Chapter 520: The Gift of Ledos

Must jump out of this big pit, Lorist cheered for himself in his heart, of course, he did the same, the first time to feast Viscount Penelope and other nobles of the business alliance, after reiterating that the Norton family occupied the city of Morient only to reach a peace and truce agreement between the two countries, he believed that now that the war on the plains of Falis has been extinguished, it is a good time for peace talks, so Lorist very sincerely hopes that Viscount Penelope and these nobles can go to the province of Marweforin and express the sincerity of the peace talks to the top management of the business alliance on behalf of the Norton family。 Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

At the banquet, Lorist affectionately stated the great pain and blood cost of the innocent people of the two countries caused by the cruel war between the commercial alliance and the Kingdom of Antinac in the past three years, and it was a war without a winner, Lorist said very heavily. Look at the rich and peaceful plains of Faliqiu, which used to be rich and peaceful, and now what it has become, everywhere is ruins, everywhere has become a battlefield, and you can no longer hear the pastoral songs of the past, and you can no longer see the joyful farmers who greeted the harvest, and the village girls dancing in the sweet orchards......

We must stop this war, damn war will bring nothing but destruction and suffering. I couldn't believe that the greatest commercial city in the continent of Guelintea, which had left the best impression on me in ten years of study, had become what it is now, with no life and millions of inhabitants relying on coarse grains to feed on, Lorist said and shed two lines of tears.

Touched by Lorist's words and tears, several nobles including Viscount Penelope said that they would go to great lengths to rush to the province of Maweforin and do their best to persuade the top brass of the business alliance to stop the war and reach a peaceful truce with the Kingdom of Antinac. Lorist also said that as long as the armistice agreement was signed and peace was restored, the Norton family forces would immediately withdraw from all the fortress cities on the Plains of Falis and return the city of Morent to the commercial alliance.

After sending Viscount Penelope and several other nobles to the carriage to the province of Maweforin and sending a large group of cavalry from the Flying Tiger Legion to see them off, Lorist immediately sank his face into the basin brought by Genorio. Well, at the banquet, Lorist accidentally smeared a little more peppery fruit powder on the corner of his eyes, so that he kept crying and his eyes were red. However, the effect was very good, and Viscount Penelope insisted on setting off immediately before the feast was over......

Then Lorist stayed up for seven days like the stars and the moon, and finally looked forward to the arrival of Fat Man and Steward Speer in the city of Moriente with a large group of family civil officials.

Back then, following Lorist to organize a northbound convoy to the family territory, it has been nearly twenty years since Shi Fatzi left Moriente City. Although Shi Fatzi's homeland should be regarded as the Trimber Kingdom that was destroyed by the Business Alliance, Shi Fatzi was sent to Moriente City by his father when he was seven or eight years old, and spent most of his youth here until he met Lorist.

Shi Fatzi also wanted to give some guidance in Morent City with great interest, and by the way, show off in front of Director Speer, so that this native bun from the Northland could see what the style of the first commercial city in the Gelintia continent was. As a result, the impatient Lorist didn't give him a chance, and had already prepared a carriage to send them directly to the conference room as soon as possible.

They are all trusted and reliable family leaders, and Lorist has nothing to hide at all, and puts the current predicament faced by the family armed forces in front of everyone.

"What? We didn't gain anything from capturing the city of Moldente, but we were still responsible for feeding the more than a million residents?" Screamed Director Speer, who was still delusional on the way to Moldant City by boat, and he was still delusional that the family would have tens of millions of kingfords this time. After the good wishes were shattered, Director Speer complained, what kind of broken city is this, and what kind of commercial city does he claim to be the first commercial city in the mainland......

Shi Fat Man frowned tightly, he never expected that the city of Moriente would become like this, it had almost become a completely unfamiliar city, and it had nothing to do with the vibrant city of Moriente in his memory.

Carefully looking at the documents and materials placed in front of him to collect the various circumstances seized, Shi Fatzi said: "Your Highness, give me three days, and we will organize people to investigate the entire city of Morente to see what the situation is, and then think about what countermeasures there are." ”

Lorist smiled bitterly and said: "I regret it now, I would have known that I would not refuse the request of our King Majesty, and leave the five fortress cities on the Falis Plain and this Morent City to him responsible, and then lead the family forces back to the Northlands, so that even if it is a mess, it can be handed over to His Majesty the King to clean up, and it is none of our Norton family's business."

