Chapter 254 It's all misunderstanding
In fact, the current situation is probably really caused by Eric's luck.
After Eric arrived near Qicha Fortress with a large group of troops under the banner of Leon, everyone had a little misunderstanding - because this huge caravan seemed to be the "Army of the Kingdom of Sarleon"...
After all, the flags of various great lords appeared in that huge team - Leon, Godric, Leofric, Fother, Granlon, and the Royal Knights Iris Flag...
The Royal Iris is Amy's flag - it is exactly the same flag as the Royal Guard's flag. Amy's brother Lord Andrew also used this flag when he was the commander of the Royal Guard.
This is mainly because most merchants will look for a backer, especially when participating in such large-scale long-distance trade activities, it is safer to fly the flag of the overlord - in the past, there were caravans that did not fly the flag of the overlord, and were robbed by the Snake Worship Cult.
Therefore, all merchants were well prepared this time. Merchants from Erminede would naturally join Fothert, those from Payne Village would use Granlon's banner, and those from White Hart Castle would ask Amy to help give them a sense of security...
In addition, there were already three large flags on the Changhe Express carriage, and the small lords along the way would also join this "army"...
So the team that Eric led looked from afar like the entire Sarleon Kingdom's mighty army, and it looked like it was led by the king himself - after all, the flag of the Royal City Guard was also among them.
Of course, it can be seen from a close distance, but facing a large-scale army with more than a thousand carriages alone, apart from the lord of the Kingdom of Fierce Lion, which scout would dare to get close to investigate?
At the same time, after the caravan stopped near Qicha Fortress, it did not attack Qicha Fortress. Instead, it continued to gather other lords of the Fierce Lion Territory who came to gather, and gradually began to move towards the bridgehead in the south.
This doesn't look like they are going to recapture the Qicha Fortress, but rather they are about to attack the Sava River Fortress...
This is a merchant caravan, so of course they won't attack the fortress... and Eric has been following Leon's instructions to get other lords of the Sarleon Kingdom to gather together to facilitate the merchants to do business.
But during the gathering , Eric was somewhat unable to control those noisy businessmen...
Most of the goods the merchants brought were specialties from the north, which could not be sold in the army, so they were originally planning to sell them in the south.
But the merchants didn't understand any strategy or tactics. They only knew that the lords of the Kingdom of Sarleon had been joining this huge team along the way. They didn't know how many there were, but it seemed like they were endless...
In the merchants’ opinion, the army group was probably very strong and could march towards the Sava River Fort at any time.
Therefore, the merchants planned to move toward the south first, so as to gain the upper hand and avoid being squeezed from behind and unable to keep up when the army officially went out to battle.
In fact, the ones who have come to join us are all small lords, and their total military strength is less than 1,000, but the merchants don't know...
As a result, all the caravans rushed to the south, which caused the "army" to move slowly southward. The small lords of the Fierce Lion Territory who had just joined the general's army did not understand the situation very well. Seeing that most people were moving, they naturally followed suit.
Although Eric held the Marshal's Staff, the Staff was only useful to the Lords of Sarleon, not to the merchants. After all, he was not Leon, and in the eyes of the merchants, he did not have the same high prestige and influence as the Lords, so Eric really could not pull back the merchants who had made changes...
Therefore, the caravan and army group that originally planned to gather on the east side of Qicha Fortress gradually moved to the bank of Sava River, and were about to meet up with Lehman's troops guarding the bridgehead.
The main reason why Rayman had been holding on to the bridge was because Titus had been pretending to attack on the other side of the bridge. Titus wanted to lure the Kingdom of Sarleon and the Principality of D'Shar into fighting together, so of course he had to drag Rayman's troops to the bridge.
Now that Qicha Fortress had been captured, Leiman knew that if he left the bridge defense zone, it would mean that Sarleon City might be invaded by the Bacchus Empire, and Titus seemed to want to do just that, so Leiman could only guard the bridge and dare not leave.
But the Sarleon army appeared on the other side of the river, and General Titus, who was holding back Reman at the bridgehead on the other side of the Sava River, was frightened. He really wanted the battle between the three countries to continue, but he didn't expect the Sarleon Kingdom to make such a big move and send out such a large army so quickly...
Moreover, the army of the Kingdom of Fierce Lion didn't care about the Qicha Fortress at all. Instead, it seemed like they had mobilized the entire country's troops to cause trouble for his Sava River Fort?
In this situation, how can we talk about watching the fire from the other side of the river or trying to take advantage of the fire... shouldn't we just run away?
