Duden's house looked a little older. Simon walked to the door of the house. There were some small wooden cages and empty wine barrels neatly stacked on both sides of the door.
"Duden's chickens were sent to the chicken coop behind the lord's kitchen a few days ago, and Ida is responsible for raising them." Little Klein said, pointing to the cage full of chicken feathers and chicken feces.
"I know." Simon nodded.
Ida is a servant brought by Simon from the village of Verde. She was a hard-working and capable woman, so Simon assigned her to manage the lord's kitchen at the wooden castle in Esbai Village.
The door was pushed open with a "click", and a strong smell of hay mixed with the stench of sweat hit your nose.
Simon saw Duden's saddle leaning against the foot of the door. He guessed that this was a preparation for escaping at any time.
In fact, no matter how many thoughts and plans Duden had, Simon was not worried. From the day he captured the escaped Cliff, Simon sent two soldiers to secretly monitor Duden and his family.
Once Duden makes any move to leave the village, he will be captured on the spot by soldiers who have received orders in advance.
To put it bluntly, this is not a cat and a mouse, but a turtle in a urn.
"This extravagant bastard!" Little Klein couldn't help but cursed as he followed Simon into the room.
Whether it's Duden's comfortable big bed, the sour vegetables and half-eaten meat strips on the plate on the table, or the shelves full of smoked fish, cheese and other foods in the storeroom, his life seems to have been the same as that of a little one. Lords don't make much difference anymore.
On the contrary, Simon couldn't help but think of the old village chief of Verde Village. His simple home had nothing but more firewood and wheat than the farmers.
"I have to find his cellar." Simon said to himself, lowering his head and pushing away the hay on the ground with his feet, while stamping hard to see if the floor was hollow.
The floor of the Duden house was covered with oak planks that had been polished to a perfect smoothness. In this era when most people lived in half-ground huts with mud floors, wooden floors were mostly found only in lords' houses.
After testing for a while, Simon found that the floor beside the bed made a crisp sound instead of a dull sound when he stepped on it.
"This is it!" Simon said in surprise.
Soon, the hay spread on the floor next to the bed was cleaned up by Simon and little Klein together, and a neat saw gap appeared on the floor.
Simon put his finger into the gap in the floor and lifted it up slightly. As the sawed floor lifted, a cold wind blew from the dark cellar, making Simon shiver.
When the five planks of wood were lifted aside by Simon and Little Klein, a wooden ladder that seemed to lead to an endless abyss appeared in front of them.
"Little Klein, take a roll of hay that you just opened and put it on the stove to light it."
"Okay sir."
A fat mouse jumped out of the pot with a squeaking scream. After a while, the iron pot hanging on the stove made a bubbling sound of "gurgling" again after a few days, and there was a mixture of beans. The rancid smell of bacon came out along with the white steam in the pot.
Simon picked up a third-burned candle from Duden's table and lit it under the stove, then walked down the wooden stairs.
A faint musty smell mixed with the raised dust floated in the air of the cellar, and the sounds of rats and mice could be heard in the darkness. Simon thought that there should be no food stored here.
The cellar made of stone was small, perhaps Duden could not afford so many stones. Simon saw a wooden shelf with a weak candlelight. There was a large locked box and several tightly sealed wooden boxes on the shelf.
There was far less dust on the box than on the shelf. Simon speculated that Duden had moved this big box recently.
There was only a layer of dust on the wooden box that was so light that it was almost invisible. Simon thought that Duden had probably transferred all the valuables in the big box to the small box so that he could take them away when he escaped.
The first box was short and long. Simon opened its lid, and a gold-plated dagger with exquisite patterns shone brightly in the red candlelight.
This is simply an exquisite work of art. It seems to belong to a noble noble, but I don't know what means Duden used to obtain it.
Simon opened the second box with doubts. A birch recurve bow with carved patterns lay quietly on an off-white linen wrapper. Beside it were the bow strings and several heavy arrows that were sharpened.
"This cunning old thing hangs an old hunting bow on the fireplace, but hides such a great recurve bow in the cellar. No matter what, it's all mine now." Simon couldn't help but smile. It's tilted up.
There was a small iron lock on the last box.
Simon shouted to little Klein at the door of the cellar. After a while, little Klein handed down a bunch of keys that made a "crackling" sound.
