Handling piled-up official affairs, entertaining honored guests, preparing banquets, inspecting the autumn harvest, hunting wild beasts, and preparing for the new round of civil service examinations—after returning to their domain, the Duke and Duchess were almost too busy to catch their breath.
Especially Felix. After accepting his new territories, his autumn inspection naturally had to include these new fiefs as well. Although he could have assigned capable subordinates to share the duties of inspection and hunting, both he and his wife felt that it was better to personally visit these lands for the first time. So, only a few days after returning to Sardinson, and right after the celebration banquet for his elevation to Duke, Felix merely greeted the visiting nobles before hurriedly setting off again with his team to inspect the various regions.
It's worth mentioning that a standard duchy's area is thirty times that of a standard county. Sardinson originally had the area of two standard counties, meaning that the size of the territories Felix received after becoming a duke was equivalent to fifteen Sardinson. Of course, because he already possessed the standard-sized County of Slot, his new territories amounted to fourteen standard counties. Based on the different areas of the counties neighboring Sardinson, the king finally allocated to him six counties as his new fiefs. The largest among them was twenty-five times the size of Sardinson, while the smallest one was even smaller than a standard county, yet still classified as a county.
All these counties connected had a total area exceeding 2.58 million acres, with a total population of over one million people, comprising nearly one-eighth of Pradi's entire population. Within his domain, there were more than two hundred noble families of various ranks. It was clear that a duke's governing authority was no less than that of some monarchs of small to medium-sized countries.
Of course, the total area didn't mean all the land was developed. In reality, Pradi had a high forest coverage rate, and with both animal husbandry and agriculture flourishing, most nobles' territories contained more forests and pastures than farmlands. The farmland depended on the population—poorer areas might have large territories but very little cultivated land.
As for the population in Felix's new fiefs, truthfully speaking, it wasn't very high. After all, these lands bordered Sardinson. In recent years, with Sardinson's rapid development and various beneficial policies set by the Duke and Duchess, more and more free citizens from other regions have moved there with their families. The local lords simply couldn't stop them; after all, they couldn't be as generous as Felix. Though their development had improved somewhat, it still wasn't enough to attract free citizens to stay.
Felix's willingness to accept free citizens, though damaging to other lords' interests, was perfectly legal. The nobles couldn't even protest, and given their cooperation with Felix, no one dared openly oppose him. Even if they wanted to block the migration, it was useless—free citizens could abandon all their possessions and flee in secret. Some nobles had tried to capture escapees and turn them into serfs under other pretexts, but the result was that remaining free citizens felt endangered and fled even faster. The most extreme case was a noble who managed to forcibly keep some people by enslaving them, but now his land had no free citizens left. News spread, and no new free citizens dared settle there. With no free labor, merchants also avoided his territory. In the end, his economy declined sharply, and his population plummeted. Aside from land taxes, he had almost no income. Farmlands had to rely on purchased serfs to be cultivated, and if not for slightly improved yields over the years, that family might have gone completely bankrupt.
After witnessing his fate, the other nobles naturally no longer dared to mistreat free citizens. They reluctantly improved treatment for free citizens in their territories, barely managing to keep some people.
Fortunately, by this year, Sardinson's population had reached a certain saturation point. Along with a significant increase in birth and survival rates, Sardinson stopped accepting new free citizens. Other free citizens wishing to move there found themselves unable to do so, finally allowing the other nobles to breathe a sigh of relief.
Even so, many free citizens still chose to work in Sardinson, bringing their earnings back to support their families and pay taxes. As a result, many nobles had nominal population counts, but in reality, fewer people stayed to farm. With less cultivated land, land taxes collected also dropped significantly. Luckily, these regions cooperated with Sardinson, and instead of emptying their coffers, they received more gold coins thanks to Felix's compensation for their labor losses. Thus, they turned a blind eye and pretended nothing was happening.
Now that Felix had been promoted to Duke and had become their immediate superior, they dared even less to oppose him.
Most nobles were genuinely supportive and delighted that Felix had become Duke and taken over their territories.
