Our family is in decline

Thinking of this, Alvin's expression showed a trace of cruelty, and he raised his hand to point to the location of the village.

"Right here, if any problems arise, we will blame them directly on those barbarians."

Of course, the Baron could see Alvin's confusion, but he remained silent. It wasn't until Alvin made his decision that a smile appeared on his face and he nodded in approval.

If you lose your ambition, you will lose everything. As a noble, you must have the courage to move forward.

"You don't know something about something, young master. In fact, this land is strictly speaking ownerless."

"Huh?" Alvin couldn't help but look confused when he heard this.

He had no inheritance rights. In order to avoid suspicion, they did not cultivate him in the field of internal affairs, and even deliberately alienated him in this area.

Therefore, Alvin was raised as a knight. He was thrown into the training field since he was a child. It can be said that he spent more time with his teacher than with his father.

It's not surprising that he doesn't know these things clearly. After all, the earl's teaching is a treatment that only his eldest brother can enjoy.

"Teacher, do you have anything to say about this place?"

"What you don't know is that this place was once a territory called Hamlet." The baron raised his hand and drew it on the map. "Actually, this place also belonged to Hamlet, and we were originally just a barony adjacent to Hamlet. .”

Alvin saw that almost two-thirds of Bastia's territory had been taken away, which he was proud of...

Alvin felt complicated, but he still listened to the teacher's explanation and quickly focused his attention, for fear of missing something.

"Hamlet guards the northwest border of the empire, single-handedly resisting the pressure from the mountain barbarians, the Northlanders, and the Wastelanders. His strength is very terrifying.

At the same time, it also occupied the intersection of two continents and monopolized a prosperous land trade route. It was even rumored that Hamlet's gold coins could fill the emperor's palace. "

"How could such a powerful territory become like this?"

The more powerful Hamlet the teacher described, the greater the contrast with the present. This situation aroused Alvin's curiosity.

"Back then, I was just a soldier beside the Earl, but I also heard that Lord Hamlet indulged in wine and sex, was corrupt and ignored political affairs, and held all kinds of luxurious banquets all day long.

Later, I heard that in order to suppress other nobles in the territory, he killed all the nobles in the territory. He cut off his hands and feet, causing the territory to fall apart. With such a lord, decline is inevitable.

However, it was Hamlet's decline that led to the rise of our Bastia. The reason why we were able to defeat the mountain barbarians back then was because we swallowed part of the legacy of Hamlet's decline.

The most critical thing was not the territory, but the reception of a group of soldiers with rich experience in fighting the barbarians. Only then did they win the most important battle and lay the foundation of Bastia. "

Having said this, the baron couldn't help but shake his head. The rapid decline of such a powerful territory that could even be compared with the emperor did make people feel a pity, but he said these more just to pave the way for what follows.

"Looking at our Bastia, your ancestors have been working hard to manage the territory since they were entrusted to this place. It took several generations and hundreds of years of accumulation to achieve today's prosperity. You must take Hamlet as a warning and never become the leader of your family's decline. the starting point.”

"Teacher, you shouldn't say these things to me. It's the eldest brother who inherits the territory. How can the prosperity of the family fall from my hands?"

Alvin laughed. He didn't know if the teacher was testing him. Maybe once he showed interest in the title, his father would know about it the next day.

Of course, the Baron could see Alvin's little thoughts, and immediately asked in a lowered voice.

"Do you know why the count looks at such a large piece of unclaimed land with indifference?"

Alvin looked at Hamlet on the map. Even though a large part of it had been annexed, the rest was still very impressive, not much smaller than Bastia now.

If Hamlet can be completely annexed, Bastia's strength will become very terrifying, but why?

"Bastia initially took advantage of the chaos and annexed part of it, and its strength rapidly expanded. However, it also violated the taboo of not conquering each other among the nobles. In order to resolve this matter, the Earl also paid a lot of money to calm it down.

