bullyxtreme Chapter 170: Exploitation of the Small Nobles
Chapter 170: Exploitation of the Small Nobles
This is what happens when we appreciate each other.
He didn't even know the other person's name, but Bad Genia, the lord of the Slime City whose reforms were beginning to bear fruit, felt that he had found someone he could entrust his faith to.
However, it would be too rude not to know the name. Next time when delivering a letter, I will send someone to ask indirectly.
Bard returned to the Slime City. As he expected, he suddenly found himself in a very difficult situation because of the difference in his previous and later publicity.
For a beloved leader like Abes, when he suddenly changes direction and goals, his biggest enemy becomes his past self.
Fortunately... everything is going steadily.
As soon as Bard returned to the city, he strengthened the supervision and control inside the Mud City. He also brought those people together in batches overnight for explanations and talks, and then finalized a new propaganda line.
These measures are naturally intended to ensure a stable handover between the two sides before they are completely merged.
The efficiency of the royal capital was faster than he had imagined. They sent Bard the educated talents who were capable of serving as officials that he urgently needed.
These talents, naturally, do not refer to those who received education in the Abes army. They are soldiers, and what they learned is actually more for practical use.
Of course, it is impossible for them to be those people in Tianye Town or the Royal Capital who have benefited from the education that has been promoted. The courses have not even been taken for a month, and it is too difficult to drag them to handle government affairs.
And these people came from the minor nobles in the royal capital.
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After Abes led his men out of the capital and headed for the meeting, some of the petty nobles who usually stayed hidden suddenly showed up.
The size of the small kingdom is really not that big, and the powerful nobles have to get a city lord or a baronial lord to be.
It was only natural that the minor nobles were the only ones left in the royal capital.
The biggest manifestation of their smallness is that they have no real estate and may only have some modest means of production. The advantage is that they are close to the king and may be able to obtain many special privileges of the royal power.
However, since Abes, who held high the banner of freedom and dignity, and Philip, who held high the idea of Gu Beitunan, entered the royal capital, they probably can forget about any benefits.
These little nobles have suffered a lot these days.
After all, Abes let the fake king go for the sake of more far-reaching alliance considerations, but he did not let them go easily.
Funds, power, and those networks of collusion, as long as they can be extracted and fall into Abes's hands to form power, will all be taken away.
But the little nobles had absolutely no way to refute it.
Because the other party actually followed the procedure and provided a large amount of evidence to prove their guilt.
And the other side does indeed retain an absolute advantage in violence.
If at the beginning, they still thought that the intrusion of these civilians and criminal soldiers was just a coincidence of good luck.
Later, when they saw their overwhelming steel production and the magic explosives called grenades that could arm a person, they were really scared.
As for how the evidence is obtained and woven into a network, there are many ways.
First of all, there is no need to say much about the guy who claims to be the ancient hero Abes Grande. He has a part-time job as a bard and seems to be able to get started directly and use spells to detect thoughts.
The most troublesome one was actually the blonde druid. She was obviously a druid, but no one knew what means she used. Although the guys who walked away from her hands did not have any signs of torture on their bodies, they confessed some testimonies such as "Is this something we can say?"
Being legal and compliant and possessing the greatest power, these petty nobles in the royal capital began to complain, as if they had been harshly criticized and mistreated to the extreme.
However, they also knew in their hearts that they had no other choice but to complain.
Should they say this -
"What have I done to make you feel sorry?"
"You investigated our actions in detail and convicted us..."
I can't really say this out loud with such a thick face.
After a week or two, they witnessed Abes leaving the capital with his men. It seemed that he had something to do. So they gathered in groups of three or four, left their own homes, and walked on the main road of the capital.
The situation is very different...
It wasn't as chaotic as they had imagined, but there were still some things that made them uncomfortable, such as the rush, chaos, dirtiness and vulgarity.
There were children running around, a not-too-long line in front of the pastry shop, and men carrying beautiful toothed iron plates that they had gotten from nowhere.
