Chapter 255: Both Sides Suffer
Ulrich did not give his troops to Leon...
As the Qicha Fortress was occupied by Agasson, in order to guard against a possible surprise attack on Sarleon by the Bacchus Empire, all members of the Lion Knights, who had just completed their replenishment, were now in Sarleon.
Today, the Lion Knights have returned to their full strength of 600 Lion Knights and more than 2,000 Lion Squires. Ulric has been selecting knights in Sarleon City for the past few months.
When a royal knight group like the Lion Knights conducts a large-scale recruitment, naturally a large number of noble children will come to Sarleon City to participate in the selection. These young people are all ready-made combat forces who have been trained for a long time, and they all bring their own horse rations...
At the same time, the newly recruited oversized Royal Guards were also in Sarleon. Ulric took advantage of the arrival of the nobles to increase the size of his own entourage.
The current Royal City Guard has a total of 2,800 people, which is equivalent to the full strength of the Lion Knights. If Ulrich, who has always lacked a sense of security, was not worried about the large number of people, he would probably recruit more people.
Unlike the Knights of the Lion, the Royal Guards were Ulrich's own personal armed forces. The state treasury would only subsidize their weapons and equipment, but their daily expenses for food and horses had to be supported by the king's own money and grain.
Moreover, the treatment of the king's squire is naturally much better than that of the ordinary knight's squire. Not only do they receive death pensions and disability allowances, but their salaries are also not low. That is why Ulrich is so short of money now.
In addition to the Lion Knights and the Royal Guards, Duke Brennus is also in Sarleon. He just suffered a defeat, so he took advantage of the fact that all the nobles were in Sarleon to reorganize his troops.
Many noble children failed in the selection and were unable to join the Lion Knights. Of course, they were willing to join the Lion Knights' Grand Master's troops at this time, and maybe they would have the opportunity to become a member of the Royal Knights in the future.
Therefore, Brennus quickly reorganized an army of more than a thousand people.
Not only that, other lords from the northwest of the kingdom were also coming to Sarleon in waves. They were going to gather at the Seven Forks Fortress and would definitely pass through Sarleon.
After arriving at Sarleon, these lords would naturally stay in Sarleon's jurisdiction for a few days to observe, and then join up with other lords before going there together to avoid being ambushed by the enemies in Qicha Fortress.
Anyway, the distance between Sarleon City and Qicha Fortress is not far. Even if they wait until there are only one or two days left before the assembly deadline, they can still make it in time by setting out from Sarleon City.
Right now, the Fierce Lion City has the most troops. There are so many that the streets are full of horse manure, and there is no time to clean it up...
As a result, as soon as Cardan and the D'Shar army entered the village of Yaragal east of Sarleon City, they ran into the real main force of the Sarleon Kingdom, led by Ulric himself...
This was due to the fact that the Royal Guards were seriously overstaffed, and Brennus's newly reorganized troops temporarily occupied the city defense garrison camp, resulting in insufficient barracks in Sarleon City.
Moreover, there were too many All of them had horses. Not only did they occupy all the taverns and inns in the city, but they also made the entire Sarleon City like a cesspool, with no place to step.
Even horse feed such as hay and beans in Sarlion City had increased in price several times - the people under Li Ang Maixiang International did not have to pay business taxes in Sarlion City, so naturally they did all kinds of business, and they seized the opportunity to make a lot of money.
So at this time, Ulric was personally arranging to use Yaraghar Village as a temporary barracks for the cavalry, saving Sarleon City from the cesspool, and by the way, saving his wallet from the high-priced horse feed...
When Cardan brought the D'Shar people here, he had no intention of attacking Sarleon City. Instead, he planned to quickly raid the surrounding villages and towns and run away after robbing them.
When leading a large army to rob a village, there is no need to hesitate to engage in intelligence gathering. Adhering to Khan Kadan's principle of "act quickly and leave after the robbery", the Desha army rushed into the village of Yaragal at full speed.
But Kadan never expected that there would be so many troops in this village...
Ulrich really didn't expect that the troops of the Bacchus Empire did not come, but the Desha people came instead?
Is this Khan Cardan a little too bold to actually have the guts to covet Sarleon City?
You really think the lion is a sick cat, right?
If we don't kill the D'Shar here, the wealthy families in Sarleon will definitely feel unsafe and run away with their families!
So the angry Ulrich blew the charge himself...
When the capital city is attacked, it is different from ordinary combat.
