Chapter 268: Dawn Church’s Help
Duke Edward is an eighth-level golden knight, but he is not the most powerful member of the family.
The most powerful person in the Edward family is a legendary warrior named Harmon. Harmon was from an ordinary serf family, just like Jennings in the Harland territory, but his talent should be better.
More than thirty years ago, Duke Edward married the daughter of his daughter to the son of a slave. With the training and support of the Edward family, Harmon fulfilled his talent and was promoted to the legendary level.
In addition to Duke Edward's son-in-law, the Duke's eldest son is also a ninth-level epic knight and has the potential to be promoted to the legendary realm.
Of the two, Harmon should be slightly stronger, but Plott, the eldest son of the Duke, has greater potential.
The Dawn Plane is an extraordinary world, and competition among nobles is very fierce. Once one's personal ability cannot bear the responsibility, it is difficult to secure a position in the position.
Duke Edward began to become comatose last winter, and by this spring, many people in the Edward family had already planned to replace him.
Harris nodded and said: "Why haven't we discussed it? There was a lot of quarrel in Maple Leaf Castle secretly. Harmon and Plott each attracted a group of people, each with their own opinions. Now that Maple Leaf Castle has passed this order, I am afraid they secretly want to Let the old man take responsibility. When something goes wrong, put the responsibility on the old man, and you can save face.
These people think well, but unfortunately they are a little short-sighted. We are in the northern border, and there is a big enemy like the orcs. We should unite with our nearby neighbors. Even if we shift the responsibility to the old man, the nobles of the three northern provinces are not fools. They have opinions about us in their hearts and will always retaliate against us in the future and make us suffer." Simone said: "They are greedy for petty gains
. It's a big loss. Although Harmon is very talented, he is the son of a slave after all. He has not received aristocratic education since he was a child, and his character is too greedy. But why doesn't Plot stop him?"
Harris said: "The matter is very obvious. Plott's group obviously wants to embarrass Harmon. When Harmon and the others create an uncontrollable situation, Plott will be out of control. Moreover, I heard that Plott is already close to breaking through the legend. Not far away, I haven’t shown up for more than two months, maybe I can’t care about this matter anymore?”
Although Simone is a core member of the Edward family, he serves as the Sheriff of Palani County. But it is far away from Maple Leaf Castle, and many information are not known at all. After listening to the information revealed by Harris, he asked with some worry: "If there is a fight above, what should we brothers do?" Although Hales and Simeone are
cousins , but they are about the same age. They have been together since childhood, and their relationship is closer than that of biological brothers. The real relationship between nobles sometimes does not depend on blood ties, but on whether there is a threat to each other.
With Simeone on the outside and Harris on the inside, these two people are considered a small figure in the Edward family.
As long as a force has been established for a period of time, there must be various small groups within it. Whether the noble lord can integrate the hills in the territory is the key to the success or failure of the territory.
There are also various hilltops in Harland's territory, but Richard's prestige can easily overwhelm any hilltop member and integrate the power of the Harland family. This is also the key to the rise of the Harland family.
Generally speaking, rising nobles can basically do this.
Harris said: "We don't have to worry about anything. No matter who is in charge above us, we can just carry out the tasks assigned to us."
The two quietly walked up the city wall and stared at Lost outside the city. They saw the second group of soldiers camping. The camp was meticulous and the work was very strict. Simone sighed: "What if the soldiers of the Harland family plundered Palani Castle? I think the army under the Knight of Lost is very elite. Although there are two thousand guards in the castle, Army, there may not be a chance of winning in a fight?"
Harris said: "As long as the soldiers in the Haaland Territory dare to make trouble, we will resolutely destroy them. How can a thousand soldiers turn the world upside down? But we should not provoke the Haaland Territory. army, don't give the count an excuse to go to war with us.
We caused trouble in the rear and affected the situation in the Grand Duchy of Stanek. We offended not only Earl Harland, but also Duke Jonathan. I am afraid that the Grant royal family will also cause us trouble. Only a son of a slave like Harmon could be so short-sighted. Although he had been a noble for thirty years, he had no respect for the country's system. I think we should make our attitude clear and support Plott becoming a duke, and we must not allow Prince Finnan to become a duke.
As for getting along with the army in Harland Territory, we have to control the scale well. As long as the soldiers in Harland Territory don't kill and loot, everything will be easy to handle. "
After entering the Grand Duchy of Stanik in late March, the coalition forces from the three provinces have escorted back three batches of serfs within a month.
The first batch of serfs numbered 20,000, the second batch of serfs numbered 8,000, and the third batch led by Lost At most, a total of 67,000.