Not used to it, don't like it.
but……
But what cannot be denied is that everything before our eyes is bursting with tenacious vitality and warm hope.
Any minor nobleman could see this clearly by comparing his past memories with the present situation.
After all, in the past, citizens walking on the street would basically have gloomy expressions and would stop and make way for them after seeing them.
And now, perhaps because of the guards walking in the middle of the road and patrolling in shifts, the people no longer seem to be worried or wary of them.
Some inexplicable annoyance rose in his heart, and a young noble wanted to find something to vent his inexplicable unhappiness, but his companion beside him quickly grabbed his arm.
"No, these guards seem to be converted from the criminals led by that terrible tiefling. They are willing to listen to the requests and reports from ordinary citizens. Our tricks are useless now."
Several skinny little nobles cast their gazes towards the city wall, and sure enough, they could see a figure with obvious devilish features, a long tail, no pupils, and long horns on its head.
That was none other than Philip Herbert, the great criminal who had appeared twice on the wanted list of the small kingdom of Łomza.
The appearance of this figure made some of them lose the courage to continue shopping in the royal capital - after all, they might have been involved when the wanted order was issued for the second time.
Apart from the teams that originally belonged to Philip and Adechi, the majority of people in the royal capital are actually the soldiers under Abes.
First of all, he already had an army of nearly 700 fighters, and later he swallowed up the guards who were protecting the royal capital with almost no losses.
And now, because of some new weapons, they have opened up a little, which means they will soon have the opportunity to recruit new people.
However, even with such a large number of well-qualified soldiers, and equipped with equipment beyond imagination - grenades and magic arm armor, they are able to stay obediently in the areas designated for them by their superiors and rarely go out.
Even when going out, as long as there are more than three people, they will walk together in an orderly manner as if by inertia.
If they see people needing help, they will take the initiative to go over to them.
All these things... are the parts they cannot understand.
They are the most terrifying people.
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After strolling around this royal capital that was somewhat unfamiliar to them, the group of young nobles who had come out for a walk together fell into deep thought.
Some people may still have serious resentment or fear towards Abes, but there are also some shrewd people who have begun to think about the reason behind it.
"To be honest, our treatment seems to be pretty good..."
Although they were not allowed to meet the king before the crime was fully investigated, they were able to move freely in the capital and even go to the new city area outside the east gate where the city wall had not yet been built.
In such a chaotic era when the capital was captured, it was unimaginable that they could have this level of freedom when they should have been imprisoned.
"Moreover, those metal houses are really amazing. Although they are not traditional, they are still elegant. The steel frame structure can be assembled in a short time..."
“So beautiful…”
In the eyes of some sensitive little nobles, they knew very well that the gap had widened.
When the enemy is strong, and their strength lies not only in fighting and killing, but also in researching weapons, equipment and armor, but also in being able to popularize them and change people's livelihood, how can they win?
Just as several of them were arguing and insisting on going into the palace to see the king, and the situation was getting noisy and chaotic, a figure appeared.
Afterwards, all of them froze in place, staring with wide eyes at the figure emerging from behind them.
"Fake... Yeah, Mr. Hero."
"Hmph..." Abes snorted jokingly, but after seeing their expressions, he smiled. "That's great. I have a burst of inspiration now. Let me talk to you too."
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So, this group of small nobles who had been strolling around the street all day while Abes was out for a meeting were caught by Abes on his way back.
Seeing them shrinking a little, Abes just found it funny.
In fact, the trial has been going on for some time.
Those who have not yet been brought in for trial are considered to be relatively clean.
Or he really has connections everywhere and cleared himself of all charges before Abes and the others took action.
Or maybe he is just an ordinary piece of trash who hasn't had the chance to do anything bad yet.
Anivia, the druid, just likes to cast spells, and for some reason her interrogation efficiency is so high; besides her, when something hard needs to be dug out, Abes himself can also participate and cast a few spells.
