Chapter 217: Burnt Corn
There were branches swaying in the forest and leaves rustling.
A figure slowly walked out of the woods.
It was indeed Aldarian.
Wendy, who was beside Leon, nervously pulled out an arrow.
Aldarian glanced at her, paying no attention, and had no weapon in his hands.
"How did you know I was here?"
Aldarian was still alone. He parted the branches and walked towards Leon who was standing in the middle of the road, his voice still loud.
"Your Majesty Felghath'an went to such great lengths to warn me. If I hadn't guessed that you were here, I would have been killed countless times already..."
The Lord spread his hands and looked at Aldarian: "Would you like to talk to me? Chat alone like an adult."
The implication is that what Aldarian did before was just childish pranks?
"Boy, you'd better be more respectful to your elders!"
Aldarian obviously understood, but he did not show too much hostility. Instead, he sneered with contempt and called himself an elder.
If we really talk about seniority, he is indeed the elder, so the lord did not retort, but just waved at Aldarian, indicating that he should follow him.
"My Lord? What do you want to do?"
Wendy was also there, and when she saw that Leon was planning to take Aldarian into the forest alone, she didn't know what to do.
"Don't worry, he won't hurt me...right, elder?"
Leon smiled, then shook his head and said to Wendy: "Lord Aldarian is also a leader who truly loves the Noldor people... Wendy, you just wait for us here."
These words sounded like flattery, but the scornful smile on Aldarian's face disappeared in an instant, and he followed Leon into the woods.
Of course the lord knew that Aldarian would not kill him now.
As long as there are still a large number of Noldor female rangers working in the White Hart Keep, Aldarian will never kill him - otherwise a civil war will break out in the Noldor. The arrival of Felghath'an in the White Hart Keep actually represents such a warning.
Because the cooperation channel between the Noldor and humans is completely based on Leon, attacking Leon is equivalent to slapping the faces of Felgoth'an and Islandil.
Moreover, this is directly related to the safety of more than 200 young Nodo, including the safety of Wendelf and Wendatil.
But Aldarian did dare to deal with other humans - such as attacking merchants.
At present, the cooperation between the Noldor and humans has been very short. At most, Aldarian's attack on the caravan will only lead to questioning and criticism within the tribe, but will not cause hostility from the Noldor.
Besides, everyone near White Hart Castle knew that Aldarian had always hated humans, so it was normal for him to attack human merchants.
In order to prevent the trade route from being attacked, Leon had no choice but to talk to Aldarian.
After walking in the woods for more than ten minutes, Leon led Aldarian out of the woods and came to an open area.
This is behind Bailu Fort. Some plants more than one meter tall are neatly arranged in the fields. Hundreds of acres of land are connected together, which looks spectacular.
"I planted a lot of corn behind White Deer Castle, and now it's almost time to harvest..."
As Leon spoke, he walked into the cornfield, looked around, broke off a fully ripe corn and handed it to Aldarian.
"What do you want to talk to me about? Is this food?"
Aldarian showed great patience at this time. In fact, most of the Noldor elves were very patient. After all, they had long lifespans, and the thing they had the most was time.
"Yes, this is very good food. I just want to talk to you about food... I heard that you captured a group of Jatu as slaves. They are not Noldor elves. They will not survive long if they only eat fruits and leaves in the forest. So you may have to buy some food to feed them. But I doubt whether the value they create is enough for you to spend on buying food."
The lord pointed to a large cornfield and said, "These grains are easy to store. Would you like to buy some?"
"Hmph... The people of Sarleon know how to grow crops, and the people of Jatu know how to raise horses. As long as I can capture enough human slaves, I can have whatever I want..."
Aldarian's tone was full of sarcasm.
"Yes, the people of Sarleon know how to plant, but you have to give them land. A forest full of tree roots can't grow anything... The Jatu know how to raise horses, but you also have to give them pastures... Are you planning to take over the horse farm of the Finwe family?"
The lord shook his head and laughed, "I guess you can only make those Jatu slaves you captured do some hard labor in Eraklai, and they can't create any useful value at all... They can only waste food and create piles of feces - they are used to defecating anywhere on the grassland, and they definitely won't pay attention to hygiene with you... You are just using this behavior to incite the confrontation between the Noldor and humans, so that Wendatil and her rangers will leave me on their own initiative, right?"
After the lord finished speaking, he spread his hands and shrugged exaggeratedly.
Aldarian was silent for a while, then laughed at himself. "Yes, those slaves will only make Eracle dirty... But Leon, since you can even think of this, then you should understand that I really want your life! And you actually plan to make a deal with me?"
"There were so many people who wanted to kill me, but they all ended up making deals with me - if they didn't die."
Leon kept a polite smile on his face. "Aldarian, I have to tell you that the most needed materials in the Noldor, that is, food and cloth, are now in my hands."
"All in your hands? What do you mean?"
Aldarian finally frowned.
"It means exactly what it says. Now I am the only one who can sell food to the Noldor. I am the only supplier."
Leon looked into Aldarian's eyes and spoke word by word.
"So what? Since I know you have food, I can naturally come here with my army to get it myself. Why should I buy it from you?"