I should blame myself for my own suffering, and I shouldn't have boasted before going out that we went on the war to stop the war, defeated the Armada and occupied the city of Morente, and ended up trapping ourselves in a big pit. Now I only hope that Viscount Penelope and they will send a reply as soon as possible, and the sooner a peaceful truce is reached with the business alliance, the sooner our family forces can leave the big hole of Morente City......"

Shi Fatzi smiled dumbly: "Your Highness, the situation shouldn't be as bad as you imagined, you see, isn't there good news?"

Lorist looked at the document that Fat Man was holding on the table, which was a report on the prisoner of war camp where there were more than 100,000 prisoners in the inner city. The tavern set up in the prisoner of war camp was finally opened, and tens of thousands of gold fords were received every day for the past ten days. Of course, this is also the reason why Lorist deliberately cut the food quota of the free porridge provided by the prisoner of war camp again, and one bowl of porridge is now made into two bowls with water, so that the prisoners in the inner city have to buy high-priced bread to satisfy their hunger.

"On the one hand, it is necessary to keep the promises of the nobility not to infringe on the rights of the sacred private property of these captives. On the other hand, they had to make up their minds to loot money from these captives, which was just a petty fight. But the problem now is that the more than a million residents of the city of Moriente have nothing to do, and although our family has provided them with free coarse food, there have been many fights and brawls in the twenty-fourth district of the outer city in the past few days, and I am only worried that it will lead to a larger unrest over time......," Lorist said with a heavy heart.

"I understand that the top priority is to find suitable jobs for the millions of residents of Moriente City so that they don't have nothing to do, but Moriente City is not a territory that our family is prepared to occupy for a long time, so it is impossible for our family to make a large-scale investment here to avoid a situation where our family will fall into a situation after Moriente City is repossessed by the Business Alliance. Shi Fatzi hit the nail on the head and pointed to the crux of the matter.

"Yes, that's it, unless we implement that system of ration distribution in Moldant City, as the Business Alliance did, we can empty the white wolf. But we are occupiers, and compared to the chambers of commerce of the business alliance, we cannot make the inhabitants of the city of Morente trust us, and in order to avoid contradictions, we cannot force this system, but if we do not implement this system, the family will have to invest a lot of gold coins in it, which is not cost-effective......"

Lorist was interrupted as soon as he said this, and Genorio came over and whispered a message, and the commander of the Guards, El, urgently asked for an audience, and was now waiting in the small study.

Lorist got up and strode out of the conference room and into the small study. El, who was sitting on the sofa, hurriedly got up and saluted: "Your Highness, can you go to a place with me?"

"El, you are my brother, don't be so polite. Okay, let's go now, by the way, Genorio, let Baron Schreed wait for us at the Crow Tavern, we haven't seen each other for a long time, so let's get together there. Lorist didn't ask El where he wanted him to go, and he agreed.

"Alas, my uncle's tavern is now one of the taverns allocated to the city of Morente, and the inhabitants can only go in and drink a glass of ale according to the allotment allotment, and even the chef Mackfat has gone with a marquis, because now the tavern has no place for him, and there is no food for him to cook. El said with a sigh.

"Have you seen Old Gal?" asked Lorlist, curious.

El nodded: "I went with Reddy, my uncle has aged a lot in recent years, and he has rejected many nobles' invitations to make him a knight of the family, and only stays at home to teach his two sons." Aunt Louise is now the only one in charge of the Crow Tavern, but only the most ordinary ale can be served. Reddy and I wanted their family to follow us back to the Northlands, and anyway, the two of us were connected to each other, and they could do it there. But my uncle refused, saying that he did not want to leave the city of Moldent, and he was furious after two words of persuasion......"

Lorist put on the cloak sent by Genorio, and Fat came over and asked, "Can I go with me too?" ”

El hesitated for a moment, but finally he made a decision: "Yes, but we can't attract attention with great fanfare, and we need to dress up and not look like a nobleman." ”

The place where Elle took Lorist and Fat Man was to was where his former community was located, a three-story bluestone building on the edge of the neighboring community, and a somewhat large courtyard with a fountain carved with cherubs and a grove of more than 30 trees.

