Riding and Slashing

Chapter 293 Huge Benefits

"Don't dare to go back? What happened?"

Li Ang was shocked, how courageous is this girl, she was able to make such a big gladiator rebel plan back then, when she contacted the rebels alone, she was not afraid, and when she ran to the Lion Kingdom to ask for help, she was not afraid of.

And Li Ang could tell that she had killed people, and not just one or two—she had always been calm and composed when facing all kinds of blood on the battlefield outside Boshi City, like a battle-tested veteran. She wasn't afraid when Castro charged at her.

Although Li Ang didn't know that Arina led a team to kill countless nobles in Siyuan City, but some temperaments could be distinguished at a glance.

Such a girl, is there anything she dare not do?

"The family is urging the marriage...someone came to ask for a marriage, and my father has already decided to agree. It is said that the dowry is so much that my father has no reason to refuse..."

Alina curled her lips: "The point is, it's not easy for me to refuse this time...it's very troublesome."

"It's hard to refuse in your capacity? Who is it?"

Li Ang was a little curious.

"The royal cupbearer of the Sarleon Kingdom, the leader of the Royal City Guard, the adopted son of King Ulrik, the heir of the Duke of Brennus, the legal ruler of the Cliff Bay, the lord of the Sava Castle, Malbert."

Alina said helplessly a long list of titles, which were obviously memorized from letters and other documents.

"Huo... there are so many people, your house definitely can't accommodate..."

Li Ang blurted out a complaint.

But he also immediately understood why Arina couldn't say no to it—this kind of marriage is not a family affair.

This is a matter of state.

In the identities of Malbert and Alina, this courtship is actually tantamount to the two countries trying to repair their relationship.

In addition, Malbert is now the lord of the Sava River Castle. When the Bacchus Empire needs to recuperate most, Alina must consider the security of the country, and it is really difficult for her to refuse.

"Don't talk nonsense... You know him, don't you? What kind of man is that?"

Alina asked seriously.

"Hmm... To be honest, that guy is handsome, handsome, intelligent, flexible, civil and military, plus he comes from a noble, rich and powerful family, so he has a bright future..."

When Li Ang opened his mouth, he was full of praise.

"No flaws at all? Is there such a perfect person?"

Alina rolled her eyes and asked angrily.

"There are disadvantages..."

Li Ang twitched his chin, and thought about it: "I only know one shortcoming - he may be shorter-lived."

"He has a grudge against you?"

Alina glanced at Li Ang in surprise.

"Not really... but he's probably going to have a vendetta with King Ulrik soon."

Li Ang looked like a prophet, and looked like a magic stick: "But if there is no accident, he must have robbed my convoy of tribute to Sarleon. He knew that this would offend King Ulrik. In order to protect himself, That's why I immediately asked your family to marry me..."

"what?"

Alina tilted her head and looked at Li Ang: "Why do I feel like a frame-up..."

"No no no... I'm a decent man."

Li Ang acted like a gentleman: "You may not know that Malbert was originally the son-in-law of King Ulrik, but the little princess is only ten years old now, so they have never been engaged before... If he didn't offend the king, then he must It is impossible to go to Bacchus and ask for marriage."

"...So that's the case... It seems that I really have to hide, so as not to get into trouble..."

Alina bit her lip and thought for a while, then suddenly said: "Master Li Ang, how about... you kidnap me to Changhe Town?"

"what?"

Li Ang was dumbfounded: "What did I kidnap you for?"

"If I'm not mistaken, Malbert probably didn't want to rob the convoy that you were paying tribute to the king... You are deliberately making excuses to give yourself, the king, and that princess a reason to attack him, right? ?”

Arina reacted quite quickly to these strategies: "He asked my father to propose marriage at this time, and he probably used the marriage contract to protect his own safety before Sarleon City could react, so that Sarleon King would not Dare to touch him—the dowry gift that my father had no reason to refuse probably came from your motorcade... But, I don’t want to be this victim.”

"Then you just need to tell Lord Justus about it... As long as he knows the situation, he will probably give up this marriage."

Li Ang was still a little confused: "Why do you want me to kidnap you?"

"Master Li Ang, after all, my father is the governor of the Bacchus Empire..."

Alina sighed: "For him, this marriage contract can give the empire a chance to recuperate, get a sum of money to rebuild Siyuan City, and also give my father a chance to get involved in the dispute over the throne of the Lion King. It can even lay the foundation for taking back the Sava River Castle in the future... This will indeed benefit the Bacchus Empire a lot. My father will never give up on this marriage contract, and he may push the marriage even harder..."

