The rebel leader, Alang, hesitated for a moment before handing over his weapon to Raymond and asking for his surrender.
The rebel troops were a little reluctant, but Juan remembered Clayon's instructions. When he saw that the rebel leader had surrendered, he made a prompt decision to allow it.
The battle was over. Under the strict gazes of the old guards and local nobles, the rebellious serfs came out of their strongholds in groups of three to five and knelt down to surrender.
The rebels were very strict. Apart from clothes, bedding, and some pots and pans, they were not allowed to have any weapons, not even hoes or pitchforks. They were also not allowed to have any gold, silver, jewels, or religious items. They had to hand everything over.
If they were found to have smuggled anything, they would be executed on the spot.
This was a very strict order, but the rebellious serfs were relieved after hearing it.
With such strict requirements and strict orders, it didn't seem like they were going to kill the captives. If the knights really wanted to kill the captives, it wouldn't be so troublesome.
The rebels set up a camp for the captives. Dozens of big pots were set up, ready to cook food for the rebellious serfs.
Juan was going to give the rebellious serfs black bread, but Count Durin and Count Larotte immediately objected. They thought that although the rebellious serfs were pardonable, they didn't deserve the black bread. It was fine as long as they didn't starve to death. Besides, if the serfs were too full, what if they had the strength to resist?
Juan thought for a moment and felt that it made sense. The captives didn't need such good treatment.
Porridge was being cooked in the big pot. This porridge was not the fragrant and oily porridge that the army ate. Instead, it was made from old grains and some miscellaneous grains from the bottom of the warehouse (chestnuts, dried bean pods, acorns, and ferns), some chopped vegetables, and water. Not only did it not have a single drop of oil, it was also very thin!
But for the rebellious serfs, it was already the most delicious food.
The smell of the porridge drifted in the summer air. The rebellious serfs almost couldn't stand still. Their hair was messy, their faces dirty, their faces dirty, and their clothes ragged, the rebellious serfs slowly gathered together. In addition to the rebellious youths, there were also the old, the sick, the sick, and the women. Many of the women didn't even have clothes to wear. No matter how hard they tried to cover themselves, some of them were still exposed. They were ashamed and angry.
In the camp of the old Local Guards, the leader of the rebel army, A 'lang, was captured and interrogated. He confessed everything, begging Juan not to kill the captives and surrenders. He was willing to exchange his life for everyone's.
After following Laing for a while, Juan also learned a lot. On the surface, he looked like he was in a very difficult situation. He watched Alang's begging for a long time before he reluctantly agreed to let the rebellious serfs.
The moment Juan's, Alang's, knelt in front of the camp, sobbing....
Raymond happened to be from Alang's hometown, so Juan asked Raymond to take him to eat something first.
Raymond took Alang to the Old Guard's camp and found a place to sit down. Because he was shackled, and because he knew that if he caused trouble, the 20,000 brothers and sisters outside would suffer. The rebel leader sighed and took a bowl of porridge from Raymond's hand. "Long time no see … So, you're now an old guard? You've brought the knights with you! You brought them here to defeat us?! "
Raymond was also silent. His childhood playmate was right in front of him, so familiar, yet so unfamiliar. They used to play together, go into the forest to pick wild fruits, catch fish in the river together, and when they grew up, they also served as slaves for the knights.
On the night of the rebellion, Alang chose to resist, while Raymond chose to escape.
Different choices would lead to different paths in life. When they met again, Raymond was already an old guard with illustrious achievements. He was wearing a half-body plate armor, a dwarven exquisite halberd, and a sword at his waist. His leather boots were polished to a bright shine. Where did he look like a serf at all?
"Lake is dead." Raymond was silent for a while and said, "Do you remember him?"
"What about his two sisters?" Alang was taken aback.
"They're dead too. They were killed by the Orcs while escaping. My mother, brother, and I almost died," Raymond said sadly, "It's not easy for anyone, Alang."
"Ai, yes, it's not easy for anyone. I was a rebel, so I had to be hanged. You were a fugitive slave, so you had to be hanged too!" The rebel leader gritted his teeth and said, "We had to die no matter what. It was either escaping or rebelling. You survived, and so did I. That's enough!"
"Alang, why did you …" Raymond wanted to say something but stopped.
