Charlotte moved quickly.
After summoning the Ryan-Castell family, she announced the review plan for the entire earldom, officially appointed Viscount Ryan-Castell as the reviewer, and made her own direct jurisdiction the first stop of the review plan.
Overnight, the situation in the Viscountry of Northport changed drastically. With the list of names confessed by Madoc, Nice led the Castel Guards to raid every house. A large number of municipal officials and low-ranking nobles in the direct jurisdiction were arrested with their families and taken to jail.
Such a large-scale censorship naturally caused an uproar among the nobles of the territory. Taking advantage of the fact that the nobles who were still in North Port shortly after the Earl's Mansion dinner had ended, they almost broke down the door of the Earl's Mansion. Some tried to dissuade, some opposed, some rebuked, and some tried to test...
The banquet was peaceful and harmonious. The nobles who had not fallen out with each other maintained at least superficial respect and were all obedient and loyal to the new earl.
But when the false peace was broken, when Charlotte finally started to take action against the nobles, when she finally began to try to consolidate the authority of the Castel family that had been declining over the past decade... the nobles finally revealed their true attitudes.
be opposed to.
Unanimous opposition.
Charlotte suddenly found that she had underestimated the complicated nobles in her own territory. On the second day after the review plan was announced, the nobles still stranded in North Port even came up with a joint petition.
The nobles have been asking Charlotte to withdraw the review plan, and they have also proved the various disadvantages brought about by the review plan, and also cursed the Ryan-Castel family.
"The property and privacy of the nobility are sacred and inviolable. Even the lord is not qualified to conduct such a strict review of the vassal, let alone verify the property!"
"This is contempt for the Sacred Code! This is the foundation of self-destruction of rule! This is what a tyrant does!"
"The assassination at the banquet should indeed be investigated for the truth, but this should never be a reason to vent anger on the vassal!"
"She is an ignorant child after all. Castel will be destroyed in her hands sooner or later..."
"Humph, she's just a bitch with the blood of the Fallen Star. No matter how well the Castel family hides it, they can't hide the fact of the bloodline. Maybe she doesn't even have the Northland in her heart, only herself!"
Public opinion is almost one-sided.
Overnight, it seemed that in the eyes of all the people, Charlotte transformed from a young and promising lord into a tyrant who committed all kinds of evil.
Looking at the petition signed by the nobles and listening to the guards' reports of the criticisms and discussions of the nobles in various places in North Port, Charlotte's face did not look very good.
However, she had more or less anticipated the nobles' reactions, and her unhappy expression at this time was more due to the nobles' outrageous remarks when they criticized her.
It's fine to ridicule her as an ignorant child, but I really can't tolerate those who use gender as an excuse.
However, although she was so angry that she wanted to hang these gossiping bastards at the city gate immediately, Charlotte remained calm.
She knew that the public opinion in the city that night seemed to be in an uproar and the people were full of resentment, but in fact it was just the slander of the nobles whose interests were violated.
It was the nobles who controlled public opinion and created momentum; as for the vast majority of the subjects, they actually did not react to the censorship plan so quickly.
Not to mention, Charlotte wasn't targeting them.
However, Charlotte knew that this matter could not be delayed.
Now that we have decided to take action, we must suppress it with tremendous force. Otherwise, the nobles will have plenty of ways to incite the people, and then things will become troublesome.
"Nice, have you found out which families are the leaders?"
Charlotte asked calmly.
"Hey, the leaders should be a few upstarts who made their fortunes through workshops and caravans. In addition, there are also many low-level nobles from the direct jurisdictions who are involved."
Nice said.
"A new noble who made his fortune through workshops and caravans? Didn't the other viscounts and barons participate?"
Charlotte was a little surprised.
"Meow, no."
Ness shook her head.
Charlotte frowned.
However, after a little thought, she came to her senses:
"It turns out they are just a bunch of idiots being used as arrows..."
Although the emerging nobles of Castel are rich, their influence is not that high, and it is impossible to gather so many nobles overnight.
