It was raining heavily outside the window.
It is now the middle of March. In the Galintia continent, March is the rainy season, and the rainy season in the south of the continent will even last for nearly two months. However, the Northland is located in the central area on the map of the Galintia continent. Because the towering Magic Dragon Mountains block the convection of the ocean climate between the east and the west, the rainy season in the Northland generally only lasts for a month or less. ten days.
Lorist had already returned to the Rock Castle, and handed over the strategy of the Principality of Madras to Bodfinger. After becoming the Grand Duke of the Northland, just like the advice of his retainers, he really shouldn't take the lead and run around. As long as he grasps the strategic direction of the family, many family knights and civil officials will be responsible for carrying out the specific affairs.
Now there are as many as sixteen golden knights in the family. If it weren't for the second-level great swordsman beside the Grand Duke Madras, Lorist would not bother to make this trip. Because of the surprise attack on West Degrad Province, Lorist missed Diliana's production date again. While Lorist was enjoying the glory of the occupiers and the service of the two new lovers, the young aunt of the Dina family added another young son to the Norton family in Rock Castle.
Lorist stared at the map for a long time, and Fatty Shi ordered Schwader to get two more candlesticks to make the study room brighter.
"Lock, are you worried about the Raiders of the Principality of Madras? The Rock Legion has occupied Kebo City, and has cut off the food supply of the hundreds of thousands of enemies who are confronting us at the riverside ferry camp. Seized from Kebo City We found out from the account books that before the rainy season, they planned to transport a batch of food, grass, and supplies, but now they are gone. When they survive the rainy season, I believe that the army of the 100,000 Madras Principalities will be almost hungry. There is no other way but to surrender..."
Lorist shook his head: "The general situation of the Principality of Madras has been settled, and there is nothing to cause trouble. I have already ordered the Flying Tiger Legion to go west immediately after the rainy season, and force-land the more than 100,000 enemy troops. In fact, Bodfinger's As you have read the report, the cut off of the supply of food and grass has made the enemy discover that Kebo City is occupied by us, but the onset of the rainy season prevents them from counterattacking.
We already know that the enemy over there is 56,000 people from the Seamount Legion. Originally, there were 10,000 guards in Vanades City and Kebo City, as well as 20,000 defenders and horses transferred from the Hindra Mountain Range. There are more than 10,000 private troops of the nobles of the Principality of Deras. It can be seen that the Grand Duke of Madras was planning to have a decisive battle with us after the beginning of spring. It's just that we didn't give him a chance.
Without the supply of food, grass and luggage in Kebo City, the army of the one hundred thousand Madras Principality will be very sad during the rainy season. But I guess with their remaining food and grass plus the mules and horses in the slaughter camp, they can still get through this rainy season half hungry and half full. The purpose of sending the Flying Tigers to the west is not to fight them. I have written to Tiger Ross that his main task is to trap the enemy in the camp. Because the end of the rainy season is the harvest time of winter wheat, I will not allow the enemy to harvest winter wheat to overcome the difficulty of food shortage.
According to our plan, the Flying Tiger Legion besieged the enemy's camp, and Henned led his Shaheen family army to the Hindelson Hills to besiege the seven castles and fortresses. The 20,000 defenders must surrender for at most two months. The Kenmes family armed forces will go to West Degrad Province to change defenses with the Rock Legion, and let the Rock Legion take a boat back to Hilovas Island and wait for the next move. As for the Felim Family's Light Cavalry Legion, they will sweep up those rebellious territorial nobles in Dremke Province. However, most of the nobles of the Principality of Madras have fallen into our hands. I believe this is a very easy job for Baron Felim. "
Fatty Shi opened a folder and looked at it: "Locke, after the Rock Legion occupied the city of Idris, there were thirty-eight nobles from the Duchy of Madras that were captured from the Grand Duke's Mansion, and according to the list of captured knighthoods, There are a total of 63 noble families in the principality. It should have been more than 80 families, but a few years ago, the second prince ravaged Dremke Province and wiped out about 20 families. The confidant of the Grand Duke of Deras. Because the confidant of the Grand Duke is either serving in the Seamount Legion or serving in important defense positions outside, we must not be careless at the end of the Principality of Madras to avoid the backlash from those people before they die.
Also, although those trusted nobles of the Grand Duke of Madras did not go to the Grand Duke's mansion to attend the welcome banquet, but their female relatives went and fell into our hands. The more than one hundred ladies and young masters we captured in the Grand Duke's Mansion are all the families of these nobles. I wonder if we can use this to recruit those nobles. As long as they surrender with their troops, we can allow them to leave the Principality of Madras with their families and belongings to go wherever they want. They will not be handed over to the Second Highness. I think it might break their will to resist..."
Lorist nodded: "Okay, it can be done this way, I will write to let Borg and Ross cooperate with you, let us win with the least casualties and the least cost, and hope that before June, the Duchy of Madras will be defeated." Everything will settle down."
