Our family is in decline

Of course, those cultists could not defeat the Knights and the Church outside the city, so a stalemate was formed.

And those nobles were waiting for Bruce to continue to consume, just like a pack of wolves surrounding a wounded tiger, and they would bite it as long as it showed a little weakness.

The so-called unbreakable aristocratic system has also become precarious, which is very funny.

But they also have something to say. We swore allegiance to the Earl, and you are just the heir. Now no one has really seen the Earl dead, so if you want to be recognized, then attack the city and prove yourself.

Bruce is not stupid, isn't it obvious that he wants him to die?

He knows that unless he can succeed once, if he loses too much in the siege, those guys will eat him.

Now he can only hold the thigh of the church and carry the banner of eliminating the cult to condemn those nobles.

You must know that it was those nobles who held the thigh of the church and carried the banner of eliminating the cult before, while the Earl and Bruce were pretending to be stupid.

This polar reversal is also a bit funny.

Things are unpredictable...

Anyway, according to the news sent back, a series of open and secret struggles have been launched within Bastia around the city.

Bruce even seized on the assassination he suffered at that time, saying that those people colluded with the cult and wanted to use this as an excuse to seize power with the power of the church, but those nobles were not stupid and the two sides began to fight.

The cult was clearly in front of them, but they fought among themselves. It was really... very human.

This is why Lance was unwilling to drag too many forces into Hamlet.

I don’t know if I can beat the ancestor, anyway, compared to the ancestor who doesn’t know when he will explode, it must be to kill Lance, the heir, first, and share Hamlet is what everyone wants to see.

Don’t ask those idiots to have a long-term vision and don’t need to think about their own interests.

“This farce should end, and the people have suffered enough.”

Lance said as he turned his eyes away from the distant city and could see the scattered refugee camps outside the city.

Don’t think that it’s just the struggles among their high-level officials. A speck of dust above is a mountain for the people below.

Bruce is recruiting soldiers and collecting taxes, and the nobles are the same. Don't forget that there are tens of thousands of refugees who have escaped...

Despair and madness are the main colors of this world.

But not Hamlet's.

"But I didn't expect you to achieve such a status so quickly."

After Lance said this, he turned to look at the person beside him, who was Baron Lawrence who followed on horseback and praised:

"You are worthy of being the right-hand man of Count Bastia. Even if you have been away for a while, you can easily get the support of those nobles as long as you stand up."

Lance praised, but Lawrence ruthlessly exposed the truth.

"Those guys are now nominally under my command, but in fact they just want to push me out to fight Bruce.

Or they dare not face the church directly, probably because they think I have no heir and no threat to them."

Lawrence is not a child, how can he not see that those guys don't want to tear their faces, after all, our old nobles are so particular.

It's not good for everyone to tear their faces, and if they don't work hard to fight the cultists now, they will offend the church, and someone must take the blame.

No one is more suitable than Lawrence, because everyone knows that his daughter is missing and there is no heir at all. Even if Bruce is killed, he can't become the next earl, and everyone will be decent in the end.

That's why the nobles can easily support Lawrence and unite around him.

However, success and failure are both due to the heir.

If Lawrence had an heir, he would never work for Lance like this, but he didn't have one, and his only daughter was being held by someone, so he sold her out without hesitation.

Anyway, he didn't have an heir to inherit the territory, so he didn't feel bad about returning the territory to Hamlet.

"Let's go, let's see those guys."

Lance rode forward, and right in front of them was the military camp.

But now it has been occupied by Hamlet's army. It seems that the battle is over, or it's over before it even started.

Hamlet's army took over Owendo smoothly, so the team didn't consume too much. After a brief rest, they quickly communicated with Lawrence with the support of intelligence.

Directly order a thousand infantry to advance quickly, and come out of Lawrence's territory under the banner of Lawrence, deceiving most of the guys.

Use Lawrence to call those nobles to discuss, and then naturally they are controlled by the "swordsmen" arranged in advance, and then Lawrence comes forward to appease those low-level soldiers.

The situation was controlled quietly, without causing much impact, and many people didn't even know what happened. They even thought that Baron Lawrence wanted to do something big.

Most of the so-called soldiers are lazy and casual, without training, and without purpose, because they were originally conscripted.

A small number of them have seen blood and survived on the battlefield. Only those who have a little momentum can be considered elite veterans according to them.

These so-called elites are also a joke in Lance's eyes, but they are already very good here. It is no wonder that Bruce has not been killed yet. After all, his army has knights and a large number of soldiers who have fought against barbarians.

These soldiers are currently undergoing registration and review, and then waiting for processing.

According to the previous rules, they would probably be sent to labor reform, but a large part of them were recruited and had never participated in the battle, so after selecting those evil soldiers, ordinary people would be given a sum of money to send them home.

For them, not having to fight is more important than anything else, not to mention that the new lord also gave them a sum of money, although not much, but it was enough to leave a good impression.

Lance and Lawrence went to meet those nobles and told them about the current situation in the Hamlet area, which was also to let them know what happened.

The four-day flat push of the baronial territory, and the collapse of 6,000 people in one battle, some people remembered the glory of Hamlet in the past, and knew that there was no way to resist, so they gave in.

But some people were not convinced. Why should they take away their territory and power? They are lords enfeoffed by the earl, what does it have to do with Hamlet?

And then... there was nothing else.

Some things are not weighed on the scale, but they can't be weighed on the scale.

Not convinced? It's not you who are unlucky, your whole family will suffer.

Lawrence knew that the lord didn't care about the relationship and rules of the aristocratic system, but such a casual treatment still made him a little scared.

"Let's go, let me meet Bruce."

Lance didn't waste too much time on those so-called nobles. After a while, he took Lawrence out of the camp and went to another military camp closer to the city.

