Chapter 260 A God-given Opportunity.
The Harland territory has developed over the years, especially after the elementary school was opened, and some talents have finally been cultivated.
Now there are three primary schools in the territory, with nearly 2,000 children attending school.
According to the statistics of Haaland Territory, there are currently about 80,000 people under the age of 16, about 2,000 people receiving education, and the literacy rate has exceeded 5%.
When these children grow up and become the backbone of society, the quality of the population in Harland Territory will be greatly improved, and the level of development may be better than that of the most developed southwestern magical countries in the Dawn Plane.
Just as the members of the Harland family gathered in Black River Castle to celebrate the birthday of the goddess, Linus Castle, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Stanik, was about to usher in a palace coup.
In this year's orc invasion battle, the Grand Duchy of Stanik suffered heavy casualties. James of the Kingdom even came to the front line to participate in the battle against the orcs.
King James is a seventh-level Silver Knight and is sixty-nine years old.
Although he was still in very good health this spring, it looked like he could live for another thirty or twenty years. As a result, in the spring and summer, Laoxin participated in a difficult war and was severely wounded by the orc shaman. In the winter, he finally couldn't stand it anymore and passed away in Linus's court in late December.
Because of the internal power struggle, the Kingdom of James abandoned the heir thirteen years ago, gouged out the eyes of the eldest prince, and forced him into a monastery.
Perhaps due to his old age and sensitive heart, King James did not establish a clear heir after deposing the eldest prince.
The kingdom has no clear heir, and the Linus family is not unified.
The old king died of illness, and the heir to the throne was not properly dealt with. Many powerful members of the Linus family had their ambitions expanded to the extreme, and began to covet the throne and take the lead in the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
They formed gangs everywhere and promised rich salaries to high-ranking officials. Before the birthday of the goddess, there were even vicious cases of assassination in the street.
The sensitive situation has turned Linus Castle into a powder keg, with the risk of losing control at any time. Some smart people smelled the danger and avoided Linus Castle to avoid danger.
According to common sense, the eldest prince lost his eyes and was sent to a monastery. It was the second prince's turn to take the position of grand duke.
But the second prince is a man of mediocre ability. Although he really wants to inherit the throne, he does not receive widespread support from Linus family members. Although he dances happily, even his own son does not support him. In fact, he is very far away from the throne. Far.
The third prince is indeed a talented man, but unfortunately he was seriously injured in a battle with the orcs in his early years. Now he is barely alive, and it is very difficult for him to move around.
The fourth prince had the loudest voice, but the fourth prince Baldwin was not at Linus Castle, but served as the defense commander on the northern front.
After the fourth prince, the sixth prince Soraman has the highest prestige.
Soraman has been an officer in the Royal Guards since he came of age, and is now the commander of the Guards Corps. He gained the old king's trust very much, and he always behaved in a non-competitive manner. But after King James died of illness, Soraman's position became the most critical.
Soraman publicly issued a very influential political declaration three days ago, and now he is the most popular candidate to compete for the throne.
In addition, among the members of the royal family of Grand Duke Stanek, there is another very key person. This person is Haldane, the younger brother of King James.
Haldane is the new hereditary Duke of the Grand Duchy of Stanik and a legendary knight. He has served as the commander of the Border Legion for many years. Not only does he have great influence on the Border Guards, he also has an elite Warcraft Cavalry in his hands.
The reason why James asked the most capable fourth prince to serve as a commander in the border guard army was actually because he wanted to limit the influence of his uncle Haldane.
When King James was still here, Haldane worked well with King James, and the family basically lived in Lynas Castle. Even though Haldane was promoted to hereditary duke and had a large territory, his descendants were accustomed to everything in Linus Castle and basically did not move.
Currently, there are three most influential members of the Linus family, and there are also many careerists among them.
On the eve of the goddess's birthday, Soraman summoned his cronies to the mansion. He threw out several letters angrily and reprimanded: "This afternoon, our people intercepted several messengers and found a batch of letters. These letters were almost They are all from important members of the royal family, some are my uncles, some are my nephews, and some are my brothers. The letters are sent to Baldwin and Haldane, and the meaning of the letters is to support them as eunuchs. You are
my It is time for the old subordinates to unite their opinions. Are you willing to support me as the Grand Duke?"
