Although the Commercial Alliance had always proclaimed fairness and freedom, even before the baronetcy system was implemented, the residents of
The residents of the inner city's twelve districts were mostly family members of key figures from the various guilds of the Commercial Alliance—at the very least, they had to be stewards. However, relatives of each guild's armed guards also lived in the inner city. On the bright side, this was the guilds' way of looking after their most important fighting forces. On the darker side, it served as a hostage arrangement, ensuring the armed guards' loyalty and preventing them from betraying their guilds lightly.
The outer city's twenty-four districts also had their own hierarchy. There were academy instructors, small shop owners, and nobles from elsewhere who had purchased homes—all of which drove property and land prices into several tiers. The worst districts were populated mostly by errand-runners, servants, and menial laborers. The middle tier largely consisted of people with steady jobs who could feed their families. The best areas were the few neighborhoods near the commercial district or the inner city, featuring upscale residences and the most orderly communities.
Since the Commercial Alliance had implemented the baronetcy system, the Seven Giants who controlled its supreme power—the seven largest guilds—had received the biggest shares of the pie. Their focus shifted from Morant City to their own guild territories, and they had taken most of their trusted followers from the inner city, significantly shrinking their footprint there. It wasn't just the Seven Giants—even the second-tier guilds had done the same. For a time, the inner city appeared rather desolate and quiet.
But soon, as the Commercial Alliance's external expansion achieved successive victories and its territories expanded, more rising guilds, nobles who had distinguished themselves in foreign wars, and newly wealthy parvenus flooded into the inner city of Morant. Property and land prices in the twelve inner districts soared like rockets. The Seven Giants, seeing this, sold off the neighborhoods they held, reaping enormous profits from the eager buyers.
The inner city was no longer home to the Alliance's most influential guilds. Instead, it had become a residential enclave for Alliance nobles and a hub for guild branch offices, treasuries, armories, and vaults. This was the essence of Morant City, protected by formidable defensive forces. When the
Beyond the inner and outer city residents, there were also the shantytowns and slums outside the walls. These two areas covered vast tracts of land and housed over two hundred thousand people, mostly destitute—the lowest rung of Morant City's society, scraping by through manual labor, scavenging garbage, and cleaning. The Alliance Council had repeatedly discussed expanding the outer city to develop the shantytowns and slums into proper neighborhoods, but merchants pursued profit, and in the end, the proposal always died for lack of economic incentive.
The Norton Family's plan to seize Morant City began with capturing the walls of both the outer and inner cities, thereby separating the three parts of the city from one another. Now the outer city walls had been taken, and the nine gates on the south, east, and north sides were immediately placed under martial law. The western side had no walls—only the dock district and fleet district—which had also fallen under the control of one regiment of the Imperial Guard Corps.
The surviving warships of the fourth division of the Invincible Fleet, gathered in the middle of Hidden Gold Bay, were in a quandary. Escape was impossible; the sea exit had been blockaded by a dozen large armed warships from the Norton Family fleet, equipped with bronze cannons. But docking was also out of the question, as the dock district had already been seized by Norton Family forces.
They were left with only two choices: surrender or die fighting—set their ships ablaze and charge into the transport vessels and warships moored at the docks for a mutual destruction. But the problem was that those transport ships and warships had all originally belonged to the Invincible Fleet. Burning them wouldn't exactly cause the Norton Family much grief. The officers and men of the fourth division felt this would be a poor trade. After much deliberation, they finally raised the white flag and surrendered to the Norton Family forces.
Although the inner city walls had not been captured, two Rock Fortress Regiments had successfully besieged the inner city, cutting it off from the outer city and preventing anyone inside from breaking out. Without the nobles and guild members from the inner city to incite and guide them, the other two Rock Fortress Regiments easily suppressed the small-scale disturbances that had erupted in several of the outer city's twenty-four communities.
Lorist was being very cautious. The two corps he had brought to Morant City numbered fewer than a hundred thousand men in total. If a city-wide riot broke out, it would spell disaster for the Norton Family—forget about capturing Morant City, the family's forces might suffer devastating losses and be forced to retreat in disgrace. The residents of Morant were known for their xenophobia and fierce pride. This was not some city under the rule of a king or lord where the populace could be easily swayed; the residents could readily be stirred up to fight against the invaders.
