our family is gone

Chapter 779: Past Events of Bastia

Lance stepped into the familiar governor's residence again after many days. The last time he came here was to capture the city during the famine crisis.

But at that time he didn't dare to use the name of Hamlet for fear of attracting the attention of other forces. Now he can finally show his identity.

Although the bureaucrats may not agree with Watt, their roots are in Owendo and they cannot escape. However, it is difficult to catch these slippery businessmen and other forces.

Fortunately, after Hamlet's army defeated the noble coalition on the front battlefield, it quickly took control of those territories.

Because the coalition of nobles had almost drained the war potential of those territories, the army basically encountered no resistance when it attacked.

At the same time, with the assistance of people placed among them, it is not difficult to control those guys.

In some ways, the difficulty in transmitting information and the backward road transportation in that era helped him.

The news did not have time to spread, and the information many people had was the news brought by the nobles in order to gain more support.

Walter simply took advantage of the situation and gathered those people together on this pretext, thus catching them in the trap.

This led to the somewhat funny scene just now. Lance watched those people discuss how to deal with him. After he revealed his identity, he opened fire to show his ferocity, but when he found that he could not win, he begged for mercy.

Arrogant at first and respectful later, it makes people laugh when thinking about it...

Those were not aristocrats who relied on inheritance, but shrewd businessmen and experienced bureaucrats. Those who could not adapt to society were torn to pieces and eaten just like Tiffany was. Reality is always so cruel.

From this simple conversation, they could sense that Lance wanted to drain the marrow out of them, and their attitudes began to change.

"The most valuable things for a businessman are channels and relationships. Killing us won't allow you to gain anything outside of Owendo. Instead, it will damage the reputation of Owendo and even Hamlet."

"All of us here are famous merchants in the area. If you treat us like this, Lord, when the news gets out, no merchants will be willing to come here anymore."

"That's right! Hamlet will then lose his merchants. Without merchants like us, how will the resources of the territory circulate?"

"The prosperity of the Owendo docks is due to the jobs we bring. Without us, thousands of dock workers would have nothing to eat."

These guys are really businessmen. They talk in a very complicated way, as if Owendo and even Hamlet are on their shoulders.

"Do you think I care?" Lance was not moved at all. He laughed and complained, which silenced those guys. Then he retorted slowly.

"First of all, being a businessman is just a profession, and professions are innocent. You are the ones who are guilty. Secondly, you cannot represent the group of businessmen. Walter is very reliable.

As for reputation? You said it yourself just now, a cruel devil, a greedy dictator, a crazy tyrant... In your eyes, I am already bad enough, right? "

Lance wasn't frightened by them at all, nor was he confused by their words.

Good people are good people, bad people are bad people, it has nothing to do with their profession. If you want to generalize it, don’t look at their level. A few losers want to represent a profession?
As for the statement that Hamlet would be doomed without merchants, it is even more ridiculous. You have to know that Hamlet's specialty is food, which will never lack a market.

Now it is not him begging the merchants, but the merchants begging him to open channels. If you don't do it, there are plenty of people who will do it.

In the past, it was the struggle among several grain merchants that caused the internal supply to become the same as bulk supply, which wasted these resources and made it so that even Totnes was scrambling for a single supply channel.

Now that most areas of Hamlet have been unified and integrated by him, those profiteers who have been sucking blood from Hamlet have been liquidated, and with the internal strife eliminated, the price of food will naturally change.

It can be said that if Hamlet shook, the price of grain in Totnes and even the empire would increase by 20%.

Of course, this is based on the premise that the empire has no ability to blockade Hamlet.

If they could blockade like the Eagle Country, it might be possible to bring down Hamlet, but there is no such powerful force now.

Moreover, Hamlet is located at the junction of two continents and the confluence of four terrains. If it is not sold to the empire, it can be sold to others, and there is no need to worry about sales.

