Our family is in decline

Audrey was speechless. If that person hadn't taken action just now, she would have been torn to pieces by the monster.

But she didn't expect that person to turn into a demon-like monster in the blink of an eye. The terrifying power he showed easily tore the monster to pieces, and of course saved herself from the violent pollution.

She should have been happy to be saved twice in a row, but she felt that the demon had set his eyes on her after the monster died, and his eyes were full of madness.

"Ding! Ding Ding Ding!"

A strange sound of piano came out, and the demon who had been taking action suddenly wailed as if it had been hit hard. The hands were shaking with their heads, and the struggle was obvious, as if something was fighting in his mind.

And the sound of the piano continued, even Audrey was attracted to see a clown dressed in the dimness.

The movement was not like normal walking, but with a unique rhythm. He was holding a lute in his arms and plucking it, and the cheerful and clear piano sound came from his hands.

Even Audrey's emotions, which were close to collapse under the high pressure, slowed down a lot after hearing it, and the person who was specifically targeted also regained his sanity and control of this body in the sound of the piano.

Just as the transformation was fast, so was the transformation back to human. The bones deformed, the muscles atrophied, and the lava-like red faded. These were not obvious in the dim light.

It was the dim light that blocked the horrible scene. Only a few people could see it, and the man who had turned into a human again.

The pain of twisting flesh and bones did not even make him show too much, because the pain he had experienced was much more than this. Facing the wary and uneasy eyes of others, he was left with only helplessness and depression.

At this time, another person rushed out. It was Boudica, who was covered in blood. The rage on his face had not subsided. The blood dripping from the axe blade proved that there was not only this place in the city that was in turmoil.

In fact, Boudica had just teamed up with the clown to deal with an evil fallen person on the other side and rushed over here. There were other people in the city who were also fighting against those crazy extraordinary people, and many of them stood up.

Of course, there are still a large number of troops entering, and they all have murderous looks on their faces. The thick smell of gunpowder lingering around them has already explained something.

Unlike the police who can only stop monsters with flesh and blood, these troops are equipped with heavy weapons. Bombs and Molotov cocktails are thrown up to directly solve the out-of-control supernatural in a physical way.

At the same time, Greendale, who was far ahead in the new town, also returned here with the help of Alves. The appearance of high-end combat power directly suppressed the possible chaos.

Hamlet seemed to have stabilized the situation since the arrival of the extreme darkness, but the price paid was also not small. Even if the inventory was not completed, the known casualties alone were over a hundred.

Most of these were caused by those out-of-control supernaturals. It is no wonder that the church basically suppresses these retail investors mercilessly, because they are really unstable and may cause disasters once they get out of control.

How much will humans have to pay to survive in this world?

…………

Owendo.

After the chaos of the food war was calmed down, this place is recovering in a slow but stable trend.

It's not prosperous, but a stable situation in this world is a rare thing for ordinary people.

The destroyed city, the chaotic refugees, the unemployed workers, and the famine-stricken people are all beginning to recover.

People are like weeds. Even if they are cut, as long as there are roots and sunlight, they will still grow again.

The docks that were almost stagnant and controlled by the gangs have also been restored because of Vic's cleansing, and commercial activities have begun to flow.

The transactions with the empire and the caravans traveling around usually come to Owendo to get a layer of skin, which makes Owendo look much better.

Now a caravan from Bastia appears here, and the leader is Vic. The experience of these days has made him more calm, but he shows the mercenary and greed of a businessman.

"You guys are busy with these, I'm going to talk about business."

He ran to have fun as soon as he entered the city of Owendo, which made his subordinates dissatisfied, but he could only agree.

Although the Earl gave Vic support, many of the backbones were the Earl's men, and the key positions were naturally controlled by the Earl. It is conceivable whether the old man really trusts him.

He just wants to get the "relationship" created by Vic. He has a title but not much real power.

Vic knows very well that it is impossible to eat the Earl's pie. When the Earl controls those relationships, he will kick him out.

