Shredder was very angry, but no one in the tent took him seriously no matter how loudly he yelled. What a joke, sending troops to besiege the city of Nadgas and meeting His Second Highness in battle is an act of rebellion. It is a well-known fact that the Antinac royal family is the inheritance of the orthodox former Empire Christen royal family, that is to say, the Antinac royal family represented by the Second Highness is the upper lord of the Norton family. Unless Shredder is ready to abandon his status as a knight of the Norton family and lead everyone to become bandits, he will not be able to send troops.
"Terman, please write an official letter to negotiate with the Second Highness and ask him to send our family soldiers back. Otherwise, it will not look good for the Antinac royal family if this matter is spread." Bodfinger said to Terman explain.
"Okay, I'll go write now." Terman stood up and walked out of the big tent.
"Okay, it's not a big deal. There's no need to be angry about it. I suspect that it's just Edma and Wan Pu's self-assessment. The Second Highness doesn't know it at all. Because if this matter spreads, the Antinac royal family will be worse than us. More humiliating," Bodelfinger told Shredder.
What Bodfinger said is correct. As the upper lord, the Second Highness can give orders to the Norton family, and can discuss things like borrowing soldiers and supplies. Even if he poachs the old students of Dawn Academy now, it doesn't matter, because these old students They weren't the knights of the Norton family, they just agreed to Lorist's invitation to follow the convoy northward, and whether they were willing to become the knights of the Norton family would be decided after arriving at the destination. So the Second Highness's recruitment of these veteran students is justified, and it is only natural that these veteran students have better places to go and abandon the convoy.
However, the two squadron soldiers who were taken away were armed by Norton's family. If the Second Highness refused to return them, he must have lost his mind. In Galintia, rebellion is the most taboo thing among nobles. If the lower lord rebelled against the upper lord, no matter how reasonable you are, you will be accused by thousands of people and automatically rejected by all the nobles. Once you fail, the family will never be able to recover.
Like the Pegasus family, a hundred years ago, they united seven noble families and Christen IV fought for a crescent-shaped magic stone, but no one regarded them as rebellious. The descendant of the Philim family, Baron Charward Under the banner of Pegasus, he claimed to revive the family and won a lot of praise. The reason is very simple. The Philim family is not rebellious. Their war with King Krissen IV was only because they refused to dedicate the magic stone to the royal family of Krissen IV. Krissen IV became angry and sent troops to snatch it. They just resisted in self-defense. Even if they failed, Christen IV did not declare these nobles to be rebellious. In the eyes of all the nobles, the New Moon War was nothing more than Christen IV bullying those unlucky families.
When the upper lord is powerful, the lower lord can only compromise and perfunctory. But when the lower lord is stronger than the upper lord, he can also ignore or ignore the orders of the upper lord. The reason is very simple. As long as the lower lord thinks that the orders of the upper lord have harmed the interests of his family, he can ignore the orders of the upper lord. Order, this is the sacred right of every noble, and the upper lord has nothing to do. Sending troops and declaring war like Shredder's clamor, that is the real act of rebellion.
Similarly, if a superior lord annexes his troops or supplies without the consent of the lower lords, property is also a taboo, and will be spurned or even betrayed by all the lower lords. Now the strength of the northbound convoy is stronger than that of the Second Highness. If this incident causes trouble, the Norton family turns to the Eldest Prince or the Second Prince betrays the Third Prince, then the Second Highness will regret it endlessly.
It takes a lot of brains to turn a friendly army into a life-and-death enemy, not to mention that the Second Highness has no shortage of soldiers, and a random move among the refugees can cost tens of thousands, as long as he can afford it. There is no shortage of equipment, and the Royal Guards still have tens of thousands of sets of weapons and equipment in their warehouses. From the perspective of the Second Highness, the conflict between the soldiers of the two squadrons and the Norton family was not worth the candle.
Terman lifted the curtain and entered the big tent again. He said, "The Second Highness is here."
Shredder was still angry, and shouted: "Let him go, I don't want to see him."
If you don't want to see it, you can see it. Although Shredder is appointed by Lorist as the head of the northbound convoy, he is still a knight of the Norton family. His Second Highness is the upper lord of the Norton family. Unless Lorist is there, no one is qualified to stop the second His Highness is in a big tent, especially since he has Norton Chrisya as his attendant.
