Our family is in decline

Regardless of Boudica's "friendly" interaction with the mad dog, Lance told William what he had just thought and briefly explained the current situation.

"There is indeed a need for a group of working dogs now. Whether they are hunting or retrieving objects, or patrolling, they are all crucial to the construction of the police system and even the army.

And it would be a pity to leave behind your ancestral craftsmanship. Anyway, the situation has stabilized now and the police's workload has been reduced a lot. Please think about it. "

Lance has no intention of seizing power, but as the system advances, although the Hamlet police are now heavily redundant, the situation is still very stable. It is really a waste for him, the chief of police, to hang in this position.

"There's nothing to think about. I'll go wherever Hamlet needs me."

It's not that William was reluctant to give up the power brought by the Sheriff. In fact, he had never been a person addicted to power. He cared more about justice and order.

After coming out of the small town and understanding more and more things, he understood that justice is not that simple, and became more and more convinced that in this desperate world, Hamlet is the hope of the future of this world.

All for Hamlet!

"Don't worry, we can tell you whatever you need in terms of space, funding, or manpower."

Lance still likes employees who work hard without complaining, and they must give what is due. Everyone is doing it for Hamlet.

The two briefly communicated about the current situation of the animal pen. The hundreds of dogs of various types have different specialties.

Some are fast runners, some have a keen sense of smell, some have flexible brains, and some are suitable for fighting. Even within the same species, there are different individuals, which is very complicated.

Therefore, William needs to discover their specialties, then formulate different taming plans, and breed them to produce stable varieties. Although mutations or awakenings will bring surprises, they usually mean instability. This is not possible for a force.

As he returned to the training of those wolf cubs, Lance remembered something and couldn't help but warn:

"On the night of the full moon, just a few days later, we will isolate all the wolf cubs and then arrange for people to keep watch."

When they woke up on the night of the full moon, the brothers and sisters killed the she-wolf, and then they fought and devoured each other. This could not happen again.

Lance couldn't help but think of another thing. Bigby seemed to transform on a full moon night, and his ancestor also said such nonsense as "the stars return to their alignment". The celestial phenomena in this world really have special power. Or some kind of super-large ceremony.

I'll have to study the information left by my ancestors when I have time. Fortunately, I have plenty of time now...

However, at this moment Boudica's shout interrupted his thoughts.

"Boss, why doesn't it respond?"

Lance was speechless for a moment when he looked over. The dog's mouth was filled with dog food and he rolled his eyes.

"What are you doing?"

"If it doesn't eat, I'll feed it. Who knows it can't even eat? This dog is stupid."

Boudica even complained, and Lance felt his fist became hard again!

"You almost choked to death. Do you feed me like this?"

Under William's command, Boudica had a long meal before rescuing the dog. The mad dog who woke up again looked at Boudica with a hint of fear. This time, the effect was better than eating blueberries. Of course, the black dog There is still a trace of doubt.

ah! No, are you serious?

Lance could only mourn in silence. You won't have a good person like me to teach you in the future. Just wish yourself well.

Eat people to grow up? Monk Sha also eats people and is not a good dog in the end...

Lance stayed at the animal pen for a while, then walked home in the heavy snow. There were no people moving outside now, and even if there were, they would be bundled up and walk through in a hurry. This is the severe cold in the northern part of the empire.

Although there are misty mountains that block most of the cold air heading south, there is a gap at the edge of Hamlet, and the wind blows in here.

Fortunately, Hamlet is also close to the sea. The warm and moist air brought by the ocean currents fights the cold current above Hamlet, which reduces the chill a bit. It is not as exaggerated as the extreme cold in the mountains. It can be regarded as a temperate maritime climate.

Although Lance was not afraid of the cold or heat now, looking at the sight of snow falling all over the sky, he felt a little chillier in his heart and hurried back home.

"My lord is back!" Susan opened the door and was surprised to find that the lord was back. She quickly opened the door and said, "My lord, come in quickly. I will raise the fireplace right away."

"You have to start a fire even if I'm not here. Why save this money? You have to take care of yourself. It will be troublesome if you get sick." Lance took off his coat and was still talking.

