The cold wind roared from the north wind and invaded Lieutenant Nockmo's neck, making him tremble, he tightened his collar and shrank his body.

When I looked up, the dark clouds in the sky were already heavier than when they left the camp just now, and it was as if they were covered with a layer of cotton that had not completely deseeded.

"It seems that it is going to snow again." Lieutenant Nockmo breathed out lightly, and a clear white mist formed in front of him.

It was already mid-November. For this small town of Greenwitte, which is located in the middle of the former Frank Kingdom and is also slightly northerly in the central part of the Synes continent, it is not surprising even if it snows.

Lieutenant Nockmo was originally an indigenous person from a village near the town of Greenwitte. He lived here for more than ten years since he was a child. He did not leave until he joined the Frank King* team. Of course, he knew the weather here very well.

"Hey, Captain, you said it's such a ghost weather. Do we still need to run out to patrol?" A soldier from the Frank Kingdom following Lieutenant Nockmo with his neck shrank and complained. "Even the rabbits are so cold that they don't want to leave their nests, I don't believe that the Lamparis will come to attack in this kind of weather."

Lieutenant Nockmo glanced back at him and snorted coldly: "Close your beak, Makan. This is the order explained above. Do you have the courage to not execute it?"

The soldier called Makan spat and muttered, "It's not the order of our Frank, why do you have to listen? Those guys from the Maro Empire will only command us to help them do such dirty and tiring work. If you have the ability, they will do it themselves."

Lieutenant Nockmo frowned and glanced at the other members of the patrol team behind him. He found that the expressions on their faces were not much different from those on Makan, and they all showed a hint of dissatisfaction, so he couldn't help but sigh.

This is not surprising.

Not to mention that the soldiers under him were dissatisfied, even he was a little dissatisfied.

Although with the help of the Maro Empire, the exiled government and subordinate troops of their Frank Kingdom finally had the hope of regaining their own territory from the Kingdom of Lambari and the Principal of Drake, because the Maro Empire team occupied an absolute advantage in the coalition forces, the soldiers of the Frank Kingdom were always sent out to do all kinds of dirty work, but when calculating military merits, they thought they did not exist. This naturally caused the soldiers of the Frank Kingdom to be extremely dissatisfied.

But as an officer, Lieutenant Nockmo knew more than these ordinary soldiers, so he understood that there was nothing he could do about this situation.

Without the help of the Marlow Empire, the Frank Kingdom would have perished several months ago and there was no possibility of a counterattack.

Even if the Maro Empire had not dispatched several mages to join the war regardless of the possibility of violating the taboo, I am afraid that even the Maro Empire would have no choice but to use the Lambari Kingdom and the Drake Principality, and the Frank Kingdom would have no hope of success in restoring the country by relying on its own strength.

So after all, the Frank Kingdom is relying entirely on the Marlow Empire, so what qualifications do you have to talk about your status?

Lieutenant Nockmo understands the complaints of the soldiers, but relatively speaking, although he was a little dissatisfied, he still thanked more.

If it weren't for the help of the Marlow Empire, he might have been very difficult for him to return to this familiar land in his life.

Since a few months ago, the coalition forces of the Frank Kingdom and the Marlow Empire retreated one after another under the attack of the coalition forces of the Kingdom of Lampari and the Duchy of Drake, Lieutenant Nockmo has completely lost contact with his family members who remained in the nearby village.

Half a month ago, after the Mafa coalition recaptured the small town of Greenwitte from the Kingdom of Lampari, Lieutenant Nockmo took the time to go back and contacted his family again.

Because of this, Lieutenant Nockmo certainly felt a little grateful to the Marlow Empire.

But thinking about the situation when he met his family again, Lieutenant Nockmo felt that his gratitude to the Marlow Empire was not so clear...

After meeting his family, to his surprise, not only did not suffer various persecutions from King Lampari Team as he imagined, but instead they were all red and full of energy. In addition to being a little worried about losing contact with him, life seemed to be better than before.

When talking about the situation after the Lampari Kingdom occupied this place, the family members did not complain about the Lampari Kingdom, and even praised it, saying that after the Lampari Kingdom occupied this place, they directly exempted most of the heavy taxes that ordinary farmers had to pay every year. In the previous autumn harvest, a farmland magic machinery harvesting team was sent to help them with the harvest, making their autumn harvest this year extremely easy.

Because of this, Lieutenant Nockmo's parents and his adult younger brother could save some time to go to the office set up by several chambers of commerce in the Kingdom of Lampari for several months to work in a small town of Greenwitte. With this, they earned a total of more than thirty gold coins.

This situation was far beyond Lieutenant Nockmo's expectations and also made him feel a little confused.

The small town of Greenwitt was originally a private territory of the Earl of Green in the Frank Kingdom. Before this land was under the rule of the Frank Kingdom, the people of the Frank Kingdom on the territory had to pay a large amount of taxes to the Lord Green in accordance with tradition, and could only leave some rations to fill their stomachs.

