The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Lena, who was traveling with the army to the valley, finally realized what was happening halfway there and hurriedly led her personal guards to the valley ahead of time.

When Lena entered the city and overheard the remaining residents of the valley discussing something, she knew she was too late.

The city gates of the inner city are now covered in blood, all of which is the blood of Lena's three uncles and their immediate family, including many of Doug's henchmen.

The remaining group of nobles dared not return home and huddled together in the makeshift camp that Linde had set up for them.

The other Lars members who had remained in Doug's territory were on edge, fearing that Lind, the nominal and de facto head of the Lars family, might displease them and stab them in the back.

At least in the memory of these remaining members, Linde was indeed like that. After all, Linde did not follow the previous rules of the nobility when killing these nobles. There was no need for multiple trials, stripping of honor, repeated entanglements, or deciding whether to kill based on the other party's sincerity.

Instead, they would grab the criminals and drag them onto the stage, where the bards would announce their crimes, and then the executioner's blade would fall immediately. The key was speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness.

Pulling or tugging? Not at all.

Although Linde clearly killed Doug's direct relatives and henchmen, the nobles were filled with fear and unease as he killed several Lars nobles in a single day.

As soon as they saw Lena arrive, the Lars nobles who knew her immediately knelt down and crawled up to her, crying and begging her to save them.

Seeing the dried bloodstains on the ground, Lena knew that Lind had killed most of them, and some soldiers had even begun to clean up the bloodstains.

Actually, Lena didn't initially intend to forgive these uncles who killed her grandfather, but she also didn't think of killing them cleanly and decisively like Linde did, or even killing their entire direct family.

"Young lady, no, madam, please save us! The governor is in a bloodthirsty frenzy. Only you can help us now. Please!"

The remaining Lars surrounded Lena, showing absolutely no aristocratic manners or dignity; they were practically kneeling down to kiss Lena's boots.

Those who had previously criticized Lena within the family, in particular, now wished they could kowtow to her twice.

When the other nobles in the distance heard that Lena had arrived, they also joined the kneeling procession. In an instant, the entrance to the inner city was filled with cries of agony and pleas for forgiveness.

This was the first time Lena had encountered such a situation. Although her guards had done their duty by keeping a distance between the nobles and Lena, she was still somewhat flustered by the obsequiousness of so many people.

At this moment, many of the surviving residents also came over to watch the disgraceful behavior of these nobles.

Within just a few days, order was restored in the valley. The residents of the valley were already extremely grateful that Lin De only stopped collecting taxes, not to mention that Lin De had also issued a notice that he planned to arrange jobs for the remaining people here.

Now, the residents of the valley are even in the mood to come out and enjoy the melons.

Looking at the nobles kneeling and begging for mercy, Lena didn't realize that this was specially reserved for her by Lind, but she still stepped forward to help up the oldest nobleman, Lars.

The remaining Lars nobles were mostly people with little influence, who wouldn't even have the ability to be Doug's lackeys, and who hadn't done anything particularly heinous. They were, in a sense, actors handpicked by Lind.

This elderly nobleman from Lars had lived for so long and was quite shrewd. When he saw Lena arrive, the elder immediately remembered that Linde had spared his family and arranged for him to be placed on the outermost side of all the nobles, a convenient spot to kneel directly in front of Lena.

At that time, Linde specifically asked if he knew Lena. After confirming that old Lars' eyesight was good enough to recognize Lena, he had a detailed discussion with old Lars about how to deal with these nobles.

This could be considered an explicit indication, so when Lena appeared, old Lars was the first to kneel down before her.

Some parts were acted, but most of it was genuine emotion.

Seeing that Lena had helped him up, the old Lars immediately stood up as well, and began to read out his and his family's crimes with tears streaming down his face, begging for Lena's forgiveness. He also declared that he was willing to donate all the family's assets and voluntarily give up all power, leaving everything to the governor's discretion.

They even went over the specific terms and conditions as if they had already discussed them, and were just waiting for Lena to nod in agreement.

Although everything seemed to be arranged, Lena did not notice anything amiss. She said to old Lars, "Don't worry, everyone. I will try to persuade Lind. The Lars family has just gone through a civil war and still needs your help in many ways."

"But you all helped my uncle do a lot of bad things before. I hope that you can repent and treat the people kindly in the future. If you can do this, I can ask Linde to plead for you and I will definitely not make things difficult for you."

Upon hearing Lena's assurance, old Lars continued his acting spree, crying even louder, and declared that he would set a good example from now on, and that he would be the first to chop down anyone who dared to mistreat the people. Then he began to sing Lena's praises.

The other nobles followed suit and began to pledge to give up all their property and power to help the governor rebuild the valley.

Of course, in reality, the property of these nobles had already been confiscated by Linde, but since the governor had given them this way out, these nobles were sure to take the opportunity to back down, pretending to sincerely repent in front of Lena.

Besides, although everyone understood that this was an act, only Lena could truly save their lives. They had no choice but to be sincere. At least with Lena's protection, it meant that the governor had killed enough. As long as the remaining people obediently followed orders, they wouldn't be pursued too much.

For a moment, even the onlookers couldn't help but cheer. Although the new governor had killed batch after batch of nobles, which was quite satisfying, he had killed too many, most of whom were nominally his own relatives, which inevitably made people a little scared. The governor's wife, on the other hand, was obviously much more gentle.

After appeasing the nobles, Lena finally entered the inner city. Lind did not go directly to the castle, but instead set up a tent in the main square of the inner city.

Most of the nobles' mansions in the inner city were being raided, and the castle was being renovated. Moreover, Linde never felt comfortable living in these nobles' houses. In the end, the military tent was the one that gave Linde the most peace of mind.

Lena entered the tent and her first question was, "Where are my uncles?"

"All dead."

Lind, who was working on some documents, stopped what he was doing when he saw Lena come in and replied.

Although she had already guessed it, Lena's expression was complicated. Lena had once wanted to kill these three uncles with her own hands, but when she actually received the news of their deaths, she was stunned. After all, many of the three uncles' direct relatives and the nobles who had sided with Doug were also loyal to Lars. Lena originally wanted to protect some people.

After all, hysterical Doug might be capable of killing his own family, but Lena felt that Lind could have handled it more gently. After all, everything was over now, and even if Doug were still alive, he wouldn't be able to cause any trouble.

Linde, however, chose a different approach: to bear all the infamy and pressure of killing his own family. After all, although Linde was the patriarch of Lars, he was essentially Lars' son-in-law, so he could say he had no psychological burden in killing Lars.

Lena knew that these things had to be done by someone, but she still held the simplest belief that such things should be shared by the couple.

However, Lena quickly came to her senses. After all, Lena realized that she was not good at such roundabout things, and Linde must have had his own reasons for doing so.

Having calmed down, Lena sat down next to Linde and said, "The battle merit statistics are basically finished. We can find a day to distribute the soldiers' pay and rewards."

"There are also many pensions."

After saying that, Lena took out the military merit report she had compiled from her pocket.

"No rush. We can first confiscate the assets of the nobles here, and then use those assets to distribute pensions and rewards."

Linde was somewhat surprised that Lena recovered so quickly, but when he heard Lena's somber voice when she talked about the compensation, he realized that the fallen soldiers were probably more painful for her.

Perhaps Lena never needed me to help her generate publicity.