only wanted to resolve it quickly. "Send someone to persuade them to surrender."

However, several minutes passed, and no matter how the soldiers threatened, the mansion remained tightly shut, forcing Seibert to make a decision.

"Shoot a volley of arrows at the gate, and if they still don't surrender, then launch a full-scale attack, trying to capture them alive."

Upon receiving the order, more than thirty rangers roared toward the manor and hurled arrows toward the gate. Then they felled a small tree, stripped it of its branches and leaves, and used it as a makeshift battering ram.

"attack!"

The infantrymen raised their battering rams and charged toward the gate, while the rangers dismounted and walked fifty meters away, attempting to suppress the enemy's counterattack with their horsebows.

Thump, thump!
After ramming the gate more than ten times, it burst open with a bang. Infantrymen, spears at their sides, rushed into the mansion. The open space was a mess; not a soul was in sight, only a flock of chickens and ducks wandering around. "Damn it, they've all escaped! Chase them!"

Seibert ordered the infantry to search the interior of the mansion and the rangers to search the surrounding area.

Soon after, a soldier found many scattered silver coins in the grass near the back wall. Due to the large number of witnesses, the soldier had no choice but to hand them over to Seibert.

The total consists of over two hundred silver coins, worth approximately one pound. The coins are in very good condition, and the obverse features the Tyneburg family's dragon coat of arms.

Suddenly, Seibert noticed something was off about the dragon emblem. He took out a silver penny from his pocket and compared it to the emblem, noticing some extremely subtle differences.

"These silver coins were privately minted; that's interesting."

Early in his reign, Vig issued a decree strictly prohibiting nobles and commoners of the kingdom from minting coins privately. Seibert carefully examined the silver coin's workmanship; it was generally acceptable, roughly 90% the quality of a genuine silver coin. Ordinary gentry could not achieve this level of quality, so it must have come from a nobleman's workshop.

Gazing at these uniformly styled silver pennies, a bold idea suddenly came to him.

The investigators were murdered by the gentry, primarily due to their own mismanagement. However, attributing the investigators' deaths to a nobleman plotting a rebellion would help mitigate their own responsibility.

After sitting on the grass and pondering for a long time, he wrote a report, the gist of which is as follows:

Our investigators were attacked. A search of the attackers' estate revealed a bag of counterfeit silver coins. The coins were of high quality, likely from a nobleman's workshop, and were used by the nobleman to hire assassins. The situation is urgent; we request reinforcements from the King and the Cabinet.

After finishing, Seibert beckoned to a Ranger officer, “Send this report and the silver coins to Rendynewum. It’s a serious matter, so make sure nothing goes wrong.”

Two days later, Vig received the message early in the morning.

After reading the report multiple times, he noticed many suspicious points in the matter, so he dispatched a mountain infantry battalion to stabilize the situation and had the intelligence system investigate secretly.

West of the city, headquarters of the intelligence system.

Upon receiving the decree, the supervisor appointed an inspector and two experienced detectives to take command and select ten detectives to go to Cambridgeshire.

Upon learning of the murder that had occurred in the area, which seemed to involve a nobleman, most of the detectives remained silent, with only one volunteering.

"Blackfish, are you out of your mind? You almost died from an arrow wound last time, do you want to get hit again this time?"

Blackfish didn't offer much explanation when faced with his friend's question.

Last year, he was ordered to investigate the silver mines in Nottingham. He finally found a clue, but it was ignored by his superiors. This time, he was determined to seize the opportunity and use this batch of privately minted silver coins to expose the silver mine workers who had absconded with the money, as well as the "fat man" behind them.

For some reason, Blackfish has been having dreams frequently this year, dreaming of a short, stout figure with a blurry face. No matter how much Blackfish calls out to the figure, the figure remains unmoved and simply stands silently in place.

Based on a premonition, Blackfish judged that the fat man was the long-lost court steward, Parfice, and even believed that this man had been lurking in Britain, plotting to start a large-scale rebellion.

(End of this chapter)