The previous escort mission went very smoothly, and Duke Edward did not create any difficulties.
When it was Lost's turn, he encountered Duke Edward looking for trouble.
Lost didn't understand the situation inside Duke Edward at all, but the accompanying team There were intelligence personnel from the Harland territory.
He summoned these intelligence personnel and inquired in detail about the situation in the Duke of Edward.
Although Richard attached great importance to the intelligence system, the Harland family had only been prosperous for a short time and had not been among the great nobles. The palace deploys intelligence agents.
Generally speaking, as long as the Haaland family is not provoked, according to regulations, the Haaland territory will not place spies specifically for the great nobles. The
Haaland territory is in the Dukedom of Edward, and there are only some who collect public intelligence. Personnel.
"Last year in the Orc Invasion War, Duke Edward suffered serious losses. More than 50,000 people were plundered by the Orcs. In addition, the legendary ogre came south from the Eagle Mountains last year and also broke into several strongholds of the Edward family. We estimate that Duke Edward had suffered heavy losses last year, so he decided to make up for it with us serfs. "
After listening to the intelligence officer's story, Lost still didn't understand.
But the current situation forced him to come up with a way to resolve the difficulties faced by Duke Edward.
There are only three days of food left in the reserve. It will take about ten days to leave the Dukedom of Edward and enter the Gascoigne Province. At least 300 tons of food must be replenished in order to survive the crisis.
Now that Duke Edward's Palace has issued a statement, merchants in the city will never dare to sell grain.
If we use troops to grab food, it will seriously affect the safety of the food road and trap Richard on the front line. Lost would rather give up half of his serfs than do this.
The logistics channel of the three-provincial coalition forces is in the hands of Duke Edward, which offends Duke Edward. If not, the intervention army may be completely annihilated. Only after the war in the Grand Duchy of Stanik is over and Richard returns with his troops can he be able to find the Duke of Edward's fault.
Of course, Duke Edward's cutting off the grain road would also be tantamount to provoking a civil war. At the very least, Duke Jonathan would cause trouble for him.
Lost thought about it and thought that only the Dawn Church in Palani Castle was not afraid of offending the Edward family and had enough food to help him solve this problem.
However, the Church of Dawn has a special status and will basically not participate in conflicts between nobles. He has no friendship with the pastor of the Church of Dawn in Palani Castle, and the church pastor may not be willing to help.
But when the situation came to this, Lost had no choice but to become a doctor. He personally found the pastor of the Church of Dawn, hoping to purchase some of the food.
Lost begged to the door. The bishop of Palany Castle heard about the dilemma he faced and did not refuse directly.
This bishop was born in the Dukedom of Jonathan. He was a branch member of a baron family. He had the blood of the Jonathan family. He was very dissatisfied with Duke Edward's behavior of holding back the front line.
Moreover, the relationship between Morningside Church and Richard is very special. Archbishop Walton of the Grant Kingdom once told the clergy below to take more care of the Harland Territory.
He was also a participant in the battle to block the plane passage, and once fought alongside Richard. Regardless of emotion or reason, he will support Lost through the difficulties.
"Don't worry, Knight Lost. There are more than a hundred tons of food stored in the church. You can take them all away. For the remaining food shortage, I will mobilize believers to raise donations."
The Dawn Church in Palani Castle has less than sixty clergy in total, and the food stored there is not much. Bishop Chenxi accepted 200 gold coins and asked Lost to move all the stored grain away. Then he sent priests to notify the believers to collect some of the grain.
The population of Palani Castle exceeds 50,000, and more than half of them are believers of the Goddess of the Morning. Each believer takes out ten kilograms of grain, and the total amount is 150 tons.
Lost also took out a thousand gold coins from the funds and distributed money to purchase food to the followers of the Goddess of Dawn.
Most of the followers of the Goddess of Dawn are middle- and lower-class people, and it is already difficult for each person to donate ten kilograms of food.
The money lost by Lost actually allowed the believers of the Goddess of Dawn to make a little profit.
Seeing that the church had helped solve the problem of food shortage in Lost, Simone hurriedly discussed with Harris.
"The church has stepped forward to solve the food shortage problem, what should we do?"
Harris said: "It seems that Maple Leaf Castle's order has made people angry. Even the Church of Morningside can't stand it anymore. I remember that Bishop Chenxi is a distant member of the Jonathan family. A member of the branch, right?"
"Yes, the bishop has the blood of the Jonathan family."
Harris clapped his hands and said: "Now let's hand over the conflict and see what Harmon is going to do?"
Simone said: "Will Harmon To be tough, send troops to rob."