"Yes, my room is not big. I just need a heater. I won't be cold." Susan smiled and took the coat from Lance's hand, raising her hand to gently brush away the snowflakes on it.

"You should also pay attention to the ventilation of the heater. In the empire, people die every year because of this. Is there any official reminder?"

"Don't worry, sir. Lord Baldwin has warned us a long time ago. Moreover, people in the countryside now use heated kangs, and people in the city have new heaters, so they won't be cold."

Susan chimed in, and the two things she was talking about were the things that Lance allowed for modifications before designing the house, knowing that Hamlet had cold winters.

In fact, it's just a kang and a heater. After all, the current level of heating methods is too complicated and can't be used.

What's more important is that Hamlet opened up the wilderness and cut down a large amount of charcoal, so the price is not high and most people can afford it and live a warm winter.

After all, those are laborers who want to create wealth for themselves. They are their own property, and of course Lance must protect them.

Susan followed, but suddenly she told Lance something angrily.

"The lord loves everyone so much that even the emperor of the empire cannot do this, but there are still those guys who keep slandering the lord and spreading it in the city..."

With the start of the war of recovery, the army was transferred away, and the ports and docks brought in many foreigners while bringing in goods, so some bad remarks began to flow out of the city.

The content is probably the same old routine, questioning his inheritance rights, not being a noble, and criticizing him for launching wars against the surrounding areas, tyrants, dictators, Hamlet demons, etc.

Or they make up some weird rumors, such as liking men, having sex with ten women at night, anyway, no matter how vulgar and effective it is, no matter if there is any conflict...

You don't need to think about who spread these news. It must be the spies placed in Hamlet by those forces. They are desperately trying to slander the lord's image.

What Lance did really offended too many people, not only the nobles, but also various forces, but Lance has always been indifferent.

"We should send people to take all those guys to the sanatorium!" Susan is also a ruthless person. Anyone who dares to slander the lord will be killed.

"No hurry, play with them."

Lance had a faint smile on his face. He had just arrived. The heavy snow blocked the news. When the news spread, they would soon not spread rumors about me, but shout and kill.

Soon the fireplace rose in the room, and Lance finally breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could finally sit down and have a good rest.

…………

The heavy snow covering the Hamlet area came late, but it came violently. It has been intermittent for several days and there is no sign of stopping.

At the most exaggerated time, snow was flying all over the sky, the sky and the earth changed color, and it was white. You couldn't see it when you stretched your hand out.

Hiding in the building was frightening, let alone going out. The power of nature was really terrible.

Even when it was small, there was fine snow, which accumulated little by little on Hamlet, but it was also anxious to see.

Because if they are not cleaned in time, these long houses made of wood, mud and thatched roofs will collapse when the wind blows and the snow presses down.

When Lance investigated and asked the local people about the climate, he knew that such things happened frequently in previous years. It was not strange to see frozen corpses on the road in this era.

Fortunately, most of these houses are newly built and reinforced before the snow season comes. Basically, every family can have a heater to spend a warm winter.

Despair does not belong to Hamlet...

Hamlet, a ruins town.

It was snowing heavily outside, and the cold wind blew through the streets, making a "whoosh" sound. Apart from the snow on the streets, no one could be seen coming and going.

But inside the house, it was very lively. On the first floor, there were countless people gathered together, staring at the fence and shouting enthusiastically.

"Blind its eyes!"

"Bite its nose!"

"Bite it! Bite it to death!"

There was no doubt that what happened here was a gambling fight, but the protagonist was not a human, but a big red-eyed rat the size of an adult cat.

After a large number of captures and many tests and studies, we have roughly figured out the habits of this crazy rat.

A larger body than ordinary rats requires more food support, so it has a strong desire to eat and craves food all the time.

The metabolism is also very fast. As long as there is enough food, the skin and flesh wounds will scab over in one or two days. It is simply a natural "gladiator".

The hungrier it is, the crazier it becomes. When it is hungry, it dares to take a bite of anything and is full of aggression. However, after testing, it was found that the state of hunger will also affect the combat effect.

