Chapter 938

"I'm very sorry, this is the result of my poor supervision; i... I didn't expect this to happen."

With a heavy sigh, corona frowned and said, "by the time I deal with it, things are beyond the control of the free Parliament."

"It's not your fault, master corona." Loren shook his head and interrupted the old man's remorse. "If the Military Secretary hadn't withdrawn the imperial legion, these mercenaries wouldn't dare to rebel at all; no one could expect such an emergency."

He and corona are alone in the empty free Parliament at the moment.

After hearing that eboden was about to be invaded by overseas enemies, one-third of the nobles had begun to flee, one-third were hiding at home, and the remaining one-third were arranged to fill the vacant posts and positions of the two-thirds, so there was no room for the meeting.

After communicating with corona, Loren finally made things clear.

First, corona, who rushed back to eboden City, issued the mobilization order for the all-round war of Conrad I through the freedom parliament, which caused a frenzy of citizens fleeing, and many rich and noble people fled the city like crazy.

Corona chose acquiescence for a reason similar to Laurent's idea at that time - the probability of eboden being able to hold is too low to drag the whole city to death.

However, this chaos made the three mercenaries in the city see some hope of "making a big fortune".

First, they falsely agreed to the employment conditions of the free parliament, and controlled several key fortresses and urban areas in the name of "maintaining order in the city"; Then, when preparing for the handover, he suddenly sat down and raised the price, doubling the Commission.

Cash, and don't accept credit and substitutes!

At this time, the three mercenary regiments had united and controlled most of the fortresses and urban defense facilities in the city. A very small number of urban defense troops were disarmed and driven out without defense, or turned into corpses in resistance.

That's when things changed.

But it's too late to deal with it.

A large number of businessmen fled and could not take away their shops and goods, but they would certainly take away real gold and silver, or even lose money and sell everything that could be sold; As a result, there are abundant supplies in the warehouses in eboden, but the storage of gold and silver is very small, which is not enough to pay the amount demanded by the mercenaries.

Therefore, although Loren has been comforting corona; But both of them knew that this was the result of corona's misjudgment... At least, he had to bear most of the responsibility.

Corona is a wizard. He is not a politician and businessman like the Bellini family; Even if he became the consul of eboden, he could not change the fact that he was a wizard; This means that when he thinks about a problem, he must first weigh the pros and cons of a thing from the perspective of a wizard.

Therefore, he could not control the mercenaries of eboden like the Bellini family. The direct result was that the uncontrolled mercenaries expanded rapidly and could not be easily contained.

In other words, when the Bellini family, which controls trade and the aristocracy in the city and holds military power, fell, and the leader of the wizard tower became the consul, in a sense, this situation today is doomed.

While they were talking, the door of the parliament hall was opened. Lucian, with a cold face, escorted three people into the hall, surrounded by five demon hunters on both sides.

Three people with different expressions.

One is ferocious, the other is sinister, and the other is smiling, unaware of it.

The three of them sat down on the chairs roughly pressed by Lucian and the demon hunter.

"Well... Can I have a drink?" the smiling mercenary leader pointed behind him and looked curiously at the black haired Wizard: "I was suddenly awakened early in the morning and greeted by this little brother so warmly. I'm really thirsty."

"Yes, but not now." Lauren slightly raised his mouth. "According to Byrne's rules, the negotiating parties can raise a glass only when they shake hands and make peace."

"That's good! That means you're not going to be polite to us; the consul of corona is here, and you mentioned Byrne's rules, so... You're the Duke of Turin of Byrne." giggling, the mercenary leader stared at Lauren:

"Well, according to the rules of the Empire, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is... Hey, forget it. You probably don't want to know the name of a little bastard like me. Just call me 'poisonous snake' - the weakest of the three mercenary regiments. The guys you taught at the gate are my people! Ha ha!"

"The guy next to me, who looks like a bad guy, is the boss of black blade. He also started the trouble this time... Well, I'm not the first one anyway!"

The ferocious "black blade" commander snorted coldly, gnashing his teeth.

"And this one is not easy to provoke at first sight. He is the leader of silver blood. His strength is the strongest among us, and he is also the best of the three of us - anyway, I can't fight!"

The narrowed "silver blood" did not move, and the wolf's eyes stared at Lauren.

After all, the two sides know each other.

"Well, after the polite talk, let's start discussing business." master corona, standing between the two groups, clapped his hands and slowly opened his mouth: "we should all know the purpose of the three here; we emptied the free Parliament today, hoping to reach an agreement privately..."

"We have only one condition."

The "silver blood" sitting in the middle of the three only stared at Loren and said coldly, "let's fight, but we have to pay twice the Commission."

"Otherwise?" asked Loren.

"Otherwise, we will always occupy the port and fortress of eboden, and then give the city to the Azores when they arrive!" the grinning "black blade" stared at the black haired wizard with a fierce expression:

"Either city or money... Duke, please choose one!"

But Loren just shook his head and looked at the three of them strangely.

"I said... You don't think Azores are a very easy race to deal with?"

"Well, even if you succeed in reaching an agreement with them, what's next? Are you going to leave the city or be loyal to the Azores? I've dealt with them. You don't have to think about the latter. It's impossible."

