Chapter 224: Cunning and Generosity
The fire rose and engulfed the entire military camp, but did not ignite other buildings in the city.
This was a camp specially set up by General Cleon.
He was ready for it.
After sending those soldiers who were not infected with the disease out of the city, he came back to take care of the funeral arrangements for these brothers who were going to die.
He was also the first to get over his grief and sadness.
"Sir Leon, there is no need to feel sentimental about this. We who are still alive still have a lot to do."
While the fire was still burning, he had picked up a large bucket and began pouring lime all over the city.
Sprinkle carefully.
"Everyone, obey General Cleon's orders and drive out the plague for Fort Karen."
Leon stood up and nodded, then followed Cleon, doing whatever the old general did.
"They all possess the loyalty and sacrifice of a knight...but they are not knights..."
Anson was still crying, and he joined the work while crying and choking.
"Knight? ... Child, I am not a knight either... In fact, even the current Radiant Cross Knights have never been recognized by the Valides Charter. To be honest, including Loris, all the Radiant Cross Knights are not orthodox knights."
Creon whispered as he worked.
The "Valides Charter" is the standard regulation for the Knights Templar promulgated by the Kingdom of Pendor after the unification of the continent.
There are many restrictive clauses in it, and only those knight orders that fully comply with the charter will be regarded as legally established knight orders throughout the continent.
Of course, these restrictions are mainly to reduce the number of knights...
The original Knights of the Radiant Cross were destroyed at the hands of General Osa. All combatants were killed in the battle, leaving only scholars and doctors to protect the cultural heritage of the Knights.
The current Knights of the Glorious Cross were originally selected from the soldiers of the Bacchus Empire. This was a move by General Osa to win the hearts of the people.
The Glorious Cross Plague Repellers were all civilians recruited to protect the doctors, including General Cleon himself, and none of them were children of nobility.
Such a knightly order naturally does not meet the standards of the Valides Charter, and the Knights of the Glorious Cross are indeed not orthodox knights.
"The Valides Charter? Humph... The Charter is like a female watch. As long as your fist is big enough, you can adjust it to any position you want..."
Li Ang shook his head and said, "Back then, Countess Valera said she wanted to become a knight, so the Valides Charter readily recognized the legitimacy of women becoming knights... because all the nobles knew that Valera would really beat them up!"
"My Lord... I am a little confused..."
Anson muttered, but he didn't say what he was confused about.
"From ancient times to the present, there are countless unknown heroes like them. A true knight never relies on the title of a knight... Do what you should do and obey your heart, then you will not be confused, Anson."
Leon patted Anson on the shoulder.
"What Lord Li Ang is doing now is actually quite different from what the kidnapper did a year ago..."
Cleon sprinkled the last handful of lime in the bucket and looked back at Leon, as if he wanted to get to know him again.
Leon shook his head. "I have only been obeying the voice in my heart. General Cleon, your subordinates are admirable, but you may be questioned by many Bacchus nobles."
"If I cared about those nobles who only know how to brag, I wouldn't be able to become a general..."
Creon turned and looked at the still burning barracks.
The fire in the military camp has gradually died down.
Part of Leon's troops have also arrived outside Karen Deer Castle.
"I'm sorry, General Cleon. For my own safety, I have to occupy this castle... After solving the trouble caused by the Snake Cult, I will build a hero monument on this ashes."
Leon looked at Cleon and said, "But I'm afraid you will lose your territory and have a reputation of being a loser."
"As long as we can solve the difficulties facing the empire, we will have territory sooner or later... Maybe after you move into the Karen Deer Keep, there won't be so many wars between Bacchus and the Sarleon Kingdom. In fact, I didn't want to stay in this city... Now I can get away and do what I should do, which is not a bad thing."
Cleon didn't care about the territory issue at all. He opened the city gate and walked out of Karen Deer Castle without looking back.
Leon was behind Cleon, looking at the old general.
He seemed to see another Count Oden...
In this era, anyone who could climb up from the bottom of the common people to the high position of general was quite remarkable.
This is true of Count Oden and General Cleon.
