industrial lord

Chapter 728 The final battle
Liberl's horse was startled by the gunshot and, in a panic, had no choice but to jump off its back.

Theodore dismounted from his magnificent horse and walked toward the center of the battlefield.

The two men, each accompanied by their flag bearer, stopped ten paces apart and exchanged greetings.

Theodore said sincerely, "I will keep our agreement."

Liberl bowed and said, "Thank you for your kindness."

The priest from Hawthorn Village, feigning composure, stepped between the two men, holding a copy of the Holy Scriptures printed and published by the Principality of Wessen. He turned to the relevant chapter and presided over the oath-taking ceremony.

The priest stepped aside, took out a slightly rusty copper coin, and tossed it high into the air.

The two men moved the instant the coin hit the ground.

Liberl's sword whistled through the air as it slashed down with all its might.

Theodore calmly raised his shield, and with a muffled thud, Liberl felt a violent tremor in his arm, as if he were striking a piece of steel.

Liberl's swordsmanship was quite ruthless, with each move delivered with full force, attempting to break through his opponent's defenses.

Theodore received instruction from renowned teachers from a young age, and now, nearing sixty, he remains physically strong. Years of experience have made his defense as solid as a rock, with precise and powerful movements in blocking, deflecting force, and counterattacking.

With each clash of weapons, Liberl felt a splitting pain in his hand, and the soreness and numbness in his arm grew stronger and stronger.

Sweat soaked his hair, trickling down his forehead and blurring his vision.

After more than twenty rounds, Theodore keenly spotted a tiny opening after Liberl's all-out slash. He skillfully bypassed the edge of the opponent's sword strike with his mace, and the cold hammerhead slammed hard into the connection between Liberl's breastplate and shoulder guard.

"what!"

A huge wave erupted between the two, and Liberl was struck as if by a battering ram, his body flying backward and crashing heavily onto the dry mud.

A sharp pain instantly spread throughout his body, each breath bringing a tearing agony, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, staining his beard red.

He struggled to get up, but the all-out fight had exhausted his last bit of strength. He could only gasp for breath, his chest heaving, and finally he could only barely support himself on the ground with his sword, kneeling on one knee, unable to stand up any longer.

Liberl was defeated, not by a single fatal blow, but by utter exhaustion.

He made a final struggle, but lost his balance and fell to the ground.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't make you enjoy yourself."

He could sense that Theodore's individual strength far surpassed his own. Theodore could defeat him in the first two or three rounds, but in the end, they fought back and forth for more than twenty rounds, clearly playing a game.

Liberl gazed greedily at the white clouds drifting slowly southward and the migratory birds coming from the north, thinking to himself that this was probably the last sight he would ever see in his life.

Theodore's tall figure loomed over them, but instead of delivering the fatal blow, he extended his right hand and said, "Sir, your courage has earned my respect. I swear once again in my father's name that Hawthorn Village and its people will be protected, and no one will suffer unjust harm because of today's resistance."

Liberl struggled to lift his head, his vision blurred by sweat and dust, only able to see Theodore's face, equally covered in sweat and devoid of any contempt.

“I…Liber…surrender on behalf of Hawthorn Village.”

With his last ounce of strength, he trembled as he pushed his mud- and blood-stained sword toward the Duke's mud-covered boots.

With a clang, the sword fell to the ground.

Theodore picked up the sword, pulled Liberl up with his other hand, and solemnly returned the sword to him, saying, "You are worthy of this sword." The reaction from the massive Mainz army was extremely subdued; the cheers were somewhat perfunctory.

For this army of ten thousand, passing through such a small riverside village was as insignificant as crushing a fallen leaf on a march.

Liberl glanced one last time at the green hawthorn flag still fluttering in the wind atop the watchtower. Soon after, another flag was raised—a deep blue flag with a winding silver river flowing through it, above which stood a sturdy gray castle, the symbol of the Duchy of Mainz.

