our family is gone

It doesn't matter how the Totnes bureaucrats react; they are just passing performers.

"We have eliminated the pirates entrenched here, but to completely eliminate the pirates we need to destroy their protective umbrellas. Now Hamlet has officially issued a wanted order and offered a reward for those pirates, including the people behind them."

Wilson didn't waste any words. He raised his hand and immediately countless wanted posters were thrown from the boat into the air and finally fell among the crowd.

"We will publicly try those pirates in Hamlet in seven days. We are not doing this for ourselves, but for all those who have been harmed by pirates in the past decade. Justice will prevail!"

Wilson shouted, and the soldiers responded with a uniform shout.

"Justice will prevail!"

"justice!!"

"justice!!!"

The three shouts seemed to ignite the passion of the people, and the people behind them followed suit. The sound was deafening, and it almost scared the bureaucrat and his lackeys to death. The soldiers' faces were filled with fear and anxiety.

"Run! The sheriff is going to silence us..."

The people had already begun to sense that something was wrong. No one knew who had shouted, but they all started moving at once. They grabbed a handful of wanted posters, stuffed them into their clothes, and ran outside. Even the rescued slaves were pushed along in the crowd.

"What are you still looking at? Stop them!"

The bureaucrat finally broke down, and so did the commander. He wanted to urge the sheriff and the city defense forces to stop it, but he knew it was impossible when he saw even the soldiers secretly picking up the wanted poster during the chaos.

"Look, the pirates jumped out by themselves, him and that noble." Wilson and the others looked at the guy jumping up and down and pointed at him and mocked him.

"Let's go. We still have to track down the pirates. We don't have time to waste with these guys."

Wilson saw that the soldiers were scattered and could not accomplish anything great, and most of the people had escaped, so he quickly ordered the fleet to leave.

Although Totnes had lost the twenty warships and no one could stop their fleet at sea, they also had artillery. If they stayed too long near the shore and a real fight broke out, it would be troublesome and they would not be able to hold on.

Anyway, they were just there to keep up appearances in the plan. The longer they stayed, the more trouble they would cause. Even the ships that had transported the slaves turned around and ran away.

You're just pretending to be awesome and waiting to be caught, right?

This farce once again set off the entire Totnes after the pirates left. The situation on the dock spread rapidly, and by the time the higher-ups reacted, it was completely out of control.

That's right, if the situation was confined to the dock, they really dared to kill all those people and then blame it on the pirates, and everything would be left unresolved.

The higher-ups can conceal the news, and the small soldiers below can take advantage of the situation and make a lot of money.

But now everyone knows that you can't kill everyone, and more and more outrageous rumors are beginning to spread. Public opinion is also a killing knife.

The victims of the pirates were the most active in spreading these information. Some even hid wanted posters they had picked up and intended to spread them. Their hatred for the pirates spread along with the list.

Although most ordinary people in the empire are illiterate, Totnes is an advanced place with a higher literacy rate than ordinary places. Looking at the bounties of thousands or tens of thousands of gold coins on the list, their eyes became red.

You know, there is never a shortage of desperate people in a place like Totnes, which is why they are motivated to investigate the names above.

Cats have their ways, and mice have their ways. The disappearance of so many big shots cannot be concealed because many people are trying to find out the news. Even if it is not the truth, it has to be the truth.

Rumors resurfaced, saying that either those guys realized the truth and ran away, or that their superiors had hidden them, or of course, they had been dealt with.

Anyway, everyone is here to watch the fun, and no matter what the situation is, it confirms the relationship between Totnes and the pirates active in the surrounding area.

You can say that it is useless no matter how intense the public opinion of the lower class is, but they are not the only victims over the years. Many businessmen are involved in the leaked information, which is the core of Totnes.

Only now did they understand why their goods were hijacked and a new batch of cheaper goods appeared on the market.

