Riding and Slashing

Chapter 222 The Enemy's Request

"Go and tell Kailos to let him give up Fort Olega... No, let him burn Fort Olega, take everything he can and return to Siyuan City! Since the cavalry of the Dread Legion is so powerful, it can't Fight them in the wild!"

Emperor Marius closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and gave the order.

The Shadow Centurion immediately took his orders and turned away, the spear pouch on his back empty.

"I'm sorry, Sura, my friend, I know you have your residence in Fort Olega...you have come 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 what it should be, Your Majesty. The auditorium can be rebuilt at any time. As long as we can defeat the fear legion, we are willing to pay any price... Only by preventing the Snake Cult from knowing that we are here, can the Shadow Wolf play a greater role..."

A warrior wearing a wolf-shaped helmet came out from the shadows: "You are as great as His Majesty Marnius, I am very glad that I have met the wise emperor on both continents... The shadow wolves will accept All your instructions, a hundred deaths without regret."

The wolf's head protruding from the face-covering helmet should be for shading. This warrior named Sura's eyes were bloodshot, but it was the exact opposite of Emperor Marius.

The whites of Mario's eyes were bloodshot, which was caused by fatigue;
On the other hand, Sura has blood-red pupils, obviously formed by years of long-term waiting in the dark.

Probably because she wasn't used to being in a place with sufficient light, Sura took two steps back and hid in the shadows again.

"Sura, I will rebuild the garrison for you at the Sava River Fort. After Kailos' army enters the city...help me clean up those guys in his army who have an affair with the Snake Cult...no matter who they are."

Emperor Marius gave an order softly, but it seemed a bit difficult to give this order.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I promise that in a few days, there will be no more people related to the Snake Cult in the entire Siyuan City."

Sura lowered her head and said, "Your Majesty, we really can't fight against the Legion of Terror head-on, but the Phoenix Knights should be coming soon. General Titus' fleet will lead them to land directly from Siyuan City. I think you should prepare for them." Good horse."

"I must thank the Ashborn Empire for their support..."

Emperor Marius nodded.

"If you hadn't asked General Titus to bring a fleet to support our port, our port would have been completely occupied by the Snake Cult two months ago. Of course, your selfless help would have won the full support of the Ashborn. In order to deal with the Snake Cult, We have to unite everything..."

Sura bowed slightly, then retreated into the darkness and disappeared.

Three days later, Fort Olega was ablaze.

It seems that the defense battle of Siyuan City will continue.

……

December 355 of the Pandeli calendar.

Changhe Town.

Grandlon and Fawcett reported to Leon that they had successfully destroyed the lair of the three prophets and 'found' the king's seal under the witness of Baron Hereward, the lord of Misty 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 get the pardon of King Ulrik in Sarleon City, and they successfully went ashore in vain.

At the same time, both of them lost their inheritance rights to Lion Lake City.

Fawcett's crime of killing relatives was pushed on Milgan, and the crime of treason was also recognized as a "equity measure"-King Ulrik did not embarrass him, after all, there was no need for the king to push him to The arms of the enemy.

Because the fact that he was exiled by Alma was public, Alma had actually deprived him of his inheritance rights when he was exiled. As long as it was the property of the Horton family, it had nothing to do with Fawcett now.

The same is true for Grandlon. King Ulric agrees that Nelda will inherit the title of Duke of Alma. It is also true that Grandlon and Nelda divorced, so Grandlon does not have any inheritance rights.

But for this kind of divorce proposed by the woman, Grandlon can get the dowry that Nelda brought when she got married.

So Grandlon became the lord of Payne Village as a knight, and still led the first banner guard of Lion Lake City.

And Fawcett obtained his original territory, Ermined Village, also as a knight-this is the territory that Alma obtained for Fawcett in order to deal with Earl Oden after Alma occupied Changhe Town last year, and it belongs to Fawcett. Seth's own legal territory really has nothing to do with the Horton family.

They were no longer traitors, and King Ulrik had given them their fair share.

Then, King Ulrik announced a wedding...

He let Prince Alanric marry an eight-year-old girl from the Horton family...

Not only was the wedding very weird, but it was also very sloppy - from the announcement of the engagement to the completion of the wedding, it only took one and a half days before and after, and a banquet in the palace solved all the problems, and the banquet did not wait for anything at all guests.

The people who participated in the wedding were only the nobles in Sarleon City. As the family members of the 'prince and concubine', only five or six members of the Horton family were present...

Just after the wedding, the Duke of Lion Lake City, the first-class noble title, was conferred on that eight-year-old girl.

Then the House of Lords of Sarleon City publicly announced that the Duke of Sarleon City would hand over all titles and affairs to his husband, Prince Alanric.

According to the House of Nobles, the eight-year-old girl was originally Alma's grand-niece, and was adopted to Alma Duke's daughter Nelda when she was born eight years ago.

The adoption of this kind of relatives with blood relationship is equivalent to the biological, so this is the granddaughter of Duke Alma and the first heir of Ms. Nelda.

Of course, Grandlon knew that this girl had nothing to do with Nelda, but no one would look into this matter at this time, and no one in the Horton family said anything about it anyway.