Then Lawrence saw a very magical scene, because there were also Hamlet's soldiers here.

He knew that the lord was powerful, and it was not difficult to take down the nobles' military camps with his help, because he mobilized the manpower himself.

But it was too terrible to capture two camps silently.

"You know Francis, it's the bureaucrat sent by the earl to redeem you. Like you, he is my man."

Lance explained casually that when something happened in the city, Vic took the risk to inform Francis and helped him move out.

Later, Francis was allowed to hide again. According to his previous status beside the earl, he was more than enough to be a deputy beside Bruce, who had suffered heavy losses.

But you have to know that they lost the city, and the army needs to eat and consume various resources. At this critical moment, Vic volunteered to get food from Owendo and soon joined Bruce's logistics.

Bruce would definitely be fine when he didn't take action, and both of them did a good job, but when Lance's will was revealed, it was not strange that Bruce fell.

Lawrence didn't know the details, but he knew that Bruce's prestige in the Knights or the army was very high, so those people didn't dare to force it, otherwise they would have taken action long ago.

Then Lawrence saw those strong knights who were carried out by the soldiers like dead pigs.

But it seems that the so-called Knights are useless in front of the lord...

"Sir, these knights..."

"It's okay, a good sleep is good for them."

Knights are only threatening when they are wearing armor and charging on horseback, and what makes them fall is a pot of hot soup with added ingredients in the cold wind. Without these two conditions, they are still mortals.

"No, I want to say that if these knights go to build roads like those soldiers, isn't it a waste? They have been trained since childhood and their strength is still great."

How could Lawrence not tell whether a person is dead or fainted? After all, he has served as an instructor for those knights. He doesn't want the struggles of the upper class to involve them, and wants to find a way out for them.

Because they are likely to have their toes cut off when they go to build roads, otherwise it will be difficult for a well-trained knight to keep an eye on them, but this time they are completely useless.

This is indeed true. Although their strength is meaningless to Lance, they are still very powerful elites for ordinary people.

It is indeed a pity that more than ten years of hard training is wasted like this.

But...this battle was originally to arrange for some soldiers to retire and switch to farming mode.

Where does he get the resources to support those knights? Isn't it good to invest in infrastructure, factories, and technology?

However, it is indeed a bit of a waste to throw them to build roads, and these people are not feudal nobles, so it is not their turn to do evil. They are more of the earl's thugs.

"How many of these people do you think are loyal to the earl or Bruce?"

Lance asked, and Lawrence fell silent.

The earl still attaches great importance to these knights, so they have been selected and trained since childhood to be trustworthy in their loyalty. He is very clear about this.

I even heard that Bruce was able to escape from the assassination of the cult because those knights risked their lives to save him.

For a lord, if loyalty is not absolute, then it is absolutely not loyal.

It is probably difficult for these diehards of the earl to change their allegiance, so naturally they have only one end. Lawrence couldn't help but feel a little sad when he thought of this.

But Lance seemed to see his thoughts and smiled and gestured.

"I won't make it difficult for them. Those villains will stay, and you can talk to the rest. Those who want to go home can go home, and those who are willing to join can be assigned some work. As for those who want to leave, they can go."

"Are you really letting them go?" Lawrence was a little surprised to hear this, and seemed to be trying to figure out what this "leaving" meant.

Those who unexpectedly chose to leave must be die-hard fans of the Earl. Such people are a threat if they are still alive.

"Hahaha! It's not the era of knights anymore." Lance said with a smile, but Lawrence felt that he was arrogant and ignored those knights.

But Lance was telling the truth, but this battle was not fought, Lawrence didn't know.

Let alone the crushing of artillery against knights' charge, now that the stimulant has been developed by Bigby, the musket will soon usher in explosive development, and then the rifle and breech loading will come out, and the extraordinary may not be able to beat an ordinary person with a gun.

If Lance really wants a war, the so-called knights here can't withstand a few rounds of bombardment, nor can they withstand a few rounds of array shooting.

"Just let it go, don't think too much." Lance left a sentence and continued to move forward, not caring at all.

Lawrence now finally understood why those people said that the lord was merciful...

Then he entered the camp and found that there were quite a lot of people. In addition to Bruce, several leaders were also captured, so it can be said that they were all killed.

Reynard and Barristan were also there. Most people could not see the burly man who stood out in the tent. He was strong from the muscular appearance, but he could only be tied up at this time.

In order to control him, he was not only drugged, but also Reynard took action, which controlled him.

He was trained from a young age, taking all kinds of precious potions, and his physical strength was very impressive under the amplification of equipment. Bastia was the champion.

He was able to withstand the evil spell and escape under the siege of the masters of the cult, which proved his strength.

In other words, he had no systematic contact with extraordinary power, or the Bastia family had a weak foundation. He was a small noble before, and the real earl was only in the second generation.

"Lawrence, I have never believed my father's suspicion of you, and now it proves that he is right."

Bruce locked his eyes on Lawrence when he saw the two people coming in, and it was not difficult to hear from his words that he put everything on Lawrence.

Lawrence didn't know how to explain this, so he could only shake his head and sigh, "Your father is always like this, he doesn't trust anyone, so he doesn't get anyone's trust."

"Hmph! Don't make betrayal sound so nice."

"Then why did your father plant so many people around me? After the incident, he sent the Eagle Group to assassinate my daughter? Did you do this?"

Lawrence was not polite. He didn't want to argue with the younger generation, but he got angry when he talked about this. His wife is gone, and only this daughter is left. You still want to touch her!

Bruce couldn't help but fall silent for a while. He knew about the planting of spies, but he didn't know about the assassination of Margaret.

But to be honest, would his father do such a thing?

It's really hard to say...