Chapter 840 (2/2)

“This is unbefitting of the aristocratic spirit!” said an earl of the central party. Very angrily, he said, “We aristocrats fight for honor. Our honor is our life! There’s no honor to speak of in such a way of fighting!”

“We are all followers of Our God, the Royal Crown (the Goddess of Wealth). Why must we use such cruel means!” said an earl of the local party. He sighed and said, “My dear, Good Horse, just let go of it.”

However, Earl Hauss, who was nicknamed “Good Horse,” had no intention of “letting go of it” at all. He repeatedly stressed the importance of this war and placed special emphasis on the fact that through this war, they had to instill fear in the merchant party. This was the only way they could ensure their safety and stability in the decades to come.

“If we want to scare them, we must make them feel the fear personally. Rather than annihilate one or two armies on the battlefield, why not get a rapid-mobility troop to bypass their central region, kill their civilians, burn down their villages and farmlands, destroy their caravans and production bases… so long as we do this frequently enough, even if the big merchants could hold up, the small and medium merchants will definitely be scared to death. At least for a generation or two, no one would dare to give mention of war!”

Looking at the magic projection of the young earl who was voicing his mind so indiscreetly and asserting himself so eloquently, the other great aristocrats were quite frustrated.

Of course, they had to admit that Earl Hauss made a good point, but no matter how reasonable he was, they still could not get around the two stages of honor and risk.

It was needless to say anything about honor. Something like attacking the civilians would naturally be acceptable if this were to happen once in a while, but taking it on as a career would certainly pose a great hindrance to one’s family reputation. In the future, at the mention of so-and-so family, everyone would just think of, “Oh, that’s the executioner who massacred civilians…” That was simply dreadful. The greatest fear of these aristocrats should be that even their own posterity would stomp their feet and hurl insults in public at the mere mention of at their own ancestors.

The danger was even more direct. Naturally, there was no need to talk much about the risk of going deep into enemy grounds alone without support. Even if they could win every single battle, would the act of slaughtering civilians anger the Goddess of Wealth? Would they be punished if the Goddess of Wealth was angry?

That was for sure! Even if the Goddess of Wealth disdained laying hands on the soldiers, the officers leading the army would surely be in great trouble!

However, Earl Hauss expressed his willingness to lead the troop himself.

At this point in time, everyone choked at his words.

This person here was accepting the greatest danger, shouldering the heaviest responsibility, taking the rap for them all to be the one with the worst reputation. How could they still have the nerve to come up with all sorts of excuses to decline his proposal?

Anyway, they were only providing manpower and money, that was all. Thirteen earls and two marquises—if every one of them were to contribute a little to make up 200 people, it was really nothing difficult at all.

Of course, when such a mission was suspected of carrying a high possibility of death, they would not be sending their loyal men. Instead, they would immediately throw in hefty amounts to hire mercenaries. Those who did not manage to recruit any mercenary because they were a tad slower would send the marginalized people of their families. These were the people whose lives they could sacrifice without feeling any distress.

As for how they should mesh and combine this group of people as one whole entity, and how to lead this group put together to form a “rapid-mobility troop” to go deep into enemy grounds and fight behind enemy lines, that was the job of the young earl. This young earl had taken over the earl’s scepter from his late father just three years ago.

Before him, everyone showed Earl Hauss that they had high hopes for him. But behind his back, not a single great aristocrat was optimistic about his crazy plan.

One of the leaders of the central aristocratic party, the Marquis of Gemstones, Sachs Yug, had once complained to his father, who was living in semi-reclusion because of old age, that this teammate of his was honestly very unreliable. With such a pigheaded teammate hindering them from advancing, he felt that he should seriously consider the matter of whether he should change his profession and join the merchant party instead…