So Titus retreated to the Lela Fortress in a flash, running very fast - Agathon left almost no one behind when he left the Lela Fortress, so the Lela Fortress was an empty city, just right for Titus to be stationed there.
When Titus retreated, Sir Lehman naturally felt that a great opportunity had arisen, because the Sava River Fort was empty. Shouldn't he seize the opportunity and take it down quickly?
Leiman became a world-famous Mad Lion Knight at a young age, so he naturally had an arrogant character. The Qicha Fortress was lost from his hands, so he was thinking about making up for it.
He had been defending Qicha Fortress for more than a year, and he knew very well that it would be difficult to take down Qicha Fortress as long as there were 1,800 defenders in it. Therefore, he also understood why the "Kingdom's Army" did not attack easily.
And now, if we take advantage of the emptiness of the Sava River Fort to quickly capture it, and then use the Sava River Fort to exchange for the Qicha Fortress, wouldn't this be equivalent to making up for the sin of losing the Qicha Fortress before?
In addition, there is the "Kingdom's Army Group" behind them, and the current marshal is Leon - based on Leiman's understanding of Leon, he thinks Leon would think the same, so he asked the "Army Group" to move closer to the river.
So Lehman didn't say hello to the army group, but directly abandoned the bridgehead, mobilized the entire army, and quickly attacked the Sava River Fort - he wanted to take credit.
For Lehman, it was a way to make up for his mistake by capturing the Sava River Fort alone before the arrival of the army.
There was nothing wrong with this idea, and Lehman implemented it quite well. He actually captured the Sava River Fort for a time...
But he only took a day and a half.
Because Titus took away all the manpower and supplies when he evacuated, and destroyed the gates and drawbridge of the Sava River Fort, and all the city defense facilities were also destroyed - destroying city defenses during an active evacuation was a routine operation.
The gate of Sava River Fort could not be closed at all, and there was no one guarding inside, so Lehman took it easily.
However, just as Leiman entered the Sava River Fort, the large army of the Dzha Principality rushed over - the Dzha people also saw that the gates of the Sava River Fort were wide open, so they naturally wanted to fight...
Because they had been in the south before, due to their location, the Deshar people did not immediately notice the "army group" across the river. They thought that Titus was scared away by their own army.
Like Rayman, the lords of the Principality of Desha also wanted to grab the credit in this situation, and they all rushed forward very quickly.
Leiman's isolated army had just entered the Sava River Fort. With the city gates wide open and no time to seal them, they were of course unable to hold out against the Desha army. They were forced to withdraw after just a day and a half, with heavy casualties. Leiman himself was almost hacked to death.
But the Deshar people were not having a good time either. Rayman's team was very strong, and the Deshar troops suffered more casualties than Rayman's. Rayman had always thought that the 'Army Group' would come to reinforce, so he fought very tenaciously.
But when Lehman, wounded all over, retreated to the Marshal's banner and prepared to curse, he discovered that the so-called group army was actually just a bunch of noisy businessmen...
In order to restrain the merchants from making any unusual moves, Eric was almost working himself to death. He used all the troops of a thousand or so from various small lords and finally managed to pacify the merchants.
Of course, it was impossible to send reinforcements in this situation. It was a sign of Eric's ability that no negative incidents such as gathering to cause trouble occurred.
So Leiman could only cry without tears and scold himself for being too impulsive. He really shouldn't have taken credit for anything...
After learning about the current situation, Eric and Rayman both became a little worried. The D'Shar army was just across the river. If the D'Shar discovered that this was a large merchant caravan, it would be like a luxurious feast for them. If they ate this meal, it would probably last them several years...
So Lehman and Eric worked together, coaxing and tricking the caravan back to the east of Qicha Fortress, planning to hide further east, away from the danger zone...
After capturing Sava River Fort, the Deshar people found that this place was extremely poor and they basically gained nothing - Sava River Fort had been plundered by Brunus before, and there was not much left, and General Titus evacuated on his own initiative, so of course he would take away everything he could.
A large-scale military operation resulted in nearly a thousand casualties, but they only got an empty city. Even the surrounding villages and towns had nothing. Most of the D'Shar lords felt that this battle was a huge loss...
Bahad Khan Kadan, the leader of D'Shar, felt that he was at a huge disadvantage...
Bahad Khan Kadan is the ruler of the Duchy of Desha. If it was ruled by the Kingdom of Pende, he should be called Duke Kadan.
In fact, "Bahad Khan" is not Kadan's name or surname. His name is Kadan, and his tribe is also called Kadan. "Bahad Khan" is actually a title of honor, which is roughly equivalent to "Khan designated by the gods."
