Chapter 397 Troubles
Leon stayed at Fort Almera and waited, mainly to wait for Wendy to bring the explosives and grenades.
At the same time, it was also to wait for Wendy, Aldarian and others to sort out the interior of the Principality of Noldor and ensure that the enemy did not sneak into the forest.
No hot weapons such as grenades were used in the Battle of Salem, mainly because the direct killing power of these things was indeed not great. It was difficult to kill people wearing armor, but it would scare war horses.
Leon's army has many cavalry, but only some of the Gatu and Nodoma of White Deer Castle have been specially trained. The heavy lancers who charge into battle have never come into contact with explosives. If they startle their own heavy cavalry on the battlefield, it will be a big trouble...
This crude black powder weapon cannot completely dominate the battlefield in this era and is more suitable for defense - the history of Leon's original world has proved this.
Only in an era that pursued greater mobility and long-range combat, when armies no longer wore heavy armor, did grenades become truly popular.
Of course, the fact that no one made grenades after Li Ang disappeared was also an important reason. This thing is not moisture-proof, and saltpeter is hard to come by in this era and cannot be wasted, so Li Ang always assembles it temporarily before the war, and there has never been much reserve, and the raw materials have always been stored in Bailubao.
Due to the forest fire during this period, Bailu Fort has been facing the threat of fire. Of course, the flammable materials were moved away as soon as possible and there was no time to produce them in large quantities.
So it was not until the rainy season came and the forest fire was extinguished that Leon asked Wendy to rush to make a batch.
Wendy likes to use firearms very much. She is also the only person besides Li Ang who has mastered the best ratio of black powder.
Li Ang's "students" all have different personalities and interests.
Amy actually doesn't like fighting. Although she has always wanted to be a female knight and has an incredible talent for shooting, she is actually better at economic construction and has a lot of experience in fooling people - after all, she came here to learn how to cheat in the first place.
Alina is usually a very silent person, a quiet scholar who likes reading and studying history. She is good at analyzing intelligence and deriving strategies from details.
Leon didn't have time to teach her anything, but she gave Amy and Leon a lot of advice. But Alina's advice was usually ruthless, often based on the first sacrifice of one's own side, deceiving the enemy and eventually annihilating the enemy - ruthless to both her own people and the enemy, which was completely different from her usual quiet and harmless appearance.
Wendy, on the other hand, prefers adventure. Unlike most elves who are indifferent, Wendy is a passionate and lively girl who likes the excitement of battles and more exciting weapons - such as grenades and explosives that are regarded as "magic" by Wendatil.
However, perhaps due to her cheerful and lively personality, Wendy has not yet learned the most important ability a queen should have - controlling people's hearts.
On the way to Almera Castle, Wendy felt a little worried.
The difficulty she encountered came from Aldarian - this was another reason why Leon wanted to wait for her in Almera Castle.
The situation of the Noldor elves is rather special. Islamdir will obey Leon's orders mainly because they have a good relationship with them and are familiar with each other.
But Aldarian would not obey Leon's orders, and was somewhat perfunctory in responding to Wendy's orders.
Although he was nominally a Noldor lord who swore allegiance to Wendy, his loyalty to Wendy was more due to the situation - Maltis was present at the time, and the four Noldor family leaders really did not dare to refuse the Sindarius the Great Mage...
But after Maltis left, Aldarian was in a state of "obeying orders but not decrees". He acknowledged that Wendy was the common queen of the four Noldor families, and was willing to stand in the same camp with Leon and accept the rule of the new Pendor Kingdom, but he still maintained a certain degree of freedom.
Simply put, he can obey Wendy's dispatch, but will not accept any condescending and forced orders, let alone direct arrangements from Leon.
This is the logic of this day and age. One is only responsible to the object of one's loyalty. Although the New Kingdom of Pendor is the mother country of the Noldor Principality, unless one is directly loyal to Leon like Lisadilan, the other Noldor elves can indeed disobey Leon's orders.
Perhaps because he has been an enemy of humans for two hundred years and has formed a certain inertial thinking, Aldarian has always been deeply wary of humans.
He wouldn't even enter any human castle - including White Hart Castle.
The last time Aldarian was able to attend the meeting of the four major families in Changhe City, it was because of Vendatil's summons - only Vendatil could truly "command" Aldarian...
