Chapter 1024: Seizing Notoriety, Compensation for Prisoners

When Zong Shen walked up to them in person, everyone consciously became quiet.

"You guys are lucky..."

"He didn't die in the battle just now!"

Zong Shen's tone was calm, with some indifference.

What he said was very arrogant, but no one dared to refute it because what he said was the truth.

At this time, a bold-looking woman with dreadlocks slowly raised her hand.

"Zong Shen... Sir, please allow me to say something."

She said cautiously, her sun-reddened face tensed up, revealing the nervousness in her heart.

Zong Shen turned to look at this guy and gently raised his hand to signal her to speak.

After getting permission, she spoke slowly.

"My lord, my name is Vivica. This is a huge misunderstanding...many of us are not the same as Stephen York."

"Only...just came to investigate because I saw the relevant announcement."

"I have absolutely no intention of starting a war with you."

The woman named Vivica has the appearance of a typical Nordic woman. The roughness of high-latitude people makes her look a bit more fortitude than a man.

She was a little nervous at first, but then she became more and more fluent in speaking, but she didn't dare to say more, so she could only express her meaning as briefly as possible.

Zong Shen did not comment on this, and he naturally understood the meaning of the other party's words.

Stephen York's spiny-headed lords really don't speak for everyone here.

At least more than half of the lords only came to investigate, and did not bring too much malice.

But after the crowd gathered, these guys' minds changed.

As the saying goes, "There is strength in numbers." When the number of people gathering exceeds a certain threshold, people's hearts will lose control, their sanity will be affected, and desires and luck will regain the high ground.

So these guys become followers of the team, running wherever the wind blows.

I thought that the hundreds of thousands of people present would scare Zong Shen, but I didn't expect that he would actually take action directly and carry out almost indiscriminate killings.

Moreover, the attacks are extremely powerful, almost all of which have instant kill effects.

All kinds of shields with thousands of strength points cannot withstand even one attack.

The "high-level" warriors they were proud of brought with them were like ants under such a powerful attack.

Zong Shen also allowed these guys to see the true performance of legendary combat power in advance.

In the current inherent understanding of the lords, the battle can only be regarded as a small fight.

Seeing that Zong Shen didn't pay attention to her, Vivica thought he couldn't refute.

By some mistake, she raised her tied arms again.

"Zong...Master Zong..."

"Quack."

"I'll kill you if you scream again."

Zong Shen said ruthlessly, and took out the [Azzinoth Demon-Slaying Warblade (Gold)] with his backhand, pointing the sharp half-moon blade at Vivica's eyes.

He is now very disgusted with the communication between hypocrisy and coercion. In his opinion, it is all useless.

Therefore, he has no good impression of these guys who dare to take advantage of the situation to attack his territory.

No matter what the motivations of these people are, he only looks at the process and results of things.

Facing the cold blade, Vivica's body in dark red armor suddenly trembled, and she didn't dare to say anything more.

Lords compete with each other, but can also cooperate in many situations.

From the perspective of fighting for continental hegemony, every lord except one's own legion is a potential enemy.

Moreover, unlike the aborigines, the lords lacked sufficient restraints and held the privileges of the lord system.

It was not easy to effectively subdue the lord, and he didn't have the leisure to do so.

The most he can do is manage his [Legion of Guides] well. When he dominates the endless continent in the future, the members of the legion will become the managers and builders of giant cities and states everywhere.

It is similar to the enfeoffed nobles, but Zong Shen does not intend to implement the aristocratic system.

This matter can be discussed later. All in all, he will never show much kindness to lords who are not his own.

Otherwise, given the nature of most lords who bully the weak and fear the strong, they might get lucky and try to take advantage of him.

In Zong Shen's own opinion, as long as he is not the enemy of the whole world, other things don't matter.

It is definitely a great thing to have the reputation of killing and threatening thousands of lords, leaving a shadow in the hearts of other lords and being feared by everyone.

No matter how vicious his reputation is, as long as he is willing to accept people, there will always be countless lords who want to be his little brother. This is human nature.

Everyone is afraid of Zong Shen, but everyone also wants to be Zong Shen.

After pondering for a moment, he decided to get to the point directly.

