our family is gone

At the beginning, Lance showed his cards directly and forced the pirates to gather together with a token that they could not refuse. Then he ambushed and attacked the Shipwreck Island in one fell swoop and eliminated most of the pirates lurking in the surrounding area.

This was just the beginning of the plan. He then led his troops to Totnes, captured those twenty real warships, and disrupted the situation in the pearl of the empire.

This move caused chaos in Totnes. For those merchants, there was no real "home" and they left Totnes without hesitation.

But he would not come up with Hamlet. After all, it would be fine to deceive those ordinary people. Few of those who can become big businessmen in this world are fools. Naturally, he can feel the tension between the two sides.

Everything that happened was a fight between the higher-ups, so why would they get involved if they don't see any benefit?

Not to mention that Hamlet's methods also made them hesitate. After all, in order to concentrate resources to overcome difficulties, Reims implemented a period of planned economy, restricted most large-scale commercial activities, and did not allow those forces to develop here.

Under this system, basically all industries are officially monopolized, and foreign trade is also conducted in an official manner. Many commercial activities are restricted to the docks, and foreign goods can only be traded with the official authorities. Merchants do not have the right to sell locally.

This situation did not change until the ancestor was killed and the territory was recovered. The system was reformed and some less important industries were gradually liberalized, so soon there were small vendors everywhere. But this was not enough for the big businessmen. They would not be satisfied with this situation and wanted to take over Hamlet's market.

So they will not come in person, but will arrange people to come and show goodwill. After all, Totnes now seems to have no ability to resist, and they also need to know more about Hamlet. In some cases, it also means that they want to bet on both sides.

Merchants have no country, no region, and even no territory. Wherever there is profit, that is their "Hamlet".

Merchants are nothing in this chess game. They are just fence-sitters, and they go whichever way the wind blows.

The most powerful forces now are still the nobility, the church, and various associations and guilds. Most of them have a background of supernatural powers, or they control violent organizations similar to the military.

These conservative guys are Hamlet's most direct enemies because they are afraid of change, afraid of losing the social rules they built and dominated, and afraid of losing their voice.

So these guys have always wanted to make trouble in Hamlet. After the incident in Totnes, they directly sent the slaves rescued by the pirates here. As if that wasn't disgusting enough, they specifically sent those scoundrels and even emptied the prison and threw the criminals here just to cause trouble.

A lot of trouble was indeed caused in a short period of time. After all, those guys were not willing to just make a living honestly, and various cases led to a surge in public security pressure.

But any evil will eventually be brought to justice, and anyone who dares to commit a crime will be caught and await trial.

It's just that Hamlet has no habit of imprisonment. Prison is only a place for temporary detention before trial. Once caught, he will either be shackled and sent to labor camp, or sentenced to death.

Since they think that things are not good in Hamlet city, the frozen soil in the wilderness should make them sober up.

As for those people rescued by the pirates, Hamlet took the opportunity to treat them and sent them home. Those who had no home were left behind.

Totnes did not save it, but Hamlet did. What this represents is self-evident, that is, intangible reputation.

Now Hamlet's navy goes to coastal towns every day under the pretext of hunting down pirates, using this as propaganda to once again publicize the evil of pirates and then infer the nobles and bureaucrats who protect them behind the scenes.

Of course Totnes was also dragged out and criticized. Even if it couldn't get rid of the impression that gold was everywhere, at least it added the title of a pirate city.

The confrontation does not end there. Because there are too many immigrants, some people want to make trouble with food, hyping up topics such as price increases or lack of food, and even sending people to burn warehouses.

But sorry, the source of Hamlet's food is official, and the price increase that those retail stores can decide is not high.

As for the stored food, there is no shortage of it at all, because the food in the Hamlet area, yes, the entire area, has long been integrated and firmly in their hands.

The granary is located in the suburbs, far away from the prosperous area. It is isolated by a large open space and guarded by people. It is easy to deal with those means. Those guys who are caught can be sent directly to the sanatorium.

