Chapter 32 Value Accounting

Rhodes looked at the Hekou Town soldiers who surrounded him, and was very calm.

After killing Mansaru, his original anger was released and he felt relaxed.

As for the group of soldiers in front of him, although there are many of them, they are just a group of miscellaneous soldiers in terms of strength, and are the lowest level in the army.

Even if they chose to resist, with the Snow Pony and Raven Feather, Rhodes could leave at any time if he wanted.

They can't stop it.

The only person worth noting was the knight not far away.

Rhodes looked at him.

After Knight Loren looked at him, the arm holding the cross sword kept trembling slightly, and the huge mental pressure made him a little breathless.

He was not afraid of the strength displayed by Rhodes. As a knight, he was not afraid of challenges.

But the current situation made Knight Loren feel dizzy.

If what this Rhodes knight said was true, then Mansaru really colluded with the barbarians to murder them.

If he chooses to continue resisting, the entire Hekou Town will be dragged into the abyss.

His eyes swept across the heads of the Wolf Chief soldiers outside the wall, across the cowering soldiers around him, and finally stopped on the Snowfield Horse behind Rhodes.

Knight Loren sighed, put down the cross sword in his hand, knelt on one knee and bowed to Rhodes.

"Loren Adele, on behalf of the Bayou Town, I surrender to you."

At this moment, the crisp sound of metal hitting the ground could be heard all around.

All the soldiers couldn't wait to drop their weapons and kneel on the ground to express their submission to Rhodes.

At this point, the dust has settled.

The town gate was opened, and shield and spear soldiers entered. After confiscating the soldiers' weapons, they temporarily took over the place.

Rhodes was not surprised by the surrender of Hekou Town.

Faced with Baron Mansaru's murder attempt, the other pioneering knights might be helpless without solid evidence.

After all, they represent the kingdom's nobility and have serious conflicts with Grand Duke Beishuang.

They can develop land outside the principality, but they dare not rashly interfere in the territory within the principality.

Because they lack legitimacy.

Legitimacy is based on bloodline's right to rule the land.

Family bloodline allowed the nobles to rule the territory hereditarily, which was the basis for maintaining the aristocratic rule of the kingdom.

Under this feudal consensus, most disputes within the kingdom originated from wars of claim after tracing bloodlines.

For example, a viscount looked through the history of his family's heraldry and found that his mother's ancestors had a village that was now occupied by other nobles.

The viscount could use this as an excuse to send troops to seize the village from other nobles and expand his family's territory.

If other villages were captured in the process, most of them would be returned after the looting.

Without a claim, there is no legitimacy, and one cannot seize land just by being strong, which allows the kingdom to maintain relative peace.

The barbarian bloodline of the Grand Duke Beishuang separates this place from the kingdom's nobles.

But Rhodes has half the blood of the North Frost flowing in his body.

The predecessor of the Principality of North Frost, the North Frost Plateau, was conquered by his grandfather William, and he is also the nephew of the current Grand Duke of North Frost.

Regardless of whether the Grand Duke admits it or not, based on this fact, Rhodes even has a high rank in the succession to the principality.

Therefore, he had enough legitimacy to try Mansaru in the name of Beishuang.

This was not an offense to the Grand Duke; on the contrary, he should be thanked.

Rhodes was learning the actual situation of Hekou Town in detail from Knight Loren.

The town has a population of 600 households and more than 2,000 people.

The group included a hundred militiamen and twenty castle guards, all of whom had been disarmed and were being held in the house for the time being.

They will need to undergo further review to ensure that they have not been involved in any barbarian collusion before they can be released.

Mansaru, the only two knights in the town, is dead.

Loren was an elite knight, and after being disarmed, he was personally guarded by Rhodes.

"It seems that you don't know." After questioning, Rhodes stared at Knight Loren who lowered his head in shame and could feel that he was not lying.

This Knight Loren did not participate in collusion with the barbarians.

Rhodes could even sense the rigid emphasis on chivalrous etiquette in his words.

Being a little too respectful to yourself.

"Sir, Mansaru's death was his own fault, but could you please spare the innocent child?"

Walking on the road to the castle, Knight Loren whispered a request to Rhodes.

Rhodes already knew that he and Mansaru's wife, Flynn, were cousins, so he nodded in response:

"As long as you don't get involved, it's fine."

Although he occupied Hekou Town, it would be foolish to regard it as his own territory.

This was still the principality's territory, and Rhodes had to give face to the Grand Duke and leave behind an heir to the territory.

Mansaru only has a pair of children in public. The elder brother is only eleven years old and is not difficult to control. He is more useful alive than killed.

Hearing his reply, Knight Loren breathed a sigh of relief.

As Rhodes led the shield spearmen into the castle, the maids and the baron's wife and children were temporarily placed under house arrest and imprisoned in the room.

Rhodes was not interested in them, he cared more about how much money there was in the castle.

If before he felt angry at Mansaru for betraying him.

At this moment, Rhodes only hoped that Mansaru would sell him for a good price!

He was sitting in the hall of the castle, and besides Knight Loren, there was another figure.

That was the merchant Adrich who was transporting food for him. When he saw Rhodes on the road, he came up to him excitedly.

Rhodes took him along to help estimate the value of the items in the castle.

"Oh, let me see. This is a red coral ornament produced by the Roman family of Donghai Port. It comes from the depths of the East China Sea and is known as the 'Fire of the Seabed'. It is deeply loved by the nobles of the plains."

Adrich carefully observed the red coral in his hand. "It's of good quality, but it's a pity that it's only worth 40 silver coins in the fortress."

"It can be exchanged for nearly 700 pounds of wheat flour, which is not bad." Rhodes nodded after hearing this.

"This is a precious blue agate wolf head sculpture from the North. The nobles of the Principality like this. It's the size of a fist and costs 2 gold coins!"

"Not bad, it's enough to buy half a suit of plate armor." Rhodes' eyes lit up, and he looked forward to him continuing.

"This is a masterpiece of oil painting by Master Arthur of Renaissance City, named 'Love', and is loved by the noble ladies of the Central Territory."

After identifying the valuable ornaments in the castle one by one, Adrich calculated that the total value was around 30 gold and 40 silver.

This was just a decoration. Rhodes' soldiers also found 70 pounds of wheat flour in the castle's warehouse, worth more than gold coins.

The confiscated military weapons plus those in the armory included a total of fifty-three sets of chain mail, one set of plate armor, two crossbows, thirty-two crossbows, hundreds of wooden spears and stone axes, etc.

Including the cash found, the total value is more than 200 gold coins.

Rhodes couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the harvest list. No wonder the nobles loved to plunder villages.

After he led his soldiers to fight against the powerful Wolf Chief’s army, the gains he made were not even worth the losses.

A baron's castle can be simply looted, and the spoils obtained will directly double his wealth.

Of course, this is also because Baron Mansaru is special and much richer than ordinary barons.

It was a pity that he couldn't take all of it. Rhodes shook his head. He had to send at least 70% of the gold coins to the Dragon Breaking Fortress and wait for the Grand Duke's response.

(End of this chapter)