Lothar looked at the hurried financial officer and pointed at Earl Philip's back speechlessly: "Can you call this temper?"
Treasurer Richard said seriously: "Sir, Your Excellency Philip has a high prestige in the Knights, because he is a very generous commander, and many people have received favors from him."
"How do you think he will deal with me?"
Richard hesitated for a moment, then said: "It is nothing more than inciting the knights and sergeants who have received his favor to obey and disobey your orders. Then I will seize your omissions and use them as a means of criticizing you at the court meeting. It is best to call on The nobles who are close to him are putting pressure on His Majesty to remove you from your post.”
Lothar nodded slightly. He could also think of these methods.
There's nothing clever about it at all.
"Richard, tell me this, aren't you afraid that one day Earl Philip will take the position of Grand Master and cause trouble for you?"
Richard looked at Lothar, who was smiling but not smiling, with a calm expression: "Sir, I really like what you said in the hall. The situation in the Holy Land is extremely dangerous. If we don't unite as one, we will all become the dead souls of the heretics."
Lothar nodded.
"I hope this Philip can be smarter and stop causing trouble for me."
The Knights only have so much strength in total. If Count Philip were to split off a part of them again, this would be something Lothar would never tolerate.
It's actually easy to deal with Philip. Just throw a pair of iron gloves at him in public.
Lothar is sure of victory.
The martial Franks have always only followed the strong.
Even if Philip refuses to fight, his reputation will be ruined, and it will be impossible to cause any more waves.
...
A busy afternoon.
The affairs of the Knights began to get on track, and various backlogged documents were sent to the hall for Lothar to read and process.
There are actually a lot of trivial things in the knights, such as minor frictions between colleagues. Two knights fought because the other party took over part of their fiefdom.
Or in the palace, a piece of oriental porcelain was lost some time ago.
After investigation, it was a theft by someone, how should we deal with it?
There are countless little things like this.
In the evening, Lothar put down the quill in his hand. He had finished reading the last document and had a deeper understanding of the internal context of the Knights.
After Baron Godfrey and his cronies were transferred from the Royal Knights, many positions became vacant.
However, these positions cannot be directly awarded to the cavalry loyal to Lothar, because they do not have the title of knight, and as civilians, they cannot occupy those key positions.
And Lothar was unwilling to do this, so he promoted these cavalrymen who had not yet made much contribution to knights.
This left Lothar to recruit talents from within the Knights and place them in key positions.
This is also a good thing. If done properly, it can win over a large number of people's hearts.
Lothar stood up and moved her hands and feet.
Under the candlelight, Prajna was holding a book and reading. Judging from the cover, it should be a theological classic. On the other side, Fringilla was already lying on the table, sleeping soundly.
"Hans, Prajna, let the three of us take a walk. We have been sitting here all afternoon. It's time to move around."
Prajna closed the book and stood up.
Hans asked: "Sir, where are we going? Do we need to wear armor?"
"It's right in the palace. It won't go far. It shouldn't be in danger. I plan to see if those knights are lazy and pick a few to beat."
Lothar ordered.
Give both grace and power.
There are three things a new official should do when he takes office.
He planned to pick a few people to kill the chickens and scare the monkeys, lest these people think that he is easy to talk to and be lured away by Earl Philip.
Lothar and his party were walking in the palace.
Even the palace was not brightly lit in the middle of the night. Many places were dark, with only a dim oil lamp burning in the corridor.
Lothar warned Hans: "This corridor connects the two halls. If someone lurks in, this is the only way. According to common sense, people must be patrolled. Write it down and ask Richard later who is responsible. Defense of this area.”
Walk deeper into the corridor.
Hans suddenly stopped and said urgently: "Sir, it smells of blood!"
Hans' pupils shone with a faint green light in the dark rainy night.
He squatted down and pointed to the corner of a stone pillar: "There is a fresh blood stain here, as if it was left not long ago."
Lothar frowned and whispered: "Hans, how many people do you think there are on the other side?"
Hans hesitated.
“Trust your instincts!”
"About ten, the risk shouldn't be high."
"Looks like we're in luck."
This was probably not because he was unlucky enough to meet an assassin on his first day in office, but because Count Philip wanted to show him his muscles.
He transferred a group of subordinates who were loyal to him, causing loopholes in the palace's defense.
"This idiot!"
Lothar cursed secretly. Now he had a reason to kick Earl Philip out of the Knights. However, the other party was a Earl and he could not be executed for making such a big omission.
"Let's go, we can't let these assassins succeed, otherwise my position as the leader of the group, which I have held for less than a day, will be in jeopardy."
In the small courtyard, the sound of pattering rain gradually sounded.
The rain that had been brewing for a long time finally started to fall.
Hans walked in the front.
He has the outstanding sense of smell of a werewolf, and even in human form, he can follow the scent of blood to trace the enemy.
Soon, Lothar heard the faint sounds of fighting coming from ahead.
A seriously injured and dying knight was lying on the ground, one of his legs had been cut off and he was bleeding.
"Big, big leader, go and save Her Royal Highness the Princess. They are Assassin."
When the knight saw Lothar, it was as if he had grasped a life-saving straw.
Lothar's expression changed slightly.
It is said that Hawthorne, the first Mountain Old Man, spent a huge sum of money to buy a castle in Sasanian Persia, named it "The Eagle's Nest", and built a heaven on earth in it.
There are countless beauties, delicacies, and wines.
He adopted young children from all over the world, trained them into assassins, sent them to the "Kingdom of Heaven" to enjoy, and one day knocked them out in a daze.
After waking up, the Assassins are like imprisoned drug addicts, bent on "getting salvation" and returning to heaven.
So they are not afraid of death at all. On the contrary, death is their pursuit.
This is a very tough group of dead warriors!
Lothar ignored the need to treat the knight, pulled out his armed sword, and ran towards the inside. His chain armor leggings stepped on the mud, splashing large amounts of muddy water.
The sharp knife struck Lothar with the sound of howling wind.
Lothar raised his armed sword and easily blocked the sword, slashing directly at the opponent with great force.
The bloody head rolled to the ground, and the assassin who launched the surprise attack was killed by Lothar with a sword before even meeting him.
The sudden drop in temperature at night made the white smoke exhaled from Lothar's mouth clearly visible.
Blood magic, blood waterfall has been activated!
