Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 285: The First Hostile Territory of Hessen Territory

After Su Li rode the griffin into the air, 12 air cavalrymen took off from the empty terrace, circled in front of the magnificent snow-white castle, and gathered behind Su Li, officially starting their journey to Maleburg.

Fastrik proudly held the banner of the Bauhinia family aloft. Under the effect of this banner, the knights under it gave the illusion of being exceptionally large. Griffins and Pegasus were already enormous flying beasts, and an even larger air cavalry unit was enough to terrify any powerful enemy. Even so, soaring thousands of meters in the air, the monsters below might mistake them for a fleet of dragons.

When they slam down from the sky, they can rely on the aura of fear to directly cause the enemy to be terrified.

After a group of cavalry took off, the territorial ministers and female courtiers who were seeing them off felt much more reassured. It would be unreasonable if such a powerful army, with the lord's ability to avoid disaster and seek fortune, still encountered a crisis.

The fact was just as the ministers of the territory thought. Su Li led the air cavalry at lightning speed and did not encounter any threats at all.

They flew through the thick clouds, their movements completely undetectable from below.

Most of the beasts were completely unaware that a team of powerful knights were quietly flying behind the clouds thousands of meters in the sky.

Only flocks of migratory birds occasionally sensed the presence of hunters in the sky, but when they turned around in confusion, they could not find the source of this powerful breath at all.

Both griffins and Pegasus can fly at an altitude of over 4000 meters, crossing the snow-capped peaks of the Gray Mountains. This makes their flying altitude exceed that of most birds, and also allows Su Li and his group to cross hundreds of miles of territory silently.

Moreover, the air cavalry not only flew high, but also had unparalleled speed. This was the fastest march Su Li had experienced since coming to this world.

In just two hours, they traveled hundreds of miles at lightning speed, crossing the territory and border checkpoints of the Hessian Territory.

Looking down from the sky, you can see Foreign Secretary Hartscliffe's border sluice gate and the three-story garden cottage next to it.

When she was not on a diplomatic mission, she liked to stay here, sitting on a lounge chair in the garden, holding a pipe, and watching the merchant ships and grain ships coming and going on the canal.

This will also help her better perform her duties as Minister of Foreign Affairs. After all, when the territory has no diplomatic missions, this place is the forefront of the territory's external exchanges, and many caravans and ships enter the caravan for the first time from here.

She set up the Foreign Secretary's office here, which is very convenient for handling various documents.

Then the griffin continued to fly, leaving perfect arcs in the air, and did not begin to gradually descend until noon.

This is not because they can't fly. On the contrary, they have plenty of energy and can soar for a whole day.

Even the Empire's finest warhorses could gallop for a whole day, let alone these powerful flying beasts. In fact, they could soar far beyond the reach of wild geese. Migrating geese can fly all day during the migration season, and even short trips can last a few hours. Even while draped in heavy harness weighing hundreds of pounds, and carrying a knight weighing hundreds of pounds in armor and armor, the griffins remained energetic.

If they are not engaged in combat, they can carry loads of thousands of pounds and glide in the air for a whole day and night.

However, they and the Pegasus could hold out, but the other mounts couldn't. The giant eagle could only fly for a whole morning, or at most a whole day. The gray swans, bearing the weight of the halflings, could no longer flap their heavy wings, and at noon they had to stop to rest.

The place we stayed at was right next to the huge freshwater lake in the upper reaches of the Brienne River. This was the closest lake to the Hesse Territory and also the most magnificent lake in the northeast of the Border Prince Territory.

Located in the canyon of the upper Brienne River, it is surrounded by towering mountains and dense primeval forests. The lake itself is approximately 50 kilometers long and several dozen kilometers wide. Its surface acts like a giant mirror, reflecting the colors of the sky and the contours of the surrounding mountains. On clear days, the lake appears a deep blue, like a gem cut from the sky.

Hence it has a beautiful name, Blue Mirror Lake, and is now controlled by a baron.

Su Li stayed by the lake for a while before a group of cavalrymen rode over and shouted, "Who dares to trespass on Baron Lan Jing's sacred land? Don't you know this is Baron Grant's restricted area?"

They held high a blue and white noble flag. The dark blue brocade flag had a mysterious and profound temperament, and the silver-white vertical stripes were like the reflection of the arc surface and the moonlight at night, showing a cold and elegant temperament.