After hearing this, everyone replied: "Of course we are willing to support the Sixth Prince, but we only rely on the power we have, in the Royal Guards. Neither of them has an advantage. Without the support of the Royal Guards, it is difficult to secure the throne." "
Of course I know this. The main opponent of me among the Royal Guards is Evanson. As long as I can deal with Evanson, Most of the rest are centrists, and it doesn't matter who is the Grand Duke. After seizing the throne, we will reward a batch of gold coins, and we can bribe most of the officers and soldiers. The family members of the Royal Guards are mainly in Linus Castle, and control the castle. The guards have no choice but to follow us."
"Evanson himself is a ninth-level epic knight with hundreds of guards around him. With just a few of us, we may not have a chance of winning?" The speaker was Soraman. The brother-in-law is also a fifth-level knight and serves as the captain of the Royal Guards. Such a status is naturally hardcore.
Soraman said confidently: "Evanson's wife is a believer in the Goddess of the Dawn, and their family has always had the habit of celebrating the goddess's birthday. According to the information sent by the insider, Evanson has taken leave to go home today, and there are only ten people around him. A few guards are the best time to take action."
"Since the Sixth Prince has made up his mind, we must follow the Sixth Prince."
Soraman's cronies are very smart, and as soon as they heard the meaning of his words, they understood Soraman Raman thought of something unexpected and launched a military coup.
Although some people were uneasy, these noble officers all knew a little bit about history, and they knew in their hearts that since they had boarded Soraman's pirate ship, they could not raise objections at this time.
Who dares to hesitate at this critical moment, Soraman will definitely kill him, and even his parents and relatives will hardly be spared.
Now that Soraman has made up his mind, they can only bite the bullet and follow Soraman's path until the end.
The attitude of most members of the Royal Guards is actually neutral. Because he was always being watched by the old King James, Soraman did not dare to attract people's hearts on a large scale, and he did not have many direct lineage backbones.
If he is popular among the royal guards, there is no need to launch a palace coup.
The total central regular army of the Grand Duchy of Stanek totals 100,000, including 40,000 border guards and approximately 60,000 royal guards.
The 60,000 Royal Guards are divided into two infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment. In addition, there are three thousand Warcraft Cavalry.
In order to defend against the orcs, King James sent a large number of royal guards to the front line this year. There are about 800 Warcraft cavalry and 20,000 infantry.
In today's Grand Duchy of Stanik, Prince Baldwin has the largest number of troops, with a total number of more than 60,000.
But among the border troops there were also a large number of officers appointed by Haldane. Haldane served in the Border Guards for many years, promoted countless officers, and was a legendary knight himself, with more influence than Baldwin.
Baldwin could really command an army, the total number of which did not exceed 30,000.
Although Haldane returned to his own territory and only had a private army of 10,000 nobles, he had raised 1,600 Warcraft Cavalry. Coupled with his influence in the army, his strength was stronger than Baldwin's.
On the contrary, Soraman of the Royal Capital is slightly inferior in terms of influence and strength.
Although Soraman is average in strength, he likes to read various hero biographies and sum up experience from history. He knows that the core element of palace coups and military coups is surprise.
To carry out this kind of coup, you don't need too many manpower. One or two hundred elite soldiers are enough. If there are too many people participating in a coup, it will be difficult to keep the information secret. Once the information is leaked and the enemy is on guard, it will be difficult for the coup to succeed.
Soraman has hundreds of elites in his hands. A coup is not difficult. The key is how to create momentum and how to create a fait accompli?
The tense atmosphere in Linus Castle has lasted for seven or eight days now, especially after the assassination in the street the day before yesterday. Everyone is on guard and is not suitable for a military coup.
But Soraman is the weakest. If he cannot be caught by surprise, it will be difficult for him to have a chance to compete for inheritance rights.
I have been patiently waiting for this day for many years.
Soraman is never willing to give up an opportunity. He is not a person who takes the overall situation into consideration.
Even if there is a high chance of failure, Soraman will still struggle desperately to win the last chance.
Even if the Grand Duchy of Stanik is messed up? As a result, the Linus family lost their throne and the entire ancestral lineage was wiped out. Soraman would not hesitate to launch a coup.