But Vic doesn't care. He does his thing and I do mine. Now he is eating, drinking and having fun with all kinds of people with the Earl's money, which is called socializing.

In fact, the intelligence information is handed over openly. Vic needs to send the collected information back to Hamlet through Walter, and Hamlet's orders also need to go through him.

"What good goods have you received recently?"

"As much as the money, how much goods, how much money did you bring this time?"

Walter has never talked about this kind of business, and he directly asked the bottom price.

"So brother has made a fortune."

Walter's calm look also made Vic tease, but he also talked about the family background of this caravan.

"This time it's still those mountain products..."

Most of Bastia is wild and mountainous, the fields are not fertile, and the food production is not enough to supply itself.

When we controlled the mountains before, we cooperated with the barbarian tribes, and there were more goods of all kinds, and even extraordinary accessories made by those barbarians, but now it is not so good, and we can only produce a lot of mountain products such as herbs and furs.

However, this thing is very useful for Hamlet. After all, the medical research and potion making of the sanatorium require a lot of herbs. Although there are own medicinal fields, no one will think it is too much.

The main thing is that now that the waterway has been opened, we can also sell it to Totnes as a middleman to make a little money.

As for furs, they are even more needed, because winter is coming, and I don’t know how many people will die without enough clothes to keep warm.

Watt is also a businessman. Although he has become the governor of Owendo, he has not lost his foundation. He knows the value of these things clearly.

"At most I'll give you a hundred spears, thirty standard breastplates, and two sets of knight armor."

More than ten carts of goods were exchanged for these. After saying this, Walter saw that Vic was a little hesitant, and couldn't help but tease, "What? Can't eat it?"

"Don't say it, that old thing is not as generous as the lord. He didn't give me a good face when he brought back the last batch of knight armor."

The reason for saying this is that these things all have soul rings. People can die, so the armor pulled off from them is naturally not intact.

Even though the situation is chaotic now, the earl is still a little unhappy to buy back a few sets of damaged armor at a high price.

"What? Still want to get a discount from me?"

"My opinion is to add another 20%. Anyway, this thing is not difficult to sell. Only we don't sell horses, otherwise he will be willing to pay a higher price."

Walter was also surprised when he heard it. The price of this batch of goods is much higher than the market, but Vic still added it. He looked greedy like a businessman.

But he didn't have any opinion on this, after all, the whole consumption was paid by the earl.

"He still wants horses? Let him ask our Lord for them."

Wat teased. The Lord didn't care about armor because now both muskets and cannons could easily tear apart the knights' armor.

But horses represent mobility. The more of this stuff, the better. How could he be willing to give it to outsiders?

The reason why Hamlet's cavalry could expand so quickly was because Walter took the opportunity to get on the logistics of the imperial army.

With this line, he was able to get all kinds of weapons. Those equipment stripped from the dead were nothing. He only needed to do some tricks to report the equipment that was originally simple to repair and still usable.

There were even many new and unused equipment, in addition to armor and weapons, but they were not sold to the earl.

If the war continued, it would be hard to say. Now that the stalemate is in a stalemate, it is easier to start without a war. After all, everyone has to live, and life costs money.

The war horses were also obtained by similar means.

The more particular one is to replace the military horses with the horses that pull the carts, and the extra price difference is taken by those people.

The more daring ones don't even need to use horses, they just make false accounts, and they are very bold as long as they can settle the accounts.

Although the emperor of the empire just dealt with a logistics officer, it was because of this that the newcomer was able to take the opportunity of investigation to settle the accounts and put all the deficits on the dead, anyway, the dead can't talk.

In troubled times, as long as money is available, these people are afraid to sell anything, not to mention that Water is still holding supplies such as food.

The weapons are old and damaged, and the lack of war horses will only make the soldiers curse a few words, but if there is no food, it will be a big deal.

