Chapter 226: The Imperial Capital

The imperial capital of Tai'an Royal City, Cleison II used nearly 100,000 slaves to spend countless resources and eight years to build, named Tai'an Royal City, which means national peace and security. However, Tai'an is the meaning of the ancient elf language, and it is easy to hear it with the pronunciation of the lingua franca. Therefore, several later Crisson emperors were very taboo about this word, so they ignored the official name, and replaced it with the imperial capital in official documents and conversations. For two or three hundred years, most people know which city they refer to when they ask about the imperial capital, but many people don't know what the name of the imperial capital is.

The triple wall of the imperial capital, with the royal court in the center. The earliest royal city of Tai'an had a total of three walls, the most central of which was the seat of the royal family of Crisson, and of course is now the residence of the royal family of Antinac. Inside the second city wall were the residences of various departments and ministers of the empire, which was called the inner city. The third layer of the city wall protects the inhabitants of the imperial capital.

But Cleison II, who built the imperial capital, did not expect that the imperial capital he designed for 100,000 people to live would expand tenfold in the next nearly 100 years, and the Great Plain of Antalio, which was originally suitable for 100,000 people to cultivate and have no worries about food and clothing, was gradually occupied by people who came to settle around the imperial capital, and the fields became residential areas, into bustling business districts, into racetracks, arenas, academies and workshops.

During the thirty years of the reign of the 5th and 6th reigns of the Cresson Empire, the imperial capital was once the largest city on the continent of Gelinthia, with a population of almost one million. It's just that after the establishment of the Fort Business Alliance, the city of Moriente came from behind and won the reputation of the largest city in Guelintea. The imperial capital has been going downhill, especially the seven years of civil war in the empire, which has made the imperial capital more and more depressed.

The fatal blow to the imperial capital was at the end of the civil war, the eldest prince's soldiers were divided into two ways, and he attracted the main army of the third prince, and this side sent his subordinates to attack the imperial capital, burning, killing and looting, all evil, and the second highness led the army to support, and the two sides fought in a large residential area and commercial area outside the city, and the melee lasted for three months. By the time His Royal Highness had annihilated the enemy, the outside of the triple walls of the imperial capital had been turned into a blank field, more than 200,000 residents of the imperial capital had died, and the trade area had been tossed into ruins.

Even after the civil war was stopped and the empire was divided into three kingdoms and seven principalities, the inhabitants of the imperial capital were still displaced, and peace did not bring them the stable life they wanted. In addition, the third prince offended the merchants from the Fude Business Alliance, and was subject to a material embargo, which added fuel to the fire, not only the imperial capital, but also the entire Andinac kingdom was in turmoil.

Later, with the help of the Norton family's northbound convoy, the Second Highness stabilized the situation in the kingdom and seized the ruling power, the population of the entire imperial capital was less than 70,000, less than one-tenth of the empire's heyday. His Royal Highness reorganized the inner and outer castles, abandoned the residential and commercial areas outside the triple city walls, reclaimed the fields, and streamlined the administrative departments of the kingdom. Five years have passed, and the imperial capital has once again been revitalized.

On the 18th of September, Lorist led five hundred soldiers of the armed guard battalion and a group of knights to the south gate of the imperial capital. In this way, Lorist will have to wait for more than ten days.

The leader of the city defense squadron, who politely guarded the city gates, refused Lorlist's request to have his five hundred families armed into the city. He said that His Royal Highness had ordered that the nobles' family armed could only camp in the designated garrison area in the west of the city, and the nobles could only bring a maximum of ten armed guards into the city, which was a new rule in the imperial capital.

So Lorist and his party moved to the west gate of the city, registered in the garrison area, occupied a small camp, and rearranged the guards and secret posts.

Lorlist, who was staying in the room, was thinking about what to do in the next ten days, and Dorus came in happily: "My lord, who do you see coming......

A man wearing the standard armor of the Royal Guards appeared behind him, Lorist smiled at it, and stepped forward to hug him with open arms: "Caritok, long time no see, are you okay now?"

Kalitok, one of the thirty-six students of the Dawn Academy who once followed Shi Fatzi and Telman to form a team to the Northland, is also an elite member of the Sword Club, and has the strength of the Silver Three Stars. However, when the northbound convoy was blocked under the city of Nadegas, he and many of his companions were not optimistic about the future of the convoy heading north, and were finally dug into a corner by the Second Highness, became one of the seven old students who took refuge in the Second Highness, and left the convoy.