Thus, Lion Lake City nominally became the fiefdom of Prince Alanric.

But except for the prince who showed his face when he was 'married', he had been 'recovering' on the tower of Lion City at other times, and he couldn't go to Lion Lake City.

So Lion Lake City was temporarily under the management of the Royal Knights, and King Ulrik built a new auditorium for the Lion Knights in Lion Lake City.

Obviously, the king intends to supplement the heavily lost Lion Knights in Lion Lake City.

On the whole, Ulrik's decision was very reasonable, but it was a bit petty.

Even Grand Long felt that this was a matter of standing up and down, insisting on looking for rules within the rules.

In fact, Grandlon and Fawcett came to Leon not mainly to report the situation, but to come to swear allegiance.

Both Grandlon and Fawcett are now knights, and they currently have no allegiance object-both of them were loyal to the Duke of Alma before, but Alma died.

It was the end of the year, and as the largest lord in the eastern region, Li Ang, the newly promoted earl, ushered in the traditional item of the Sarleon Realm—the allegiance from knights and knight retinues.

In the past two years, Longhe Town has continuously changed its flag. Dukes of Elfwan and 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, the continuous wars caused many knights to die on the battlefield. During the period when the Three Prophets were doing things, there were still many minor nobles who gave up their territories to follow the Three Prophets, and many knights went bankrupt because of this.

Nowadays, in the eastern region, there are dilapidated nobles who have lost allegiance, knights who have lost their territories, and retinues of dead masters are everywhere.

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 do this traditional project at the end of the year is mainly because these people avoid tax time...

Of course, knights with fiefs could not do this, they could declare their allegiance to the king - but that means they have to face all disasters alone, no one will support them, and they will inevitably face the pressure of the surrounding lords Nibbling and making things difficult for the kingdom's tax officials...

Just like a pioneering lord, he has to face everything alone, and he can't be absent when he should perform his duties, such as enlisting to fight.

But their own territory is limited, and they can't expand at the border like the pioneering lords, and they don't have the one-year tax exemption right of the pioneering lords...

For most knights, having a suitable boss is much better than fighting alone, especially those warriors who can only fight but not engage in economic construction-otherwise they may go bankrupt after one defeat.

As for the subordinates whose master died, they had to follow a new master in order to get a chance to stand up again.

The number of knights under Li Ang, the newly promoted earl, is very small, so there must be more opportunities.

Therefore, the lord has had to accept many people kneeling on one knee and making oaths to him every day in the past few days...

The allegiance ceremony of the subordinates is actually very simple, that is, kneeling on one knee like a marriage proposal, making a sign of blessing with the cross, and then swearing allegiance to the lord.

And the lord needs to hold their hands in front of the statue of the goddess of order to express acceptance.

Due to the large number of knights who lost their masters, these servants were originally the sons of nobles. Although they were all second sons or offshoots, according to tradition, they had to swear allegiance to the lord individually one by one...

As a result, the lord's hall of Changhe Town has been receiving the subordinates queuing up every day for the past few days. All kinds of messy swallowtail flags and shields are dazzling, and the mud outside the city is trampled to pieces by passing horses.

Li Ang has been in a trance for the past few days. He has to be saluted by hundreds of dirty men with marriage proposals every day. Everyone has to be in a trance...

Fortunately, this is to increase strength after all. Every time I meet a person, it means that my strength has increased by one point. These people are all qualified fighters.

There are quite a lot of retinues who come to seek refuge, close to 300 people, and there are indeed too many noble children in the Sarleion Realm.

There are also quite a few dilapidated knights. There are more than a dozen of them, almost all of whom are bankrupt.

Of course, the knight's allegiance ceremony will be more formal, at least you have to make a gesture with a sword on your shoulder, and the lord also has to recite the oath.

But a knight is not the same as a squire.

What the subordinates are currently pursuing is only formal aristocratic status, which is easy to arrange.

What these traditional knights want is to take back the old territory or obtain a new territory. The concept of this appeal is completely different, and the lord naturally has to treat it in a different way.

It happened that Grandlon and Fawcett came to take refuge, so Li Ang handed over all the knights who came to take refuge in him to Fawcett, and then gave Fawcett a mission.

Suppress bandits.

The cold winter has come, and the northern states of Pendor no longer fight each other.

The Ravencrow Kingdom was once again attacked by many Misty Mountain marauders, and the Vanskerry pirates once again went south to the site of Filtzway on the west coast for the winter, and everything was no different from before.

And the Sleet Lion Kingdom will always produce a large number of bandits and bandits after taxation every winter, which is no different from the past.

In fact, after January next year, many 'bandits and bandits' will return to the village and become good citizens...

And the so-called 'Mist Mountain People' and 'Pirates' encountered by Ravencrow Kingdom and Fieldsway may not all come from Misty Mountain or Vanskerry...

The lords of various countries will of course lead troops to chase them down, but these so-called 'bandits' who are more familiar with the terrain than the locals are hard to be wiped out, and the lords themselves understand this...

Yes, everything is the same as it used to be, as it has been in Pendor for over 100 years.

Right now, there are many 'bandits' around Changhe Town.