But... detecting thoughts is not omnipotent after all. For example, it is really difficult to piece together a complete chain of evidence such as witnesses and physical evidence for things that people themselves cannot even remember, which are trivial and happened a long time ago, or for small-time people who take advantage of their status to bully others.
Even with magic, it's not of much use.
Therefore, this group of people were hung up in the trial process, and Abesi had to think about the use of these people.
Apart from anything else, these little nobles used to hold various official positions in the royal capital. Some of them might have been redundant, while others had some separate powers, but there was no doubt that they were capable of basic education and administrative affairs.
As luck would have it... Slime City needs them. The awkward reforms of the Lord of Slime City have made the forces in the city unwilling to help him, so that now the government affairs of Slime City have become more and more complicated and busy, and it is exactly the time when talents are needed.
Therefore, Abes also looked at the group of little nobles in front of him, thinking about how to persuade them.
After a pause of a few seconds, the well-informed Abes blurted out the last name of one of the men after flipping through the file, and used this to open the topic.
"York!"
As the surname of one of the minor nobles was called out, Abes felt that everyone's eyes were cast over to him, wanting to know what would happen next.
A strong man with the name of a hero, a monster with all kinds of weird ideas and thoughts, now called out the name of one of them.
What happens next?
The minor nobleman whose last name was York had two distinct emotions on his face - anticipation and fear.
Seeing that he had attracted all of their attention, Abes cleared his throat and began to sell his ideas.
First, it is a question.
"What do you think aristocracy is?"
"The noble bloodline that has been canonized and passed down..." Before he could finish his answer, he was interrupted by Abes.
"Do you think I'm a noble?"
……
"Of course you are, the brave man from a thousand years ago."
"Where are the Myers family who are guarding my coffin?"
"It is a rare family that has lasted for a thousand years. Even though they were forced to migrate to the north and encountered the devil's conspiracy for 333 years, they are still able to survive to this day... They are undoubtedly a thousand-year noble family."
After getting the answer he wanted, Abes continued to explain.
"However, Kronos, the daughter of the Myers family, if nothing unexpected happened, she might have lived on the farm and become a village girl. Is this the end of the continuation of the bloodline?"
"As for me... although I can't remember a lot myself, I have asked Kronos, and she told me that the historical records in this regard in the North are quite unified."
"In that original story, there was nothing special about the brave men who stood up against the giant dragon that enslaved all the intelligent creatures in the world."
"If you insist, we are just ordinary children born to ordinary slaves who have been ruled by dragons for thousands of years. Do you think that someone conferred titles on us?"
Abes was not sure whether this was the truth, but the history of the North was mostly presented in this way; the version provided by Adechi, the old warlock from Zhongzhou, was similar.
Considering the terrible scene and long time when dragons ruled all intelligent creatures, the birth of a slave's son is the most regular.
It is impossible to say that, at a time when dragons ruled over all intelligent creatures, there was a human boy who had a noble status conferred by a dragon - what's so rare about it?
"Son of a slave, this is the situation at the beginning of the story, no canonization occurs;"
“And the village girl is a possible outcome of the story at the end, and no miracles occur because of the continuation.”
Then, Abes changed the subject, "But now, you still think we are nobles, so what is the difference?"
The lesser nobles, including York, looked down.
Yes, in terms of continuation, how many families can last longer than the Mels family?
In terms of antiquity, who is older than Abes Grande, the heroes who defeated the dragons?
One of them proved that continuation was useless, and the other proved that origin did not necessarily require canonization, and that nobility absolutely did not exist.
So what should the answer be?
Abes did not give them more opportunities to think, but after seeing the curiosity in the other party's eyes, he chose to press on and release his own conclusion.
"It is because there is a lower that there is a higher, and because there is a low that there is a high. Because we protect them and contribute to others, we can be nobles."
"Go back and think about it. Your crimes can be written off. Once you have thought it through, come to me. I have some tasks for you."
"As long as you make contributions, you can become true nobles even without anyone's canonization."