After all, their nominal overlord had always been the king, who barely paid them any attention. As long as taxes arrived on time, the king wouldn't even remember their existence. Moreover, eastern nobles, far from the political center in the capital, were often mocked as country bumpkins by western nobles. They wanted to seek a powerful patron but couldn't. Even when the empire needed troops for war, Western nobles were prioritized. As a result, eastern nobles not only had poor lands but also lacked opportunities to earn military merit and rewards, making their lives consistently miserable compared to others.
Although they did benefit from Sardinson's development and prosperity, their status didn't improve. Among eastern nobles, only Felix's family was remembered by the king. The others required reminders to even be acknowledged. Large nobles earned much more through cooperation with Felix and looked down on the small profits of these eastern nobles. Moreover, when Sardinson started to thrive, the major nobles had already foreseen Felix's rise, expecting him to eventually dominate the east. Interfering would mean becoming his enemy for mere scraps of benefit—something wise nobles wouldn't do.
As a result, many chose to treat the eastern nobles as they always had: accepting gifts, maintaining cordial relations, but never truly incorporating them into their own circles.
Failing to find a powerful patron had always been the regret of eastern nobles. Now, the biggest "patron" had delivered himself to their doorstep. How could they possibly let go? Instead, they eagerly clung to him like loyal "leg ornaments."
Moreover, Felix's governance ability was evident to all. His benevolence and wealth were equally renowned. Looking at the prospering commoners under his rule, and even those barons who had once offended him—yet were forgiven and now obediently stayed in their lands, making money and living lavishly—it was obvious that following Duke Williams meant endless benefits.
Even though everyone knew Felix didn't particularly favor those five baron families, they still prospered rather than decline, further proving to other nobles that siding with Duke Williams brought nothing but advantages.
Calling themselves "vassals" was practically a privilege. As Felix led his inspection tours, he received warm welcomes from every local lord. The nobles even handled the hunting themselves, leaving Felix to simply enjoy their hospitality. Of course, if they could discuss further cooperation during his visits, so much the better.
When he set out, the autumn harvest was nearly complete. The nobles had already gathered and loaded their tax grain before his arrival, just waiting for his inspection before shipping it to Sardinson.
Among this grain, a portion indeed belonged to their direct overlord nobles. But according to the hierarchical taxation system, where each level manages the level below, barons didn't need to pay taxes to Felix. Only those who were required to pay a portion of their taxes in place of military service. Nevertheless, the barons still prepared grain as if they needed to pay taxes, and the amount they prepared didn't match what they were obligated to submit.
In reality, aside from the small portion they used to offset military service (and for barons, this portion didn't even exist), the majority of the grain came from taxes the commoners owed to the king and the church's tithe.
For a long time, nobles had collected taxes exceeding a third or even half of the land yields. However, part of these taxes was supposed to be remitted to the king.
Besides that, they also had to pay tithes to the church.
The king's taxes and the church's tithes together accounted for all this grain that was about to be delivered to Sardinson.
It had already been mentioned that Pradi was not very friendly toward the church, yet they still collected tithes. This was because the nobles could use it as an excuse to levy taxes on their subjects and then openly stash the collected grain into their granaries as additional personal income.
As for the church, they could forget about receiving the full tithes. If the nobles gave them a portion, the church should already feel fortunate. Some nobles even gave nothing, forcing the church to support itself. That's why monasteries outnumbered churches—monks in monasteries farmed to sustain themselves.
Since they dared to embezzle tithes, they naturally also didn't mind siphoning off some of the king's taxes. As long as they bribed the king's tax collectors, hid the actual acreage, and falsified harvest reports, they could save a large amount of grain. Why wouldn't they do it?
Especially since they were in rural areas. Low yields were perfectly "reasonable," weren't they?
Moreover, this wasn't just one or two nobles—almost all nobles did the same. So they did it with complete confidence. The former kings weren't unaware, but chose to turn a blind eye. After all, what else could they do? The king had little control over these territories. If he cracked down for a bit of tax revenue, it could unite the nobles against him.