What awaited them—
Although the two Rock Fortress Regiments truly maintained iron discipline—even more civilized than the People's Army from Lorist's previous life—the residents of Morant City still caused quite a bit of trouble. Some housewives stood on the streets hurling curses at the invaders, but the soldiers endured the verbal abuse without retaliating. Even when those matrons jabbed their fingers within inches of the soldiers' faces, the men acted as if they neither saw nor heard a thing...
The Norton Family soldiers' restraint was taken by some fools as a sign of weakness. A few former mercenaries from Morant, dead drunk, rallied a mob and prepared to drive the invaders out of the city, dreaming of becoming its great saviors and heroes. But the Norton Family forces quickly showed them what a thunderous assault looked like. When these brave resolvers swarmed into the streets, they were met with the hiss of steel crossbows mounted on wheelbarrows. Hundreds of brave souls soon lay dead across the streets—they hadn't even managed to strike a single blow, and the closest ones had fallen more than ten meters away from the nearest Norton Family soldier.
The bodies of these resisters were promptly strung up on lampposts and trees along both sides of the streets by the Norton Family soldiers, who carried out the task without batting an eye. Similar incidents occurred four times across the outer city's twenty-four communities, and nearly a thousand brave souls' corpses became ornaments hanging along the roadsides.
It had to be said that the people of Morant City possessed a spirit of resistance far stronger than that of people elsewhere. When open defiance failed, they turned to covert tactics. A juice vendor sold poisoned juice to thirsty soldiers, and three Norton Family soldiers tragically died of poisoning. As a result, the vendor's entire family of five was strung up on trees. Another former sailor shot a soldier with a hidden arrow, and then his entire family, along with the neighbor's family of twelve who had used force to prevent the soldiers from entering their home to search for the culprit, also became decorative hangings...
It was only after a revered Great Swordmaster, who had been enjoying his twilight years in one of the communities, was riddled with steel crossbow bolts for calling on the residents to resist, that the people of the outer city's twenty-four districts finally understood the Norton Family's guiding principle: "If others do not offend us, we shall not offend them. If they do, we pay them back double." People feared death, and people followed the crowd. If all twenty-four communities had risen up simultaneously, the two Rock Fortress Regiments' twenty-four thousand troops would have had great difficulty suppressing the revolt—they might even have suffered serious losses. But now the Norton Family's thunderous measures had intimidated the residents of Morant City, and the outer city's twenty-four communities were temporarily in a state of calm.
After the nine outer city gates fell under the control of the First Imperial Guard Regiment, Great Swordmaster Hughes was stationed there, while Corps Commander Ayl and Deputy Corps Commander
With too few troops on hand, Lorist was walking on thin ice. He was attempting to capture a city with over a million inhabitants—this was the main reason he had given up pursuing the Storm Sword Saint. Fortunately, despite some setbacks, the plan was proceeding smoothly. What he now had to deal with was the inner city—the most critical part of the plan and the primary target for the family's plunder of Morant City's wealth.
The inner city was besieged by two Rock Fortress Regiments totaling twenty-four thousand men, though by now their numbers had dwindled to just over twenty-two thousand. The failed assault on the walls had cost over a thousand casualties, and both Reedey and Corps Commander Bodenfenger had been wounded. However, both had now been bandaged up and had taken healing potions, directing their troops from their injuries to maintain a watertight siege of the inner city.
When Lorist arrived at the inner city, the Rock Fortress Legion's Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion had also just reached the scene. Five hundred catapults were lined up in four formations outside the four city gates.
Lorist patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "Against those bumpkins in there, using bronze cannons would be far too extravagant. Besides, I don't want to destroy the inner city. Catapults will be enough to scare them. And with me—a Sword Saint—I believe the people inside will open the gates and surrender before long. The Artillery Battalion is our family's most important military asset. Using it against the inner city would be overkill."