Li Ang probably understood a little bit that Justus is indeed a public-minded person, which can be seen from his willingness to leave Boshi City to give General Kryon room to play.

A selfless person is of course a good quality for the country, but the biggest problem with this kind of person is that he is too selfless—if this kind of good quality is placed in the family, it is often very bad, because he will think that his wife and children should also be like him. Same for the country at all.

"But with Emperor Marius' character, he probably wouldn't agree..."

Li Ang thought about the appearance of Emperor Marius: "He would rather personally lead the troops to attack the Sava River Fort and snatch the money from Malbert."

"Yes, but His Majesty has nothing to do with my father in this matter... That's why I asked you to kidnap me——In this way, His Majesty will definitely declare war on the Sarleon Kingdom, and naturally this engagement will not exist Already!"

Alina smiled at Li Ang: "I think, you also want the Bacchus Empire to declare war on the Sarleon Kingdom now, don't you?"

…………

At the same time, Sarleon City.

"Your Majesty, I am Eric, a sworn knight who is loyal to Earl Leon. On behalf of Lord Leon, I brought you the spoils I got from De'xia..."

In the throne room, Eric, who was covered with scars all over his body, was meeting the king.

"I have received Li Ang's letter, and I have seen the spoils of war. You have worked hard... But what happened to your injury? Was it in the territory of Dexia? Li Ang actually sent a wounded person like you to travel thousands of miles. I don't know how to be sympathetic to my subordinates..."

Ulrik was obviously in a good mood when he saw a lot of jewels and brocades, and he knew he was concerned about Eric's injury.

Eric looks a bit miserable now.

The whole body's equipment is damaged, and it can be seen that it has just gone through a hard battle;

Bloody gauze was wrapped around the head, and blood was soaked faintly;
The left side of his face was red and swollen, his lips were damaged, and he was obviously punched in the face;
Only half of the gauntlet on the right hand is left, and the other half is dented;
Her legs were also wrapped in gauze, and she walked with a limp...

Just by looking at it like this, he must have fought a powerful enemy not long ago, and he was definitely not the victor...

"No, Your Majesty! The booty I brought back should be five times that of this place! Your Majesty, I want to sue Malbert, the lord of the Sava Castle! He robbed the convoy that brought you the loot!"

Eric was very emotional: "I thought that the area of ​​the Sava River Castle was under the rule of the lord of the Sarleon Kingdom, and it would be safe for us to pass through... But I didn't expect that the robbing us would be the knights of the Sarleon Kingdom! "

"What?! Are you sure you read it right? How much was robbed?"

Ulrik stood up from the silver throne, his face became serious.

"I tried my best to escape after a deadly battle... but I could only take [-]% of the spoils, and the other [-]% was snatched by Malbert! At that time, there was a group of lion knights patrolling beside us, but they were like They're all blind—for the looters all fly Malbert's banner!"

The more Eric spoke, the angrier he became, and he was about to cry: "Your Majesty, it was originally given to you by Lord Li Ang, and it is your spoils of war!"

The marshal of the kingdom leads troops into the enemy's territory. If the purpose is to capture towns, then the conquered territory will be allocated by the king, and the marshal will be able to get the right to distribute the spoils;

But if the purpose is not to capture the city, then the spoils of war must be shared with the king.

This has been the practice for hundreds of years, and the Duke of Brennus did the same before.

Li Ang sent a large amount of spoils to Sarleon City before returning to the army, which made Ulrik quite gratified.

But now, knowing that more trophies that should have belonged to him were robbed, and that Malbert did it, Ulrik was really angry...

Because he knew that Eric would never tell such a lie in the throne room-this kind of thing is easy to prove, lying will not only kill him, but also implicate Leon.

Moreover, Malbert is indeed very likely to do so...

After all, Brennus often does this - Brennus even often leads the Lion Knights to rob business travel in other countries!
But the problem was that Brennus would always split Ulrik's half of the proceeds from the heist, and he certainly wouldn't grab the king's spoils!

But this bastard Malbert actually robbed Li Ang of the money he gave him?

"Come on! Go and send an order to Malbert, telling him to come back and see me!"

King Ulrik was basically yelling in a roar.

…………

In April 356 of the Pendor calendar, the Bacchus Empire declared war on the Sarleon Kingdom.

The reason for declaring war is that Miss Alina, the adopted daughter of the Emperor of the Bacchus Empire, was kidnapped by Earl Leon, the marshal of the Sarleon Kingdom...