Even if those people don't trade with Water for money, they have to trade with Water for food, not to mention that they can get a share. If they don't take the opportunity to make a profit now, they will have nothing to make when the situation is unclear later.

It's just like when Hamlet was in decline, the new ship was not launched for the navy, but sold to pirates.

Because the pirates got the money from the ancestors, the navy's funds were cut. How can those quartermasters care about the soldiers on the front line when they can make money?

The bureaucrats in the logistics department also had something to say:

The soldiers on the front line just need to devote themselves to the battlefield, obey orders, and fight hard, but the rear personnel have a lot to consider.

The two finalized the deal while teasing those people. It can be seen from their casual appearance that they don’t care about these things at all. After all, those are just a cover for their identities.

"What's the situation over there?"

"It's restless. The earl is still a little powerful. During this period, he relied on those eagle groups and knights to beat those nobles. Several of them have been killed. At the same time, he also promoted some members of the knights. It seems that he is training his eldest son..."

Before, the earl wanted to use the mountain barbarians to train soldiers, and also to create an excuse for the barbarian invasion, so as not to participate in the fight between the empire and the rebels.

But there have been no large-scale battles for many years, and various problems did not expect to arise. The corruption of military equipment and the fragility of serf soldiers. Faced with the barbarian mercenaries who are familiar with the imperial army, the coalition forces directly leaked a big one.

It is also fortunate that the knights still have combat effectiveness, and the mountain barbarians themselves have problems, otherwise he will be in more trouble.

Because someone has to take the blame for the failure of the war, not to mention that Alvin directly ruined an entire knight group in Hamlet, and paying money to redeem people can be said to be a huge disgrace.

The Count's authority to rule Bastia was also declining, and the doubts and confrontations of some nobles became more obvious.

These nobles more or less have caravans as white gloves to make money. Now you start a war and cut off the trade route, which means everyone's rice bowl is destroyed.

Not to mention that you are enjoying being a noble, and suddenly you have to go to the battlefield again. Why the hell don't you go? It's not you who will die?

In other words, Bastia was conquered by the earl, and he has a lot of prestige after years of rule, otherwise the resistance would be more intense.

However, the earl's means are also cruel. Although he doesn't know why the barbarian coalition retreated, he also took the opportunity to use the corruption of military equipment to drag many people into the water.

Kill a few people who are outspoken, and then let Bruce promote those knights without fiefs to build a team. Anyway, beat a group and pull a group, just like training those nobles.

Walter knew about this news because it has been going on for a while, and what Vic said next is the key point.

"Also, the spy finally found out about the chaos in the mountains and understood the real reason why the barbarian coalition retreated.

According to the intelligence collected, the earl noticed the weakness of the mountains and is now preparing to launch a real war..."

Hamlet had learned about the situation in the mountains from Boslake, who had escaped from the mountains before, and Vic and his men even knew about the beast disease earlier than the earl.

After the barbarian coalition retreated, the earl's spies began to find a way to enter the mountains and finally got the relevant news.

This was considered a good opportunity by the earl, because the big gap in armaments was supplemented during this period, at least there were not no spears.

At the same time, internal affairs were also handled with a tough hand, not to mention that the new recruits who crawled out of the pile of dead bodies also had a certain combat effectiveness after training during this period.

For the earl, the internal contradictions eased, and he was ready to take the opportunity to launch a counterattack and further attack the barbarians.

The reason is simple, before the first heavy snow comes, take advantage of the spread of beast disease to further mess up the mountains.

Without enough looted supplies to survive the winter, when the snow blocks the mountains, the power of nature will cause heavy losses to the barbarians.

In this way, they can wait until the next spring to launch a real war and completely eliminate those guys who have been hungry for a winter.

Now Walter also understands that Vic thinks the count has to accept the price increase because he is ready to take action.

But there is something wrong here...

"Do you think he is really doing this for the barbarians?"

Faced with Walter's doubts, Vic smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I think the count wants to kill not the barbarians, but the nobles."

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