The Rock Fortress Legion's wheelbarrow crossbow regiment had been dispatched by Lorist to maintain order in the outer city's twenty-four communities. Only the sword-and-shield and spear regiments remained to besiege the inner city, lacking long-range weapons. To prevent the Great Swordmasters patronized by the inner city's guilds from organizing a breakout, Lorist had specifically summoned Jim and ordered him to bring forty land-warfare bronze cannons to assist the Rock Fortress Regiment's siege, guarding against any attempted breakout by those Great Swordmasters.
If Reedey and Bodenfenger had managed to capture the inner city's walls in the first wave, Jim would have positioned the forty bronze cannons on the walls to bear down on the inner city. Unfortunately, they fell just short. The two Rock Fortress Regiments had failed to take the walls and could only maintain the siege. Jim had no choice but to divide his forty bronze cannons into four groups, covering all four directions to prevent enemy breakouts.
Combined with the remnants of the Artillery Battalion, Schweid finally had a reliable armed force of over six thousand men at his disposal.
However, considering the Commercial Alliance's high-end combat power in Morant City, Lorist ultimately decided to bring over Jim and his forty land-warfare bronze cannons as well. Their target was the Great Swordmasters in the inner city. If those Great Swordmasters tried to break out, ten bronze cannons loaded with grapeshot should be enough to deal with several of them. Unfortunately, after the recapture of the northern gate, the guild leaders inside the inner city sealed their doors and hunkered down—no one came out to throw their lives away, which greatly disappointed Jim.
Lorist couldn't figure out why the people inside the inner city didn't attempt to break out. After much deliberation, the only possibility he could come up with was that those who wanted to break out were held back by their families and relatives in the twelve inner districts. Perhaps they were also hoping to hold out in the inner city until the Commercial Alliance's army on the Mana Hill Plains front could come to their rescue. Alas, they would not live to see that day.
"Viscount Penelop, I leave the rest to you. I swear by the name of the head of the Norton Family and the Grand Duke of Northland—as long as they surrender, I guarantee the safety of their lives and those of their families. Naturally, they cannot remain in the inner city. They must be sent to the prisoner-of-war camp and will only be freed after this war is over. Our family will not demand any ransom. Instead, they will be released unconditionally after the armistice and peace agreement are signed.
Furthermore, we will provide them with food and water free of charge at the prisoner-of-war camp, and if they fall ill, we guarantee they will receive medical treatment. All they need to do is be willing to surrender. They may carry up to thirty catties of personal property with them when they leave the inner city. Our Norton Family swears by the God of War that their private property is sacred and inviolable—that we will not seize or suspend their rights to trade and conduct business among themselves. We guarantee their right to dispose of their personal property as they see fit.
I believe these guarantees should be enough to show them the Norton Family's sincerity. If even these conditions cannot convince them to surrender, then there is nothing more I can do. Viscount Penelop, do you see those catapults? If in three hours they are still unwilling to surrender, I will give the order to launch fire oil jars and fire stones into the inner city. Sometimes, in order to avoid greater casualties and prevent more blood from being spilled, we must bear significant costs and sacrifices. Don't you agree?"
Lorist's voice was soft, but in Viscount Penelop's ears, it struck like thunder.
"Grand Duke Norton, I believe in your sincerity. Please believe me—I will definitely convince the people in the inner city to surrender. Please do not give such a cruel order. And didn't you promise to return Morant City to the Commercial Alliance intact?" Viscount Penelop's voice trembled slightly.
"I don't want to do that either, but the situation is tense. Even as a Sword Saint, there is only so much I can do," Lorist said with a bitter smile. "The outer city's twenty-four communities are like a volcano on the verge of eruption. If someone with an agenda stirs them up, the consequences would be catastrophic. I brought the family's soldiers here to end this war, not to have them buried in this city. If the inner city doesn't surrender, I won't be able to pull troops away to maintain order across the entire city. As an absolute last resort, I will order this city set ablaze and then withdraw back to Northland, leaving the Commercial Alliance and His Majesty to continue their war..."
"No, Grand Duke Norton, please give me some time. I will go into the inner city immediately to convince them..." Viscount Penelop bowed deeply, then hurried off toward the inner city.
At five o'clock that afternoon, the inner city gates opened in surrender, and Morant City at last fell completely into Lorist's hands.