The Second Highness came to apologize and send back the soldiers of the two squadrons. The more Shi Ruide looked at the Second Highness, the more he felt uncomfortable. He believed that the current dilemma of the team was mostly due to the Second Highness, and the fat man always thought he was very witty. Who would want to be played by this seemingly harmless and amiable Second Highness? Every time, after the incident, I only discovered the clues belatedly.
Bodfinger protested to the Second Highness, the convoy was facing difficulties, and the Second Highness was still poaching the corners of the northbound convoy. Although the veteran students recruited by the Second Highness were not the knights of the Norton family, these old students were in the convoy They all occupy important positions and are endowed with important responsibilities. The mess they left after they left caused headaches for several managers of the team. Bodfinger has no objection to the Second Highness's recruitment of talents, but at least he must let them go from beginning to end, and take the team to the Norton family's territory in the Northland before returning. Second Highness is not too late.
His Highness the Second Highness expressed his apology very sincerely. He said that he was mainly happy to see Lie Xin, and talents are rare. He did not expect that so many outstanding talents gathered in the northbound convoy of the Norton family. In order to revive the Krissen royal family and unify the empire, it is necessary to recruit more talents to work hard together to realize his ideals, so he favors the many talents in the team. However, he can guarantee that he will not let people from the team go to him right away. He will accept Bodfinger's suggestion and let those he likes come back to report after the team arrives at the destination.
Bodfinger was also very helpless, now there were only a few people in the convoy who had been accepted by Lorist as family knights, he, Shredder, El, Terman who was recuperating in the tent next door, and Yuri who was leading the team on patrol. Like his former colleague Rod Wells of the Golden Rank in the White Lion Legion, Mons Malek of the Silver Three Stars who is now in charge of the refugee management, and Zeno Farea, the golden mercenary in charge of a garrison regiment, replaced the wounded El, the golden swordsman Injerek who is in charge of the team's general camp, Dolles from the chariot team, Rummard from the pharmacist team, and the rest of the old students from Dawn Academy are the backbone of the northbound team. But they are not Norton's family knights, and it is indeed inevitable that they will be poached by the Second Highness.
For ambitious old students, the title of royal knight is more attractive than family knight. The kingdom of Antinac was wiped out by the convoy led by Shreed. In both directions, they are faced with malicious neighbors, coupled with the deliberate suppression and blockade of trade exchanges by the Ford Business Alliance, the situation is very difficult. But riches and honors are in danger, and now if you seek refuge with the Second Highness, you may have the opportunity to make meritorious deeds. Once you are made a territorial noble because of your merits, it means that you will be on an equal footing with Lorist, and you will also become a member of the noble class, and you will be superior from now on.
Fortunately, those who are currently relying on His Royal Highness are some of the veteran students who are not outstanding, like Edma and Wan Pu, they are only squadron leaders, and some veteran students who have performed well have already taken the position of team leader. It is also the reason why Schrader has expanded the team too much. Nearly 20,000 family armed forces, more than 5,000 carriages, more than 60,000 convoys, and 100,000 refugees following behind forced everyone to grow up quickly to adapt to new positions and changes in the situation.
The Second Highness came here for another purpose, which is to find out when the convoy will leave for the north.
Without the slightest hesitation, Shredder told the Second Highness very straightforwardly that the convoy was blocked here and could not go to the Northland, because the Principality of Madras sent the Iron Guards to block the border, and no one person and one horse were allowed to pass through. It is very likely that the convoy will stay in the Antinac Kingdom for the winter, and wait until next spring to find a way to decide whether to detour or what to do. So Shredder hoped that His Highness the Second Highness could raise clothing and food for the winter. Assist the convoy to let nearly 100,000 refugees survive the cold winter.
His Highness the Second Highness shook his head, and told everyone directly that the Kingdom of Antinac couldn't afford a package of 100,000 refugees. Although he had divided half of the convoy's raids on the two provinces, he had already spent almost all of it on recruiting troops and settling the refugees. As for the confiscation of Verbasya Province, Shredder did not distribute it to the Second Highness, and it was used to resettle refugees. Therefore, in order to survive from the dead, the convoy has only one way, and that is to attack the Principality of Madras and collect food, grass and supplies from there.
The Second Highness said, if there is really no other way, the only way out is to incite the refugees to attack the fortress of Liechtana in front of the castle. Even if one hundred thousand refugees cannot capture the fortress, it is enough to exhaust the iron guards guarding the fortress. , and even inflict serious damage, when the convoy hits with all its strength, it should be able to easily take down the fortress of Lichtana, the door of the Principality of Madras will be opened, and the convoy will be able to go to the Northland unimpeded.