As an extremely selfish person, he only thinks from his own point of view. As long as there is a chance to take over the power, he will firmly grasp it, even if it blocks everything.
Soraman took an oath with his cronies, and then directly led troops to surround Evanson's mansion.
Seeing this scene, Evanson's face changed drastically and he cursed fiercely: "Soraman, what are you going to do? If you take the lead in breaking the rules, you will become a sinner of the Linus family, and you will not be able to go to heaven after you die. I advise you to immediately When you wake up, go to the monastery immediately and admit your crimes, so that you can save your wife and children." "
My wife will become a queen, and my son will become a prince, but your whole family will be burned to death because of the fire. Today I He is the winner, the rules are set by the winner, and history will be written by the winner." Soraman sneered and directed the soldiers to shoot rockets.
Evanson is a distant member of the Linus family. He is a powerful ninth-level epic knight. He is not far from the legend. Soraman is only a sixth-level knight. Fighting alone is far from Evanson's. opponent. The troops commanded by the two of them were also Evanson's more elite cavalry.
However, due to mental arithmetic or not, Soraman was followed by hundreds of soldiers. Among them, there are no less than thirty middle-level professionals. However, Evans's guards only have a dozen people, and the professionals only have two officers. With such a disparity in power, Soraman and others worked together and successfully killed Evanson after paying a certain price.
After Evanson's death, the house was burned by fire all night. Dozens of members of the family, young and old, were all burned to death by the fire. The
biggest opponents of the Royal Guards were cut off, and they kidnapped some Royal Guards members on the way. , controlling important places such as the palace, treasury, and armory.
Early the next morning, with the support of his cronies, Soraman forged an edict of succession from the old King James and ascended the throne openly.
In order to avoid provoking crusade, he also divided officials and rewards on a large scale. The first one to be rewarded was the fourth prince Baldwin. He made Baldwin a hereditary duke, and then used a large area of northern territory to serve as a fief for Baldwin. He also imprisoned Haldane's relatives in the royal capital and wrote a letter, which implicitly meant threatening Haldane with the lives of his relatives.
Soraman's control of Linus Castle went very smoothly.
Although some of the Janissaries were dissatisfied with Soraman, unfortunately no one organized to resist Soraman's rule. The vast majority of officers and soldiers are centrists. No matter who is the king, as long as he can pay them, he will be their commander.
Even if he controls Linus Castle, Soraman's rule is very weak.
Especially the local nobles believed that Soraman had destroyed tradition and launched a palace coup. Most of them were dissatisfied with Soraman.
Baldwin and Haldane, in particular, immediately raised their troops after receiving the news and immediately swore to attack Soraman.
The battle for the throne that took place in the Kingdom of Grant almost happened again in the Grand Duchy of Stanek.
The Birthday of the Goddess had just passed, and the Grand Duchy of Stanik was in chaos.
Civil strife broke out in the territory. It originally had little to do with the Kingdom of Grant, but the Jonathan family had a special status and was the former owner of the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
Until now, the strength of the Jonathan family hidden in the Grand Duchy of Stanik has still survived to some extent despite repeated attacks.
After the civil strife broke out in the Venus family, many nobles from the Grand Duchy of Stanek soon came to the Grant Kingdom, hoping that Duke Jonathan could bring order to the chaos and preside over the situation.
More than a hundred years after losing the country, despite opening up the situation in the Grant Kingdom, the Jonathan family has always had the desire to return to the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
Seeing that a once-in-a-century opportunity had arrived, Duke Jonathan was immediately inspired and began full-scale mobilization.
But if you want to fight for the throne in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, you must have the support of the Grant Kingdom.
Without the full support of the Grant Kingdom and going to war with the Linus family, the Jonathan family would have no chance of winning.
If civil strife had not broken out in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, the Linus family would have been significantly stronger.
The Linus family controls the central army of 100,000 people, and can also influence 40,000 noble private troops to fight with them. The main strength of the Jonathan family is only three legions and 60,000 people, and the number of Warcraft cavalry is also less than half.
Now that the Linus family has divided into three forces and has become one, it is a godsend for the Jonathan family.
After receiving the news, Duke Jonathan sent a messenger to Nolan to negotiate terms with King Roger.
(End of chapter)