At the center of the banner is an eagle with outstretched wings, likely symbolizing the family's authority and the vastness of its territory. In its talons, it clutches a small shield. The background is composed of wavy lines, symbolizing the surface of Blue Mirror Lake. The wavy lines gradually fade from dark blue to silvery white, mimicking the changes in the lake's light.

From such a carefully designed banner, it can be seen that the power behind it is definitely not a frontier development territory that relies solely on the protection of a family, but a powerful noble whose strength is deeply rooted in this land.

Hildurde whispered beside Su Li, "My Lord, I sense the presence of the Sea God Mannan. They must be Mannan's followers."

Hartzklin on the side took the initiative to step forward and communicate with the other party. This situation was exactly the time for her, the Foreign Minister, to show her ability. Otherwise, if the lord went up to communicate, the two sides would probably start fighting within three sentences.

As a halfling, Hartzklin possessed a natural ability to connect with others. With a gentle smile, she spoke with composure, "We are frontier pioneer knights from the foothills of the Black Forest, merely passing through your territory. According to Imperial law, we pioneer knights have the freedom to travel freely through the border princely territories."

The other party could certainly tell that this group of people were the followers of a certain noble, but Hartzklin's words still startled them a little. They asked, "Are you the pioneer knights?"

The other cavalrymen were also shocked and looked around: "What kind of pioneer knights have so many griffins?"

"This is the powerful mount that our Lord Baron has longed for and yet to obtain."

"Are pioneer knights this powerful now? Which noble family does this nobleman come from?"

"I can't tell. Their banners don't seem to belong to any Imperial Elector, nor do they belong to those prominent ducal families."

After they whispered for a while, a voice suddenly rose: "I know, they must be the pioneering territory at the foot of the Gray Mountains."

"The Black Forest Territory? The one that's become famous recently?"

"The territory where the green dragon was defeated?"

As the sounds came out, the cavalrymen took a deep breath and retreated cautiously.

How could they not be afraid? Although information flowed slowly in this world, as a neighbor only a thousand miles away, they had heard about what was happening at the foot of the Gray Mountains.

Especially after some wandering knights, free mercenaries and wandering bards returned from the foothills of Hessen, their exaggerated descriptions made them all aware of the fierce battle that took place in Hessen Territory. It was a powerful knight who defeated tens of thousands of green dragon minions in one fell swoop.

The overwhelming monster army fell before their swords, and the battlefield, which was said to be a sea of ​​blood and corpses, covered the entire territory.

There was only a small monastery of the Goddess of the Fiery Sun in their territory, and there were no powerful priests or knights in it, so they didn't know much about the battle. However, the more vague the rumors were, the more terrifying their impression of the battle became.

After all, the disparity in combat power between the two sides was simply too great! One side had perhaps fewer than five thousand men and women, both soldiers and civilians, while the other side was a horde of monsters numbering tens of thousands across the mountains and plains.

It’s hard to imagine how these human knights won this battle.

Therefore, the knights of Blue Mirror Territory speculated that the knights of this territory must be fierce and skilled in fighting, killing countless monsters! Each knight could kill dozens or even hundreds of monsters to win the battle with such a huge disparity in strength.

The more outrageous the rumors became, the deeper their fear of the knights became.

What's even more terrifying is that although this team of knights is small in number, in terms of combat effectiveness, it is easy to kill them all.

Under the terrifying aura of the flags, these knights seemed to be filled with surging blood and energy.

After a moment of shock, the leading knight suppressed his fear and said, "We don't care if you're just passing through. As long as you're within our Blue Mirror Territory, you must obey Baron Grant's laws! Anyone who trespasses into Blue Mirror Lake will be fined three gold crowns!"

This baron is really good at exploiting people.

These are three golden crowns, which are a huge fortune for the knights-errant and adventurers passing by.

Even Su Li felt a little distressed. So this is what it felt like to be taxed? He had to pay a large amount of gold crowns for no reason.

Fandral quickly stopped in front of Su Li and said, "My Lord, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. When we are out in public, we should not provoke conflicts with others. In our territory, if anyone takes water from Lake Ravelin without permission, they will be fined one gold crown. Any knight order, any chamber of commerce, and even the nobles passing by will abide by this."

Su Li remembered the promise he made to Freya and Ingrid, and had originally planned to endure it, just as paying a toll.

But at this moment, the usually calm and wise Hilde stopped Fandral from speaking, stepped forward, gripped the hilt of his sword, and enveloped the other party with a powerful aura. He asked sternly, "We just won't hand it over. What do you want? We said we'll rest for a while and leave immediately!"

