Our family is in decline

If we take the entire area during the heyday of Hamlet as an example, it can now be roughly divided into three areas.

The actual control area is the city that was developed by itself, plus the areas developed in the surrounding areas.

The occupied area is the area occupied by the surrounding lords.

Then the areas sandwiched between the two are no-man's land, which refers to the unmanaged area.

There are now three places in Hamlet that can be called cities, Hamlet, Owendo, and Bastia. Two of them are not in the actual control area. The remaining places, even the castles of the three barons, are only at the town level.

Why do I say this? It's very simple. It's still because of the limitation of productivity. This means that if you want to form a city, you need external input, whether it is population or resources, and there must be pillar industries.

Hamlet is close to the sea, Owendo is close to the river, and Bastia is close to the mountains.

After the decline of Hamlet, Owendo relied on its special geographical location to absorb a wave of population because of the development of shipping and grain industries.

Bastia monopolized the mountain roads. If you want to get out of the mountains, you have to cut off one hand of the resources. If you want to get in, you have to cut off another hand. How can that key geographical location not be prosperous?

But those baronies in the inland are not surrounded by rivers and seas, nor are they in key locations. They are surrounded by wilderness and dense forests that cannot be developed.

Unless they can integrate the entire territory and invest a lot of money, like Lance, one million gold coins will be the beginning.

But will those nobles be willing to do this with one million gold coins?

So they don’t have that ability, you know, the limit of control over the territory is a relatively large town, not a city.

The rest must be divided and managed by those fiefdom knights.

It can be said that if these towns are defeated, the so-called aristocratic rule will collapse.

But Lance chose to push forward...

The soldiers who went out for reconnaissance soon found a village located in the wilderness on horseback. The scale was not small. They asked people to go back and report, and the rest began to ride horses around.

When a few horses with scouts showed up, those guys didn't think anything. The worse the environment, the more fierce the people were. They were not afraid, but ran back and shouted a few words, and soon someone who could convince the crowd gathered people.

"The horse bandits are coming!"

"Go and notify the mayor!"

"Take your weapons!"

There were large fields outside. Although the autumn harvest had been completed, the haystacks could still be seen.

After passing through the farmland, the scouts could see the stone walls outside the village, although they were only slightly better than those made of wood and mud.

Inside the square walls were some scattered houses and a few wooden sentry towers, which were only about five or six meters high.

No one dared to get too close because there were archers standing on them. It would be embarrassing if they were shot.

The young and strong began to gather and picked up various weapons. They became noisy and lively. After all, there was nothing to do after the autumn harvest.

"Did you really see it? Don't make a mistake!"

A slightly fat middle-aged man was also shocked by this incident. He looked quite decent, and his dress was obviously different from those civilians. After all, as the mayor, he was the local emperor here.

"Really, the caravan is not like this. Those riders must be horse bandits who came to invade the market."

The mayor's face showed uneasiness when he heard this, but he was not too panicked. After the autumn harvest, it was winter, so this kind of thing was not surprising.

They still have experience in dealing with some robbers and bandits. If the other party is only a dozen people, they must not give in easily. There is a high probability that they will have to fight, otherwise they will become fat meat.

But if the other party has a lot of people, then they will put on a desperate posture, and then negotiate to give them something to let them go somewhere else.

Even if they are robbers and bandits, they are just asking for a bite to eat. There is no need to fight together.

His uneasiness was that he was not sure about the other party's background, because the horse bandits must be stronger than ordinary bandits, after all, many mercenaries could not afford horses...

"People! So many people!"

The archer on the wooden sentry tower suddenly shouted.

Before others could react, some people who were leaning on the wall and looking out turned around and ran back, still shouting.

"Run away! We can't beat you."

The sudden accident made the mayor angry. Who will protect my family if you run away?

"Catch him!" The mayor raised his hand and pointed, and someone naturally went up. He controlled the whole town, how could he not have thugs?

Compared to those civilians who might not even have enough food, these thugs were naturally more fierce. They rushed up and caught the unlucky guy, and dragged him to the mayor as if to please him.

"What a waste, just a few horse bandits scared you like this." The mayor went up and punched and kicked him, as if he didn't care about his life or death at all.

The tragic wailing and the fierce look of the mayor controlled the restless crowd. As if sensing the fearful gazes around them, a hideous smile appeared on the mayor's face.

A bunch of bastards!

But no matter what he did, it could not affect the situation on the other side, because the sound of the horse's hooves hitting the ground became clearer and clearer, and even the ground was shaking slightly.

It was not just one person leaning over the wall to peek, and the panic spread uncontrollably.

"So many horse bandits!"

"Ahhhh!"

Seemingly realizing that something was not right, the mayor did not care about showing off his authority, and quickly dragged his fat body to climb up the watchtower. If it were not for the lackeys pushing him, he might not be able to climb up.

He swore in his heart that he must build a staircase next time instead of a ladder.

After climbing up with difficulty, he almost fell down with just one glance.

You know, it is already very powerful if there are more than ten or twenty horse bandits, because horses are more difficult to raise than people.

But here hundreds of cavalrymen began to wander around the periphery, cutting in from both sides and encircling the back, which made it clear that they wanted to block the entire town.

This is not the most terrifying thing, the countless teams following behind the cavalry are even more terrifying.

The neat equipment and relatively complete queues make their pace of advancement very impactful. If they howl a few more times, it is estimated that many people will be scared to death.

"It's over... it's over!" The mayor was so frightened that he was stunned, and he couldn't stop muttering, "Why did the fucking emperor come to us?"

As a person who had been outside when he was young and had a certain understanding of the empire, he could only think of such a team as the emperor of the empire that he had never seen before.