Aldarian looked at the corn in his hand and put it to his nose to smell the unique fragrance of fresh corn ears.
"Do you really dare to bring an army to take it?"
Li Ang smiled: "Have you forgotten the palm thunder you once saw?"
"Huh... What? Does everyone in White Hart Castle know magic now? How many magic items can you use?"
Aldarian sneered.
The Lord sighed and pointed to a place in the cornfield where smoke was faintly coming out: "Come with me... I'll show you."
The smoke was coming from the middle of a large cornfield. Leon and Aldarian tiptoed around it and it took them a long time to get there.
"Who! Don't move!"
When they were still dozens of meters away from that location, a low shout came from the center of the cornfield.
"Stand at attention! Are you cheating again? Come out here and stand still!"
The lord gave the order directly.
"Ah... sir!"
Three flustered human soldiers emerged from the cornfield, covered in dust and dirt.
Leon brought Ardarian to them. There was an isolation canal and an open space for drawing water. This was supposed to be a water-drawing point to prevent drought.
But now there was a small fire in the open space beside the canal - it was made with corn stalks, and there were a few corn cobs roasting on the fire.
It is roasted with wooden sticks and it smells delicious...
The three guys were obviously shocked when they saw Aldarian behind Leon.
But they did not make any other abnormal reactions, all of them lowered their heads and waited for the lord to lecture them.
They are the non-commissioned officers who stayed here to guard the cornfield.
Aldarian felt that they were clearly going to be severely punished. Not only did they steal food, they also set fire to the ground, and they were not discovered until someone was within a few dozen meters...
"Oh, your soldiers are too lax in their discipline."
Aldarian once again showed contempt in his eyes.
"Yeah, did you bastards hear that? I've been looked down upon! I've made no progress! I'm burnt to a crisp!"
The lord yelled in displeasure, pointing at the corn on the fire: "Go get to work!"
A non-commissioned officer quickly pricked the corn on the ground and then fiddled with the fire.
Then, a line of fire lit up from the fire and quickly extended to the periphery of the cornfield...
“Boom!…Buzz…Buzz!!”
A deafening explosion sounded, and a huge explosion occurred!
This was a whole row of chain explosions, the effect of which far exceeded that of the palm-sized bomb. The trees outside the forest were blown all over the sky, and the soil was splashed several meters high.
"Ooooh! We did it, my Lord!"
Several non-commissioned officers cheered with their fists clenched in excitement, and then one of them touched a piece of corn and began to chew it.
"Hurry up and go put out the fire! All you know is eating!"
The lord gave them a fake kick, so several people stuffed the roasted corn into their mouths, picked up buckets of water and ran quickly to the place where the explosion occurred.
"What's this?!"
The corn in Aldarian's hand slipped to the ground, and he witnessed with his own eyes an earth-shaking explosion, the power of which was definitely not less than that of a real thunderbolt.
And Li Ang stood beside him without moving a step.
In other words, it seems that the explosion was caused by just three ordinary human soldiers?
Aldarian was indeed frightened, and he also understood what Leon meant.
Dare to come and steal food? I'm afraid you'll be blown to ashes...
In fact, Leon was just experimenting with his newly configured explosives, and trying to detonate the fuse in a chain.
Of course, the three non-commissioned officers would not be punished because everything was ordered by the lord.
They gathered there to set the fuse.
They didn't notice Li Ang coming in time because they were not responsible for guarding the area - all the guards outside had been driven away to avoid accidental injuries caused by the explosion. It was already amazing that the three of them could spot someone coming from dozens of meters away in the cornfield where no one could be seen.
As for the roasted corn, it was a reward from Li Ang to them.
They did make one mistake though - they burned the corn, and the Lord was very unhappy!
"Now, do you still think you can lead an army into my territory?"
The Lord asked as he looked at the fire, then sighed sadly - the corn left for him by those bastards was the one that was the most burnt...
"What kind of enchanted item is this? I don't believe humans can use such magic... This is an ability only the Sindarin elves possess! You won't have too many of these!"
Aldarian clenched his fists and muttered.
"Of course not too much, but it will definitely be enough to deal with your troops... and as you can see, my soldiers can use it. Aldarian, what do you think the effect of such a thing on the battlefield would be?"
The lord still didn't look at the terrible master beside him. He bent down and picked up the black corn on the ground, intending to shake off the burnt black shell.
"Did you bring me here just to demonstrate to me?"
Aldarian asked back in a low voice.
"No, Aldarian, I think you should think about it - after having this kind of power, do I still need to borrow soldiers from the Noldor tribe and then lead them to die?"
Leon brought the roasted corn to his mouth, but seeing the burnt corn kernels he didn't dare to eat it, so he simply handed it to Aldarian.
"I understand what you mean... What do you want? What do you want from the Noldor? I don't believe that anyone would provide help to others for no reason!"
Aldarian reached out to take the roasted corn, and for the first time his eyes were no longer cold as he looked at Leon.
