Chapter 499: Raise the Flag First
Just like what Aaron said, Jian Yuan launched his arrest operation the moment he received the list.
Moreover, the list in his hand was provided as soon as the confession came out.
There are only detailed names and identities on it, and it does not indicate which people are more suspected and which people are just implicated.
Xu Lai's latest instructions were quickly delivered to Jian Yuan.
However, he acted too quickly and called Ed, Silver Wing and other knights on Pegasus, and each led their own teams to arrest all the suspects.
Xu Lai somewhat underestimated his own weight in the hearts of people like Jian Yuan.
Xu Lai saved the elves like Ed and Silver Wing and even offered to help them upgrade. However, they were only willing to serve Xu Lai for a period of time.
Although Ed and Yinyi were also very angry when they were assassinated, their responsibility was not to protect Xu Lai. At most, they felt like their benefactor was assassinated.
However, Jian Yuan and Yan Feng are different.
The reason why they awakened their souls came entirely from the gift of Xu Lai.
Just from their loyalty attribute of 100 points, it can be seen that Xu Lai is more important than their lives at any time.
Therefore, as soon as they got the list, Jian Yuan and the others rushed into the major caravans and directly asked the captains of the caravans for their names.
I don’t know if it’s because of today’s assassination incident, but there are a lot of caravans wanting to leave today. There are seven or eight caravans of all sizes combined.
Most of the lists in the confessions are true, even if a few are only implicated, such as businessmen selling weapons.
But they themselves are not very clean. It is still such a sensitive time to buy military crossbows in the city and deliberately use explosive crossbow arrows that have been remade by alchemists.
To say that these businessmen really don’t know what these guys want to do is nonsense.
Xu Lai chose to endure for the sake of Qingfeng City’s hard-working business atmosphere.
But after he learned the latest news, he simply changed his previous decision and asked Jian Yuan and the others to continue following the list and catch everyone without missing a beat.
If you catch the wrong person, the worst possible thing is to give him some compensation, an apology or something.
If you catch the right person, pull out the carrot and bring out the mud, follow these merchants, and find out.
The fact that there are so many spies in Qingfeng City must be related to these merchants.
As for how much harm Qingfeng City's violent behavior will bring to these businessmen, and how much impact it will have on Qingfeng City's business environment, that is something to be considered in the future.
Besides, the bustle in the world is all for benefit; the bustling world is all for benefit.
The price offered by Qingfeng City is much higher than the market price. Xu Lai really doesn't believe it. Will these businessmen let go of the profits they get?
Even if they don't want it, there will still be merchants from other places who want it, unless there is another force on the grassland that can completely block all trade routes.
If it were the former Earl of Aini, it might still be possible, but at least we would have to unite with the horse thieves and block it covertly and covertly.
Now, Count Aini has no time to take care of himself. Several of the largest horse thieves forces on the grassland have been collected and eliminated by Xu Lai.
If he is cruel and calls out Bello again, let him start the horse thief business again.
Then, they were specifically asked to rob the caravans in Earl Aini's territory. At that time, it was these merchants and Aini who had a headache.
Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night for many people. Until the next morning, the entire Qingfeng City is brightly lit.
The space in the prison is no longer sufficient.
Early in the morning, Elena led a group of temple priests and pulled out a batch of corpses from the prison.
These corpses were those that Xu Lai promised to let them die painlessly, and they were also the first ones to reveal their confessions.
In addition to painless death, Xu Lai also entrusted Elena to purify them so that they would not become undead and come out to harm others.
However, after this batch of corpses were pulled out, another team of people came immediately.
These people are all subordinates of the Jian Yuan Investigation Team, basically from Green Forest Town, mercenaries who were rescued by Xu Lai.
These people poured into the prison and dragged all the assassins who had been tortured to death yesterday out of the city.
For these people, the misdemeanor prisoners in the prison were released early. Now after these people left, the entire prison was empty again.
Of course, it did not remain vacant for too long, and a new batch of people were sent in.
There are merchants, mercenaries, and even mages and heroes here.
The reason why it was delayed until this morning is because in the middle of the night yesterday, many people were unwilling to be arrested and staged a fierce resistance.
Fortunately at this time, although Xu Lai had taken off all his weapons, he was spending an equally unforgettable night.
But within the scope of Qingfeng City, all soldiers can enjoy the bonus brought by the Golden Statue of the God of War. Xu Lai's specialization is still in effect.
At most, there is no effect from the Angel Alliance. Even the sacred blood bottle is still in effect.
Needless to say, even those who ran fast when they saw an opportunity were all captured by Yan Feng and his cavalry team.
