[Hadra Tower] In the royal capital, a luxurious fortress, Mortan suddenly woke up from his bed, his whole body soaked in cold sweat.
He dreamed that the wizards used magic to create a lot of bread, and then the wheat in his hand became worthless...
But how is that possible?
Using magic to make bread is simply a fantasy!
Mortan wiped the sweat from his head with trembling hands and managed to sit up from the bed, but soon realized something was wrong.
"Bacchus... Bacchus!" Mortan kept shouting the name of the manor's butler, but he didn't get any response. After a while, a knight came over.
"Lord Mortan, are you awake?"
"Where is Bacchus? Where has he gone?!" Mortan grabbed the knight's arm uneasily and asked.
"He left half an hour ago...and...he also took away your favorite glass wine bottle..."
The knight stumbled for a long time before he dared to tell the truth. What he didn't say was that many valuable items in the fortress had been taken away by the fleeing attendants, and they had no time or ability to stop them.
"Bacchus, I have raised him for forty years, how dare he?" The furious Mortan was so confused that he almost fainted again, but what made him feel even more chilled was the meaning behind it.
"Where is today's Magic Daily? Go get me the newspaper!" Mortan said eagerly. "Also, immediately send someone to the City of Fire Oil and use all means to check for me. I want to know whether those wizards still have food in their hands!"
Amidst Mortan's scolding, the knight did not move and spoke carefully. "Lord Mortan, I'm afraid there is no need to confirm now."
Just an hour ago, the train from the city of kerosene had arrived at the royal capital. At the station, the unloaded food had already piled up, and some workshops had officially implemented the four-meal-a-day system.
All the evidence shows that the parliament does not have no food in its hands, and it has as much food as it wants!
Now the great nobles and wealthy merchants in the entire royal capital are going crazy. Many people are frantically trying to sell the grain in their hands. However, since the parliament provides three meals and lodging, no one is willing to do so on a large scale. Buy food.
The price of wheat instantly dropped from as high as 500 copper coins to one copper coin or five kilograms, and no one would even take a glance at it.
Rumors abound in the market. There are rumors that wizards can turn air into bread and lake water into strong wine. The food in their hands is worthless, because from now on, the Parliament will contract the food of everyone in the kingdom. Sleeping problem...
The trade routes to the empire have been blocked in both directions, and they do not have enough transportation capacity, let alone concealing it from the parliament, to transport so much food out of the kingdom.
Every word of the knight was like a long sword, piercing directly through Mortan's chest.
He understood that he was finished, everything was finished...
"Gustave, you lied to me!" Mortan roared angrily, but the commander of the God's Punishment Army in his mouth was obviously unable to help him.
At this moment, there was a sudden noise outside the fortress, followed by a fierce argument.
Mortan's expression suddenly changed and he almost fell off the bed.
The knight didn't wait for Mortan to ask, and then took the initiative to speak. "It should be the businessmen who came to collect debts!"
The anger in Mortan's heart suddenly surged into his heart. When did a few lowly businessmen have the courage to break into the manor of a kingdom marquis?
If he couldn't deal with the wizard, couldn't he also deal with a few wealthy businessmen?
The furious Mortan pulled out the sword from the knight's waist and went out angrily without putting on his shoes.
In the front hall of the fortress, a dozen loyal guards were confronting a group of uninvited guests who rushed in.
The leader looked kind-hearted, about forty years old, with slightly squinted eyes, and a very rich appearance.
"Stanford?! Who gave you the courage to break into my manor!" Mortan said coldly as he stepped barefoot into the front hall of the fortress with his sword in hand.
"Your manor?" A slightly surprised expression appeared on Stanford's face, and then Shi Shiran took out a land deed from his arms and said kindly. "You must be a little forgetful, Marquis Mortain, this manor is already mine!"
"Of course, you can also choose to take it back with 30,000 gold coins!" Stanford said nonchalantly.