There are also some transactions with customers that were hijacked by pirates at critical moments and the goods could not be delivered. They could only consider themselves unlucky and were forced to sell their meat and blood. Now they find out that it was those guys who hired the pirates to rob them.

Whether they believe it or not, they have to investigate it. These people have much greater power. It would be fine if they don't investigate, but if they do, they will find out something. For a while, the atmosphere in Totnes became tense.

No one knew who started to sell off Totnes' assets and ran away. For a while, those businessmen felt insecure, and even if they did not completely divest, they all left here and waited for the result.

The chaos in Totnes was not visible on the surface, but in fact it was like a powder keg, and the fuse had been lit...

Lance didn't care too much about the struggles among the high-level officials. As for the bounties on the wanted lists, they were exaggerated because all the people were in Lance's hands. It was just to mobilize the enthusiasm of those guys because this kind of thing could not withstand investigation.

He was like a passerby walking among them, on the streets that had been attacked by "pirates", looking at the lower-class people at the docks quietly cleaning up the mess with a strange look on their faces.

Those damn people disguised as pirates blew up a few ships outside last night and set a few small boats on fire. No one went ashore. How could they kill so many people?

It was obvious that someone took advantage of the chaos last night to kill and loot...

After crossing the street, they finally returned to the intelligence point. Many soldiers retired during the military reform. Lance personally selected a group of them to supplement Vic's intelligence department. Of course, there must be a station in an important place like Totnes.

After questioning, we learned that gangsters, ruffians and even the sheriff were involved in the chaos in the early morning. Of course, the vagrants also picked up some leftovers and pinned them all on the pirates.

Damn it! I'm taking the blame!
Lance's face was gloomy. To be honest, he had long guessed that someone would take the opportunity to cause trouble, so he chose to take action in the early morning before dawn. Even if the chaos got more serious, it would only last two or three hours, and there were also sheriffs and city defense forces.

Unexpectedly, all the city defense forces were transferred to protect the rich, and the sheriff did not dare to come to maintain order, and even joined in the looting.

I secretly made a note in my heart that if anyone dared to use him to settle the account, none of them would be able to escape.

"After what happened today, the security situation in Totnes will definitely become more and more chaotic. You must be careful. If something goes wrong, evacuate immediately. Do not hesitate. Ensuring your own safety is the most important thing."

"Yes! Promise to complete the mission!"

After a brief explanation, Lance disappeared from Totnes. He had to go back to prepare for the grand performance in seven days.

For Totnes, the shock of that day almost destroyed its so-called prosperity.

Pirate attacks, collusion with pirates, large numbers of people disappearing and fleeing, price fluctuations and bank runs...

Each of these incidents would have shaken the city if they were taken separately. Now, when they all came together, it was like something was stuck underneath, shaking non-stop. Who could sit still? The remaining bureaucrats and nobles wanted to suppress it violently, labeling it as a rumor, pointing the finger at Hamlet, and sending troops to arrest all those who dared to speak out.

But it was completely useless. Now everyone knew about it. Doing so would only confirm the fact that they were colluding with the pirates, and no one dared to come anymore.

Finally, the matter was brought to the attention of the higher-ups...

More than a dozen people gathered in the luxurious but somewhat gloomy and sunless hall. They seemed to be waiting for something, and in the process they did not forget to discuss what happened today.

"Find someone to take the blame. After a while, no one will care about this matter anymore."

"What about the slaves who were rescued from the pirates? I don't know who taught them to spread the news they heard from the pirates everywhere."

"Get rid of them all, why keep them?"

"But if we move them, it will cause panic. What's more troublesome is that Hamlet sent people here because he wants us to get rid of them, preferably without leaving any alive."

"They disgust us, so we will send a ship to capture all the people and send them to Hamlet. Didn't they say justice? I want to see how they are just."

"Then get rid of all Hamlet's guys here first."

"They ran away a long time ago. We cleared out all the people related to this place a few days ago. As for those who are left, they are just ordinary merchants who have transactions with them. Should we cut them off as well?"

