The news spread and the world was in uproar.
In this world, war is a common thing, and losing a whole family that was killed is not that rare. However, regardless of victory or defeat, just to destroy the opponent's logistics and undermine the opponent's will to fight, they carried out large-scale massacres of civilians, and even completely destroyed villages and towns. This behavior has seriously violated the long-standing "practice" .
Generally speaking, this kind of thing mostly happens outside the main plane. Only those groups that use small worlds as their strongholds to fight and fight with each other would do such cruel things. In the main plane, even elemental creatures with weak emotions, and even evil and ferocious demons, would not do such a thing - because it is meaningless.
What's the use of killing people? Could it be that human meat tastes better than other meats? Even if human flesh is more delicious, isn't there no human reproduction in other worlds, and they spend a lot of effort and money to break into the human world, just for a fresh bite
If anyone does this, even among demons, they are definitely of the "sickness needs to be treated" type.
Generally speaking, even if they are evil creatures from the lower world, such as demons, their approach is to kill humans and take away their souls to replenish their subordinates. And simply killing people is really... rare.
In fact, this is no longer a "rare" problem, but a maddening one.
The news spread to the aristocratic faction's territory, and the nobles who had discussed the matter with Earl House were also stunned. They thought that Earl House would only engage in ordinary burning, killing and looting, but unexpectedly, this guy turned out to be a evil star, leaving almost no men, women or children behind wherever the invading troops passed. They even have to burn down all their houses and farmland, kill all their livestock, and even try to pollute water sources. If their time had not been limited, the farmland would have been damaged by spells.
"This... this is really... really..." At the meeting of the nobles, Marquis Youke shook his head several times and didn't know what to say. In the end, he just repeated "It's true" and couldn't say anything else.
"We shouldn't have agreed to him in the first place!" A local earl said bitterly, his tone full of resentment. "I never thought he was so murderous! After these few battles, he may have killed several people. Thousands of people."
"According to reports from the north, there are almost 6,000 people." A central count replied, "Now our side is very passive and in a difficult situation..."
He is currently in charge of diplomacy with the Merchant Faction. It is said that the two sides are equally powerful, so even if they do not gain much advantage in diplomatic work, they should not suffer. But because of Earl House's crazy behavior, the noble faction is now at a disadvantage in diplomacy. Not only the merchant faction is furious, but also many churches of good gods are putting pressure on them.
It was beyond their imagination that things had developed to this point. They thought that no matter how cruel Earl House was, he would harass the local area, kill 30 or 50 people in each place, cause disturbances and then leave - this is what Earl House told them when they first discussed it. of.
Logically speaking, killing all the people in a place is far worse than killing a small part of them. This saves time and effort and allows the remaining people to spread fear. If you kill all the people directly, the only thing that can be spread is hatred.
What Earl House and the others want is to spread fear, thereby weakening the Merchant Faction's will to fight, while at the same time creating chaos and destroying the Merchant Faction's logistics. Just massacring one village after another will not achieve such an effect at all.
The most uncomfortable person at present is not the merchant faction, but the earl who is responsible for diplomatic work in the aristocratic faction. On the one hand, he had to appease the diplomats from the merchant faction who looked like "I'm so angry that I'm about to explode." On the other hand, he had to explain to the Church of the Good Gods to prevent the noble faction from becoming a public enemy of society. On the other hand, he had to work hard to pursue The original diplomatic goal... He felt that among all the diplomats in the past and present, there was no one as miserable as him.
In fact, he is not the worst. After all, the noble faction is quite strong and can hold up the situation. The diplomats of those weak countries are really miserable. They are just decorations and are often humiliated.
Faced with Earl House's crazy behavior, the merchant faction was naturally furious. They worked hard to form a fast mobile force, and then hurriedly sent them out, chasing Earl House and others along the trail of destruction, trying to catch up with them. Annihilate them in one fell swoop.
A few days later, another news came.
The fast mobile troops of the merchant faction did catch up with the fast mobile troops of the noble faction led by Earl House, and the two sides fought a battle in a wilderness. However, the result of the war was that the fast mobile troops built by the merchants who spent a lot of money completely collapsed. Except for a few lucky ones who had teleportation spells or teleportation scrolls, the remaining nearly three hundred people were wiped out.
This news shocked the merchant council, and the nobles were also in an uproar.
In war, the difference in numbers cannot be ignored. The Noble Faction's fast mobile force only has about 200 people, while the Merchant Faction has 300 people, which is half the number of people. In terms of equipment, the weapons, armors, horses, and consumables provided by the wealthy merchant faction for the fast mobile troops are definitely no worse than those of the aristocratic faction. In terms of quality, although the Merchant Faction lags behind, they have many mercenary organizations that they have cooperated with for a long time. The elite troops they mobilized will be stronger than the ragtag group organized by the Noble Faction to "clean up their inventories". .
But the result was completely the other way around. The aristocratic faction's mobile force, which was supposed to be defeated, won the battle. Instead, the merchant faction, which had the upper hand in both manpower and material resources, was defeated miserably, to the point of almost total annihilation.
This is incredible, but it is an ironclad fact.
Faced with this fact, the great nobles were also a little confused.
"What should we do?" Marquis Gordon asked at the meeting of the great nobles. "Let's discuss it. What should we do in this situation?"
"First of all, we must change our minds." A local count said, "Although House's actions are indeed excessive, we have to admit that he is very strong, so strong... that it can really change the outcome of this war. "
Great nobles, you look at me and I look at you, nodding silently.
"Originally, we and the group of merchants in the north were evenly matched, and no one could do anything to the other. But with him and his troops, the merchants' logistics will definitely have problems, and their will to fight will also be greatly affected. This way If so, we should be able to take advantage when we finally sign the peace treaty." The earl paused and emphasized, "It's not a small advantage, but a big advantage!"
"We have no objection to this," said a centrist count, "but the problem is that he puts a lot of pressure on us."
"Yes, he has brought us a lot of pressure and trouble. However, he can also bring us victory!" the previous earl emphasized, "Victory!"
The great nobles were silent. Indeed, victory is the most important thing in war.
No matter what you do, it's meaningless if you can't win.
Even if you have to pay a high price, it is worth it to win.
In the end, the great nobles passed a resolution, resisting the pressure from all sides, and delaying Earl House for as long as possible so that they could get more results.
As for morality and conscience, they don't have much of these things to begin with, and what little they have left, in order to win the war, they don't mind betraying it again...