This was most likely being used as a weapon by the old nobles, who wanted to force her to compromise and test her bottom line.
As for why these upstarts were willing to come forward, Charlotte had probably guessed most of it based on her own family's experience.
In recent years, Castel's industry and commerce have developed rapidly. These upstarts who have made their fortunes by taking advantage of the situation must have evaded taxes. Rather than investigating the vampires, they are more likely to oppose the property investigation.
"Lord Charlotte, what are you going to do? Although you are of noble status, mortals may be more difficult to deal with than you think. If you stoop to fight them, I think you will only lower yourself to their level, and then you will easily be entangled by their rich experience in internal fighting..."
"In my opinion, our goal is to get you back to strength sooner rather than playing house with these guys here."
Nice couldn't help but say.
Charlotte understood what this guy meant. He was subtly advising her to simply use the power of "God" to find a way to directly deal with these people.
The gods are the best at brainwashing, not to mention that Charlotte is the "True Ancestor of Blood".
I guess in Nice's opinion, Charlotte could easily control the nobles' minds if she wanted to.
But Charlotte was also helpless.
Her cheats were effective. She neither wanted nor could she use magic to mentally control all the nobles in the territory, and she didn't know how to "recover strength quickly."
The only thing she was sure of now was that she had to keep a firm grip on the territory and make it her strong backing.
After this, she can proceed slowly, and it will be much more convenient to preach or collect fragments of holy scriptures.
"We will continue to act according to the original plan, combining the reported materials and the list of confessions to arrest the leading instigators."
Charlotte thought for a moment and ordered.
"Ah... Are you really not afraid of rebellion?"
Nice couldn't help but ask.
Charlotte glanced at it.
"Even if there is a rebellion, the direct territories cannot rebel. If there is a rebellion, it will be the vassal nobles who have their own private armies."
"Aren't you worried about your reputation? If you keep doing this, you'll really be labeled a tyrant."
"Don't worry, someone will take care of this for me."
Charlotte said.
After saying that, she looked at the maid Shirley who was serving beside her and ordered:
"Shirley, send someone to the Len-Castel mansion to tell them that it's time for me to see their influence among the nobles."
…
Professional matters need to be handled by professionals.
Although the nobles of Castel shouted loud slogans, no one could tell exactly how many of them were determined to oppose Charlotte, how many were trying to fish in troubled waters, how many were secretly observing the situation, or were simply on the silent side.
But one thing is certain: Charlotte made the right choice by choosing the Leon-Castell family as the executors of the review of the nobility.
Following Charlotte's orders, the Castel family's guards came out in full force and began to suppress the rebellious nobles.
As the master of the North, Castel maintains a standing guard of 3,000 people. He may not be able to compete with the united private armies of the nobles, but it is more than enough to suppress the riots in a small direct jurisdiction.
At the same time, the Ryan-Castel family finally stood up.
The elderly viscount personally stood up, rebuked the rebellious nobles, and promoted the legitimacy of the review from the perspective of territory security.
I have to say that the head of the Len-Castel family is really something.
Charlotte had thought that he would support the review on the grounds of his rebellion against the nobles.
After all, after the dramatic report, few of the noble families that attended the banquet were completely clean, and if they were to be investigated carefully, they would all be found guilty.
However, the old viscount did not use the pile of evidence on Charlotte's desk, but directly started from the dangers of vampire infiltration to prove the necessity of the investigation.
After all, the North is the territory of the Crescent Kingdom. Although there are a large number of immigrants in the North, the main population are the people of the Crescent Kingdom who have migrated north.
In history, the Crescent Kingdom was once overthrown by the Shedit clan, which almost destroyed the country. As the Crescent people who grew up under the influence of the "Blood Demon Legend", they are naturally wary of the "Blood Court" of the vampire clan.
Ordinary people cannot tell the difference between the "lawful" Ness clan and the "chaotic" Shedit clan. In their eyes, they are all vampires. The old viscount personally convened a gathering of nobles to give a speech, which awakened many people's fear of the blood demon's behind-the-scenes rule.