And Earl Leon, who was returning to the Sarleon Realm, also quickly sent back the military report, giving an explanation for the matter - when Li Ang's army was marching towards the city of Toba, the Bacchus Empire sent General Agathon He led the fleet to sneak attack on Ashcomman, which was originally occupied by Li Ang, so Li Ang 'captured' Miss Alina and tried to return the city.

But General Agathon refused to change the city, so of course Li Ang could only take Alina away...

Moreover, in order to avoid being cut off by the Bacchus Empire, Li Ang could only withdraw his troops immediately and let the kingdom's army guard against the Bacchus Empire's attack.

For King Ulrik, there was no problem with Li Ang's approach—since the Bacchus Empire had snatched Ashcomman, it was indeed right for Li Ang to take hostages and ask the Bacchus for an explanation; after the Bacchus Empire declared war, , Li Ang's retreat is easily cut off, and a quick withdrawal is also appropriate.

But Emperor Marius was different. He didn't care about the specific reasons at all. He planned to take back the lost ground. For him, any excuse would do...

Thus, the Bacchus Empire and the Sarleon Kingdom once again became hostile.

But the two countries have not sent troops to each other for the time being, because neither side is ready for war...

King Ulrik has no money, so he can't fight a big battle for the time being;

Emperor Marius has no troops, so he can't fight for the time being...

It can only be a war of words first.

At the same time, Li Ang's army also returned to the territory of the Lion Kingdom.

The army was officially disbanded north of the Sava River Fort, and the little lords were sent back to their homes. Li Ang's own troops also returned to Changhe Town.

Li Ang didn't start to calculate the benefits of this dispatch until it was ensured that all the merchants returned to the territory safely.

Li Ang can share half of the proceeds from the auction of Eichkeman, a total of 100 million dinars. Ramon will send this money to Changhe Town in a month or two, because the Bacchus Empire was auctioned with land deeds. Realization takes time;

It is precisely because he hasn't cashed in for the time being that Bahaman won't mess around in a short time - he has to wait to get his share of the money first.

Obtained 400 million dinars of supplies from Emil Xerxes.

This includes 40 cash;
An iron mine worth 60 yuan;
Hard currencies such as gold and silver worth 120 million;

Dozens of carts of blood-stained jewelry and cloth worth about 80 yuan;

The final balance is several hundred horses and gold and silver utensils worth 60 dinars.

The iron ore was subcontracted by Ramon to several slave owners for mining, and he could get some income from the subcontract.But Ramon will smelt it on the spot, and send the pig iron ingots after primary smelting to Changhe Town once a month, which will allow Li Ang to reduce transportation costs. It is really not cost-effective to transport ore over long distances.

According to Ramon's estimate, there can be about [-] pounds of iron ingot production per month-not referring to iron ore, but iron ingot production.

There is only so much production capacity in this era. Fortunately, this is a long-term business, and Li Ang has not invested any time and manpower.

In fact, iron is also very valuable in this era. [-] pounds of pig iron can be worth about [-] dinars.

In other words, this is a long-term business with an annual income of around 12 dinars, but Emil Xerxes only used it for 60 dinars. Obviously, Ramon and Leon took advantage of it.

Under normal circumstances, industries that can bring stable income, such as mines, are priced according to the expected output of ten or even 20 years.

Of course, the main reason for the cheap sale of Emir is that he can't mine it himself - the iron ore is in Yaxing, which is very close to Singal, but too far from Toba City.

After Emil got the city of Toba, the iron mine would definitely not be able to be managed, maybe Bill Cardan would snatch it away, and it was normal to transfer it at half price.

As for the blood-stained jewelry and cloth, a small part was sent to the king, probably worth 10,000+ dinars.

In addition, most of them were robbed by Malbert-these robbed materials can be worth at least more than 60 dinars.

Those hundreds of horses had already been given to Alina, which was a promise, and what Li Ang said could indeed be fulfilled, and he never broke his promise.

At present, what has actually fallen into Li Ang's hands is cash and various gold, silver and copper products—that is, hard currency that can be used as currency, with a total of about 220 million dinars.

In addition, there is also the 'Unowned Warhorse' that is 'retained' at the foot of Gazi Mountain...

The total number is more than [-] horses—this is actually a share of the spoils with Agathon. There are actually nearly [-] horses in Mount Gazi, and Li Ang and Agathon don't even want those old, weak, sick and disabled.

That's why Li Ang would be so generous to give Alina hundreds of horses - he already had too many horses in his hands, and there was too little pasture to support them.

(End of this chapter)