This was precisely the constraint of royal power under the feudal enfeoffment system. If this were a Chinese imperial system, many of these nobles would have already been executed in batch after batches.
This was why the king especially liked Felix. He was the only noble who neither falsified reports nor evaded taxes. Every year, the land tax he submitted didn't fall short by even a single grain of wheat. Even if he didn't submit grain, he made up the amount in coinage. Each time Felix paid taxes, the king would immediately bestow all kinds of rewards in return as commendations. Calculated carefully, these rewards didn't fall short of the taxes other nobles secretly embezzled.
This time, as Felix toured in his capacity as duke, the nobles handed over all the grain they should have submitted and let him take it back to be delivered to the king. To please him, they even included the tithes they would normally pocket, making the amount paid to the king significantly larger than usual. This was a subtle hint: Felix could keep this portion openly as a bribe.
Felix naturally accepted all of it without hesitation. However, he didn't intend to embezzle it for himself. For the tithes portion, he had his people calculate the local churches' annual operational expenses and deliver that part to them. The rest he converted into coins, ordered his subordinates to record, and later planned to return to the nobles. He also instructed that these refunded funds should be announced to the serfs and free citizens as being deducted from their land taxes for the next year, so their tax burden would be lighter.
Before doing this, he had already discussed and agreed with the nobles. After all, he also indicated that he would later dispatch officials to supervise and audit, so the nobles were forbidden to exploit their subjects further by re-collecting excessive taxes.
As for the king's portion, he still delivered it in full to the royal capital without any alterations.
The nobles all cooperated obediently. Now under Felix's jurisdiction and afraid of free citizens fleeing, they had to restrain their past behavior. They no longer dared to impose arbitrary extra levies. Their subjects' tax burden had already decreased significantly. With Felix covering part of it and promising supervision, they certainly wouldn't dare to mess around.
Of course, what truly convinced them to cooperate so willingly was that during his inspection, Felix learned about the various local situations and promised that upon returning, he would discuss with his wife how to deepen cooperation and help develop their territories. With such a huge "carrot" dangled in front of them, who would still care about a bit of land tax?
As long as cooperation could proceed, they were even willing to reduce taxes like Sardinson!
So, when Felix left, not only were the commoners full of gratitude, but the nobles also saw him off with great reluctance, eagerly hoping he would return soon to finalize the cooperative plans.
It was truly a mix of feelings.
While Felix was inspecting his territories, Wei Wei was busy in the domain, overseeing the autumn harvest accounts and civil service examinations. However, she no longer directly managed the exams. Dingle's small government had been operating well these past few years; its structure was stable, and officials were already capable of handling matters independently. Each department knew best what talents they needed and how many newcomers they required. Wei Wei had already delegated exam responsibility entirely to them, even letting them draft the exam papers themselves. All she needed to do was gather the examiners before the test, sequester them for a period to finalize the content and prevent leaks, and inspect the exam venue.
It wasn't practical to keep holding exams outdoors. So this year, the venue was moved from the castle plaza to a school. Although several schools in Sardinson County had been built and were operational, they were small in scale. With more and more people coming to Sardinson to take the civil service exam, the few primary and secondary-level schools couldn't accommodate tens of thousands of examinees. After much thought, Wei Wei decided to temporarily open the future Sardinson University in the new city for the exams.
This soon-to-be higher education institution didn't yet have faculty assigned and was still empty, but its construction was already completed. Wei Wei's alma mater had been a Chinese university, whose architectural style clashed greatly with European aesthetics. To ensure a unified style in the new city, she naturally chose to design the university in the style of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which she had long admired and once hoped to receive an invitation letter from.
Hogwarts' design was originally inspired by Oxford University, which had been teaching since 1096 and had already existed for nearly two centuries in Europe, enjoying a stellar reputation. Many later universities took inspiration from it. Thus, when Wei Wei presented her design blueprints, both architects and workers found no objections. Because they were familiar with this style, it even saved them time during construction.
