Claude thought that he had become accustomed to the barbaric behavior of people in this world after traveling here, but now he discovered what ignorance and true barbarism are...
"... Your Excellency, Marshal, the inventory has been completed. There are more than 1,300 items belonging to Machaline Town that have been searched from this tribe. Many of the registered looted items still have blood stains on them. We We even found the stolen public items in the town hall, which were engraved with the nightingale pattern of Machalin Town. As for the people of Macalin Town who were taken away by the horse bandits, we also discovered their whereabouts. but... ... "
Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes paused for a moment, feeling a little sentimental: "The women are still alive. The men in the tribe need to vent their animal desires on them so that they can give birth to more children for the tribe. But the men, who are young and strong, are still alive." There were a few alive, and they were treated as slaves. The older ones, as well as the old people who were captured, were all killed a few days before they came to the tribe, because the tribe needed to use their skulls to make drinking bowls. ... ..."
A few days ago, a small town called Machalin near the Likumada Hills in the Kannas region was robbed by horse bandits. When the Thunder Legion troops who received the news arrived, the horse bandits had already left. The town of Machalin was in ruins. Less than half of the town that originally had a population of more than 3,000 people survived. Including those killed by horse bandits, more than 400 people were missing. There is no doubt that he must have been kidnapped by horse bandits.
Claude was furious, it was unreasonable, this was simply causing trouble on Tai Sui's head. They immediately dispatched capable personnel to investigate and spent more than half a month searching for traces. They quickly found this medium-sized tribe with a population of nearly 10,000. After a less fierce battle, at the cost of three deaths and nearly a hundred wounded, a regiment of light cavalry captured the tribe's temporary camp.
When Claude got the list of the missing people in Machaline Town, that is, the abducted people, he felt a little strange. Why were there old men in their fifties and sixties on the list of missing people? Could it be that these horse bandits have lacked love since they were young? Did you purposely snatch the old man away and bring him back to support you as your father? Now after listening to the report from his adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes, I understand that the purpose of the horse bandits kidnapping these old people was to make a bowl with human heads...
"I remember that there were many merchants and vendors selling daily necessities in the Beibu Gulf area. This tribe could exchange wool, cattle and sheep for these copper and wooden bowls. The price is not expensive and the appearance is exquisite. Why do they want to Doing such a cruel thing, using an old man's skull as a human head bowl?" A senior staff officer from the legion headquarters asked in confusion.
"I have interrogated some prisoners, and they replied that this is the tradition of the tribe." Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes replied: "The nomadic tribes on the Karnas Steppe have always believed that the older a person is, the more wisdom they have, so they They would kill the dying old people in the tribe and use their skulls to make bowls for drinking. They thought that if they did this, the wisdom of the old people would be poured into their stomachs along with the wine, making them become better and better. He gets smarter and smarter until he completely inherits the wisdom of the old man.
It's just that there can't be so many old people waiting to be killed in their tribe, so these grassland nomadic tribes like to go to other tribes and other towns to rob old people. Moreover, these old people need to be alive when making the human head bowl. They believe that the pain when sawing open the old man's skull will condense the old man's lifelong wisdom on the skull... "
"It's a disgusting cruel and ignorant barbaric custom. Do they think that they don't need to learn knowledge and can gain other people's wisdom and insights without any effort? It's disgusting!" Another stood next to him. The senior combat staff officer angrily reprimanded.
"Actually, not all the nomadic tribes on the Karnas Prairie have such cruel traditional customs. The Kemido tribe was the first to be civilized. They occupied the Beibu Gulf Commercial District, the Likumada Hills Mineral Resource Area and the Botanic Gardens. The most basic primary education has been opened in the Malis Archduke Castle Agricultural Planting Area, and some semi-civilized grassland tribes who have settled have abandoned these ignorant and ancient traditional customs...
