Chapter 220: The Enemy's Request
"Go tell Kairos to give up Olega Castle... No, tell him to burn Olega Castle, take away everything he can and return to Siyuan City! Since the cavalry of the Dread Legion is so powerful, we can't fight them in the field!"
Emperor Marius closed his eyes and gave the order with gritted teeth.
The Shadow Centurion immediately took the order and turned away, the spear bag on his back empty.
"I'm sorry, Sura, my friend. I know you have a base in Olega Castle... You came all the way to help me, but I can only sacrifice your auditorium."
Emperor Marius turned around and spoke to a dark corner in the hall.
"This is as it should be, Your Majesty. The auditorium can be rebuilt at any time. As long as we can defeat the Legion of Terror, we are willing to pay any price... If the Snake Cult doesn't know we are here, the Shadow Wolves can play a greater role..."
A warrior wearing a wolf-shaped helmet walked out from the shadows. "You are as great as His Majesty Manius. I am glad that I have met wise emperors on both continents... The Shadow Wolves will accept all your orders and will never regret even if they die."
The wolf head sticking out from the helmet was probably to block the light. The warrior named Sulla had bloodshot eyes, which was exactly the opposite of Emperor Marius.
The whites of Marius' eyes were bloodshot, caused by fatigue;
But Sura had blood-red pupils, which were obviously formed by staying in the dark for many years.
Perhaps he was not used to being in a well-lit place, so Sura took two steps back and hid in the shadows again.
"Sura, I will rebuild a base for you in the Sava River Fort. After Kairos' army enters the city... help me clean out those guys in his army who have ties to the Snake Cult... whoever they are."
Emperor Marius gave the order softly, but it seemed a little difficult to give the order.
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. I promise that in a few days, there will no longer be anyone associated with the Snake Cult in the entire Siyuan City."
Sulla lowered his head and said, "Your Majesty, we really cannot fight the Legion of Terror head-on, but the Phoenix Knights should be here soon. General Titus' fleet will take them directly to land in Siyuan City. I think you should prepare horses for them."
"I must thank the Ashborn Empire for their help..."
Emperor Marius nodded.
"If you hadn't asked General Titus to bring the fleet to support us, our port would have been completely occupied by the Snake Cult two months ago. Your selfless help will certainly be exchanged for the full support of the Ashborn. In order to deal with the Snake Cult, we must unite everything..."
Sura bowed slightly, then retreated into the darkness and disappeared.
Three days later, Fort Olega was engulfed in flames.
It seems that the defense of Siyuan City will continue.
…
December of the 355th year of the Pendor calendar.
Changhe Town.
Granlon and Fother reported to Leon that they successfully destroyed the lair of the three prophets and "found" the king's seal under the witness of Baron Hereward, the lord of the Misty Swamp Castle.
It's just that they didn't meet the three prophets, and they don't know where the three prophets are now...
But the two of them did receive pardons from King Ulric in Sarleon and successfully cleared their names.
At the same time, both of them lost their inheritance rights to Lion Lake City.
Fothert's crime of parricide was pushed onto Milgan, and treason was recognized as a "property" - King Ulric did not make things difficult for him. After all, there was no need for the king to push him into the arms of the enemy.
Because the fact that he was exiled by Alma was public, Alma's exile actually deprived him of his inheritance rights. All the Houghton family's property now had nothing to do with Fothergill.
It's similar with Grannlon. King Ulric agreed that Nelda would inherit the title of Duke of Alma, and it was also a fact that Grannlon and Nelda were divorced, so Grannlon would not get any inheritance rights.
But if the divorce is filed by the woman, Granlon can get the dowry that Nelda brought when they got married.
So Granlong became the lord of Payne Village as a knight, and still led the First Flag Guard of Lion Lake City.
And Fothert got his original territory, Erminede Village, also as a knight - this was the territory that Alma obtained for Fothert last year after he occupied Changhe Town in order to deal with Earl Oden. It was Fothert's own legal territory and had nothing to do with the Horton family.
