Our family is in decline

It didn't matter what the bureaucrats in Totnes reacted to, they were just part of the show.

"We have eliminated the pirates who are here, but if we want to completely eliminate the pirates, we need to take down their protective umbrella. Now Hamlet has officially issued a wanted order and put a reward on those pirates, including the people behind them."

Wilson didn't waste any words and raised his hand to signal. Immediately, countless wanted posters were splashed from the ship into the air, and finally scattered among the crowd.

"The pirates will be publicly tried in Hamlet in seven days. We are not doing it for ourselves, but for everyone who has been harmed by pirates in the past ten years. Justice will prevail!"

Wilson shouted, and the soldiers responded with a uniform chant.

"Justice will prevail!"

"justice!!"

"justice!!!"

The three cheers seemed to ignite the passion of the people, and they were followed by shouts. The sound was deafening, but it almost scared the bureaucrat and his henchmen to death. There was only fear and uneasiness on the soldiers' faces.

"Run away! The Sheriff is going to silence you..."

The people had already begun to feel that something was wrong. They didn't know who shouted, and they all started to move. They randomly grabbed a handful of wanted posters, stuffed them into their clothes, and ran outside. Even the rescued slaves. He was also pushed along among the crowd.

"What are you still looking at? Stop them quickly!"

The bureaucrat finally collapsed, and even the commander was the same. He wanted to urge the sheriff and the city defense troops to stop him, but even those soldiers took advantage of the chaos and secretly picked up the wanted notice, knowing that it was impossible.

"Look, the pirates jumped out on their own, one for him and one for the noble." Wilson and the others looked at the guy jumping up and down, pointing and mocking.

"Let's go, we still have to track down the pirates, we don't have time to waste with these guys."

Wilson saw that the soldiers had been scattered and it was difficult to make a big deal, and most of them were running away, so he quickly ordered the fleet to leave.

Although Totnes' twenty warships are gone, no one can stop their own fleet at sea, but they also have artillery. If they stay close to the shore for too long, they will be in trouble and they won't be able to hold on if a fight breaks out.

Anyway, they were in the plan to support the scene. The longer they stayed, the more trouble they would have. Even the ships that had transported the slaves turned around and ran away.

Just wait to be caught after pretending to be cool, right?

This farce once again detonated the whole of Totnes after the pirates left. Things on the pier spread rapidly, and by the time the higher-ups reacted, they were completely out of control.

That's right, if the situation was limited to the dock, they would really dare to kill all those people and then push it to the pirates, and everything would be over.

The top can cover up the news, and the little soldiers below can also make a fool of themselves and make their mouths full of oil.

But now everyone knows that you can't kill everyone, and more and more outrageous rumors are starting to spread, and public opinion is also a murderous knife.

Those victims of pirates were the most active in spreading these. They even hid the wanted notices they picked up and deliberately spread them. The hatred towards the pirates spread along with the list.

Although most ordinary people in the empire are illiterate, Totnes is an advanced place, with a higher literacy rate than ordinary places. Their eyes are red when they see the bounties on the list, which are often tens of thousands of gold coins.

You must know that a place like Totnes never lacks desperadoes, which is why they have the motivation to explore the names above.

Cats follow their own paths, and mice follow their own paths. There is no way to hide the disappearance of so many big figures, because many people are seeking information, so now it must be true even if it is not true.

Rumors started to spread again, saying that either those guys realized that the matter was exposed and ran away, or that the higher-ups hid the people, or of course they were solved.

Anyway, it is not a big deal for everyone to watch the excitement. No matter what the situation is, the relationship between Totnes and the pirates active around him is confirmed.

You can say that it is useless no matter how fierce the public opinion of the lower class is, but they are not the only victims over the years. The information revealed involves many businessmen, which is Totnes's base.

Only now did they understand why their goods were robbed, and a batch of cheaper goods appeared on the market.

