Forty-six days.
Baron Thunderland sat quietly on his single bed. He faced the wall and counted the engravings on the wall from the beginning to the end, then from the end to the end.
He had been in this cell for forty-six days.
As a member of the nobles in the Southern Territory who responded to Count Hoffman's call, he knew that he was very lucky. Due to his low rank, he did not have the qualifications to approach Count Hoffman's troops. Therefore, he was lucky enough to escape the bombardment on Gravel Ridge. After that, due to his low rank, he was left far behind by the troops and became one of the first batch of nobles to be captured by Cecil's men. He did not have to suffer the ordeal of escaping day and night in the wilderness.
But he did not know how long his' luck 'would last.
The defeat of the noble allied army seemed to be a matter of the last century. That inspiring but tragic end to the war had now become a nightmare that was deliberately avoided but kept replaying in his mind. Baron Thunderland knew that in the entire Southern Territory, other than the Cecil family and a small number of people who were loyal to Cecil in advance, all the nobles were finished. Even though he still had a trace of fantasy when he was first locked in this cell that Cecil's men would lose the subsequent battle and eventually reach a stalemate with the nobles in the Southern Territory, what he waited for was new 'cellmates' one after another.
Familiar faces were thrown into the cell one after another. Every face meant that a new piece of land had fallen into the hands of Cecil's men. When more than half of the nobles in the Southern Territory appeared in this' prisoner camp ', Viscount Thunderland accepted the fact that there would be no turning back.
Now, like all the other noble captives, he could only wait quietly in these cells, waiting for Gawain to come out. Duke Cecil to summon him one day and give him a clear result.
There was a commotion in the cell next door.
Baron Thunderland looked up and saw that his "cellmate," Viscount Terrell, who was locked in the same room as him, had also looked up. The two of them listened to the movements in the cell next door. After a moment, they looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly with bitter smiles.
"It's the few who were captured from Rock Fortress," Viscount Terrell said with a bitter smile. "It seems that they haven't adapted to the 'rules' here."
"It was the same when we first started," Baron Thunderland responded with a bitter smile. "Listen, they asked the guards to salute them, and asked for red wine and pillows. They even emphasized the issue of ransom … I haven't heard this for a long time."
The people living in the cell next door were imprisoned a few days ago. They came from Rock Fortress. Baron Thunderland once thought that these people had escaped Cecil's pursuit and returned to their respective territories. But now he knew that they were just hiding in the fortress in the north.
These new 'cellmates' brought shocking news to the noble prisoners in the prisoner camp. According to their description, Rock Fortress had fallen. Under the fierce attack of Cecil's men, the legendary fortress lasted less than two days.
According to some accounts, the real attack only lasted about half a day. Two days included the time when Cecil's men set up camp.
Baron Thunderland had lived here for forty-six days. He had successfully adapted and accepted the current situation, but it was clear that the newcomers still needed some time to understand the situation.
When the movement in the cell next door finally stopped, Viscount Terrell asked, "What do you think of Gwen? What does Duke Cecil want? "
"Perhaps the unconditional loyalty of all the nobles in the Southern Territory, just like loyalty to the king," Baron Thunderland said his guess. "We can already see that this war was actually driven by him from the beginning to the end. He obviously wants to take back what belongs to him. The Southern Territory will once again become the Duchy of Cecil."
"… The Duchy of Cecil." Viscount Terrell was silent for a moment and sighed. "After he did not ask for a ransom, I thought so."
Baron Thunderland muttered, "It could be worse …"
Viscount Terrell wanted to ask what the 'worse' meant, but before he could speak, the sound of military boots stepping on the concrete floor interrupted him. The cell door opened, and Cecil's soldiers in enchanted armor stood at the door and said in a cold tone, "The duke wants to see you."
Baron Thunderland and Viscount Terrell abruptly raised their heads and looked at each other in surprise and delight.
After waiting so long in fear and bewilderment, that Gawain? Is Cecil finally going to summon the nobles in the Southern Territory?!
…
In Cecil City, in the lounge next to the large conference hall of the government office, Gwen was waiting leisurely. Beside him was Heti who stood quietly and Amber who was not quiet at all.
"Hey, hey, do you think those nobles will be persuaded by you?" Amber glanced at the stack of documents on the table next to her and could not help but come up to Gwen. "These things are almost fatal to them —"
"Can you pay a little attention to the rules and etiquette?" Heti frowned and could not help but say, "This is the government office, you should at least have some self-awareness …"
Amber put her hands on her hips and said eloquently, "I'm paying attention. I even came in through the door, didn't you see?"
The occasional bickering between the two of them was already a common occurrence. Gawain ignored it, and instead said unhurriedly, "Convince? I don't intend to talk to them, the choice is not in their hands. "
"To be honest, if that's the case, why don't you just send them to the mines and let them dig until they die? Why do you have to pull them out and let them 'voluntarily' give up their noble privileges?" Amber said puzzledly. "Anyway, their territories have all been taken over by you, and their army has been wiped out by you. Even their people have been locked up in your cell …"
Gwen smiled and shook his head, then looked at Heti. "Heti, explain it to her."