"Why? You're asking me why? " At the mention of this, A 'lang's expression became agitated again. He almost cursed out loud, "What else can we do if we can't survive? We don't have anything to eat. What else can we do? Watch ourselves starve to death? "
The shackles on his ankles rattled loudly.
Looking at his own hysterical appearance, Raymond suddenly rejoiced. He rejoiced that he had chosen to escape to Duke Ryan's territory and live a good life from then on.
Alang realized that the person in front of him wasn't his childhood playmate but an old guard. He sat down and ate the porridge vigorously as though he was trying to get something back.
As he ate, big drops of tears rolled down his cheeks as he said, "It's been a few days."
"A few days?" Raymond asked curiously.
"We've run out of food for a few days. We have to carry more than a hundred corpses out of the stronghold every day." Alang cried as he said, "Your attacks are too ferocious. Every place you attack is destroyed. We're usually scattered. How can we have so much food?"
"Apologies, but this is the order of the Duke." Raymond was embarrassed. It was the first time the old guard felt ashamed. "We have to quell the rebellion as soon as possible."
"The Duke? The Duke! " Alan clenched his teeth and tried to suppress his anger. "All you know is the Duke. Do you know how the Duke of Lyonnaise treated us?!"
"He tricked our former leader, saying that he was willing to help us and solve our problems. We were happy and chose to surrender, but the duke pretended to give us money and food to send us home. Then he locked up the surrendered serfs in the hills and massacred them!" A 'lang's eyes were bloodshot. "Eight thousand people, eight thousand brothers and sisters, were killed by the duke! Tell me, Raymond, what happened to the Duke of Lyonnasser? "
"He's dead. He was killed by a vampire." Raymond knew that the Duke had been instigated by his servants to kill people.
"Good job! The Duke deserved to die! "
"Alang!" Raymond was also angry. "Duke Laing is different from him!"
"These nobles and knights are all bastards!"
As soon as the rebel leader said this, the atmosphere in the camp changed.
Pairs of angry eyes stared at the rebel leader. An old guard walked up and slapped the rebel leader's face. "Shut up, you idiot. I don't care about anything else, but if you don't want to die, don't say anything bad about the Duke. You can try. I'm telling you, I was a serf just like you. I farmed by the Shinon River."
"I was a serf too! I was a hunter in Chalon Forest! "
"I was a serf too! I was a fisherman in Redfish Village! "
"I was a serf! Before the Duke recruited me, I was a butcher! "
"We were all serfs!"
"Without Duke Laing, we wouldn't be where we are today!"
The old guards squeezed forward. These soldiers who had fought their way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood all had a terrifying aura. Ah Lang was so scared that his face turned pale and he couldn't speak. Lei Meng persuaded him for a while before the old guards dispersed.
"I told you, Duke Laing is different from them." Sitting down again, Raymond continued: "Over there, Duke Ryan is loved and respected by everyone. Over there, no one starves. As long as you work hard, everyone has meat to eat. Farming is even more so. The Duke collects a fixed amount of tax from us. As long as we pay enough to the Duke, the rest is ours."
Alang muttered something in a low voice. Raymond didn't hear what he said clearly.
"Oh, I remember that we once helped Lyonnesse with a large amount of food!" Raymond thought of something when Alang didn't speak. He said doubtfully, "Although it's almost two years old, it should be enough to solve the food shortage!"
"Relief food? What nonsense are you talking about, Raymond? " Alang sneered and picked up his spoon to eat his porridge. He said sarcastically, "Even the serfs who were willing to work for the knights didn't receive any relief food, let alone us rebellious serfs. The relief wasn't for us, but for the knights in the castles, right?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Us knights and nobles didn't see any relief food either." At this time, a voice came from behind. It was Count Larotte, who was wearing a Brittanian Count costume with lace cuffs. He first nodded politely, then smiled and said, "Mr. Alang, do you want to know where the relief grain went?"
"How would I know?" Alang said rudely. However, his eyes were twinkling. Obviously, he was very interested.
"A few ships of relief food were transported into the castle of Lyonnesse by Bordero's Poseidon fleet. Originally, the relief food was sent by the southern duchies to help Lyonnesse." Count Larotte said with a smile, "On the second day, the relief food was sold in the market of the castle of Lyonnesse. The price was much lower than the cost price. It didn't take long for the relief food to be sold out by the nobles and merchants in the north of Lyonnesse."
"…" Alang clenched his fist.
