I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 144 Wallace's Rebellion
It was easy to march into Doro Town, but when Major Marlowe wanted to retreat from here, he found that it was not an easy task.

He was targeted by a pack of wolves.

Major Marlowe's officer's coat was covered with a thin layer of mist, which brought a bone-chilling coldness in the morning light.

His warhorse occasionally spewed out clouds of white mist, which quickly dissipated in the cold air, as if torn into pieces by the morning light.

Thousands of infantrymen from the garrison regiment advanced slowly along the winding mountain roads. Their heavy chain mail and halberds made harsh sounds in the snow. They moved slowly and arduously through the mountains like a rusty chain.

In the woods by the roadside lay the bodies of the soldiers from the front squad who had been torn to pieces a day ago. The weapons scattered beside the broken bodies silently told the cruelty of this wilderness.

Major Marlowe's eyes swept over the corpses, and a chill ran through his heart.

"The first company leading the charge is down another twelve men."

The adjutant's voice, colder than the mountain breeze, interrupted his thoughts.

The adjutant's breath condensed into white mist in the cold air as he continued.

"The soldier on guard last night said he heard a deer whistle."

Deer whistle, this is the signal for hunters in the mountains and forests.

Major Marlowe frowned, he knew very well what this meant. The enemies who were entangled with him were treating the garrison regiment as prey.

"How many days are we to Uncandra?"

"Based on the current situation, we will have to travel for at least five days before we can return home."

five days?

This is really a long distance.

"The messenger we sent out..."

"He's in there."

The adjutant pointed helplessly at a body in the woods.

Major Marlowe remained calm.

"Then we continue our march. Oncandra will send someone to meet us... Or, we can find a small town or village nearby and defend it..."

Marlowe knew that his plan would delay time, but if he continued like this, he was afraid that the garrison he led would collapse.

"Sir, have you forgotten our supplies?"

"Yeah, we're almost out of food..."

Major Marlowe sighed helplessly.

……

Wallace claimed to be a freeman, but in fact, in the eyes of the nobles, parliamentarians, and the rich, he and the group of idle guys around him were little better than bandits.

Because in addition to making a living by doing small business, Hua Laitu and his gang are also quite chivalrous. They like to stand up for poor farmers and town residents, intimidate tax officials who collect too much or impose taxes randomly, and put sacks on rich people who behave recklessly and beat them at night.

Therefore, although Wallace and the group of young people who usually hang out with him don't have much money in their pockets, he lives a very free life in the rural towns outside the city of Oncandra, and people entertain him wherever he goes.

This time he was arrested and then hung out to dry under the pretext that Wallace refused to be drafted. It was obvious that someone was deliberately trying to frame him and force him into the army and have him die on the battlefield.

When he was hung up in the sun, Wallace's head was dizzy and he couldn't think things through. After he escaped and recalled his experience, he couldn't understand what had happened to him.

As a freeman leader near Oncandra, Wallace was very familiar with both East and West Birchwood Towns. He knew the residents there like the back of his hand, but there was definitely no other person named Wallace.

Wallace would not be conscripted because he was a free man, not a resident of any town, and had no land or a fixed home, so the conscription officer's letters could not be delivered to him at all.

After figuring all this out, Wallace immediately launched his revenge. He didn't know who was framing him, as he had offended so many people, so he transformed himself into Wallace, painted his face blue, picked up a sword, raised a red flag, and started a rebellion.

When the residents of East and West Birch Town saw him holding the red flag high, they were both surprised and happy. They knew that Hua Laitu was a chivalrous man. Although he was a bit unruly in his daily life, he had never done anything to truly harm the people. His appearance seemed to ignite the long-suppressed fire of resistance in their hearts.

Farmers and small town residents actually don’t care who is above their heads, whether it is the king or the parliamentarians. They don’t have much culture, but they know that no matter who it is, once they sit on their heads, the taxes they should collect will definitely not be reduced, and the unnecessary misconduct will not disappear.

The town residents on the far side of the Restoration Army still have unrealistic beautification and expectations of the republic here.

The locals of Onkandla, who had been tossed back and forth many times, had long since lost their fascination with the Bagnian Republic.

It is said that without a king, everyone can become an official, the land is communist, and everyone has land and a house.

In fact, an old king was driven away, and a large number of new kings came to power in the name of "parliamentarians". They acted like masters and exploited people even more harshly.

Not only did the tax not decrease, but it increased. The original shield tax would only be levied on the nobles. Although the latter would try every means to transfer the tax costs downward, this tax was shared by everyone, so the pressure was not very great.

The noble lords became members of parliament, and the shield tax not only did not disappear, but was instead imposed on every commoner, and the tax collector even gave it a euphemistic name... The noble lords are gone, and now everyone is a noble, so everyone has to pay this shield tax.

This is a good thing. In the past, you couldn't even pay the shield tax. Now you can enjoy the treatment that only nobles have. You should be happy.

In short, after these grand speeches, the pockets of the common people became lighter, and the rumbling sound in the tax collector's pocket became louder.

A harsh government is worse than a tiger. The high and mighty parliamentarians do not understand this truth, because they used to be small and medium-sized nobles in the kingdom and have no experience in ruling a country at all. However, they are good at exploiting the common people.

Therefore, when it was their turn to take office, the style of the parliamentarians remained the same as before, without any change.

So, when the news that Wallace had raised the banner of rebellion spread throughout the rural towns outside of Oncandra, the oppressed poor farmers and townspeople responded one after another.

They were armed with simple weapons, some with sticks, some with shovels, and some even with kitchen knives they had brought from home, but their eyes were all gleaming with determination. They followed Wallace, as if they saw hope for changing their fate.

Wallace led this ragtag army and first attacked the tax collectors and rich people who oppressed the people on a daily basis.

They rushed into the magnificent manors and villas, threw the account books of extortion into the fire, tied up the greedy rich people and exposed them in the sun, just like Wallace had been treated. The rich were terrified. They never thought that one day they would become the target of resistance.

Next came the tax collector and his accomplice, the town sheriff. Wallace led his men to ambush the latter on a country road. Relying on his familiarity with the local terrain and the advantage of outnumbering the minority, he launched attacks from various unexpected places, forcing the former to flee in panic and die on the spot.

Therefore, although the uprising was short, less than half a month, Wallace actually succeeded in paralyzing Oncandra's external control. The masters in the city did not know the situation in the rural areas outside, so food and other things naturally could not be transported in.

This was the main reason why the gentlemen of Oncandra were in a hurry to recall Major Marlowe and the garrison regiment he led. At this time, Oncandra's food still needed to be supplied by rural areas outside.

Because of the Wallace Uprising, the price of food in the city doubled in a short period of time, but this was not the most critical thing, because the Kingdom of Minisia in the larger rear had urgently transported a batch of military rations, which would arrive in Oncandra soon.

The most crucial thing is that the food supply to the army on the front line cannot be cut off. When Wallace launched the uprising, he also cut off the road, causing the supply line to be cut off.

If the road is not opened, even if the aid from the Kingdom of Minisia arrives, it will not be able to reach the front line.

……

Chris was not aware of the fire behind the Republic for the time being. It was not because he did not attach importance to the intelligence, but because the incident broke out too suddenly.

In addition, the uprising was so intense that any lone traveler walking in the wild would be attacked by farmers, which resulted in the agents sent by Connie being unable to send back any intelligence at all.

And the players in Dora Town?

They were happily hunting down the Oncandra garrison and hadn't noticed the peasant uprising in the towns and villages at all, so naturally they didn't report it. At most, they just made a strange comment on the forum that the peasants on the road were a little strange, and when they saw them, they either attacked them or turned around and ran away.

Why were they so fierce? They attacked players whenever they saw them. The latter never thought about it because they killed them all without stopping to question any of them.

So it's normal that Chris didn't know.

Whether he knew it or not, it didn't really matter, because the Republic's Third Infantry Regiment had arrived and was pointing its cannons at Chris, ready to fire.

(End of this chapter)