"I don't want to talk about motives, I just want to talk about results."

"You are indeed lucky not to be a silent corpse."

"Now as long as you are willing to pay the price, you will have a chance to survive."

Zong Shen inserted the demon-slaying war blade into an exposed rock at his feet with his backhand, and said loudly at the same time.

Everyone didn't dare to say anything anymore, and they were waiting for his next words.

After the passion for fighting the autumn wind fades, the survival instinct and rationality of seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages return to the brain.

No one dares to step forward anymore and can only passively accept the results.

Vivica lowered her head, looking extremely defeated.

Zong Shen's majesty defeated all the fighting spirit in her heart. Nothing is more frustrating for this "strong woman" than facing an invincible person.

Seeing the lords at the scene acting like frightened quails, Zong Shen showed a satisfied expression.

"The price is very simple. Each person only needs to provide me with 1,500 copies of the three basic resources of wood, stone, and hemp, 1,000 copies of iron resources, 200 copies of mithril resources, and 1,000 dinars in denomination..."

"In addition, the ownership rights of any 10 third-level soldiers need to be handed over to us. They can be replaced with three times the second-level soldiers or with 3 fourth-level soldiers or 1 fifth-level warrior."

"Insufficient resources or dinars can be flexibly converted. If there is a shortage of dinars, more equivalent resources can be given, and vice versa."

This is the compensation condition proposed by Zong Shen. If a noble in ancient Europe was defeated and captured, the family to which he belonged could also pay a ransom in exchange for the captured personnel.

Although Zong Shen could be more ruthless and kill more than 3,000 lords in one fell swoop, and then use [Quick Succession] to wipe out all the "small treasury" of these lords with capital and profit.

But in this way, his notoriety will gradually become vilified, and he will be vulnerable to planned and organized attacks.

There are advantages and disadvantages to notoriety. The key is to grasp the "degree". If the things you do are too ugly and dark, it will easily lead to a situation where everyone is the enemy.

What Zong Shen wants is to be evil and not attract wind. He wants other lords to know that he will not take the initiative to kill or treat other people as cattle and horses, but he will not let others bully him.

Another point is that all the lords in front of them chose to surrender.

The nature of active surrender and passive capture are different, so it is difficult for Zong Shen to be cruel.

Then just retreat and let go of the blood of these guys, so that it won't appear too kind, nor will it become too dark and cruel.

Moreover, the price offered by Zong Shen was also carefully considered, taking into account the average resource reserves and wealth level of the current lord through the strategy module.

After the one-month challenge period and the buffer construction period of the past few days, most of the lords' pockets are much richer than before, and their resources have become much more abundant.

The total population of most territories has achieved its first leap, from generally dozens or hundreds of people to today's level of basically a few hundred people.

The improvement of the basic population and territorial development level will lead to an overall improvement in the efficiency of resource acquisition.

As for dinars, it was even simpler. Aboriginal people became the best source for lords to obtain dinars.

Those who resorted to more crude methods would simply turn into bandits. From time to time, they would turn into bandits and thieves, plundering traveling merchants along the way.

Those who are more daring often use legions and lord squads as the main body to cooperate and loot small villages far away from the capital. This is also the development trend of today's lords.

And those lords who have moderate methods can also choose to go to nearby cities to seek opportunities to make money.

With the convenient nature of lords' privileges, it is not difficult for lords to earn dinars through legal means as long as they are careful.

Therefore, most lords can still afford this compensation.

They even thought it was a good deal. After all, resources could be collected again and dinars could be earned slowly.

On the contrary, the transfer of subordinates made them feel more distressed.

Warriors who have received standard training are not cabbages, and these lords are not Zong Shen. There have been many battle losses in previous battles. Every warrior is precious and is regarded by them as a different kind of "non-renewable". resource".

In addition, many lords will also look for handsome lovers among warriors, thus cultivating many confidants who are loyal to the MAX. This is inevitable for both men and women. On this trip to investigate the situation, they brought It just so happened that he was also a close warrior.

Handing it over to Zong Shen like this is like cutting flesh.

But they also knew in their hearts that if Zong Shen killed them directly, the harvest would be more than that.

