our family is gone

Chapter 788: Crazy Rat Industry
Ignoring Boudica's "friendly" interaction with the mad dog, Lance told William about his previous thoughts and briefly explained the current situation.

"We do need a group of working dogs now, whether they are chasing, finding objects, or patrolling, they are all crucial to the construction of the police system and even the army.

Besides, it would be a pity to abandon your ancestral craft. Anyway, the situation has stabilized now and the police have much less work to do. You should consider it. "

Lance had no intention of seizing power, but as the system progressed, although the police in Hamlet were seriously withdrawn, the situation was still very stable. It was a waste for him, the sheriff, to stay in this position.

"There's nothing to think about. I'll go wherever Hamlet needs me."

It's not that William was reluctant to give up the power that the sheriff brought. In fact, he has never been a person obsessed with power. He cares more about justice and order.

After leaving the small town and learning more and more things, he realized that justice is not that simple, and he became more and more convinced that in this desperate world, Hamlet is the hope for the future of this world.

All for Hamlet!
"Don't worry, whether it's venue, funding or manpower, just tell me what you need."

Lance still likes employees who work hard without complaints, and he should give them what they deserve, because everyone is doing it for Hamlet.

The two of them briefly discussed the current situation in the animal pen. These hundreds of dogs all had different specialties.

Some run fast, some have a keen sense of smell, some are smart, and some are good at fighting. Even within the same species there are different individuals, which is very complex.

Therefore, William needs to discover their specialties, and then formulate different taming plans, and breed stable varieties. Although mutations or awakenings may bring surprises, they usually mean instability. This is not acceptable for a force.

As he returned to the training of the wolf cubs, Lance remembered something and couldn't help but warn:
"It's the night of the full moon, which is just a few days away. At that time, we will isolate all the wolf cubs and arrange for people to keep watch."

When Wangcai woke up on the night of the full moon, his brothers and sisters killed the mother wolf, and then they fought and devoured each other. This cannot happen again.

Lance couldn't help but think of another thing. Bigby seemed to transform on the full moon night, and the old man also said nonsense like "the stars are returning to their positions". The celestial phenomena in this world really have special powers, or it may be some kind of super-large ritual.

I have to study the information left by my ancestors when I have time. Fortunately, I have plenty of time now...

However, at this moment Boudica's shout interrupted his thoughts.

"Boss, why is it not responding?"

Lance was speechless when he looked over. The dog's mouth was stuffed with dog food and he rolled his eyes.

"what are you doing?"

"If it didn't want to eat, I would feed it. Who knew it wouldn't even eat? This dog is just stupid."

Boudica continued to complain, and Lance felt his fist harden again!
"I almost choked to death. Is this how you feed someone?"

Under William's command, Boudica worked hard to rescue the dog. When the mad dog woke up again, it looked at Boudica with a hint of fear. This was better than eating blueberries. Of course, the black dog still had a hint of doubt.

Ah! No, are you serious?
Lance could only mourn in silence. There will be no good people like me to teach you in the future. You’d better wish you good luck.

Eat people to grow up? Monk Sha also eats people, but in the end he is still not a good dog...

Lance stayed in the animal pen for a while and then walked home in the heavy snow. There were not many people outside at the moment, and even if there were, they were wrapped up tightly and walked in a hurry. This was the severe cold in the northern border of the empire.

Although the foggy mountains blocked most of the cold air coming from the south, the edge of Hamlet was a gap, and the wind was blowing in here.

Fortunately, Hamlet is also close to the sea. The warm and humid air currents brought by the ocean currents fight against the cold currents over Hamlet, which reduces the coldness a bit. It is not as exaggerated as the extreme cold in the mountains. It can be regarded as a temperate oceanic climate.

Although Lance is not afraid of cold or heat now, he still felt a little cold when he saw the snow falling all over the sky, and he hurried home.

"My Lord is back!" Susan opened the door and was surprised to find that it was the Lord who came back. She quickly opened the door and said, "My Lord, please come in. I will light the fireplace right away."

"You have to keep yourself busy even when I'm not around. Why save a little money? You should take care of yourself. It will be troublesome if you get sick." Lance took off his coat and kept talking.