The troops of the Sarleon Kingdom were very active, including the nobles, and almost all of them were dispatched, not even giving Bahad Khan Kadan a chance to turn around and run away...
Especially those young nobles who had just been promoted to Lion Knights, all of them were eager to make achievements and they rushed forward fiercely.
Just one day later, the area outside the village of Yalagal was filled with dead and wounded, with bodies strewn everywhere.
Both sides were large-scale cavalry units, and there was no way to plan any tactics when they suddenly encountered each other. This kind of battle was fought very quickly, and people died very quickly...
As a result, both Bahad Khan and King Ulrik were in tears at the same time...
The newly rebuilt Lion Knights charged too aggressively and were defeated again, with one third of them killed. Most of the dead were new royal knights and their new followers - since they were not good at coordination, this result was normal.
The number of new recruits in the Royal City Guards increased significantly, and the number of soldiers was reduced from overstaffed to the original 1,500 in a short time. Now the barracks in Fierce Lion City were enough...
Ulrich thought at the time that he might go bankrupt... How much pension would it cost?
The casualties of Bahad Khan Kadan's Dzhar army were even more severe, and they did not gain any benefits at all. So Kadan quickly withdrew his remaining troops back to Dzhar territory, abandoning even the wounded.
The Deshar people, who were all cavalry, were able to escape and even take away most of the horses that had lost their owners.
So, although the Sarleon Kingdom seemed to have won the battle, it basically did not obtain any valuable spoils and suffered considerable losses.
As for D'Shar, Kadan brought his loyal followers with him this time. Now their strength has been severely damaged. God knows whether his position as 'Bahá' Khan' will be stable after he returns to D'Shar...
You should know that before Kadan's rule, the Desha Principality was actually a semi-hereditary and semi-electoral country. "Bahad Khan", the "messenger of God on earth", was originally elected by various tribes.
Just like the title of "Caliph", in Desha it means "successor of God's messenger", which was originally elected by various tribes. The Caliph is one of the candidates for the next Bahad Khan, and there are usually three to four.
The original meaning of "Bai" is "a person who assists the messenger of God to lead the people". He is a local governor who combines military, political and religious power, similar to a general or a city lord, and is also the local religious leader. From the meaning of this title, it can be seen that he was originally a leader elected by the local people.
Only the Khanship of each tribe is mostly hereditary. But in fact, more than 200 years ago, even the Khanship was held by the most prestigious person nominated by the tribe, and even now, some small tribes still use the nomination method to select their Khan.
But after Cardin came to power, he completely changed the system.
In other words, he became Bahad because of changing the system - he used the hereditary system to make promises to those powerful tribal leaders, promising that the tribal leaders who supported him would become hereditary "caliphs" or "bays", so that his descendants would be able to control greater power.
So in the election among the tribes, the young Kadan was successfully elected as Bahadur.
Afterwards, Kadan fulfilled his promise. He took the new rulers who became caliphs and bayis because of their support, and used force and violence to forcibly change the electoral system of the Principality of Dersha into a hereditary system, and adopted a feudal autonomy similar to that of the kingdoms.
In other words, Cardan directly and comprehensively matched the religious titles of "Bahad", "Caliph", and "Bai" with the titles of "King", "Duke", and "Baron" in the Kingdom of Sarleon.
Each title can be passed on to its own heir, and no further elections will be made unless a family becomes extinct.
After a purge filled with blood and violence, Cardan created a permanent class of high nobility in D'Shar.
This comprehensive transformation from an election system to a hereditary system did indeed quickly consolidate Cardan's rule in a very short period of time - those who gained power naturally wanted to maintain it permanently, so they would inevitably support Cardan's approach.
This has nothing to do with a country’s religious beliefs and culture. Who doesn’t want their descendants to always be a higher ruling class?
Moreover, after Cardan purged the disobedient tribal leaders by force, the entire D'Shar was indeed unified. D'Shar was no longer a loose tribal alliance, and civil wars rarely occurred between tribes. The national strength was indeed greatly improved as a result.
Therefore, Desha has not implemented the election system in the past twenty years. Now it is more like a dynasty. Except for the different religions and cultures, it is essentially no different from other kingdoms.
But just like Emperor Marius's reforms, changes in a country's political system will always lead to conflicts.
Over the past twenty years, those who benefited from the hereditary system were all tribal leaders who once supported Kadan, which naturally allowed Kadan to sit firmly on the throne of Bahad.
