Chapter 455 Summoning

Forty-six days.

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

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

As a member of the southern nobles who initially rose up in response to Count Horsman, he knew that he was very lucky - due to his low title, he was not qualified to get close to Count Horsman's team, so he narrowly escaped. He participated in the shelling on Gravel Ridge, and later due to his low title, he was left far behind by the large army when fleeing. As a result, he became one of the first batch of nobles to be captured by the Cecil people, but there were few He endured the ordeal of fleeing day and night in the wilderness.

But he doesn’t know how long his “lucky” can last.

The defeat of the noble coalition seems to have happened in the last century. That exciting expedition that ended in tragedy has now become a nightmare that is deliberately avoided but constantly replayed in the mind. , Baron Sunderland knew that, except for the Cecil family and a small number of people who had pledged their allegiance to Cecil in advance, all the nobles in the entire southern territory were finished - even though he had been so kind when he was just put into this cell. A trace of fantasy, imagining that the Cecil people would lose in the subsequent battles and finally reach a stalemate reconciliation with the southern nobles, but what he waited for in the end was one new "inmate" after another——

Familiar faces were thrown into the cells one after another. Each face meant that a new land fell into the hands of the Cecil people. When more than half of the nobles in the south appeared in this "prisoner of war camp" "After that, Viscount Sunderland accepted the fact that there would be no turning around.

Now, like all other noble prisoners, he can only stay quietly in these cells, waiting for Duke Gawain Cecil to summon him one day and give him a Clear results are coming.

There was a commotion from the cell next door.

Baron Sunderland raised his head and saw that his "prisonmate" Viscount Trier, who was locked in the same room with him, also raised his head. The two of them listened to the movement in the cell next door for a moment. Then they looked at each other, shook their heads helplessly and smiled bitterly.

"They are the ones captured from the Rock Fortress," Viscount Trier said with a wry smile, "It seems they haven't adapted to the 'rules' here yet."

" 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 asked for red wine and pillows, and even emphasized the issue of ransom... I haven't listened for a long time. "These are the words."

The people living in the next cell were imprisoned just a few days ago. They came from the Rock Fortress. Baron Sunderland once thought that these people had escaped from the Cecil people. They were hunted down and returned to their respective territories, but now it was discovered that they had just hid in the fortress in the north.

These new "inmates" brought amazing benefits to the noble prisoners in the prison camp.According to their description, the Rock Fortress had fallen - under the fierce attack of the Cecil people, the legendary fortress lasted less than two days.

According to some accounts, the actual attack only lasted about half a day, and the two days included the time 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 newcomers still need a period of buffering to understand the situation.

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

"Perhaps. All the nobles in the south are unconditionally loyal, just like they are loyal to the king," Baron Sunderland said about his speculation, "We can already see that he was actually driving this war from beginning to end, and he obviously wanted to get back what belongs to him. His own things - the southern territory will become the Principality of Cecil again."

"...The Principality of Cecil," Viscount Trier was silent for a moment and sighed, "after he delayed asking for ransom. After that, I thought so."

Baron Sunderland muttered: "It could be worse..."

Viscount Trier wanted to ask what the other party said. What does "worse" mean? But before he could speak, he was interrupted by the sound of military boots on the cement floor - the cell door opened, and Cecil's soldier wearing magic armor stood at the door, speaking with indifference. He said in a tone of voice: "The Duke wants to see you."

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

In After waiting in fear and confusion for so long, is Gawain Cecil finally going to summon the nobles in the south? !

......

In Cecil City, in the lounge next to the large conference hall of the Government Affairs Hall, Gawain was waiting leisurely. Next to him were Hetty and a little girl who were standing quietly. Not quiet amber.

"Hey, hey, do you think those nobles will be persuaded by you?" Amber glanced at the pile of documents on the table next to him, and couldn't help but approach Gawain, "These things It's almost fatal for them -"

"Can you pay attention to the rules and etiquette?" Hedy frowned and couldn't help but said, "This is the Government Affairs Office, you must at least do it. Be aware of it..."

Hubo put his hands on her hips and said plausibly: "I was paying attention. Didn't you see that I came in through the door just now?"

The two of them occasionally quarreled. It was already commonplace. Gawain simply ignored these and said calmly: "Persuasion? I didn't intend to talk to them, and the choice is not in their hands."

