The castle study of the fortress was much larger than the town office, with tall bookcases occupying the left and right walls, and the edges of the legs were inlaid with gilded metal trim, and they were stuffed with a variety of books. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info read all the way, from miscellaneous epics to historical travelogues. To make it easier to access the books on the top floor, there is also a wooden escalator next to the bookcase.

Presumably for safety reasons, the only window in the study was only half a person high, and an iron railing was installed on the outside. When the light shines into the house from the outside, a narrow beam of light can be clearly seen spilling onto the old plush carpet, which feels quite independent.

If it were Anna, he would love this place, Roland thought, but for him, a small-town office with floor-to-ceiling windows and always bright rooms would be more to his liking. Even though it's small, it's full of comfort.

As for the nightingale, you can see how much she doesn't like it here, just by the way she often dozes off by the fireplace.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door outside.

"Come in," Roland put the Secret History of the West back in his cupboard.

"Your Highness," Perro Hermon said as he walked into the study, placing a stack of blank papers on the table, "and the statistics you asked me to do are complete. ”

Roland returned to his desk and carefully looked through the list of nobles he handed over, "This is all the remaining nobles in the West, right?"

"Yes," Perrault explained briefly, "I divided them into guilty and innocent categories, and then sorted them by family name. Of the sixty-four guilty nobles, one hundred and thirty-seven refused to take part in the rebellion, or were unaware of it, and the latter were mostly freelancers, knights, and minor nobles. ”

Roland flipped to the top of the list, and at the top of the list was Roman Candi, Earl of Maple Leaf. According to Iron Axe's report, this great nobleman hid in a wine barrel in the basement after the mansion was breached, and was terrified by the soldiers of the First Army when he searched for his pants, and he was also the highest-ranking rebel captured in this unification battle.

The next whole page is devoted to the nobles of the Maple Leaf family, such as the two sons, other relatives, and the knights of the Split Seal.

Roland quickly flipped to the end, and then folded the statistical table with satisfaction, "Good job." ”

In short, the six families of the Westlands have become history - the four families of Lion Lion, Maple Leaf, Running Wolf and Wild Rose will never have a chance to turn over again, although Honeysuckle and Elk have survived, they are no longer fiefdom nobles in the sense of the past, and all the power of the Westland will be in his hands.

"Your Highness......" Perro said after a moment's hesitation, "the guilty and not guilty verdicts on the list were provided to me by Mr. Iron Axe, will it be ...... There could have been a miscalculation?"

Roland couldn't help but chuckle twice, "He is very good at interrogation, and he didn't torture to extract confessions, so I think the final verdict can still be trusted." ”

In fact, it was just a pretense, and after all the captured nobles were imprisoned in the dungeon, the nightingale was responsible for identifying them - just ask a few simple questions to find out whether the other party was involved in the rebellion. This is also the reason why Roland dares to clean up the nobles with a heavy hand, with the assistance of Nightingale, he can really not let go of a bad person, nor wronged a good person. Neither play the same game, nor pretend to be enlightened, and let the troublemakers go.

"That'...... What are you going to do with these guilty nobles?"

"What's the matter," Roland looked up and glanced at Perro, "and your friends in there?"

"No, Your Highness," the latter shook his head, "I just thought that if you put them all to death, it might be detrimental to your future reign." ”

"You demanded blood a week ago," the prince raised his eyebrows with interest, "and now you want to let them go?"

"I do want to send all these people to hell, but even if I strangle them to death with my own hands, I can't do anything back...... On the contrary, it may provoke the disgust of other nobles towards honeysuckle. And if the reputation of the executions of nobles spreads, other cities may rise against your rule. ”

Hearing this, Roland was a little surprised, this kind of thinking is indeed the way of thinking of mature politicians, putting aside personal emotions, more about weighing interests...... It seems that this turn of events did not make him more disgusted with fighting, but rather made him mature.

"It's okay to tell you in advance," he said, standing up and walking to the small window, "I'll tell everyone what happened, and then publicly sentence all the rebels in the square, including nobles, guards, servants, and mercenaries...... The culprits, the direct initiators of the rebellion, and the villains with the blood of the people on their hands, were sentenced to be hanged, while the accomplices were stripped of their titles and sent to the North Slope Mines for labor reform. ”

"According to this method of disposal, there are only five or six hanged nobles, the Earl of Elk and the Viscount of Running Wolf have already died on the battlefield on the spot, and the rest of the people are equivalent to saving a life with their titles. When the news got out, I don't think anyone would think that the sentence was too harsh - after all, betraying the royal family is a felony in itself. ”

Perro breathed a sigh of relief, "Your Highness is merciful. ”

When the eldest son of the Honeysuckle family left, Roland felt a sense of fulfillment that he had never felt before.

This operation completely cleared the way for him to integrate the western frontier, and in the future, whether it is the formulation of laws or the promulgation of policies, it will be unimpeded in this vast land.

What's more, he gained the support of a large number of people and the aristocracy - and after weeding out the opponents, all that remained were potential supporters.

The aristocracy, in particular, had lost their feudal power and the legal authority of the territory, and if they wanted to live comfortably, they had to follow their own policy closely and spare no effort to promote it. Since the nobles had far more resources in their hands than the commoners, it was not difficult to reap the benefits of them with a little brain.

And once they taste the sweetness, they will never want to go back to the hard life they once had - after all, these little nobles have not enjoyed the benefits of the territory to themselves, and if they do not operate well, they will have to pay for it. Soon they will realize that they can easily live a life they never imagined if they just play chess according to the rules.

There is no doubt that the city plan has taken another big step forward.

Roland wiped away the condensation from the window, and looked through the blurred window at the city shrouded in snow - since he was going to stay here for a while, he would often come to Changge Fortress to deal with government affairs in the future, so he could simply transform this study into a prince's office according to his own preferences.

Like what...... Let's start with floor-to-ceiling windows. (To be continued.) )