Although neither side had quarreled overtly, they had fought several times in secret.

But Lance didn't care much about these things. He believed that the people below would handle it. In comparison, he wanted to find a solution to the farm problem as soon as possible.

But today he still walked out of the room, because the seven days agreed upon had passed and the trial had begun.

When the number of people reached tens of thousands, the gathering was boundless and even the widened square could not accommodate the surging crowd. Many people almost stood in the buildings outside the square and climbed onto the roofs just to watch the show.

There was a high platform in the middle, but the person presiding on it was not Lance. He had long been unwilling to show up in these public occasions. It was not because he was afraid of being attacked, but because his reputation was too high. If this continued, even if he was not a god, he would become a god in the eyes of ordinary people.

But he is just an ordinary man...

Standing on the best observation deck, which is the top floor of the government building standing tall outside the square, you can be here with a group of senior executives. There is no need to go downstairs and squeeze with ordinary people.

By the time Lance arrived, the trial had already begun. There were countless people standing in the square. I'm afraid even the execution of the Pirate King was not so exaggerated.

Likewise, they could not reveal the whereabouts of the treasure, thus ushering in the great pirate era, because Lance had no intention of giving them any chance to talk nonsense.

The process of the trial is to have people read out the names of those guys and the crimes they committed. Someone on the high platform holds a loudspeaker and reads out the information in his hand, while there are also people arranged below who repeat with a loudspeaker to transmit the sound.

It can be said that any one of these evil guys can be read for ten minutes without repeating himself, and more secret transactions are ruthlessly exposed here, so that those who come here can eat their fill.

Then came the execution, and the method was also very simple. You could see that the criminal tied up didn't have many clothes on his body, with his upper body naked and only a pair of shorts left, and he was twitching from the cold.

You just need to pour a bucket of water on it, and when the cold wind blows, water vapor will evaporate. The whole person will start to wail and beg for mercy because he can't bear it anymore. When he gets hypothermia, he will scream like crazy about the heat. The drastic contrast between the before and after makes the audience below the stage unable to help but shout.

"It's so damn good! Pop the champagne!"

"It would be too easy for him to die like this. Cut off his head!"

"Even death cannot atone for the sins committed by such an evil guy."

Watching a person freeze to death may not be as bloody and cruel as it seems, but it still packs a strong punch.

The pirates who loved to play tricks on others have now become the ones being played with.

The doctor was observing the victim's condition. The exposed skin on his body had turned from red to purple. He signaled the end of the torture only after confirming death...

These dozen or so core figures must be publicly executed, because due to their identities they must bear the guilt of the pirates and nail the matter to the head.

The interesting thing is that Lance didn’t kill all of them at once, but one a day, and each one died in a different way, leaving those people guessing.

Every day, "protagonists" with different identities and different stories are introduced, giving the spectators time to digest the information and time for public opinion to ferment.

Simply put, they hyped up this incident and put pressure on those pirates and nobles.

Today's trial is over, and everyone can see the crimes sorted out everywhere, and discuss who will be on trial tomorrow, what they have done, and what kind of punishment they will receive. But Lance did not show up today for these, but for another reason. He turned to look at the people around him and smiled, "I guess they can't sleep tonight after seeing these, let's help them sleep well."

The senior executives around him nodded and turned away after hearing this, and soon Lance was the only one left, holding the edge and overlooking the square below.

The show is about to begin...

Killing is not important. What is important is to investigate and tell the truth about everything they have done. Many old cases have been implicated, and many people have been implicated as well. Even after today's event is over, those things are still being discussed. After all, there are many secrets that most people don't know, and they are not qualified to know.

Now it was exposed naked in front of them, and everyone in the square was enjoying the sight of it.

Of course, not everyone can just sit back and watch the show with a smile. Some people find it hard to accept. Killing people is not the right path. What is the difference between torturing a person like this and those pirates?
If you have this kind of thinking and put yourself in the pirates' situation, you will know what they did and why they are so afraid of these trials without having to guess.

