Riding and Slashing

Chapter 257
Ulrik didn't hand over his troops to Leon...

Since Qicha Fortress was occupied by Agathon, in order to guard against a possible surprise attack on Sarleon City by the Bacchus Empire, all members of the newly supplemented Lion Knights are now in Sarleon City.

Today's Lion Knights have returned to a full-staffed state of 2000 Lion Knights and more than [-] Lion Retinues. Ulrik has been selecting knights in Sarleon City for the past few months.

And the Royal Knights such as the Lion Knights will recruit large-scale members, and naturally a large number of noble children will come to Sarleon City to participate in the selection. These young people are all ready-made fighters who have received long-term training, and they all bring their own horses. dry food...

At the same time, the super-organized royal guards with more people were recruited in Sarleon City - Ulrik took advantage of the time when the noble children came to Sarleon City and increased the size of his entourage.

The current Royal City Guard has a total of 800 people, which is equivalent to the number of the full Lion Knights. If it is not worried that there are too many people to support, Ulrik, who has always been insecure, will probably recruit more people.

Unlike the Lion Knights, the royal guards belonged entirely to Ulrik's personal armed forces, and the state finance would only subsidize weapons and equipment for them, but the daily consumption of people eating horse chews had to be supported by the king's private money and food.

Moreover, the treatment of the king's retinue will naturally be much higher than that of ordinary knight retinues. Not only are there death benefits and disability benefits, but the salary is not low, so Ulrik is so tight now.

In addition to the Lion Knights and the King City Guard, Duke Brennus is also in Sarleon City now.He had just suffered a defeat, so he reorganized his troops while all the noble children were in Sarleon City.

Many noble children failed in the selection and failed to join the Lion Knights.Of course, they are willing to join the army of the Grand Master of the Lion Knights at this time, and they may 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 are also coming to Sarleon City wave after wave—they are going to gather at Qicha Fortress, and they will definitely pass through Sarleon City.

After arriving in Sarleon City, these lords would naturally stay in Sarleon City's jurisdiction for observation for a few days, and then go there after reuniting with other lords, so as not to be ambushed by the enemies in Qicha Fortress.

Anyway, the distance between Lion City and Qicha Fortress is not far, even if there is only one or two days left before the assembly deadline, they can catch up by starting from Lion City.

Right now, Lion City is at the time when its military strength is at its fullest, and even the streets are full of horse manure, and there is no time to clean it up...

As a result, as soon as Kadan led the D'Shar army into the village of Yalagar in the east of Sarleon City, he bumped into the real main force of the Sarleon Kingdom, and Ulrik himself led the army...

This was due to the serious overstaffing of the royal guards, and the newly reorganized troops of Brennus temporarily occupied the garrison camp of the city defense army, resulting in insufficient barracks in Sarleon City.

Moreover, there are too many noble children who came to participate in the selection of the royal knights, all of them have horses, not to mention taking up all the taverns and hotels in the city, and turning the entire Sarleon City into a big cesspit, with no room at all step down.

Even the prices of horse feed such as hay and beans in Lieshi City have increased several times-people under Li Ang Maixiang International do not have to pay business tax in Lieshi City, so naturally they can do any business, they seized the opportunity to ruthlessly Made a lot of money.

So at this time, Ulrik is personally arranging to use the village of Yaragal as a temporary barracks for the cavalry, to rescue Sarleon City from the cesspit, and by the way, to save his wallet from the high-priced horse feed...

When Kadan brought the D'Shars here, he had no intention of attacking Sarleon City, but had the idea of ​​quickly attacking the surrounding villages and towns and running away after grabbing them.

Bringing a large army to rob the village naturally wouldn't dawdle in any kind of intelligence spying, adhering to Kadan Dahan's eight-character policy of "moving quickly, and leaving after the robbery", the Desha army rushed into the village of Yalagarh .

But Kadan never expected that there are so many troops in this village...

Ulrik also really didn't expect that the troops of the Bacchus Empire didn't come, but the D'Shars came instead?
Is this Kadan Khan a bit too courageous to dare to attack Lion City?

You really think of a lion as a sick cat, right?

If this doesn't kill the Dexia people here, then all the wealthy households in the area under the jurisdiction of Lieshi City will definitely feel unsafe, and they will run away with their families!
So angry Ulrik himself blew the charge horn...

The area under the jurisdiction of the capital was attacked, which was different from ordinary battles.

