The Lord’s Hall of Hebron is no less magnificent than the one in Losa’s Jorgelisburg.

The towering dome, spacious reception hall, luxurious tiles, and exquisite carvings are like heaven compared to the castles of those rural lords in Western Europe…

Two Axe Guards have already gone up the spiral staircase to the second floor to replace Losa’s massive heraldic banner.

This banner stands alongside the Jerusalem Cross Banner, displaying the double-headed eagle designed by Losa himself, poised to take flight.

Losa couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of achievement in his heart.

Count of Transjordan!

This title is much nobler than the title of Count Algo, isn’t it? Werner could never have imagined that the second son of his family would achieve such a feat, right?

Losa sat in the lord’s throne at the very center of the hall.

He lightly tapped the gilded armrest.

After a while, he planned to gather Marles to open that well-equipped ironworks.

The iron ore from Sego is not much farther from Hebron than Jorgelisburg, so there’s no need to transport it once more.

Restricted by the territory scale, even though Jorgelisburg has a Winged Cavalry Camp and a Varangian Guard Camp, his court and ruling center must inevitably be in Hebron.

The lance of the Armored Cavalry is still in Hans’ hands, and Losa temporarily doesn’t intend to use this epic item to unlock the Armored Cavalry Camp.

In battle, it has proven to be quite powerful, and if paired with the “Jeanne” Knight’s Flower twenty percent all attributes bonus, it will be extremely formidable.

To know exactly how many industries he has under his command requires waiting for Andreas, the new Clothing Officer, and Reynard, who remains here, to connect.

But even if he doesn’t have a single piece of land, once he confiscates the lands of those heretic magnates, he can divide them among his Winged Cavalry, promoting them all to knights.

By then, recruiting a hundred Winged Cavalry will bring about an invincible effect on the battlefield.

Furinjira originally wanted to approach.

Jeanne stopped her: “Let the lord indulge himself for a while; trying to please someone isn’t just about constantly sticking close.”

Furinjira was somewhat unconvinced, saying: “Do you understand better than me?”

Jeanne’s face stiffened for a moment: “At least better than you!”

Furinjira remained unconvinced: “Don’t underestimate my age; I’m actually eight hundred years old, just slept longer, what haven’t I seen?”

Jeanne smiled and said: “I don’t know about the depth of your knowledge, but small, definitely quite small.”

Furin’s accumulated goodwill towards Jeanne instantly vanished, yet she was somewhat afraid of Jeanne, not daring to give her nicknames like she did with Prajna, and could only stew in silence.

At this moment, Andreas presented a booklet: “Lord, the Golden Book of Hebron’s territory is already here. Baron Reynard’s tax officer guarantees that they will only take away the movable assets belonging to Count Reynard; all real estate contract documents, mansion estate keys have been sorted and placed appropriately.”

The Golden Book isn’t gold, just like the Golden Seal Imperial Decree isn’t actually gold.

Losa opened the booklet, murmuring: “Fourteen estates, three vineyards, two wineries, twelve windmills, two churches, two bridges…”

These assets can be given to knights as feudal estates.

They are all part of the real estate category, generating continuous revenue, for example, every time an old farmer uses the mill, they must pay a certain portion of grain.

Estates like Constantz are not included because they’re located within the city and only meet residential conditions.

Unable to sustain the needs of a knight for food, clothing, equipment, and warhorse replacement.

The so-called charters tax really doesn’t encompass all taxes that a farmer needs to pay.

Losa furrowed his brows and put down the Golden Book, saying: “Far less than I imagined.”

Andreas explained: “Baron Reynard wasn’t very good at managing the territory; many properties and lands were sold to local heretic magnates in exchange for wealth.”

“Well, that can be understood.”

Reynard was evidently the epitome of war-mongering; at his craziest, he once formed a force of up to eight thousand, not inferior to Regent King Raymond’s army.

In terms of affluence, the Transjordan realm could certainly never compare to Raymond, who occupied all of the Tripoli realm.

Without talking about anything else, just the fact that the Tripoli realm didn’t need to supply any fiscal tribute to the Kingdom in any form, merely nominally subservient to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, is an aspect the Transjordan Count’s domain cannot match.

One is a realm, and the other can only be called a count’s domain?

“But honestly, given Reynard’s hatred for the heretics, not having killed all those local heretic magnates and looted their wealth is truly something I hadn’t anticipated.”

Losa lightly joked, but inwardly understood, Reynard was reckless but definitely not a complete fool.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be one of the greatest heroes of the Battle of Mongisa, and also creatively thought up the “land boat strategy.”

Although Losa resists the tax farming system, he has to admit it has a huge advantage, which is collecting the most money at the least cost.

Even if tyranny leads to rebellion by the unruly, it is the matter of the tax collectors, equivalent to the full positive assets, without any obligation toward the land or the “unruly” populace.

