Rose Empire

Rosie Mellorfield walked hurriedly up the stairs inside the castle, her face gloomy and looking in a very bad mood.

When the servants in the castle saw Rosie Mellorfield's expression, they quickly stepped aside and saluted, fearing that they would anger the hostess who was on the verge of exploding.

Rosie came to the door of Jose Melfield's study, pushed it open, and quickly closed the mahogany door.

In the study, Jose Melfield was half lying on a soft couch, covered with a thin blanket. He did not look very well, but he was not in a critical condition either.

Charlotte and Andre's brother, Sean, was playing by Jose Melefield's couch when Rosie walked in. The little guy smiled sweetly and called out, "Mom."

Seeing her lovely biological son, Luo Qian's frosty face finally showed a smile. She patted her son's head and said, "Baby, go out and play first. I have something to say to your father."

"Yeah." Sean nodded, then left the study obediently, and did not forget to close the door after going out.

"What's the matter?" Jose Melfield asked, noticing his wife's expression.

"I really can't do your job anymore!" Rosie returned to her previous frosty expression.

Although it was false that Jose Melfield was critically ill, most of the affairs in the riverside castle were indeed handled by Rosie at the moment.

This incident started more than a month ago. At that time, the Green Plains Principality had just entered winter. Jose Melefield felt unwell, had frequent headaches, and was weak in his limbs. He needed to stay in bed to rest. At first, Jose Melefield did not pay much attention to it. He thought he just caught a cold and would be fine after a while. Fortunately, Wolf Vonderen was meticulous in his work. He found that snake celery leaves were added to the black tea that Jose Melefield usually drank.

Snake celery leaves are a highly poisonous herb. After being dried and crushed, they are almost indistinguishable from fermented tea leaves. However, Wolfe managed to pick out its fragments from the discarded tea dregs.

When José Melefield learned of Wolfe's discovery, he immediately realized that he had been assassinated, and the assassin was most likely in the riverside castle. In order to find out the assassin and the real culprit, José Melefield pretended to continue drinking the poisoned black tea until one night not long ago, when he fainted from a "sudden illness" while having dinner with his family.

In order to put on a complete show, Jose Melfield never made any public appearances again after that, and handed over a lot of work that originally belonged to the Duke of Greenfield to Rosie.

Rosie was very happy at first, thinking it was a great opportunity to show her skills and expand her power. However, she did not expect how much those people named Melfield looked down on her.

Who among the nobles of the Green Plains Principality has not seen Rosie's handwriting? It's nonsense for them to say that they can't recognize that those official and private letters signed by "Jose Melefield" were written by Rosie!

The official letters and correspondence written by the Duchess on behalf of the Duke were of course genuine, but members of the Mellerfield family insisted that the official letters and correspondence were forged by unscrupulous elements, and they dragged their feet or even refused to execute any orders.

Rosie wrote a letter severely rebuking them, and they went to the riverside castle with the letter to verify it, asking whether such a vulgar letter was really written by the Duke of Greenfield? Could it be a fake? Rosie was so angry that she almost wanted to quit.

But Jose Melfeld had already asked Wolf Vonderen to appease those nobles, and they should not cause trouble for Rosie again in the short term. Jose Melfeld was very curious about what had happened to make Rosie lose her temper and not want to do anything anymore.

"What's going on again? My uncles should be more well-behaved lately, right?" Jose Melfield said puzzledly.

"Not your uncles, but your good sons and daughters!"

"Andre? What happened to him?"

"He's now contacting allies outside and telling everyone that I've imprisoned you," Rosie said angrily, pointing outside the castle, "and he's even organizing a coalition to rescue you."

Jose Melefield couldn't help but frowned. His eldest son really disappointed him. This was not because of the discord between Andre and Rosie, but because Andre had spread the news that Jose Melefield was seriously ill.

Andre didn't know that Jose Melfeld was faking illness, but precisely because of this, as the eldest son of the Duke of Greenfield, Andre should help Rosie keep the secret that the Duke of Greenfield was seriously ill, because this was the only way to stabilize the situation in the principality and prevent someone with ulterior motives from taking advantage of the chaos to cause rebellion.