Of course, since this university was a massive project, only some of the teaching and residential areas had been completed to the point where they could be furnished and used for admission and classes. Many areas were still under construction.
Even so, the classrooms alone couldn't accommodate tens of thousands of examinees at once. To solve this, besides classrooms, they also converted unfinished spaces such as the library, staff offices, and dormitories into temporary exam halls. Examinees had to bring their desks and chairs to the venue. Only then could everyone finally be arranged.
Because of the huge number of participants, there was also a serious shortage of proctors. It wasn't an open square anymore, so they had to dispatch many soldiers to help maintain order. With soldiers standing guard at entrances and patrolling inside, examinees didn't dare to cheat.
But having a soldier with a weapon staring fiercely beside them during the exam was certainly stressful. Although there had been soldiers at previous exams too, back then, examinees were all gathered together, so a small dormitory now only having a few examinees watched by one soldier actually felt more intimidating.
Still, no matter how much pressure they felt, they had to do their best. In the past, Sardinson's civil service positions already had great appeal to commoners. Now that Felix had become a duke, officials under him would certainly be assigned to all territories in the future, with more and more promotion opportunities. Even if they couldn't rise to nobility, under the current administrative system, capable individuals could easily become town mayors or even city lords—an honor even many nobles found irresistible.
Thus, the number of noble children taking the exam increased significantly this year. Many came for the bright future they envisioned.
Of course, more applicants didn't mean more positions. Over the years, the exam had become harder and harder, so who could pass depended entirely on their abilities.
For Sardinson, however, the biggest problem remained the exam venue.
This year, they barely managed to accommodate everyone. In the future, even if the university were fully completed, it wouldn't be possible to house all examinees. Once regular enrollment began, they could borrow classrooms, but other spaces like offices and dormitories would no longer be available.
Building a special venue just for one exam would be wasteful. Finally, Wei Wei clapped her hands and decided that starting next year, each department would hold separate recruitment exams.
"We used to hold unified exams. From now on, let each department organize its recruitment exam based on the applicants it receives. There's no need to compile a comprehensive unified test anymore." On exam day, Wei Wei, of course, had to make an appearance. She was leading a group of examiners and proctors around the university, inspecting while also touring the new campus.
Crown Prince Edward was with them too. Interested in their civil service system, he came along to observe.
With the Crown Prince present, the examiners and proctors were somewhat restrained. Still, they all listened carefully to Wei Wei's instructions.
"We also planned to separate the exams," an examiner explained, "but most candidates apply to multiple departments simultaneously. Even if separated, the number of examinees for each exam wouldn't decrease much and might increase grading workload, so we were discussing countermeasures."
Wei Wei asked, "So what solution did you come up with?"
The examiner replied, "We were considering limiting how many departments a candidate could apply to."
If candidates could only apply to one or two departments, the number of examinees per exam would certainly decrease. However, they had always allowed applicants to apply for all departments. A sudden change might cause dissatisfaction.
This decision needed the support of the lord. With the duke away, it naturally fell to Wei Wei.
"It's fine. Limit it to one department per candidate. Let them choose where they think they're strongest and focus on that. No multiple applications," Wei Wei decided firmly.
This was stricter than their original proposal of up to three departments. But since the duchess said so, they had to follow.
"Also, you can adjust the exam date," Wei Wei continued after a pause. "Scheduling it during the autumn harvest isn't ideal. Some candidates from peasant families need to help with the harvest, which affects their preparation. Study at a new, more suitable time—preferably spring or summer. Fix those few days as the annual exam period from then on."
Wei Wei even thought of directly fixing it like China's Gaokao in early June, but since June was close to the summer wheat harvest, candidates from other regions might be delayed on their way home, affecting their harvest. After all, most candidates were young laborers.
The examiners all nodded and noted down her instructions.
"One more thing—try to increase the proportion of female candidates," Wei Wei added, turning to look at the examinees in the classrooms. "Right now, almost all of them are men. That's not ideal. Don't forget, some departments are best managed by women. If you don't recruit more female officials, do you plan on going to work as women's commissioners yourselves?"