Chapter 453 Disposal Afterwards

The castle study room in the fortress is much more spacious than the small town office. Tall bookcases occupy the left and right walls. The edges of the cabinet legs are inlaid with gold-plated metal edging. They are filled with all kinds of books. Reading along the way, there are everything from epic stories to historical travel notes. In order to facilitate access to the books on the top floor, a wooden escalator is placed next to the bookcase.

Probably for safety reasons, the only window in the study was only half a person's height, and iron bars were installed on the outside. When the light shines into the house from the outdoors, a narrow beam of light can be clearly seen falling on the old plush carpet, giving it a rather isolated feeling.

If it were Anna, she would definitely like this place, Roland couldn't help but think, but for him, a small town office with floor-to-ceiling windows and always bright rooms would be more to his liking. Even though it is small, it is full of comfort.

As for Nightingale, you can tell how much she dislikes this place by the way she often dozes next to the fireplace.

At this time there was a knock on the door outside the house.

"Come in," Roland put the "Secret History of the West" back into the cabinet.

"Your Highness," Pero Helmon walked into the study and placed a stack of white paper on the table, "The statistics you asked me to do have been completed."

Roland returned to the desk and carefully looked through the statistical list of nobles he handed over, "Are these all the remaining nobles in the Western Region?"

"Yes," Perrault explained briefly, "I divided them into two categories: guilty and innocent, and then sorted them by their family names. There were sixty-four guilty nobles in total, and they refused to participate in the rebellion, or did not care about it. There are one hundred and thirty-seven people who are unaware, most of whom are free knights, knights and minor nobles."

Roland opened the home page of the list, and the first one listed was Roman Candy, Earl of Maple Leaf. Listening to Iron Ax's report, this great nobleman hid in a wine barrel in the basement after the mansion was breached. When he was found by soldiers of the First Army, his pants were so frightened that his pants were wet. He was also the highest-ranking nobleman captured in the unification battle. of rebels.

The next entire page is devoted to the nobles of the Maple Leaf family, such as the two sons, other relatives, and the knights enfeoffed.

Roland quickly turned to the end, and then folded the statistics table with satisfaction, "Well done."

Generally speaking, the six major families in the West have become history - the Lion Lion, Maple Leaf, Running Wolf and Wild Rose families will never have a chance to turn around again. Although Honeysuckle and Elk remain, they no longer have the meaning of the past. The feudal nobles above, all the power in the Western Region will be in his hands.

"Your Highness..." Perot hesitated for a moment before saying, "The guilty and innocent verdicts on the list were all provided to me by Mr. Iron Ax. Is there... a possible miscarriage of justice?"

Roland couldn't help but chuckled twice, "He is very good at interrogation, and he did not use torture to extract confessions, so I think the final verdict can still be believed."

In fact, this was just a cover. After all the captured nobles were imprisoned in the dungeon, Nightingale was responsible for identifying them - just by asking a few simple questions, you could know whether they were involved in the rebellion. This is also the reason why Roland dares to take heavy action to clean up the nobles. With Nightingale's assistance, he can truly never let a bad person go and never wrongly accuse a good person. We neither play the trick of implicating others, nor do we pretend to be open-minded and let the troublemakers go.

"Then...how do you plan to deal with these guilty nobles?"

"What's wrong?" Roland raised his head and glanced at Pero, "Are there any of your friends here?"

"No, Your Highness," the latter shook his head, "I just think that if you execute them all, it may be detrimental to your future rule."

"You were demanding blood repayment a week ago," the prince raised his brows with interest, "Do you want to let them go now?"

"I really want all these people to go to hell, but even if I strangle them one by one with my own hands, nothing can be saved...On the contrary, it may arouse other nobles' resentment towards Honeysuckle. And if the reputation of executing nobles indiscriminately spreads, There may also be a wave of opposition to your rule in other cities.”

Hearing these words, Roland was a little surprised. This idea is indeed the way of thinking of a mature politician. Putting aside personal emotions, it is more about weighing interests... It seems that this incident did not make him hate fighting more, but made him more disgusted with fighting. He has matured.

"It's okay to tell you in advance." He stood up and walked to the small window. "I will announce the ins and outs of this matter to everyone, and then publicly sentence all the rebels, including nobles, guards, retinues and servants, in the square. Soldiers...the culprits, who are the direct initiators of the rebellion, and the villains with the blood of the people on their hands, will be sentenced to hanging, while the accomplices will be deprived of their titles and sent to the North Slope Mine for labor reform."

"According to this method, only five or six nobles will be hanged. Earl Elk and Viscount Running Wolf have already died on the battlefield, and the remaining people are equivalent to saving a life with their titles. After the news spread, I don’t think anyone will think this sentence is too harsh - after all, betraying the royal family is a serious crime in itself."

Perro breathed a sigh of relief, "Your Highness is kind."

When the eldest son of the Honeysuckle family left, Roland felt an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

This action has completely cleared the obstacles for him to integrate the Western Territory. From now on, whether he is formulating laws or promulgating policies, he will be able to work smoothly in this vast land.

More importantly, he gained the support of a large number of people and nobles - after eliminating the opponents, the remaining ones are naturally potential supporters.

Especially the nobles - after losing their enfeoffment power and territorial legal rights, if they want to live a comfortable life, they must follow their own policies and spare no effort to promote them. Since the resources in the hands of the nobles are far more than that of the common people, it is not difficult to obtain benefits from them as long as you use your brain a little.

And once they taste the sweetness, they will never want to go back to the miserable days they once had - after all, these small nobles have not enjoyed the benefits that the territory has brought to them. If the operation is not good, they will have to pay back. money. Soon they will realize that just by playing chess according to the rules, they can easily live a life they never imagined before.

There is no doubt that the city building plan has taken a big step forward.

Roland wiped off the condensation on the window and looked at the city shrouded in white snow through the blurred window - since he was going to stay here for a while, he would often come to Changge Fortress to handle government affairs in the future, so he might as well just According to your own preferences, transform this study into an office dedicated to the prince.

For example...start with floor-to-ceiling windows. (To be continued.)