They are not brave warriors in the traditional sense, but they are all true heroes.
They all looked plain, short and thin, and did not possess top-notch personal martial arts skills. They even let their subordinates use crossbows, which were considered "dishonorable" weapons for sneak attacks and assassinations by the so-called orthodox knights.
They are not very wealthy either, and they worry about their children like ordinary old people.
But they all had outstanding military command abilities, were able to walk unarmed among civilians, and had an amazing sense of purpose and determination.
Oden has been fighting against the Gatu all his life...
And Creon spent his whole life fighting against the Snake Cult.
The ability to make his soldiers calmly die is extremely rare and would be incomprehensible to most nobles.
This result can only be achieved by conveying long-term unified values and forging a firm will and sense of mission in the troops.
And Cleon, who can give his troops such a sense of mission, is undoubtedly a general worthy of respect.
But in fact, General Cleon and Count Oden did not have a very good reputation among the nobles - they were both regarded as "cunning" by the noble lords.
In fact, this comment usually appears on commoner lords who have no family background but climbed to high positions through their own abilities.
Those who have no background to rely on but still succeed through their own abilities will naturally possess the will and wisdom that most nobles simply do not understand.
At the same time, they obviously had a relatively sincere attitude towards both the nobles and the civilian soldiers.
But these nobles will never understand these things in their entire lives, these things that seem incredible to them, will be regarded by them as "cunning".
Some things, in the perception of those nobles who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths and have nothing to do except talking, are completely different from those of ordinary civilians.
Any lord who was born in a humble family but was able to defeat the strong and hold a high position despite having a commoner background would be evaluated as "cunning" or "sinister" by the nobles.
Li Ang is now also known as a sinister and cunning person.
In the eyes of most nobles, a young pioneer lord who had transformed from a minor character into a powerful earl in a short period of time, and who was also so wealthy, must have done a lot of shameless things that were unknown to the public...
After hearing that there were several beautiful Noldor women around Leon, there were more comments such as "dissolute and shameless".
Moreover, Leon always hangs out with businessmen and does not act like a nobleman at all. This is called "degenerate" and "insult to the dignity of the nobility."
When Godric became rich through business partnership with Leon, he was also called a "degenerate scum"... But after he went to Eagle Claw Castle and announced the "termination of the partnership" with Leon, the nobles immediately said that he was a "gentle and kind-hearted good man"...
In fact, most of the nobles who said these things had never been to the Eastern Region. They didn’t even know what Leon and Godric looked like...
That's human nature.
Of course, if you can't get the benefits, you are corrupt...
Of course, it is shameless to do something that you cannot do...
The quality that I don't possess is, of course, cunning...
After all, the right to speak lies in the hands of the nobles. They hold the pen and speak nonsense, but they are nothing but incompetent and unwise, and they also want to be "shamelessly depraved".
But sometimes, when a way of expression is used for a long time, people will regard it as a jargon among the nobility and interpret it like a secret code.
The gentleness and kindness in the eyes of the nobles would generally be interpreted as being good at socializing and having good relations with the nobles. Justus was considered by the nobles to be a generous governor...
As for "cruel nature", it can probably be understood as ignoring the tacit understanding between the nobles and killing the surrendered nobles ...
In fact, many lords who are regarded as "cruel" by the nobles often do a good job in protecting civilians.
After all, the attitude when nobles interact with each other and the way they treat common people are completely different.
Just as slaves and the poor would regard "brains" as "conspirators", the "cunning lords" considered by the nobles naturally had another meaning in the eyes of civilians and soldiers.
This meaning can be roughly interpreted as a 'civilian lord who is good at solving problems', and is the kind of person who is smart and worth following.
Now, this "cunning" general is going to go to Boshi City with another shameless and cunning enemy to continue doing things that the nobles cannot understand and solve the most troublesome problems.
…
Knowledgeable city.
Governor Justus was already in an extremely difficult situation.
There was bad news about the plague in the city every day. The nobles who were blocked in the city were making trouble every day, and the whole city was in chaos.