"Knowledge and skills. I want to make more weapons like this, and the rich knowledge of the Noldor can help me make these things. I don't need the Noldor elves to leave the forest and fight for me. What I need is the knowledge, technology and craftsmanship passed down by the Noldor... Aldarian, the heritage of the various tribes of Noldor is the foundation for the Noldor to prosper again."
Li Ang shook his head and smiled: "Letting a group of intellectuals with hundreds of years of knowledge go to war and risk their lives? That's too extravagant..."
"But you still brought Wendatil and the others to the battlefield..."
Aldarian seemed doubtful, but his tone was no longer so harsh.
Li Ang suddenly remembered that Wendylf seemed to have said that Wendatil looked down on him...
This guy probably likes Vendatil?
"We fought side by side before in order to make more humans no longer hostile to the Noldor. Aldarian, I think you should ask Vendatil. She is much braver than you. At least she dared to serve as a tribune in the White Hart Castle, but you never dared to enter a human castle."
The lord used some provocation.
Aldarian looked at Leon expressionlessly, took a bite of the roasted corn and chewed it twice: "Is this called corn? It's delicious."
It tastes terrible, it's burnt black and it's obvious that he's bitten into a corn cob.
This is just the straight guy trying to hide his nervousness.
…
Aldarian finally met Vendatil. No one knew what they talked about, but Aldarian left, looking back every three steps. His face was full of sorrow when he left, and he didn't even wipe off the black ash on his face from the burnt corn.
The lord ignored him as he was busy dealing with the news coming from the north.
Just as Leon expected, Dark Falcon Castle was actually very safe. Except for the Jatu people who were not easy to deal with, almost all forces were trying to win over Leon.
To be precise, he was trying to win over Sir Roland, the representative sent by Leon.
Previously, Ursula pulled back a large army from the Fierce Lion Territory and launched an attack on Xiaolu City.
But the Kingdom of Crow Stern was lucky. The city of Dawnhearth, which originally had insufficient military strength and was unable to resist, received timely support from Count Stephen, Lord of Oldenburg.
The earl led the Crow Stern cavalry to withdraw early, which actually saved a large number of mobile forces for the Crow Stern Kingdom.
In fact, Earl Stephen only provided support outside Xiaolu City for three days.
Ursula personally went to Stephen's camp and told Earl Stephen the fact that Gregory IV had abandoned Dark Falcon Castle and traded with the Jatu people. Earl Stephen then decided to withdraw his troops and not help either side.
But it was precisely because of Earl Stephen's three days of obstruction that Xiaolu City was able to catch its breath, and Ursula was ultimately unable to capture Xiaolu City.
Duke Undermar, Lord of Xiaolu City, took advantage of the days when Count Stephen provided support and quickly recalled his elite warriors, the 'Ice Guard Rangers', to save this most important core city in the east of Ravenstern.
After defending Xiaolu City with great difficulty, Duke Undermar also suffered heavy losses and could only retreat and defend.
Gregory IV had recently lost thousands of elite soldiers at Eagle Claw Castle, suffering heavy casualties without gaining any benefit. He was now facing doubts from many nobles.
Of course he couldn't afford to make enemies at this time, so he behaved very trustworthy.
Dark Falcon Castle has indeed been handed over to Sir Roland who was sent by Leon, and now the Dark Falcon Castle has hoisted the griffin flag high.
Gregory IV first took back the Dark Falcon Castle on the grounds of disobeying orders, and announced that the Dark Falcon Castle would be transferred to Baron Leon of the Kingdom of Fierce Lion as compensation for the last war.
This was both a fulfillment of the agreement with Leon and a punishment for the unclear relationship between Earl Stephen and Ursula's rebels.
Dark Falcon Castle is the territory of Lord Pharamond, the son of Earl Stephen.
In fact, not only was the territory of Dark Falcon Castle taken back, but Pharamond was also summoned to Ravenstern by Gregory, who held him hostage. Gregory did it quite directly.
However, Earl Stephen was a man of high moral character, so Gregory did not dare to push him too hard. Apart from taking away Dark Falcon Castle and holding Pharamond hostage, he did not do anything else.
In fact, it was not unfair that Lord Paramond's Dark Falcon Castle was taken away by Gregory IV - there was a reason why Ursula had been active in Dark Falcon Castle before, and Paramond had indeed been secretly supporting Ursula.
Therefore, Earl Stephen did not make any special reaction. He did withdraw his troops early in the last war and did not inform the king. It was correct to say that he disobeyed orders.
His son did support the rebels, so the king's treatment was not excessive, and it seemed that the king did not sell Dark Falcon Castle to the Jatu people.
As for the king transferring the recovered direct jurisdiction to other people, even if it was transferred to someone from the Kingdom of Fierce Lions, that was the king's freedom and no one else could interfere.
So Count Stephen just quietly withdrew all his troops, guarded his Oldenburg, and sent people to provide Sir Roland of Dark Falcon Castle with a map of the surrounding area.
The earl showed goodwill to Sir Roland, hoping to fight against the Jatu people together with Dark Falcon Castle.
After being repelled in Xiaofu City, Ursula originally planned to lead her troops to retreat into Sarleon Territory as an ally, but was rejected...
The one who rejected her was Leiman, who actually led the troops.
