Some people are destined to get more opportunities, like Eric.
He returned only two days earlier than the lord, and was once again given a difficult task - to lead a hundred people to rebuild the ancient settlement at the foot of the Goddess Mountain.
This is because Eric's temperament is very suitable.
Ambitious, but also abiding by the rules; courageous, but also calm; most importantly, understand the ways of the world, are good at observing people's words and expressions, can make friends with anyone, and are diligent and studious.
Although he has many shortcomings, such as his average skills, his love of gambling and lust, and his frequent visits to entertainment venues whenever he has free time...
But his merits outweigh his flaws. Compared to most people, Eric is already the kind of person who can easily climb to a high position.
Dallion is a straightforward person. If other people were to go to that base, they would most likely have conflicts with Dallion. Only Eric, a smooth guy, could handle it.
Maybe Eric can even trick Darion...
The lord gave Eric the task of rebuilding the base into a valley fortress in the name of rebuilding the Griffin Knights.
As for the establishment of the Griffin Knights... we have to wait until the base is built first, otherwise we won’t even have a place to live.
The one hundred people that Leon asked Eric to take were escorts selected from Changhe Express.
But they are not the most powerful in combat, but they are loyal enough and have some life skills, such as carpentry, blacksmithing or... mining.
Such a choice naturally speaks for itself.
The Lord did not intend to rebuild the Griffin Knights immediately. He mainly wanted to mine the ebony mine, and other things could be done slowly...
That's why Eric had to go - while Dallion was still claiming the throne, there needed to be someone with brains to guide Dallion, so that the reckless guy wouldn't be eager to do something after seeing these people.
After all, although Sir Pauldemar can control him, the old man is old and can't keep an eye on him all the time.
Moreover, before the lord raised the Pendor flag, the old man probably would not tell Dallion the truth - Leon knew very well that in addition to letting Dallion stand in the front to help Leon attract attention, the old knight might also have some intention of observing him in his heart.
Because Pauldemar was not sure whether Leon would restore his country... He had a limited understanding of Leon. What if the lord just wanted to be a noble lord of the Kingdom of Sarleon?
Therefore, if the lord would raise the flag of rebellion and call himself the King of Pendor, then Baldemar would tell Dallion the truth and let Dallion fully support Leon's restoration of his country.
But if the lord does not take any action, he will let Dallion take on the responsibility of restoring the country - at least his adopted son will definitely carry out this difficult task firmly.
The old knight is still making preparations for both scenarios.
This idea is reasonable. Baldemar swore to protect the Pendor royal family. However, only those who are willing to restore the country can be called the Pendor royal family...
In fact, if the lord is given another year or two, when the saltpeter-making pits in the territory have enough harvests, and there are more money, food, population and troops, then Li Ang will definitely not mind a head-on fight, and may even directly raise the flag and declare himself king...
But after all, Leon has only been a lord for more than seven months, which is too short. Although he has been developing his strength, many things need time to ferment.
To be honest, being able to become a county governor in seven months is already incredibly fast...
But how can a county with tens of thousands of people fight against a kingdom of two million people... and those tens of thousands of people are not nominally under Li Ang's jurisdiction.
After giving Eric some careful instructions, and after he led the team to leave Changhe Town, the lord set out to return to Bailu Castle.
…
"Ms. Amy, Lord Leon is back!"
In the main building of White Deer Castle, a guard hurriedly found Amy.
"Where? Where?"
Amy dropped her quill and bounded out of the room like a wild deer, smearing the ink on the letter she had just written.
"Uh... outside the city... Miss Amy, your shawl fell off..."
The guard looked at Amy who ran downstairs and said the second half of the sentence to the suddenly empty stairs, but Amy probably couldn't hear it.
Amy has been very nervous these days, even after receiving the news from Eric two days ago, she was still very nervous...
She ran downstairs quickly until she reached the castle gate.
She didn't feel relieved until she saw Li Ang enter Bailu Castle safely.
Of course she was worried about Li Ang, but after seeing Li Ang walk into the city gate, she turned around and walked back, rubbing her face, changing her expression from joy to calmness.
