When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1083 Coward?

When Kennard arrived at Skolston with his more than 5,000 men, it was already September 18th.

It was three days later than the scheduled date. After all, it was a large-scale troop movement, so the pace was a bit slower, which was unavoidable.

Anyway, Putzillo gave a firm order that everyone must travel together.

On the King's Road, laborers and soldiers lined up, carriages moved forward, and donkeys and horses neighed.

The crowd was so dense that their shoulders were rubbing against each other, and even the soldiers' armor was clattering. When someone fell, a string of curses filled with profanities from the river islands or border regions would erupt.

As for the laborers, they wore bitter expressions, glancing at the patrolling knights, calculating the amount of food in their pockets, feeling both resentful and tearful.

These people from Heshangyu only know how to bully us from Liming Island.

So the nobles and royalty of the River Isle are Leias, while the artisans, farmers, and merchants of Dawn Isle are not considered Leias?

If they weren't stuck here at home, where they still had some moral compass, they would have already gone to Fran or the Holy Alliance.

Looking up again, around nine o'clock in the morning, wisps of smoke rose from behind the farmhouses, woods, and low hills.

They were densely packed, like gray ropes tying the sky to the earth.

Compared to Thousand Rivers Valley, the population density of Dawn Island is unimaginable.

The population of Dawn Island alone is about the same as that of the entire Holy Alliance, exceeding ten million.

One village after another, one town after another, there are people every ten miles.

However, when the border knights looked up, they could not see many people.

The villages along King's Road, in particular, were either occupied by vagrants or bandit knights, or were ruins with only seven or eight families remaining.

Before Kennard arrived, there were actually quite a few villages around King's Row.

However, when these subjects of Leia saw the arrival of Leia's army, which was majestic, brave, and numerous, they were immediately filled with fear.

Wherever the army went, the people fled at the mere sight of them.

This forced Kennard to send his knights far away to collect enough food.

"These tax-resistant bastards." Kennard gazed at the church spire in the distance and sighed softly, his expression a mixture of anger and sorrow.

In the past, although such situations would occur, food could be quickly mobilized as long as arrangements were made with the local knights and the church.

The civil war in the Kingdom of Kelaya rendered the knightly class of Dawn Island incapacitated due to political factors, while the two battles in Thousand River Valley and Windmill Land rendered the local priestly class incapacitated.

As for the local nobles, they each had their own ulterior motives.

The local grassroots rule of the Kingdom of Leia is practically nonexistent, if not completely detached from reality.

Fortunately, Square Enix sent supplies, otherwise Kennard and his men would have broken down halfway and been delayed for who knows how long.

Kennard and his group walked a little further and could see the towering gray-blue city walls behind the layers of houses.

Hidden among the gables and towers, the sunlight reflecting off the city walls suggests that many soldiers are on patrol at this moment.

As a city, similar to Joan of Arc, Schkellenberg is divided into inner and outer cities.

The inner city was a walled castle, serving as the residence of the army and nobles, and also as a district of official residences.

As for the fortified area outside the castle, it was the location of the town, which was often formed by the market where the soldiers stationed in the fort traded with the villagers.

However, Kennard sensed a considerable number of guards on the streets, indicating that the local Square Wolfsburg was also prepared for war.

The thought that he wouldn't have to put in too much effort eased Kennard's anxiety considerably.

Looking at the Earl of Skolston riding up, he gave an impeccable noble smile: "Earl of Stryffin, Kennard of the Maborra family from Howling Fortress in Thornfield pays his respects. My uncle, Schlip Maborra, was once your colleague and courtier at the Duke of Dauphin's Palace."

I have come by the King's command, and at the Regent's behest, to suppress the rioters in Owen City, and have taken up residence in your city.

Within the circles of imperial nobility, there were clear rules about what to say when meeting someone.

Horn generally refers to it as a three-part process: registering, building connections, and stating one's purpose.

If they were nobles of the Franco-Holland or the Isles of the River, they would often also intersperse their remarks with hymns or passages from the Gospels.

However, Kennard was from Thornyard and had a military background, so he spoke more directly.

If it were a royal envoy from a river island, and they didn't exchange pleasantries for at least half an hour upon meeting, it would be as if they had a canker sore that day.

However, compared to Kennard's directness, this count was even more direct: "When will you enter the city? When will you send out your troops?"

“…Your Excellency, we are exhausted from our march.” Kennard raised an eyebrow. “Besides, we are only the vanguard; we should wait for the rear guard to arrive before we can send out our troops.”

"You have at least five thousand men. Is this the vanguard?" Count Stravinsky, his mouth surrounded by blisters, said, "Don't try to fool me. You should be the vanguard, right?"