This is of course out of love...or rather, one-sided love.
And it is said that this unrequited love has lasted for two hundred years - elves are usually rather indifferent in their emotions, but the more indifferent their personalities are, the harder it is for them to extricate themselves once they fall in love with someone.
Although Leon and Wendy both felt that Aldarian would most likely not win Vendatil's heart in the end, they were very "encouraging" this unrequited love. After all, Vendatil could deal with Aldarian, the "thorn in the side".
But Wendatil was quite troubled by this...
She herself really only considered Aldarian an ordinary member of her tribe - not even a friend, because they had different ideas.
Moreover, Wendatil had no intention of falling in love, and she didn't have any man she liked.
In fact, she prefers women... Well, it's not that kind of liking, but she really has no interest in relationships between men and women.
But this does not belong to any special group. Many elves are like Vendatil. This is a common situation among long-lived immortal races. That is, they are naturally cold and have little interest in reproduction.
At this time, Wendatil was worrying with Wendy.
"Wendy, we can't always be like this... This is too troublesome. I really don't want to face Aldarian's stupid face every day..."
Wendatil is complaining to Wendy.
"I can't help it, Mr. Vendatil. Aldarian and his subordinates are not very willing to listen to the arrangements made by a junior like me..."
Wendy was also helpless. Aldarian was her elder. Faced with this situation, every younger leader would find it difficult.
"But, His Majesty Leon arranges you, you arrange me, I arrange Ardarian, and Ardarian arranges his troops... Isn't this too much trouble? Besides, we are going to fight a war, and this will easily delay things."
Wendatil said anxiously.
Indeed, this multi-level assignment process is too long. It can be done this way for ordinary dispatches in normal times, but it is easy to go wrong when it comes to various emergency orders during war.
"What other options are there? Leon has already made it clear in his letter a few days ago. This time we are dealing with our real enemy, the real culprit that caused the forest disaster."
Wendy looked at Wendatil pitifully: "But the troops directly under my command only have more than 300 people, and half of them have to stay in Shieldwind Fortress as reserves. We really need Aldarian's troops."
Wendy had been queen for too short a time and had not had time to organize too many direct troops from within the tribe.
Influenced by the lord system of Pendor, the loyalty of the Noldor elves is actually somewhat similar to that of humans. At present, the Noldor have established a principality, and their loyalty is even more in line with the traditions of Pendor.
The heads of the families no longer called themselves Elf Kings or Princes; they were now Lords of the Principality of the Noldor.
Wendy is the ruler of the Finwe family and the queen to whom the four major families are loyal, but the people she can directly manage are actually only the people of the Finwe family and the leaders of other families - because the elves of the other three families are loyal to their respective lords.
The Finwe family has the smallest population, with a total population of less than a thousand people and only about two hundred existing warriors. It is the weakest in military strength among the four families.
By the way, both men and women of the Noldor are excellent warriors and cannot be viewed in the same way as humans in terms of the soldier-farmer ratio.
The students that Wendatil had brought out to fight the Jatu people before have now become Leon's guards and are no longer under Wendy's command.
Therefore, Queen Wendy only had about two hundred warriors available at the beginning.
These days, she selected some personnel suitable for combat from other students of Vendatil, but the time was only one month and only more than a hundred new recruits were recruited.
The newly recruited personnel had to be armed and prepared and undergo basic coordination training, and a reserve force had to be kept in Shieldwind Fortress in case of emergency. Therefore, there were less than two hundred people around Wendy at this time, and the rest of the troops were all Aldarian's subordinates.
Aldarian's military force was quite strong. His tribe had 4,000 people, which was comparable to the House of Ainor.
The troops he brought this time numbered more than 800 people, which was about the same number as Islamdir's troops.
But there are nearly forty Twilight Knights in Aldarian's team, and the number of high-end combat power is twice that of Islandil.
The Twilight Knights are the top fighting force in the Noldor Elf army and the goal that all Noldor nobles strive for - just like the noble knights of humans.
Like most human countries, the elves have always retained a simple aristocratic culture, that is, the nobles are responsible for fighting and protecting the safety of the tribe, while the common people are responsible for working to ensure the basic life of the tribe.
Therefore, there were two classes among the Noldor.
