System: Build My Own Territory

Chapter 89: Ambition


The Church said: There exists a God in this world. Become a follower of God, and He will protect the faithful from suffering.

The Church said: They are the agents of God, conveying His will.

The Church said: The demons have been driven back into the Abyss, but their agents still exist in the world.

Thus, the witch hunt began.

Whenever illness, livestock death, or poor crop yield occurred in a village, people would suspect the secret workings of witches.

Those who lived alone, such as elderly women, widows, herbalists, and midwives, were most likely accused as witches.

Under severe torture, in extreme agony, innocents were forced to confess to baseless accusations.

Execution by fire!

Witches did indeed exist.

But the witch hunt was merely a plot to maintain power.

The Church used the punishment of witches to prove their sanctity.

The Emperor used the capture of witches to shift the Empire's crises.

Grayson's words continued.

"The Portlands Empire has deployed fifty thousand cavalry to the south to arrest anyone suspected of being involved with witches, even some married women were captured."

"The husbands who lost their wives surely knew their wives weren't witches, and they took up iron farm tools for a final rebellion."

"In the end, the gathered rebels numbered in the tens of thousands…"

"But, Master Lynn, you know, villagers with farm tools remain just villagers."

"When the Emperor of Portlands deemed the rebels to be bewitched by witches, cavalry began suppression!"

"Countless people fell under iron hooves, died tragically to knights' lances or maces!"

"Corpses lay everywhere, rivers of blood flowed… The reclaimed lands were stained crimson with the farmers' blood!"

"The number of dead and wounded was as high as three to four thousand, regardless of age or gender… Other captured villagers were directly enslaved…"

"This battle was called the Southern Campaign."

Three thousand people, nearly the permanent population of a small town.

Lynn listened, tentatively asked.

"The Portlands Empire's southern summer harvest wasn't good, was it?"

Grayson looked at Lynn in surprise, curiously asked.

"Master Lynn, how did you know?"

"In the southern Portlands Empire, it rained heavily for half a month, the summer harvest… yielded nothing!"

Lynn didn't explain.

After the villagers moved the bags of fine salt onto Grayson's carriage, Grayson and Audrey left.

The sound of horseshoes and the rolling of wheels mixed together.

In the carriage.

Audrey's eyes were slightly closed, arms folded before her, accentuating the pronounced curvature.

Grayson was somewhat anxious, "Audrey, will this cause trouble for him?"

Audrey didn't open her eyes, "I don't know."

Grayson stared at Audrey, "Don't know? He did me a favor."

The words were full of determination, even his leaning body sat upright.

Sensing Grayson's change in tone, Audrey slowly opened her gray eyes.

"He did you a favor, what does that have to do with me?"

She looked at Grayson, eyes full of mockery.

"You don't think that it's because of our half-blood kinship I choose to help you, right?"

Grayson instantly fell silent.

If his mother was married legitimately.

Then Audrey's mother was his father's lustful whim…

Her mother died due to difficult childbirth when Audrey was born.

As a girl, she was even less favored by the clan.

From childhood to adulthood, she never received any grace from the Brown Clan.

But Audrey grew up amid family alienation solely on her will and capability.

She became one of the few female merchants in the Vortex Sea!

"If you hadn't called me sister when you were little, even if you died, I wouldn't care."

"Just like Kelson Brown who died before me a few days ago."

Grayson's expression turned somber.

Seeing Grayson's aggrieved look, Audrey coldly said.

"Rest assured, the new acquaintance… has greater ambition than yours."

Grayson's eyebrows rose.

Audrey glanced out the carriage window, "Your ambition is merely to restructure the Brown Clan from top to bottom."

"His ambition… might be the entire Karedi Empire!"

Despite the five hundred slaves all coming from Portlands Empire.

Lynn didn't worry overly much.

Three meals a day, meals with meat.

Work at sunrise, rest at sunset.

Such a life, if it still breeds rebellion.

Then... Lynn could only resort to slaughter.

A hundred and fifty soldiers were not just for deterrence.

In the evening.

Lynn provided this group of five hundred slaves with a sumptuous dinner.

Let them rest well in the open field overnight.

The next morning early, let them eat a full breakfast again.

Equipped each of them with a pickaxe, Lynn drove them all to a distant stone mine!

Beside the stone mine, set up makeshift wooden sheds.

Then arranged ten chefs to cook and prepare food for them.

Let them work until starving and eat directly, eat and continue working, work till tired and sleep right there.

Lynn needed large amounts of limestone to burn lime.

To pave roads and build the territory's entrance defenses.

After three days of continuous mining, Lynn withdrew two hundred people from the stone mine.

A hundred people drove carts to transport excavated limestone to lime kilns.

The other hundred directly used anthracite to begin loading kilns.

With the strong heat of anthracite, lime burning efficiency will greatly improve.

Amid Lynn's vigorous construction.

A group of cavalry walked along mountain path.

Unkempt, dressed simply and poorly.

For coolness, boldly unbuttoned their clothes in front, revealing flat bellies…

Their expressions varied, with nervousness and numbness.

Most were nervous.

Even in this desolate wilderness, they tightly held weapons.

To avoid falling behind, a rider stayed close to another.

The middle-aged man complained, "Damn it, my mouth is almost drying like a bird!"

Hall glanced at Hughes, replied, "Who says it's not? I've gone three days without eating, when will this end?"

Hughes snorted, "I should've known better than join this Iron Blood Brotherhood, clearly having passed so many villages, why not loot them?"

"The summer harvest just ended, they have plenty of grain, and the livestock fed on spring's tender grass, are fat to bursting by now!"

"If we loot them, wouldn't we have food?"

Hall immediately signaled for silence with a finger to his lips.

Hughes laughed disdainfully, "Why fear? Just a fallen noble knight…"

"No, even the title of knight is stripped, what's the difference between him and us?"

Hall dared not speak, looking hurriedly ahead.

Upon a tall and strong black warhorse, with brown hair fluttering, a silhouette like a proud pine stood atop.

Dressed in bright silver full plate armor and a helmet slung at the waist, extra radiant under daylight.

Beside the splendid horse, a lance longer than the horse's body hung on a stirrup rack.

This was a true knight!

Hall just wanted to speak.

The leading warhorse suddenly stopped.

His eyes quickly contracted, he hastily tugged the reins, distanced from Hughes.

"Sir Anthony, it's Hughes complaining, it's not… not me!"

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