It's been forty-six days.

Baron Sunderland sat quietly on the single bed of his own, facing the wall, counting the marks on the wall from beginning to end, and then from end to end.

He has been in this cell for forty-six days.

As a member of the southern nobles who first rose up in response to the Earl of Hosman, he knew that he was very lucky because of his low title and he was not qualified to approach Earl of Hosman, so he escaped by the shelling on the gravel ridge. Later, due to his low title, he was also left far away by the large army when he fled, and became one of the first nobles to be captured by the Cecils. Instead, he suffered less of the hardship of running away day and night in the wilderness.

But he didn't know how long his "luck" could last.

The defeat of the noble coalition seemed to be in the last century. The exciting but ending tragedy has now become a nightmare that has been deliberately avoided but is constantly replayed in my mind. Baron Sunderland knew that all the nobles in the entire southern territory except the Cecil family and a small number of people who were loyal to Cecil in advance were finished. Although he had a little fantasy when he was just locked up in this cell, fantasizing that the Cecils lost in the subsequent battle and finally reached a stalemate with the nobles in the southern territory, he finally waited for one new "inmate" after another.

Familiar faces were thrown into the cell, and each face meant a new land fell into the hands of the Cecils. When more than half of the nobles in the southern border appeared in this "Prison of War Camp", Viscount Sunderland accepted the fact: there would be no turning point anymore.

Now, like all other noble prisoners, he could only stay quietly in this cell, waiting for the Duke of Gowenceciel to summon him one day and give a clear result.

A commotion came from the cell next door.

Baron Sunderland raised his head and saw Viscount Trier, who was locked in the same room as him, also raised his head. The two of them listened to the movements in the next cell, looked at each other for a moment, shook their heads helplessly and smiled bitterly.

"These were the ones who were captured from the Rock Fortress," said Viscount Trier with a wry smile. "It seems that they are not suitable for the 'rules' here."

"We were the same when we first started," Baron Sunderland smiled bitterly, "Listen, they asked the guards to salute them, and asked for wine and pillows, and even emphasized the ransom issue...I haven't heard these words in a long time."

The people living in the next cell were locked up a few days ago. They were from the Rock Fortress. Baron Sunderland thought that these people had escaped the pursuit of the Cecils and returned to their respective territories, but now they realized that they had just been hiding in the fortress to the north.

These new "inmates" brought amazing news to the noble prisoners in the prison camp. According to their description, the Rock Fortress had fallen under the fierce attack of the Cecils, and the legendary fortress lasted for less than two days.

According to some statements, the real attack lasted only about half a day, and two days included the time for the Cecils to camp.

Baron Sunderland has been here for forty-six days. He has adapted and accepted the current situation smoothly, but it is obvious that it will take some time for the people who have just come in to figure out the situation.

After the movement in the next cell finally ended, Viscount Trier asked, "What do you think Duke Gowenceciel wants?"

"Maybe it was the unconditional allegiance of allegiance to the South, just like the king," Baron Sunderland said his guess, "We can already see that this war was actually driven by him from beginning to end. He obviously wanted to take back his own East-West and South-West and would become the Principal of Cecil again."

"…The Principality of Cecil," Viscount Treil sighed for a moment, "I thought so after he had been slow to ask for a ransom."

Baron Sunderland mumbled: "It could be worse..."

Viscount Trier wanted to ask what the other party said was "worse" meant, but before he spoke, the sound of military boots stepping on the concrete floor interrupted his prison door. The soldier in magic armor stood at the door and said in a cold tone: "The Duke is going to see you."

Baron Sunderland and Viscount Trell raised their heads suddenly and looked at each other in surprise and surprise:

After waiting for so long with fear and confusion, is that Gowen Cecil finally going to summon the nobles in the southern border?!

...

In Cecil City, in the lounge next to the Grand Conference Hall of Government Affairs, Gao Wen was waiting leisurely, next to him was Heti who stood quietly and Amber who was not quiet at all.

"Hey, hey, do you think those nobles will be convinced by you?" Amber glanced at the stack of documents on the table next to him and couldn't help but come to Gao Wen, "These things are almost deadly to them."

"Can you pay a little attention to the rules and etiquette?" Herty frowned and couldn't help but speak, "This is in the Government Affairs Office, you must at least be aware..."

Amber put her hips on her hips and said, "I'm paying attention. You didn't see me when I came in through the door just now?"

It was common for the two to quarrel occasionally. Gao Wen ignored these things directly, but said calmly: "Persuad? I don't plan to talk to them, and the choice is not in their hands."

"To be honest, since this is the case, why don't you just send them all to the mines, dig them directly to death, and pull them out and let them 'revoluntarily' give up the noble privileges," Amber said in confusion. "Anyway, their territory has been occupied by you, and their army has been beaten away by you, and even their people have been locked in your cell..."