According to El, the mansion was once the residence of the Earl of the Kingdom of Trim in the city of Moriente, but after the Glass War, the courtyard was confiscated by the Council of the Merchant League, and later auctioned off and bought by Ledos as the headquarters of their community. Although Ledos is not an aristocrat, he is responsible for the order and taxation of the three neighborhoods in the outer city, and he is also a celebrity in the city of Morente.

Ledos was already waiting by the side door on the first floor, and when he entered the room, Lorist found that he was the only one left in the whole building. Seeing Lorist and the three of them coming in, Ledos didn't speak, just nodded at them and led them to the back kitchen. Lorist was surprised, but remained silent and just followed him.

Entering a utility warehouse room next to the back kitchen, Ledos dug around somewhere, and a hole appeared in the floor, along with a wooden ladder. Without a word, El descended from the wooden ladder.

"Your Highness......" said Shi Fatzi.

"It's fine. Lorist shook his head and followed El down.

Underneath the wooden ladder was a small, dark room, and a small tunnel leading to nowhere, with a blazing torch stuck three or four meters apart on either side of the tunnel. Ledos was the last to come down, and he closed the hole above the wooden ladder again, and then walked a few steps ahead to lead the way.

"This is the tunnel to the sewers of the city of Moronte, and it is also an underground smuggling route for the community organization. In recent years, due to the implementation of the ration distribution system of food and daily necessities in the city of Morente by the business alliance, Ledos and their society have to seek some profits through smuggling, and can also make their brothers eat better. El explained.

"Then why did you bring us here? We don't smuggle and we don't prohibit you from smu......ggling," Shi Fatzi asked a little strangely.

"Ledos wants to give you a gift, there are many people on it, and I am afraid that it will leak out and bring adverse consequences to the community, so I have to arrange it below. El replied.

At this time, Ledos stopped and whispered, "This is it." ”

It was a hole near the sewers, which was dug out and was supposed to be used as a temporary warehouse for smuggling supplies, and it was also seven or eight square meters in size. But there were no supplies in it right now, just two drunken men who were tied up tightly.

"Who are they?" asked Lorlister.

"The bearded man was the chief steward of the Lyward Chamber of Commerce, and for a time was in charge of the general affairs of the distribution of food and household supplies in the twenty-four communities outside the city. We, the various community organizations in the outer city, had to grovel to him in order to leak a little leftover food from his fingers to fill his stomach, and he was recruited back to the Chamber of Commerce last year. The big man in the back is a leader of the Golden Guard of the Liberaud Chamber of Commerce, and he is also somewhat famous in Moriente City. Ledos replied coldly.

"Then how did they end up here?

"They are here because they have come to me and asked me to cooperate with them in inciting the inhabitants to riot in the city of Morente and cause you some trouble. If done well, they can give us credit in the future at the Council of the Business Alliance, and canonize us as nobles. I heard them say that they first approached our community organization because we were more united, organized, and combative, so I invited them to drink and did something in the wine by the way, and they became like this. Ledos replied quietly.

Lorist looked at him with interest: "Ledos, why aren't you going to do what they say?"

"I don't want to be their cannon fodder, they themselves are not nobles, and they will ask for credit for us people? The most important thing is that the people in our community are our relatives, so we don't push our own relatives into the dire situation. It's easy to incite the inhabitants to riot*, but it's deadly, and they can hide behind it and be safe.

If it weren't for the fact that they said that they volunteered to be the first to come to Moreent City, and that the Business Alliance would have sent people to pick them up later, I think it might have been of some use to you before I thought of giving it to you. Otherwise, they would have been buried alive. I'm not trying to please you, but because El is our big brother, and we don't want any turmoil in Moriente City to sacrifice the innocent residents......" Ledos still had that cold expression.

"Thank you, Ledos. Although you don't treat me as a brother, I still regard you as the like-minded, warm-hearted and sincere good friend I used to be. Lorist thanked Ledos very solemnly.

"Uh......" Ledos was stunned for a moment, then turned his head to see El smiling, and said with an unnatural expression, "Take them away, and you can't pass over me, lest they be seen." I'm going to take you to the exit of the sewers, which leads to a remote corner outside the city, from where you can go straight back to the city. ”

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