Friedman is not an entrepreneurial leader like Zhou Qingfeng, and he has many constraints in handling affairs. He must spend more energy balancing the internal relations among his own forces, and even has to do things that are obviously detrimental to the long-term interests of the family.
However, the war that is about to start again is a perfect opportunity. Internal conflicts are resolved externally, which has been tried and tested in history. As long as you win, you can gain prestige and eradicate dissidents.
After listening to the butler's report, Friedman was quite disinterested and made some decisions casually and perfunctorily.
As a clan leader, he must think from a higher level. In the past six months, he has realized that his side cannot suppress his opponents technically and economically.
If you can't catch up, you can't catch up. This can't be achieved by just talking about hard work. Before Cold Wind City becomes invincible, suppression by force is the only chance to win.
After all, in other worlds, justice is established by force.
Friedman only stayed in the study for half an hour before leaving. He walked all the way through the city lord's palace, dismissed his entourage, and entered the underground secret room of the palace alone, an area closed with a heavy stone door.
It's still a little cold outside the secret room. But when you get closer to the secret room, the feeling of coldness and warmth will disappear. People's perception seems to be deprived, they can't hear sounds, lose their sense of space, seem to be upside down, and even open their eyes as if they were blind.
People with poor strength will stand in a daze outside the stone door, forever in a daze. Their consciousness will be pulled into the infinite void, in chaos, until their thoughts are exhausted and they die.
Friedman also had to forcibly improve his mental defense and add a 'protection against evil' spell to himself. He pressed his hand on the stone door, lowered his head and murmured to himself.
The stone door lit up with a cobweb-like light, slowly covering the surrounding area until Friedman was swallowed up. The patriarch passed through the stone door, but he had to be more careful, gather all his energy, and move forward slowly step by step.
Behind the stone door is a dilapidated place, with collapsed stone pillars and decayed door frames. There are deep ravines in the ground, leading directly to a set of steps ahead.
The steps were covered with rubble, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a statue. The face of the statue could no longer be seen clearly, leaving only a few large pieces that had split and collapsed. These remnants still retained the statue's original twisted limbs and the menacing aura of claws and teeth.
There was a strange light green light in this underground space, which illuminated the ruins and led Friedman to the stone steps. After taking the first few steps, there was a huge ice block five or six meters high behind the stone steps.
The ice block is the center of the entire underground ruins. It is completely transparent and emits an invisible force field of shock. Friedman must take a will test every time he takes a step forward. If he fails, he will be stagnant for a few seconds and unable to move.
Fortunately, this was not a combat state. Otherwise, the sluggish state would have killed Friedman a dozen times. But he did not dare to move forward until he was ten meters away from the ice.
There was a monster frozen in the ice, a six-armed snake demon with a green scaly giant snake's lower body and a coquettish woman's upper body. It spread out its six arms in a ferocious posture, grasped different weapons, and pounced forward.
Scales form the armor of the snake demon and cover its body. Each of its hands is wearing bracelets inlaid with high-end gems, and jewelry containing great power is hung on its chest and earlobes. The sword and ax it holds in its hands
The hammer, hook and fork are all magic equipment.
The reason why Banshee Castle is called Banshee is because of this snake demon. Its body is in the abyss, and its projection alone reaches level 15.
The Banshee Castle was originally the place where the six-armed snake demon bewitched mortals to worship. The ancestors of the Butch family destroyed this place, but they did not completely destroy the snake demon's projection, only sealed it.
When Friedman appeared, the sealed snake demon could not move, but its eyes moved, as if pierced by a sharp sword, causing a strong heartbeat.
The snake demon is laughing, taunting, and watching its prey approaching slowly. It knows that one day, the family that has sealed itself will bow its head to beg it, because the descendants of heroes can easily turn into bears.
Friedman could feel this ruthless ridicule. He stood motionless in front of the frozen snake demon for a long time, thinking about how his ancestors had defeated this terrible demon with great grace, and he was fascinated by the thought.
And today, he is going to release it.
When Patriarch Butchi entered the underground secret room, the body collector he had watched was still lying on the street where the cold wind was raging.
Two more corpse collectors in tattered clothes walked down the street. They were also pushing carts filled with corpses and looked at their dead companions with numb faces.
The later body collectors were an old man and a young man. The older one sighed and shouted to the younger body collector: "Take off his clothes, he can still wear them."
The deceased's dirty and filthy clothes were taken off, revealing his rugged and thin body. He was frozen to death, and his joints had to be broken in order to take off his clothes, making a snapping sound.
The naked corpse was thrown onto the cart and mixed with the corpses of several other refugees. It was as skinny as a bundle of dry firewood. These 'dry firewood' would be transported outside the city and would not be buried. They could be found in a remote place at will.
The potholes were thrown away.
The old and young corpse collectors turned back again and staggered back in the wind and snow. They had a special residence in a corner of the city, not next to the nobles and common people. It was a lonely hut.
There is a fire pit in the hut, which can at least provide some protection from the wind and snow. A pot of boiling water is boiling in the hanging stove of the fire pit, bubbling. People coming in from the outside pour some boiling water from the hanging stove to drink, and it will be warmer.
It's good to have a fire pit, after all, fuel costs money. The fire was lit today due to special circumstances. There were more than a dozen corpse collectors in the house gathered around the fire pit, quietly listening to one of them speak.
"Lord Hugo said that as long as anyone steps into the territory of Cold Wind City, he will be under his protection and jurisdiction. Whether it is a slave, a tenant, or an apprentice, no matter what status he had before, he will be protected when he arrives in Cold Wind City.
He is a free citizen.
Free citizens enjoy the rights of movement, work, marriage, belief, etc. Lord Hugo will give any new territorial citizen a three-month basic living guarantee without any return."
The two body collectors, old and young, had just returned. The younger one sat by the fire pit and asked weakly: "Can we body collectors also go?"
The speaker nodded, "Yes, anyone can. I'm here from Cold Wind City to help you. However, the Butchi family has sealed the border and controlled the food. Not even an ox cart can be found along the way.
The weather is too cold now, and it is very difficult to walk the more than 200 kilometers of road. So we have to plan step by step, organize more people, and raise enough food. It is best to do it in the spring of next year.
The Great Escape.”
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. If you continue to stay in Banshee Castle, at least half of you will not survive this winter.
I took a lot of risks when I came to save you. If I were caught by the vicious dogs of the Butcher family, I would die miserably. But I still came. I hope there are no nobles in this world, and I want the nobles to understand that there are still people.