our family is gone

Chapter 791 Hamlet's Development Plan

The heavy snow that had lasted for a few days finally stopped, and those who had been hiding in the buildings during the winter began to come out and clear the snow.

The snow that was originally up to the calf level was cleared away, and people were walking on the streets, making the quiet city lively again and with a little more warmth, just like the winter sun.

As for our lord, he did not completely escape from worldly affairs after his return. On the contrary, a lot of things accumulated during the time he was away that needed to be dealt with.

Fortunately, it's just some signatures. After all, we have to believe in Baldwin's ability. It is more than enough to manage a city, not to mention that we just need to follow the plan.

Therefore, Reims is mainly busy with Hamlet's existing system, finishing the military reform, and improving and updating the laws.

Those nobles, bureaucrats and lackeys shocked Lance a lot. It was really abstract that people could be twisted to such an extent.

Of course, another more urgent thing is what should Hamlet do next after completing the recovery mission?
As Lord Hamlet, ruler in name and in reality, he needs to make sure of this.

At the beginning, there was only one main plot line in Hamlet, and that was the ancestor, and the conflict between the two sides was irreconcilable.

After defeating the ancestors, the next thing is the land. Only by recovering the territory can he feed so many people and use the savings of those people to help Hamlet overcome the difficult turning point.

Now that the first two are completed, what path will Lance take next?

Should he start to lie low and do nothing like those noble lords, or should he use this winter to recuperate and then seek to establish an empire and dominate the world?

At the high-level meeting, Lance directly revealed his purpose.

“First, a formal government will be established, and the Hamlet area will only be governed by the Hamlet government.

Second, Hamlet does not recognize the privileges enjoyed by the church, prohibits any religious missionary work, and cracks down on cults.

Third, abolition of slavery. Hamlet does not recognize slaves, and the law does not protect the rights of any slave owner.

Fourth, reopen the four-way trade..."

What Lance has to do is very simple, that is to establish its own territory, which can also be called independence.

In fact, although many great lords in the empire were nominally loyal to the emperor, they were actually local tyrants in their own territories. This was a tacit understanding among everyone and was also the core of the feudal system, which was to gain support by giving up part of their power.

The current civil unrest and fighting between rebels are caused by the emperor's desire to interfere in the affairs of their territory, but the two sides have not yet fallen out.

Even if those people set up a new government, they would not be able to make it public, just like Totnes. Not to mention the emperor, even the church's control over them is ineffective, and they run their own system.

The army is a piece of cake. Totnes even has its own navy, and it is equipped with artillery. Lance was quite shocked when he saw it for the first time. This is simply not something that a territory can produce.

But no one cared, neither the emperor nor the church let it go. In fact, they couldn't do anything about it. They just turned off the lights to maintain a little superficial face.

And Lance just laid this matter bare, I just want to do it alone.

Although it was expected, the topic raised by Lance still caused heated discussion among everyone.

“Although Hamlet is already independent, there is no need for us to emphasize this.”

"Totnes has long been out of the Empire's control, but it has not shown it. Even during the civil war, it did not take sides. It would be a shame for us to be the first to do so."

"..."

Everyone said that it was okay, since it had already happened now, but it was better to cover it up on the surface and not bring it up proactively, so as not to make it too ugly.

“When Hamlet’s catastrophe happened, such a prosperous city couldn’t even defeat the evil cult and was destroyed in an instant. Do you think this is reasonable?

Lance listened to their words without paying too much attention, but brought up another matter.

"Hamlet was the shield of the empire in the past. He single-handedly held off the mountain barbarians, the ice barbarians, and the desert barbarians. How could he be so easily destroyed by the evil cult?"

When this question was raised, everyone else seemed to have some thoughts and realized that what happened back then was definitely not that simple.

Lance had no intention of hiding it from them. Since he asked the question, he had to tell them.

