Unknown Knight

The next day after breakfast, when the energetic army of Standstill was preparing to launch an attack on the inner city, the army in the city suddenly shouted that they wanted to surrender, but hoped that Aix could agree to several of their conditions.

Axe ignored them and asked James to respond to them by launching two incendiary oil tankers with a catapult, directly burning to death the people shouting in the city. Then he asked someone to tell the people in the city that they had to surrender unconditionally if they wanted to live, otherwise he had plenty of incendiary oil bombs.

This move may seem cruel and callous, but in fact it is a necessary measure for the long-term stability of the territory. Now that they have gained absolute advantage, there is no need to make any compromises. Once they compromise, it will inevitably leave hidden dangers for the territory in the future.

After the shouting, the army of the Standing Castle launched an attack on the city without waiting for a reply. However, just as they put the siege ladders on the top of the city wall, the gates of the inner city were opened, and a group of rebellious soldiers brought out their own master and accepted the unconditional surrender proposed by Aix. This was beyond Aix's expectations.

In fact, all of this is reasonable. The continuous attack of fierce fire oil throughout the night was effective, exceeding the intimidation effect and making the enemies in the inner city completely discouraged. God knows how much of this fierce fire oil Aix has. With this fierce fire oil, the fall of the city is only a matter of time.

The clan leaders at the top of the city are definitely unwilling to surrender, because they know that once they surrender unconditionally, all their past vested interests and status will vanish into thin air, so they are determined not to surrender.

As for the others, they didn't think so. Even their immediate relatives had changed their minds. Many of these clan members were unaware of the clan leaders' plans. At most, they were accomplices under duress and their crimes were not punishable by death. They could be exempted if they surrendered early. They heard that Fort Standstill's policies were very good and they might not be worse off than they are now.

But if they continued to resist as the clan leaders requested, it would be almost the same as sentencing them to death. Once the army of Fort Standstill broke into the city, a bloody massacre would surely be launched, and all those who resisted would die.

As for the weak threats and completely unreliable promises of the several clan leaders, they now seemed so pale and powerless, even stupid and ridiculous.

At this moment, the strong desire to survive resonated in the hearts of all the warriors on the field. They did not need too much discussion. After simply looking at each other, they reached a tacit understanding, and then rushed forward, grabbed the clan leaders who still tried to incite everyone to die, and escorted them to the city gate to surrender.

Aix, who had thought that there would be another big battle, did not expect this situation to happen. According to his understanding, many of the people who retreated to the inner city were direct relatives of these major families. He was prepared to face a fierce battle, but this sudden incident made him at a loss as to how to deal with it for a while.

Fortunately, all the other leaders were present at the scene, so he didn't have to do anything. Someone would come forward to organize the collection of weapons, guarding of prisoners, isolation and interrogation and other matters. After following Aix for so long, everyone was familiar with this routine.

A total of more than 3,700 people were captured in this battle, of which more than 2,000 were direct relatives of the five major families. The remaining more than 1,600 people included indigenous people of small families, mercenaries, and technicians who had set up certain industries in the city. They also had some connection with the five major families and needed to be handled with caution.

Fortunately, Axe's men already had experience in dealing with prisoners, and they were so familiar with the procedures that they could almost compile them into an operating instruction manual, so he didn't need to worry too much. However, there were two people who required his special treatment.

One of them is Ivant, the patriarch of the Harrisi family, the largest family in the city. This man's experience made Aix feel both amused and helpless.

It turned out that as early as after the second attack on Zion was hastily ended, their family was further isolated by other families, so that the elders of the tribe joined forces with Patriarch Sabir, Patriarch Farhad and others from other families to directly overthrow Ivant, the first patriarch of Zion, and imprisoned him in the tribe's prison.

It was not until Aix asked them to surrender unconditionally that the soldiers who had revolted before the war remembered that there was such a person in the city who had a "close relationship" with Aix. So they pushed him back to the forefront, hoping that with the help of this person's favor, the victorious army of Aix would be less lenient when ravaging the people in the city.

Only then did Aix understand why the initial siege was so difficult. It turned out that dozens of elite slingers under Ivant had also joined the battle.

Taking into account the "prestige" of this man who was once the patriarch of the first family in Zion City, Aix decided to let him make use of his remaining energy and publicly appointed him as the chairman of the Zion City Security Maintenance Association. As for why he gave him such a lame title, it was entirely out of Aix's personal bad taste.

Aix also told the maintenance chairman privately that his original property would definitely not be able to be preserved, after all, his clansmen had all participated in the war, but for his sake, some people could be given preferential treatment.

As for him, Aix can reserve 500 acres of spice garden and a large mansion in the inner city for him personally, on the condition that all opposition forces in the city must be dug out and eliminated, otherwise these preferential treatments will be taken back by the territory.

This is a little trick played by Aix. It is the so-called using your money to do my job. I take the benefits and you take the blame. It has always been so easy for the strong to control the weak.

However, for Ivante, although his family originally controlled more than 5,000 acres of spice fields, the family had nearly a thousand direct relatives. Although these fields were nominally family property, they were divided among the tribesmen, and there was not that much property that truly belonged to him as the patriarch.

Now that Aix had given him such great preferential treatment, allowing him to regain a certain status from a prisoner, he must of course seize this opportunity to turn things around. He immediately summoned some of his old subordinates and trusted clansmen, and with Aix's tacit consent, formed a temporary maintenance team of nearly a hundred people.

With someone who knew the whole city well, and relying on these one hundred people, Ivant carried out a thorough cleansing of Zion City. There was no need for the territory to get too much involved. Just relying on this maintenance team, he quickly eliminated the hidden opposition forces in Zion City and took a lot of blame for Aix.

The other person was naturally Aix's old friend Ogbai Rogge. Originally, this guy didn't do these things, and Aix would not treat him unfairly based on the important role he played in the early establishment of the territory.

But who would have thought that after this guy made more money, he became more cunning and bolder, and actually started to target Aix, the big money sponsor.

Now, not only did the money he had earned from Aix go back into Aix's pocket, but all the money he had earned over the years by canceling human lives and withholding slaves' rations also went to Aix. Now even he himself had become Aix's prisoner.