"Yes, my room is not big, so I can just light a heater and I won't be cold." Susan took the coat from Lance's hand with a smile, raised her hand and gently brushed away the snowflakes on it.

"The heater should also be ventilated. Every year in the Empire, people die from this. Has the government given any warnings?"

"Don't worry, sir. Lord Baldwin has already reminded us. Besides, people in the countryside now use heated kangs, and people in the city have new-style heaters. We won't feel cold."

Susan agreed, and the two things she mentioned were that Lance left room for renovation before designing the house after knowing that Hamlet had cold winters.

In fact, it is just a kang and a stove. After all, the current level of heating is too complicated to use.

What is more important is that Hamlet opened up the wilderness and cut down large amounts of trees to make charcoal, so the price is not high and most people can afford it to have a warm winter.

After all, those are the labor force that creates wealth for him and are his property, so of course Lance has to protect them.

Susan followed him, but suddenly told Lance something with an angry look.

"The Lord cares so much about everyone that even the emperor of the empire cannot do this, but there are still those guys who continue to slander the Lord and spread it in the city..."

With the start of the war of recovery, the army was transferred away. In addition to the goods brought in from ports and docks, many outsiders were also brought in. As a result, some unpleasant rumors began to spread in the city.

The content is probably the same old stuff, questioning his inheritance rights, not being a noble, and criticizing him for launching wars against the people around him, being a tyrant, a dictator, Hamlet the devil, etc.
Or they would make up some weird rumors, such as liking men or having sex with ten women at night. Anyway, whatever is vulgar and effective, no matter if there is any conflict...

It is easy to guess who spread these news. It must be the spies placed in Hamlet by those forces. They are desperately trying to discredit the image of the lord.

What Lance did offended too many people, not just the nobles, but also various forces, but Lance has never cared.

"We should send someone to capture all those guys and take them to a sanatorium!" Susan is also a ruthless person. Anyone who dares to slander the lord will be killed.

"Don't worry, just play with them."

Lance had a faint smile on his face. This was just the beginning. The heavy snow had blocked the news. Once the news got out, they would no longer be spreading rumors about me, but would be calling for my killing.

Soon a fireplace was lit in the room, and Lance finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could finally sit down and have a good rest.

…………

The heavy snow that covered the Hamlet area came late, but it was heavy. It had been falling intermittently for several days and there was no sign of stopping. At the most exaggerated time, the sky was full of snow, the sky and the earth changed color, and it was white. You couldn't even see if you stretched out your hand.

Even hiding in a building is frightening, let alone going out. The power of nature is truly terrifying.

Even when it was small, there was a light snow, which accumulated little by little on Hamlet, which made people anxious.

Because if they are not cleaned in time, these long houses made of wood, mud and thatched roofs will collapse under the wind and the pressure of snow.

When Lance investigated and asked the local people about the climate, he knew that such things had happened frequently in previous years. It was not a strange thing to see people frozen to death on the road in that era.

Fortunately, most of these houses are newly built and reinforced before the snow season arrives, so basically every household can be equipped with a heater to spend a warm winter.

Despair is not Hamlet's...

Hamlet, a ruined town.

It was snowing heavily outside, and the cold wind could be heard making a whistling sound as it blew through the streets. Apart from the snow, there was no one walking on the streets.

But inside the house, it was extremely lively. On the first floor, countless people gathered together, staring at the fence and cheering enthusiastically.

"Blind its eyes!"

"Bite its nose!"

"Bite it! Bite it to death!"

There is no doubt that what happened here was a gambling fight, but the protagonist was not a human, but a giant red-eyed rat the size of an adult cat.

After catching a large number of them and conducting many tests and studies, we have roughly figured out the habits of this crazy rat.

Their larger bodies than ordinary mice require more food to support them, so they have a strong desire to eat and are always craving for food.

The metabolism is also very fast. As long as there is enough food, the skin and flesh wounds will scab over in a day or two. It is simply a natural "gladiator".

The hungrier they are, the crazier they become. When they are madly hungry, they will take a bite of anything and are full of aggressiveness. However, after testing, it was found that hunger will also affect the combat effectiveness.