The troops of the Sarleion Kingdom were all very active, including those noble children, basically all of them were dispatched, and they didn't even give Bahad Khan Kadan a chance to turn around...

Especially those young nobles who have just been promoted as lion knights, all of them are eager to make contributions, and they rush so hard.

Just one day later, there was a lot of dead and injured outside the village of Yaragal, with corpses strewn everywhere.

There are large-scale cavalry troops on both sides, and there is no way to arrange any tactics under the sudden encounter. This kind of battle is fought very quickly, and people die very quickly...

As a result, Bahad Khan and King Ulrik basically wanted to cry at the same time...

The Lion Knights that had just been rebuilt charged too hard, and another third of them were killed. Most of the dead were the newly promoted Royal Knights and their new retinues—the coordination was not skillful, and this result was normal;

And the recruits of Wangcheng Guards died even more, and they returned to the original number of 500 people from the overstaffed state. Now the barracks in Lieshi City are enough...

At that time, Ulrik felt that he might go bankrupt... How much pension would it cost?

And Bahad Khan Kadan's D'Sha army suffered even more casualties, and they didn't get any benefit.So Kadan took the remnant soldiers and quickly withdrew back to Dexia territory, even giving up on the wounded.

The D'Shar with all cavalry is capable of running, and can even take away most of the horses that have lost their owners.

Therefore, although the Sarleon Kingdom seemed to have won the battle, it basically did not get any valuable spoils, and the losses were quite large.

As for De Xia, Kadan dispatched troops this time with his hard-core cronies who supported him. Now that his strength has been lost too much, God knows that his position as 'Bahad Khan' will not be stable after returning to De Xia...

You must know that the Principality of Desha was actually a semi-hereditary and semi-elective country before the rule of Kadan. The "Bahad Khan", the "messenger of God in the world", was originally elected by various tribes.

Just like the title of 'Caliph', in Desha it means 'Heir of God's Messenger', originally elected by various tribes, Caliph is one of the candidates for the next Bahad Khan, usually there will be three to four .

And "Baiyi" originally refers to "the person who assists the envoy to guide the people". He is a local governor who combines military, political and religious, similar to a general or a city lord, and is also the head of local religion.It can also be seen from the meaning of this title that this was originally a leader elected by the local people.

Only the khan positions of the various tribes are mostly hereditary.But in fact, more than 200 years ago, even the Khan position was elected by the most prestigious people within the tribes. Until now, some small tribes still elect their Khans by election.

But after Cardan 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 to make the tribal leaders who supported him become hereditary 'caliphs' or 'Bay' , descendants can control greater power.

So in the elections of various tribes, Kadan, who was young at that time, was successfully elected as Bahad.

Afterwards, Cardan fulfilled his promise. With the new rulers who supported him and became the caliphate and Bayi, he used force and violence to forcibly change the election system of the Principality of Desha to a hereditary system, and adopted Feudal self-government similar to kingdoms.

In other words, Cardan directly and comprehensively corresponded the titles related to religion such as 'Bahad', 'Caliph', and 'Bay' to the titles of 'King', 'Duke', and 'Baron' in the Sarleon Kingdom.

Each title can be passed on to one's own heirs, unless one of them dies out, no more elections will be made.

After a bloody and violent purge, Kadan created a permanent high-ranking noble class in the De'Shar.

This comprehensive transformation from the election system to the hereditary system has indeed quickly stabilized Cardan's rule in a very short period of time-of course, those who have gained power want to maintain it forever, so they must support Cardin's approach .

This has nothing to do with the country's religious beliefs and culture, who wouldn't want future generations to always be a higher ruling class?

Moreover, after Cardan used force to cleanse the disobedient tribal leaders, the entire Dexia was indeed unified. The Dexia is no longer a loose tribal alliance, and there are few civil wars among the tribes. The national strength has indeed improved a lot. few.

Therefore, Dexia has never implemented the election system in the past 20 years, and now it is more like a dynasty. Except for the difference in religion and culture, it is essentially the same as other kingdoms.

But just like the reforms of Emperor Marius, the change of regime in any country will always lead to conflicts.

In the past two decades, the tribal leaders who have benefited from the hereditary system have supported Kadan, which naturally allows Kadan to sit firmly in the position of Bahad.

But now, many tribal leaders who originally supported Kadan are old and dead, and their descendants have inherited their status, but these young new Khans are not very familiar with Kadan.