"The reason is simple. The emperor of the empire intervened at the time. He joined forces with the Ascension Sect and some other guys who wanted to take over Hamlet.

The original governor of Owendo City was a man of the emperor. We only found out these things after we arrested him.”

It doesn’t matter whether you believe this or not, as long as this statement exists, it’s enough.

Although Lance doesn't care about the clown-like emperor of the empire, he must occupy the high ground of public opinion, because if you don't, others will, and use the entire system of the empire to suppress you.

Loyalty seems to have become a fig leaf for this feudal system.

But if this matter is exposed, it means that your imperial emperor and the cult were unkind first, so you can't blame Hamlet for being unjust.

Others may not understand, but Baldwin, who was born into a noble family, was not so optimistic and advised:

"I don't think so, because Hamlet's current system is so... It's very likely that all the nobles will put aside their differences and attack Hamlet first."

Baldwin didn't dare to say anything, but everyone understood what he meant. Hamlet's system directly eliminated the privileges of the nobles, which was a death sentence for them.

Sometimes heresy is more hateful than paganism. No matter how you fight, everyone is still a noble, but you are not.

"The emperor is currently fighting the rebels. The conflicts in the empire have reached a point where they can no longer be concealed, leading to the current civil war. Our beginning will only further exacerbate their divisions."

The empire was already rotten, and now the great nobles were all waiting and watching. Hamlet stepped forward as the first to speak out, which was equivalent to setting the precedent for them.

So those people will definitely cheer for this statement and attack the emperor, and even if it is not true, it will become true.

There are nobles who will debate the scriptures for me.

"According to the lord, the conflicts within the empire are irreconcilable and will not merge. But the problem is that the key to the empire has never been the nobility, but the church."

To be honest, the empire was originally scattered, and it was only because of the church that it stayed together. If it was not independent, the emperor could do nothing about it. However, the lord's second order was directly aimed at the church. This was not a slap on the emperor's but a slap on the church's face.

If the church stepped in to stop it by force, it wouldn't even need to be so troublesome. It would just need to make a declaration that "whoever enters Hamlet first will be king", and then countless ambitious people would take action.

"The emperor wants to capture Hamlet to prove himself, and the rebels also want to capture Hamlet to gain the support of the church, not to mention Totnes, who is no weaker than Hamlet back then."

Those who can sit here are not fools. Although Hamlet is temporarily stable now, is it really reasonable to provoke so many enemies?

You know, the lord wanted to shrink before, why is he showing off like this now?
"Isn't that perfect?" Lance smiled, but everyone who knew him knew what the lord's smile meant.

Now everyone understood that the lord wanted to fight but did not want to be the bad guy, so if the enemy took action first he would have a legitimate reason.

So the first two points were intentional, in order to force those guys to actively attack Hamlet.

"The war has caused too much suffering to the people of the empire. Even a stable feudal era is better than an era of war. We need to end this chaos as soon as possible."

Then Lance added something that sounded a little strange, as if he was explaining - I sought the empire just to end this chaos and give ordinary people a stable life.

Those who had followed Lance from the beginning were quite moved, because Hamlet was really built in ruins, and he did it.

When Baldwin heard this, he couldn't help but think of his own experience. If the lord had not intervened, how could he have been redeemed in Hamlet?
The lord must have decided to take action because he saw the suffering of ordinary people outside. He is really too merciful!
But Lance’s real purpose is very simple. It is impossible to get rid of the feudal era with the power of a territory, because land limits resources and population.

Because he knew better than anyone that the power of a territory could not promote the development of science and technology and rush into modernization.

He needed the power of a country, and for this he was willing to burn the nobles or the church as firewood.

As for ordinary people, instead of spending your time fighting among yourselves, you might as well go work for me.

"But if that's the case, we shouldn't reform the military. Instead, we should expand the military."

When Leonard said this, it was obvious that the military was ready to face the next war.

You should know that a lot of war horses were captured in the previous wars, but the cavalry units were also included in this reform. Now there are horses, but not so many people.