Everyone in the big tent felt their scalps go numb, His Highness said it lightly, but when everyone thought of driving 100,000 refugees to attack the fortress guarded by the Iron Guard Legion, which claims to be the most defensive in the world, a pile of corpses appeared in front of them involuntarily. Sea of blood, how many corpses of refugees are needed to fill this bottomless hole, even Shreid, who is called a demon, can't help but feel chills all over his body.
"No, it can't be done like this," Bodfinger was the first to express his disapproval. Like the eldest prince of the Kingdom of Ridleys, he has always been known for his cruelty and tyranny, but he only captured the young and strong among the refugees and used them as cannon fodder for the siege. . Driving the old, weak, women and children among the refugees to attack the city, as long as the infamy of the Norton family is spread, it will spread throughout the Galintia continent. Accumulated family prestige is lost.
The Second Highness spread his hands: "I have no other choice, either wait here to die, or capture the fortress of Liechtana. This is the only idea I have thought about. If you don't want to drive the refugees, then I can come out A regiment of 10,000 soldiers will assist your convoy to attack the fortress defended by the Iron Guards. But I am not optimistic about the results of the attack. The Iron Guards are known for their defense. At the beginning, they only had 8,000 soldiers, but they withstood my father's 60,000 troops. The attack lasted for half a year. Now it has been expanded to a 28,000-strong army by the Grand Duke of Madras, as well as the Liechtana Fortress. My 10,000 soldiers and your nearly 20,000 family troops in the northbound convoy are armed, right? Possibly taking the fortress..."
This is the truth, if the convoy is stuck here and cannot go north, then the many convoys and refugees will consume all the food and grass in at most three or four months, and the convoy will collapse at that time. If you change the route, you will pass through the territory of the second prince Iberia Kingdom, dragged down by 100,000 refugees behind, the convoy will definitely become the second prince's meal, the future is even more unpredictable, and the Iberia Kingdom has been war-torn for a long time, plus In the second prince's search, there was no way to obtain food and grass supplies, and the distance increased by three months. Without supplies, he had to guard against the interception of the second prince's army. This was a dead end, and basically there was no need to consider the problem of diversion.
The best way is to go north through the Principality of Madras, a distance of more than 1,300 miles, even if you only walk 30 miles a day, you can reach the Northland in 40 to 50 days, but the Principality of Madras has blocked the border. Let the caravans and the refugees pass. If the Second Highness did not use the method of driving the refugees to attack the city, even if there were 10,000 soldiers supported by the Second Highness, everyone would not be sure to capture the fortress of Lichtana, which was guarded by the Iron Guards.
There was a moment of silence in the big tent...
The curtain was lifted, and Yuri rushed in with a happy face: "Look, everyone, who is here?"
Following behind into the big tent were Reddy and Jim. Shredder was overjoyed when he saw Reddy: "Ray Reddy, are you here? Where's your lord?"
"Your Excellency misses you very much. He asked me to deliver a few letters and see where you have been. By the way, he is Jim, a silver mercenary promoted by Your Excellency. Come, Jim, let me introduce you..." Ray Di pulled Jim to introduce the people in the big tent to him, but when he came to the Second Highness and Chrisya, Reddy was stunned, and he didn't know who these two were.
Terman quickly introduced the Second Highness and Chrisya to Reddy and Jim. Hearing that they were the Second Highness of the Antinac Kingdom and Lorist's cousin Chrisya, Reddy and Jim hurriedly saluted.
"Reddy, and that Jim, don't be too busy to be courteous. Isn't the border of the Principality of Madras closed? How did you get here?" Shredder asked impatiently.
"Oh, it's all up to Jim. We heard that the Principality of Madras blocked the borders because of something called Demon Srad. But Jim knew an old fisherman by the Egret Lake. He set up a boat to take us Seven people were sent across the lake." Reddy replied with a smile.
Shredder's face was a little red, and he didn't expect that he was already notorious: "Seven of you are here?"
"Well, there are five other family guards, all of whom were mercenaries. We pretended to be mercenaries. The road went smoothly. Just after we crossed the lake, we met Lord Yuri's scout light cavalry and brought us here." Reddy answer.
"Reddy, how is your lord doing now? How is the situation in the family estate?" asked Baldfinger.
"Your Excellency is very good. As for the situation of the family territory, it will be a long story. We followed the Lord back to the family territory and had a wonderful time. Listen to me..."
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