The banners of the river and the castle have now replaced those of the hawthorn tree, announcing the change of rule over the area. The villagers watch the change of banners in silence. A loud-voiced officer in the street is announcing Theodore's latest order: everyone must come to the city square tonight for a banquet, bringing their own bowls, spoons, cups, and stools.

Theodore changed into a silk robe and sat in the main seat. Lieber, sitting next to him, was expressionless, wearing his own linen dress and holding a beer mug, responding to the toasts from the Mainz officers.

Folding beds temporarily served as long tables. Unlike the Duchy of Wessen, the Duchy of Mainz was not wealthy and did not have its own dedicated logistics fleet to deliver goods to each household. Instead, it could only offer boiled sausages, fried eggs, instant noodles, steamed bread, and cheap beer for its continuous feast.

Although the Duchy of Wesen has surpassed the Duchy of Mainz in both economy and military strength, it has not held real power for long, and in some matters, its foundation is not comparable to that of the Duchy of Mainz.

In the court of the Duchy of Mainz, there was a group of old scholars who specialized in rummaging through old documents. One of them unearthed a royal decree that was older than the territory of Weisen, forgotten but not abolished: if a nobleman requested the king to grant him the first piece of land he had conquered in a war of territorial expansion, the king must agree unconditionally.

The emergence of this decree was related to the desire of court nobles and impoverished nobles to obtain fiefdoms, but for many years the Rhine Alliance had only been passively attacked and had not expanded its territory, so many people were unaware of it.

So when Theodore made a brief stop at Storkport to talk with Maria, and heard that Rudolph might have designs on ownership of Storkport, Theodore was a little scratched up.

He knew that the Duchy of Weisen had nurtured many scholars, providing a strong impetus for development, but he never expected that so few of these scholars were studying legal history.

Theodore found it incomprehensible that high-ranking nobles did not study legal history or seek out legal loopholes that would benefit them.

Theodore could see that Rudolf was wary of the Duchy of Mainz, the Duchy of Wessen, and the Duchy of Bain, so he entrusted the task of guarding the supply line along the river to the three strongest armies.

However, the Duchy of Mainz was not focused on this direction, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He simply took over Hawthorn Village and developed it into a base to see what kind of business could be done in the future.

Thinking of the Duchy of Wessen, Theodore also thought of Maria.

In his heart, he always regarded his father's goddaughter as his granddaughter. Whenever he thought of her, he would recall the little girl who picked raspberries and brought them to him in her hands to share with him, but then she tripped and fell halfway and cried.

In the blink of an eye, the little girl who used to cry has grown into an earl who can devise actions that quickly win the hearts of the entire city. Theodore was filled with emotion and then followed suit.

After a few rounds of drinks, Theodore asked Liberl, "Are there any malignant tumors around this land, such as... bandits and robbers?"

He thought Maria's approach was good; doing something that made the locals feel safe and accepted would be a good way to appease them and consolidate the new rule.

Unlike the Duchy of Wessen, the Duchy of Mainz didn't have a stockpile of pirate skulls or bowls, so they had to kill the pirates on the spot.

Liberl let out a burp, took a couple of breaths, and pointed to the dark and deep forest to the north: "Twenty or thirty kilometers to the north, deep in the forest, there's a guy called 'Iron Pig' who leads a band of robbers to plunder caravans and loot the surrounding villages. We're powerless to wipe them out."

"That forest is very dangerous; even the most experienced hunters dare not venture too far into the Iron Boar's lair."

Theodore seemed to catch a glimpse of the turbulent emotions surging in Liberl's eyes, but he said nothing, only making a simple gesture to his adjutant.

The villagers of Hawthorn Village were stunned for a moment after hearing his declaration, but they continued eating and drinking as usual. Many years ago, the Queen's knights had said something similar, but only half of them escaped from the forest.

Forests are an obstacle for many armies, but certainly not for the Mainz army. Soldiers from the Black Forest entered the dense forest as if they were coming home.

For the Mainz army, the war seemed to have ended prematurely, and the only way to gain military merit was to cause trouble for bandits and robbers.

(End of this chapter)