"It's the same problem. Resources don't appear out of thin air. At this stage, not to mention Hamlet, even the wealthy Totnes can't afford to expand the army at that standard of treatment. We must first restore the treatment to a reasonable level.

Another reason is that the form of war has changed. Musketeers who have been trained for one month can kill knights and longbowmen who have been trained for half a lifetime. Artillerymen who have been trained for three months can destroy fortifications that require human lives to build.

We don't need soldiers to master the skills of fighting on horseback. What we need now is for the warhorses to deliver the musketeers to designated locations. The positioning of warhorses has changed, and the cavalry training requirements have naturally changed as well.

This military reform has not damaged the combat effectiveness of the army. On the contrary, after the adjustment, it can mobilize tens of thousands of troops with this as the backbone, because their opponents are not cultists, but ordinary people. "

"Times have changed. Faced with firearms, not to mention the knights, even the church has..." Patton followed up with the battles of the time, and saw with his own eyes the priests of the church being crushed into meat paste by the shells.

"But there are always things that are hard to understand. Can those new recruits withstand the pressure?"

They have witnessed the horror of supernatural powers. Barristan is reminding everyone that whether it is the nobles or the church, there may be some polluting things.

"The Royal Guards were created to deal with extraordinary people. I believe they can solve these problems."

Everyone had no objection to this. Once the two most important ones were confirmed, the ones that came after them would just be extras.

What about abolition? It was passed without even any discussion. The lord was kind, so it was normal that he couldn't bear to see these things.

In fact, the focus of Reims' abolition of slavery is not on ordinary people. If you want to understand it clearly, you have to read the above two points together.

Not accepting outside jurisdiction and abolishing the privileges of the church also means that the church cannot judge anyone in Hamlet.

His goal was to abolish the church's suppression of the extraordinary people. Abolition of slavery was just a superficial appearance, and it was more like buying a horse's bones with a lot of money.

Extraordinary people are all talented, but also very dangerous, so Lance does not want to make too many official promises. He is only willing to attract them and see if he can use them for his own benefit.

As for the fourth one, reopening the four-way trade is naturally important because it is specifically mentioned.

Hamlet’s previous closure was only a necessary measure for a certain period of time, but it is impossible to remain closed forever, and it is necessary to take advantage of Hamlet’s geographical advantages.

Why was Hamlet so rich that even the emperor was jealous?

It is because of the prosperous business and the mountains blocking the north of the empire, with only Hamlet as a gap. If you want to go north, you can only go this way.

Count Bastia is so rich because he monopolizes the trade routes in and out of the mountains, not to mention that Hamlet is the place connecting two continents, and merchants from all over the world have to transit here.

Rules need to be formulated, as well as commercial taxes and other miscellaneous things. Now Lance has dug out the old information from the library in the old house, and has arranged for people to organize and study it, and come up with a plan as soon as possible.

Why did he choose a few merchants to stay in Owendo? He wanted to reopen the trade route and let them lead the caravan to pass on the message.

And one issue that needs to be discussed here is the ruins.

The core of this route was the city, which is the ruins now.

But now the city has moved south, and the ruins just block the route. If you want to open up the trade route, you must take over the ruins.

"After playing it a few times before, no one believes in treasure anymore. Instead, there are more people catching rats. The problem of solving the ruins is now before us."

"All the skeletons in the ruins were resurrected by necromancers. If we don't kill those necromancers, this will never end."

"Try to find the location of those necromancers..."

After a period of discussion, they did not actually come up with a plan so quickly. It was more about informing the top management of various things and letting everyone know that there were still many things to deal with Hamlet.

In fact, all these things can be summed up as one thing, that is, to accumulate strength and wait for the right time.

"We will do three things next." Lance raised his hand and stretched out three fingers, emphasizing: "Development, development, and development!"

Lance has finalized the next matters, and this winter is destined not to be too quiet.