The huge cliffs on both sides block out the sun, creating a shady valley. The mountain wind carried dust in his face, and although Nicholas Dietrich covered his nose, the strong smell of blood was brought by the mountain wind and penetrated into his nostrils. The valley was in shambles, the wheelbarrows transporting ore overturned to the ground, and the ore and mining tools were discarded haphazardly on the mountain road.

He followed the valley, against the wind, and the smell of blood grew heavier and heavier. When he stepped over a piece of ore, he stepped on a piece of his left arm, he staggered, and after standing firm, he saw the scene in front of him: more than a dozen corpses lying on the ground like dolls torn by children, with severed limbs and stumps scattered in the grass, under big trees, and between the cracks in the stones, and there was still blood splattering on the stones and bushes, and the ground under the corpses was stained red with blood.

Three Golden Knights and more than 20 riders surrounded a group of miners. Nicholas stepped forward with his guards, and the knights and riders bowed to him. With a grim face, he looked coldly at the shivering miners on their knees. They are like sheep surrounded by wolves, lying on their knees and begging for mercy. Nicholas cast a contemptuous look at the miners.

"I'll tell you to run! a bunch of lazy pigs!" he heard a raspy voice. Not far to the left of the kneeling miner, a dying miner sat next to a tree, with several wounds cut by the sword, the most lethal one under the collarbone, which pierced the lung. Overseer Adam Delia raised his whip and slammed it on the dying miner, cursing incessantly.

Seeing Nicholas Dietrich coming, Adam Delia's originally fierce face immediately raised the corners of his mouth and smiled. The pockmarked face, the collapsed nose, and the swollen eyelids reminded Nicholas of pugs.

"Great, my lord, why are you here?" Adam Deria knelt on the ground and saluted, and when he found himself saluting with a whip in his hand, he stuck out his tongue in fright and quickly threw it away.

Nicholas looked at the overseer coldly, his face tense, walked up to a miner, and asked, "Tell me about the situation." How many escaped today?"

"My lord, this morning, the lazy and stupid miners started to make trouble again, and they fought our overseers with mining pickaxes," Adam nodded, "I sounded the alarm, and when the overseers prevented the miners from escaping, 5 were killed and 7 were injured. Later, the Golden Knight ......"

Adam Deria walked up to a golden knight with a light step on his lap legs, and stretched out his arms exaggeratedly: "The golden knights, Ser Croft, Ser Ealing, and Ser Gaunt, arrived with their riders and killed more than 30 miners, and the remaining 20 or so are here." ”

"How many escaped?" Nicholas stared at Adam's ugly face, interrupting his offer.

Adam frowned, and after a moment's pause, he rolled his eyes and said, "My lord, it is Sir Ealing who is in charge of the pursuit......"

Sir Ealing looked at Adam viciously and lowered his voice, "About 10 of them, my lord...... By the time we learned, a large number of miners had fled......"

"Enough!" said Nicholas, holding up his right hand to stop Sir Ealing, not wanting to hear them accuse each other of shirking their responsibilities. For more than a month, more and more miners are trying to escape. These remnants of the Rising Sun Empire originally belonged to the same Rising Sun Empire, and in the 5th year of the Rhodes calendar, after the Rising Sun Empire was destroyed by the Rhodes Empire, one-third of it was assigned to the Orlando Province.

The Dietrich family occupies a large number of mountains in the northern part of Orlando Province, and when gold was discovered, Patriarch Guy Dietrich recruited a large number of remnants of the empire to mine gold. In Nicholas's generation, the wealth and prestige of the three golden families of Orlando resounded throughout the Rhodes Empire.

"The miners are the property of the Dietrich family. Guy Dietrich once told the family to "protect the miners as if they were property." ”

Traitors, all traitors! Guy Dietrich treated the miners well, and a large number of remnants of the Rising Sun Empire came to make a living, which led to the Dietrich family digging the first pot of gold. Now, however, these miners want to flee to Sunset Province because of the policies of a stupid governor in Sunset Province.

They are like a flock of sparrows, flying wherever there is a good wheat field. There is no shame. Nicholas hated a certain stupid governor, but he hated the remnants of the empire even more. Because they always dig out his heart: a remnant named Sun Guanglong killed his eldest son, Robert Dietrich. The military department sent a pension of 300,000 Reichsmarks.

A mere 300,000 Reichsmarks, my son, the eldest son of the Dietrich family, is worth 300,000 Reichsmarks! Since then, his attitude towards miners has become worse and worse. Of course, there is another reason -

"Your Excellency, you might as well let us go. A miner, about forty years old, with a wrinkled face and courage, said, "We've dug deep enough, but we haven't found any gold at all, and many of us are afraid of collapse." ”

"! I've got a bonanza of gold!" Nicholas shouted at the top of his lungs, snatching Adam's whip and striking the old miner with a whip, "You can't do anything!"

"After decades of digging, the gold mines will only get less and less...... "The old miner gritted his teeth and retorted.

"Let us go, my lord. "Let's go, there are no mines anyway, give us a way out." The miners chattered.

Nicholas's lungs were about to explode, and he kept whipping the miners, who covered their heads with their hands, screaming, but still shouting that the "gold mine" he least wanted to hear was finished.

Liars! All liars! You traitors! Nicholas threw away his whip and panted. Adam picked up the whip and was about to continue the whip when Nicholas stopped him.

"You have a lot of guts. Nicholas lifted his chin and said to the old miners, "You go, you deserve it, you are braver than them." ”

The old miner put on an expression of disbelief, and the riders got out of the way. The old miner kowtowed, stood up tremblingly, and as he left, he waved his hands again at Nicholas.

Nicholas took the archer's bow, mounted the arrow, and drew the bow.

