ebookland #616 - Drag, just drag
#616 - Drag, just drag
“So far, 30 households have joined that sickle gang…”
“Slap—” Henderson didn’t even finish speaking before he was slapped hard across the face.
In the hunter's lodge, autumn rain fell, and a dim red fire burned in the hearth. Adrian sat imposingly by a crude walnut table.
“You said you could stop these monks, you’ve stopped them once, twice, how many times? Did it work? Did you stop them?”
Adrian was nothing like the hearty and simple man he was in front of Ansel. His eyes even reflected the red light of the fire, making him look as gloomy and menacing as an eagle.
“Just two people, Bryson and the like can run you in circles. You still think he’s on your side? Can you stop them?”
His face swollen, Henderson mumbled in distress, “Your Excellency, I really tried my best! They…”
“Just two people, and it’s that hard? Have you no shame?”
Henderson wore a bitter expression. “It’s not that, Your Excellency. He’s giving money to those stupid farmers. If I had money, I’d give it out too, but I don’t have that much money. I really don’t know how to stop them.”
Tilting his head back and closing his eyes, Adrian inhaled and exhaled several times through his nose before slowly opening his eyes. “Uncle Henderson, we’re family, right? I even held your son when he was a baby. I went to your wedding with your wife to offer a toast.”
Henderson’s expression turned cold, and he replied tremulously, “Yes, yes…”
“Good. Have your son deliver this letter to the Mason parish, and then have him stay there. Don’t let him come back.”
Trembling all over for a while, Henderson suppressed his fear and nodded. “Is… isn’t it a little early to launch now?”
Speaking of this, the fire in Adrian's heart, which had just subsided, flared up again.
“If you could have held on a little longer, why would I have to launch at this time?”
He grabbed the whetstone on the table and threw it at Henderson. The flying whetstone drew an arc in the air, accurately hitting Henderson's head.
“Ouch.” Henderson clutched his head in pain and instantly collapsed to the ground, curling up.
Watching the struggling and groaning Henderson, Adrian’s anger still hadn’t dissipated.
He had contacted the knights and armed farmers of 20 manors in the nearby three parishes and received explicit and implicit promises.
His original intention was to delay the perpetual lease reform until early or mid-October, and then rely on Save the World Army to trigger large-scale protests and riots.
Even if this riot didn't succeed, it would still be a slap in the face to that damn farmer Horne.
The Save the World Army was formed from peasant uprisings. Now that he incited a peasant uprising, suppressing it would be a loss of face, and not suppressing it would be a loss of substance.
Moreover, regardless of success or failure, this so-called perpetual lease reform would not be able to advance before the mountains were sealed by snow, and might even regress.
An entire winter would be enough for the nobles of the entire Thousand River Valley to unite and launch an attack.
At that time, either there would be a civil war between the two sides resulting in a double loss, or the Mountain County reform would be temporarily suspended, with both sides saving face and simply changing the title.
Adrian had already received a verbal promise and oath from an earl that once the perpetual lease reform in Mountain County was revoked, the nearby eight manors would be his, and he could even be granted a barony.
To cover this up, he deliberately pretended to be a drunk who didn't care about worldly affairs, just to paralyze Ansel and absolve himself afterward.
Unfortunately, before the situation could continue to intensify, his own home was about to be stolen.
And it wasn't just his own home. Knights from various parishes nearby were writing letters of complaint, saying that their own manors and farmers were being corrupted by the evil woolen yarn of the Save the World Army.
Everyone was afraid, feeling that if they didn't launch now, they wouldn't have another chance, so Adrian simply went along with the flow and decided to advance the plan.
According to the plan, the Mason parish would revolt first, then gather together and, relying on their familiarity with the terrain, move to his parish.
Then they would kill the monks sent by the Holy Son, and the manor knights would have no choice but to cooperate with the mountain people in order to "protect the civilians."
However, Adrian felt a trace of anxiety in his heart at this moment. Originally, the operation time was one month or even half a month.
Could they withstand the Save the World Army's offensive if they rashly extended it to a month and a half?
But it didn't matter, as long as the Save the World Army attacked the mountain people, their image of "benevolent believers" would be shattered.
Yes, that was it.
While Adrian was pondering, Henderson, who had been yelling, quietly stood up and hesitated for a long time before opening his mouth and saying, "Your Excellency Adrian, this is a matter of losing our heads. Fifteen pounds a year is a lot in the plains. Why do you have to do this? Why don't we… just forget about it?"