Andre had brought similar moments of disappointment to Jose Mellerfield countless times over the years. Jose Mellerfield simply could not see in his eldest son the talent and courage that a Duke of Greenfield should possess.

At this time, Jose Melfield could not help but think of his youngest son Sean. Sean was not only cute, but also well-behaved and obedient. He was very smart at a young age and learned everything very quickly. He seemed to be a good heir. But thinking that Sean was only eight years old, Jose Melfield quickly gave up this idea. At such a young age, it was impossible for him to control the powerful nobles of the Melfield family.

Jose Melfield sighed in his heart, and then said, "I will send someone to catch Andre. He will get married in the spring, and he should concentrate on his studies."

Hearing Jose Melfield's answer, Rosie was secretly delighted and quickly said, "And your daughter, Charlotte."

"What did Charlotte do?" Jose Melfield asked.

"She killed Harvey Sherwin and sent the body back to me!" Rosie said gritting her teeth.

"Harvey Sherwin?" Jose Melfield recalled for a moment before remembering this person. He seemed to be Rosie's confidant. He frowned and asked in confusion, "Why did Charlotte want to kill Harvey Sherwin?"

Rosie handed Charlotte's reply to her husband and said angrily, "She said that it was the people of the city who murdered Harvey, but Harvey and the people of the city had no grudges in the past or today, so what reason did she have to kill Harvey? I think she killed Harvey and put the blame on the people of the city..."

Jose Melefield opened the letter and glanced through it. The content of Charlotte's letter was very simple. It was roughly "My dear mother, your nephew was killed by the Ambratu people. I, your daughter, am going to avenge your nephew. Please send some troops to support me as soon as possible."

After Rosie finished speaking, Jose Melefield put away the letter and ordered: "Let Stanley Melefield lead a thousand knights and three griffins to Viscount Lanwan's territory to help Viscount Lanwan garrison the Lanwan Isthmus."

Rosie was stunned: "Do you really believe what that girl said in the letter? Do you believe that Harvey was killed by the city-state people?"

Jose Melfield glanced at Rosie and replied in a deep voice, "Even if I didn't see how you replied to Charlotte in your last letter, I know that there is probably some conflict between you, so I don't know who killed Harvey. But... you have to understand that Charlotte is most likely at war with the Sokya city-state, and she is in urgent need of support. I can ignore your personal grudge with her, but as a mother, you can't sit back and watch Charlotte being bullied by outsiders because of your personal grudge."

Luo Qian was speechless, and after a long while she slowly uttered the word "yes".

PS: Thank you all for your monthly recommendation tickets~~~recommendation tickets, so many recommendation tickets, thank you all, thank you all, Nan Zi bows to everyone~~~qqun①六⑧2伊7妻壹6

Volume 68: Chapter 60 Chapter Persuading Surrender

The Viscount of Lanwan.

The seizure of a large amount of mountain copper ore made Charlotte feel happy for a while. However, soon after the happiness, Charlotte found that things were not so simple.

The smelting of mountain copper ore is quite difficult. It not only requires higher but also more stable furnace temperature. The speed of smelting mountain copper with the technology of the Ambratu people is far behind the speed of mining, so there are so many mountain copper ores stored in the Ambratu warehouses.

The metallurgical technology of the Ambratu city-state was not good, and that of the Viscount Lanwan was not much better. Lanwan and Ambratu craftsmen, a group of talented craftsmen, worked together for four or five days before they finally produced a pile of gray stuff. It was said that they needed to be smelted again to become the golden mountain copper that Charlotte remembered.

Charlotte couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so she helped the craftsmen improve the furnace herself. In fact, there was nothing special about it. She just added a multi-stage blowing system to their furnace and modified the flue, using the hot exhaust gas from the furnace to heat the fresh air sent into the furnace.

"That's it!"

Charlotte clapped her hands and looked at the brand new stove in front of her, very satisfied with her work.

The craftsmen were full of praise for Charlotte's ingenious ideas. Although Charlotte's improved furnace had not yet been tested in actual combat, they had never seen or heard of a nobleman like Charlotte who was so generous in sharing knowledge.