Public opinion reversed almost instantly, at least among the civilian population.
Examining nobles is a pleasure for common people, and in many cases it can even be said to be completely gratifying. Common people's feelings towards their lords are also very simple. Apart from the most instinctive awe, most of the time their impressions of their lords come entirely from the propaganda of the nobles.
At this moment, Charlotte's review plan was covered with a cloak of sacred justice in the mouth of Viscount Leon-Castell, and the cruel tyrant in the mouths of the nobles soon became a new lord with justice in the eyes of the common people.
The old viscount is indeed capable, as he has served as the chief foreign affairs officer in Castel for decades.
After the Ryan Castell family publicly expressed their support for Charlotte, some families that were friendly with Ryan Castell, or those traditional loyalist families, began to express their support for the review.
Among them, there are even four baron families including the Wallai family of Baron Angus.
What surprised Charlotte the most was that the female duke of the Leglis family, the mortal enemy of the Ryan-Castell family, also vaguely expressed her support for the review plan.
However, the female baroness did not trust Ryan Castel. She personally visited Charlotte at night and met with her again, vaguely expressing her willingness to support her. However, she demanded that Castel personally review the Legris family and also demanded that he replace the Ryan Castel family and become the executor of the review plan.
Charlotte naturally refused.
Trust the people you employ, and don't employ people if you don't trust them. Since she has decided to let the Ryan-Castel family conduct the investigation, she will not change her mind overnight. She needs the influence of the Ryan family to implement policies.
Not to mention that the Gliss family is already strong enough, and giving them power will only further foster their ambitions.
As far as Charlotte knew, their standing cavalry force had exceeded one thousand people. Although most of them were light cavalry, they were already a powerful force in the north.
If the nobles who followed them were included, Charlotte estimated that Glis could mobilize two to three thousand private soldiers alone, not counting temporary conscripts.
What's more, these data are old data in the archives. If we look at the information in the report, the military strength of the Glis family may be even greater.
In this case, Charlotte would naturally not give them the power of censorship.
Of course, considering the relationship between the two viscounts, she thought it was not appropriate to let the Ryan-Castell family conduct the investigation, but she did not intend to go there in person. Instead, she decided to wait until Sebastian raided Earl Lachlan's hiding place.
Laura Leglis is already a vampire. Charlotte has some other ideas about how to deal with the Leglis family and how to win over the Viscount.
As for the other one of the “Three Great Families”, the Roman Fowl family remained silent on the matter and quietly left by boat after the banquet.
The Roman-Ford family's land power is not strong, and its main strength is at sea. The number of their warships accounts for half of Castel's.
Thinking back to the Roman Foer family's performance at the banquet, Charlotte always felt that this family had a secret.
As soon as Viscount Leon-Castell took action, the nobles were clearly divided into two factions.
However, supporters are ultimately a minority.
Even the Legglis family showed conditional acceptance, and after Charlotte did not respond immediately, the Legglis family, like Roman Forge, left North Port and returned to the territory.
After hearing the news, Charlotte sighed. She knew that this meant that the Legris family would no longer support her. Between Ryan Castel and Legris, she could only choose one, at least for the time being...
Viscount Ryan Castel overturned public opinion and successfully disrupted the situation in the Castel Territory. After Charlotte dispatched the family guards, the clamoring nobles were quickly suppressed one by one.
As for the remaining nobles, they left Beigang one after another and returned to their own territories.
However, Charlotte knew this was just the beginning.
The departure of the nobles does not mean that they will no longer participate in this matter, but rather represents their dissatisfaction and opposition to the censorship. Perhaps the influence of the Nice clan is still behind it.
The riots in Beigang Territory have been suppressed, but next... I'm afraid we really may have to prepare for a few battles.
However, not long after the unrest in the direct territory was suppressed, the communication crystal that Charlotte seized from Agnes suddenly responded.
Charlotte's heart moved slightly.
The Ness clan... seems to be conducting long-distance communication in advance.