And...I'm waiting for the soldiers, what are you waiting for?
At this time, there was a commotion downstairs. Taking advantage of the night, the manor was surrounded by soldiers, who then rushed into the banquet hall, controlled those so-called gentlemen and ladies, and went upstairs as planned.

Tardif pushed open the door and came in with soldiers. The reason he appeared here was that Lance was worried about Walter's safety, so he sent Tardif back in advance to protect him. A master bounty hunter was enough to complete this task.

Lance was too lazy to argue and waved his hand to signal him to take away.

The lord refused to listen to any persuasion. Those people had already realized that there was no hope and were still acting sarcastic when they were taken away by the soldiers.

"Walter, do you think you can get away with it by betraying us? You will definitely end up like us."

"I've always been a Hamlet man. I was a member of Hamlet's army."

Walter said calmly, "Who are you?" I am a man of the Iron-blooded Hamlet, and the lord got his first pot of gold from me.

Originally, he was still unhappy that the lord had tricked his daughter into becoming disabled and had given away the family business he had accumulated over half his life. Now it seemed that if nothing had happened at that time, he would probably be the same as those people when the lord took action.

The soldiers entered the city, blocked those that needed to be blocked, and arrested those that needed to be arrested. They were all experienced people who had experienced this many times, so the process went smoothly.

When Owendo was covered by sunlight again, the residents realized that a new ruler had been set last night and it had returned to Hamlet's jurisdiction.

What impact does it have on them?

No.

The factories and fleets belonging to the big merchants in the city of Owendo were handed over smoothly as if they had been prepared in advance.

The commotion that night only affected a small number of people, and Lance had no intention of taking action against those small families, as long as they followed Hamlet's rules.

Lance hadn't left yet, but appeared in a very interesting place in Owendo, which was the prison, or the slave trader's warehouse.

By the way, both Tardif and Boudica had studied here, and among the people they rushed into the conference room last night, one of them was the slave trader, or the warden.

Now that he has been locked up, I can only say that fate is just so wonderful sometimes.

The polarity is reversed!

However, Lance did not come here to add insult to injury. This time he came mainly to solve the problem of mixed detention of prisons and slaves.

Because there are criminals and captured slaves in there, even among the registered criminals, there are a lot of people who were wrongly accused, or who have offended people like Tardif.

I also heard that because of the problem with the mountains, many barbarians fled like Boslake did. Also, because Bastia did not recognize barbarian mercenaries, many barbarian slaves were captured. Some of them could not even speak the common language, let alone communicate. Therefore, the identification and counting work was very difficult to advance, and Lance had to bring professionals here.

At this time, work could be seen to have begun in the prison. Those coming in and out were no longer the slave traders' guards or slave catchers, because these guys had been imprisoned last night and were awaiting their trial. They were either sent to build roads or to a sanatorium.

Those who are now interacting are officials trained by Hamlet to specialize in law.

Dealing with those things along the way gave them sufficient work experience. They were not in a hurry to release those people, but first took out the dusty files for investigation and re-examination.

This is a huge workload and cannot be completed in a short period of time. Some of the parties involved have even passed away.

But someone has to do it, and perhaps some belated justice can be served and fairness can be achieved.

"Sir, these are the data of the slave trade."

"After verifying their identities, we released them. Those who wanted to leave were given some supplies, and those who wanted to stay were asked to register and wait for distribution. The policy was explained to them clearly."

The first thing is to distinguish between slaves and criminals. Of course, some of them are targeted and arrested as criminals using various strange means, so they need to be reviewed.

"As for those barbarians, I'll leave them to you two."

Lance signaled Greendale to take action. With her reputation in the mountains, she could probably explain the change in things. It was no longer the slave owners who controlled this place.

As for Boudica, she was just there to make up the numbers. When those idiots couldn't understand what people were saying, she would use her fists and feet to teach them.

"Don't worry, leave it to us, Boss." Boudica promised, "If anyone dares to make trouble, I will beat him to death!"

"Okay~" Lance smiled and looked at Greendale, motioning them to get busy.

Lance went deeper and met the wealthy businessmen who were imprisoned.

