Chapter 455 Summoning

Forty-six days.

Baron Sunderland sat quietly on his own single bed, facing the wall, counting the nicks on the wall from the beginning to the end, then from the end to the end.

He has been in this cell for forty-six days.

As a member of the southern nobles who fought in response to Earl Hossman, he knew that he was very fortunate. Because of his low title, he was not qualified to approach Earl Hossman's team, so he narrowly escaped the artillery attack on the gravel ridge. , and then also due to his low title, he was left far behind by the large army when he fled, and he became one of the first nobles to be captured by the Cecilians. some ordeal.

But he doesn't know how long his "lucky" will last.

The collapse of the noble coalition seems to have happened in the last century. The expedition that was exciting but ended in tragedy has now become a nightmare that was deliberately avoided but kept replaying in his mind, Baron Sunderland knew that, Except for the Cecil family and a small number of people who pledged allegiance to Cecil in advance, all the nobles in the entire southern region are finished, although he had a little fantasies when he was just locked in this cell, fantasizing about the Cecil people. He lost in the follow-up battle, and finally reached a stalemate with the southern nobles, but he ended up waiting for one new "inmate" after another

Familiar faces were thrown into the prison cells, and each face meant that a new piece of land fell into the hands of the Cecil people. When more than half of the nobles in the southern border appeared in this "POW camp", Viscount Sunderland accepted the fact that there would be no turning point.

Now, like all the other noble captives, he can only stay in the cells quietly, waiting for the Duke of Cecil Gawain to summon him one day and give a clear result.

There was a commotion from the cell next door.

Baron Sunderland raised his head and saw Viscount Trier, who was locked in the same room as him, also raised his head. The two of them listened to the movement in the cell next door. After a while, they glanced at each other, helpless. Shaking his head with a wry smile.

"The ones who were caught from the Rock Fortress," Viscount Trier said with a wry smile, "It seems that they haven't adapted to the rules here."

"It was the same when we first started," Baron Sunderland also responded with a wry smile. "Listen, they asked the guards to salute them, and they asked for wine and pillows, and they even emphasized the issue of ransom... I haven't heard it in a long time. These are the words."

The people living in the cell next door were only brought in a few days ago. They came from the rock fortress. At one time, Baron Sunderland thought that these people had escaped the pursuit of the Cecilians.

And returned to their respective territories, but now I know that they just hid in the fortress to the north.

These new "inmates" brought surprising news to the noble captives in the prisoner of war camp. According to their description, the rock fortress had fallen. Under the onslaught of the Cecilians, the legendary fortress lasted for two days. arrive.

According to some accounts, the real attack only lasted for about half a day, and the two days were the time when the Cecil people set up camp.

Baron Sunderland has lived here for forty-six days. He has successfully adapted and accepted the current situation, but it is obvious that the people who have just come in will need a period of buffering to understand the situation.

After the movement in the cell next door finally ended, Viscount Trier asked, "What do you think Duke Gawain Cecil wants?"

"Perhaps it is the unconditional allegiance of all the nobles of the South, just like allegiance to the king," Baron Sunderland said of his speculation, "We can already see that this war is actually driven by him from beginning to end, and he obviously wants to If you take back what belongs to you, you will become the Principality of Cecil again."

"...The Principality of Cecil," Viscount Trier was silent for a moment, then sighed, "I thought so after he didn't ask for the ransom for a long time."

Baron Sunderland grumbled: "It could have been worse..."

Viscount Trier wanted to ask what "worse" meant by the other party's mouth, but before he could speak, the sound of military boots stepping on the concrete floor interrupted him and the prison door opened. The Cecil soldier stood at the door and said indifferently, "The Duke wants to see you."

Baron Sunderland and Viscount Trier suddenly raised their heads and looked at each other in surprise and surprise:

After waiting for so long with anxiety and confusion, is that Gawain Cecil finally going to summon the nobles of the South? !

...

In Cecil City, in the lounge next to the large conference hall of the government affairs hall, Gao Wen was waiting leisurely, and beside him were Heidi, who was standing quietly, and Amber, who was not at all quiet.

"Hey, hey, do you think those nobles will be persuaded by you?" Amber glanced at the stack of documents on the table next to him, and couldn't help but leaned in front of Gawain, "These things are almost fatal to them. hey"

"Is it okay to pay a little attention to the rules and etiquette?" Heidi frowned and couldn't help but said, "This is in the government affairs hall, you must at least be conscious..."

Amber put on his hips, plausibly said, "I'm paying attention, didn't you see I even came in through the door just now?"

The occasional bickering between the two has become commonplace. Gawain ignored them and said calmly, "Convince? I didn't plan to talk to them, and the choice is not in their hands."

"To be honest, since that's the case, why don't you just assign them all to the mines, dig stones until they die, and pull them out to let them give up their noble privileges," Amber said inexplicably. " Anyway, their territory has been occupied by you, their army has been beaten by you, and even their people have been locked in your cell..."

