Outside, the rain continued to sound against the stone walls of the palace, and the torches on the pillars on both sides burned, just like the Duke of the Highlands was in the mood at this time, and the fire of anger was almost about to vent, but he held back, and only listened silently to his report from the treasurer.

For the Duke of the Highlands, the peace talks with the Acropolis that had taken place a month earlier were undoubtedly humiliating for him, but he had to do so, because the situation in the East had developed so seriously that he had to choose peace talks.

Just a month ago, he and his military governor personally commanded the army, ready to fight to the death with the Duke of the Acropolis, ending the war that had been fought for more than a year, compared with the highland lords, the Acropolis lords are still a lot weaker, and the battles again and again will deplete the financial and manpower of the Dukes of the Acropolis, if according to the established plan, this battle is the final battle, and the war that lasted for a year will eventually end with the victory of the highland dukes.

However, people are not as good as heaven, just when the Duke of the Highlands thought that he was about to win, the rear suddenly came with catastrophic news, but the Chaos Servants began to assemble at some point, and suddenly began to storm the eastern gate, which caught the Imperial border guards by surprise.

The Duke of the Highlands did not make any preparations for this sudden attack, and in order to win the war with the Duke of the Acropolis, he even transferred a part of the border guards loyal to him for his own use, which directly led to the lack of troops at the Eastern Gate when attacked, and the soldiers from other areas were all transferred, so there was no reinforcement, which undoubtedly put the local defenders in a desperate situation.

The border guards were still quite heroic in battle, the walls of the eastern gate changed hands several times, but in the end they fell, only a small number of border guards managed to break through and survived, and the servants of chaos drove straight into the east after taking the eastern gate, and captured several cities in the east in a row, and approached the capital of the duke of the high land, which had the momentum of sweeping everything.

Knowing that his hometown had been raided, the Duke of the Highlands had to hurry up and negotiate peace with the Duke of the Acropolis, and arrange for the soldiers to return to the Highlands to fight the Servants of Chaos.

However, the Duke of the Acropolis seemed to sense something, and he took the opportunity to make a series of unreasonable demands, hoping to negotiate what he could not get on the battlefield, and in fact he succeeded, and the Duke of the Highlands was forced to spit out the towns and cities he had taken in the previous battles, which means that the year's battle was completely in vain.

However, this peace agreement also bought the Duke of the Highlands a little time, and he feared that the royal family and the Duke of the Acropolis had the intention of encroaching on his territory, so he rejected the request of the two sides to send reinforcements to fight against Chaos, and immediately returned to the capital.

Fortunately, there is an extremely strong castle in the capital of the Highlands, and the people there rely on the high walls of the castle to start a war of attrition against Chaos, and hold on until the Duke of the Highlands comes to help, after a siege battle, the siege of the capital is successfully lifted, the Chaos Servants temporarily retreat, and the Highland capital returns to the Duke's rule.

However, this does not mean that the situation has improved much, due to the previous offensive, half of the highland lords have fallen into the palm of the Chaos minions, and the highland dukes have not tried to counterattack, but each time they have ended in defeat, without the walls of the eastern gate, it is difficult for the human army to defeat the army of the Chaos minions on the plains, those giants with several floors can easily tear apart the army's line, and those swift and ferocious Chaos Warcraft are also very headaches, their speed and strength combined, the combat power and destructive power are even higher than that of a well-trained and heavily armed soldier。

Now, the Duke of the Highlands has become the disadvantaged side, although he knows that the balance of victory is tilting on the enemy's side, but he still does not want to seek anyone's help, more than the Chaos Servants, what worries him more is the lords who are eyeing his territory, in the past, due to the strong power of the Highland Lord, he has provoked a lot of enemies, and now he is on the weak side, and it is finally his turn to panic all day.

"Everything is messed up, but the castle is still there, the castle is still there, and there is hope. ”

At this moment, the castle of the Duke's capital has become the last psychological defense line of the Duke, as long as this defense line does not collapse, then he can still hold on.

The Treasurer brought good news, the years of war and the disaster had brought the Duke's tax collection work to a near standstill, but the Treasurer still managed to scrape together a sum of money and food, so that the Duke could continue to maintain the army, which made the Duke very satisfied with his Treasurer, as long as he could get the money, as for whether it was stolen or robbed, and how many peasants died in the process of collecting taxes, it was not in his consideration.

But the next words of the treasurer began to make the Duke angry.