"To be honest "In that case, why don't you just send them all to the mines and dig out rocks until they die? Why don't you pull them out and ask them to 'voluntarily' give up their noble privileges?" Amber said puzzledly, "Anyway All their territory has been taken over by you, heTheir army has also been defeated by you, and even their people have been locked up in your cell..."

Gawain smiled and shook his head, then looked at Hetty: "Hetty , you explain it to her. "

Hetty glanced at Amber helplessly. Although she did not want to pay attention to the shame of this elf, the elders still wanted to listen: "The population relocation and new city construction projects proposed by our ancestors are in progress. The renovation and construction of Sman City, Leslie City, Glen City, and Kande City are all entering a new stage. However, as the population continues to concentrate and new policies are implemented, resistance from various places is gradually emerging.

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

“In the Pepo region in the west and the Carroll region in the north, some exiled knights and noble soldiers have been transformed into bandits. They dare not approach the Cecil Corps’ garrison, but they will frequently harass them. In the countryside, due to the limited manpower of the Cecil Corps, the progress of strangling these exiled knights and robbers is not satisfactory. What's worse, some exiled knights in the northwest are in contact with Luan City, and they may be transformed into Luan Cathedral. "

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

" With thousands of people running around on the plains, there will always be someone who slips through the net." Gawain shook his head, "And the 70,000 people that Horsman pulled up at the beginning cannot be the entire noble army. Each noble must at least be in his own army. There were a few guard knights and soldiers left in the castle, right? After the news of the defeat of the noble coalition came back, the more alert among the remaining knights ran away almost immediately, and they became exiled knights."

"What a troublesome thing..." Amber was confused when she heard this. "It only took you a few days to conquer the Southern Territory. How come maintaining order is more troublesome than conquering the entire Southern Territory..."< /p>

“Governance itself is more difficult than occupation,” Gawain glanced at Amber sideways, “It only takes one second for me to pull you off the window sill, but it has been more than a year and you still jump out of the window. House?"

Hu Hu: "...Oh, I provoked you..."

Gawain ignored Hu Hu's protest and just said to himself: "We These troubles are indeed very difficult, and some of them, if not handled properly, may even lead to regression and repetition in the construction of our new order. Some of these troubles will last for a long time, and may even last for a whole generation or two... But I Not worried at all. ”

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

“Except for problems that must rely on time to solve such as folk customs are hard to change and people’s hearts are hard to cultivate, most of the other problems are actually concentrated on those nobles and the traditional order they maintain, and I am Those nobles and the origin of the traditional order."

The attendant stood in front of the large conference hall and shouted in a loud and powerful voice-

"Guardian of the South, pioneering by Ansu. The founder of the kingdom, the ruler of the Principality of Cecil, Grand Duke Gawain Cecil has arrived——"

Sitting at the long table in the large conference hall, his face full of anxiety, in front of The southern nobles who were still whispering for a moment closed their mouths almost at the same time, as if dozens of invisible hands were holding their necks at the same time, causing these people to raise their heads neatly and turn in the direction of the hall door.

They stretched their necks like dozens of funny ducks.

Gawain, wearing a black ducal coat, walked into the hall. He looked at the southern nobles stretching their necks on both sides of the long table - these people had been deliberately left to dry in the prison camp for a long time by him. The longest one had even stayed there for more than forty days. Except for the few people who had just been captured from the Rock Fortress, the remaining nobles had already been greatly discouraged. The moment Gawain saw their eyes, I just knew things would be easy today.

The nobles stood up one after another. Although they had been in jail for dozens of days, the etiquette movements engraved in their muscle memory still allowed them to complete the most standard salute process almost instinctively.

Gawain calmly accepted the tributes from these losers, and strode to the top of the conference table. He did not say any nonsense, but waved to the clerk who followed him: "Send it to them. "

The two clerks held dozens of documents in their hands and began to distribute them to every noble at the scene. The nobles looked at this scene in shock and curiosity, and even dared to whisper. There was a discussion - this was completely different from the "summoning" process they had expected, and this "Cecil-style" rule made them at a loss.

The nobles who received the document immediately focused on the printed matter in front of them: they first noticed the incredible uniformity of these printed matter, every character, every line of text, every Each segment was so accurate that even the best engraving craftsmen would not be able to carve such a printing plate. However, their curiosity about the "printed matter" was soon distracted by the specific content of the document. .

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