Don't look at the many people in the convoy who scolded these people who chose to join the Second Highness at that time, but after finding out that they had casualties under the Second Highness, they were even more worried. I remember that when His Royal Highness led the army to besiege the fortress castle in Liechdana, the defenders desperately broke through the siege overnight, although they blocked the impact of the enemy, but just after taking refuge in the two old students and several silver knights of the Second Highness, they were killed on the spot, and Telman and they hugged the corpses of the two old students and cried with tears on their faces, very sad.

Caritok was hugged tightly by Lorist and came down in tears: "Lord Locke, I miss you so much, I miss the team so much......"

At the beginning, the seven old cadets and nineteen silver knights who defected to the Second Highness are now only fourteen people left, and in the battle of Liushuichuan to win the fame of the Second Highness, there are three old students and four silver knights who sacrificed their lives, plus the two old cadets and three silver knights who died under the fortress castle in Liechndana, almost half of them are missing.

"At the beginning, there were only two people left, me and Sende, among the seven old students, although we have become knights of the royal family, but we are not happy at all. Now that His Royal Highness is preparing for the battle to unify the empire, I don't know if I will survive to the day of victory......"

Kalitok was depressed, and briefly recounted the situation of their departure from the convoy to join His Royal Highness.

"What is your position now?" asked Doreus.

"Captain of the First Brigade of the Second Heavy Armor Regiment of the First Regiment of the Royal Guards. Now stationed outside the east gate of the imperial capital, he is responsible for cleaning up the ruins of the trade area. I just wandered to the south gate when I heard that the Earl of Norton from the Northland was here, so I came to see you. Caritok replied.

"Alas, you served as the captain of the team when you were in the convoy, why did you still hold this position after taking refuge in the Second Highness?" said Dorres bluntly.

Kalitok shook his head: "His Royal Highness really trusts those old subordinates who have followed him for a long time, and the three hundred thousand horses of the six legions established now are all his old subordinates or nobles who have taken refuge in him, and civilian knights like us are also obedient to the command and charge into battle." I really regret why I left the team now......"

"You can come back......" Dorres said.

"I don't have the face to go back, and as a knight, I can't be half-hearted, since I have chosen this path, I can only go on..."

"By the way, Kalitok, you just said that you are in charge of cleaning up the ruins of the trade area, aren't you the main army of the First Royal Guard, why do you still do such a chore?" asked Lorist strangely.

"Hey, you don't know!" Caritok patted his thigh: "There is a Marquis of Red next to His Second Highness, who is deeply trusted, and he gave His Second Highness an idea, saying that although the trade area has become a ruin, many merchants habitually hide their goods in underground warehouses. The collapse of the house above saved the supplies. Although it has been a long time, many materials can still be preserved, and obtaining these materials can reduce a great burden on the national treasury. Therefore, His Royal Highness ordered our First Legion to put the entire trade area on guard, and to dig with additional labor. It really made that Marquis of Red right, he dug up several underground warehouses, and the useful materials were worth 100,000 gold fords, which was still only a third of the excavation. ”

"Isn't that authentic, isn't it? These supplies should belong to those merchants, how can they be dug up and possessed privately?" commented Dorles.

"Marquis Red thinks that so much time has passed since the end of the Imperial Civil War, and if these merchants still haven't come to clean up the ruins, it means that they have given up these materials, so His Royal Highness can justifiably return all the materials to the treasury. In fact, when the excavation of the ruins was first started, a few people who claimed to be the descendants of merchants came to the door, but the Marquis of Red issued a series of fines, requiring them to pay for the cost of cleaning up the ruins, the land occupation fee for not cleaning the ruins for such a long time, the garbage dumping fee, etc., and finally those people gave up their right to claim the materials and ran away, and no one came to demand the repayment of the materials. Caritok said.

Dorres sighed, "It's a scoundrel to do that. Originally, it was the incompetence of the royal family that allowed the enemy to break into the imperial capital and caused so much damage to the merchants and residents, but as a result, not only did they not give compensation, but they also intensified their efforts to occupy the private property of the merchants, and the people's hearts were lost in this way!"

"I thought so too, but after saying a few words in the legion, I was reprimanded by the legion commander. His Royal Highness didn't care about the people's livelihood at all, and he only thought about unifying the empire now. Don't look at those noble knights talking about how to do in the battle of unification, how to make meritorious contributions to become the lord class, in fact, I know the soldiers at the bottom very well, they don't want to fight, and their morale is very low.

Don't look at the Royal Guards Legion annexed the Tempest Legion and expanded into three legions, in fact, many people privately have great objections to the Second Highness's approach. For example, those soldiers who turned out to be the Tempest Legion thought that it was His Royal Highness who deliberately did not send troops to rescue at the beginning, and sat back and watched the Tempest Legion's commander, the Golden Knight Nedrum, and five thousand elites die in battle, so that they could take advantage of the situation to annex the Tempest Legion. Caritok grumbled.