There were also some transactions with customers where the goods were robbed by pirates at a critical moment and could not be delivered. They could only consider themselves unlucky and were forced to sell their flesh and blood. Only now did they find out that those guys were the ones who asked the pirates to rob them.

Regardless of whether they believe it or not, they have to investigate. These people are much more powerful. It would be better if they don't investigate. Once they investigate, they really find out something. The atmosphere in Totnes becomes tense for a while.

I don't know who started selling Totnes' assets and running away. For a while, those businessmen couldn't feel safe. Even if they didn't divest completely, they all left here and waited for the result.

The chaos in Totnes cannot be seen on the surface, but in fact it is like a powder keg with the fuse already lit...

Lance didn't pay too much attention to the high-level struggles. As for the bounties on the wanted lists, they were exaggerated because they were all in Lance's hands, just to mobilize the enthusiasm of those guys, because this kind of thing can't stand the investigation the most.

He was like a passerby walking on the streets that had been attacked by "pirates", looking a little weird as he watched the people at the bottom of the docks silently cleaning up the mess.

Those people who were pretending to be pirates blew up a few ships outside last night, and then set a few boats on fire. No one came ashore. How could they kill so many people?

Obviously someone took advantage of the chaos to kill and loot last night...

After crossing the street, he finally returned to the intelligence point set up. Lance personally selected a group of retired soldiers during the military reform to supplement Vic's intelligence department. Of course, an important place like Totnes must There is a site.

After questioning, it was revealed that gangsters, thugs and even the sheriff were involved in the chaos in the early morning. Of course, the wanderers also picked up some leftovers and blamed them all on the pirates.

Damn it! Taking the blame!

Lance's face was gloomy. To be honest, he had already guessed that someone would take the opportunity to cause trouble, so he chose to do it in the early morning when he was preparing for dawn. Even if there was more chaos, it would only take two or three hours, and there were also the sheriff and the city defense army.

Unexpectedly, all the city defense troops were deployed to protect the rich, but the sheriff did not dare to come over to maintain order, and even joined in the looting.

He secretly made a note in his mind that if he dared to settle the account with him, then none of these would be able to escape.

"After today's incident, the security environment in Totnes will definitely become more and more chaotic. You must be careful and evacuate if the situation goes wrong. Don't hesitate. Ensuring your own safety is the most important thing."

"Yes! Promise to complete the mission!"

After a brief explanation, Lance disappeared from Totnes. He had to go back to prepare for the grand performance in seven days.

For Totnes, the shock experienced on this day almost washed away the so-called prosperity.

Pirate attacks, collusion with pirates, large numbers of people missing and then escaping, price turmoil starting to run...

Each of these things alone would have shaken the city. Now together, they are shaking like something has been stuffed down there. Who can still sit still?

The remaining bureaucrats and nobles wanted to suppress it violently, labeling everything as rumors, pointing the finger at Hamlet, and sending troops to arrest all those who dared to speak.

But it was useless. Now that everyone knew it, doing so confirmed the fact that they were colluding with the pirates, and no one dared to come.

In the end, things came to a head...

There were more than a dozen people gathered in the luxurious, but somewhat eerie and sunless hall. They seemed to be waiting for something, and in the process they did not forget to discuss what happened today.

"Find someone to blame. After a while, no one will care about it."

"What about the slaves who were escaped from the pirates now? I don't know who taught them. They spread the news they heard from the pirates everywhere."

"After taking care of everything, why stay here?"

"But if we touch them, it will cause panic. What's even more troublesome is that Hamlet sent people here just because he wanted us to deal with them. It's best to leave no one behind."

"They hate us, so let's send a ship to capture them all and send them to Hamlet. Don't they mean justice? I want to see how they are just."

"Then let's get rid of all Hamlet's guys here first."

"They have run away a long time ago. They have cleared out all the people with connections here a few days ago. As for the ordinary businessmen who are left behind and have transactions with them, do they have to be cut off as well?"