"You can let the craftsmen do the work of improving the furnace. Why do you have to come here in person?" Cecilia looked at Charlotte, who was content, with some helplessness.

Speaking of this, Charlotte also felt angry: "You don't know how stupid these craftsmen are. They don't understand anything after talking to them for a long time. They can't even recognize the words when I draw blueprints for them. I really can't stand it. Their generation is hopeless. It seems that it is really necessary to strengthen the education of the next generation as soon as possible, but I am short of teachers now..."

Cecilia sighed and said, "You have to prioritize. It's not necessary to refine so much ore today or tomorrow, but the business at the market needs to be dealt with as soon as possible."

The market built by Charlotte, the largest casino in the Orlan Empire, opened not long ago. Although there are no sexy dealers dealing cards here, Charlotte went to inspect it yesterday and felt that the business was pretty good. In this era of scarce entertainment projects, the fancy gambling projects that Charlotte has come up with are indeed very attractive. Not only the passing merchants, travelers and mercenaries, but even the local knights of Lanwan can't help but try it out.

"You can handle the matters at the market yourself." Charlotte waved her hand and said.

Casinos are not good places. There will definitely be bad things happening in this kind of business. Charlotte was mentally prepared, but if she had to deal with all the trivial matters, she would be exhausted.

"But there are some things I really can't decide." Cecilia said with a headache.

"What's the matter?" Charlotte asked as she took the glass of juice from Renee.

Cecilia flipped open the book in her arms and said, "First of all, it's about the horse racing. Some of the squires and knights who were originally scheduled to participate in the competition suddenly didn't want to come, so today's competition couldn't be held."

"Why didn't they come suddenly?" Charlotte was a little surprised.

"It was probably related to yesterday's race. Two squire knights made mistakes. One accidentally fell on the track, and the other was tripped by the former's horse. Both of them retired from the race. The dissatisfied gamblers cursed harshly, and the two squire knights almost had a conflict with them." Cecilia explained.

Charlotte nodded, probably understanding that this was simply a matter of face.

The Viscount of Lanwan was relatively poor. Apart from the knights and squires, almost no one else had horses at home, and no one knew how to ride a horse. The knights were nobles, and they were probably unwilling to perform horse racing for a group of commoners or even slaves, so Charlotte could only let the squires compete.

In terms of actual status, the squire knights were commoners. But they did not think so. They felt that they were already half-nobles, or even half-nobles. Being pointed at by a group of commoners and slaves was already a great insult to them, not to mention that if they lost the game, they would even be cursed by the untouchables who were angry with defeat.

Even though Charlotte offered generous prize money based on the ranking of the competition, these squire knights didn't want to come to the competition again.

Although Cecilia was Charlotte's first civil officer, she had no authority to command the knights and squires. When the squires were absent from work, she really had no other choice but to report to Charlotte.

Charlotte thought for a moment and said, "Go and inform Herman Green and tell him that I ordered the squire knights to return to compete. Then change the rewards. In addition to the bonus, the top three riders each season can receive a belt with 'Strongest Rider' written by Viscount Lanwan himself, and the rider ranked first can have a chance to participate in the Royal Griffin Knights' faction awakening ceremony."

In this way, horse racing has more or less the flavor of fighting for honor rather than fighting for money, and it will be much easier for the squires and knights to convince themselves psychologically.

Cecilia nodded, wrote down Charlotte's suggestion, and then said, "Secondly, someone suggested setting up a fighting arena in the market. This suggestion was supported by many civilians and knights."

The fighting arena is actually the gladiatorial arena of this world. However, this world rarely uses humans and animals to fight, and most of the time it is people fighting each other. This kind of "sport" is not only popular in the Orlan Empire and the Sokya Peninsula, but also in the entire Eagle Continent and even other continents.

It seems that people in this world prefer to watch "human fights" rather than cockfights and dogfights. Charlotte muttered to herself, "A bunch of barbarians," and said without hesitation, "Then let's set up a fighting arena. Don't just set up one. Set up several fighting arenas according to whether the person uses weapons and armor, whether he is lightly or heavily armed, whether he is an awakened person, and whether he is a one-wing, two-wing, or three-wing awakened person."