But what is more rare is that most of the bandits near Changhe Town are not the kind of ragged poor people. From time to time, some coats of arms can be seen on them...

Although they also have a sneaky style and a bullying style, it is obvious that the so-called bandits and robbers in Changhe Town are not proficient in their professional skills, and their level of hiding their whereabouts is quite poor.

However, these guys are very well-informed, and they can always transfer successfully before Eric's bandit suppression troops arrive.

In fact, the lord and Eric are very aware of the identities of these so-called bandits, but they are not familiar with these people, so it is difficult to find them.

So the lord decided to hand over this matter to Fawcett...

Because Fawcett is familiar with these so-called bandits.

Most of them are local nobles, but they have lost their allegiance, but they are not very willing to obey Li Ang's rule.

Some became bandits for tax evasion, some habitually rob at this time, and some were forced to 'loan' from the bank and then ran away with the money.

Fawcett is really good at dealing with these guys.

He first went to the bank with great fanfare to borrow a sum of money, using his territory Erminide as collateral. The loan amount was very large, a full [-] dinars, and he began to recruit troops.

It was a real loan, and it was well known, since it was, after all, the largest single loan ever made by Pande Bank.

Then he led his troops to create a big case - he robbed the convoy transporting taxes from Changhe Town to Sarleon City, a total of 75000 dinars...

After the robbery, the knights were all dispersed, and Fawcett led the troops to the village of Trubrunn.

This matter naturally caused an uproar, and the entire Changhe Town was a sensation.

It didn't take long for taverns and villages all over the place to know the news that the tax was robbed by Fawcett. It is said that Fawcett, the former 'Duke of Lion Lake', seemed to plan to form a coalition to oppose the tyranny of Earl Leon's compulsory loan, and he was paying high prices. Recruitment.

There is also a code word that "January enters the long river"...

So, one after another, the 'bandits and bandits' went to Trubrun.

Maybe some are for black people, maybe some are for joining Fawcett's command to deal with Li Ang, maybe some have other invisible purposes...

But on the last day of December, all the 'bandits' disappeared in Trubrun.

And Fawcett did enter Changhe Town on January 95000, and returned [-] dinars to the lord in public... At the same time, he refuted the rumors in public, saying that someone impersonated him to commit crimes before, and he just killed the bandits.

Anyway, no matter what others think, at least the matter is resolved, and it has nothing to do with the lord...

Fawsert knew that this was a nomination certificate, and it was the duty of the new horse boy to help the boss take the blame.

"How many people died?"

The lord is extremely satisfied with Fawcett's performance, and this level is indeed a true inheritance from the Duke of Alma.

"I didn't count, I can't count the hands in the middle of the night... But my lord, I have to tell you, there is a lion knight among them, and he is also a baron..."

Fawcett speaks of murder without emotion.

"Baron? Where is his original fief?"

The lord did not expect that there were high-ranking nobles involved in it.

"It's Trubrun. But there are no villagers in that place, so he robbed everywhere a while ago. He is probably one of Duke Brennus' subordinates. I heard that the method is very cruel. The group originally regarded him as the leader..."

Fawcett shook his head: "But I didn't have time to ask his name. I only know that everyone calls him Captain, and he is the military officer of the Lion Knights."

"I'm also not interested in knowing the name of a dead person, whoever he is... Trubrun still keeps your men stationed, and the residents of Maixiangling may gradually move there, and Brennus won't care about it. "

Li Ang didn't care much, anyway, the lion knight died at the hands of Fawcett, and it had nothing to do with him...

"Do those spoils need to be sent to Changhe Town?"

Fawcett acted sensible.

"My rule here is that the loot belongs to whoever gets it, and you don't have to hand it in. It's all yours."

The lord was quite generous: "In addition, Fawcett, if you can make your territory prosperous and prosperous, and all the citizens live in peace and prosperity...then, I will help you get Lion Lake City back..."

"I will do my best...My lord...but why?"

Fawcett was stunned for a moment, he obviously didn't expect Li Ang to say that.

Lion Lake City, of course, is Fawcett's heartfelt wish, and he can even treason for it.

But he didn't understand, Li Ang could control him, why was he still willing to help him?
The lord patted him on the shoulder: "I never treat a sincere friend badly, no matter what he has done."

It's easy to have a smart person who can do black work under his command. Changhe Town is quite clean now, and everything is running well.

Thousands of recruits were summoned to Changhe Town. Joslin trained the recruits very well, and the two-month training was about to be completed.

A large number of weapons and equipment were continuously transported, and food and grass were piled up in the warehouse.

Eagle Claw Fort also sent thousands of horses, which were the trophies from killing the Jatus last time.

Lord Lord's current overall strength can be said to be advancing by leaps and bounds, almost everything is lacking.

However, the gods of Pendor Continent probably don't want to let the lord be free to concentrate on development...

At the beginning of January in Pan Deli 356, an uninvited visitor came to Changhe Town.

It was a pretty Bacchus girl, with some shining crusaders.What the girl held in her hand was the flag of Emperor Marius.

"Earl Li Ang, I am here to ask for help on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor..."

(End of this chapter)