For example, Losa, if he plans to eliminate the tax collectors, he would need to finance from his own pocket, to maintain a batch of tax officers, who must also have a guard to prevent the domain populace from armed tax resistance.

Not to mention, tax officers also tend to embezzle money.

If Losa controlled not just a small Earl’s Domain, but a Great Empire like Song, it is feared that in remote areas, not only is tax collection impossible, when vassals report disasters, nomadic raids, instead, they could extract disaster relief funds or military pay from Losa’s pocket.

Furthermore, tax collectors, who are much better at squeezing every copper plate and every grain beyond what barely fills their stomachs from the hands of the domain populace than the foreign tax officers.

“Tsk, just on this, Hebron can collect 8,000 Suludes in taxes every year, if we count the additional Saladin tax, unbeliever tax, pilgrim’s toll, Shield tax for those unwilling to perform military service, criminal’s exemption tax, then extort some more from Jewish merchants, devalue the currency… No wonder Count Raymond is willing to compromise with them.”

Hebron was indeed too prosperous.

Not to mention, Reynard originally owned these two core territories, Montreal and Kaler Castle.

It’s no wonder Reynard was able to maintain a lavish court lifestyle while owning a formidable, 3,000-strong standing army.

“My lord, some powerful heretics from the city have already arrived outside the court, they hope to seek an audience with you.”

“Let’s go, let us see how these powerful heretics are still able to thrive under Reynard’s rule.”

The hour is still early, there aren’t many people who have come, only a dozen or so.

They stood at the steps outside the Lord’s Hall, upon seeing Losa, they voluntarily used the Frankish etiquette to kiss the heraldic ring on Losa’s finger, faces squeezing into a flattering smile.

“You are indeed handsome, it is an honor to have the opportunity to have an audience with you.”

“Praise be to you, the great Count Losa.”

They showered him with compliments.

Afterward, they pulled out a stack of notes.

Losa glanced over and didn’t reach out to take them, simply furrowing his brow: “What’s this?”

A Jewish merchant smiled apologetically: “My lord, these are notes for loans that Lord Reynard took from us.”

Losa snorted coldly: “I’m not blind, what I mean to say is, what do you intend me to do with these things?”

A bearded Saracen, full of ingratiating smiles: “My lord, according to your Frankish law, since you inherited the title and domain of Count Reynard, naturally you also inherit the debt relationship with us.”

Sure enough, there’s a trap!

Losa glanced at the clothing officer Andreas, meaning: See how you handle this?

Andreas immediately walked up with a face like thunder and introduced himself first: “I’m the Count’s court dressmaker, Andreas. At your first audience, you brought financial dispute matters to pollute my lord’s ears. This is extremely disrespectful.”

These people immediately showed fear and hastily apologized.

Andreas snorted: “You should be aware, Châtillon’s Reynard was merely stripped of the count title and Hebron’s territory. He has neither died nor succumbed to illness. Since he is still alive, the money owed to you should naturally be his responsibility.”

“According to our Frankish Salic inheritance law, if Hebron was inherited by my lord from Reynard through inheritance law, naturally he would inherit his debt relationship with you, but all of these premises rest on Reynard having died!”

Andreas declared categorically.

These local powerful figures wrapped in turbans looked troubled: “But my lord, where would we dare run to Kaler Castle to ask Lord Reynard for our money?”

To hell with you!

Losa cursed inside, yet his face was brimming with an enthusiastic smile: “No problem, the tax officer of Baron Reynard here hasn’t had time to leave the city yet. I’ll immediately dispatch my Patrol Officer leading a Winged Cavalry unit to recover your debts.”

They revealed a hint of delight on their faces: “That would be too kind of you. You truly are as the legends say, a generous and magnanimous lord.”

They thought internally; this new count was so easy to talk to, the future days would surely be much looser compared to the oppressive hands of that tyrant Reynard.

Little did they know, Losa had already considered the money in their pockets as his own property!

He wasn’t retrieving the money for these people but for himself!

As Ulm escorted these “creditors” away, the smile on Losa’s face immediately vanished: “Heh, these dogs, they fear Reynard but don’t fear me, does being a good guy mean being targeted by a gun?”

Andreas: “?”

“No worries, it’s only a joke.”

Losa began to understand why the King of France would persecute the Templar Order under baseless charges.

The reason is simple: If you can’t solve the debt, then simply solve the creditors!

“Andreas, call Model over, immediately dispatch the Axe Guard and City Defense Army to stand guard at the door. Next, except for those knights and nobles who have fought alongside me, I won’t meet anyone else.”

(Sailing on Dry Land—a strategy where Reynard transported warships overland using rollers to launch a surprise attack on the two Holy Lands of the Fire Worship. Although ultimately failed, this strategy once achieved success and plundered a wealth of riches. Popular online because the Ottomans also used this strategy in their attack on Constantinople.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep