Rose Empire

As an elder, John Rice had come into contact with some Oran Knights before. In his impression, most of the Oran Knights were good at fighting, but not so good at speaking - of course, except for weirdos like Harvey Sherwin, who was not good at anything.

This is easy to understand. The Orlan Knights are military nobles whose duty is to fight. There is no need for them to take speeches and debates as compulsory courses like politicians in the city-state.

But the Orlan Knights who had debated with John Rice and others in the past few days gave John Rice a completely different impression. They were proficient in telepathy, good at guessing people's hearts, understanding the law, and had some cunning common in the market. If Viscount Lanwan had not publicly declared that they were noble knights, John Rice would definitely have regarded these people as a group of shrewd dock merchants.

It was normal for John Rice to have such doubts, because the people who were debating with them were not nobles, but the eloquent butlers selected by Charlotte from various knights' families, as well as the civil servants she trained herself. If those knights who only knew how to fight were asked to fight in person, Charlotte estimated that they would only last one day before they had nothing to say.

However, it is too late to doubt now.

"what……"

"What do you want to do?"

"Let us out!"

"what……"

"Viscount Lanwan is going to kill someone!"

"what……"

Suddenly, screams were heard from outside the camp.

John Rice's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly put down his food and walked towards the noise. Not far away, John Rice saw a circle of soldiers holding shields outside the camp, with spears standing behind them. The citizens of Ambratu wanted to leave the camp, but were mercilessly stabbed down by the spears.

John Rice's face changed drastically. He quickly walked out of the crowd and questioned the soldiers, "What do you want to do? Viscount Lanwan wants to break the contract? Do you want to kill the envoys who come to negotiate? Even if we are not official envoys, we should be considered guests invited by Viscount Lanwan."

A small gap appeared in the shield wall, and a slender woman walked out of the gap. John Rice recognized her. She was the camp manager, named Cecilia.

Cecilia said with a stern face, "As envoys and guests, you have no etiquette and have stolen a large amount of property from Viscount Lanwan. Viscount Lanwan no longer wants to continue the negotiations! Talking with despicable people will only bring shame to the dignity of the nobility!"

"When have we ever stolen Viscount Lanwan's property?" John Rice said this without any psychological burden, because he was indeed not a person who would steal things.

Cecilia pointed at the people around John Rice and said, "Do they dare to let my subordinates search their bodies and luggage?"

John Rice looked at his companions beside him. They all avoided his gaze in shame and did not dare to meet his eyes.

These people are among the one hundred representatives responsible for the debate. Other citizens of Ambratu can return the gold and silver utensils to Ambratu after stealing, but they need to live in the camp, and they must keep the stolen things with them.

John Rice clenched his fists in frustration, but he still said to Cecilia, "Even so, it's not as good as fighting..."

Cecilia interrupted John Rice and said in a deep voice: "His Excellency Viscount Lanwan has announced that the city-state of Ambratu will be temporarily taken over by Viscount Lanwan! Pande killed Knight Harvey Shelvin and must be sentenced to death! All citizens of Ambratu who harbored the murderer of the knight will have their citizenship revoked and serve three months of hard labor. Execute immediately!"

As if in response to Cecilia's words, a cavalry unit behind Cecilia rumbled past, bypassed the camp, crossed the Lanwan Isthmus, and headed towards Ambratu.

As soon as Cecilia announced Charlotte's order, the citizens in the camp exploded. They protested angrily and began to attack the shield wall again.

The soldiers Cecilia brought with her were not real soldiers at all. They were just workers in Elm Village. A few days ago, Cecilia gave them some simple wooden shields and spears according to Charlotte's request, and asked them to practice some simple movements. In short, the front row put their shields on the ground, and the back row poked anyone they saw.

This level of training certainly cannot be used on the battlefield, but it is enough when facing a group of ordinary people without command and without weapons.

Soon, the first two waves of Ambratu citizens who attacked the shield wall were stabbed and bleeding all over the ground. The citizens behind them gradually lost their courage and only dared to roar and shout from a distance, or throw tableware and food at the soldiers' heads and bodies.

Amidst the clamor, John Rice just stared blankly at the direction where the cavalry went away. He knew in his heart that the city-state of Ambratu was finished.

PS: Thank you all for your monthly tickets, blades, and recommendation tickets. Thank you all~~~~qqun1⑥吧二伊77壹六

Volume 65: Chapter 57 Chapter : Conquering Ambratu (Part )

Citizens are incompatible with the Viscountship of Lanwan.

The Ambratu society can be roughly divided into three classes: the citizen class, the freeman class, and the slave class.

The society of the Oran Empire can be roughly divided into three classes: the aristocracy, the common people, and the slave class.

The citizen class and the noble class are the ruling classes of the two societies, but the Viscount of Lanwan obviously cannot accept the sudden increase of more than 20,000 nobles. The knights, who are the lower-level nobles, will definitely explode. And the citizens of Ambratu will definitely not calmly accept the loss of their own ruling power and become civilians. This touches their traditions and dignity.

Therefore, if Charlotte wanted to bring Ambratu under her rule, she had to quickly, accurately and ruthlessly eradicate the citizen class of Ambratu.

According to the intelligence obtained by Robin Mancini, Ambrato has about 28,000 citizens. 7,000 people were lost in the expedition against Little Sassini, 2,000 people were recruited by the Aiye Alliance, and there are still about 3,000 people who make a living outside all year round.

Now, Charlotte has surrounded more than 6,000 Ambratu citizens on the Isthmus of Lanwan.

Originally, Charlotte planned to spend seven days using food and treasure to lure more citizens of Ambratu, but who knew that after only three days, most of the gold and silver utensils Charlotte prepared were stolen! She had no choice but to order the execution of the plan on the fourth day.

Just outrageous!

You know, Charlotte prepared two large carts of expensive tableware!

While Cecilia was taking action, Eric Scamario led the cavalry to attack Ambrato at the same time.

The city-state of Ambratu was caught off guard. The guards at the city gate, unaware of the situation, saw a large group of horses approaching and were even hesitating whether to stop them to collect taxes. As a result, they were knocked directly away by the cavalry at the arrow position and knocked unconscious.

This "brave" guard was the only obstacle that the Lanwan cavalry encountered in breaking into the city.

"Teams one and two will capture the Council of Elders. Teams three, four, and five will control the three city gates." Eric Scamario reined in his mount and gave the order.

"Yes!"

The four teams immediately dispersed. This was a plan made in advance, and everyone in the team knew what they should do.

The pedestrians on the street might have seen this cavalry not long ago, when they were the "peace messengers" coming to rescue - although the Ambratu people scoffed at the rescue at that time - but their current march of forcing their way through the pass was obviously not very friendly.

Passersby who smelled the blood chose to stay away from this place. Only a tall, handsome man with short blond hair and wearing a gray linen shirt came to Eric's horse. He made an elegant and standard Oran noble gesture and said with a smile, "It's nice to see you again, Knight Scamario."

Robin Mancini had met Eric Scamario the last time he came to Ambrato with Charlotte, but it was the first time the latter had met Robin Mancini.

"Are you Knight Robin Mancini?" Eric dismounted and asked in return.

"Yes." Robin Mancini nodded and introduced the men behind him who came out with him, saying, "These men were once citizens of Ambratu, but now they have sworn allegiance to Viscount Lanwan."

Robin Mancini's subordinates, led by One-Eyed Logan, bowed to Eric Scamario. These people were the lower-class citizens who were almost abandoned by the city-state and whose lives were not satisfactory, whose financial difficulties Charlotte specifically instructed Robin Mancini to recruit.

Eric Scamario felt mixed emotions as he looked at these plainly dressed former citizens of Ambratu. It was said that Charlotte had sent Robin Mancini to Ambratu as soon as she arrived at Viscount Lanwan. Could it be that the Viscount had already started plotting to seize Ambratu? Although Eric felt that this was unlikely, the reality before him forced him to think so.

Eric shook his head slightly to drive away the distracting thoughts from his mind, and talked to Robin Mancini about business: "Before the troops were dispatched, the Viscount told me that you could provide me with some help?"

"Of course." Robin Mancini spread his hands and smiled confidently, "My friends can lead the way for you."

Eric sent out seven knights to lead seven teams to follow Robin Mancini's men to arrest people. Their target was citizens who not only liked to actively participate in political affairs, but also liked to lead others to participate in political affairs, that is, public opinion leaders.

In fact, there are not many public opinion leaders left in Ambratu. To become a public opinion leader, one must first be a recognized "social elite" and secondly, have a certain degree of subjective initiative. The Battle of Little Sasini caused heavy losses to the social elite citizen group. Now the citizens with subjective initiative are surrounded by Charlotte at the Lanwan Isthmus.

"The Ambratu citizen militia has almost completely lost its combat effectiveness," Robin Mancini suggested. "Instead of arresting people, you should take control of several important public treasuries in the city as soon as possible to prevent the bad guys from destroying and burning the property that should belong to Your Excellency the Viscount?"

"Public treasury?" Eric said with some surprise, "But I heard that Ambratu is not rich either?"

Robin Mancini smiled and shook his head. "Not rich just means no money. Although Ambrato doesn't have much money, he has some other things. I believe those things are more valuable to the Viscount than money."

Hearing this, Eric readily followed suit and personally led the rest of his men to follow Robin Mancini to seal off the public treasury of Ambrato.

As Robin Mancini said, the citizens in the city were like a pile of scattered sand. When they saw the cavalry appear, they just fled in all directions without organizing any effective resistance.

In the Elders' House, Olivier Capino was dealing with city affairs with three elders when suddenly four tall armored soldiers pushed the door open and entered.

Looking at these four strange soldiers and the bloody swords in their hands, Olivier Carpino felt something was wrong, but he remained calm, put down the documents in his hand, and asked, "Excuse me, who are you and why are you here?"

The leader, Ed Adkins, took out Charlotte's warrant and read out: "From now on, Ambratu will be taken over by Viscount Lanwan. Pende should be executed for murdering Orlan Knight Harvey Shelvin, and all citizens of Ambratu who harbored the murderer should be stripped of their citizenship and sentenced to three months of hard labor."

The other three elders were stunned at first, and then their faces gradually turned pale. They seemed to want to rebuke these rude invaders, but they were afraid of the cold murderous intent from the other party and did not dare to speak for a while.

Only Olivier Capino asked: "Can we go home and take care of our family affairs before going to serve in the labor service?" Although he tried his best to make his voice sound calm, the trembling feather pen still revealed the waves in his heart.

"No, please stay here honestly!" Ed Adkins immediately rejected Olivier Capino's request, and then asked, "Why are there only four of you? Where are the other elders?"

Olivier Capino opened his mouth, but finally sighed and told the truth: "The Council of Elders takes turns to work and rest. Today is our turn to work. Unless there are any accidents, the others should all be resting at home...Except Elder John Rice, if he is not dead, he should still be in the Viscount Lanwan Territory."

Ed Adkins didn't care whether Olivier Capino's last sentence was sarcastic or not. After receiving the news, he immediately sent a squire to inform Eric.

After Eric received the news, he immediately sent out two teams to capture the elders separately.

At this time, Martin Kramer was enjoying afternoon tea in a manor outside the city. This was not his own manor, but that of the charming woman sitting opposite him.

The woman's name was Alexa, a well-known widow in the city-state of Ambratu. On the one hand, it was because she was both beautiful and rich, and on the other hand, it was because of the lawsuit between Martin Kramer and the wealthy businessman Jonathan Hackman more than two years ago. This Alexa was Jonathan Hackman's wife, and of course now she was Martin Kramer's lover.

"Now the ore from the mine can't be transported out. I don't know how I'm going to get by..."

Alexa and Martin Kramer complained about the recent difficulties in their lives.

Martin Kramer was a little fed up with Alexa's chattering, so he interrupted and said, "Now is a difficult time, it will be fine after a while."

Seeing Martin Kramer's perfunctory attitude, Alexa became even angrier: "You also know that it is a difficult time now. The price of food in the city is so expensive, and you still don't allow me to deduct some food from the slaves. The ore in the mine can't be sold. Those slaves have no work to do, so why do they eat so much?"

When Martin Kramer heard what Alexa said, he was startled and sat up straight. He said, "Don't do anything rash. There are basically no citizen soldiers in the city now. If the slaves rebel again, Ambratu will be finished. Eating a few more meals is just a small matter. You can earn money later."

"It's not your food that you eat, so of course you don't feel bad..." Alexa wanted to say a few more words.

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard outside the manor.

Alexa frowned, stood up and wanted to go out and scold the clumsy servants outside, but several servants came crawling into the house with fear on their faces, and behind them was a small team of fully armed soldiers.

"Who are you! Don't you know that this is Elder Kramer's manor?" Alexa pointed at the soldiers with her hands on her hips and asked in a sharp voice.

Women in the Sokya city-state generally have a low status. Although Alexa is a rich woman, it is not easy for her to keep her property. So when she encounters something, she always likes to bring up Martin Kramer's name. Many times, Martin Kramer can indeed help her solve the problem.

However, this time Martin Kramer disappointed Alexa.

Alexa didn't hear Martin Kramer's response for a long time, so she turned around and saw Martin Kramer put down the teacup, slowly stood up, with a serious expression on his face.