Cecilia wrote it down again and continued, "There is another thing. Many guests from the Sokya Peninsula said that they only have the currencies of various city-states and lack Fuso. However, our casino only accepts Fuso, so it is difficult for them to patronize our business."

Charlotte pondered for a long time before saying, "Set up a money exchange in the market to exchange dir for fusos for the guests. Remember, we only accept dir. We don't accept the messy currencies of other city-states."

Charlotte paused and smiled slyly, "Besides, the gold exchange is only responsible for exchanging dir into fusso, not for exchanging fusso into dir."

Cecilia didn't understand why Charlotte emphasized the last sentence, but Charlotte had no intention of explaining it, so she wrote it down and followed suit.

Sokya Peninsula, Bataan.

Bataan is a medium-sized city-state on the Sokya Peninsula, with beautiful scenery and a delicious wine. However, Mariasis was not in a good mood.

Mariasis was the general of the 2,000-man citizen militia that Ambratus led to the front line of the Aye League. About half a month ago, Mariasis received news that his mother country had gone to war with the Lesser Sassenia and was defeated. He hurriedly said goodbye to the alliance and wanted to lead his troops back to help.

As the leader of the Aye Alliance, the Fiendish city-state originally did not want to let Mariases and his men go back, because the war on the front line was tense, and the Ambratu people were wrong to have initiated the civil war in the alliance. Mariases begged the Fiendish commander desperately, and even said, "If you don't let them go home, I can't guarantee that my soldiers won't surrender to the Delmes on the battlefield." Finally, he was able to lead his men back to the city-state.

However, when he was halfway home, Mariasis heard the second piece of bad news - the Lanwan people captured Ambratu.

Their isolated army suddenly became rootless duckweed and a dog that had lost its home.

Sitting in a bar near the Bataan pier, Mariases drank glass after glass of wine. He was now completely confused and didn't know what to do or where to go.

The Batan City-State allowed the Ambratu Citizens to temporarily stay in Batan, as they were in the same alliance with Aiye, but they could not allow the Ambratu Citizens to stay here forever. Moreover, the military funds and food supplies of the Mariasis Army were running out, and if they continued to wander outside, they would only starve to death.

"You are not in the military camp." Suddenly, a familiar voice sounded.

Mariasis looked up in confusion and was surprised to see another person opposite him: "Logan?"

"You can't drink alcohol during the march." One-eyed Logan looked at Mariasis and smiled.

The reason why Logan dared to assure Charlotte that he could recruit this citizen militia was because the general who led this army, Mariases, was his old friend. Logan knew Mariases' character very well. Mariases was calm but not decisive. He hesitated and thought too much when encountering things. He felt that he really had hope of persuading Mariases to surrender.

Mariasis was in no mood to joke with Logan. His slightly tipsy mind immediately sobered up. He stood up in surprise and said, "Logan, which elder sent you here? What instructions does the elder have?"

Logan shook his head and said, "The Council of Elders is finished. The elders are all locked up in the dungeons of Ambratu. Where are the instructions?"

Mariasis sat down again and asked disappointedly, "Then why are you here?"

"I'm here on behalf of Viscount Lanwan." Logan said.

Mariasis's eyes suddenly became sharp: "Viscount Lanwan? What did she send you for?"

"Viscount Lanwan hopes to recruit you and your subordinates." Logan said.

Mariasis looked at his old friend in front of him, his right hand stroking the dagger at his waist, his knife-like eyes constantly staring at Logan's neck, as if he was considering how to cut it.

The two of them remained silent for a long time before Mariasis spoke coldly, "I am planning to lead my troops to retake Ambratu. How could I surrender to Viscount Lanwan? Dream on!"

"Take back Ambratu?" Logan chuckled. "If you still have the strength, I will never persuade you to surrender! I have already visited your military camp. Not only are there wounded soldiers everywhere, but there are less than 1,500 of the 2,000 citizen soldiers left, and less than 200 of the 300 extraordinary people left. How are you going to counterattack?"

The current situation of the army made Logan both fortunate and regretful. He was fortunate that the other side was in such a difficult situation that the difficulty of persuading them to surrender was reduced a lot. Unfortunately, the extraordinary people suffered too many losses, so even if he succeeded in persuading them to surrender, his own contribution would be much smaller.