"They import so much from us, can we ban trade with them?"

"What reason do you have to interfere with them? Isn't this just looking for trouble..."

People were chatting in the hall. Although they were all dressed respectably, their conversation was no better than that of the crude sailors.

In their eyes, ordinary people are just pigs whose life and death can be decided by a single word. They even want to interfere with the activities of businessmen.

At this time, a woman finally walked out from the darkness. She was tall and wore a gorgeous dress that was red to the point of being black, with a few bright red roses on it. The woman came up and glanced at everyone. She seemed to have known those things, but she seemed very calm.

Those operations could be concealed from ordinary people and disrupted the environment, but the women were the participants back then, so they naturally knew about the pirates and were more aware of the grudges with Hamlet. It's just that Hamlet's counterattack came after so many years.

"Tell me, what are you going to do about it?"

"This must be Hamlet's conspiracy. We must fight back!"

Someone immediately tried to express his opinion, but the woman just shook her head calmly.

"Our fleet has disappeared, and there is no way to fight Hamlet."

"Then find an opportunity to assassinate the lord."

"Those nobles are gone, and there are only a few who can do this."

These words directly scared those guys. You dare to assassinate others, do you really think that they dare not assassinate you?

After the last three or two sentences, everyone fell silent. Yes, if this matter could be solved, it wouldn't have come up here.

Totnes' most powerful fleet disappeared, and in the heavily guarded inner city, all the people in the entire manor disappeared without a sound. Their fear can be imagined.

"Do you know why he didn't attack Totnes directly, but used this method?"

The woman stumped the bureaucrats with another question, and when no one answered she spoke slowly.

"Because he wants Totnes to fall into panic and then decline step by step, just like a hunter does not need to worry about when the prey bleeding in the trap will die, he only worries that too many external injuries will affect the price of fur."

The woman said this with a strange smile on her face and added, "Of course, I also enjoy the pleasure of watching my prey struggle."

Totnes became someone else's prey, and the other party's holding back was not even out of mercy, but because they wanted a more complete skin.

Those bureaucrats and nobles were so frightened that they dared not say a word. The woman did not even want to waste time in front of these guys. She just said a few words and turned around and left, surrounded by her maids.

"Just stay calm and do your own thing."

Those guys are just ordinary people who are responsible for running Totnes, that's not their business anymore.

The woman returned to the inner hall, where a long table was laid out with a rich variety of delicious dishes, but the people at the table had no interest in them, and they seemed to be just serving as decoration.

A heavily armored knight, a fat man, a white-haired old man, and women are the four major forces that control Totnes. They are all extraordinary beings, and their strength is so strange and terrifying that they are no longer human.

"What did those guys say?" the woman asked, and the people she was asking about were naturally some extraordinary and powerful people who were hiding in Totnes like Alvis.

"No one wants to have anything to do with us. They just watch our fight with the lord." The fat man had an inexplicable smile on his face, as if he didn't care about this matter at all.

"The church seems to be in some kind of trouble, so they don't care at all." The old man turned the ring and his tone was still calm, not affected by the chaos at all, "Of course, they don't care if we leave here."

From their words, we can tell that although the church does not have complete control over this place, it still has some kind of threat to them, restricting them from leaving here, but now these seem unimportant.

"I hope he can arouse some interest in me."

The knight's dull voice sounded, his desire for battle made him a little impatient.

No matter how Hamlet and Totnes fight, no matter what conspiracies and tricks the two sides use, in the end it all comes down to a simple confrontation of power. This is the crushing of the secular world by supernatural power.

The winner is the king, and strength is the reason for becoming the king.

But the woman didn't care about it, and said something very strange.

"Winter is so cold that even the most industrious bees are reluctant to leave their nests, but as soon as spring comes, Hamlet will be full of life."

The other three seemed to realize something when they heard this. Even the fat man who had been smiling all the time had a hint of fear on his face.

What will happen to Hamlet in spring? (End of this chapter)