The current D'Shar is an independent country. The title of Duke from the Pendor Kingdom era has not been used for many years. In fact, the D'Shar people do not consider themselves a principality - they have long ceased to be affiliated with any kingdom.
It is called a principality only because D'Shar was once a vassal of the Kingdom of Pender. Several hundred years ago, the ruler of D'Shar was named Duke by the King of Pender. Due to historical reasons, other countries call D'Shar a principality.
After Kadan was elected as the current leader by all the Desha tribes, he once again used the title "Bahad Khan", which represents the god.
Of course, this does not refer to the gods themselves. The god of the Desha people is called "Wata", and his image is a black stallion. This is the common belief of all herdsmen living in the Savannah Desert. No one dares to claim to be the god himself.
The title of Bahadur Khan, in the theocratic state of Desha, represents the common head of all aspects including politics, military, justice, and religion, which means "the messenger of the god Wata on earth".
This is different from the meaning of "Khan".
There are many people in D'Shar who are qualified to be called Khans. In fact, all D'Shar lords are Khans. They are an alliance composed of multiple tribes, and the leader of each tribe is called Khan. The title of "Khan" only refers to the leader of a tribe.
'Bahad Khan Kadan' actually means that he is the leader of all Khans appointed by the gods and his name is Kadan.
The core sphere of influence of Kadan's tribe is in Toba, the capital city in the center of Desha. That place is actually quite far from Sava River Fort, and requires crossing most of the Savanniil Desert.
In other words, the cost of Cardan's deployment this time was actually quite high.
But he didn't get any benefits from Sava River Fort, only an empty city, and Cardan didn't want to occupy Sava River Fort for a long time - whoever occupied Sava River Fort would face two countries at the same time...
Cardan is a smart man, he certainly won't waste his strength guarding a useless territory.
So he planned to find a more prosperous place to rob, to make up for the losses of the troops, and to leave after making a profit.
This is also the consistent fighting strategy of the D'Shar people - although they never admit that they have any relationship with the Jatu people, their behavior logic is indeed very similar to that of the Jatu people, and they are basically looters. However, D'Shar has transformed into a semi-nomadic and semi-settled state more than a hundred years ago, and now it is also a country with a complete political system.
The closest military fortresses to the north and south of Sava River Fort are the military fortresses of two countries - the Qicha Fortress occupied by Agasson in the north and the Leila Fortress of the Bacchus Empire in the south.
A large-scale bastion like the Qicha Fortress is obviously difficult to attack, and there will be no gain even if you attack it. Anyway, it seems that Agasson will not come out, so you can just bypass it.
The Leila Fortress is not easy to attack either, and there will be no gains either...
In addition, the D'Shar people discovered the Marshal's flag of the Kingdom of Sarleon and a large-scale "army group" a few dozen miles east of Qicha Fortress. It seems that King Ulric's troops are also in it - there are quite a lot of iris flags.
And this army is now moving slowly to the east, and it seems that it is going to enter the Bacchus Empire from the east?
——In fact, at this time, Eric was leading the caravan away from the danger zone with the help of Rayman...
Earl Leon had just occupied the Castle of Karen and was later appointed marshal. As a king, he certainly knew about such major events.
In Cardan's opinion, since the King of the Fierce Lions appointed Leon as the marshal, it would be normal for the army of the Fierce Lions to attack Bacchus from Leon's territory.
So after discussing with his men for a long time, Cardan decided to take advantage of the fact that Qicha Fortress was occupied by the Baccus Empire and the army of the Sarleon Kingdom was all moving eastward, and run to the Sarleon City area through the unattended passage on the west side of Qicha Fortress to rob a group of people...
Anyway, there is no one guarding the bridge over the Sava River now.
Cardan thought that since the 'main army group' of Sarleon Kingdom and 'Ulric's troops' were all east of the Seven Forks Fortress, Sarleon City was probably quite empty at the moment.
The Sarleon City is the center of the entire continent, the most prosperous place in the continent. If you seize the opportunity to grab it and run away, you will surely make a lot of money...
The D'Shar were actually self-aware. They had no intention of conquering Sarleon. They just wanted to rob the prosperous villages and towns around Sarleon before the 'Army of the Sarleon Kingdom' could react. The D'Shar were a desert nomadic people with very mobile cavalry, but like the Jatu, they were not very good at attacking fortified cities.
But the problem is that Sarleon City is not empty at all now, and can even be said to have many soldiers and generals...