"Run!" a miner shouted from behind. As soon as the old miner turned around, he hurriedly stepped out of his legs in horror.

Nicholas would not allow his prey to slip away from him, and where he stood, the wind was blowing just right, and the arrow he shot hit the old miner in the back, and the old miner ran a few steps by inertia, staggered and fell to the ground, unable to move again.

"Whoever runs again, this is the end!" said Nicholas, returning the bow and arrows to the archer, angrily.

"My lord, Earl Rundstedt has made an appointment to meet at three o'clock in the afternoon. "Don't keep the Earl too long," reminded the squire, "just give the pigs to Adam the dog." ”

Moments later, Nicholas finished his bath, dressed in a sumptuous silk robe, wore an agate necklace around his neck, wore a ruby ring the size of a pigeon's egg on his finger, and rubbed the cinnamon spice of the Duoge trading city-state to greet his "old friend."

"Oh, Count Rundstedt, what wind brought you here?" said Nicholas, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone, "the wolves of the western Orlando, the prey of the mountains has fed you to the brim of your brains. ”

"you, don't be a fool. Earl Eugene von Rundstedt, dressed in emerald green silk short-sleeved trousers with black trousers underneath, a dark green emerald ring on his finger, and a gold necklace as thick as a bachelor's necklace around his neck, stepped forward and gave him a hug.

"What are you doing this time? Ask me to raise my hand and give you a little market share?" Nicholas raised his chin and asked his attendant to pour a full load of high-quality white wine from the Qingting Islands, a white wine with a high price, which was immediately fragrant when opened.

"Please, old friend, the Bolauren Jewelry Company and the Asher Jewelry Company are all my regular customers, don't try to beat their ideas. Nicholas touched his mustache and smirked, "My gold ornaments are in short supply." You still have to think about it, how to improve your vision, tsk, gold bonanza, don't let the fake designer hurt you, the gold is in your hands, and it is designed to be a piece of. ”

Count Rundstedt ignored Nicholas's banter and waved his hand to the attendants to step aside. He lowered his voice and said, "Old friend, we should unite and deal with the common enemy. For example, the damn gold mining tax, gold jewelry processing tax, gold jewelry transaction tax......"

"Those temporary taxes, seventy-seven eighty-eight, took away 20% of my profits!" Nicholas was angry as soon as he said it, "August is dead, but those taxes are still alive!"

"I've decided that I'm not going to pay taxes. Rundstedt snorted.

"You want Thundercastle to block your business?" Nicholas frowned, "In addition to Orlando, your business is also in other provinces of the Empire, right?"

"Castle Thunder annoyed me!" Lundstedt slammed his fist on the table, wine dangling out of his glass, "Horst Arryn, that dog thief! He slandered me, saying that my Golden Knights had crossed the territory and burned in the village of Wald!

Nicholas shrugged, "Do you really manage your men? Are you sure that no one crossed the border to do the bandits?"

"Of course, I've had my men check every Golden Knight!" said Earl Rundstedt, swearing, "absolutely not!"

"You've got a lot of time, and you've checked every Golden Knight. Nicholas smiled, "It's you who annoys Castle Thunder, not me." Who can't get along with money?"

"Thundercastle killed your son!" Earl Rundstedt's throat cried out.

"Shut up!" Nicholas' face changed, and he immediately blushed, "I warn you not to mention a word about Robert again." ”

"They arranged for your son to go to Sunset Province! That's the key! If you arrange for him to mess around in the military department, will your son die?" Count Rundstedt didn't give up, "They traded a mere 300,000 Reichsmarks for your anger, and your son is worth 300,000 Reichsmarks?"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Nicholas smashed the wine bottle on the table in two and pointed the broken one at Rundstedt, "I warned you!"

"Wake up, Nicholas!" Rundstedt looked coldly at the bottle, "According to reliable sources, your gold bonanza is getting less and less, and your gold production is shrinking day by day......"

"You're talking nonsense!" Nicholas gasped secretly. Who's leaking?

"No, Nicholas, we have the same problem. Rundstedt's eyes suddenly became hurt, "Just last week, I found out that my mine was no longer able to dig gold. ”

Nicholas was shocked, and he asked quietly, "What do you want to do? I won't let you take my mine!"

"Old friends, unite. We have to expand into new businesses. Rundstedt pointed to the map of the empire hanging on the wall, "For example, go to the province of Meno to develop animal husbandry...... Since the House of Arryn said that I had plundered his land, then I would do as he wished. ”

"Are you crazy?" Nicholas exclaimed, "in the same empire, Duke Parker Bloom would allow you to do this?"

"I'm not crazy, old friend. My gold mine is running out, but I have to survive, it's as simple as that. Rundstedt shook his head, "Sebastian is dead, Count Heinrich will not rest, and his eldest son was convicted of treason by Caesar Rudolph." The whole world knows that his son is a knight with a paintbrush. Treason, Heinrich would not have endured such an unjust crime!"

"What does that have to do with you and me?" Nicholas wondered, "the gold yield you feared, I live my free life, and Heinrich avenges his son." ”

"Chaos, war. Rundstedt sneered, "Horst Arryn is also dead, treason, understand? Take the opportunity to expand our territory, the Golden Family has the opportunity to expand new business and gain new territory." Your son is gone, you don't owe the empire, the empire owes you too much. ”

Nicolas Dietrich was stabbed in the heart again, but he smiled knowingly: "Then are you willing to pay a deposit for our cooperation?"

"Adams Bradley, by Sebastian, the kid who ascended to heaven. Rundstedt's right hand made a neck wipe motion around his neck, "I brought him, his head, to be exact." We piggyback on Count Heinrich's head and stuff an anonymous letter in his mouth to the effect that with Sebastian, all must die. ”