Su Li looked at Hildre in surprise. This was not her style.

Meanwhile, the rather naive Sylvanas clenched her bow, lost in thought. Under the powerful aura of the Chosen, the enemy ranks fell into disarray, even their warhorses stamping their hooves nervously as they retreated.

All of Mannan's knights clenched their blades and looked at the captain nervously.

It can be said that if a conflict breaks out, these people will definitely die.

Here is a chosen knight and two champion knights. It won't take long to stab them all to death on their horses.

The captain with the wiry beard swallowed nervously, but his attitude remained unwavering. He drew his sword and shouted, "Obey our laws immediately, or we will fight!"

Hild suddenly stepped on the ground with her right foot, and the powerful strength of the God's Chosen level burst out. To a certain extent, she could use her mortal body to exert the power of a god. The flat ground broke instantly, and a large number of cracks spread towards the opponent's feet.

This column of Mannan's cavalry was instantly thrown to the ground, and a large number of horses stumbled and threw the knights off their backs.

The knights who fell to the ground were even more terrified, looking in disbelief at the powerful figure in front of them with the hilt of the sword in hand and golden hair flying.

"Legendary Knight?"

"How is that possible? Isn't she the chosen knight?"

At this time, their captain had to immediately reassure everyone: "Impossible! If she had the strength of a legendary knight, how could Archibald take Phyllis away from their territory?"

Hearing their shocked voices, Su Li also noticed something unusual. This territory had too much detailed information about its own territory!

Sylvana quietly stood beside Su Li and whispered in his ear, "Lord, I feel like they are a little too afraid of us."

"You mean..." Su Li looked at these knights, frowned and asked, "They have something to hide?"

Sylvanas nodded gently and said, "Steward Hildurd must have noticed something was going on, so he proactively rejected their request. From the moment they arrived, their fear of us reached an abnormal level."

Su Li asked doubtfully: "What are they afraid of? Our strength?"

That being said, it was indeed somewhat suspicious. It was a normal encounter, and we weren't murderous, so how could we be so frightened? Unless they had already considered us their enemy in their hearts.

The rogue knight Fastrick also noticed something unusual and said, "If they were truly afraid of our strength, they wouldn't have to come here to collect taxes. I feel like they're just provoking us."

Aliana's face was grim as she spoke, "I suspect they knew from the beginning that we were from the Black Forest Territory. At least their captain must have known! They probably came here specifically after seeing us descend from the sky."

At this point, the opposing captain was already beginning to strain. Under the immense pressure from Hildurd, he stood up from the ground, propped up by his sword, and asked, "Do you want to start a war between the two territories?"

Because of three gold coins, a war between two territories was started?

This is too exaggerated. Su Li looked at the other party in disbelief.

At this time, Hildurd also took out three gold coins and threw them directly at the other party's feet, asking, "We give you what you want. This means that if a war really breaks out, it will be your responsibility!"

The other party seemed to have not expected the unexpected turn of events. This powerful God-chosen Knight suddenly agreed to their request, so when faced with the three golden crowns, they were a little confused for a moment.

Until his team members reminded him: "Captain, we have got the gold coins, why don't we leave?"

Hildre walked up to Su Li and whispered, "Lord, prepare for war. I was just looking for an excuse to test them, but now I can almost say for sure that this territory will provoke a war with us. We've only eliminated one of their excuses, and they'll find a new one sooner or later."

Looking at the Mannan Knights who left in a hurry, Su Li asked in surprise: "How did you tell that?"

Pointing to the beautiful Blue Mirror Lake, Hildurde said, "They are followers of Mannan. It's impossible for them to block off such a large body of water and prevent their subjects from approaching. On the contrary, as followers of Mannan, Lord of Tides and Oceans, they must find ways to bring more people closer to the water source and experience the benefits of the current. I noticed from the air that the lake is surrounded by many water conservancy facilities, water mills, hydraulic forging hammers, and even a large town and castle built along the lake. This is likely the core of their territory, and it's impossible for them to prohibit outsiders from approaching."

"Of course, more importantly, I've heard reports from other caravans, and they've never mentioned any fines in this regard."

The fine they specifically proposed for their own group?
Although this kind of thing is very common in the empire, in the dark and corrupt empire, it is common for bureaucrats to arbitrarily impose fines. There are even many territories without clear legal provisions, and the will of the lord is the law.

But Su Li was still a little indignant and asked, "Then you gave them three gold coins. You should kill them all."