People who have been hungry for one day still have strength, but they are not as crazy. People who have been hungry for three days may be crazy, but they don’t have the strength to fight.

If the fight cannot be dragged out, it will not be exciting. If it is not entertaining, it will be difficult to arouse the audience's emotions and no one will buy it.

They studied for a long time to solve this problem, but it can only be said that Hamlet was full of talents and he quickly found a solution.

The person who solved this problem was none other than the perfumer who lived in seclusion in the winery, the imperial princess Sophia.

Because in previous observations and studies, it was discovered that mad rats mature sexually very quickly, and a litter may give birth to seven or eight cubs, or as many as twelve. They will even fight among themselves to snatch the female rats, and they are very ferocious.

Then, based on this characteristic, Sophia used the gonads of female mice as materials to make a perfume that only mice could smell.

If you drop a drop of it before the battle, the rats that enter the field will go crazy for the non-existent female rat, and will regard the other male rat as the enemy and start fighting.

This kind of physically demanding fight is very entertaining to watch. Once blood is seen, it will arouse their madness even more and can also mobilize the emotions of the audience.

But there is a disadvantage, that is, only male rats go to the arena. Fortunately, Hamlet advocates frugality and will not waste.

As for where did the female rats whose gonads were removed go? Of course, they became food for the male rats. Only by eating raw food, and of the same kind, could they get used to this kind of fighting.

It’s true that humans can always come up with new ideas for some strange things.

The rules of the rat fight are set on Hamlet’s part from the beginning.

The first thing is naturally to formulate purchasing rules, and to classify the goods into different grades based on their quality, so the prices will naturally be different.

Rat mice are divided based on factors such as body size, hair, age, injuries, gender, etc. Generally, only those with the best appearance and capable of becoming fighting rats are worth ten copper coins, and the rest are mostly bought at the price of feed.

Logically speaking, fighting rats should be very valuable, but why can the price be lowered? According to the official price?

Because rat fighting is a form of gambling and is monopolized by the lord. If you can't beat the lord, you have to obey him, otherwise the police will come to your door immediately and seal off several privately set up rat fighting arenas.

But copper coins are also very generous for most people, let alone ten, so some time ago there was a crazy rush to catch big rats. Many mercenaries even stopped playing treasure hunting in ruins and just studied how to catch rats without getting hurt.

The "uninjured" here does not refer to people, but to how to catch an uninjured Junkrat. After all, it affects the rating, which means money.

This situation boosted the rat catching industry. Lance made a fortune by selling rat poison and rat cages. It also boosted a number of industries that used mad rats as materials.

You know, fur has always been a relatively sturdy material, not to mention it is so valuable in winter.

In the past, mice were only the size of a palm, so their skins were naturally worthless. But now a mad rat weighs more than ten pounds, and its fur when unfolded is as big as a rabbit skin. Several of them can be made into a piece of clothing, and the corners can be used to make a hat, so it is naturally valuable.

In fact, it was the government that did it. Those rats that cannot be used as fighting rats must be properly utilized. This is a planned thing. The flesh and internal organs can be used as feed, and the fur can be used to make money.

The warmth retention effect of raven fur is a little worse, but it is cheap. Compared with the fox or bear fur worn by the nobles, ordinary people can also wear it.

When other people saw this, they followed suit. Only those with good quality were sent to the official in exchange for money, and those of inferior quality were skinned and sold by themselves. There were no restrictions on Lance. After all, it was created to encourage everyone to hunt rats.

Then the interesting thing happened. Those people peeled off the rat's skin, but there was still meat and internal organs. It was impossible to throw them away directly, so the rat became a dish and ended up on everyone's table.

Are they opposed to it? Maybe some people would, but most people have no taboo at all. Although Hamlet has abundant fish catches and the price of fish is not high, not everyone can afford it.

Roasted rat became a specialty of the town in a short time. Even people in the city heard about it, and many people came to try the taste of a rat as big as a cat.

It is speculated that the changes in Junkrat's body are the awakening of his bloodline induced by the Blood Moon, not simple corruption. In fact, Lance has certified that it is uncontaminated, otherwise the official would not dare to let them eat it.

Regardless, the Junkrat industry has been established, built on the remains of the Rat...