Now that they were no longer rebels, King Ulric treated them fairly.
Then King Ulric announced a wedding...
He made Prince Alanric marry an eight-year-old girl from the Horton family...
Not only was the wedding very strange, but it was also very hasty - from the announcement of the engagement to the completion of the wedding, it only took a day and a half. A banquet in the palace solved all the problems, and the banquet did not even have any guests.
The people who attended the wedding were only the nobles in Sarleon City. As the family of the "Princess's Consort", only five or six people from the Holden family were present...
The wedding had just ended, and the Duke of Lion Lake City, a first-class and noble title, was conferred on the eight-year-old girl.
Then the House of Lords of Sarleon City publicly announced that the Duke of Lion Lake City would hand over all titles and affairs to her husband, Prince Alanric.
According to the House of Lords, the eight-year-old girl was Alma's great-niece and was adopted by Duke Alma's daughter Nelda when she was born eight years ago.
This kind of adoption by blood relatives is equivalent to biological birth, so this is the Duke Alma's granddaughter and the first heir of Lady Nelda.
Of course, Granlong knew that this girl had nothing to do with Nelda, but no one would delve into the matter at this time, and no one in the Horton family said anything anyway.
Thus, Lion Lake City nominally became the fiefdom of Prince Alanric.
But this prince showed up only once during his 'wedding', and spent the rest of the time 'recuperating' in the tower of Sarleon City, and was unable to go to Lionlake City.
So Lion Lake City was temporarily under the management of the Royal Knights, and King Ulrich built a new auditorium for the Lion Knights in Lion Lake City.
It was obvious that the king intended to replenish the Lion Knights who had suffered heavy losses in Lion Lake City.
Overall, Ulrich's decisions were reasonable, but they were a bit petty.
Even Granlong felt that this was a case of being both a hypocrite and trying to find rules within the rules.
In fact, Granlong and Fothert came to Leon not mainly to report the situation, but to swear allegiance.
Both Granlon and Fother are now knights, and they currently have no allegiance - they both used to be loyal to the Duke of Alma, but Alma is dead.
It is now the end of the year. As the largest lord in the eastern region, Leon, the newly promoted earl, has welcomed a traditional event in the Fierce Lion Territory - the allegiance of the knights and their followers.
The flags of Changhe Town have been changed continuously in the past two years. Duke Aelfwan and Duke Alma died one after another, Lady Bella became a heretic, and Lord Malbert returned to Cliff Bay... This caused many knights to lose their allegiance.
At the same time, continuous wars caused many knights to die on the battlefield. During the period when the Three Prophets were causing trouble, many small nobles gave up their territories and followed the Three Prophets, and many knights went bankrupt because of this.
Today, the eastern region is filled with impoverished nobles who have lost their allegiance, knights who have lost their territories, and retainers whose masters have died.
Most of these people will choose to swear allegiance to the largest local lord at the end of the year.
The reason why they all carry out this traditional project at the end of the year is mainly because these people want to avoid the tax collection period...
Of course, the knights with fiefs could have chosen not to do so and could have declared their loyalty to the king - but that would have meant that they would have to face all the disasters alone, with no one to back them up, and they would have to face the encroachment of the surrounding great lords and the harassment of the kingdom's tax officials...
Just like a pioneer lord, he has to face everything alone, but he cannot be absent when he should fulfill his obligations, such as being called to war.
But their own territory is limited, and they cannot expand freely along the border like the pioneer lords, and they do not have the one-year tax exemption right of the pioneer lords...
For most knights, having a suitable leader is much better than fighting alone, especially those warriors who only know how to fight and not engage in economic development - otherwise they will most likely go bankrupt after a defeat.
As for the followers whose masters have died, they must follow a new lord in order to get a chance to turn things around.
The number of knights under the command of the newly appointed Earl Leon is very small, so there must be more opportunities.