Mariasis opened his lips again and again, and finally said after a while: "Even so, I can't surrender to a villain who invades my city!"

"In fact, Viscount Lanwan didn't want to infringe on Ambratu. This is all the fault of the Council of Elders and the Citizens' Assembly..."

Logan gnashed his teeth and recounted the events of Pende's assassination of Harvey Sherwin, the Citizens' Assembly's refusal to punish Pende, and the Elders' procrastination and inaction. Finally, he said, "Is this Viscount Lanwan's fault? Viscount Lanwan not only sent troops to protect Ambratu when the Lesser Sassini invaded, but also helped Ambratu after his cousin was killed. Can he still be considered a villain?"

"Are you serious?" Mariasis didn't expect that there was such a complicated truth behind this.

"Of course it's true. I swear to the Lord God." Logan said without hesitation, "These things are known to everyone in Ambratu. You can ask anyone you want when you go back. If it's false, you can cut off my tongue."

Mariasis fell silent again, not knowing how to judge the right and wrong of this matter.

Seeing this, Logan heaved a sigh of relief. Just now, when Mariases was staring at his neck, Logan's clothes on his back were wet, fearing that the other party would cut off his head in anger. Now Mariases began to hesitate again. With the other party's cautious personality, Logan knew that he probably wouldn't die.

"Do you know who is in charge of Ambratu now?" Logan said while the iron was hot.

"Isn't it Viscount Lanwan?" Mariasis said puzzledly.

Logan shook his head and said, "Viscount Lanwan promised to let the Ambratu people govern Ambratu, so the person in charge of Ambratu is still an Ambratu. His name is Jonathan Hackman. I wonder if you have heard of this name?"

It took Mariasis some time to recall the owner of this name: "Is it the businessman who was in a lawsuit with Elder Martin Kramer?"

"That's him," Logan nodded and said seriously, "Although Viscount Lanwan has no intention of severely punishing the people of Ambratu, this Jonathan Hackman holds a grudge against all citizens of Lanwan. He is now arresting people everywhere in Ambratu City and setting up unjust imprisonments. Even Elder Martin Kramer was hanged by him. He wants all citizens of Ambratu to be buried with his family. I'm here to persuade you to surrender to Viscount Lanwan, not for myself, but for you to save the more than 10,000 citizens of Ambratu who are still alive!"

"Me? How can I save them?" Mariasis' eyes were full of confusion.

"The biggest problem facing the citizens of Ambratu right now is that they have no one to turn to. The elders are either imprisoned or killed. No one can lead the citizens, and no one can speak in front of Viscount Lanwan. That's why Jonathan Hackman can be so unscrupulous. You have fought for Ambratu for more than a year, and have made outstanding contributions. You have prestige among the citizens. If nearly two hundred extraordinary people can surrender to Lanwan, Viscount Lanwan will definitely pay attention to you. In this way, you can speak for the people of Ambratu in front of Viscount Lanwan and save everyone from Jonathan Hackman's butcher knife."

Logan analyzed for Mariasis and finally sighed "sincerely".

"Mariasis, don't hesitate. There are more than 10,000 citizens here, including your family. They are all waiting for your help. Come back with me."

PS: Thank you for the reward from Haohungry, and thank you for your monthly tickets and blade recommendation tickets!

PS2: Thanks to Sakuraqiu and Hill for their advice. The errors in the previous article have been corrected.

PS3: Everyone says that we should update more chapters, so let's try to update one more chapter tomorrow. Although we failed to update twice last time, we will definitely try our best this time!

Volume 69: Chapter 61 Chapter Negotiations and Envoys

Mariasis told One-Eyed Logan that he needed to think about it again.

But Logan knew that when Mariasis said this, the matter was almost successful. Sure enough, two days later, Mariasis, with a haggard face and bloodshot eyes, reappeared in front of Logan and told Logan that he and his men were willing to surrender, but Viscount Lanwan agreed to pardon their families.

Charlotte was willing to give up even her title, so it was obvious that she would not be reluctant to pardon a few ordinary people. Logan patted his chest and guaranteed for Viscount Lanwan.