Ordinary means won't work, so Lance has to take action personally, because the assets of these guys are too huge. If he can take them all over, it will be very important for Hamlet.

Some say that he does not attach importance to business, but in fact Lance attaches great importance to it. After all, the emergence of capital is an unstoppable wave of the times.

"I know you all hate me, but I'm actually a good person, and there will definitely be some of you who agree with me."

Lance usually restrains his aura in order to hide himself, otherwise he will indiscriminately affect others. He is probably similar to those saints in the legend who are worshipped by mortals when they walk around.

No wonder the saints of the church were able to organize people to fight against the ancestor and make them sacrifice voluntarily. I am afraid that there were similar reasons besides faith.

But Lance is not a saint, and he doesn't like to attract other people's attention, so after he was promoted to demigod, he has been suppressing his aura and looks as ordinary as an ordinary person.

But now I don't mind showing my strength.

Lance's vague face began to become clearer and clearer. Those people looked at Lance uncontrollably and fell into a strange silence. Only Lance's voice could be heard echoing among them.

Not long after, Lance left that place, but the terrifying thing was that several people in there also followed him out. As for the others, they were probably beyond saving.

The people selected by these people no longer had the hostility they had before. Instead, they were a little too calm, and the look in their eyes that was inadvertently revealed was full of awe.

Walter was not surprised when Lance came to his door, but he felt scared when he saw the others.

"Tell me about Hamlet's future business plan..."

…………

“Although it is not as spectacular as Totnes, it is built on the mountain and right in the canyon. It is very steep and indeed easy to defend but difficult to attack.

It is no wonder that they were able to control the main roads and block the mountains, preventing the barbarians from plundering southward for more than ten years, and Bastia was known as the unconquerable city. "

Lance rode in front on horseback, gazing at the fortified city ahead, feeling quite emotional.

"Unfortunately, even the strongest city walls can be breached from the inside..."

Reims stayed in Owendo for two days, mainly to unify Hamlet's future business development.

In the end, we did not agree to Walter's resignation. After all, there was no suitable candidate, so we could only make him suffer a little longer.

When Hamlet had dealt with the nobles who had invaded the territories to the south, and Owendo in the southwest had also fallen into his hands, only Bastia was left.

From what he said just now, it can be heard that Lance obviously knew what happened in Bastia.

When the blood moon had not yet faded, the cult instigated Alvin to kill the old earl and then spread corruption in the city.

But no one knew what happened. The cult seemed to be unprepared, and the strength of the church in the big cities was also strong. Under the leadership of the church, most of the cult's power was involved in the resistance.

Thanks to the guards' sacrifice, a key figure, the heir Bruce, escaped the cult's assassination.

The Bastia army stationed outside the city did not suffer much damage. Bruce escaped from the city and took over the army. In order to retake the city, he led the army into the city to fight.

But the problem was that knights needed to fight in open areas, and the knights that the count had accumulated for half his lifetime would find it difficult to charge into the city, so the effect was limited.

However, it was only after the two sides fought for a while that most people were able to escape before the corruption completely spread and engulfed the city.

But in the end, Bruce was unable to defeat the cult, and had to withdraw in order to preserve his strength, but he also rescued the people in the church.

At this time, other nobles also received the news and gathered their troops, but it was hard to say whether these guys wanted to fight the cult or something else.

Bruce wanted to gather other nobles to attack the city and wipe out the cult, but the nobles who had previously called for the killing of the cult all delayed in various ways, making it clear that they did not want to contribute. Anyway, the city was not theirs.

If it weren't for the church's support for Bruce, I'm afraid these nobles would have killed Bruce first.

Bruce could only gather the refugees and besiege the city, which put him in a very embarrassing situation.

It's not that they haven't fought before, but the boomerang of being easy to defend and difficult to attack hit him, the heir, on the head. Several attempts ended in failure, and those evil cults completely occupied the city.

Then there were all kinds of struggles, and now it has been half a month...