It felt like I ran 800 meters just to see Leon walk into the castle...
She had just received a letter from her mother. In the letter, Lady Felina said: "Little girl, you should be more reserved. Even I, who am far away in Sarleon City, can see how much you are passionate about Baron Leon. When you wrote to me to ask me to visit Leon, you didn't mention me as your mother at all... If you offer yourself to others, they may not appreciate it... "
Of course smart Amy understood that her mother was laughing at her.
So Amy taught herself to adjust her facial expression to what she thought was 'reserved'.
Of course, as a beginner, I don’t have a very good grasp of the measure yet.
The lord saw Amy from a distance, but was quite confused - why did this girl turn around and leave when she saw him?
I haven't seen you for ten days. What went wrong?
Could it be that he found the skill book that he had secretly collected to improve his personal abilities?
There is a book called "The Combat Life of a Legion Centurion" hidden at the Lord's bedside. It was bought in the Bacchus Empire last time. Imperial Port is a good place. This book is similar to the "Officer's Memoirs"...
Well, there's one more thing - the Centurions of the Bacchus Empire are very playable, with many scenes and poses, and maybe they can even improve their coaching skills...
But it doesn't make sense when you think about it. Amy was the first to discover this book. She thought it was a battlefield biography, but after reading the beginning, she dropped the book and ran away with red ears.
If it weren't for the Lord's insight, this good book would have been buried...
Later, when the Lord bought the book, Amy was still standing by and expressed her disdain - she knew that Leon had this book...
"Amy, what's going on these days?"
The lord quickly caught up and walked side by side with Amy.
"Yes, Levius's scouts came to investigate many times, but they were all killed by Sir Roland. The Owl Knights are also asking if they can stay in White Hart Castle. It seems that they can't stay in Trubrun. And my father, I heard that he chased the enemy all the way to Lion Lake City. I am a little worried... Oh, those corns are more than a foot tall, and they are growing well..."
Amy had a blank expression on her face as she kept on talking like a robot butler reporting on a situation. All she spoke was official business, which left Leon stunned.
"Hiss... Amy, wait a moment..."
The lord looked at Amy and his forehead began to hurt - this girl had no expression on her face and spoke like she was chanting a sutra, but the look she gave Leon was eager and joyful, and a little evasive...
Leon felt that this situation was very tricky. Of course he could understand Amy's thoughts, but he had never dealt with such a scene and was really inexperienced.
I simply followed behind him, smacking my lips, and started thinking about official business...
Sarah, who came out of the main building of the castle, saw Amy's look. She raised her eyebrows and stood at the door of the main building. When Amy passed by, she whispered, "Don't pretend. You haven't mentioned the title of 'teacher' for a long time. Everyone can see it..."
"ah?"
Amy suddenly lost her composure and became a little panicked.
She felt that her mother was probably right. Everyone could see it... No, this wouldn't do. She couldn't be so eager...
If you offer it to him, he won’t cherish it!
After all, I am the princess's daughter!
But she had no experience in this kind of thing... She didn't know what to do. Her mother just laughed at her and didn't teach her. Sarah was the same!
"Um... Lord Godric..."
"Hmm... the Bacchus Empire..."
The Lord and Amy turned around and talked about business at the same time...
Then both of them shut their mouths at the same time.
The Lord was quick to react and knew how to avoid embarrassment: "You go ahead..."
As a result, the two of them entered into a work discussion mode...
Sarah, who was waiting to watch the show, sighed deeply and shook her head weakly.
There are indeed a lot of official business that need to be handled now.
King Ulrich needs 100,000 dinars, and this must be done within a month. It would be difficult to default on the debt, and there are still 24 days left.
The Owl Knights planned to move to White Hart Castle, but they were an illegal knight order, and their status was indeed a bit awkward, and their reliability was questionable. This was mainly because there was a new lord in Trubrun, and that lord asked them to leave as soon as possible. The new lord was a lion knight under Duke Brunus, and he had no good feelings towards the illegal knight order.