Although Justus issued a strict order, forcing everyone to stay at home and not go out, those nobles were quite disobedient and made trouble all day long.
These pampered people from prominent families were afraid of both the rebels outside and the Red Death inside the city, but they were not afraid of Justus...
Because Justus was a 'generous and good man' in the eyes of the nobles.
In fact, Justus's temperament is relatively kind, probably because he is a cultured person and his behavior seems relatively gentle.
But gentleness and generosity are not good qualities at times.
After the city was closed, the nobles probably drank up all the wine in their homes, and there was no fruit to eat, no gladiatorial contests to watch, and no singing and dancing performances. They were not even allowed to walk on the streets...
Coupled with the fact that the terrible Red Death was spreading in the city, these people staged one ridiculous farce after another in the city.
Some nobles abused slaves at home and committed brutal murders, but since the victims were their own slaves, this was legal according to the laws of the Bacchus Empire...
Some threw torches into the controlled isolation area in the city, claiming that they wanted to burn the disease to death, but fortunately no one really set the fire intentionally. However, the random throwing of torches made the people in the city even more panicked.
Some nobles used the Red Death to constantly report who was infected and needed to be locked up, or who was planning to join forces with the rebels outside - and then these people took the opportunity to plunder the homes of the reported people and steal everything they could...
Boshi City was already facing internal and external troubles, but these people not only did not calm down, but became even more rampant, and caused widespread panic in the city.
The mentality of many idiots is really hard to understand.
But Justus couldn't kill those idiots - according to Bucks's law, those people were not guilty of the death penalty, so Justus could only lock them up first.
However, those guys took up a lot of Justus' time and manpower, and the panic they caused made Boshi City increasingly difficult to control.
If the city had not been surrounded by the slave rebels, I'm afraid there would have been a riot inside the city by now...
But the movements of the rebels outside the city also made Justus extremely anxious.
Because not long ago an uprising army of thousands of people left Boshi City.
Justus didn't know where this departing force would go, but it was obvious that this meant that the rebels had begun to split and they no longer had a unified leadership...
Moreover, the rebels may be short of food.
If this continues, more and more rebels will gradually leave.
This is not a good thing. Although it seems that this can help to relieve the siege of the city of Boshi, it will also lead to the failure of all the plans of Emperor Marius and Arina.
In fact, for Justus, it was not a bad thing that all the rebels were surrounded outside the city.
These slave troops led by gladiators had no siege equipment and it was difficult for them to capture the city of Boshi. By surrounding the city, they could prevent the disobedient nobles in the city from running around and causing the widespread spread of the Red Death.
On the other hand, only if they do not disperse or evacuate will they have a chance to reorganize.
So Justus had to make a difficult decision.
He ordered his First Legion to launch an attack on the slave rebels.
He wanted to create a conflict and give the illusion of a forced breakout...
This is the only way to keep this rebel army here at the moment.
However, Justus was indeed quite smart. He let those nobles who were restless all day long participate in the breakout - in fact, he just let those nobles' guards be cannon fodder.
Maybe Justus was gentle and generous at ordinary times, but he was ruthless when it came to using strategies - how could a man who could be called a 'brains' be easily seen through?
Of course, those nobles were willing to break out and leave Boshi City, and they were indeed good at making trouble. They easily attracted the attention and firepower of the slaves immediately after the battle...
The rebels were enraged by the cruel and rampant behavior of many nobles. Instead of fighting among themselves, they quickly selected the best gladiator as their leader and easily defeated the First Legion of the Empire.
Then, they began their real attack, intending to capture Boshi City, steal all the nobles' food, and rescue all the slaves...
Just like they did before coming to Boshi City.
Justus's strategy worked, and the rebels neither disbanded nor withdrew the siege.
But the situation in Boshi City has become more difficult - the re-elected gladiator, now the leader of the rebels, seems to have a venomous hatred for all the nobles and Bacchus' soldiers!
That gladiator was completely different from Brutus, he didn't care about anyone's life.
Including his own...
He launched a fierce attack on Boshi City at all costs and refused all communication!