Gawain shook his head with a smile, then looked at Hetty: "Hetty, please explain to her."

Hetty glanced at Amber helplessly. Although he didn't want to ignore the shame of the elf, the elder still had to listen: "The population migration and new city construction project proposed by the ancestors is underway. Currently, Hosman City, Leslie City, The renovation and construction of Gelan City and Kant City are entering a new stage, but with the continuous concentration of the population and the continuous implementation of new decrees, resistance from various places is gradually emerging.

"The three areas of Leslie, Glenn, and Kant are in better condition. The biggest resistance comes from the Hosman area and almost all the old aristocratic territories outside these four new cities.

"The influence of the old aristocracy after the fall is still there, and it is quite troublesome. Many local rich peasants still have doubts about the new lord, and a considerable number of local scholars and businessmen are still supporting the old lord, or simply the old lord. It is very difficult for the second-level government office to recruit people in those areas, and the commercial transformation has also encountered a lot of obstacles.

"In the Pebo area in the west and around the Carroll area in the north, some exiled knights and noble soldiers have been transformed into bandits. They dare not approach the Cecil Corps' station, but they will frequently harass the countryside. The manpower is limited, and the strangulation progress of these exiled knight bandits is not satisfactory. And even worse, some exiled knights in the northwest region are in contact with Luan City, and they may be transformed into the armed forces of Luan Cathedral."

Amber's eyes widened: "And exiled knights and noble soldiers?! Aren't they all killed or captured!?"

"70,000 people, running around on the plains, will always slip through the net," Gawain shook his head, "and the 70,000 people that Hosman pulled up could not be all the nobles themselves, each noble must at least Do you leave a few knights and soldiers in your castle to guard the gate? After the news of the collapse of the allied nobles came back, the more astute knights who stayed behind ran away almost immediately, and they became exiled knights.”

"It's really a hassle..." Amber got a big head when he heard such a thing, "It won't take you a few days to take down the southern border, but it turns out that maintaining order is more troublesome than taking down the entire southern border..."

"Governance itself is more difficult than occupation," Gawain squinted at Amber, "It only takes a second for me to pull you off the windowsill, but it's been over a year and you still jump into the house, don't you?"

Amber: "...Hey, I provoked you to mess with you..."

Gawain ignored Amber's protest and just said to himself: "The troubles we have encountered are indeed very difficult, and if some of them are not handled properly, they may even lead to the retrogression and repetition of our new order construction, and some of them are troublesome. It's going to last a long time, maybe even a whole generation or two...but I'm not worried at all."

There were many footsteps coming from the hall next door, Gawain showed a smile and stood up.

"Except for the problems that folk customs are difficult to change and people's hearts are difficult to support, which must be solved by time, most of the other problems are actually concentrated on those nobles and the traditional order they maintain, and I am the origin of those nobles and the traditional order. ."

The attendant stood at the door of the Great Chamber, shouting in a loud and powerful voice

"Guardian of the South, pioneer of Anzu, founder of the kingdom, ruler of the Duchy of Cecil, Grand Duke Gawain Cecil arrives"

Sitting at the long table in the large conference hall, their faces were full of unease. The southern nobles who were still whispering a moment ago closed their mouths almost at the same time, as if dozens of invisible hands were stuck on their necks at the same time. Let these people raise their heads neatly and turn to the direction of the hall door.

They craned their necks like dozens of funny ducks.

Gawain, who was wearing the black duke's cloak, walked into the hall. He looked at the southern nobles who were hanging their necks on both sides of the long table. These people have been deliberately hung in the prison camp for a long time by him, and the longest time has even been in it. For more than 40 days, except for the few people who had just been captured from the rock fortress, the remaining nobles had already been greatly demoralized. The moment he saw their eyes, Gawain knew that today's affairs would be easy.

The nobles got up one after another. Although they were in prison for dozens of days, the etiquette actions engraved in their muscle memory allowed them to complete the most standard tribute process almost instinctively.

Gawain calmly accepted the salute of these losers, and strode to the top of the conference table. He didn't politely say any nonsense, but waved to the clerk who came in behind him: "Give it to them."

The two clerks held dozens of documents in their hands and began to distribute them in front of every nobleman on the scene. The nobles watched this scene in amazement and curiosity, and even dared to whisper in a low voice that this was not what they expected before.” The process of "summoning" is completely different, and this "Cecilian" rule makes them at a loss.

The nobles who received the documents immediately focused their attention on the prints in front of them: they first noticed the incredible uniformity of these prints, and their every character, every line of text, and every paragraph were accurate to the point of perfection. It's picky, even the best engraving craftsmen can't engrave such a printing plate, but soon, their curiosity about the "print" was dissipated by the specific content of the document.

The nobles who saw the contents of the document all showed expressions of astonishment.

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