Adrian, who had been looking down, suddenly raised his head. He looked at Henderson for a long time, then suddenly burst out laughing.
"Forget it? How can you ask me to forget it?" Adrian crushed the gilded copper cup in his hand. "Is Moliati going to take away the manor passed down from my ancestors with just one sentence?"
At this point, Adrian bit his teeth, and even his lips were trembling slightly. "How many times did I see death in the Mound County war? Several times, I crawled back from piles of corpses!
Look, how many scars and hidden injuries do I have on my body? My bones ache every time it rains. What do I want? I've done so much. I deserve some credit, right?
But in the end, when dividing the territory, I was rejected because of so-called 'poor martial arts' and 'severe alcoholism.'"
As he spoke, Adrian took steps closer to Henderson, and even his face became as red and ferocious as a demon.
Seeing the knight approaching, Henderson was so frightened that he fell to the ground.
The knight, who was always drunk, pounded his chest hard. "I know, I know that not all mountain people can go to the Plain County. Fine, for the honor of a knight, I'll go home. I won't fight or grab!
I just want to stay in my own manor, spend the winter in Mound County or the Norn Kingdom, buy a few pieces of porcelain to put in my house, and live peacefully every year.
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But they even want to deprive me of this right! What the hell is a hundred-household district? What the hell is a perpetual lease? They just want to deprive the knights of their honor!
They are being clever and think they can deceive me with a hundred-household district and perpetual lease? They can buy me with 15 pounds?
I'm telling you, the Montes family has been the lord of this manor for a hundred years, and they will be a hundred years from now!"
Adrian's voice echoed like a night owl in the dim lodge, while the originally arrogant and fierce Henderson was shrinking in the corner, unable to even speak.
After shouting this sentence, the entire hunter's lodge fell into silence, with only the increasingly heavy rain outside the window.
I don't know how long it had been, perhaps a dozen seconds or perhaps a dozen minutes, before the suffocating silence was broken by the harsh friction of Adrian pulling the chair.
The dim candlelight shone on the round wooden walls, clearly illuminating the tapestries and furs on the walls. When Adrian spoke, even the candlelight shook. "During this time, you have two things to do."
Henderson, who had been shrinking in the corner, immediately jumped up and struck a posture of bowing and listening to orders.
"The first thing is to take advantage of their delay in delivery time to minimize the number of new people joining that Sickle Brotherhood. The second thing is to find out exactly who are the absolute supporters of that Ansel."
"Your Excellency, the second thing is easy to say, but the first thing…" Henderson had suffered greatly in several encounters and was no longer as ordinary and confident as he had been at the beginning.
"Use rumors, instigation, hire a few gossips. Don't look at how active they are, from the bottom of their hearts, they don't see those two monks as their own."
Adrian knew these mountain people too well. Don't look at how warm and friendly they are now, as if they were real brothers. When it really comes to risking their lives, no one will stand on his side, or very few.
Mountain people are both selfish and selfless. They can be as close as brothers with people on weekdays, but when it really comes to sacrifice, they are much smarter than the farmers in Plain County.
Otherwise, why would the bishops of Mountain County always complain to the metropolitan bishop about "rascals coming from poor mountains and bad waters"?
Henderson lowered his head even further. "But even if I spread rumors that salaries can't be paid, won't it have the opposite effect when they are actually paid?"
"Today is September 11th." Without answering his question, Adrian suddenly mentioned the date. "In seven days, it will be the second payday. Remember that day, invite as many people from the manor to the main house as possible."
After nodding blankly at first, Henderson seemed to think of something, and his hair stood on end. "Your meaning is, kill everyone outside the main house?"
"As long as the land is in our hands, there are plenty of farmers in the mountains who lack land. Even if we kill 200 of them, are we still afraid of not being able to recruit new ones?" Shaking the wine in his glass, Adrian said with a gloomy face.
"But if that's the case, won't the remaining copyhold farmers riot?"
"As long as you eight armed farmers stand with me, can the remaining mortals still turn the world upside down? I am a transcendent!" Draining a whole glass of wine, Adrian burped, his face flushed, whether from excitement or drunkenness.
"It's come to this point, these people have been poisoned, they must be killed, if not killed—hic—it won't work!"