The Great Purge

All in all, Reiner was quite satisfied with what he'd gained. It didn't matter that he couldn't understand The Wealth of Nations; the System had materialized an incredibly powerful buff for him, one Reiner felt was far stronger than the book itself.

Pleased, he put The Wealth of Nations away and started looking through the other books. To his disappointment, however, none of them gave him another buff like The Wealth of Nations had. Most were knightly romances or epic poems recounting history.

Reiner casually flipped through them for a while before Sir Valas knocked on Baron Lobean's study door.

"My Lord Baron, the soldiers have assembled. All the prisoners are locked in Goer Castle's dungeon, guarded by two soldiers. We're free now, and their morale is very high!"

Reiner nodded and said, "Good. Our next task is to clear out the gentry and branch families loyal to the Gwen Family. All elements unfavorable to my rule must be eliminated. I plan to divide the troops into three contingents: I'll lead one, you'll lead one, and Sir Cord will lead the third. You must restrain the soldiers and forbid them from acting wantonly in the villages!"

"Yes, my Lord. The soldiers are ready! I will restrain them!"

"Hmm, remember this: I can allow them to act as they wish within Goer Castle, but if they continue to do so in the villages below, I will have to punish them. I want the residents of Goer Castle to accept my rule wholeheartedly and support me. They cannot continue to burn, kill, and plunder!"

"You must also convey my words to Sir Cord so he understands my intentions!"

"Yes, my Lord, I will go tell him now!"

After Sir Valas left, Reiner scanned Baron Lobean's study. Once he confirmed he hadn't missed anything, he exited the room and headed towards the castle hall.

The castle was now completely under Reiner's control. Baron Lobean's subordinates had mostly been taken by him to ambush Morland Castle. The few who remained had either been killed or captured by soldiers during the siege or after the castle fell.

Reiner entered the hall and saw nearly sixty soldiers standing in a small, neat formation. While not perfectly aligned, it at least resembled an army.

"Soldiers! I now want you to purge the remnants and supporters of the Gwen Family for me! You must clear them out of every village. After you clear them out, you will receive thirty percent of the spoils of war!"

"However, I must make one thing clear: aside from the Gwen Family remnants, I absolutely forbid you from acting as you did in Goer Castle. They will be your fellow villagers, my subjects, from now on. If I discover anyone doing so, eighty lashes await you! Understand?"

"Yes, my Lord!"

The soldiers shouted in unison.

"Excellent, then go! Go find your spoils of war! Clear out all the Gwen Family members for me! Depart now!"

And so, with twenty archers left to garrison the castle, the Morland Family's melee infantry and knights split into three groups and began sweeping through Goer Castle's subordinate villages.

Goer Castle had eighteen subordinate villages, which could be divided equally, with each team responsible for six villages. It was estimated that the cleansing would be completed within three or four days, after which Reiner could completely control Goer Castle.

At this moment, Reiner rode on the warhorse the System had given him, slowly traversing the country roads around Goer Castle. The residents of these eighteen villages had not gathered within Goer Castle. Morland Castle itself stood to the north of Goer Castle, and few Krad People raided Goer Castle, so Baron Lobean had not moved the residents into the castle.

Relocating to the castle was a desperate measure for Northern Territory lords. A barony with thousands of people, all trying to hide in a castle designed for only a few hundred, would mean not only people but also their valuables and food would have to crowd inside, making the entire castle incredibly congested.

Baron Lobean was unwilling to live like that, squeezed together with all those people for an entire winter, so he chose to let the residents remain in their villages.

If it hadn't been for this, Reiner would have had a much harder time breaking into Goer Castle. If thousands more people had been inside the castle, there would have been at least seven or eight hundred adult males. Even if they were a disorganized rabble, they certainly wouldn't have been defeated by the Morland Army, which numbered only a few dozen.

The fact that the residents had not gathered in the castle gave Reiner an opportunity, allowing him to dispatch his army to clear out the enemy's remaining forces separately.

"My Lord Baron, Red Fruit Village is just one kilometer ahead!" a Crimson Gryphon Knight said to Reiner, looking at the map in his hand.

Behind him followed over a dozen soldiers, along with two other Crimson Gryphon Knights and three Morland Knights. This was not a small force; it was enough to slaughter an entire village, let alone merely clear out a few remaining Gwen Family members.

The country roads were no longer visible under the snow, buried completely beneath it. Only when spring arrived and the sun regained its dominance would the snow melt and allow them to resume their function.

Traveling through the snow was extremely difficult and slow; they had covered less than a kilometer but had walked for nearly an hour.

"Oh God, run! Get out of here!" As they approached Red Fruit Village, some villagers searching for food in the snow around the village spotted them and shouted, fleeing from the area.

For people of this era, armies were more terrifying than bandits. Their own lord's army was considerably better, but encountering another lord's army while in a hostile state usually led to a tragic end.

To use a phrase from his previous life in the Heavenly Dynasty, "bandits comb through, soldiers rake through." They were far more effective at killing people and stealing things than mere bandits.

"My Lord Baron, should we deal with them here to prevent them from warning the village?" a Morland Knight asked Reiner, standing beside him. It was clear they didn't value the lives of these low-ranking serfs and could easily take them.

Reiner, however, didn't think that way. He valued these serfs quite a bit, not only because of the worldview shaped by his education in his previous life, but also because he knew that a lord's most important assets were not their army or wealth, but rather their controllable population and grain. These two things were what a lord truly needed to develop and focus on.

"No, we don't need to worry about them. Even if the villagers try to resist, we have nothing to fear. One charge from you will rout them, and besides, they don't have that kind of courage!" Reiner waved his hand, stating with certainty.

The knight nodded in understanding after hearing Reiner's words. It was unclear whether he truly grasped Reiner's meaning or simply surrendered due to Reiner's status.