Lorist handed him a cup of tea and gently persuaded, "Caritok, Dorus, you are studying in the Fort Business Union like me, so the principles of liberty, equality, and the inviolability of private property have deeply influenced our perceptions. But don't forget, we're in the former Crescent Empire, and I'm a lord, so I still have the confidence to carry out my ideas in my family domain. And you, who are just knights, feel out of place when you come into contact with the nobles of those empires.

The nobles of the Krisson Empire have never taken the commoners seriously, they are high, even if the empire collapses, they still regard themselves as human beings, just like the Second Highness, only caring about the unification of the empire and dreaming of a revival king, but they don't know that once they fail, he will have no place to turn over, and no one will like a king who is reckless. He is relying on the nobles now, and the nobles are the most unreliable, Kalitok, I just hope you are smart, if the situation is not good, get out as soon as possible, don't put yourself in it, it's not worth it......"

Caritok ended up getting drunk at Lorlist, and Dorres sent him back with two guards.

The next day, Lorist took Schward and others to visit the imperial capital, and found that the cheapest goods in the imperial capital now are books, and most of them are books collected by some aristocratic families. And these nobles basically had their own residences in the imperial capital, which were later confiscated by His Royal Highness and nationalized.

Now His Royal Highness is scavenging for property in order to raise soldiers, and he is selling the collections of those nobles at a low price. Weapons and armorThese are hot items and come at a high price. And the residences of these nobles basically have a study room, more or less hundreds of books, these books are all taken out and sold, and a large number of books suddenly stepped on the price of the book market in the imperial capital from the sky to the ground, and it could not be digested for a long time.

Lorist had mixed feelings when he remembered that a Kingford book in Moldant City could now be bought for only two or three large silver coins. And Schward is also a book lover, so the master and apprentice soaked in the book market every day to search for books and treasures.

When he returned to the camp that day, he saw Dorus and Caritok standing at the door waiting for him.

Lorist asked them what was the matter, and they were dragged into the room and closed the door.

Dores said, "My lord, Caritok has come to borrow money..."

"How much?" said Lorlist, who was a little strange, borrowing money as if it were a worker on the ground.

"One hundred goldfords. Dorles said.

Lorist was a little surprised, Caritok was a captain in the Royal Guard, and his salary was very low a month, only ten large silver coins, and only six goldfords a year. Is it something to buy now for a hundred goldfords?

Dorres quickly explained: "My lord, Caritok has received an invitation, if you want to go to the appointment, you need to dress up and buy some new dresses or something." Originally, he wanted to borrow 10 goldfords, but I thought that he would have to go in the future, so I took it upon myself to borrow 100 goldfords from adults. ”

"Okay, I borrowed it. "Lorist came to the imperial capital this time with 10,000 goldfords, and it cost about 2,000 to buy books in the past few days, and there are still many goldfords, and it doesn't matter if you borrow 100 or not. But he came to curiosity: "Can you tell me, what date is so expensive?"

Dorres laughed: "My lord, since you borrowed money, then we will take you to see and learn, an invitation post can bring two people, and let Caritok take us there then." ”

"That's right, do you know Princess Kerry?"

"Princess Carry?" Lorist shook his head, "I don't know. ”

"Princess Carey is the only single daughter of His Royal Highness who has passed away..."

"What do you mean, His Highness has passed away?" Lorist was taken aback.

"Yes, His Highness, who was claustrophobic two years ago, suddenly vomited blood in the middle of the night, and ran out of breath in less than an hour. said that it was a sudden illness, but many people suspected that it was the Second Highness's hands and feet. But we're just guessing privately, and no one knows the truth. ”

Lorist pondered for a moment: "You go on, what's wrong with Princess Carry. ”

"Princess Carey is twenty-five years old, very beautiful, and claims to be the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. However, she was dissolute by nature, and she was said to worship the goddess of desire and pleasure, Mila, and organized a paradise party with many children of the nobles of the kingdom who believed in Mila. She organizes a monthly fair, and I've heard from colleagues I've been there before that it's a paradise and you'll get the best out of it. Although it doesn't cost much, you can't tip less than one kinford each time, which most people can't afford, so I came to ask the adults for help. ”

Dorus said, "My lord, let's go tomorrow for a long time, I haven't seen a gathering between the nobles of the empire, let Kalitok take us to open our eyes." ”

Lorist touched his chin and thought for a moment and said, "Okay." ”

...... (To be continued.) )