Although Earl Green is one of the few lords in the Frankish kingdom who is willing to take care of the lives of civilians, almost all the people in the territory, including Lieutenant Nockmo, still have a very nervous life, and it is even more common to be hungry.

When the territory near the small town of Greenwitte fell into control of the Kingdom of Lampari, it directly exempted the taxes that the civilians should have paid on most of the territory, which instantly changed the lives of these civilians.

Not to mention anything else, Lieutenant Nockmo's house alone harvested a total of 1,300 kilograms of wheat during this autumn harvest.

In the past, 800 kilograms of wheat would be handed over to Earl Green, and then put aside the part left to make the seeds, and only about 400 kilograms were left.

In addition to Lieutenant Nokmo himself, who had joined the army, there were five people, who had to rely on these 400 kilograms of wheat until the harvest next spring. You can imagine the hardships of life.

However, when this place was occupied by the Kingdom of Lampari, according to the new policy announced by the Kingdom of Lampari, only 300 kilograms of wheat were required to be paid for only 300 kilograms of wheat. All the rest was left for Lieutenant Nokmo's home to use.

One thousand kilograms of wheat are more than twice as many as the previous 400 kilograms of wheat. Naturally, Lieutenant Nockmo's family has made life much better.

Moreover, after the Kingdom of Lampari occupied the small town of Greenwitte, several chambers of commerce from the Kingdom of Lampari, the Kingdom of Rulson, and the Principality of Drake entered the city, and carried out various preliminary developments on the small town of Greenwitte, recruiting a large number of local personnel, so that many people could find a job and receive several or even dozens of golden coins that these civilians dared not think of before.

With the help of gold coins, Lieutenant Nockmo's family life became more comfortable.

Due to lack of food and clothing, the winter of each year was the most difficult day at Lieutenant Nokmo's family. However, after the beginning of winter this year, the other five people in Lieutenant Nokmo's family were not only able to eat well, but also bought two new cotton jackets from the Armani Chamber of Commerce in the Kingdom of Lampari with dozens of gold coins earned by their parents and their adult younger brother for each person. They no longer had to endure hunger and cold as before.

Thinking of the two new cotton jackets that my younger brother and sister showed him like a show of showing off, Lieutenant Nockmo couldn't help but look down at his clothes.

As an officer, the clothes he equipped with were of course stronger than ordinary soldiers, but he just put a thin cotton jacket under a layer of rough and almost worn-out rotten leather armor.

There is no need to touch it with your hands. You can feel how thin this cotton jacket is just by relying on your body, and even let him feel the cold wind penetrate directly, which shows how poor the quality of the cotton jacket is.

However, when he was equipped with this bad cotton jacket, he still deducted three gold coins from his officer salary.

You know, as a lieutenant officer, his annual salary is only fifteen gold coins.

Thinking of this, Lieutenant Nockmo smiled bitterly again.

In the past, his annual salary of fifteen gold coins was a great supplement to the family, which could make his family's life slightly better than that of other families in the village, and this also made him receive a lot of special treatment every time he returned home.

However, now, just a younger brother went to the office established in the Greenwitte town of Lampari Kingdom to work for several months and earned more than ten gold coins.

Coupled with his parents' income, his fifteen gold coins seem less important.

When my younger brother talked to him about this matter again, he even told him not to join the army with disdain. It would be better to go to the chambers of commerce in the Kingdom of Lampari to work.

Because he heard that he did well in those chambers of commerce, and it was not surprising that he even got fifteen gold coins a month.

In addition, there is also a very obvious difference.

The new cotton jacket worn by the younger brother and sister is thick and warm, and looks very beautiful. When I bought it from the Armani Chamber of Commerce, one piece only needs one gold coin and forty silver coins.

If you buy two pieces at a time, you can even get ten more silver coins.

In comparison, the value of this thin cotton jacket on him is too insignificant.

But Lieutenant Nockmo still has difficulty complaining, because the price of cotton-padded jackets filled with precious cotton is high, whether in the Frank kingdom in the past few months or in the Marlow Empire where he was staying in the past few months.

Just because of the thin cotton jacket he is wearing, it will be no problem to take it out and sell two gold coins.

God knows why this damn Armani Chamber of Commerce can sell it so cheaply, so don’t you be afraid of losing money to them?

But then I thought about it, it made sense that the Frank Kingdom had rejected the Armani Chamber of Commerce to enter the Frank Kingdom before.

If the Armani Chamber of Commerce came in, all the merchants in the Frank Kingdom who made money by selling cotton jackets every winter would probably be squeezed out.

However... what does this have to do with ordinary civilians?

As a civilian who wishes to break a silver coin and spend it carefully, who doesn’t want to buy a new cotton jacket that is cheap, especially warm, and even looks better?

"Brother, it would be great if this place was occupied by the Kingdom of Lampari forever."

Thinking of the innocent words that his eleven-year-old sister said with her big eyes, Lieutenant Nockmo's wry smile became even deeper.

This sounds innocent, but isn’t it just the words of my sister? I’m afraid it’s the words of my parents and younger brother, and even the words of all the civilians near Greenwitt’s small town? (To be continued)
Chapter completed!