Chapter 260 God-Given Opportunity
The Harland Territory has developed over the years, especially after the opening of a primary school, and some talents have finally been cultivated.
Now there are three primary schools in the territory, with nearly 2,000 children attending school.
According to the statistics of Haaland Territory, there are currently about 80,000 people under the age of 16, about 2,000 people receiving education, and the literacy rate has exceeded 5%.
When these children grow up and become the backbone of society, the quality of the population in Harland Territory will be greatly improved, and the level of development may be better than that of the most developed southwestern magical countries in the Dawn Plane.
Just as the members of the Harland family gathered in Black River Castle to prepare for the birthday of the goddess, Linus Castle, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Stanik, was about to usher in a palace coup.
In this year's orc invasion battle, the Grand Duchy of Stanik suffered heavy casualties. James of the Kingdom even came to the front line to participate in the battle against the orcs.
King James is a seventh-level Silver Knight and is sixty-nine years old.
Although he was still in very good health this spring, it looked like he could live for another thirty or twenty years. As a result, in the spring and summer, Xinyi participated in a difficult war and was severely wounded by the orc shaman. In the winter, he finally couldn't stand it anymore and passed away in Linus's court in late December.
Because of the internal power struggle, the Kingdom of James abandoned the heir thirteen years ago, gouged out the eyes of the eldest prince, and forced him into a monastery.
Perhaps due to his old age and his sensitive heart, King James did not establish a clear heir after deposing the eldest prince.
The kingdom has no clear heir, and the Linus family is not unified.
The old king died of illness, and the heir to the throne was not properly dealt with. Many powerful members of the Linus family had their ambitions expanded to the extreme, and they began to covet the throne and take the lead in the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
They formed gangs everywhere and promised rich salaries to high-ranking officials. Before the birthday of the goddess, there were even vicious cases of assassination in the street.
The sensitive situation has turned Linus Castle into a powder keg, with the risk of losing control at any time. Some smart people smelled the danger and avoided Linus Castle to avoid danger.
According to common sense, the eldest prince lost his eyes and was sent to a monastery. It was the second prince's turn to take the position of grand duke.
But the second prince is a man of mediocre ability. Although he really wants to inherit the throne, he does not receive widespread support from Linus family members. Although he dances happily, even his own son does not support him. In fact, he is very far away from the throne. Far.
The third prince is indeed a talented man, but unfortunately he was seriously injured in a battle with the orcs in his early years. Now he is barely alive, and it is very difficult for him to move around.
The fourth prince had the loudest voice, but the fourth prince, Baldwin, was not at Linus Castle, but served as the defense commander on the northern front.
After the fourth prince, the sixth prince Soraman has the highest prestige.
Soraman has been an officer in the Royal Guards since he came of age, and is now the commander of the Guards Corps. He gained the old king's trust very much, and he always behaved in a non-competitive manner. But after King James died of illness, Soraman's position became the most critical.
Soraman publicly issued a very influential political declaration three days ago, and now he is the most popular candidate to compete for the throne.
In addition, among the members of the royal family of Grand Duke Stanek, there is another very key person. This person is Haldane, the younger brother of King James.
Haldane is the new hereditary Duke of the Grand Duchy of Stanik and a legendary knight. He has served as the commander of the Border Legion for many years. Not only does he have great influence on the Border Guards, he also has an elite Warcraft Cavalry in his hands.
The reason why James asked the most capable fourth prince to serve as a commander in the border guard army was actually because he wanted to limit the influence of his uncle Haldane.
When King James was still there, Haldane worked well with King James, and the family basically lived in Lynas Castle. Even though Haldane was promoted to hereditary duke and had a large territory, his descendants were accustomed to everything in Linus Castle and basically did not move.
Currently, there are three most influential members of the Linus family, and there are also many careerists among them.
On the eve of the goddess's birthday, Soraman summoned his cronies to the mansion and angrily threw out several letters and scolded: "This afternoon, our people intercepted several messengers and found a batch of letters. These letters were almost They are all from important members of the royal family, some are my uncles, some are my nephews, and some are my brothers. The letters are sent to Baldwin and Haldane, and the meaning of the letters is to support them as eunuchs.
