Guy nodded at the boy who greeted him and went straight for the restaurant's grocery room again.
Guy walked for a short while before arriving at the grocery room, the meeting room of their Darkblade. The room was located at the far end of the entire restaurant, with only one road around it to pass through, it was very isolated, and with a man dedicated to guarding the door, secrecy was high enough.
Guy saw that it was Skinny Ed on sentry duty today, and couldn't help but nod at him and smile at him.
"Hey! Boss!" "Eh, keep a good eye on the door!" "OK!" Skinny Ed greeted Guy enthusiastically, helping to open the door in the process.
"Boss!" Guy walked right in, and instantly the rowdy whirring in the room came to an abrupt halt as the twenty or so burly men inside shouted together in unison.
Guy's prestige among these men was high, and his words and actions were unconsciously observed by those present.
Almost all of the two dozen men present had been recruited into The Shadow by Guy, who had given them, the bankrupts, a job to eat.
Of course, it's not a very decent job, and there are always people who can't stand it and go back to the countryside to work as a gentleman's accountant, or as a lineman, to find themselves a job to eat.
But broke gentlemen like them don't care to be accountants or bankers, and they all have a dream with very little hope - to restore the family.
So they rallied to Guy's side and did shameful work of stealing to please the king, working year after year without leaving.
For almost a decade, The Shadow had come and gone with bankrupt gentlemen like them, and they were the only ones who had stuck it out.
Finally, after the accession of His Majesty Edward VI, they had the opportunity they had longed for. How could this not excite them?
"Brothers, our King's Majesty has sent us a mission!" Guy scrutinized them, "This mission is our first, a test from His Majesty for us."
As soon as Guy's words fell, all of you who had been standing loosely suddenly straightened up and began to get serious.
"His Majesty the King has asked us to adopt orphans, especially stray orphans under the age of years, male or female." Guy added something that got them excited, "The three people who adopt the most orphans this time will be rewarded with ten pounds!"
"They will also receive three merit points!" Guy ignored the clamor of the people below and came out with another piece of news that could make them lose their breath.
"And, will be promoted to Centurion by His Majesty the King himself!"
Wow! The twenty or so broke gentlemen at the bottom cheered in unison, and even Skinny Ed, who was on sentry duty, ran in and cheered with them.
The point system was Edward's customized reward and punishment system for the Dark Blade, as long as one could complete general tasks and accumulate points one would receive ten acres of land, and if one completed ten more tasks specific to His Majesty the King's mission, one could receive His Majesty's share of the title and become a knight. Of course, this is a court knight, there is no fief. Only after being promoted to a centurion and completing ten more of the king's specific quests can you have a fief.
Of course, this was the merit points for general soldiers, while for leaders above the rank of centurion, as long as they completed twenty tasks issued by the king, they could be divided into knights by the king and have a village as a fief.
I also forgot to mention that a point is deducted for receiving a mission and not completing it, while the king's specific missions are mandatory and must be completed, and a specific mission point is deducted for not completing them. Those with two points are demoted to a lower rank, e.g. Commander to Deputy Commander, Commander to Deputy Commander, and so on.
This flexible mechanism can stimulate the subjectivity of the Darkblade, making it not become rigid later on like the Jin Yi Wei of the Ming Dynasty.
There was also the point that he could consistently create a loyal class of knights for Edward, laying the groundwork for the suppression of the bourgeoisie later on.
Of course, the easiest way to create a knightly class was the army, but Edward hadn't yet taken power, and the army was still held by the Council of Regents, so he couldn't cross the Council of Regents to recruit the army.
Because the Council of Regents was in control of the army on behalf of the King, the slightest hint of contact on his part would have spooked him and added much to the coup d'état two years later.
Back to the main topic. None of the gentlemen at the bottom yet possessed an official position, and only Guy had become the only captain of thousands among them. The thought that they might be in an official position excited them beyond themselves, and the cheers of the king's wisdom rang out.
Watching these people underneath change from their previous disheveled state and become energized one by one, Guy's heart was filled with a sense of comfort.
These people are all personally recruited by him one by one, like him, they are all bankrupt gentleman families, watching them happy, his heart can not help but be excited, this is empathy!
The day had been spent in excitement throughout Darkblade, and Guy had returned to his own shitty den to plan his mission.
That's right, Guy's mission is different from theirs, his mission is to expand the number of Dark Angels and recruit enough men for His Majesty.
Skinny Ed rushed back to his house with a bellyful of excitement.
When his family went bankrupt, his wife did not abandon him, but used the money from the sale of her dowry to come to London with him to open a grocery store, and could only fill her stomach and barely get by in this London metropolis.
And Ed, in his old shadow days, only had the allowance money sent down by the king to support the family's usage when there was a mission to buy some meat and clothes to improve his life.
Ed stepped gingerly on the wooden floor past the first floor grocery store and quickly passed the well-worn staircase to his bedroom.
He looked around nervously, closed the window again uneasily, and heartily held out a handful of silver coins, unconsciously counting them again, for a total of shillings, as Ed looked on stupidly, grinning dully, not sensing in the slightest that someone had come behind him.
"Isn't it a pleasure!" "Yeah!" Ed responded naturally.
Ed looked back unnaturally, only to see his wife, Mary, staring at him with round, dripping eyes and a playful expression on her face.
"Hi! Mary!" Ed scowled and greeted, seeing his wife like a mouse seeing a cat.
As the saying goes, the economic base determines the superstructure, and it's clear that the man in charge of this household is his wife, Mary.
Of course, in this male-dominated society, Ed could have easily taken back control of his family, but he didn't.
Not only because Mary controls the family's lifeblood, but also because she follows him into bankruptcy regardless of the consequences, from a gentleman's pretty sister and a gentleman's rich wife, righteously transforming herself with him into a merchant merely little better than a pauper, who spends all her time worrying about food, clothing, and shelter.
"Hey! Honey, this is the paycheck that His Majesty the King sent me!" Ed said with a smile, as if to prove himself, he added.
"Every month from now on, and the possibility of resuming our old life!"
Ed couldn't control himself from rising to his wife about the Darkblade's system of rewards and punishments.