"With the current size of the army ... We'll probably only last another three months, after that... I'm afraid I can't do anything about it. The treasurer said helplessly, although the duke in front of him was brutal and ruthless, but he was very sensitive, if he deceived him, he would definitely suffer in the end, so even if it was bad news, he had to report it truthfully.

"If you can do it, I may consider making you an earl, and I will give you the most fertile land under my rule. No, if you agree, I can seal the land for you right now!" The Duke of the Highlands looked at the treasurer in front of him with expectant eyes, if it was a matter of return, not ability, then he could meet the requirements of his own treasurer now.

"No, it's really not good, whether it's the wealth in the village or the money of the merchants, we have confiscated everything that can be confiscated, and we really can't collect it anymore. "The chief financial officer said very tactfully, the so-called confiscation, in fact, is the robbery of the bright light, these upper-class people did not treat those civilians as human beings at all, in the face of disasters, their treatment of the lower-class people is more cruel than the chaos servants, do not pay money and food, then there is only death, but only starvation is paid, these two roads have become the only choice for civilians, but almost no one dares to rise up and resist, they know the consequences of resistance, that is more terrible than death torture.

"Is there really no way?" Listening to the words of the chief financial officer, the Duke of the Highlands' face suddenly turned from sunny to cloudy, and there was also a trace of annoyance in his eyes when he looked at the chief manager, who knew what this look meant, it was a precursor before the killing.

"I... I'll figure it out. The treasurer was instigated, he realized that what the Duke of the Highlands wanted to hear at this time was not the truth, but an answer that could reassure him, he could only say this, otherwise he was afraid that he would fall to the ground, he didn't want to die so inexplicably, out of this gate, he had to find a way out, a lord like the Duke of the Highlands, a mortal like him really couldn't wait.

"If you do it well, you will definitely benefit from it in the future. I will make you count now, come, kneel. The Duke said to the Treasurer.

"Yes, my lord. The treasurer knelt down on one knee in fear, watched the Duke of the Highlands take out his sword, tapped it twice on his left shoulder, and said, "I will make you an earl," while the treasurer replied, "I am willing to give my life for you," and then the two men spoke to each other for a while, and the whole simple ceremony was over.

During this ceremony, the treasurer was in a state of fear, for fear that the Duke would really cut him down and make him really "give his life", which made the panic and anxiety he showed a little more real, which made the Duke of the Highlands very satisfied, and he took the sword back.

"O'Ruf, come here!" The Duke of the Highlands raised his hand to greet a guard standing in the doorway.

"Now that you are his bodyguard, don't put his life at risk, and help him successfully complete the work of raising military expenses, understand?" The Duke of the Highlands bit the two words of help very hard, so that everyone could understand that there was something in the words.

"Yes!" The guard straightened up and replied in a loud voice, showing his determination, but his current master, the treasurer, was pale, this guard was obviously used to spy on him, and it seemed that the Duke of the Highlands would not let him go so easily.

When he left the palace, the treasurer easily calmed down his nervousness, and then began to think of a way to get out, although he did not have a fief now, but he was a real nobleman, he had a great future, if he could keep his title and fish in troubled waters to survive, it would be his victory, and it was not his option to bury the tyrant.

The two of them left like that.

The gate closed, and the Duke of the Highlands looked at his empty palace and the few guards standing at the door, and suddenly felt a trace of regret, if only he could have solved the Duke of the Acropolis quickly, otherwise he would never have fallen into this situation now, but it is a pity that time cannot be repeated.

The guard secretly glanced at the Duke of the Highlands, and was so frightened that he quickly looked away, the Duke of the Highlands himself did not know that under the light of the fire, his face was as pale as a ghost, and he looked a little crazy.

He still felt that he was right, even in the face of the threat of Chaos invasion, he still wanted to start a civil war between humans, he thought that his only mistake was that he failed to deal with the Duke of the Acropolis early, which was exploited by the Chaos minions, if he let time repeat himself, he would still ignite this war, there is nothing to regret.

While the Duke of the Highlands was desperate due to the Chaos invasion, the White Wolf was still building his own forces and transforming the spatial circle, because he lived underground and had no eyeliner, so he didn't know much about what was happening on the surface.

Just when the human country was in chaos, the Emirate Exploration Team finally found the ruins of Hesse City, and began to rebuild and relocate it, which was overgrown with weeds, as if there were no living people as legend said, but the traces of battle hidden in the bushes, as well as the white bones of Sensen, still let the exploration team understand what happened here. Read the latest chapters, stay tuned