What's more important is that there were many nobles who made similar moves, and the surrounding ones more or less annexed part of Hamlet's territory, so the matter ended in nothing.

But if it continues, whoever wants to completely annex Hamlet will face pressure from other aspects, because neither the emperor nor other nobles want such a giant to appear.

The same reason also applies to the lords around Hamlet, including Bastia. Under mutual checks and balances, this land maintains superficial stability. It is still Hamlet's territory in name, but in fact most of it has been divided up. "

The baron laughed as he spoke.

"But things are different now. The most prosperous central provinces of the empire are in chaos. The war is spreading and attracting the attention of most of the forces in the empire. There are not so many people watching the land of Hamlet.

No matter what the war situation is, what is certain is that the empire's forces will undergo a major reshuffle. Last time we took advantage of Hamlet's decline to rise, and this time the empire's decline may not be an opportunity for us. "

The Baron told Alvin how he witnessed the development of Bastia to the present, and also explained the historical origins of the surrounding areas.

This information is quite far away and even incomprehensible to ordinary people who cannot leave the village.

But for Alvin, he finally felt like a big brother, allowing him to be exposed to these things.

"There are just some barbarians on the left and right. Any knight can lead an army to destroy them. Why did the earl ask you, young master, to come?"

Having to say this made Alvin suspicious. After all, he was suddenly assigned to be the leader of this cavalry team, and then he directly fought with those barbarians in Bastia and returned with a great victory.

After a long time, it was discovered that several villages had been massacred, and then the second dispatch was launched. Why did his father let him come?

"In fact, you can roughly tell where their destination is from the locations of the several villages that were massacred and sacrificed at the beginning."

The baron clicked on a few points on the map, and then it was easy to see that the purpose of this barbarian team was clear, and it was pointed at that...

"Hamlet!" Alvin was not an idiot, and he immediately understood what the teacher meant.

"So the focus of this mission has never been to exterminate the barbarians. Father wants us to expel these barbarians into Hamlet, so we have an excuse to enter it."

Children can be taught, the baron couldn't help but nodded in agreement when he heard this.

"The more killings those barbarians cause in Hamlet, the more beneficial it will be to us. Only in this way will we establish prestige in the local area when we destroy them.

At that time, the earl directly declared that the barbarians from the mountains were invading, and let some barbarians come in to confuse the surrounding situation. If there were any disobedient ones, he would let the eagles pretend to be barbarians and get rid of them, and slowly control those places step by step.

Although you do not have the inheritance rights of Bastia and are not destined to become the lord of Bastia at birth like your elder brother, you may not be able to become the lord of Hamlet when the time comes. "

This baron looks big and rough, but he is very thoughtful. Just from this order combined with the current situation, you can see the count's true intention. Sure enough, there is no fool who can become a noble by virtue of his strength.

Power is the best stimulant for men, and Alvin's ambition expanded uncontrollably when he heard this.

To be honest, growing up in such a powerful family, no one would think that they are inferior to others.

Likewise, he doesn't think that he is much worse than his eldest brother, it's just because of his birth order.

"Teacher, what do you think we should do now?" Alvin understood his father's purpose of arranging him here and began to plan to follow the plan.

"Acting." The baron raised his hand and pointed to the village, "We know those barbarians will go here, so let them go and wait until they start killing them here before taking action. We can only defeat them but not kill them all.

Then let those people spread the news about the barbarian invasion, and at the same time spread the news about our defeat of the barbarians, and chase them all the way to borrow the hands of those barbarians..."

The two of them isolated the cavalry and talked about all this. In order to annex Hamlet, his father would not hesitate to let the barbarians in, and he would also condone the wolf warriors.

The villages slaughtered by the wolves are still in front of them, don't they know the consequences?

They know, but they don't care...

It even feels natural!

The moment they became nobles, they had already separated themselves from human status. In their view, ordinary people were just creatures like pigs, and they were born to eat their flesh and drink their blood.