You are my old subordinates. Now you should unite your opinions. Are you willing to support me as the Grand Duke? "
After hearing this, everyone replied: "Of course we are willing to support the Sixth Prince, but relying solely on the power we have, we will not have an advantage over the Royal Guards. Without the support of the Royal Guards, it will be difficult to secure the throne." of."
"Of course I know this. The main opponent of me among the Royal Guards is Evanson. As long as Evanson is eliminated, most of the rest will be centrists. It doesn't matter who becomes the Grand Duke. After seizing the throne, we will reward you with a batch of gold coins. We can bribe most of the officers and soldiers. The families of the Royal Guards are mainly in Linus Castle. After controlling this castle, the Guards have no choice but to follow us. "
"Evanson himself is a ninth-level epic knight, with hundreds of guards around him. With just a few of us, we may not have a chance of winning?" The speaker was Soraman's brother-in-law, who is also a fifth-level knight and serves in the Royal Guards. As a captain, such a status is naturally hardcore.
Soraman said confidently: "Evanson's wife is a believer in the Goddess of the Dawn, and their family has always had the habit of celebrating the goddess's birthday. According to the information sent by insiders, Evanson has taken leave to go home today, and there are only ten people around him. A few guards are the best time to take action."
"Since the Sixth Prince has made up his mind, we must follow the Sixth Prince."
Soraman's cronies were very smart. Once they heard the meaning of his words, they understood that Soraman wanted to take things by surprise and launch a military coup.
Although some people were uneasy, these noble officers all knew a little bit about history, and they knew in their hearts that since they had boarded Soraman's pirate ship, they could not raise objections at this time.
Who dares to hesitate at this critical moment, Soraman will definitely kill him, and even his parents and relatives will hardly be spared.
Now that Soraman has made up his mind, they can only bite the bullet and follow Soraman's path into the dark.
The attitude of most members of the Royal Guards is actually neutral. Because he was always being watched by the old King James, Soraman did not dare to attract people's hearts on a large scale, and he did not have many direct lineage backbones.
If he is popular among the royal guards, there is no need to launch a palace coup.
The total central regular army of the Grand Duchy of Stanek totals 100,000, including 40,000 border guards and approximately 60,000 royal guards.
The 60,000 Royal Guards are divided into two infantry legions, one cavalry legion, and there are also three thousand Warcraft cavalry.
In order to defend against the orcs, King James sent a large number of royal guards to the front line this year. There are about 800 Warcraft cavalry and 20,000 infantry.
In today's Grand Duchy of Stanik, Prince Baldwin has the largest number of troops, with a total number of more than 60,000.
But among the border troops there were also a large number of officers appointed by Haldane.
Haldane served in the Border Guards for many years, promoted countless officers, and was a legendary knight himself, with more influence than Baldwin.
Baldwin could really command an army, the total number of which did not exceed 30,000.
Although Haldane returned to his own territory and only had a private army of 10,000 nobles, he had raised 1,600 Warcraft Cavalry. Coupled with his influence in the army, his strength was stronger than Baldwin's.
On the contrary, Soraman of the Royal Capital is slightly inferior in terms of influence and strength.
Although Soraman is average in strength, he likes to read various hero biographies and sum up experience from history. He knows that the core element of palace coups and military coups is surprise.
To carry out this kind of coup, you don't need too many manpower. One or two hundred elite soldiers are enough. If there are too many people participating in a coup, it will be difficult to keep the information secret. Once the information is leaked and the enemy is on guard, it will be difficult for the coup to succeed.
Soraman has hundreds of elites in his hands. A coup is not difficult. The key is how to create momentum and a fait accompli.
The tense atmosphere in Linus Castle has lasted for seven or eight days now, especially after the assassination in the street the day before yesterday. Everyone is on guard and is not suitable for a military coup.
But Soraman is the weakest. If he can't catch him by surprise, it will be difficult for him to have a chance to compete for inheritance rights.
I have been patiently waiting for this day for many years.
Soraman is never willing to give up an opportunity. He is not a person who takes the overall situation into consideration.
Even if there is a high chance of failure, Soraman has to fight hard to get the last chance.
Even if the Grand Duchy of Stanik is messed up? If the Linus family loses its throne and the entire ancestral lineage is wiped out, Soraman will not hesitate to launch a coup.
