Friedman is not Zhou Qingfeng's entrepreneurial master, and he has a lot of constraints in handling affairs. He must spend more energy to balance the internal relations of his own forces, and even have to do something that is obviously detrimental to the long-term interests of the family.
However, the war that is about to start again is an excellent opportunity. Solving internal contradictions externally is a tried and true method in history. As long as you win, you can gain prestige and eliminate dissidents by the way.
After listening to the report from the butler, Friedman was quite disheartened and made some decisions casually.
As a patriarch, you must consider it at a higher level. In the past six months, he realized that he could not suppress his opponent technically and economically.
If you can't catch up, you can't catch up. This is not just empty words and hard work. Before Coldwind City becomes invincible, suppression by force is the only chance to win.
After all, in another world, axioms are established by force.
Friedman only stayed in the study for half an hour before leaving. He walked all the way in the city lord’s mansion, retreated from his followers, and entered the underground secret room of the mansion alone, an area enclosed by a thick stone gate.
It's still a bit cold outside the secret room. But close to the secret room, the feeling of cold and warm will disappear. Human perception seems to be deprived, no sound can be heard, and the sense of space is lost, as if head and feet are turned upside down, or even blindfolded.
People with poor strength will stand in a daze outside Shimen, always in a daze. His consciousness was drawn into the infinite void, in chaos, until his mind dried up and died.
Friedman must also forcibly improve his mental defense, and add a "protection from evil" spell to himself. He pressed his hand on the stone gate and muttered to himself with his head down.
Shimen lit up a spider-web-like light and slowly enveloped it until it swallowed Friedman. The patriarch passed through the stone gate from this point, but he must be more careful, gather all the energy, and move forward slowly step by step.
Behind the stone gate is a broken place, a collapsed stone pillar, and a rotten door frame. The ground cracks and deep ravines appear, leading directly to a set of steps in front.
The steps are covered with gravel, which looks like a statue. The face of the statue can no longer be seen clearly, leaving only a few large pieces that split and collapsed. These remnants still retain the original twisted limbs and the awe-inspiring breath of teeth and claws.
There was a strange light green in this underground space, illuminating the ruins, leading Friedman to the stone steps. A few steps forward, behind the stone steps is a huge ice block five or six meters high.
The ice block is the center of the entire underground ruin. It is transparent and exudes an invisible shock field. Friedman must take a Will check every step forward. If he fails, he will be stuck in place for a few seconds, unable to move.
Fortunately, this is not a fighting state. Otherwise, the sluggish state is enough to make Friedman die a dozen times. But when he was ten meters away from the ice, he dared not move forward.
Inside the ice block was a monster with a six-armed snake demon with green scales on the lower body of a giant snake, and a fascinating woman on the upper body. It spread out its six arms in a hideous posture, clenched different weapons, and leaped forward.
The scales constitute the armor of the snake demon and also cover its body surface. It wears a bracelet inlaid with high-end gems on each hand, and there are also jewelry containing great power on the chest and earlobes. The swords, axes, hammers, hooks and forks in his hands are all magic equipment.
The Banshee Fort is called Banshee because of the snake demon. Its body is in the abyss, and it can reach level fifteen just by a projection.
The Banshee Fort was originally the place where this six-armed snake demon bewitched mortals to worship. The ancestors of the Buche family destroyed this place, but did not completely destroy the snake demon projection, only sealed it.
When Friedman appeared, the sealed snake demon could not move, but its eyes flowed along with it, as if a sharp blade pierced and brought a strong heartbeat.
The snake demon was laughing, taunting, watching the prey slowly approaching. It knows that there will be such a day after all, and the family that has sealed itself will bow its head to beg for itself, because the offspring of heroes can easily become bears.
Friedman could feel this merciless ridicule. He stood still in front of the frozen snake demon for a long time, wondering how his ancestors defeated this terrible demon back then, fascinated by his thoughts.
And today, he wants to release it.
When Patriarch Buche entered the underground secret room, the corpse receiver he had watched fell on the street where the cold wind was raging.
Two more corpse collectors in tattered clothes walked down the street. They also pushed the cart full of corpses, looking at their dead companions with numb faces.
The corpse collectors were the old and the young. The elder sighed and shouted to the young corpse collector: "Take off his clothes and wear them."
The dirty and dirty clothes of the deceased were taken off, revealing a thin body with rugged ribs. He had been frozen and had to break his joints to take off his clothes and snapped.
The bare corpse was thrown onto the wagon and mixed with the corpses of several other refugees, as thin as a bundle of dry wood. These "dry wood" will be transported outside the city, and will not be buried, just find a remote pothole and throw it away.
The young and old corpse collectors looked back again, staggering back in the wind and snow. They have a special residence in the corner of the city, not close to the nobles and commoners, but a lonely house.
There is a fire pit in the hut, so some wind and snow can be avoided anyhow. A pot of boiling water was boiled in the hanging stove of the fire pond, and it was bubbling. People coming in from the outside pour some boiling water from the hanging stove to drink, and it will be warmer.
It is not bad to have a fire pit, after all, fuel costs money. Today, the fire was lit because of special circumstances. There were more than a dozen corpse collectors in the room surrounded by the firepit, quietly listening to one of them talking.
"Lord Hugo said that anyone who steps into the territory of Coldwind City will be protected and governed by him. Whether it is a slave, a tenant, or an apprentice, regardless of his previous status, he will be protected and governed by him. It is a free man.
Free people enjoy the rights of migration, work, marriage, belief, etc. Lord Hugo will give any newcomer three months of basic living security without any return. "
The two corpse collectors, young and old, just came back, and the young one sat by the firepit and asked weakly, "Can those of us who collect corpses also go?"
The speaker nodded, "Yes, anyone can. I'm here to help you from Coldwind City. But the Butcher family blocked the border and controlled the food, so you couldn't find an ox cart along the way.
The weather is too cold now, and it is difficult to walk more than two hundred kilometers on foot. So we have to plan step by step, organize more manpower, and raise enough food. It is best to have a big escape when the spring starts next year. "
After a pause, the speaker sighed: "I can't guarantee that each of you will be saved, but at least I will give you a chance to survive. Staying in the Banshee Castle, at least half of you will not survive this winter.
I came to rescue you and took a great risk. If I was caught by the bad dog of the Butcher family, I would die miserably. But I came anyway, and I hope that there are no nobles in this world, so that the nobles understand that there are still people who dare to resist them. "