But before he could speak, Stanford, as if anticipating his move, produced one document after another until they finally formed a small booklet in his hands.
Those were the collateral vouchers for various assets within the Marquis's territory!
Mortan's face changed instantly; he wasn't surprised by these mortgage certificates, after all, he had personally ordered them to be mortgaged. What truly shocked him was that so many vouchers ended up in the hands of Stanford alone.
"You are from the Wizard Council!" Mortan's pupils shrank.
He immediately understood why Stanford dared to barge directly into his manor, why those merchants were willing to let him mortgage the mines and assets within the territory at a high price...
Previously blinded by huge profits, Mortan hadn't thought much about it, assuming that the other party knew he had a large amount of valuable wheat, hence the willingness to pledge at a premium.
Now it appeared that this was a thorough trap!
"Of course, my Lord Marquis, haven't we all been working for the wizards all along?" Stanford made no attempt to disguise it, admitting it outright.
Mortan was almost biting his teeth into pieces, but, cautious of throwing caution to the wind, he dared not act rashly and had to speak again. "Apart from these assets, I still have countless wheat..."
"Stop joking, wheat is not valuable now!" Stanford coldly interrupted Mortan's words. The kingdom was full of grain merchants, with a total of millions of tons of food on the market!
Who else but the Council could buy and carry it?
"But it can still offset a bit... As for the price, let's set it at twenty kilograms per copper!" Stanford said with a smile. "You have a total of two hundred thousand tons of grain, which by the current market price is a thousand imperial gold coins!"
The guards behind him took out bags of money and threw them on the ground.
Mortan almost died of anger on the spot, Stanford's casual remark intending to buy wheat worth tens of millions for a mere thousand gold coins.
Twenty kilograms per copper was absurd, even if no one was buying grain, he could turn it into beer, or use it as livestock feed, or even sell some of the grain to the empire to mitigate some of the deficit!
But the first two options weren't feasible to make enough money back within a month, and there were plenty of people with similar thoughts, likely causing a run on each other.
As for selling to the empire, that would have to be done secretly. Mortan was not foolish enough to mention it openly, lest he should add a charge of collusion!
"Unfortunately, I can't give you this thousand gold coins either, Lord Marquis!" Stanford shook his head, had his guards take back the ten bags of money, and sighed. "You've borrowed five million imperial gold coins from various merchant groups. Even if you sell all these mortgaged assets, you can only pay back seventy percent of it. You still owe a lot."
Mortan's face reddened, recognizing that today he was more likely doomed than not.
The only thing that comforted him was that, though Stanford's guards were numerous, they seemed not to carry those alchemical creations called firearms. With his own strength, he might be able to keep these men here!
Thinking this, Mortan suddenly made a gesture, and his trusted aides, who had been confronting Stanford and his men, immediately charged like wolves.
They were Mortan's trusted aides raised from childhood by the Mortan family, who valued loyalty over life and would not question the Marquis's orders.
However, faster than their sword-drawing was the art of drawing a gun!
Behind Stanford, the guards, under the shocked gazes of various knights and aides, drew from their waists a handle of short-barreled firearms!
This more sophisticated, easy-to-carry firearm had been invented by Lydia a year ago, but usually, only dark sentinels on special missions were equipped with them!
After all, when carrying out infiltration and espionage missions, short-barreled guns are easy to carry, and their secrecy and suddenness are excellent, many sentinels have developed superb skills in drawing and firing their guns!
The best among them can complete the actions of drawing, aiming, and shooting within 0.1 seconds!
The next moment, fierce gunfire echoed through the fortress's front hall.
Although more than a dozen trusted aides were clad in fine armor, how could they withstand the invasion of armor-piercing bullets, and before they could effectively resist, they were riddled with bullets!
Mortan was extremely terrified, even though he was a Bloodline Knight, he had no confidence in using his body to withstand the attack of so many firearms and was soon hit in the arms and legs by several bullets, collapsing weakly into a pool of blood.
"Tend to his wounds, don't let him die, I suspect he has already betrayed the kingdom, take him back and interrogate him thoroughly!" Stanford put away his handgun, as it was he who, with his breathtaking marksmanship, had crippled the opponent's limbs.
A group of sentinels skillfully started to handle the scene, disposing of all the bodies, while Stanford took out a magic radio and transmitted the message.
Earl Bell died, Viscount Ske was imprisoned, Marquis Mortan was captured alive...
A massive amount of information was transmitted to Laud's hands via electromagnetic signals. Due to the sudden collapse of grain prices, these captured nobles and wealthy merchants, who were immersed in the illusion of their wealth comparable to that of nations just a second ago, were seized by surprise without any chance to react.
This also resulted in the extreme smoothness of most of the capture operations, with only one exception—the Duke Gard ran away!
To this, Laud was quite helpless; over the past month, they had to monitor hundreds of targets and act at the same time, and they were truly short on manpower.
Moreover, most of the people they dealt with were wealthy nobles, who possessed certain powers. Catching them all without exception was no easy task.
Fortunately, the only one who had escaped was a Duke of the Kingdom who had lost his lands and wealth, which would hardly cause any uproar; their most important targets were always those without the power to escape!
"Let's go, we're heading to the palace!" Laud gathered up the intelligence in hand, then led a large group of gunmen straight towards the capital.
Along the way, they encountered no obstructions. Although the capital's guards surrounded them, not a single one dared to act, allowing Laud to pass through most of the capital and step into the main hall of the palace.
At that moment inside the palace, King Hattar was sitting on his throne, discussing with a group of ministers about the grain prices that had suddenly soared and then plummeted.
And just then, Laud suddenly burst in with his troops of gunmen!
The grand palace fell silent instantly, the ministers who had been discussing enthusiastically all fell silent as if their vocal cords had been cut.
Laud didn't speak either but respectfully took out the special "Ring of Secret Arts" from his hand and placed it in his palm.
A blue light blinked continuously on the ring, and soon, a familiar figure appeared in front of everyone.
"It's been a long time, Your Majesty Hattar!"
Hattar looked somewhat bewildered, this scene seemed like a replay of the war in the capital more than a year ago, the wizard in front of him seemed unchanged, still as polite as ever!
Only this time, sitting on the throne was no longer the old King Basel but himself...
Holding the handrest of the throne beside him, Hattar's hand was faintly sweating, but he still forced himself to calm down and said, "It's been a long time, Master Lynn, do you have something you wish to inform me about by coming to the palace this time?"
"You could say that!" Lynn nodded, then clapped his hands. A group of bound attendants were brought forward.
Hattar's face instantly turned pale; he recognized these attendants being brought forward, all his trusted aides responsible for secretly contacting Duke Gard to orchestrate the actions of the nobles.
But he remembered these people had already been dealt with...