Only this kind of grassland tribe that has always retained nomadic customs will insist on such disgusting traditional customs. They believe that the settled prairie tribes are rebels of the wolf god, and that prairie wolves should roam around, while only guard dogs will stay in one place. Therefore, they never regard these settled grassland tribes as their compatriots, but as enemies. They will attack when it is time to attack and will not be soft-hearted. "Adjutant Mason Hughes, who has read a lot of information, explained.
Claude stood up, walked out of the tent, and smiled at the senior officers following him: "The chief of the Kemidou tribe, Jamie Ad. Dorbagy. Chief Kemidow, was so young that he He traveled half of the Farea continent with the caravan and gained more knowledge. After returning to the tribe and becoming the chief, he carried out vigorous reforms, making the Kermido tribe the largest tribe in the Nasseri region.
At the same time, it took three generations of the Grand Dukes of Karrnath sixty years to civilize and cultivate the people of the Kemidor tribe into civilized people like us, no longer prairie barbarians. We are now the new conquerors and occupiers of this area, but we do not have sixty years to educate and civilize these grassland barbarians, so we can only show respect and consideration for the traditional customs of these primitive people. Mason Hughes! "
"Your Majesty Marshal, I am here, please give me instructions!"
"It is said that when the nomadic tribes on the grassland went to war, after annexing the weaker tribes, they would kill all the old people and men above the wheel, and only take away the young women and children. Is there such a traditional custom?" Claude narrowed his eyes. He asked, looking at the temporary camp of the nomadic tribe in the grassland not far away. The battle there had ended. You could see the light cavalry of the Thunder Legion driving the prisoners to gather together, and some people dismounted to touch up the dead enemy corpses on the ground... ...
"Yes, Your Excellency, Marshal. The nomadic tribes on the grassland have this custom. They only capture people who are useful to them. The young women will give birth to children for them. When the children grow up, they will become loyal slave warriors of their tribe, because They are smaller than the height of the wheel and will not remember the hatred of genocide. Children who are taller than the wheel will remember the genocide and the hatred of killing their father and taking their mother. Adopting them is tantamount to planting the seeds of rebellion for the future of the tribe, so they are still killed. Clean..." Adjutant Mason Hughes quickly explained that these are recorded in the literature.
"Very well, as newcomers to this prairie, we must respect the traditional customs of these nomadic tribes. If the order is passed, the captives of this tribe will be dealt with according to their traditional customs. Men who are higher than the wheel will be beheaded. , shot, this also makes us more civilized. As for the remaining young women and children, take them back to the victims in Machaline Town as compensation for their misfortunes..." Claude said coldly issued cruel orders.
"Oh... Mr. Marshal, I..." Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes seemed to want to say something, but he suddenly woke up when he saw Claude's face: "Yes!"
The atmosphere at the scene was a bit stiff. After all, Claude had just given a cruel order, which was really unbelievable to these senior officers in the Dominion Military Region. Because Claude has always advocated treating prisoners well. During the colonial war, Claude once said that it is the duty of a soldier to fight to the death in battle. But after the battle, as the victors, we should maintain a tolerant attitude towards the losers. They are only fulfilling their obligations as soldiers.
However, considering the large number of human head wine bowls made of skulls that were found in the camp as reported by Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes just now, the senior officers present also understood the reason why Claude gave this order. It's very simple. To deal with barbarism and ignorance, you have to be more ferocious and cruel than them in order to make these grassland nomadic tribes feel fear and fear. Otherwise, your tolerance will only be viewed as weakness by them, and they will never remember your generosity and will only regard you as an easy target to bully and deceive...
"I feel very strange why the grassland nomadic tribes came here and attacked Machaline Town. According to the survivors of Machaline Town, they have not been robbed by horse bandits for more than 30 years, so there is no problem at all. Unprepared..." a senior staff officer asked doubtfully.
Claude turned his head: "I can answer this question. You will understand by looking at the map. The terrain of the Karnas Prairie on the map of the eastern part of the continent is like a big green scar in the upper right corner. It The area is actually not much smaller than the Kingdom of Nasseri.