"Locke, if we let go of those trusted nobles of the Grand Duke of Madras, will there be any objections from the Second Highness?" Although the Second Highness is nominally the former king of Antinac, the knights of the Norton family generally say so in person. For His Majesty, he is still called Second Highness in private, and Fatty Shi is no exception.
"Leave him alone, even if those nobles are rebels who conspired against the empire with the Duke of Madras in his eyes, but we don't need to sacrifice our family's loyal soldiers for these rebellions. If you want to catch these nobles, let the Second Highness do it yourself It's not good for us, we don't have the need, and we don't have the obligation." Ten years of lord's career has made Lorist more and more integrated into this world, becoming more and more like a real lord. Adding some chaos to the royal family and high-ranking lords is something that every noble in the territory of Galintia loves to see.
Fatty Shi giggled: "Understood, but what about the thirty-eight nobles who were captured?"
"If it is an old land noble of the former Christen Empire, the title of viscount and above will be reduced by one rank, and the baron will be fine, and there is no way to reduce it. They will be moved to Winston Province in the future. If it is Madras If the Grand Duke canonize the nobles of the territory, then we will not recognize their titles and territories, release them, confiscate two-thirds of their family property, and return the rest to them, and let them go where they should go." Lorist replied .
"Wow, there are not so many territorial nobles now. I roughly estimated that there are only about twenty left." Fatty Shi flipped through the list in his hand, and remembered another thing: "Locke , what if those trusted nobles of the Grand Duke of Madras still want to keep their titles?"
"Well, tell them that the title of land will be reduced by one level and become the vassal lords of our Norton family. We will take them into service on the grounds of their meritorious service. The Grand Duke of Madras is not an incompetent person, he can take a fancy to and reuse them There must be something special about them, we might as well give it a try, maybe these people can also add some help to our Norton family."
Lorist thought for a while and said, "By the way, the Yuchenko family and the Sabri family don't need to reduce or transfer their titles, just let them become our vassal lords, but their territories still need to be adjusted."
Well, the Yuchenko family and the Sabri family are the families of Lorist's two new beauties. They relied on their own daughters to get into Lorist's bed. Not only were the two families exempted from punishment, but they also successfully switched over. In the sect camp, I don't know how many people died of envy. At the same time, it also shows that the head of the Norton family, the new Grand Duke of the Northland, is a nobleman with a strong sense of responsibility, just because he has not been ruthless...
Fatty Shi had a half-smile: "I heard that there was a lot of trouble a few days ago?"
Lorist touched his nose in embarrassment, and returned to the Rock Castle from Edris City. He took his two new loves back as a matter of course. In the end, Miss Dina got angry, and my two sisters followed you regardless of their status, and let your young aunt give birth to a son for you, but you made an excuse to attack the Principality of Madras, not only missed your aunt The date of production, and brought back two trophies of beautiful women, it's really deceiving, my old lady fights with you, you hypocritical bastard!
"How did you settle it?" Fatty Shi was very interested. Although Miss Dina is jealous and petty, she has a good impression on her retainers and knights. One is that she has worked hard to become a silver female knight. The conflicts and temper tantrums with Lorist were all in private, and they were relatively general. Even when his younger sister was tossing her in the first place, she first asked the opinions of several important retainers of the Norton family. Instead of continuing to tangle with Lorist.
"It's nothing, I promised her to transfer the territory of the Dina family from the Kingdom of Antinac to the province of Dremke, and at the same time accept them as our vassal territories." Lorist smiled wryly and said, "And I promise that in the future Go out and bring their sisters with you, she said that I will never be allowed to go out and bring back a few beauties."
"Haha..." Fatty Shi laughed loudly.
Lorist went to the wine cabinet to get a bottle of fruit wine, opened it and poured a glass for Fatty Shi.
"By the way, my lord, the Knight of Malek has come here to ask for punishment, requesting to be responsible for the riots and massacres that occurred in the city of Alice." Fatty Shi picked up a blue folder that he carried with him, and took Produced a kraft paper document: "This arrived yesterday afternoon, take a look."
Lorist took a glance at the document and then made a move that surprised Fatty Shi. He put the document on the candle and lit it, watching the flame rise and burn.
"Lock, what are you doing? This is to keep the bottom..." Fatty Shi was stunned.
Lorist shook his head: "There is no need to keep this document. There is no paper file for the report on the civil riots in Idris City. In addition, I will issue a commendation order to the Malek Knight and ask him to give credit for his meritorious service. The list of personnel has been reported. His handling of the riot was correct, very decisive and straightforward. I told them a long time ago that the city of Edris is the lair that the Grand Duke of Madras has been running for forty years. The 100,000 residents living in this city are all closely related to the Madras family. We only have 10,000 troops stationed here, which is a bit careless. If it weren’t for the Knights of Malek who killed us and dealt with it decisively, once we were kicked out City, I'm sure West Degrad province will immediately set off a massive resistance.