Heti looked at Amber helplessly. Although she did not want to talk to the disgrace of the elves, she still had to listen to her elders. "The population migration and new city construction projects proposed by the ancestors are underway. At present, the transformation and construction of Hosman City, Lesley City, Galen City, and Kant City have entered a new stage. But with the increasing population and the continuous implementation of the new government order, the resistance in various places is gradually emerging.
"The situation in Lesley City, Galen City, and Kant City is better. The biggest resistance comes from Hosman City, and almost all the old noble territories outside of these four new cities.
"The impact of the fall of the old nobles is still there, and it is quite tricky. Many local rich farmers still have doubts about the new lords, and a considerable number of local scholars and merchants still support the old lords, or are simply the 'private' of the old lords. It is very difficult for the second-level government office to recruit people in those areas, and at the same time, the commercial transformation has also encountered a lot of obstacles.
"In the Peibo region in the west and the Calore region in the north, some exiled Knight and noble soldiers have turned into bandits. They dare not get close to the Cecil Regiment, but they frequently attack the villages. Due to the limited manpower of the Cecil Regiment, the strangulation of these exiled Knight bandits is not going well. And worse, some of the exiled Knight in the northwest are in contact with Louen City, and they may turn into the armed forces of the Louen Cathedral. "
Amber's eyes widened. "There are exiled Knight and noble soldiers? Haven't they all been killed or captured? "
"Seventy thousand men. Running all over the plains, there's bound to be some who slipped through the net." Gawain shook his head. "Plus, the seventy thousand men that Horseman brought up can't possibly be the entire noble army. Every noble has to at least leave a few knights and soldiers to guard the castle, right? When the news of the defeat of the noble coalition came back, the more astute Knight who stayed behind almost immediately ran away, and they became the exiled Knight. "
"It's really troublesome." Amber had a headache when she heard about it. "It only took you a few days to conquer the Southern Territory, but it's more troublesome to maintain order than conquering the whole Southern Territory."
"Governing is more difficult than conquering," Gwen squinted at Amber. "It only takes a second for me to pull you down from the windowsill, but it has been more than a year, haven't you still jumped into the house through the window?"
Amber was speechless. "Hey, what did I do to provoke you?"
Gwen ignored Amber's protest and just said, "The problems we have encountered are really tricky, and some of them may even lead to regression and reversal in the construction of our new order if not handled properly. Some of the problems will last for a long time, and may even last for a generation or two. But I am not worried at all."
Many footsteps could be heard coming from the hall next door. Gawain smiled and stood up.
"Except for the problems that need time to solve, most of the rest of the problems are actually concentrated on the nobles and the traditional order they maintain. And I am the origin of those nobles and the traditional order."
The attendant stood in front of the door of the grand conference hall and shouted in a loud and powerful voice.
"The guardian of the Southern Territory, the pioneer of Ansu, the founder of the kingdom, the ruler of the Principality of Cecil, Gwen? The Grand Duke of Cecil has arrived — "
Sitting at the long table in the grand conference hall, the nobles of the Southern Territory, who were whispering a moment ago, shut their mouths almost at the same time. It was as if dozens of pairs of invisible hands had gripped their necks at the same time, making these people raise their heads neatly and turn in the direction of the hall's door.
They craned their necks like dozens of funny ducks.
Gwen, wearing a black duke's cloak, walked into the hall. He looked at the nobles of the Southern Territory who were craning their necks on both sides of the long table. He had deliberately left these people in the captive camp for a long time, and the longest time they had been there was even more than 40 days. Except for a few people who had just been captured from Firmrock Fortress, the rest of the nobles had been greatly discouraged. The moment he saw their eyes, Gwen knew that today's matter would be easy.
The nobles got up one after another. Although they had been in prison for dozens of days, the etiquette engraved in their muscle memory made them almost instinctively complete the most standard salute process.
Gwen calmly accepted the salutes of these losers and strode to the head of the conference table. He did not say any nonsense, but waved his hand to the clerk who followed behind him. "Give them the documents."
Two clerks held dozens of documents in their hands and began to distribute them to every nobleman present. The noblemen looked at this scene in astonishment and curiosity, and some even mustered up the courage to whisper to each other. This was completely different from the process of the "summon" they had expected. This "Cecil style" rule made them feel at a loss.
The nobles who received the documents immediately focused on the printed matter in front of them. They first noticed that the printed matter was incredibly uniform. Every character, line, and paragraph was impeccably accurate. Even the best engraver could not engrave such a printing plate. But soon, their curiosity about the "printed matter" was dispelled by the specific content of the documents.
The nobles who saw the content of the documents were all shocked.
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