"As for the former... I can guarantee that as long as you leave the front foot, the Legion of the rear foot empire will arrive - even if you don't recapture eboden, the Empire will do its best to eliminate you traitors."

"That's our business. You don't have to worry about us!"

Black blade sneered, "you'd better think about yourself first, Duke - how will your majesty punish you for losing eboden before the elves come?"

"So you're going to fight to the end?"

"Oh, you just found out!"

The surprised black blade smiled and even clapped.

The gray pupil young man standing behind Lauren's face was hard to see. He was going to directly press the bastard to the ground, but he was held down by the black haired wizard.

"Hey, hey... Friends, friends; calm down, everyone calm down!" seeing the increasingly tense atmosphere, the smiling "poisonous snake" quickly stood up and interrupted: "we are here to negotiate, not to quarrel; our purpose is to reach an agreement satisfactory to both sides, isn't it?"

"So please don't rush like this, boss black blade; then... Hey, Duke and Consul, you see."

The poisonous snake twisted his waist, rubbed his hands and smiled awkwardly: "we are a group of small gangsters and big gangsters. It happens that we still have eboden's city defense and the army with the largest number of troops, which are enough to defend all fortresses and walls; and the only thing that can make us big gangsters obedient..."

"Just shiny little gold coins and shiny little silver coins, that's all."

"But there is not so much cash in eboden, and your price is too exaggerated." corona looked at him and said simply, "the most you can pay is the price you agreed at the beginning, or you are willing to use goods."

"I'm sorry, but we're not businessmen; we can only spoil the old people who gave us silk or fine wine." the poisonous snake shook his head, smiled "I'm sorry", and then turned the conversation:

"But... If the distinguished Duke of Byrne is willing to represent his majesty and use his honor as a guarantee to reach an agreement with us to ensure that we can pay our full commission after the war - we big men can accept only half the Commission for the time being."

The voice fell, and the smiling poisonous snake continued to rub his hands, but his eyes stopped on the black haired wizard.

Almost at the same time, the other two mercenary leaders turned their eyes.

Loren, who pressed Lucian to death, was still a serious man.

The other party's ideas are basically the same as what they expected.

To put it simply, the heads of the three mercenary regiments planned to do a "long-term deal" - they knew that eboden could not afford so much money, and they also knew that eboden needed 20000 soldiers in his hands, so they wanted to extort money from his "fat sheep" with the idea of starting from the ground.

If they agree, they will continue to blackmail themselves with various reasons in the next battle;

As long as they refuse once, or the war situation changes, these people may turn against the water at any time, join the army of the Azores, or give up the city and turn the line of fire;

In any case, they have received the first Commission, so this "deal" is absolutely sure to make no loss.

"Sounds like a good idea." facing the expectant eyes of the three mercenaries, Loren smiled:

"... for kidnappers and blackmailers."

Black blade's face was startled, and the blood of silver narrowed his eyes.

Only the poisonous snake, still smiling.

"I can promise you some conditions, but it's not such unilateral blackmail." the black haired wizard said coldly, "don't be wrong. You and your sundries are not so important to me."

"Ah... I don't quite agree with that." the poisonous snake chuckled, "after all... This is a fair negotiation to reach an agreement acceptable to everyone..."

"I said, don't be wrong."

The black haired wizard stared at him and said in a harsh voice word by word: "I'm looking for you, not to compromise with you, but to make you accept my 'agreement'."

"Otherwise?" asked the smiling Viper this time.

"Do you want to lock us up here, or cut off our heads one by one, or use some wizard's magic to control our brains?"

"Although it's inappropriate to say so, it seems that the idea is too simple. It's not us, but you, Duke!"

"Do you think the three of us swaggered in and ran to the wizard's territory without any preparation for the negotiation?" tut tut smiled, and the poisonous snake shook its erect index finger and pointed back:

"Before we came, we had told our men that if we didn't go back within one day, or suddenly the caliber was inconsistent with the previous one, they would still carry out our previous orders; they would never agree unless you took out twice the commission!"

One side of corona heard the speech and instinctively frowned.

But the black haired wizard was not surprised, but showed a very... Confused expression.

"Why?"

"Why... If we don't understand such a simple thing, it will make it difficult for us, Duke." the poisonous snake shrugged helplessly: "that is to say, whether we go back or not, our people will still..."

"No, I mean... Didn't we make an appointment?" Lauren frowned and looked at the poisonous snake with a confused expression: "at this time... Shouldn't you stand up and oppose me?"

Huh?

"What are you talking about? We just met for the first time today, Duke; how can I cooperate with you..."

"Ah! I see!" the dark haired wizard suddenly realized:

"Did the guy I sent back not tell you what I said?"

"What, what?" the poisonous snake chuckled and spread his hands. "If you mean the fool who was scared by you under the city gate, he did tell me exactly what you said... No! He told all of us."

"Everyone?" Lauren's expression was even more strange: "how can this kind of thing be told to everyone? It's necessary to let others know... Even if your people know?"

"Know what?" the black blade nearby couldn't help saying more.

Loren pretended to be a poisonous snake and answered him, "you know I'm with you!"

The voice is falling.

The poisonous snake twitched the corner of his mouth, and his expression

It's on.