Chapter 526 Intimidation

Xu Lai was reluctant to let them out after all.

Because it was obvious that these soldiers robbed Count Aini's wealth.

If it was ordinary gold and silver, Xu Lai might not care much, but what if there were precious items such as treasures?

Anyway, they probably wouldn't die for a while.

Besides, if they couldn't tell whether life or money was more important at this time, they deserved to be burned to death in there.

However, the approaching flames were constantly threatening them.

Some people woke up, threw the gold and silver in their arms to the ground, and rushed out.

Some people wanted to take advantage of this chaos to secretly take gold and silver treasures and get out of the city from the crowd.

Jilong immediately looked at Xu Lai, Xu Lai sighed, and decisively said: "You can do it."

Jilong, who was born in an aristocratic family, was much more skilled than Xu Lai in doing this kind of thing.

He waved his hand, and the elite knights who had just been resurrected yesterday and tonight drew their swords one after another.

They didn't care whether the people who rushed over were unarmed or armed, or anything else.

They just lined up in a tight formation, and the long swords in their hands kept slashing mechanically, chopping down one creature after another.

Many unarmed people fell in a pool of blood in despair.

Even though Xu Lai had seen a lot of killing and blood, he felt a little bit of pity when he saw this scene.

However, he couldn't ask Jilong to stop, because those who rushed out were all professional soldiers, and many of them were holding weapons.

At this time, it was too difficult for them to distinguish who was unarmed and who was holding weapons.

What's more, these were people who had died once, and they all knew that the angels had no resurrection quota before tomorrow night.

Xu Lai couldn't sacrifice half of his own people for the enemy, even if there were many defectors among these enemies.

Elena, who was at the scene, also sighed silently and directed the priests to add spells to Jilong's knights.

But except for the assistants brought by Elena, the other priests were all indifferent.

Compared with Jilong and his knights, those who rushed out of the city were likely to be their acquaintances and friends.

Xu Lai took a look and said nothing.

There were no casualties among their own soldiers. If they only added a little defense and attack blessing spells, Elena and her men would be enough.

This situation did not gradually change until the arrival of the mages and a lot of rain fell.

The cold rain not only extinguished the burning flames, but also sobered up the soldiers who were confused by money and killing.

Those who were not afraid of death had fallen in a pool of blood, and the rest of the people all stood aside under the command of Jilong.

After experiencing the flames and blood, there were not many defenders left in the city.

They wanted to plunder the wealth of the Aini family, but it was not without cost.

Connors only had the command to recruit soldiers, and the ownership belonged to Count Aini, so the recruited soldiers would never rebel.

When these soldiers attacked the Aini family, they had already broken with the recruited soldiers and became enemies.

It is conceivable that the fire in the castle might not have been released intentionally, but just triggered the corresponding magic trap.

The fact was just as Xu Lai expected. The surrendered officers soon confessed everything.

Jilong stripped all the people, whether officers or ordinary soldiers, and searched them bit by bit.

Nearly 2,000 light people, in blood and rain, both the smell and appearance were very ugly.

Xu Lai was not interested in these. The ordinary soldiers had limited vision, and most of the things they found on their bodies were just gold and silver, and at most some jewelry.

There were wizards on the scene, and Jilong asked those wizards to help identify them on the spot.

Jilong was not as easy to talk to as Xu Lai, especially since he had just killed hundreds of people and without hesitation, ordered everyone to be stripped of their clothes in this winter.

Several mages looked at each other, and no one dared to refuse, so they had to stay to help.

Xu Lai had already gotten up, so it was impossible for him to go back to rest at this time, and he was not interested in staying to watch how to strip people's clothes, so he led people into the castle.

Jilong wanted to bring people up to protect him, but Xu Lai shook his head and told him to do his own thing first.

Jilong was stunned for a moment, and stepped aside in an orderly manner, watching Xu Lai lead Roland and Elvy into the castle.

There may be other magic traps hidden in the castle. Roland did not dare to let Xu Lai go in front, but found a surrendered officer to lead the way.

The battle in the castle was not over. According to the officer, it was because of their rebellion that Connors also lost the trust of the Aini family.

So Connors, and the few remaining subordinates who were still loyal to Aini, were being attacked by the recruited soldiers controlled by the Aini family.

It was ridiculous that the only two people standing in the same camp were attacking each other at this moment.

But for Xu Lai, whether it was Earl Aini's recruited soldiers, or Connors and his few subordinates, they were all enemies.