The reason why the Principality of Karnas is a principality rather than a kingdom is because what the Grand Duke of Karnas really controls is only the coastal zone and the narrow area in the upper right corner of the prairie. He does not control the depths and interior of the entire prairie.
And in the interior and depths of the prairie, there are countless grassland nomadic tribes wandering. The deal between the Grand Duke of Karnas and them is to organize caravans every year to trade with these grassland nomadic tribes and trade with them for various necessary daily necessities, and these grassland nomadic tribes guarantee that they will not attack the areas under the jurisdiction of the Grand Duke of Karnas. .
But after the Grand Duke of Karrnath ran away, this agreement was invalidated. This is why tribes like this one came to this area. They believed that the Grand Duke of Karnas had broken his promise in the deal, so they sacked the town of Machalin as revenge for the Grand Duke of Karnas.
It seems that we will have to strengthen the monitoring and defense around the areas under our jurisdiction in the future. I believe there will be more nomadic tribes like this coming out of the depths of the prairie and approaching us. If you don't educate them hard several times and let these barbarians learn awe and lessons, then they will never put down the saber in their hands. Only by making these steppe barbarians feel scared and heartbroken will they hold up the white flag and ask us for transactions and negotiations... "
"But your Excellency, Marshal, the horse bandits we have to face are not just these nomadic tribes on the grassland. What is even more troublesome are the old troops left by the Grand Duke of Karrnath. They hide among the people and attack our lone soldiers. But we are unable to find these gangsters lurking in the shadows..." said another senior staff officer.
"Things have to be done one by one." Claude said: "That is another kind of battlefield, not suitable for us soldiers. Although compared to these grassland nomadic tribes, the bandits lurking in the shadows are more difficult to deal with. , but it does not mean that we have no way. During this period, our Thunder Legion has been reorganizing its troops in the Beibu Gulf area and strengthening public security and traffic control. You see, the reports of attacks by small groups of horse bandits did not disappear all of a sudden.
The reason is actually very simple. First, the internal horse bandit spies cannot send out information due to our tightened traffic and security controls. The peripheral horse bandits cannot get the information and can only continue to lurk. Second, these small groups of horse bandits are afraid of our current strong soldiers and horses, and do not dare to carry out attacks. We ignore these small groups of horse bandits for the time being, mainly because they are targeting us garrison troops, not ordinary people. We can just wait for them to come to our door automatically and use them to train troops...
Another reason is that this is not our territory. If the progress in the royal capital goes smoothly and the area along the coast of Karnas becomes the territory of the nobles of our overseas autonomous territories, then the autonomous territories will invest in this area. The region will implement overall planning and development. At that time, we will mobilize the patrol department of the territory to come over. They will be the main force in dealing with the horse bandit spies lurking among the people. With their cooperation, those small groups of horse bandits cannot escape. "
Talking about the ownership of the territory, I saw three fast horses galloping in the distance. When they got closer, a light cavalryman in the lead jumped off his horse, handed a small leather bag on his body to the guard who stopped in front of him, and then went about his own business. He led the horse and turned to the stables of the rear camp with his two companions. They needed to replenish horse feed and clean drinking water for the three horses on the long journey.
The guard holding the small leather bag checked the contents of the bag and walked towards Claude. Soon the small leather bag was placed in front of Claude. Inside were two sealed small silver tubes. When opened, there were two falcon letters.
We just mentioned the royal capital, and the news about the royal capital has arrived. It’s just that Claude is currently suppressing bandits on the grassland, three days away from Canpast City in the Beibu Gulf. The falcon messages from the royal capital are first sent to the Royal City of Polivisia in the Nasseri area, and then the falcon from the royal city delivers the message to Canpast City. Then Canpaste City sent someone to deliver the letter to Claude. The entire message delivery process took about four to five days. In other words, the falcon message that Claude saw now happened four or five days ago.
