Lord Harland.

Chapter 260 God-given opportunity
After years of development in the Harland Territory, especially after the opening of the primary school, some talents have finally been cultivated.

Now there are three primary schools in the territory, and the number of children attending school is close to [-].

According to the population statistics of the Harland Territory, there are about 16 people under the age of 5.00, about [-] of them are educated, and the literacy rate has exceeded [-]%.

When these children grow up and become the backbone of the society, the quality of the population in the Harland Territory will be greatly improved, and the development level may be better than that of the most developed southwestern magic kingdoms in the Dawn Plane.

Just when the members of the Harland family gathered at Black River Castle to prepare for the Goddess's Birthday, Linus Castle, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Stanik, was about to usher in a palace coup.

In this year's war of orc invasion, the Grand Duchy of Stanik suffered a lot of casualties, King James even came to the front line and participated in the battle against the orcs.

King James is a seventh-rank silver knight and is 69 years old.

Although he was still in very good health this spring, it looks like he can live another 20 to [-] years.As a result, in spring and summer, he worked hard and participated in a tough battle, and was severely injured by the orc shaman. In winter, he finally couldn't stand it anymore, and died in Linus' court in late December.

Because of internal power struggles, the Kingdom of James abolished the heir 13 years ago, gouged out the eyes of the eldest prince, and forced him into a monastery.

It may be due to his old age and his sensitive heart. After the eldest prince was abolished, King James did not establish a clear heir.

The kingdom has no clear heir, and the Linus family has no unity of opinion.

The old king died of illness and failed to deal with the heir to the throne. Many members of the powerful Linus family, whose ambitions have swelled to the extreme, began to covet the throne and gain the dominance of the Grand Duchy of Stanik.

They formed gangs everywhere, promised high officials and rich salary, and before the goddess's birthday, there were even vicious cases of assassination in the street.

The sensitive situation has turned Linus Castle into a powder keg, and there is a risk of losing control at any time.Some smart people sensed danger and avoided Linus Castle one after another to avoid the danger.

According to common sense, the eldest prince lost his eyes and was sent to a monastery, so it should be the second prince's turn to take the position of grand duke.

But the second prince is a mediocre person. Although he really wants to inherit the throne, he doesn't get the support of Linus family members. Although he dances very happily, even his own son doesn't support him. Far.

The third prince is quite talented, but unfortunately he was seriously injured in the battle with the orcs in his early years, and now he is dying, and it is very difficult to move.

The voice of the fourth prince is the highest, but the fourth prince Baldwin is not in Lynas Castle, but serves as the defense commander on the northern front.

After the fourth prince, the sixth prince Solaman has the highest prestige.

Solaman had been an officer in the imperial guards since he was an adult, and now he is the commander of the guards.He is very trusted by the old king, and he has always behaved without fighting or grabbing.But after King James died of illness, Solaman's position was the most critical.

Solaman publicly published a very influential political declaration three days ago, but now he is the most popular candidate for the throne.

In addition, among the members of the royal family of the Grand Duke of Stanik, there is another person who is very important, and this person is King James' younger brother Haldane.

Haldane is the new hereditary duke of the Grand Duchy of Stanik and a legendary knight. He has served as the commander of the border army for many years, not only has a great influence on the border guards, but also has an elite monster cavalry in his hands.

The reason why James let the fourth prince with the strongest ability to serve as the commander of the border guards is actually because of his willingness to limit the influence of his uncle Haldane.

When King James was still there, Haldane cooperated well with King James, and the family basically lived in Lynas Castle.Even if Haldane was promoted to a hereditary duke and had a large territory, his descendants were used to everything in Linus Castle and basically did not move.

Currently, there are three most influential members of the Linus family, and there are also many ambitious people among them.

On the eve of the goddess’s birthday, Solaman summoned his cronies to the mansion, and angrily threw out several letters to scold him: “This afternoon, our people intercepted several messengers and found a batch of letters. These letters are almost They all come from important members of the royal family, some are my uncles, some are my nephews, and some are my brothers. The letters are addressed to Baldwin and Haldane. The letter means to support them as Grand Dukes.