"He doesn't dare to do this. Simply sending troops to rob will offend the legions fighting on the front line. Then the Grant royal family, Duke Jonathan, and the coalition forces of the three northern provinces will cause trouble. Although Harmon is stupid, there are smart people below. , will remind him."
After Simone and Harris reported the situation to Maple Leaf Castle, Duke Edward did not continue to cause trouble.
With the help of the church, he obtained 250 tons of grain. Lost lived frugally and walked for ten days, and finally entered the Gascoigne Province before the grain was exhausted.
After entering the three central provinces, it was easy to supply food. After walking for more than ten days, Lost finally completed his mission and entered the Harland territory with 67,000 serfs.
At this moment, it was late May, and Richard, with the coalition forces from the three provinces, had besieged Nero Castle for nearly two months.
Seeing that the food in the army was getting less and less, Richard was under increasing pressure.
There are still 500 tons of food left. Even if we save some, we can only eat it for half a month at most. There are more than 10,000 sheep left in the flock, most of which are ewes that can produce milk. Except for the breeding sheep, all the rams have been eaten by the soldiers.
Starting from late April, the war horses in the three-province coalition began to be let out to eat green grass. If a war horse is let out to graze, it will take more than ten hours a day to eat, which will greatly affect combat effectiveness. But there was not enough food, so Richard could only make this decision.
Fortunately, the army controlled by the Linus royal family was blocked on the northern front by Duke Jonathan, so the middle army led by Richard could roam freely and besiege the city for a long time.
In recent days, at Richard's request, the Duke of Fox has sent two batches of supplies, both of which are sheep.
Compared with the cost of transporting grain, it is easier to drive sheep here and requires fewer manpower. But it would take six or seven days for this batch of supplies to be delivered outside Nero's castle.
With the tens of thousands of sheep supplied by the Duke of Fox, the logistical pressure on the three-province coalition was greatly reduced, allowing them to hold on for half a month longer.
Recently, half of the diet of the coalition forces in the three provinces has relied on goat's milk. According to the calculations of the logistics staff, if the front line saves a little and the rear provides some support, they should be able to last until August.
In the past two months, the situation in the Grand Duchy of Stanik has been turbulent.
Taking advantage of the conflict between Baldwin and Haldane's uncle and nephew, Duke Jonathan led his army to severely damage the Linus family coalition.
Baldwin's men suffered heavy losses and fled westward into the Kingdom of Lane. Haldane took the rest of his men and barely held on to Linus City.
Duke Jonathan sent an order a few days ago, asking Richard to deal with the enemy as soon as possible and lead his army to join Duke Jonathan to attack Linas Castle and deal with the intervening army of the Kingdom of Lane.
The winner was gradually decided on the northern front, the middle line led by Richard was still in a stalemate, and there was still no fighting on the southern front. It seemed that Stanik's nobles would not make a decision until the northern front decided the winner.
After receiving Duke Jonathan's order, Richard thought for a moment and felt that a storm would not only cause heavy casualties, but would also be difficult to win. After all, the army he led was not the central regular army, but a coalition of nobles from the three provinces.
Since it is a coalition of nobles, the internal friction must be serious.
During the war, some troops gnawed bones, some troops ate meat, some troops captured rich crops, and some troops had to bear arduous responsibilities.
Commanding a coalition of nobles, it is difficult to balance the interests of the middle. Especially when fighting a siege, it is not easy to coordinate conflicts.
If the nobles of Lach Province were given the task of siege, this army would probably mutiny. If the soldiers of Harland Territory were to attack the enemy, Richard would be a little reluctant and unwilling to waste his own people.
Since we can't attack by force, we can only use the method of luring the enemy to see if we can attract the enemy to fight out of the city and defeat the enemy in the field.
When two armies are at war, it is generally difficult to use tactics to succeed. Because commanders who can command thousands of armies are often resolute and intelligent.
Especially the countries in the northern part of the Dawn Continent have been facing invasions by orcs all year round. The nobles have rich war experience, and strategies are child's play for them. The victory or defeat of the war mainly depends on strength.
For example, Viscount Nero, the commander of the aristocratic coalition in the central Grand Duchy of Stanik, saw through the weakness of the three-province coalition's lack of food and would never waste a fight easily.
If the enemy does not fall for the trick and only seeks stability, it will be difficult to successfully lure the enemy into a decisive battle.
If you want to open up the situation, the best way is to catalyze the internal conflicts of the enemy and open up the balance from within. After all, the siege has been going on for two months, and Nero's Castle will also face the difficulty of lack of food.
Now between the two armies, it depends on which one has greater endurance and better internal integration.
(End of chapter)