The gap between classes is even greater than the gap between species. Ambition is their aphrodisiac, but it is poison for ordinary people.

After the plot was completed, Alvin got on his horse. Instead of being incompetent and furious before, he became high-spirited.

Such a superior territory is naturally occupied by the capable. If Hamlet's lord is incompetent and declines, Alvin Bastia will become Hamlet's new lord.

"Set off!"

…………

Because they were targeted by a group of eagles before, Warrior Wolf and the others were forced to go into the wilderness, using the dense jungle to hide from the eagles' sight.

But now that the eagles have been eliminated by them, they naturally need to return to business.

It is necessary to find a gathering place of humans as soon as possible, and it should not be too strong. It is best to be a village of thirty or fifty people, so as to provide them with a way to vent, replenish resources, and of course the most important sacrifice.

Why could they accurately find the location of the village as soon as they came out of the mountains before?

The reason is simple, because these gathering places usually have several key information, water sources and roads, as well as traces of human creations, such as large tracts of farmland opened up, and houses, which are very conspicuous in the wilderness.

No water source was found here, but an old road that was dilapidated due to lack of maintenance was discovered.

The pace that had been severely slowed down by the wilderness was quickly increased, and soon it was a long distance away from the previous place. Even if I wanted to catch up, I probably wouldn't be able to catch up so quickly.

Just as War Wolf was leading the team forward, the sentry from the front came back and told him that something strange had been discovered.

"Chief, we found some traces of bandits, the number is about twenty."

There are no barbarians in the mountain tribes who are not proficient in tracking and reconnaissance, because hunting is the main source of food, and they rely on this to eat.

The only difference lies in some special means. The eagles can conduct high-altitude reconnaissance, but the wolf's sense of smell can also detect smells coming from a thousand or two thousand yards away.

After learning the news, Zhan Lang hesitated a little. He was thinking whether to attack these bandits or find a village.

If you have a choice, the village will definitely be better, there will be no resistance, the resources will be stable, there will be food and drink, and there will be women.

But now, although those members of the eagle group have been eliminated, he doesn't know if there are any missing, and he doesn't know if the cavalry will catch up.

What's more important is that they haven't held a ceremony for a long time, and they have lost the location of the wolf god's bloodline for a long time.

The pressure is piling up on him, and any decision will be related to their life or death.

"You two go and investigate the situation of that group of robbers. You go and recall the others. The rest rest where you are and prepare to take action."

Wolf Warrior quickly made a decision. To be honest, he was not afraid of those bandits at all. He could even kill them all by himself, and the combat effectiveness of the tribal elites around him was definitely stronger than that of the bandits.

But now he needs to be responsible for everyone and must consider more. He can't act as soon as his mind is hot like he did before, and he can only plunder barbarically if he thinks of everything.

He grew up a lot after going out, and gradually understood some of the seemingly cowardly choices made by his father, the alpha wolf, and what the priest said.

When a wolf learns to think and be forbearing, it is a terrible change. For the empire, if he is really allowed to return to the mountains, there will be endless troubles.

…………

The bandit's camp is on a hillside near the road. From this position, you can see the front and back of the road ahead, which is a wide field of vision.

By choosing this place, you can guard this section of the road at any time, and anyone passing by can see it.

In the simple camp, there were only a few pieces of rags propped up by a few logs, and some guys lying spread out under the shade of the trees.

"Damn it, you can't even see a caravan, or you're just a tough guy, what a mess these days!"

A sentry was holding a spear and looking at the empty road not far away, and couldn't help but complain.

"Sigh~ It's good to be alive in this world."

"That's right, although the conditions here are a bit worse, at least we don't have to go to the battlefield."

"Hey, if the world were peaceful, where would you come to play with the girls in the city?"

"Hey hey hey..."

This group of bandits were complaining, but as they spoke, the topic turned in strange directions, but it could also be heard from the equipment and a few words that these people seemed to be deserters.

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