The dedicated Holy Light Knights, holding their shields high, lined up on both sides of Xu Lai, protecting Xu Lai tightly.

The Paladin who led the way in front of him was under the prayer light that fell from the sky. With the blessing of the speed force, his long sword danced faster than the sword master.

Xu Lai, who was in the back, only heard a few screams from the front, but he didn't see any living people.

I don't know whether it was lucky or unfortunate.

After experiencing a rebellion, the morale of the castle troops was extremely low.

Before Roland and his men had time to kill many recruited soldiers, their morale returned to zero.

It didn't matter that the morale returned to zero.

Anyway, the morale of these soldiers was almost zero. Let alone heroes, there was not even a general to lead them. The attributes of recruiting soldiers were like wild monsters.

The only role they can play now is to delay time.

But that is for others, such as Jilong and his men.

If they rushed into the castle, they would not gain anything.

However, Xu Lai was a hero with a diplomacy skill that had been upgraded to an advanced level and a very high level and reputation.

Although the scattered recruited soldiers no longer obeyed the command of the Aini family, they still belonged to Aini for a short period of time.

Aini could still recruit them back by using the inspiration ability in the leadership skill, or the special effects such as regrouping in the tactics.

Therefore, after the collapse, these recruited soldiers were still hostile to Xu Lai.

It's just that they would no longer take the initiative to attack, and would not even fight back when being chased by Xu Lai and his men.

But Xu Lai's diplomacy skill also has a special intimidation ability, which can also bring the target of the hostile relationship over to diplomacy.

Once these soldiers collapsed, they automatically lost the protection of the hero, were out of the control of the hero, and became a state similar to wild monsters.

The recruited soldiers in this state are also vulnerable to intimidation.

The most important thing is that although Xu Lai only has a few hundred paladins and more than a hundred angels around him, this army is not even equal to a mid-level army of 10,000 people.

Therefore, Xu Lai has an absolute advantage in terms of military strength, and the success rate of intimidation is much higher than the basic 20%.

Basically, when Xu Lai and his team encounter three waves of soldiers, one of them must be successfully intimidated, and sometimes even twice in a row.

According to Xu Lai's statistics, his success rate of intimidation may be as high as about 40%, which is twice the basic success rate.

Of course, it is not without cost.

Xu Lai originally planned to quickly clear the entire castle. At this time, in order not to waste these recruited soldiers, Xu Lai deliberately let them go if he failed to intimidate them.

Unfortunately, intimidation does not belong to negotiation. Xu Lai's persuasion skill of advanced diplomacy is not effective, and he cannot intimidate twice in a row.

But as long as Xu Lai lets them go and blocks the gate of the city, these recruited soldiers can only keep running in the castle.

That is, as long as Xu Lai sweeps over and over again, he will eventually encounter them for the second and third time.

Continuous intimidation in a short period of time is ineffective, and it will only make the hostility value higher and higher.

When it reaches the maximum value, it will enter the dead enemy state. Regardless of whether they have morale penalties or not, they will fight with Xu Lai without hesitation.

It is equivalent to reaching the dead enemy state, intimidation is completely ineffective.

In addition to the dead enemy state, as long as both sides have cooled down for a period of time, Xu Lai can activate the intimidation ability again.

Of course, if the intimidation fails, the hatred value will be stacked again.

With these free recruits, Xu Lai lost interest in the wealth in the castle for a while.

Anyway, this thing will not grow legs, and the people of the Aini family who originally lived in the castle were handed over to Elvie by Xu Lai.

Elvie is absolutely worthy of Xu Lai's trust, so there is no problem of embezzlement.

Secondly, Xu Lai does not need to worry about their combat effectiveness, especially with Xu Lai's own blessing, these are angels who can suppress the demon army of Selron.

The only thing Xu Lai is worried about is whether Elvie's kindness will be used by the people of the Aini family.

After Xu Lai thoroughly cleaned the castle, it was already noon the next day.

He finally made a statistics. Through the intimidation feature, he got a total of more than 3,000 free intermediate warriors.

The number of recruited soldiers killed was about 2,000, not including Connors who surrendered and his more than 1,000 men.

There was no other way. They had become mortal enemies. What else could they do but kill them?

Most of the more than 3,000 mid-level warriors were infantry and archers, about 2,000 of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th-level infantry, and about 1,000 of the 4th and 5th-level archers.