"From the beginning to the end, us nobles of the old Muxilon never saw a single relief food." Larotte's smile was full of bitterness. "Of course, it's not that we didn't get any at all. We just had to buy it with money. We've always been ostracized like this. It's not surprising."
Hearing Count Rarotte's words, the old guards sighed. Everyone was a serf, so they naturally knew some of the tricks that the knights liked to play. Many of them also sighed that it was fortunate that it was Duke Ryan. Fortunately, it was him.
In any case, with the elimination of the last group of serfs, all the rebellions in the south of Lyonnesse had been quelled.
Peace had finally arrived.
… I'm Duke Laing. Good dividing line …
Old World, Brittany, Count Glamorgan, Count Laing's castle.
"Wow, what an unexpected gain!" Laing sat on a chair in his study and browsed through the reports from the frontlines. He nodded repeatedly with a happy expression.
After quelling the rebellions in the old Muxilon territory, a large amount of gold, silver, and jewels were collected from the serfs' personal belongings. There were more than seven thousand crowns in total.
The treasures that the rebels had plundered over the years were all here. It was obvious that this large sum of money had attracted the attention of many local nobles. Recently, many of them came to Laing to plead for mercy, saying that the money was stolen from them by the rebellious serfs and that they hoped that Laing would return it to them.
They were overthinking things. Since they couldn't keep it, they couldn't blame him for not giving it back.
With a wave of his pen, Clayon defined the large sum of gold and silver as "seized."
Apart from Durin and Rarotte, who were the first to respond and led their knights into battle, who each received a thousand crowns, the rest of the money would be used to settle the refugees and surrendered serfs, restore production and control the situation. This way, Laing wouldn't have to take money out of his own treasury to solve these problems.
All in all, the rebellion was a success. As the first battle after the establishment of the local defence force, this battle had to be won. And just as Laing wished, this battle established the impression that the local defence force was invincible.
This was very important to Laing's future plans. As the face of his army and the face of his army, the local defence force had to be strong, resolute and victorious.
That was why Laing chose the rebellious serfs as the first battle after the establishment of the local defence force.
The old guards were indeed elites, and they had won countless battles with Clayon. However, Clayon knew that he couldn't be careless just because they were elites, had rich battle experience, and were well allocated. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to do as he pleased.
This was the story of the legend of the fastest donkey cart on the Kaoliang River.
The iron army that had destroyed several nations after the establishment of the country was broken on the spot. From then on, they no longer had any psychological advantage against the northern army. Even though the losses in that battle weren't that great, it wasn't as simple as just a few tens of thousands of casualties.
The Yongxi Northern Expedition that followed was a continuation of the consequences. The frightened Zhao 'er donated most of the 200 thousand Imperial Army elites that Zhao Da had left him. Then, during the battle of Gentlemen's Pavilion, Zhao' er, who made another mistake in his command, sent the last of the Imperial Army elites into battle. From then on, all the Imperial Army elites that Zhao Da had nurtured when he first established the country were wiped out. He no longer dared to dream of reclaiming Yanyun.
Laing thought that Zhao 'er couldn't be blamed for starting to muddle along and compromise with the literati. After all, the army was already gone. If he didn't make the literati happy, the emperor might change hands one day. And everyone knew that Zhao' er's legitimacy was questionable. He wasn't just making false claims. The literati loved to use this as an excuse to stir up trouble.
(Incidentally, it was also from this time that the generals were completely suppressed. The emphasis on literature over military power was completely nailed down. During Zhao Da's reign, the generals still had a higher status and a certain degree of autonomy.)
So what was Laing's situation now?
Laing's current situation was like Zhao 'er who had won a great victory in the battle of Kaoliang River and successfully reclaimed Yanyun (Mu Xilong)!
At this time, there was no one in the entire kingdom who dared to oppose him. Even when he reached out to the indestructible noble system, the two counts of Mu Xilong could only grit their teeth and agree.
They had no choice but to agree. Otherwise, there would be many people who wanted to become counts.
If they didn't agree, they would have to hold it in!
But Laing knew that he still had to be careful. One failure and everything would revert to its original state. His years of painstaking effort would go down the drain.
After thinking carefully for a while, the dark elf came in from outside. "Master, Her Highness Morgiana has returned from Kurona. She said she has something to discuss with you."
"Morgiana is back?"
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