So after a short period of sluggishness and thinking, all the lords at the scene rushed to agree.

Zong Shen calculated his own manpower, and then asked Xiao Heizi to use dragon language magic to transform into a man in black armor with a paralyzed face, and receive resources with Colby, plus Jeanne d'Arc and Richardson,

A total of 3,172 captive lords were divided into five queues, each occupying an open space for compensation and handover.

It took more than two hours of busy work to complete the receipt of all compensation.

There were suddenly tens of thousands more warriors in the portal enclosure, mostly second and third level warriors.

These warriors were handed over by the lord, and their initial loyalty points were only 60~65 points. They were almost stuck at the neutral loyalty limit, and they would need to be cultivated for a period of time before they could be used.

In addition, Zong Shen also obtained a massive supply of resources for the territory.

He considered the population and resource reception issues of the thousands of lords in [Quick Succession].

When the territory's population rapidly expanded to hundreds of thousands, the current construction pattern was far from keeping up with the situation. Mariel and Howie needed to devote their energy to launching a truly era of large-scale construction.

Let the expansion reach city-level proportions for at least a few days.

The main construction plan needs to continue to be clarified, and a sufficient number of residences must be built at the same time.

Moreover, Zong Shen is also ready to start the freedmen reform plan immediately after receiving this group of people.

After receiving the compensation, Zong Shen readily let go of these lords.

During this period, some daring lords used pictures and texts to "live broadcast" the process in the [Regional Channel], and also let other lords know that Zong Shen was not just a fool who knew how to act recklessly, which added to the fear in his heart. .

There are still lords arriving from the periphery of the portal enclosure, but those guys seem much calmer.

Basically, they just quietly watched from the outside. After confirming that this place was indeed the "officially announced" territory certified by the lord system, they no longer took any chances and quickly retreated.

This situation is very common. Lords from outside come and go, and come and go, but no one dares to offend them anymore.

After dispatching the last captive lord, Zong Shen breathed a sigh of relief.

[Heart of Quantum Furnace] makes his body tireless, but it cannot eliminate mental fatigue.

By this time the night was already deep.

It was already evening when he returned to the surface from the depths of the mine.

Then he hurried to the portal to enclose the territory, first a fierce battle, and then receiving compensation from more than 3,000 lords.

After being so busy for a while, a few hours passed.

Colby and Zoe started at different times, so they finished at about the same time.

Zong Shen arrived at the scene faster, but he actually spent more time exploring the depths of the mine.

In short, everyone is now assembled.

The damaged portal enclosure needs to be rebuilt and maintained.

Soldiers who died in battle need to be buried well, and others need to be comforted.

There are also territorial privileges, which exempt 3% of the warriors from death, and the remaining dead can also be transferred to the [Heroic Soul Tower] to become heroic souls to protect the territory.

Relevant work has already begun on Mariel, and she is expected to recover in the early morning at the latest.

For those defensive arrow towers that were completely damaged and could not be repaired, Zong Shen planned to wait until the territory inheritance was completed to replenish them.

There will be as many low-level defensive arrow towers as you need.

As for the high-level arrow towers with long range and high power, not much was lost in this battle.

This aspect was considered during the construction and layout of the defense matrices everywhere.

The main ones that bear the damage are the low-level arrow towers, while the high-level arrow towers are all precious little things, all placed on the inside.

The overall loss was within Zong Shen’s previous estimate.

A large number of farmers passed through the teleportation channel and rushed from their territory to the teleportation gate enclosure to join the construction army.

The entire enclosure is brightly lit, and from time to time, pairs of wolf cavalry can be seen patrolling everywhere under the leadership of higher-level Wild Wolf Clan troops. These new troops were all recruited through the [Heritage Base Camp].

Regarding this situation, Zong Shen hasn't had time to check. In fact, his territory is getting stronger every minute.

When the construction of the territory is in full swing, it actually already has the characteristics of "self-growth"!

(PS: The level of the state city has been clearly described before. The elastic range is very large, ranging from more than 100,000 people to state cities with a million people. Boss State is a state city with a population of more than 100,000 people. The city of Wintrobon controlled by Zoe's father, Earl Maron, is located at the mouth of the inland river and has a population of one million)