Not to mention him, even those lackeys didn't know how to react. They were arrogant in front of those serfs, but at this time they were like quails.

"Open the door immediately to welcome the lord! Those who resist will be killed! Those who rebel will die!" A fast horse came to the town gate and shouted, which woke up the mayor.

"Open the door! Open the door! Open the door quickly!" At this time, the mayor had no intention of resisting, and he shouted loudly, and even feared that something would happen, so he hurried down himself.

Even if he didn't hear much clearly, he heard the last sentence, which was about killing and death.

Sometimes people's potential is unlimited. It was so difficult to climb the ladder just now, but when they came down, they were ridiculously fast, using both hands and feet, and their fat bodies were also extremely sensitive.

At this time, the chaos in the town began to spread, because they didn't know what happened, and they were like headless flies.

These are ordinary people. No matter what era it is, they don't have much room for choice. They just accept it silently. No one cares about their thoughts.

When the gate was opened, most people saw the army lined up not far away, and panic spread uncontrollably.

Everyone didn't want to resist anything at the first time, but to hide or flee from this place.

Because the army in this era, this world, no matter when, is not a good thing, even more terrifying than bandits.

It seems that the people outside had expected it. Soldiers entered immediately after the door was opened to suppress the chaos. In the face of absolute power, a small town could hardly make any waves and was honest.

It's not that no one wants to run away, but the cavalry outside is not fake, and they were caught directly.

If the lord hadn't stopped the killing, I'm afraid that the war horses would not catch them when they passed by, but would cut their heads with sabers.

Soon everyone was driven out, and a few cavalrymen left people behind. Almost everyone was gathered together, including the terrified mayor of course.

However, no one was killed, so the civilians did not fall into despair, and could only look to the other side in fear.

On the contrary, the troops began to take a short rest on their own, and even during the rest, there was no chaos. This discipline made the mayor who had seen the nobles even more frightened.

Just waiting for a moment, the next carriage drove forward from behind.

And Lance's figure finally appeared. He glanced at those people and finally fell on the mayor who was obviously prominent. He couldn't help but remind him of the one he killed at the beginning, who was also fat.

The mayor also obviously noticed Lance and wanted to come over, but was afraid of the guarding soldiers.

Lance walked directly towards the crowd, and Greendale and Boudica followed, but one had green hair and the other had red hair. When they stood together, red and green were really funny.

But no one could laugh. When the mayor saw Lance coming, he hurriedly turned back to warn the civilians, fearing that he would disturb the big man and implicate himself.

His control over the town can be easily seen here. Just a few words scared the civilians so much that they lowered their heads and dared not even look.

Similarly, it was not Lance's pressure that made the mayor so nervous, but the pressure from the army next to him.

How can those places that have lost their rule for many years obey the arrangements again?

That is when the army is at your doorstep.

"Are you the mayor here?"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The mayor came forward with a flattering smile on his face, but he was embarrassed the next second because Lance asked a question.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Noble lord..."

Although it was already winter, the fat man's head was still sweating uncontrollably.

"I am Lord Hamlet, the owner of this land."

For the mayor, the name Hamlet seemed to have some kind of magic. In an instant, the whole person was stunned and his expression became weird.

From his age, it can be seen that he should have witnessed the prosperity of Hamlet and also experienced the catastrophe that destroyed the city.

It's hard to describe how it feels to hear this name again now.

But Lance didn't give him too much time to accept the news, and continued to question him.

"I didn't appoint you, so where did you come from as mayor? If you are the mayor, why didn't I get your taxes?"

The mayor reacted immediately after hearing this, and his expression showed an expression of panic that he could not help but look at.

This place is a no-man's land. He is of course a self-appointed mayor, let alone taxes, which are of course handed over to him as the mayor.

But it's hard to say now, who would have thought that Hamlet would come back to life...

"Report! The inventory has been completed."

Suddenly, a soldier ran over and handed Lance a registration form. Lance glanced at it and handed it to the mayor, "See if there is anything missing?"

The mayor was stunned for a while before taking it. He didn't understand what it meant, but when he saw what was written on it, he first grabbed the paper tightly, and after pausing for two or three seconds, he really cried and wailed in anxiety.

"No, sir!"

The mayor cried and shouted, his fat body was trembling, and he almost jumped up.

"It seems that there is something missing." Lance took the registration form from him and turned to signal the soldiers around him, "Take it away."

Two soldiers came directly to lift the mayor, but they didn't expect that they couldn't lift him up, so they could only drag him down.

Those thugs and lackeys didn't dare to say a word during the whole process, hiding in the crowd and pretending to be quails.

Everyone knew that the mayor was dead, and they also heard that the man was a real noble lord, much more powerful than the mayor!

At this time, a large group of people came up from behind, and they could see that their clothes were obviously different from the soldiers' uniforms.

Those people came up and started to register those ordinary people, and then randomly picked a lot of people from the crowd and took them away for questioning. No one dared to resist during this process.

How could Lance waste time talking nonsense with him? He was just waiting for the result of the house search.

At the same time, the mayor was taken down in front of the people, both to establish authority and to eliminate the people's fear of the mayor.

Soon, there was some commotion in the team, because those guys who usually acted arrogantly were caught, and some even pulled out their weapons to resist.

"I'm still useful, don't beat me to death."

Lance let Boudica go, not knowing whether she heard him or not, but he stabbed the axe gun in his hand to the ground, and rushed forward with a grim smile.

Fighting with weapons with bare hands, but you have to see the difference in level. Boudica knocked them down in a few moves like a dog, and if she hadn't held back, she would have been killed with one punch.

Lance smiled and said nothing, just like watching a monkey show...