You are my old department, and now you should unify your opinions, are you willing to support me as Grand Duke? "

After hearing this, everyone replied one after another: "Of course we are willing to support the sixth prince, but relying on the power we have alone, we don't have an advantage in the Royal Guards. Without the support of the Royal Guards, it is difficult to secure the throne of."

"Of course I know this. Evanson is the main opponent of the Royal Guards. As long as Evanson is eliminated, most of the rest will be centrists. It doesn't matter who is the Grand Duke. After seizing the throne, we will reward a batch of gold coins. Most of the officers and soldiers can be bought. The family members of the Royal Guards are mainly in Linus Castle, and when they control the castle, the Guards have no choice but to follow us."

"Evanson himself is a ninth-rank epic knight, and there are hundreds of guards around him. Relying on us, there may not be a chance of winning?" The speaker was Solaman's brother-in-law, who was also a fifth-rank knight, and served in the Royal Guards. As the captain, such an identity is naturally hardcore.

Solaman said confidently: "Evanson's wife is a believer of the Goddess of Dawn, and their family has always had the habit of celebrating the goddess's birthday. According to the information sent by the insider, Evanson has asked for leave today to go home, and there are only ten people around him. A few guards are the best time to do it."

"Since the sixth prince has made up his mind, we must follow the sixth prince."

Solaman's cronies are all very smart, and upon hearing what he said, they understood that Solaman wanted to take a surprise and launch a military coup.

Although some people were uneasy, these noble officers all knew a little bit of history, and they knew in their hearts that since they were on Solaman's pirate ship, they could not raise any objections at this time.

Who dares to hesitate at such a critical moment, Solaman will definitely kill, even parents and relatives will hardly be spared.

Now that Solaman has made up his mind, they can only bite the bullet and follow Solaman all the way to the dark.

The attitude of most members of the Royal Guards is actually neutral.Because of being watched by the old king James at all times, Solaman did not dare to attract people's hearts on a large scale, and he did not have many direct descendants.

If he is popular in the royal guard, there is no need to launch a palace coup.

The central regular army of the Grand Duchy of Stanik has a total of [-], including [-] border guards and about [-] royal guards.

The [-] royal guards were divided into two infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and [-] monster cavalry.

In order to defend against the orcs, King James sent a large number of Royal Guards to the front this year.There are about [-] monster cavalry and [-] infantry.

In today's Grand Duchy of Stanik, Prince Baldwin has the most troops, with a total number of more than [-].

But among the border guards, there are still a large number of officers appointed by Haldane.

Haldane has served in the border guards for many years and has promoted countless officers. He is also a legendary knight himself, and his influence exceeds that of Baldwin.

Baldwin can really command the army, and the total number does not exceed [-].

Although Haldane came back to his territory, he only had [-] noble private troops, but he raised [-] monster cavalry. In addition to his influence in the army, his strength was stronger than that of Baldwin.

On the contrary, Solaman in the royal capital is not close in terms of influence or strength.

Although Solaman's strength is mediocre, he likes to read various biographies of heroes, and likes to sum up experience from history.He knows that the core element of palace coups and military coups is surprise.

To carry out this kind of coup, you don't need too many people, one or two hundred elite soldiers are enough.If there are too many people participating in the coup, it will be difficult to keep the news secret. Once the news is leaked and the enemy is prepared, it will be difficult for the coup to succeed.

Solaman has hundreds of elites in his hands, the coup is not difficult, the key is how to create momentum, how to create a fait accompli?
Now the tense atmosphere in Linus Castle has lasted for seven or eight days, especially after the assassination case in the street the day before yesterday, everyone is prepared, and it is not suitable for a military coup.

But Solaman is the weakest, if he can't be caught by surprise, it is very difficult to have a chance to fight for the right of succession.

For many years, I finally looked forward to this day.

Solaman is absolutely unwilling to give up the opportunity, he is not a person who cares about the overall situation.

Even if there is a great chance of failure, Solaman will still struggle desperately to win the last chance.

Even messing up the Grand Duchy of Stanik?As a result, the Linus family lost their throne, and the entire family of the ancestral line died, Solaman would not hesitate to launch a coup d'état.