"Lord Count Stryfen, what's wrong?" The Count of Skolston knew that the outside was not the place to talk, so he led them to the military camp in the south of the city.

Upon arrival, the Earl poured Kennard a glass of local Dawn Island red wine before sitting down and beginning his explanation.

Three days ago, the Count's customs posts and outposts on the outskirts of the city were attacked by cavalry.

These cavalrymen, armed with sabers and many carrying wind-up muskets, indiscriminately attacked the outer outposts.

The count sent knights out to attack several times, but they were either ambushed and wiped out, or they lost the pursuit.

His scouts discovered that it was likely elite cavalry sent by Owen City to sabotage the economy.

Count Stryfen is the new count of this place and is considered a member of the Eusla Noble Alliance.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken on the task of setting up the military base; no lord would want their territory to suffer such destruction.

At the same time, Count Stryffin intended to use the strength of his army to suppress the other local nobles within his territory.

His eyes, which monitored and suppressed these local nobles, were the outposts and customs offices in various places.

Now, the cavalry of Wonneville have not only taken over these outposts and customs, but have also repeatedly attacked and killed the soldiers of Skelton Castle who were patrolling outside the city, leaving the Earl completely bewildered.

News from outside the city was almost completely cut off, and people could only rely on unreliable rumors from the streets.

Without this network, if the nobles below him were to collude and reach some agreement, he would be left with no one to command.

Even if things recover in the future, the count's control will still be greatly reduced.

No wonder Count Stravin was in such a hurry, but what made him even more anxious was Kennard's next sentence.

“I know your difficulties, but I refuse.” Kennard sat upright on the bench. “The decision to send troops should not be made by me, but by His Excellency Putzillo.”

“You have five thousand men, while the cavalry from Wonneville outside the city only has a few hundred.” Count Stravin’s jaw was clenched, clearly extremely dissatisfied with this arrangement.

“I’ve already said, do nothing. This is His Excellency Putzillo’s order.”

After saying this, Kennard, being of noble birth and possessing high emotional intelligence, reassured them, "But my rangers will patrol every day. With the kingdom's army here, those minor nobles won't dare to act recklessly."

Kennard invoked Putzillo's banner, and naturally no one dared to disobey.

But let alone Earl Stryffin, even the generals of the Kingdom's own army were somewhat skeptical.

Is it necessary for Your Excellency Putzillo to be so cautious?

Based on current intelligence, as long as the Holy Alliance does not send troops, their strength is still quite sufficient to defeat the Five Cities Alliance.

Even if the Holy Alliance provided material support to the Five Cities Alliance, and Fran provided intelligence support to the Five Cities Alliance...

But if you can't beat them, you can't beat them. The Leia people have already tested this repeatedly on the Kingdom of Fran and the Holy Alliance.

The only force to be wary of is the Longbow Fortress Guard, the only one of the five cities to have successfully launched an offensive.

Putzlior and Kennard had always suspected that the Longbow Fortress Guards were actually troops secretly sent by the Holy Alliance.

Just to be on the safe side, Putzillo simply took a detour to target the easy target, Owen City.

According to the available intelligence, the Joan of Arc escorted Drummer out of the country, conducted a large-scale counter-espionage investigation at Longbow Fortress, and was still training a new army; he did not actually go into battle.

The only possible explanation is that they are elite mercenaries from various towns that Owen City itself has mobilized.

More likely, quite a few local knights actually joined the ranks of Owen City.

Essentially, they are local opposition groups.

Since that's the case, it doesn't seem like a big deal to go out of the city and wipe out a cavalry unit.

However, since Lord Putzillo had given such an order, the army, except for the rangers, remained obediently stationed inside the city.

Seemingly sensing the cowardice of Kennard's army, the cavalry outside the city became even more audacious.

They not only attacked outposts, but also intercepted Leia's supply convoys, and even secretly set fire to military camps at night.

In the past few days, there have been frequent reports of the manor being attacked and knights being killed.

Those landowners burdened with heavy feudal taxes were all cut down by the cavalry and their land was then rented out to others.

This attracted many homeless people and impoverished citizens, which only made Count Stryffin in the city more anxious.

In particular, the cavalry outside the city would even reach the outer city tax gate of Skolston Castle, and infantry would also be sent out to fight when besieging the Knights Manor.

Judging from their attire, they were definitely trashy mercenaries, but Kennard just wouldn't go into battle and insisted on waiting for the rear guard, which was driving me crazy!
Finally, five days later, Duke Strickland could not resist and went to Kennard's house in person.

(End of this chapter)