Therefore, the Lord has to accept many people kneeling on one knee and swearing an oath to him every day in the past few days...
The followers' loyalty ceremony is actually very simple. They just kneel on one knee like a marriage proposal, cross their legs in a blessing gesture, and then swear allegiance to the lord.
And the lord needs to hold their hands in front of the statue of the goddess of order to express his acceptance.
Since there were so many knights who had lost their masters, these knights were originally children of nobles. Although they were second sons or side branches, according to tradition, they had to swear allegiance to the lord one by one...
As a result, the Lord's Hall in Changhe Town has been receiving followers lining up to pledge their allegiance every day these days. All kinds of messy swallowtail flags and shields are dazzling, and the mud outside the city has been trampled into pieces by the passing horses.
Li Ang has been in a daze these past few days. Every day, hundreds of dirty men are proposing to him. Anyone would be in a daze...
Fortunately, this is in the process of strengthening our strength. Every time we meet a person, it means that our military strength has increased by one point. These people are all qualified soldiers.
There were quite a lot of followers who came to seek refuge, nearly three hundred people. There were indeed too many noble children from the Fierce Lion Territory.
There were also quite a few poor knights, more than a dozen of them, almost all of them bankrupt, some of them were so poor that they didn't even have armor - obviously they had been sold...
Of course, the knight's allegiance ceremony would be more formal, with the sword at the shoulder being pointed, and the lord having to recite an oath.
But knights are different from squires.
What the followers are seeking now is only a formal noble status, which can be easily arranged.
However, what these traditional knights want is to take back their old territories or obtain new territories. These demands are completely different in concept, so the lords will naturally treat them differently.
Just then, Granlong and Fother came to seek refuge, so Leon handed over all the knights who came to seek refuge to Fother, and then gave Fother a task.
Suppress bandits.
Winter has arrived, and the northern nations of Pendor have stopped fighting each other.
The Kingdom of Ravenstern was once again attacked by many Misty Mountain raiding teams, and the Vanskerry pirates once again went south to the Firdsvain territory on the west coast to spend the winter. Everything was no different from before.
After the winter tax collection every year, the Kingdom of the Fierce Lion always produces a large number of bandits and robbers, which is no different from the past.
In fact, after January next year, many "bandits" will return to the villages and become good citizens...
The so-called "Misty Mountaineers" and "Pirates" encountered by Ravenstern and Firdsvain may not all be from the Misty Mountains or Vanskerry...
Of course, the lords of various countries would lead their troops to hunt down the bandits, but these so-called "bandits" who were more familiar with the terrain than the locals were difficult to eliminate, and the lords themselves actually understood this...
Yes, everything is no different from before, and it has been like this on the continent of Pendor for more than a hundred years.
At present, many "bandits" have appeared around Changhe Town.
However, what is quite rare is that most of the bandits near Changhe Town do not seem to be the kind of poor people with ragged clothes. From time to time, you can actually see some emblem robes on them...
Although they also have a sneaky style and a style of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, it is obvious that these so-called bandits in Changhe Town are not proficient in their business skills and even their level of hiding their whereabouts is quite poor.
However, these guys are very well-informed and always manage to move successfully before Eric's anti-bandit troops arrive.
In fact, the lord and Eric were both very clear about the identities of these so-called bandits, but they were not familiar with them and it was difficult for them to find them.
So the Lord decided to hand this matter over to Fothert ...
Because Fothergill was familiar with these so-called bandits.
Most of them were local nobles who had lost their allegiance but were not very willing to obey Leon's rule.
Some became bandits in order to evade taxes, some habitually robbed at this time, and some were forced to "borrow money" from banks and then ran away with the money.
Fawcett really has a way of dealing with these guys.
He first went to the bank with great fanfare to borrow money, using his territory of Erminede as collateral. The loan amount was large, a full 20,000 dinars, and he began to recruit soldiers.
This was a real loan, and it was known to everyone. After all, it was the largest single loan ever made by Pand Bank.