Seeing that the other party directly took out the land deed, Mortan suddenly choked and had to hold back his anger and refute. "I remember the deadline above should be one month!"
"This is 30,000 imperial gold coins, Lord Marquis. I'm afraid you won't be able to get this money within a month, so some accidents may happen and I have to come to collect the bill in advance!" Stanford said apologetically, and then pointed to Read the fine print on the contract. "This is clearly stated in the contract!"
Mortan was immediately laughed out of anger. He had never been so insulted before. He was a Marquis of a majestic kingdom, and someone would actually think that he couldn't even pay a mere 30,000 imperial gold coins!
Even though he has no savings now, his territory still has a lot of land, mines, slaves and even citizens...
But before he could speak, Stanford seemed to have guessed it in advance. One voucher after another appeared in his hand, and finally it even piled up into a booklet.
That is the pledge certificate for various assets in the Marquis’ territory!
Mortan's expression changed instantly. He was not surprised by these mortgage certificates. After all, he had personally pledged them. What really shocked him was that so many certificates were all in the hands of one person from Stanford. inside.
"You are from the Wizards' Council!" Mortan's pupils narrowed.
He immediately understood why Stanford dared to break into his manor directly, and why those businessmen were willing to let him pledge the mines and assets in the territory at a high price...
Mortan, who had been dazzled by the huge profits before, did not think too much. He thought that the other party knew that he had a large amount of highly valuable wheat in his hands, so he was willing to pledge it at a premium.
Now it seems that this is a complete trap!
"Of course, Lord Marquis, haven't you all been working for the wizards?" Stanford didn't mean to pretend, and admitted it openly.
Mortan almost bit his teeth into pieces, but he did not dare to attack rashly, so he had to speak again. "In addition to these assets, I also have countless wheat..."
"Don't be ridiculous, wheat is worthless now!" Stanford said coldly, interrupting Mortan. There are now grain vendors everywhere in the kingdom, with a total of millions of tons of grain on the market!
Besides the parliament, who can accept it? Who can be lucky?
"But it's more or less worth it... As for the price, it's one copper and twenty kilograms!" Stanford said with a smile. "You have a total of 200,000 tons of grain in your hands. According to the current market price, it is worth a thousand imperial gold coins!"
The guards behind him took out money bags and threw them on the ground.
"No, they're all here!"
You fart...
Mortan was almost angry to death on the spot. With Stanford's light words, he wanted to buy back the wheat worth tens of millions for a thousand gold coins.
Twenty kilograms of copper is simply nonsense. Even if no one buys grain in the market, he can make it into ale or use it as feed for livestock. He can even sell part of the grain to the empire to make up for the slight deficit!
It's just that if the first two want to earn enough coins, they obviously can't do it in a month. There are definitely not a few people who have the same idea as him, and there may be a run on each other.
As for selling to the empire, it can only be done in private. Mortan is not stupid enough to say it in public. If he vetoes it, he will be charged with treason again!
"It's a pity that I can't give you this thousand gold coins, Lord Marquis!" Stanford shook his head and asked the guards to take the ten money bags back, sighing. "You borrowed a total of five million imperial gold coins from various caravans, but even if you sell all the mortgaged assets, you can only repay 70%. You still owe a lot."
Mortan's face was red, and he knew that today he was probably going to be in trouble.
The only thing that made him feel fortunate was that although the guards brought by Stanford were large in number, they did not seem to be carrying the alchemy creations called muskets. With his own strength, he might not be able to keep all of these people here!
Thinking of this, Mortan suddenly raised his hand and made a gesture, and the guards who were confronting Stanford and others immediately rushed forward like wolves and tigers.
They are all personal guards raised by the Mortan family since childhood. They have long disregarded life and death and will not question the Marquis's orders at all.
However, what is faster than their sword swing is the skill of drawing a gun!