After being captured, Jian Yuan asked Aaron to coordinate again. After finding that he couldn't move away, he simply asked Xu Lai for instructions.
Xu Lai exhausted a lot of energy last night, so he had a rare sleep today.
Qingmeng was disturbed, and Xu Lai had no choice but to give the order directly after hearing about the battle last night. Anyone who resisted last night, no matter what the reason, was pulled outside the city gate and executed directly together with the group of people in the prison.
Those who resist and injure the captors will not only be executed, but the caravan they belong to must also pay compensation to Qingfeng City and the injured.
After killing this group of people, the prison was so crowded that we could fit in. As for being uncomfortable in there, there was nothing we could do about it.
After getting up, Xu Lai did not go to the outside of the city to pay homage. There was nothing interesting about the bloody beheading scene.
But the civilians in Qingfeng City like to watch it.
And because there were heroes among the dead, there were many heroes who came to watch.
After some people read it, they silently chose to leave.
They also inquired and found out that those heroes were killed for resisting arrest.
As for the reason for resisting arrest, it was simply because he owed Aini a loan shark and agreed to help him find out the information.
If this were the case, Xu Lai would definitely not kill them as long as they confessed honestly after they were caught.
But not only did they not tell the truth, they also resisted arrest. They also relied on themselves as heroes and were more or less protected by recruited soldiers, and the scale of the trouble was relatively large.
This had a very bad impact. If they didn't set an example, where would Xu Lai's face be?
After killing these people, Xu Lai and Aini were completely separated.
Because at the execution ground, Aaron, the temporary prison officer who replaced Xu Lai, announced to all the residents of Qingfeng City present what they had committed.
Although Xu Lai is still following the imperial legal system, he still wants to slowly integrate some modern legal concepts.
First of all, it is to inform others about what they do that will violate the law and what punishment they will receive.
As the saying goes, if you punish someone without teaching, then the punishment will be complicated and the evil will be overwhelming.
It means that if people kill people without education, no matter how many punishments are imposed, they will not be able to suppress unhealthy tendencies.
However, even if Aaron wants to announce it, he only needs to choose a specific reason to announce it.
For example, which people were killed for assassinating Xu Lai, and which people were killed for resisting arrest and wounding others.
However, Aaron directly told the ins and outs of the incident. Not only did he tell the ins and outs, he also published the confessions signed by these people.
Although in terms of criminal law, such confessions obtained through torture are ineffective.
But ordinary civilians don’t care about this.
What's more, even if Aaron doesn't announce it, everyone has already speculated on Aini.
So, when Aaron announced Aini, the commander behind it, the crowd immediately became furious, and everyone clamored to seek revenge against Aini.
Such a major event would be impossible without Xu Lai’s approval.
Yes, the Xu Lai military parade has been held, and the army has begun recruitment and reorganization.
He couldn't wait any longer. Regardless of whether the noble council or the temple announced it or not, Xu Lai was determined to kill Aini.
If you don’t kill this guy, he will keep hiring killers and assassins, and keep thinking of ways to kill Xu Lai.
If he succeeds one day, Xu Lai will regret it.
But he can't wait to return. If he really wants to take action, his reputation will not be good, and his basic favorability may be lowered.
After all, even if we throw away the superiors and subordinates in the aristocratic constitution, everyone is the hero of the imperial camp and is a theoretical natural ally.
So, even if Xu Lai wants to send troops, he still needs to have a name.
He originally wanted to wait for the temple or the noble council to give him this name. In any case, the identities of these two institutions lie there.
One sentence from them is more effective than ten thousand words from Xu Lai.
But it seemed that Xu Lai couldn't count on them anymore, and Aini just gave him another perfect excuse.
It was you, Aini, who was unkind in the first place, so you can't blame Xu Lai, who was unjust in the end.
The only thing Xu Lai is unsure about now is whether this so-called name can control the decline in basic favorability.
Even if he can't control it, Xu Lai is still going to do it. The worst he can do is not engage in diplomacy with human armies in the future.
No, even if his favorability drops to zero, Xu Lai can still intimidate others to join him.
Since Xu Lai can bear the price, what needs to be done must be done first.
First of all, the momentum must be built up, and Qingfeng City cannot just enjoy itself alone, but must also find a way to spread the news that Aini assassinated his nobles and colluded with the orcs to other cities as much as possible.
Public opinion, the more people know it, is the basis of public opinion.
The second thing is to seize the time to prepare. Xu Lai not only wants to defeat Aini head-on, Xu Lai is also very interested in Aini's territories.
Therefore, he also needs a sufficient number of troops and auxiliaries to prepare for occupying Count Aini's territory.
(End of this chapter)