As an extremely selfish person, he only thinks from his own point of view, as long as there is a chance of monopolizing power, he will firmly grasp it, even if it blocks everything.

Solaman made an oath with his cronies, and then directly led troops to surround Evanson's mansion.

Seeing this scene, Evanson's expression changed drastically, and he cursed sharply: "Solaman, what are you going to do? If you take the lead in breaking the rules, you will become a sinner of the Linus family, and you will not be able to go to heaven after death. I advise you immediately When you wake up, go to the monastery immediately and confess your crimes, so that you can save your wife and children."

"My wife will become the queen, my son will become the prince, but your whole family will be burned to death because of the fire. Today I am the winner. The winner makes the rules, and the history will be written by the winner." Sola Man sneered and directed the soldiers to shoot the rocket.

Evanson is a member of the distant branch of the Linus family. He is a powerful ninth-level epic knight, not far from the legend, while Solaman is only a sixth-level knight. Fighting alone is far from Evanson's. opponent.The troops commanded by the two were also the elite of Evanson's cavalry.

But whether he did the mental calculation or not, Solaman was followed by hundreds of soldiers.Among them, there are no less than 30 middle-level professionals.Evans had only a dozen guards, and only two officers as professionals.With such a disparity in power, Solaman and the others worked together to kill Evanson after paying a certain price.

After Evanson's death, the house was burned all night. Dozens of people in the whole family were burned to death.

After cutting off the biggest opponents of the Royal Guards, they engulfed some members of the Royal Guards along the way and took control of important places such as the palace, treasury, and armory.

Early the next morning, with the support of his cronies, Solaman forged an edict for the succession of the old King James, and grandly ascended the throne.

In order to avoid inviting crusades, he also distributed officials and rewards on a large scale. The first one to reward was the fourth prince Baldwin.Make Baldwin a hereditary duke, and then use a large area of ​​northern territory to give Baldwin a fief.He also locked Haldane's relatives who stayed in the capital and wrote a letter, implying that he threatened Haldane with his relatives' lives.

Solaman controlled Linus Castle very smoothly.

Although part of the imperial guards were very dissatisfied with Solaman, it was a pity that no one organized to resist Solaman's rule.The vast majority of officers and soldiers are centrists. No matter who is the king, as long as they can send them money, they are their chiefs.

Even if he controls Linus Castle, Solaman's rule is very weak.

Especially the local nobles believed that Solaman broke the tradition and launched a palace coup, and most of them were dissatisfied with Solaman.

Especially Baldwin and Haldane, immediately raised their troops after receiving the news, and immediately swore to attack Solaman.

The battle for the throne that took place in the Kingdom of Grant almost happened again in the Grand Duchy of Stanik.

Just after the goddess's birthday, the Grand Duchy of Stanik was in chaos.

Civil strife broke out in the neighboring country, which had nothing to do with the Grant Kingdom, but the Jonathan family has a special status as the former owner of the Grand Duchy of Stanik.

Until now, the strength of the Jonathan family hidden in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, despite repeated blows, has remained somewhat.

After the civil strife broke out in the Venus family, many nobles from the Grand Duchy of Stanik came to the Kingdom of Grant soon, hoping that Duke Jonathan could sort out the chaos and preside over the situation.

After losing the country for more than 100 years, the Jonathan family has always had the will to return to the Grand Duchy of Stanik despite the opening of the Kingdom of Grant.

Seeing that the once-in-a-century opportunity had arrived, Duke Jonathan was immediately mobilized and started a full-scale mobilization.

But if you want to fight for the throne in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, you must have the support of the Kingdom of Grant.

Without the full support of the Grant Kingdom, the Jonathan family would have no chance of winning if they went to war with the Linus family.

If there hadn't been civil strife in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, the Linus family would have obviously gained more strength.

The central legion controlled by the Linus family has 6 people, and they can also influence [-] noble private troops to fight with them.The main force of the Jonathan family is only [-] people in three legions, and the number of magic beast cavalry is also less than half.

Now the Linus family has split into three forces, and they have become one. This is a godsend opportunity for the Jonathan family.

After receiving the news, Duke Jonathan sent a messenger to Nolan to negotiate terms with King Roger.

(End of this chapter)