The guards behind Stanford, under the horrified gazes of the knights and guards, pulled out short-barreled muskets from their waists!
This more sophisticated and easy-to-carry firearm was manufactured by Lydia a year ago, but usually only secret sentries performing special tasks are eligible to equip it!
After all, when performing infiltration and espionage missions, short-barreled muskets are easy to carry, and their stealth and suddenness are excellent. Many secret sentries have developed excellent gun-drawing skills!
Among them, the best one can complete the actions of holding a gun, aiming and shooting in 0.1 seconds!
The next moment, fierce gunshots resounded in the vestibule of the fortress.
Although the dozens of guards were all wearing sophisticated armor, how could they withstand the attack of armor-piercing projectiles? They were beaten into pieces without even making effective resistance!
Mortan was even more desperate. Even though he was a blood knight, he was not confident that he could resist the attacks of so many muskets with his body. He was soon hit by several projectiles in the arm and thigh, and fell limply in a pool of blood.
"Treat him, but don't die. I suspect that he has betrayed the kingdom. Let's go back and have him interrogated!" Stanford put away the musket in his hand. It was he who just interrupted with his superb gun skills. The opponent's limbs.
A group of secret sentries began to deal with the scene very skillfully and disposed of all the corpses. Stanford took out a magic radio and passed the news.
Earl Bell died, Viscount Sker was imprisoned, and Marquis Mortain was captured alive...
A large amount of information was transmitted to Lauder's hands through electromagnetic signals. Due to the sudden collapse of food prices, these nobles and wealthy businessmen captured by them were often immersed in the illusion that they were already rich and powerful. Their homes were all ransacked, and they had no chance to react.
This also resulted in most of the arrest operations going very smoothly, with only one exception, and that was when the Grand Duke of Gard ran away!
In this regard, Lauder was also very helpless. In the past month, they had to monitor hundreds of targets and attack them at the same time. There were really not enough manpower.
What's more, most of the people they deal with are wealthy merchants and nobles, and they have a certain amount of power in their hands. It is not easy to catch everyone without pulling them.
Fortunately, the one who escaped was just a Duke of the Kingdom who had lost his territory and wealth. He couldn't cause any trouble. Their most important goal was always unable to escape!
"Let's go to the palace!" Lauder put away the information at hand one by one, and then led a large number of musketeers straight towards the royal capital.
Along the way, they did not encounter any obstacles. Although the royal guards of the royal capital surrounded them, no one dared to take action. They just allowed Laud to pass through most of the royal capital and entered the main hall. door.
In the palace at this moment, King Hatar was sitting on the throne, discussing with a group of ministers the price of food in the kingdom that suddenly soared and then plummeted to the bottom.
And Lauder suddenly broke in with a large group of musketeers!
The sound in the huge palace suddenly went silent, and several ministers who had been talking eloquently before silenced their voices, as if their vocal cords had been cut off.
Lauder did not speak, but respectfully took out the special [Ring of Secret Magic] in his hand and placed it in the palm of his hand.
A burst of blue light flashed on the ring, and then a familiar figure appeared in front of everyone.
"Long time no see, Your Majesty Hattar!"
Hatar's expression was a little dazed. This scene seemed to be a reenactment of the war in the capital more than a year ago. The wizard in front of him didn't seem to have changed at all, he was still so polite!
It's just that the one sitting on the throne is no longer the old King Bazel, but himself...
Hatar held the hand of the throne next to him, sweating slightly, but he still spoke calmly. "Long time no see, Master Lin En. Is there anything you want to tell me when you come to the palace this time?"
"You can say that!" Lin En nodded, then clapped his hands, and the tied attendants were brought over one by one.
Hatar's face suddenly turned pale. Of course he recognized these attendants who were brought up. They were all his confidants, responsible for secretly contacting the Grand Duke of Gard and asking him to control the movements of the nobles.
But he remembered that these people had obviously been dealt with...
(End of chapter)