Because in their eyes, many crimes are not crimes at all. Isn't it just killing a few untouchables?

If Hamlet's evil is not stopped from spreading, it is very likely that they will be next.

"This damn place is filled with madness!"

"What a vicious guy. If I fall into his hands, I might as well die."

"How dare those ignorant people make such irresponsible comments..."

There was constant shouting and cursing coming from the secret room. Too many people came to watch the execution, and many of them were naturally representatives of those forces.

There were even pirates who changed their clothes and sneaked in, perhaps wanting to rescue people, or perhaps they were still eyeing the Black Jack treasure.

When I saw that those people were not afraid at all but excited instead, I knew there was trouble.

No matter pirates, noble bureaucrats or organizations, they essentially need to be supported. They suck blood from ordinary people. It took them thousands of years to tame these providers, and now they have been provoked by you.

Once ordinary people are no longer afraid of them, resistance will ensue, and it is unknown how much it will cost to suppress it.

They are not afraid of the untouchables. No matter how much trouble they make, they are still a group of scattered sand. But as long as Hamlet does not perish, those untouchables will have a thought in their hearts, and then they will have no good life.

"How are you preparing?"

“Is what that guy gave reliable?”

Suddenly someone asked, and the others seemed to realize something and looked at one of them, waiting for an answer.

The man's mouth twisted into a "√" shape and he confidently introduced, "Don't worry, I had already tried it in a village before that thing came. Even the extraordinary people who came with us couldn't do anything to the infected people. We had to burn down the entire village..."

From those words, we knew that this guy actually released a plague into a village to infect all the villagers in order to test the effect of the evil creature, and then burned it down to cover it up.

The other few people didn't react at all when they heard this, and some even smiled and agreed with him.

"Jie Jie Jie!"

"If we let them run wild for a few more days, this place will become a land of death when we leave..."

But then the door was suddenly kicked open, and something was thrown in, which exploded the next second, and a strange smell instantly enveloped the room.

Confusion impact!

A specially made grenade with no fragments and a small amount of explosive just to release the agent inside. The key is a research result invented by Paracelsus.

The next second, several big men wearing simple air-filtering masks rushed up and took the people down. Some of them wanted to resist, but the effect appeared and they became dazed.

He reacted quickly, held his breath, and jumped out of the window to escape. But how could he escape? The fact that he could get in here meant that a tight net had been set up outside.

Similar actions have actually been happening in the past few days, but now it seems more like a roundup.

"What are you doing? Let me go!"

"Hamlet has killed someone!"

"I did not do anything……"

The trial just ended a while ago, but the weather is good today and the wind and snow have stopped, so the streets are full of people now, but they are all consciously avoiding each other.

Everyone was very interested in hearing those guys shouting, but no one questioned their cries. Instead, some curious people asked the escorting police.

"Brother Police, what have they done wrong?"

"These guys are trying to unleash a plague on Hamlet, causing widespread infection."

"What the fuck! Damn it!"

"When will they be tried?"

"The case is serious and the process is expedited. I guess I can jump the queue."

Why didn’t the public get misled by what those people said? It’s because there have been too many similar incidents recently, and people who cause trouble are being arrested every day.

What is more important is that the investigation stage of Hamlet is not open to the public, but the final trial is public and does not avoid the public. Anyone who is interested in understanding the case can go and watch it.

If you have doubts about the case, you can go to the trial as an auditor. You just need to register and pay a deposit of one copper coin for admission, which will be returned after you come out. It is actually free.

The reason for doing this is to review the number of people, but if someone does not want the copper coin, there will be a problem.

If you miss it, you can still read the backup of the report recorded by the clerk, but this costs money, and the price is clearly marked.

This is not for making money or anything, the price is not high, but it is to prevent someone from taking advantage of loopholes and causing trouble.

After the matter was laid out, the conspiracy theory naturally disappeared. Those guys wanted to attack Hamlet but they were not in the right direction. (End of this chapter)