Assuming that the average recruitment price is 500 gold, more than 3,000 recruited soldiers are worth 1,500,000 gold, which is a considerable asset.

Of course, because there are more 4th-level soldiers, the average recruitment price should be less than 500.

However, the most important thing is not the price, but the recruitment quota that others cannot recruit even if they have money.

Moreover, even if these soldiers are of low level, most of them are gathered from other cities or villages.

But Conaston, like Qingfeng City, has all kinds of buildings of various levels.

Even if Xu Lai couldn't find the heart of the castle for the time being, at most he could bring all these soldiers back to Qingfeng City to advance. At that time, the lowest level was level 4 or 5.

After daybreak, Xu Lai contacted Rena's troops who were resting in Martel City.

Rena said that the troops and logistics had already rested, and if necessary, she could set off this afternoon.

The grassland is too vast. Jimmy Martell is a close confidant of Aini, and his fiefdom is not far from Conaston.

But even so, if ordinary civilians walk from Martell City, they need at least three days and three nights.

Reina's army is small, and the logistics baggage is not much. With the support of logistics skills and treasures, it should not take two days to reach Conaston.

But after thinking about it, Xu Lai still rejected this proposal, and asked Reina to return to Qingfeng City directly after resting.

Even if Conaston, which has a larger area, more complete facilities, better population and economy, is taken.

But in Xu Lai's heart, his home has always been Qingfeng City.

Therefore, after thinking about sending these soldiers back to upgrade, Xu Lai thought about whether to let Reina and others take a detour and come to Conaston first.

In the end, he gave up this idea and let Reina go home directly. At most, she told Jimmy to come to help as soon as possible after pacifying the people.

The last bad thing about recruiting these soldiers is that the morale of Xu Lai's own troops has also been lost a lot.

After all, the morale of these newly joined soldiers is extremely low, and their number is far greater than that of knights and angels, so the basic average morale is pulled too low.

Fortunately, various bonuses will not be affected by the reduction of basic morale.

Xu Lai launched an encouragement, and the morale can still be maintained above 80 points.

There is no way to restore the basic morale, and it can only be restored slowly through training, continuous fighting, and continuous victory.

But with flags and expertise in leadership, a minimum morale value can still be guaranteed.

With a morale of more than 60 points, Xu Lai can directly let them do many things.

For example, arrange military tasks such as patrols, garrisons, and guards in various corners of the castle.

At present, these 1,000 archers have been re-deployed on the walls of the castle by Xu Lai.

As for the 2,000 infantry, some are stationed in the city guard barracks, and some are stationed near important buildings such as the castle and the town hall.

With this arrangement, before it was dark, teams of brand new soldiers had already replaced the city guards to patrol the streets.

The soldiers patrolling the streets quickly dispelled the uneasy mood of ordinary citizens.

And those municipal officials, landlords and wealthy businessmen, one by one, sank to the bottom of the valley.

Because in a blink of an eye, Xu Lai's soldiers increased, which meant that Count Eni's hope of fighting back was getting slimmer and slimmer.

If they could enter the castle, it would not be a slim chance, but complete despair.

Xu Lai did not catch any important members of the Eni family, such as Eni's wife, Eni's lover, his son and daughter, etc.

They were not in the castle, otherwise they were in control, especially if Eni's heir was there, the castle would be unlikely to have an internal conflict.

They left the city with some of the most important assets using the teleportation scroll as early as after Connors retreated to the castle.

Even if Xu Lai knew, he could not do anything, unless the forbidden magic ball was still in his hands, or he rushed directly to the castle after breaking the city.

Of course, even if the forbidden magic was still there, it would be difficult for Xu Lai to equip it, after all, it was a double-edged sword.

And even if he could foresee it in advance and rush directly to the castle, the people would at most give up their property and teleport away.

Xu Lai could only release a flying magic to take the paladins into the castle.

But even if it was that fast, it would take some time, while people only needed to tear open the scroll directly in a critical moment.

Fortunately, although many people ran away, teleportation could only teleport to a designated area, and most of the assets were left behind.

And time was in a hurry, and they had no time to slowly sort out, and at most they could take away the ones they carried with them.

The servants were originally going to follow Aini's orders to gather all the supplies in the castle and find a way to transport them out of the city first.

There was also a gate leading to the outside world in the corner near the castle, and this gate was still in Connors' hands at that time.

Unfortunately, before they were finished sorting out, an internal conflict broke out, and now all the benefits have fallen to Xu Lai. (End of this chapter)