The Noldor nobles were born into the aristocracy and were trained as combatants from an early age.
Before Vendatil became the chief instructor of the young Noldor elves, most of the young Noldor nobles would become apprentices of the Twilight Knights, which were like knights and squires in human society.
However, whether a Noldor noble can eventually become a Twilight Knight still depends on their own ability - first, they must win the annual Noldor Games in the city of Eracle, and then they must establish merits according to the requirements of their respective families.
That is to say, one must have top-notch military power and also make sufficient contributions to the ethnic group.
Each Noldor family has different requirements for contribution.
For example, the Ainor family of Islandil, as he said to Risadiran, members of the Ainor family need to save their fellow tribesmen or bring back new or lost knowledge to the tribe in order to establish merit, rather than relying on killing enemies.
Because the tradition of the Aino family is to protect knowledge.
The Fenwe family also asked to save their people or bring back new technology.
Aldarian was once a member of the Finwë family. He was also a Twilight Knight, and the strongest among them. During the Hundred Years War between Elves and Humans, he led his army to annihilate the human coalition that invaded the forest and saved the tribe, which met the standard of "saving the tribe".
The Finarfin family is relatively special, they inherit the art and culture of the elves, covering a wide range of things, including architecture, crafts, art, music, rituals, etc. Therefore, their requirement is to be able to master a top art form - this is very difficult, even if the elves have a long life, but few have both top martial arts and artistic levels.
In fact, the merit requirements are difficult to achieve, so that although there have been many competition champions in the city of Eracle over the past few hundred years, there are only about eighty nobles who have successfully become Twilight Knights.
These eighty or so Twilight Knights accounted for half of Aldarian's tribe.
Because only Aldarian had no requirements for other contributions, after he took his followers away to form his own tribe, his contribution requirements for the tribal design became relatively simple - he only needed to kill enemies on the battlefield and accumulate military merits.
This tribe that hates humans, on the contrary, completely uses humans' logic of advancement...
Precisely because each ethnic group has different goals to drive its members, people from each family have completely different philosophies of struggle.
Therefore, the tribes of Ardarian were more warlike and more interested in honing their martial arts;
In order to gain knowledge, the tribes of Islandil are more willing to contact the outside world and are happy to cooperate with humans;
The Finwës would rather forge equipment and hone their skills, or research enchantment or horse breeding;
The Finarfin family are all artists, obsessed with designing various exquisite crafts, and have never been active in fighting...
This also makes Aldarian's tribe more powerful.
Of course, military force does not equal actual combat effectiveness.
Ardarian had a rather straightforward personality and was not very good at formulating tactics during battles. Many times his battles were fought without much technical skill, and the fighting power of his people might not be fully utilized.
If his troops were willing to obey Leon's direct command, it is estimated that the actual combat effectiveness of his troops would be twice that of Islandil's subordinates.
But although Aldarion's tribe is powerful, they are not considered to be true Noldor families, because they do not have a clear heritage.
Even in terms of combat power and martial arts, he did not establish a legacy, but it was Vendatil who invented her unique combat techniques - this was probably the main reason why Aldarian developed a love for Vendatil.
If we go by the standards of Twilight Knights, Vendatil would definitely be considered one of the strongest among them. She had won the Eracle Games Championship for several consecutive years, and she had created a new martial art - she was from the Finwe family, and martial arts were of course a type of technology, and her teaching and training would surely save countless people of her clan.
In fact, whether from the perspective of knowledge, technology or art, her new martial arts meet the contribution standards.
Therefore, if we follow the standards, she is not only qualified to be a Twilight Knight, but can even be said to be one of the people who have made the greatest contribution to the tribe. Logically, she should even be qualified to be a member of the elders' council of each tribe.
But the problem is that Vendatil is a commoner.
Although many Noldor civilians would go to the battlefield as warriors, they would never be qualified to become Twilight Knights, no matter how high their martial arts skills were or how great their contributions were.
The class stratification of the Noldor elves is much more serious than that of humans. This is a blood culture inherited from the Sindarin elves. In addition, the elves have a long lifespan, so it is difficult to change this rigid mentality.
However, due to the small population, every Noldor was valuable, so there was not much oppression and slavery within the group, and the living conditions of the nobles and civilians were not much different, so there was no class antagonism.