Fortunately, Simon had the foresight. Since he wanted to take Duden's house back into his own hands, the key was definitely indispensable. Simon's soldiers roughly ripped the keychain off Duden's waist when he was escorted out of the dungeon this morning.
Simon unscrewed the iron lock, and what came into view were Denier silver coins of varying qualities. It looked like there were nearly fifty coins.
"Ha, I guess the Denier silver coin that Cliff gave Duden as a deposit is in here." Simon picked up one of the silver coins and weighed it in his palm.
Someone once said that medieval peasants were the most cunning people in the world. If you don't exploit them ruthlessly, you will never know how much wealth they hide in private despite seemingly being so poor.
As for Duden, as a village leader who does all kinds of evil, the wealth he hid in the cellar simply made Simon dumbfounded.
Simon couldn't help but imagine how many bribes he had taken and how many bad things he had done to accumulate wealth.
Then, Simon used the key to open the large box that was not gathering much dust. Just as he guessed, there were no other valuable treasures in the big box except a few rolls of yellowed parchment.
Simon picked up the parchment, brought the candle closer, and read the contents recorded on it with some difficulty. He looked at it for a long time, and most of it recorded Duden's capital flow, including the expenditure on house renovation, as well as who received bribes on which day and for what reason.
Interestingly, Simon found the origin of the gold-plated dagger on the parchment.
It turned out that this luxurious dagger was ordered by the Count of Bruges from a craftsman in Cologne. However, the news was known by a group of bold and careful thieves.
When the craftsman had almost finished making the dagger, the group of thieves sneaked into the workshop at night. One person was responsible for strangling the jeweler, another was responsible for taking down the guard, and the third was responsible for opening the box where the jewelry was stored.
They apparently overestimated their ability to pick locks, and they found no keys on the alert jeweler. Frustrated and not wanting to make the matter a bigger deal, they took the almost completed gold-plated dagger away from the table and sold it on the black market.
After hearing about this incident, the furious Count of Bruges sent spies near the Cologne area to find the whereabouts of the dagger. Obviously, no one who is well-informed is willing to touch this bad luck, so this dagger is circulated underground like a piece of shady art.
Later, a bandit leader got the dagger from a businessman who couldn't repay his debts. He wanted to make a fortune with this art that was difficult to monetize, so he got in touch with Duden through Cliff.
Duden and the bandits worked together and planned an ingenious plan to rob the Merlingen Ranch in the southern part of the barony. They also easily got rid of the ranch steward who had always been at odds with Duden.
A successfully evaded robbery pleased the bandit leader. After he finished, he paid Duden one silver coin and gave the dagger to Duden as another three silver coins. Then he briefly told its story, and finally told Duden not to be too ostentatious.
Seeing this, Simon felt like he couldn't breathe easily. He knew that he had been in the cellar for too long and was lacking oxygen. He put away the parchment, called Little Klein, handed over the parchment and three boxes, and then returned to the ground.
"Today was really fruitful," Simon smiled and patted the dust on his body, "Let's go back."
……………………
After dealing with all the things in the village, Simon finally relaxed.
Now, he has a small forest and a lumberyard of his own. This means that he can more easily obtain the wood needed for the subsequent construction of the territory.
"I also need blacksmiths, leatherworkers and weaponsmiths, as well as more farmers and merchants to settle here." Simon thought to himself.
Simon has been thinking about it since he and Ryan planned the large piece of land next to the mill last time.
In his vision, a small pier would be built first on the river bank, followed by several stalls and several houses for people to live in.
Now, after the war in the earldom and clearing out the borers in the new territory, he has accumulated a lot of wealth. In addition to renovating the walls of Wördeburg and Esbaimburg, Simon thought he would build a new trading town on the lower Rhine.
"Let's wait until the docks, stalls and residents' huts are built before considering what to do next. I have to prepare my luggage. It's time to go to Deventer Church in the north to visit the half-brother Linde. "
In addition to visiting Brother Linde, Simon also hoped that this trip would bring back some excellent craftsmen and some merchants who were willing to settle in the village of Esbai. In addition, he could also drop by to visit the lord of the neighboring territory to the north.
“My first stop is neighboring Tossendria to the north, then Arnhem and Issel, before finally arriving at my destination of Obersiel.”