"They import so much goods from us, can we ban trade with them?"

"What reason do you want to use to interfere with them? Aren't you looking for trouble..."

Everyone in the hall was talking to each other. Although everyone was dressed like a dog, the conversation between them was no better than that of those vulgar sailors.

In their eyes, ordinary people are like pigs. They can decide life and death with just a few words, and they also want to interfere with the activities of those businessmen.

And at this moment, a woman finally walked out of the darkness. She was tall and wearing a gorgeous dress that was so red that it turned black. There were a few bright red roses on it that were as red as blood. The woman came up and glanced at everyone. She seemed to have already He knew those things, but he seemed very calm.

Those operations were concealed from the ordinary people below and disrupted the environment. However, since women were participants back then, they naturally knew about those pirates and were even more aware of their grudges with Hamlet, but Hamlet's counterattack took place so many years later.

"Tell me, how are you going to deal with it?"

"This must be Hamlet's conspiracy, we must fight back!"

Immediately, someone hurriedly wanted to express his position, but the woman simply shook her head.

"Our fleet has disappeared and there is no way to fight Hamlet."

"Then find an opportunity to assassinate that lord."

"Those nobles are gone, and there are not many people who can do this."

These words scared those guys directly. If you dare to assassinate others, do you really think that others dare not assassinate you?

After the last three or two sentences, everyone fell into silence. Yes, if this matter could really be solved, they wouldn't come to him.

Totnes' most powerful fleet disappeared, and the entire manor in the heavily guarded inner city disappeared without any news. Their fear can be imagined.

"Do you know why he didn't attack Totnes directly instead of attacking in this way?"

The woman asked the bureaucrats again, but when no one answered, she slowly spoke.

"Because he wanted Totnes to panic and then fall into decline step by step, just like a hunter doesn't need to worry about when the bleeding prey in the trap will die, he will only worry about too much trauma affecting the price of the fur."

As the woman spoke, a strange smile appeared on her face and she added, "Of course, I also enjoy the pleasure of watching the prey struggle."

Totnes became someone else's prey, and the other party's holding back was not even out of mercy, but because they wanted a more complete skin.

Those bureaucrats and nobles were so scared that they dared not say a word. The woman did not even want to waste time in front of these guys. She just said a few words and turned around and left in the embrace of the maids.

"Just deal with it calmly and do your own thing."

Those guys are just ordinary people who are responsible for managing Totnes. It is not their business.

The woman returned to the inner hall. A long table was placed with rich and delicious food, but the people at the table had no interest in it. The role was like decoration.

A heavy armored knight, a fat man, a white-haired old man, and the woman are the four major forces that control Totnes. They are all extraordinary people, and their strength is weird and terrible.

"What do those guys say?" The woman asked, and the question was naturally about some extraordinary strong people who were hiding in Totnes like Alvis.

"They don't want to get involved with us, and watch our struggle with the lord." The fat man had an inexplicable smile on his face, as if he didn't care about this at all.

"The church seems to be in some trouble and won't care at all." The old man turned the ring and his tone was still calm, not affected by the chaos at all, "Of course, they won't care if we leave here."

From their words, it can be heard that although the church does not completely control this place, it still has some deterrence on them, restricting them from leaving here, but now these seem unimportant.

"I hope he can interest me a little."

The knight's dull voice sounded, and his desire for battle made him a little impatient.

No matter how Hamlet and Totnes fight, no matter what conspiracy and tricks the two sides play, in the end they all return to a simple power confrontation, which is the crushing of the secular by the extraordinary power.

The winner is the king, and power is the reason for becoming the king.

But the woman didn't care about it, but said something very strange.

"Winter is too cold, even the most hardworking bees are reluctant to leave the nest, but as long as spring comes, Hamlet will be full of vitality."

The other three people seemed to realize something when they heard this, even the fat man who was always smiling had a faint fear on his face.

What will happen to Hamlet in spring? (End of this chapter)