However, the grassland nomadic tribe that committed the crime of looting and massacring Machaline Town has been tracked and annihilated, and it will be possible to finish the return journey in one day, so Claude also relaxed and read the falcon message that had just been sent. . The first letter stated that the Prime Minister, Marquis Blancart, had been aware of the demands of the Overseas Dominion Councilors, promoted military officers and honorary nobles of the Kingdom. Speaker Bennett handed over the distribution map of the hereditary family territories in the coastal areas of Karnars. Prime Minister.
Claude looked at the date marked at the bottom of the letter, October 28, 601 in the Holy Light Calendar. Today is November 7th. It’s strange, how come this falcon letter was delayed for four days before being delivered? However, after opening the second small silver tube and taking out the falcon eagle inside to send the message, Claude understood that it was not the delay on the part of the recipient, but the sender waiting until the king and the royal ministers responded to the territorial claims submitted by the overseas dominions. The falcon message sent later was still connected to the first letter for the falcon to transmit.
The second Falcon letter stated that King Frederick I and the royal ministers finally agreed to the territorial demands of the overseas dominions after three days of closed-door deliberations. The Beibu Gulf commercial area along the coast of the Karnas region, the Likumada Hills mineral resource area and the Beaumaris Archduke Castle agricultural planting area, as well as part of the connected Karnas prairie, are classified as overseas autonomous kingdom nobles. The hereditary family territory of noble officers and dominion councilors.
However, His Majesty the King said that this was a special case to commend the two legions of the Dominion Military Region for their great achievements in unifying the entire eastern region of Farea Continent for the Kingdom. However, in order to punish the members of the Dominion Parliament for disobeying the king's orders and dividing hereditary family territories on their own initiative, His Majesty the King decided to levy twice the land selection fee on these hereditary family territories in the overseas autonomous territories...
In this Falcon letter, Sir Bennet stated that he had decided to have a showdown with His Majesty the King at the General Assembly on November 10th. Because His Majesty the King and the Royal Court refused to grant preferential treatment and discounts to the overseas dominions in terms of promotion fees and land selection fees, the dominion councilors found after calculation that if they wanted to obtain all the marked hereditary family territories in the Karnas region, then Overseas autonomous territories need to pay nearly 100 million gold crowns as promotion fees and land selection fees.
No member of the Dominion is willing to bear such a large amount of territorial fees. They angrily expressed that the so-called promotion fees and land selection fees are the kingdom's blackmail and extortion of the overseas autonomous territories! Speaker Bennett decided to bring sixty large iron and wooden boxes filled with gold crowns to the court meeting on November 10th, so that the light of these 30 million golden crowns would shine brightly. The eyes of noble officials attending the Great Court Meeting...
Claude knew very well that this was probably a helpless decision made by Speaker Bennett because he felt that His Majesty the King and the royal ministers would not easily compromise on these two expenses. The real purpose is actually to gain reputation for the overseas autonomous territories. It means that we are not without money, but your price is too outrageous. No one can afford such a price, so we don’t want any territory. The 30 million gold we brought here We'll show you the krona and we'll take it back soon...
If the price difference is one to twenty million gold crowns, then maybe the thirty million gold crowns that have been brought over can achieve the goal. But the difference of more than three times is indeed too outrageous. Even the Dominion cannot afford such a huge sum of money.
It seems that this kind of hereditary family territory is in vain. If you want to get the coastal area of Kannas, it is better to directly fall out with the kingdom. Anyway, with the current military strength of the kingdom, it does not dare to directly fall out with the overseas autonomous territories. , fight another civil war...
The only problem is that both the soldiers and the people of the overseas autonomous territories regard themselves as members of the Kingdom of Ovelas. No one would be willing to break up with the kingdom and start a civil war. There might even be soldiers lurking in the dark, looking for an opportunity to shoot the traitor like themselves...