But now, many tribal leaders who originally supported Kadan have grown old or died, and their descendants have inherited their positions, but these young new Khans are not very familiar with Kadan.
Besides, most people in high positions have more than one child, but there is only one high-level title, and children who fail to inherit the title will naturally have some other ideas.
For example, Cardan himself can use force to promote the hereditary system and create a group of high-ranking nobles to support him in becoming Bahadur. This actually points out a clear path for these young people - as long as there are enough people and troops supporting him, anyone can become Bahadur in this way...
Even if they are not strong enough, at least they can become Caliph or Baiyi by supporting another Bahad - just like their father supported Kadan.
Therefore, the current Desha is not stable, and Cardan is already facing the threat of another challenger - his younger brother, Emile Xerxes.
In fact, Emile Xerxes used the hereditary system that Cardan himself had created to challenge Bahader’s position…
Since Kadan had created the Bahadur succession, he gave his father the title of Bahadur Khan - anyone who ascended the throne would do the same.
The tradition of Desha is that after the father's death, his property should be divided equally among all his descendants.
So Emir Xerxes claimed that since his father was the 'former Bahad Khan', the entire Desha Principality should be divided into two halves, so that both children could become Bahad...
——If it is in a tribe, after the Khan of the tribe dies, the two children can indeed divide the tribe equally.
For example, the brothers Kadan and Amir Xerxes would be divided from their father's tribe into two tribes, Kadan and Amir, and both were khans.
Since Cardan himself implemented the hereditary system, it was difficult for him to oppose this reason, so his brother had been claiming to divide D'Sha equally, and he did get the support of some young tribal leaders - mostly those who failed to inherit the title of Caliph or Baiyi...
If D'Shar was still under the election system, then even if Kadan destroyed all his troops, it would not affect his status. After all, it was Bahad who was elected by the tribal leaders themselves, and people generally would not go against their own faces.
But now, Cardan has used force to force the establishment of a hereditary system. He understands better than anyone that the power in his hands is everything.
He also knew that his case was in the forefront, and every Khan of Desha probably understood this truth...
At the same time, every leader would probably try to copy his path to power if given the chance.
Now, with his troops suffering heavy losses, a man like Amir Xerxes would probably not rest easy—and many people would not rest easy.
So Cardan didn't dare to fight any further. He could only withdraw his remaining troops back to the country with great sorrow, preparing to face another difficult challenge from within.
The Deshar people retreated, and Ulrik and Cardan were both badly hurt, but this situation of both being hurt was actually just the beginning.
After all, this was a blatant attack by the Principality of D'Shar on the capital of the Kingdom of Sarleon. In this situation, the Kingdom of Sarleon could only make one response - Ulrich, who was also full of sorrow, declared a full-scale war on the Principality of D'Shar and regarded the Principality of D'Shar as the highest priority enemy, a fight that would not stop until one side was dead.
In the king's order, Ulrich directly called the Principality of Desha "the evil cult bandits in the desert", and Bahad was also called the "brutal cult leader".
Sarleon City is the capital of Sarleon Kingdom after all. This is the only reaction any country would have if its capital was attacked.
Moreover, Ulrich was extremely angry now, much more angry than when Qicha Fortress was captured - this terrible battle had brought him to the brink of bankruptcy!
To be honest, Eric had been busy coordinating the emotions of the caravan during this period. This huge caravan just slowly moved from a location several dozen miles east of Qicha Fortress to the Sava River, and then Eric and Leiman brought it back to the original place together - just moving back and forth like this, without doing anything, and the situation turned out like this...
After learning about the situation Li Ang suddenly became more energetic.
Now, a new strategic goal has appeared before the Lord - to lead the kingdom's army, invade the Principality of Desha in the name of revenge, and fight a long war in Desha!
In other words, to use force to open up a whole new market...
This time Li Ang did not hesitate at all. He quickly mobilized his army and set out again within three days - his efficiency was as ridiculously fast as before.
In addition, he issued a marshal's order to all lords across the country, summoning their troops to gather directly at the Sava River Fort to prepare for a full-scale attack on the Principality of Dexia.
Of course, the problem of Qicha Fortress also needs to be solved. After all, King Ulric’s request is here, and the king did not let Leon change his strategic goals...
But the lord did not plan to attack the Qicha Fortress by force. This giant bastion was not so easy to capture. Leon knew that the Bacchus Empire was not in a good situation recently, so he planned to have a friendly consultation with General Agasson to see if the matter could be resolved peacefully.
