Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
“This…”
Hearing Chen Heng’s words, Kelly instinctively frowned, “Everything?”
“That’s right, everything.”
Chen Heng nodded, not hiding what he was thinking, “Kelly, I know what you’re thinking—the various families’ military forces are their final hopes.
“However, now that things have come to this, I will not allow anything unexpected to happen. Otherwise, something like what happened today might happen again.”
Hearing this, Kelly understood.
Under the current circumstances, allowing the various families to wield power was extremely dangerous.
Today, Kelly could betray Mader and help Chen Heng open the city gates, but in the future, others might do the same thing to him.
Even though Chen Heng had many friends and connections, the rebel army had connections too.
If they did not control the situation, what had happened today could repeat itself.
“I can promise to you,” Chen Heng looked at Kelly and said seriously, “After all of this is over and the rebel army has been pacified, the Kerma territory will be yours. The other noble families will also be rewarded.”
“Are you serious?”
Hearing Chen Heng’s words, Kelly’s expression changed and his heart leapt.
The Kerma territory was quite a famous place in the Kutu Principality. It was a prosperous area with a large population, and it was one of the royal family’s core territories.
For Chen Heng to be willing to give this out, it was incredibly generous.
For Kelly’s family, in order to obtain a territory like this, they would be willing to pay a massive price.
However, there was a big problem standing before them.
“But the Kerma territory belongs to the royal family…”
Looking at Chen Heng, Kelly’s expression was somewhat confused.
If they defeated the rebels, the southern territories that belonged to them would naturally fall to Chen Heng.
After all, the victor taking everything was a rule established since ancient times.
However, the Kerma territory belonged to the royal family. As such, there was an issue in wanting to give this to someone else.
“If I help the royal family settle the rebellion, I’m sure I’ll be able to obtain abundant rewards, right?” Chen Heng smiled as he looked at Kelly.
“I understand.” Kelly immediately guessed at Chen Heng’s meaning.
After this battle, no matter what the conclusion was, the royal family would become controlled by someone else.
When that time came, wouldn’t the victor be able to decide where the royal family’s territory went?
This promise by Chen Heng was no doubt an attempt to rope him into Chen Heng’s side.
Even though the Kerma territory currently belonged to the royal family, once it was his, it would not be that easy to take away from him.
This meant that he had to completely break off from the royal family and stand on Chen Heng’s side.
This was quite the scheme.
However, Kelly did not dislike it.
If he really could receive abundant rewards, so what if he betrayed the royal family and joined Chen Heng?
He trusted that others would also make similar decisions.
Looking at Kelly’s reaction, Chen Heng smiled and continued, “It’s not just you; those who are willing to help will also be rewarded.”
He stated many people’s names, as well as the territories that they would receive.
Just like Kelly, the territories that they were promised also belonged to the royal family.
Selling off something that belonged to someone else did not make one’s heart ache at all.
That was how Chen Heng was right now.
The royal family’s territories were some of the most prosperous territories in the entire Kutu Principality, and they were territories that countless nobles desired.
For Chen Heng to generously give these territories out, this was something that the royal family could not do.
After all, if they really did so, the royal family would become much weaker, and when that time came, they would no longer have the might to rule over others.
However, that was exactly what Chen Heng wanted.
After this battle, even if Olivia survived, she would become much weaker.
Most of her territory would be given to others, with Chen Heng taking the lion’s share.
Moreover, those who received territory would not just obediently give them back.
When that time came, whether Olivia was willing or not, she would just be an empty shell.
Of course, giving large amounts of the royal family’s territory to various noble families would mean that Chen Heng himself would not receive as much territory.
Ordinarily speaking, if he could win this battle, the territory that belonged to the royal family could have all gone to him.
Such generosity could bring about problems in the future.
However, Chen Heng did not seem to mind this.
Worrying before even starting was not his style of doing things.
To him, the most important thing right now was to win this battle.
As long as he could win this battle, no matter what problems there were, he could deal with them when there were fewer pressing matters.
If he could not win this battle, no matter how many plans and worries he had for the future, it would be pointless.
As such, in order to achieve his goal, Chen Heng had to increase his strength and bring more people to his side to face the challenge ahead.
As such, Chen Heng became quite busy.
With Kelly and the others’ help, Chen Heng was able to enter the Kutu Royal City smoothly.
With the mounting pressure of the rebel army and Kelly and the others’ persuasion, Chen Heng did not have to spend much effort for Mader and his 3,000 soldiers to fall under his command.
Following this, Chen Heng went to meet some of the large families and promised them land and fortunes in exchange for their armies.
If it was Mader, these people might have been able to fool him, but facing Chen Heng, they had no room to negotiate.
Under both threats and temptations, they handed over all of their power.
The power that those people had made Chen Heng feel quite startled.
Including Kelly’s family, the ten or so families in total brought out around 4,000 soldiers, and including the 3,000 from Mader, that was 7,000 people.
This was more than Chen Heng’s own forces, and this evidently was not everything that they had.
Despite the pressure from Chen Heng, it was impossible for those families to bring out everything that they had.
At most, they had only taken out half and kept the other half as a reserve.