He recognized the pattern depicted on the arm armor of these soldiers. It was the emblem of the Melefield family. The other party came with such a fierce momentum, and they must have bad intentions.

"Everyone, is there anything I can help you with?" Martin Kramer asked in a deep voice.

"Please come with me, Mr. Martin Kramer." said Adams Bell, the young knight leading the team.

"This...is there some misunderstanding?" Martin Kramer forced a smile, trying to ease the atmosphere.

Adams Bell did not explain anything, but waved his hand. The two squires behind him came forward and dragged Martin Kramer away.

"No! Let me go! We are still negotiating with Viscount Lanwan, you can't do this! This is invasion! Invasion!"

Martin Kramer was dragged away, shouting in panic, and a pair of wings of light emerged from behind him.

Adams took two steps forward calmly, then punched Martin Kramer in the abdomen. Martin Kramer, who had always lived a pampered life, was almost beaten to death, and the wings of light behind him dimmed again.

"Bleed him!" Adams ordered.

After capturing Martin Kramer, Adams went on to capture another elder, Harry Kane, who lived not far away. Harry Kane had a bad temper and was unwilling to surrender, so he was killed by the swords.

Martin Kramer, who was tied to Adams' horse, was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat.

Olivier Capino was trapped in the Elders' Council. He appeared calm on the surface, but was actually extremely anxious. But before he could figure out how to deal with the sudden situation, his colleagues were thrown in one by one, including Martin Kramer, Lucas Capino, Jurgen Wöller and others.

"Brother, what... happened?" Elder Lucas Capino still didn't understand the situation.

"What else could be happening?" Olivier Capino could not help but sound annoyed. "The Lanwan people are attacking us! What's the situation outside? Is the battle still going on? Why can't I hear any movement?"

"What kind of battle was that? There was no battle at all. Not even a single person died. The Lanwan cavalry walked down the street as if they were walking in their own home."

Jurgen Wöller replied unhappily.

After Jurgen Voller finished speaking, the elders fell silent again. They had already realized that Ambratu was no longer able to fight, but they still didn't know what to say about this defenseless situation.

"Someone died." Suddenly, Martin Kramer added, "Elder Harry Kane was killed."

After that, there was another long silence. This time, there was something else in the silence - the real pressure of death fell on the heads of these elders who had enjoyed happiness for most of their lives.

After an unknown amount of time, someone finally spoke up: "Perhaps we can surrender to Viscount Lanwan. The population of Ambratu is larger than Viscount Lanwan's territory. She should need the locals of Ambratu to govern Ambratu for her."

I don't know who said this, but he undoubtedly expressed the thoughts of these democratic elders. Resistance at this time is undoubtedly hopeless, and surrender may still give them a chance, either to survive or to seek independence for Ambratu again.

However, at this moment, a slightly hoarse male voice sounded from outside the door: "Viscount Lanwan does need locals from Ambratu to govern Ambratu for her, but it doesn't have to be you."

The elders raised their heads and looked at the person who pushed the door open. What they saw was a weathered face and a pair of crazy and happy eyes.

Martin Kramer was stunned when he saw the man, then his eyes widened and he shouted in horror: "Jonathan Hackman!"

PS: Thank you all for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets. Thank you all. I found that with another 400 recommendation tickets, I can reach 10,000 recommendation tickets. Can you help me~~~~~

PS2: I failed again in applying for the recommendation position this week. I don’t even know how many times I have failed…qun伊6⑧②177伊榴

Volume 66: Chapter 58 Chapter A Great Harvest

A flag embroidered with the coat of arms of the Melefield family was hung on the top of the city wall of Ambratu.

With almost no bloodshed or fighting, Eric Scamario led the Lanwan Knights to easily capture Ambratu.

Charlotte immediately announced that the city-state of Ambratu would be renamed Ambratu County and appointed Jonathan Hackman as county governor.

County and County Governor are terms that originally existed in the Orlan Empire. There are several counties under the jurisdiction of the Green Plains Principality, but the County Governor here is not like an administrative chief, but is similar to a steward who manages a manor for a noble lord, except that the County Governor manages a town, and the real chief of the county is still the local feudal lord. Therefore, almost everyone in the Viscount Lanwan's territory did not think there was anything wrong with Charlotte's arrangement.

But no one noticed that at that time, Ambratu was the first territory of the Oran Empire that did not have actual fiefdoms for nobles.

The only thing that made the Viscount and his men doubtful was the selection of the county governor. After all, Jonathan Hackman was just a lowly slave more than a month ago.