Those who are hungry for one day still have strength, but they are not so crazy. Although those who are hungry for three days are crazy, they have no strength to fight.

If the battle cannot be prolonged, it will not be exciting. If it is not ornamental, it will be difficult to mobilize the audience's emotions, and no one will pay for it.

In order to solve this problem, they also studied for a long time, but it can only be said that Hamlet is still talented and found a solution soon.

And the one who solved this problem was not someone else, but the perfumer who lived in seclusion in the winery, that is, the imperial princess Sophia.

Because in the early observation and research, it was found that mad rats mature very quickly, and they give birth to seven or eight in a litter, and some are as exaggerated as twelve. They will fight for the female rats, and they are very fierce.

Then Sophia made a perfume that only rats can smell based on this characteristic, using the female rats' gonads as materials.

Drop a drop on the field before the battle, and the rats entering the field will go crazy for the non-existent female rats, and regard the other male rats as enemies and start fighting.

This kind of energetic fight is very good to watch. Once blood is seen, it will arouse their madness and also mobilize the emotions of the audience.

But there is a disadvantage, that is, only male rats go to the arena. Fortunately, Hamlet advocates thrift and will not waste.

As for where the female rats whose gonads were removed went? Of course, they became food for male rats. Only by eating raw food, and of the same kind, can they get used to this kind of fighting.

Don't say it, sometimes humans can always come up with some new tricks for some strange things.

Hamlet had formulated the rules for fighting rats from the beginning.

The first rule was naturally to formulate the rules for purchasing, and the rats were divided into different grades according to their appearance, and the prices were naturally different.

Based on factors such as body size, hair, age, injuries, gender, etc., only the best-looking ones that can become fighting rats are generally worth ten copper coins, and the rest are mostly collected according to the price of feed.

In theory, fighting rats should be very valuable, but why can they be priced down? According to the official price?

Because fighting rats is a gambling game and is monopolized by the lord. If you can't beat the lord, you have to obey, otherwise the police will come to your door immediately and seal up several privately set up fighting rat arenas.

But copper coins are also very generous for most people, not to mention ten, so some time ago, they went out crazily just to catch big rats. Many mercenaries didn't even play the treasure hunt in the ruins, but studied how to catch rats without injury.

The "no injury" here does not refer to people, but to how to catch uninjured crazy rats, after all, it affects the rating, that is, money.

This situation has driven the rat catching industry. Lance made a fortune by selling rat poison and rat traps, and it has also driven a number of industries that use crazy rats as materials.

You should know that fur has always been a relatively strong material, not to mention that it is valuable in winter now.

In the past, mice were only the size of a palm, so the skin was naturally not valuable, but a mad rat now weighs more than ten pounds. The fur is as big as rabbit skin. A few can be made into a piece of clothing, and the corners can be made into a hat, so it is naturally valuable.

In fact, it was made by the official. Those that cannot be used as fighting rats should be properly utilized. This is planned. The blood, flesh and internal organs are used as feed, and the fur can make another profit.

The warmth effect of mad rat fur is a little worse, but it is cheap. Compared with the nobles' foxes or bears, ordinary people can also wear this.

When other people saw this, they followed suit. Only those with good appearance were sent to the official for money, and those with worse appearance were skinned and sold by themselves. Lance has no restrictions on this. After all, it was made to encourage everyone to hunt rats.

Then the fun came. Those people peeled off the rat skin, but there was still meat and internal organs. It was impossible to throw them away directly, so the mad rat became a dish on everyone's table.

Are you resistant? Maybe some people would, but most people don't mind it at all. Although Hamlet has abundant fish catches and the price of fish is not high, not everyone can afford it.

Roasted rats became a special dish in the town for a while. Even the city has heard about it. Many people come here to try the taste of rats as big as cats.

The changes in the crazy rats are speculated to be the awakening of blood induced by the blood moon, not just corruption. In fact, Lance has certified that it is not polluted, otherwise the official would not dare to let them eat it.

In any case, the crazy rat industry has emerged, built on the corpses of rats...