Most importantly, after Godric's victory at BraveShield, Amy was a little undecided.
She heard about the battle at BraveShield and knew that Godric had led his troops to Lionlake City.
She was very confident in her father's ability to lead troops in battle, so she wasn't worried. But in this case, White Deer Castle was worth worrying about.
I thought that Bailu Fort would not receive any external support for a long time.
Because the troops from Changhe Town, Fletcher Village, Yongdun Castle and other places were taken away, the Horn Summoning Rangers were also missing.
During these ten days, the beacon fire was kept lit in White Deer Castle, which attracted several groups of spies from the Bacchus Empire. Although they were all discovered and dealt with in advance by Sir Roland, no one could be sure whether the Bacchus Empire had sent spies to cause trouble, and it was hard to guarantee that something would not go wrong.
So, in order to ensure the safety of White Deer Castle, she had to make some preparations.
For example, using the method used by the Bacchus Empire to harm the lord, he could also harm Governor Levius.
But she had been thinking about the safety of the Lord for the past few days, so she had no time to think about strategies...
Of course, we still have to rely on the Lord to make strategies...
However, after much discussion, it was Amy who was still responsible for the specific execution.
Because Li Ang has to play a poor little lord who is trapped by two countries and has to flee...
Wasn't it Emperor Marius who wanted to achieve this result by deliberately writing a letter to sow discord between him and Leon?
Then give him this result, and give it thoroughly.
…
The eastern border of the Bacchus Empire has been very unstable recently.
Not long after Governor Levius was sent to Shieldwind Fortress, he caused a lot of trouble in this frontier fortress.
The governor has not had an easy time recently. After all, there are only soldiers in Shieldwind Fortress but no civilians, so he cannot exploit the land.
Moreover, Emperor Marius gave him the task of capturing White Hart Castle within a year.
Now Levius can no longer drain the blood of his soldiers and collect empty salaries, but instead has to pay for the replenishment of his troops out of his own pocket.
If it weren't for the different policies of the empire, Levius would have been reduced to poverty...
The regular army of the Bacchus Empire is uniformly allocated by the state, and currently the large regular army of Shieldwind Fortress is under the banner of the "Second Army of the Empire".
'Second', if you only look at the flag, you would probably think that this is a very strong main force.
But in fact, they were just a group of recruits who didn't even have any equipment - in fact, they were just a group of farmers, and even their numbers were not recognized by the empire.
This 'legion' was formed less than a month ago.
Simply put, the existence of this legion is the newly expanded force after Governor was exiled to the Shieldwind Fortress. It is actually used to ask Emperor Marius for military expenses.
In fact, the eight hundred 'Shadow Infantry' under Levius were the real main force of his army.
However, this main force is no longer organized into a separate legion.
The Shadow Infantry are actually the marines who followed General Osa across the sea to land. They were previously affiliated with the Shadow Legion. As the main legion under the Conqueror at that time, they were indeed a very strong force.
Later, after the founding of the Kingdom of Bacchus, this unit was separately organized into the 'Shadow Infantry Regiment' and has always been led by the Levius family.
However, in order to maintain its purity, this army composed entirely of Bacchus did not accept any Pendor to join. Over the course of hundreds of years, the number of shadow infantrymen became increasingly smaller.
In addition, Livius was firmly opposed to reform and his personal morality was not very good. If it were not for the huge power of his family and the strong shadow infantry under his command, Emperor Marius would have killed him long ago.
Some time ago, after Kairos handed the two IOUs to Emperor Marius, Livius got into big trouble.
Although Emperor Marius still allowed Livius to lead the powerful Shadow Infantry, he no longer gave them an independent organization.
In other words, the Shadow Infantry is now under the control of the Shadow Legion. The commander of the Infantry, Governor Levius, will not receive a separate legion ration. The military funds provided by the state will be distributed by Governor Kairos, the commander of the Shadow Legion...
And Kairos never liked Levius in the first place - the two of them had different world views and values. Kairos couldn't stand him, especially the fact that Levius raped, robbed and harmed civilians all day long.
