I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 178 Choice
"This isn't fair, this isn't fair..."

A bandit with disheveled hair leaned against a rock, his red eyes fixed on the armed sword stuck in the ground, muttering unwillingly to himself.

He saw with his own eyes how the sword smoothly cut off his spear, then spun around and chopped off his thick wooden shield with unstoppable force, and finally left a fatal wound on his shoulder that was so deep that the bone was visible.

This sword was too sharp, so sharp that none of the weapons and armor in his hands could withstand its slashing blow. Even if his skills were inferior to the other person, he should not have been killed in just one round.

This is so unfair.

Joachim reached out and grabbed the hilt of the sword, pulling it out of the ground. He curled his lips and raised the sword in front of him to look at it.

Well, very good, the blade is not chipped or curled, and the sword body is as smooth as a mirror, which can clearly reflect my face.

The quality of this sword is indeed top-notch. No wonder it can so easily tear apart the bandit's weapons and defenses.

Joachim nodded in satisfaction and prepared to go back and wash the sword with hot water and then use sword oil to maintain it to prevent it from rusting.

At the same time, the cotton armor on his body is also a good thing. The outermost layer is covered with a layer of gray cloth, the inner chest is covered with armor plates, the limbs are wrapped with chain mail, and the innermost layer is a thick hammered cotton lining, which is resistant to cutting and puncture, and has good damage reduction against blunt objects and lead bullets.

Joachim had just been shot in the chest. Now he touched his chest and actually dug out a lead bullet from the deformed armor plate in his clothes with a hole in it.

Besides being warm, this cotton armor is really a good thing.

Joachim turned to look at the bandit lying on the ground, still struggling. He was still muttering "unfair" unwillingly, but his voice was growing fainter.

fair?

Ridiculous words, when you were robbing defenseless peasants with swords, did you ever think about fairness? Now that you are being beaten, you think about fairness instead.

Before the bandit was completely dead, a civilian holding a standard dagger ran over anxiously, grabbed his head with one hand and the dagger with the other, and began to cut the "profits".

One head can represent two silver dollars, so it cannot be less.

captive?

What's the point of taking prisoners?

It is troublesome to take care of them, and they will eat less rice if they are alive. If they are injured, you will have to waste medicine and bandages. It is better to kill them directly and exchange their heads for money.

With this idea in mind, the civilians cut off the heads of all the bandits, whether dead or alive and surrendered, and harvested 32 heads.

Thirty-two times two equals sixty-four... This number made the smiles on the faces of the laborers brighter than the chrysanthemums.

The guards were even happier. Their bounty was thirty-two times five, which was obviously more than the bounty of the civilians, so much so that they were a little worried... The guards were afraid that such a large sum of money would not be exchanged, and that the master in charge of this matter would cheat.

But no matter what, everyone is happy now.

……

Marlowe stood at the gate of Oncandra, looking at the scene below where one after another two-wheeled carriages full of goods, protected by laborers and guards, came in from outside the city. He felt a little uneasy.

Marlowe knew that Prince Chris was wealthy, but he had no idea that he would be so wealthy and generous.

Since he surrendered, transport convoys have been arriving from the north every day, bringing countless amounts of food, medicine, clothes and other supplies that Onkandara currently needs most.

The prince's representative, the interim mayor named Xiaodao, who controlled Oncandra, continued to provide food relief through work-for-work programs, employing the starving civilians with a small daily sack of grain and a small amount of silver to clean up the city's corpses, excrement, and burned and collapsed houses. Meanwhile, he sold cheap food, salt, and ready-made clothing, forcefully driving down high market prices. This resulted in heavy losses for the merchants and local tycoons who had profited from the national crisis.

The Benson family behind Marlowe was one of them. After the price of grain plummeted, they stockpiled a lot of grain and basically couldn't sell it, even at the pre-war market price.

Thinking of this, a strange expression appeared on Marlowe's face. He wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

After he surrendered, he immediately warned these uncles and aunts about this matter, asking them to sell the grain as soon as possible and not keep it in their hands, even if it meant a small loss.

Anyway, they had already made a lot of money selling grain at high prices during the siege, and if they stopped now, they would only make a little more.

It’s a pity that none of these elders listened to Marlowe’s warning and continued to hold on to the food and wait and see. Now their end is the result of asking for trouble.

Because of this incident, Marlowe realized that the interests of his family and his own interests often seemed to be on different paths. The stupidity and shortsightedness of the elders in the family made him feel funny, but he could do nothing about it.

Marlowe has been wondering whether he should sever his relationship with the clan. His decision to join Prince Chris was a private act, and he had not discussed it with the family. Therefore, these uncles and aunts are quite dissatisfied with him at the moment.

Since you two dislike each other, why not cut ties completely?
However, this is just a concept at the moment, and Marlowe is not sure how to do it specifically.

The only thing he knew at the moment was that many families and businessmen in the city whose interests had been damaged had been secretly colluding to organize a banquet to invite the temporary mayor and then discuss the market price with him.

If they failed, Marlowe had no idea what to do next, but he didn't think they would get the result they wanted.

Marlowe didn't want to get involved in such things either; it had nothing to do with him.

Rather than this kind of bullshit, he was more concerned about the choices Chris gave him...join the army or go into politics.

Marlowe has learned about night school, Chinese language, Chinese characters, the civil service system and exams. He is confident that he can learn Chinese and Chinese characters in three months, pass the not-so-difficult exam, and become a level 16 civil servant under Chris.

This is the promise the prince made to himself, and he can obtain the rank and position by passing the exam.

Being a civilian seems good, but if he wants to join the army, Chris promised that he can form an infantry regiment based on the garrison regiment. As for whether this infantry regiment is a front-line force or a second-line reserve force, it depends on his ability and performance.

For a moment, Marlowe was in hesitation. His fingers dug deep into the cracks in the bricks of the city wall, and the moss squeezed out a fishy and bitter juice between his nails.

At this moment, he saw some people in the transport team below were wrapped in blood-stained gauze, and some were lying motionless in empty carriages, and he didn't know whether they were dead or asleep.

Marlowe was curious, so he leaned over and shouted.

"Were you attacked?"

The civilians and guards in the convoy all looked up. Among them, a man wearing a badge on his shoulder and riding a mountain horse squinted at Marlowe.

Marlowe was now wearing a gray military uniform that was not much different from the guards'. At most, there were some differences in the patterns, but the overall style of the clothes was the same. Therefore, Roderick mistakenly thought that the people above were also colleagues in the transport team.

"Yes, we were ambushed by some bastards, but we chopped off thirty-two of their heads and earned one hundred and sixty silver dollars for each brother."

"So how many of you died?"

"Only one brother died, and two civilians survived...it's not a loss."

Marlowe looked at the smiles of the transport team's laborers and guards, as well as their strong physiques. He was silent for a moment, and then he figured it out... He wanted to join the army.

(End of this chapter)