"Then they'll have every reason to provoke a war against us." Hildreth looked at the waters and said, "They'll probably drastically increase tariffs and block the Brienne River's passage to our territory."

Adding checkpoints and raising tariffs are the most important reasons for conflicts between the two territories, even within the empire.

No lord could tolerate the important trade routes of his territory being blocked and cut off by another territory.

Many powerful lords and overbearing territories like to use geographical advantages to blockade another territory in order to force the other party to surrender and submit.

War was bound to break out. It was difficult to judge the right and wrong in such matters. One could only say, "How can one allow others to sleep soundly beside one's own bed?" To ensure its own security, any territory had to weaken the surrounding forces, turning them into vassals or resource suppliers.

Just like right now, the Blue Mirror Territory is likely already planning how to restrict the Black Forest Territory, and their leaders may even have drafted several war plans. That's why their knights are particularly fearful and guilty upon seeing their own side—this is the reaction they have when facing an enemy or opponent.

Of course, there's no need to think they're evil or targeting the Black Forest Territory. Even if they don't make such preparations, the Black Forest Territory will attack and conquer them once they've recovered. A clash between two forces requires the fall and submission of one.

This discovery made Su Li's originally somewhat casual state tense up again.

This dark and hopeless world is always fraught with danger. The world won't wait until you are fully prepared before the war arrives.

The Hessen Territory had barely begun to develop when external threats and shackles loomed. Before the Hessen Territory could complete its material preparations, mobilize its troops, or choose a direction for expansion, the enemy had already taken action!

Su Li also took a deep breath and said, "This Baron Grant and his Blue Mirror Territory may very well be the biggest foreign enemy we will face next. If he dramatically increases tariffs, raising the tax rate to over 100% to the east of the upper reaches of the Brienne River, it is very likely that we will directly cut off an important trade route. War is inevitable. Are we prepared?"

If he really cuts off the trade route, the territory's fragile financial balance will collapse immediately!

At that time, whether Su Li wants to or not, he will have to lead his army to fight a decisive battle with Lord Lan Jing.

Fortunately, Su Li will earn a lot of wealth from Maleburg on this trip, making the Hesse treasury full again, with at least tens of thousands of gold crowns in reserve, which can support the fiscal deficit for several months.

Otherwise, after the trade routes were blocked and the finances went bankrupt, he would not even have the wealth to pay the knights and soldiers, and could only allow himself to be manipulated by the Blue Mirror Lord.

This kind of crisis is also the norm in border prince territories. A pioneer knight has to face not only the lack of resources and the invasion of wild beasts, but also a large number of challenges from the covetousness and ambitions of other pioneer territories!

Hildre replied calmly, "I think the war won't break out for at least a month or two. Even if Blue Mirror Territory wants to increase checkpoints and raise tariffs, it won't be easy. A sudden increase in the tax rate to over 100% will cause them to suffer heavy losses. A large number of caravans will bypass their territory, reducing their trade income. Baron Grant must take precautions and strictly control a large number of areas to cut off the possibility of caravans bypassing them and heading to our territory. Only then will he initiate a blockade and war."

"If war breaks out, we must first break through the forces between the two baronies. There are still several small pioneering territories and kingdom knight territories in between. This may take us several months, so we must also prepare financial and food reserves."

Su Li nodded slightly. This time, he could be considered to have personally surveyed the battlefield geography. In fact, the Blue Mirror Territory was far from the Black Forest Territory.

A vast power vacuum exists between the ruling cores of both sides. This is a key characteristic of the Border Princes. In this gap between the power centers of the pioneering lords, various threats are always present. Goblins, raiders, bandits, and evil orders lurk within, threatening the safety of travelers and caravans.

The distance from Hesseburg to Blue Mirror Lake is nearly a thousand miles! This territory is extremely vast, and it would take an infantry march over ten days.

But the two sides were incredibly close. Across the border of the Black Forest Territory, from the Balan Autonomous Territory, only a few hundred miles remained. By warship, it would take one to two days to reach the heart of the Blue Mirror Territory. A cavalry raid could reach it in a day and a night. It was roughly equivalent to a war between two major counties within the Eastern Empire.

Of course, this is the extraordinary world, with a wider territory, especially the border princes' territories are vast and sparsely populated, so the speed of action is faster and the connections are closer. It is more like a war between two large counties in the wild southern border of the empire.

Su Li then asked, "Only by knowing both ourselves and the enemy can we win every battle. How much intelligence do we have on Blue Mirror Lake?"

(End of this chapter)