Although Kairos is a man who clearly distinguishes between public and private affairs, he can also "reasonably distribute" the military rations belonging to the Shadow Legion in an impartial manner.
For example, he could have waited until October to give Levius the money, food and military supplies that the entire Shadow Legion received during the harvest season in May...
This is quite reasonable. Anyway, the money and materials will be given according to the rules, and will definitely be given in full according to the budget.
But for Levius , this was quite difficult.
I have no money or food left, and I still have to take care of White Deer Castle...
Although this bald middle-aged governor had a high level of land exploitation in the past few years and had plenty of money, but... using his own money to support the country's soldiers?
That won’t do!
And now that he has come to Shieldwind Fortress, he has no source of income...
So Livius had to expand his army.
In the name of attacking White Deer Castle, a new "Second Imperial Legion" was added.
He reported to Emperor Marius: "There are more than 700 defenders at White Hart Fort. In order to capture White Hart Fort, I must form a new legion of 2,000 people at Shieldwind Fort!"
This move was actually reasonable. After all, it would be impossible to capture the solid White Deer Fort relying solely on the eight hundred shadow infantrymen.
However, this matter would probably be the opposite of what Emperor Marius had imagined - Marius was definitely planning to force Livius to give up the Shadow Infantry and hand over this unit to a more suitable person ...
The main purpose of Livius's new legion was to ask Emperor Marius for military funds alone - it was hard to say whether Emperor Marius would agree...
However, Levius felt that this had to be done - how could he make a living without drawing a salary?
He still has seventy or eighty concubines to support...
Moreover, according to common sense, this was indeed a reasonable expansion of the army, and Livius felt that his move would definitely gain material support from Emperor Marius.
Of course, it was hard to say how many soldiers this newly formed legion would actually have in the end. After all, they were going to attack White Deer Fort, so it was entirely possible to say that the insufficient number of soldiers was "killed in battle"...
Since the legion had to have sufficient troops to be approved by the emperor when it was first formed, in order to completely escape from the suffering, Livius directly carried out a large-scale conscription.
And it was not about recruiting volunteers or paying to recruit soldiers, but about forcibly conscripting able-bodied men - after all, this was the only way that didn't cost any money.
In the first week after he took office, he forcibly conscripted more than 2,000 people from various villages including Imei Village.
Almost every young man they saw was arrested...
By the way, they also "found" a lot of villagers' property and food, including some young and beautiful women.
If it was just a forced conscription of troops, it would be understandable. After all, it was for the emperor's order, and the Bacchus would not be too resistant to joining the army and fighting.
In addition, the current Governor of Ayrshire has changed from the kind-hearted Godric to Leon - the lord was deliberately portrayed as a monster by Emperor Marius. The Bacchus people around the front line are quite afraid of White Hart Castle, and of course they will not care too much about expanding the army.
But this kind of forced conscription of men and robbery of property and women is really disgusting.
Livius's bandit-like behavior completely angered the tribunes of the villages and also irritated General Cleon.
This general, who was originally a plague-killer, directly called Levius a "human plague" and even led his troops to attack him.
The two sides almost had a large-scale fight, but it ended with Levius's troops voluntarily withdrawing to the Shieldwind Fortress.
Levius did not expect the resistance here to be so fierce, so he restrained himself a little and reluctantly returned the women and the villagers' property.
But from then on, the surrounding towns and villages were determined not to provide supplies to Livius' troops, and would even expel his troops when they appeared.
The peasants who were forcibly conscripted were also quite dissatisfied with Levius, and some of them ran away secretly every day - Levius captured people to "join the army" but did not pay them, everyone would have a problem with that...
Therefore, Levius has been hiding in the Shieldwind Fortress recently and dared not show his head, for fear of being shot by hidden arrows. He just plans to wait until His Majesty the Emperor quickly allocates military funds to him.
However, he waited for a month with great difficulty, and the Emperor did send a response, but the response was only one sentence...
"No private expansion of the army!"