As an extremely selfish person, he only thinks from his own point of view. As long as there is a chance to take over the power, he will firmly grasp it, even if it blocks everything.
Soraman took an oath with his cronies, and then directly led troops to surround Evanson's mansion.
Seeing this scene, Evanson's face changed drastically and he cursed fiercely: "Soraman, what are you going to do? If you take the lead in breaking the rules, you will become a sinner of the Linus family, and you will not be able to go to heaven after you die. I advise you immediately Sober up, go to the monastery immediately, and admit your sins, so that you can save your wife and children. "
"My wife will become a queen, and my son will become a prince, but your whole family will be burned to death in a fire. Today I am the winner. The rules are made by the winner, and history will be written by the winner." Sora Man sneered and directed the soldiers to shoot rockets.
Evanson is a distant member of the Linus family. He is a powerful ninth-level epic knight. He is not far from the legend. Soraman is only a sixth-level knight. Fighting alone is far from Evanson's. opponent. The troops commanded by the two of them were also Evanson's more elite cavalry.
However, due to mental arithmetic or not, Soraman was followed by hundreds of soldiers. Among them, there are no less than thirty middle-level professionals. However, Evans's guards only have a dozen people, and the professionals only have two officers. With such a disparity in power, Soraman and others worked together and successfully killed Evanson after paying a certain price.
After Evanson's death, the house was burned by fire all night, and dozens of people in his family were all killed by the fire.
After eliminating the biggest opponents of the Royal Guards, they hijacked some of the Royal Guards along the way and took control of important places such as the palace, treasury, and armory.
Early the next morning, with the support of his cronies, Soraman forged an edict of succession from the old King James and ascended the throne openly.
In order to avoid being attacked, he also distributed officials and awarded titles on a large scale. The first person to be awarded was the fourth prince Baldwin. He made Baldwin a hereditary duke, and then used a large area of territory in the north as a fiefdom. He also locked up Haldane's relatives who stayed in the capital and wrote a letter, implying that Haldane was threatened with the lives of his relatives.
Solaman controlled the Castle of Linus very smoothly.
Although some of the guards were very dissatisfied with Solaman, it was a pity that no one organized to resist Solaman's rule. Most of the officers and soldiers were centrists. No matter who was the king, as long as they could give them money, they would be their superiors.
Even if he controlled the Castle of Linus, Solaman's rule was very weak.
Especially the local nobles, who believed that Solaman had destroyed the tradition and launched a palace coup, most of them were dissatisfied with Solaman.
Especially Baldwin and Haldane, after receiving the news, they immediately raised their troops and swore to attack Solaman.
The battle for the throne that took place in the Kingdom of Grant almost happened again in the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
Just after the Goddess's Birthday, the Grand Duchy of Stanik was in chaos.
The lord country had a civil war, which had nothing to do with the Kingdom of Grant, but the Jonathan family had a special status and was the former owner of the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
Until now, the power of the Jonathan family hidden in the Grand Duchy of Stanik has been somewhat preserved despite repeated blows.
After the civil war broke out in the Venus family, many nobles of the Grand Duchy of Stanik soon came to the Kingdom of Grant, hoping that Duke Jonathan could set things right and preside over the situation.
More than a hundred years after losing the country, although the situation was opened up in the Kingdom of Grant, the Jonathan family has always had the intention to return to the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
Seeing that the once-in-a-century opportunity had arrived, Duke Jonathan was immediately encouraged and began a comprehensive mobilization.
However, if you want to go to the Grand Duchy of Stanik to compete for the throne, you must have the support of the Kingdom of Grant.
Without the full support of the Grant Kingdom, the Jonathan family would have no chance of winning the war with the Linus family.
If there had been no civil strife in the Grand Duchy of Stannic, the Linus family would have had a much stronger force.
The Linus family controlled a central army of 100,000 soldiers, and could also influence 40,000 noble private troops to fight with them. The main force of the Jonathan family was only three armies of 60,000 soldiers, and the number of Warcraft cavalry was half that of the others.
Now that the Linus family was divided into three forces and had already fought together, it was a godsend for the Jonathan family.
After receiving the news, Duke Jonathan sent a messenger to Nolan to negotiate with King Roger.