Then he led his troops to commit a major crime - he robbed a convoy that was transporting taxes from Changhe Town to Sarleon City, a total of 75,000 dinars...
After the robbery, the knights all dispersed, and Fothert led his troops to the village of Trubrun.
This incident naturally caused a huge uproar and the entire Changhe Town was in an uproar.
Before long, taverns and villages everywhere knew that taxes were robbed by Fothert. It was said that Fothert, the former "Duke of Lion Lake", seemed to be planning to form an alliance to jointly oppose the tyranny of Earl Leon's forced loans, and was recruiting people at a high price.
There is also a code saying "One month enters the long river" spread in various places...
So, one group of "bandits" after another went to Trubrun.
Maybe some of them wanted to rob other gangs, maybe some of them wanted to join Fotherg's army to fight against Leon, maybe some of them had other hidden purposes...
But on the last day of December, all the 'bandits' disappeared in Trubrun.
And Fothert did enter Changhe Town on January 1st, and returned 95,000 dinars to the lord in public... He also publicly refuted the rumors, saying that someone had impersonated him to commit a crime before, and he just killed that group of bandits.
Anyway, no matter what others think, at least the matter has been resolved, and it has nothing ...
Fothert knew that this was a token of his loyalty, and that it was the duty of the new henchman to take the blame for the boss.
"How many people died?"
The lord was extremely satisfied with Fothergill's performance, which was indeed a true inheritance from the Duke of Alma.
"I didn't count. I couldn't count the number of people who were killed in the middle of the night... But my lord, I have to tell you that among them there was a Lion Knight, a baron..."
Fawcett's reference to the killing was completely emotionless.
"Baron? Where was his original fiefdom?"
The lord did not expect that there were high-ranking nobles involved.
"It's Trubrun. But there are no villagers there, so he was robbing everywhere some time ago. He is probably one of Duke Brunus's men. I heard that his methods are very cruel. That group of people originally regarded him as their leader..."
Fother shook his head. "But I didn't have time to ask his name. I just knew that everyone called him Captain. He was the military officer of the Lion Knights."
"I'm not interested in knowing the name of a dead man, no matter who he is...Trublen still has your men stationed there, and the residents of the Maixiang Territory may gradually move there. Brunus will not care about that place."
Leon didn't care much. After all, the Lion Knight died at the hands of Fothert, and it had nothing to do with him...
"Do the spoils need to be sent to Changhe Town?"
Fawcett acted very sensible.
"The rule here is that whoever gets the spoils belongs to him. You don't have to hand them in. They're all yours."
The Lord was quite generous: "Also, Fothert, if you can make your territory prosperous and wealthy, and all the people in your territory live a happy and affluent life... then I will help you take back Lion Lake City..."
"I will do my best...sir...but why?"
Fothergill was stunned for a moment. He obviously didn't expect Leon to say that.
Lion Lake City, this is of course what Fothert has always dreamed of, he would even commit treason for it.
But he didn't understand, why was Li Ang willing to help him when he could control him?
The Lord patted him on the shoulder and said: "I never treat a sincere friend unfairly, no matter what he has done."
It's easy to have a smart person who can do dirty work under you. Changhe Town is quite quiet now and everything is running well.
Thousands of new recruits were called to Changhe Town. Jocelyn was doing an excellent job in training the new recruits, and the two-month training was about to be completed.
Large amounts of weapons and equipment were continuously transported, and the warehouses were filled with food and fodder.
Eagle Claw Castle also sent over a thousand horses, which were the spoils of war from the last time the Jatu people were defeated.
The Lord's overall strength has now made great progress and he lacks almost nothing.
However, the gods of Pendor probably don't want the Lord to be idle and concentrate on development...
In early January of the 356th year of the Pandeli calendar, an uninvited guest came to Changhe Town.
It was a very pretty Bacchus girl, who brought with her several Knights of the Radiant Cross, and held the banner of Emperor Marius.
"Count Leon, I come here to ask for help on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor..."