Besides, most high-ranking people have more than one child, and there is only one high-ranking title. Children who fail to inherit the title will naturally have other ideas.

For example, Cardan himself can use force to forcefully promote the hereditary system and create a group of high-ranking nobles to support him to become Bahad. , anyone can become Bahad in this way...

Even if their strength is weak, at least they can become Caliph or Baiy by supporting another Bahad - just like their father supported Kadan back then.

So today's Desha is not stable, and Kadan is already facing the threat of another challenger-his own brother Emile Xerxes.

In fact, Emile Xerxes challenged Bahad's position with the hereditary system created by Cardan himself...

Since Kadan created the Bahad lineage, he also crowned his father with the title of Bahad Khan-anyone who ascends to the throne or emperor will do the same.

The tradition of Desha is that after the death of the father, the property owned by the father should be divided equally among all the children.

So Amir Xerxes claimed that since his father was the 'former Bahad Khan', the entire D'Shar Principality should also be divided into two halves, so that both children would become Bahad...

——If it is in the tribe, after the death of the tribe's Khan, it is true that the two children can divide the tribe equally.

For example, the brothers Cardan and Emir Xerxes will be divided into two tribes, Cardan and Emir, from one of their father's tribes, both of whom are Khans.

Since Kadan himself implemented the hereditary system, he is not very good at opposing this reason, so his younger brother has been claiming to divide the Desha equally, and he has indeed won the support of some young tribal leaders-mostly those who failed to inherit the caliphate or Baiy Young man with the title...

If Desha is still in the election system, even if Kadan cripples all the troops, his status will not be affected. After all, Bahad is elected by the leaders of the tribes themselves, and people generally don't slap themselves in the face.

But now, Cardan has used force to forcibly promote the formation of a hereditary system. He understands better than anyone that the strength in his hands is everything.

He also knows that his own case is in front of him, and every Khan in Dexia probably understands this truth...

At the same time, every leader will probably try to replicate his path to the top when given the chance.

A man like Emil Xerxes would probably not be safe when his troops were suffering huge losses these days—many would not.

So Kadan didn't dare to continue the fight, he could only withdraw the remnant army back to the country full of sadness, ready to face another difficult challenge from inside.

The D'Shars retreated, and Ulrik and Kadan had suffered a mutual loss, and the situation of both losses was actually just the beginning.

After all, this is the D'Shar Principality blatantly launching an attack on the capital of the Sarleon Kingdom. In this case, the Sarleon Kingdom can only react in one way - Ulrik, who is also full of sadness, declares a full-scale war on the D'Shar Principality, and puts The Dexia Principality regards the enemy as the highest priority, the kind that will never die.

In the king's decree issued, Ulrik directly referred to the Principality of D'Shar as a "cult bandit in the desert", and Bahad was also called a "cruel cult leader".

After all, Lion City is the capital of the Lion Kingdom, and any country whose capital is attacked can only react in this way.

And Ulrik is extremely angry now, much more angry than when Seven Fortress was captured-this bad battle has made him on the verge of bankruptcy!
To be honest, Eric has been busy coordinating the emotions of the caravan during this time, and this huge caravan just moved slowly from a position tens of miles east of Qicha Fortress to the Sava River. After a trip, Eric and Lehman took him back to the same place - just moved back and forth, did nothing, and the situation became like this...

After learning about the situation, Li Ang suddenly became full of energy.

Now, a new strategic goal has appeared in front of the lord's eyes - command the army of the kingdom, invade the Principality of De'xia in the name of revenge, and fight a long battle in the territory of De'xia!

Or, to use force to open up a brand new market...

Now Li Ang didn't hesitate at all, he quickly mobilized his army, and set off again within three days - the efficiency of dispatching troops was as ridiculously fast as before.

Moreover, he issued a marshal order to the lords of the whole country, summoning the troops of the lords to gather directly at the Sava River Fort, and prepare to attack the Duchy of Desia in an all-round way.

Of course, the issue of Qicha Fortress also needs to be resolved. After all, King Ulric's request is here, and the king did not let Li Ang change his strategic goals...

But the lord did not intend to attack Qicha Fortress by force, and this kind of giant bastion is not so easy to be captured. Li Ang knew that the current situation of the Bacchus Empire was not good, so he planned to have a friendly negotiation with General Agathon to see if this matter could be done. Peaceful settlement.

(End of this chapter)