......

When all five people had asked about it, Roland breathed a sigh of relief.

He leaned back in his chair, and Nightingale took the initiative to step behind him and rub his shoulders with both hands.

It took only one day from defeating the Duke to entering the city and occupying the lord's castle.

Things went even more smoothly than he expected, and when the duke was killed in battle, the vast majority of people chose to surrender. The mercenaries even turned against each other and knelt on the ground one after another, expressing their willingness to serve His Royal Highness the Prince.

So the mercenaries guarded the surrendered knights and nobles, and the First Army guarded the mercenaries, and a group of men marched mightily to the east, and arrived at the fortress of Changge at three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day. And the guards guarding the city gate immediately opened the city gate after seeing the head of Duke Lane and a large group of captured nobles, welcoming the four princes into the city.

Roland did not summon all the nobles in the city with great fanfare and announce to them the ownership of the city, but went to the lord's castle as soon as possible.

The castle is located on the highest point in the center of the fortress, like a city within a city. Skirmishes broke out into the castle area, and after Nightingale blew open the gate of the garden with a bag of explosives, more than twenty guards who did not follow the Duke tried to prevent Roland from entering, but were killed by the First Army, who used crossbows in their stubborn resistance, wounding five of them, two of them seriously, but Nanava, who was acting with the army, immediately healed them.

Ten other guards tried to secretly escape from the back door of the castle with the duke's family, but they were discovered by lightning from the air and immediately rounded up. The Duke's Lady and her two sons were tied up - until this time they had remained in the dark, ignorant of the Duke's defeat.

After taking control of the Lord's Castle, the First Army of Frontier Town immediately took over the defense of the castle district. It has to be said that Duke Lane's castle is three or four times larger than that of the border town, and the shape is much grander. Six watchtowers make up its hexagonal outline, and the main tower in the middle is almost five stories tall – a rare high-rise building of its time. There are residences, warehouses, stables, and even a private cell in the basement of the castle.

He stuffed the valuable captives into cells along with the duke's family, and the civilians were disbanded, while the mercenaries confiscated their weapons and placed them in unused rooms in the garden. At the same time, a few leaders were singled out to pay high salaries, and let them take care of themselves - in Roland's eyes, the North Slope mines were the best place for these speculators, but he had more important things to do now.

That's the most important part of the Loot after a battle - commonly known as touching the corpse.

Roland took a group of witches to turn the castle up and down, even the Divine Punishment Stone placed in the vault and the secret room, and the results were simply touching. The two large boxes of golden dragons found in the basement warehouse alone are conservatively estimated to be as many as 10,000. Nightingale found dozens of eyeball-sized gems in the dark compartment of the bedroom, and Echo found a dark room behind the fireplace. Upon entering the secret room, it was not only filled with various gold artifacts, such as scepters, tiaras, etc., but also many dazzling pieces of jewelry, neatly hung on wooden shelves on the walls.

That's the wealth of a duke!

Roland looked at this huge wealth, and then thought about the ore revenue of less than five hundred golden dragons in the autumn and winter seasons of the border town, and his heart was full of emotion. This is the allure of plunder, and if it were not for the highly developed industrial society, he would probably have indulged in it.

But sighing and sighing, these things still have to be accepted. In the foreseeable future, the working population of the frontier towns will increase dramatically, and he will need to import large sums of money to import grain from other places before the development of territorial agriculture.

So the hummingbird lightened the boxes of treasure, and the iron axe and the prince's personal guard were responsible for escorting it, and brought the loot back to his castle through the town number to store it. Considering the time it takes to enchant large items, it takes about three days to ship them all.

This is also the reason why Roland decided not to ask for the golden dragon as a ransom the next day. He had benefited greatly from eating up a duke, and now he needed more people and livestock.

"Your Highness, are you really only here for a week?" asked the nightingale.

"What's wrong?" Roland closed his eyes, enjoying the tingling sensation over his shoulder.

"This is the biggest city in the West, isn't it?" she said softly, "don't you want to stay in this more prosperous place than the border town?"

"The forces of the Long Song Fortress are intricate, and they are not suitable for doing what I want to do. It's okay to keep things as they are, but if you want to make changes, you're only going to get more and more resistance, and I can't just eradicate them all right now. Roland smiled, "Of course, the most important thing is that the people here are deeply influenced by the church, and it is difficult to accept you in the short term. I've said I want witches to walk the streets freely, and Bordertown has done that now. ”

"Well," said Nightingale softly, "you made good on your promise. ”

Early in the morning of the third day, Perot hastily brought his list, and Roland received him in the hall as was customary.

"Your Highness, I have chosen. ”

"I'll see. Roland took the list. As expected, the majority of the list was serfs with a score of 2, about 800 people, 100 cattle and 300 sheep accounted for a total of 900 points, and the rest were craftsmen of all kinds.

"Your Highness, is this okay?"

"Of course, as long as you make up 3,000 points. Roland returned the list to Perro, "When can you gather all these people and supplies?"

"Today, it's an arrangement I made based on the property and the people in the Honeysuckle Territory. However, Your Highness, if you want to bring them back to the border town, it may take about half a month. ”

"You'll have to do it yourself," Roland tapped on the table, "You should have experience organizing caravan transports, right?"

"Yes, Your Highness. Perot hesitated, "Then my father ......"

"You can take him back to-day," the prince laughed, handing him a roll of parchment, "and if you think there is no problem, sign it and put your fingerprint on it." ”

"It's ...... Agency contract?" Pero glanced at the beginning, his voice became excited, "Have you agreed to grant the agency to the Honeysuckle family?" He flattened the paper roll and began to read the deed carefully.

The prudence shown by the other party made Roland nod in satisfaction - as a collaborator, paying attention to the contract is the most basic requirement.

After a moment, Perrot raised his head, "The above is basically the same as what you told me yesterday, but there is a little ......" He pointed to the end of the contract, "Your Highness, shouldn't my father's name be written here? ”

Roland smiled, "Of course not, it's you, not your father, who is discussing the matter of surrogacy with me." So, naturally, your name is written at the end of this contract. ”

Perot was stunned for a moment, and asked in disbelief: "Your Highness, do you mean to let me come-"

"That's right, you will take the place of the Duke and take charge of the Changge Fortress for me. Roland nodded, "If the contract goes well, you can continue to own the city after I become king." He paused, then put away his smile, "But if you break the contract, you'll end up like the Duke - if I can storm the fortress once, I can do it the same a second time." Well done, Mr. Ambassador. (To be continued.) )