Gao Wen shook his head with a smile, then looked at Hedy: "Hedy, please explain it to her."

Hetty glanced at Amber helplessly. Although he didn't want to pay attention to the shame of this elf, the elders still had to listen: "The population migration and new city construction projects proposed by the ancestors are underway. At present, the transformation and construction of Hosman City, Leslie City, Glen City, and Kant City are entering a new stage. However, as the population continues to concentrate and the new policy is being implemented, resistance from all over the country is gradually emerging.

"The three areas of Leslie, Glen and Kant are in good condition, and the biggest resistance comes from the Horsmann region, as well as almost all the old noble territories outside these four new cities.

"The impact left by the old nobles after the collapse of the old nobles is still there, and it is quite difficult. Many local rich peasants still have doubts about the new lords. A considerable number of local scholars and merchants are still supporting the old lords, or simply being the "private subordinates" of the old lords. It is very difficult for the second-level government affairs department to recruit personnel in those areas, and commercial transformation has also encountered considerable obstacles.

"In the Pebo region in the west and around the Carroll region in the north, some exiled knights and noble soldiers have been transformed into bandits. They dare not approach the Cecil Corps' garrison, but they will frequently raid the countryside. Due to the limited staff of the Cecil Corps, the strangling progress of these exiled knights and robbers is not satisfactory. And worse, some exiled knights in the northwest are in contact with Luan City, and they may be transformed into the armed forces of Luan Cathedral."

Amber widened her eyes: "There are also exiled knights and noble soldiers?! Haven't they all been killed or caught??"

"Seventy thousand people, running around the plains, there will always be people who miss the net," Gao Wen shook his head. "And the seventy thousand people that Hosman pulled up could not be the entire noble army. Each noble must at least leave a few knights and soldiers in his castle, right? After the news of the defeat of the noble coalition forces was passed back, the more agile knights left almost immediately, and they became exiled knights."

"What a trouble..." Amber was overwhelmed when he heard this. "It won't take you a few days to defeat the Southern Realm. How could you maintain order be more troublesome than to defeat the entire Southern Realm..."

"Governance itself is more difficult than occupation," Gao Wen glanced at Amber, "It only takes a second for me to pull you off the windowsill, but it's been more than a year, won't you still jump into the window?"

Amber: "...Hey, I've messed with you..."

Gao Wen ignored Amber's protest and said to himself: "These troubles we have are indeed very tricky, and some of them may even lead to a regression and recurrence in the construction of our new order, some of them will last for a long time, and may even last for a whole generation or two... but I am not worried at all."

Many footsteps came from the hall next door, and Gao Wen smiled and stood up.

"Except for the problems that cannot be changed in folk customs and the hardship of human hearts, which must be solved by time, most of the other problems are actually concentrated on those nobles and the traditional order they maintain, and I am the origin of those nobles and the traditional order."

The servant stood in front of the door of the conference hall and shouted in a loud and powerful voice.

"The guardian of the southern border, Ansu pioneer, founder of the kingdom, ruler of the Principality of Cecil, and the Grand Duke of Gowen Cecil"

Sitting at the long table in the conference hall, full of anxiety, the southern nobles who were still whispering the moment before closed their mouths almost at the same time, as if dozens of invisible hands stuck their necks at the same time, making these people raise their heads neatly and turn to the direction of the hall door.

They stretched their necks like dozens of funny ducks.

Gowen, wearing a black duke cloak, walked into the hall. He looked at the southern nobles who stretched their necks on both sides of the long table and had been deliberately left in the prisoner camp for a long time. The longest time had even been in it for more than forty days. Except for the few people who had just been captured from the Rock Fortress, the remaining nobles had already been greatly frustrated. The moment they saw their eyes, Gowen knew that things would be easy today.

The nobles stood up one after another. Although they had been in prison for dozens of days, the etiquette movements engraved in their muscle memory still allowed them to almost instinctively complete the most standard tribute process.

Gao Wen accepted the tribute from these losers calmly and walked to the conference table with great strides. He did not politely talk about nonsense, but waved his hand to the clerk who followed behind him: "Send it to them."

Holding dozens of documents in their hands, the two clerks began to distribute them to every nobleman on the scene. The nobles looked at the scene in shock and curiosity, and even spoke in a low voice with courage. This was completely different from the "summoning" process they had expected. This "Cecilian" rule left them at a loss.

The nobles who received the documents immediately focused on the prints in front of them: they first noticed that the prints were incredibly uniform, and every character, every line of their text, and every segment were accurate to impeccable. Even the best carving craftsmen could not carve such a printing plate, but soon their curiosity about "prints" was dispelled by the specific content of the document.
Chapter completed!