novelraw Chapter 367: Migration
Chapter 367: Migration
In late April, the Crown Prince arrived in Liverpool and saw twenty knarr ships and five brigantines anchored at the mouth of the River Mersey.
A massive amount of cargo was piled on the docks, being hoisted onto the decks by treadwheel cranes. Several families, carrying their parcels, boarded the ships one by one, preparing to head to the distant and unfamiliar West Francia.
Upon learning of the Crown Prince's arrival, Earl Bracken came specifically to welcome him.
"Your Highness, you have arrived at the perfect time. I have completed the handover procedures and am about to lead the final group of personnel on board," he said cheerfully, impatient to depart for his new territory.
Looking at all the earldoms across Britain, Liverpool was among the absolute worst. It was small in area and sparsely populated. The first Earl, Ulf, had fled after only a few years. Bracken later became the second Earl, yet he was still unable to revitalize the region.
Faced with continuous setbacks, Bracken chose the same approach as his predecessor: he gave up trying and waited for an opportune moment to ask his liege lord to change his fiefdom.
His luck was quite good. The new territory granted by the Emperor was located in southern Francia, not far from Bordeaux. It was an excellent agricultural region. During this period, Bracken had rushed through the handover procedures with the Cabinet at maximum speed, terrified the Emperor might suddenly change his mind.
"Your Highness, all the paper documents are stored in the Earl's manor—no, it should now be called the Sheriff's residence. The Cabinet's administrators have already finished their inspections. After enduring until today, I can finally be free."
The two conversed for a moment before Bracken suddenly brought up another matter. Last month, some Northern European merchants had gone out of their way to come and purchase war bonds. The Earl suspected that certain Northern European nobles were backing them.
The Crown Prince had caught wind of this matter long ago. The Cabinet had recommended a laissez-faire approach, and the Emperor shared the same view.The Northern European nobles were buying up war bonds to exchange them for land within Francia.
This particular land did not count as noble fiefs and came with no feudal privileges. If the Northern European nobles migrated and settled there, they would have to pay taxes and undertake military service just like everyone else. The more land they held, the more obligations they had to shoulder. This arrangement was entirely beneficial to the Empire.
After hearing the explanation, the Earl breathed a long sigh of relief. He called for his steward and ordered, "Sell all our war bonds to those Northerners, and make it quick."
While the cargo was still being loaded onto the ships, the Earl accompanied the Crown Prince for a stroll through the town.
The locals generally welcomed Liverpool's transition from an earldom to a directly-administered county. The reasons were simple: lower agricultural taxes, more town hospitals, access to cheap honeycomb coal during the winter, and the fact that residents born in a direct county had an easier time taking up public office, enjoying a clear path for upward mobility.
For the longest time, the Earl had felt quite good about himself. Now, on the eve of his departure, the residents of Liverpool finally voiced their true thoughts, leaving him feeling immensely defeated.
"Your Highness, the fleet is ready. I should be on my way."
Bracken hurried to the docks to board his ship, unwilling to stay in this wretched place for even a second longer.
Catching the wind, the fleet departed the mouth of the River Mersey and sailed south along the coast of Wales. After a two-day stop in Plymouth, the fleet crossed the Channel and continued south until they reached the Garonne Estuary.
Afterward, Bracken's party transferred to oar-driven longships and rowed east for some distance along the Dordogne River, a tributary of the Garonne, finally arriving at his new fiefdom: Pineuilh.
The fleet docked at a crude, rudimentary pier. Bracken led his extensive entourage in a grand procession toward the castle marked on his map.
The May sun was warm but not scorching. On both sides of the road lay vast, flat expanses of wheat fields, the ripening ears of grain rippling in the gentle breeze. Farmers toiled in the fields wearing linen or wool garments. They cultivated the land using primitive wooden tools; iron farm implements were exceedingly rare. Occasionally, an ox could be seen pulling a wooden plow to till the fallow ground.
Even with such backward farming techniques and tools, the wheat here was growing quite well. The Earl cradled an ear of wheat in his hands and observed it closely. If iron tools and the new heavy plows were introduced, the wheat yield here would be twenty to thirty percent higher than in Liverpool.
At noon, the Lord Earl arrived at a small village. The houses here were mostly built from roughly hewn stones, their roofs thatched with dried wheat straw. In the center of the village sat a stone well where several women were drawing water and chatting. Upon seeing strangers, they immediately lowered their voices and hastily fled back into their homes.
At the eastern end of the village was a communal public oven area, the air heavy with the aroma of freshly baked bread. A baker was using a long-handled wooden peel to pull freshly baked rye bread from a stone oven. This was the staple food for most villagers; white bread was only seen during festivals or special occasions.
Glancing through a few open doors, the Earl saw that the farmhouses were cramped and dim inside. They contained nothing more than a few rough wooden benches and sleeping pallets covered with hay or animal skins. Wooden farm tools were piled in the corners, and the occasional bleat of a sheep echoed from the adjacent livestock pens.
"With the commoners this impoverished, just how much tax did the previous lord collect?"
Leaving the village behind, the procession traveled for about two hours before finally spotting the castle standing on a hillside up ahead.
The main structure of the castle was a stone watchtower dating back to the Roman era, surrounded on the outermost edge by a ring of wooden palisades.
Unfortunately, the palisades and the interior buildings had been burned to the ground. The stone watchtower had been ravaged by tunneling tactics, resulting in a massive collapse that would be incredibly difficult to repair.
Twenty soldiers were stationed at a nearby mill, commanded by a young ensign. Upon learning of Bracken's identity, the ensign carefully inspected his documents, then called his brothers-in-arms to pack their bags and return to Bordeaux to report back.
Overall, the climate and soil of this new territory were much better than Liverpool's. The downside was that the populace lived in bitter hardship, lacked iron farming tools, and harbored a cold, indifferent attitude toward their lord. They looked as though they might launch a rebellion at any moment.
Over the next half month, the Earl led his trusted aides to inspect every village in his domain. He meticulously recorded each village's population and arable land area, and then proceeded with the enfeoffment of his subordinate barons and knights.
Upon reaching the northernmost edge of his territory, he happened to run into another group of Vikings. They were the soldiers of Ricard, who was likewise patrolling his own new domain.
A total of six great nobles had requested to exchange their lands, and their demands were largely identical: the new territories had to be abundant in wine. Therefore, Wigg had placed all of their domains in southern Francia. To Bracken's north was Ricard; to his east was the eldest son of Gorm; and to his southeast was Pascal Jr.
With the inspections complete, Bracken returned to the castle ruins and pondered his future plans.
From an economic perspective, the most suitable approach would be to plant grapes on a massive scale, brew wine, and sell it to Britain, Northern Europe, and Eastern Europe. The problem was that his neighbors shared the exact same idea. With everyone scrambling to expand production, the price of wine was bound to plummet.
'Pineuilh's location is still a bit lacking,' he thought to himself. 'The best territories should be along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. There's plenty of sunlight, and besides making wine, you can also grow olives to produce the olive oil that the Empire so desperately lacks. What a pity I fell severely ill three years ago and missed out on this war.'
An uncontrollable wave of regret washed over the Earl. He took out paper and pen to write a letter to the Emperor, begging him to make absolutely sure he was brought along for the next war.