In the entire province of West Degrad, except for the city of Edris, the Madras family did not enshrine any nobleman of the principality there, but established nearly forty pastoral farms, with a population of nearly 200,000. The family members of the soldiers of the Seamount Legion live here, so the reason why the Seamount Legion can become the most elite family armed force under the Duke of Madras is here, because the Grand Duke of Madras almost kidnapped their family members. It will implicate the family, which forces them to fight desperately to win.
According to the list of soldiers of the Seamount Corps seized from the Grand Duke’s Mansion, I asked Tagle’s Volibear Intelligence and Investigation Bureau to collect letters and items from the families of the soldiers, and send them to the Seamount Corps after the rainy season to break down the soldiers’ resistance. The messengers of the riots in Alice City were clearly aware of this and instigated the people to set off riots. They wanted to stop our actions so that the Seamount Legion could continue to fight with us in Dremke Province, delaying the time until the situation improved. changed.
Hehe, it's a pity that they are wishful thinking. The overall situation has been determined. With a few conspiracies, they can't get on the table in the face of powerful forces. They didn't expect that the provincial capital of West Degrad was the replacement territory we gave to the Kenmes family. Shuffle the cards, no matter what conspiracies and tricks there are, there will be no soil for its survival, and who will be dumbfounded by then. "
According to the territory replacement agreement with the Kenmes family, the current total population of the Kenmes family in the eastern part of the Northland is nearly 340,000. This is the result of the efforts of the Kenmes family to slowly gather refugees in the past ten years. The Kenmes family will take 250,000 of them to West Degrad Province, and the Norton family will be responsible for vacating the original residents of West Degrad Province, so that those who migrated from the Kenmes family can immediately own Good fields and dwellings.
To put it bluntly, the Kenmes family moved people from the eastern part of the Northland to the West Degrad province, while the original residents of the West Degrad province moved to the eastern part of the Northland. According to Fatty Shi, this is a struggle between the two sides. However, for the Kenmes family, it is better to bring their own people to migrate to the magpie's nest, otherwise a single lord will not be able to rest comfortably in the past few years.
"Lock, once the soldiers of the Seamount Corps and the garrison corps surrender, will they also go to the eastern part of the Northland for three years of hard labor?" Fatty Shi asked.
Lorist thought for a while and answered: "How to develop the eastern part of the Northland will have to wait. The families of the Seamount Corps soldiers and the families of the garrison soldiers will be relocated first in West Degrad Province. Let them adapt to the Northland first." Environment. Next is those craftsmen and their families. These craftsmen are the group of people who are most likely to integrate into our family, because no one values them more than our Norton family, so they can be given preferential treatment, allowing our family's workshops to be given priority Select the personnel they need from these craftsmen.
As for the Seamount Legion and those garrison soldiers who built roads directly in Dremke Province after they surrendered, I hope to build a straight road from Vandenas City to Kebo City and then to the North Land within two years. I really don't understand what the former Cresson Empire did. If a straight road was built, it would only take five days from Vandenus City to the Northland, but the road must be stretched by three double the distance, making the five-day journey into more than fifteen days... "
Lorist's complaints made Fatty Shi laugh: "Lock, you don't know how much effort the Cresson Empire took to build this avenue. First, it was resisted by the nobles of the territory, because building a straight avenue would pass through In the territories of many nobles, their request for road tolls was rejected by the empire, so they also opposed allowing the avenue to pass through their territories. In the end, they had no choice but to build the road along the edge of the territory. recorded.
The second point is that the construction of this road has filled the stomachs of many nobles. The road construction in Dremke Province is famous in the history of the empire for costly and long-term construction. It took seven years to complete the construction. The same seven roads have been built in other provinces. I remember that there was a newspaper singing the praises of this road back then, saying that this twisted road was specially built in order to fully transport the products of various noble territories to Kebo City, the granary of the empire. It's really shameless to laugh your teeth out. "
Lorist also laughed a few times: "I don't care about what happened back then, but I will never allow such a situation to happen within the sphere of influence under our jurisdiction. Anyway, all the territories in Dremke Province will be re-canonized. The Principality of Madras It is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands of surrendered troops, and it is just for them to build a road. How much time can a straight road save, not to mention that it can also allow us to dispatch troops as soon as possible in the military. I need this straight road to be completed within two years. "
"Your Highness." Fatty Shi stood up. Since Lorist became the Grand Duke of the Northland, he has also been called His Highness by his retainers and knights. Only a very small number of people still call Lorist his lord. Fatty Shi used the nickname Locke in private, but he would still address Lorist as His Highness when discussing official business.
"There is bad news. This year's family budget will be greatly overrun. In addition to helping the Kenmes family and the Shaheen family to replace their territories, we also need to carry out the original plan of the Shaheen family in the eastern part of the Northland and the southwestern part of the Northland. It is responsible for the development and construction of the territory, and is also responsible for the migration of the residents of West Degrad to the eastern part of the Northland. And our next military operation is the Flying Tiger Legion's conquest of Queen Kerry, the usurper of the Kingdom of Antinak.
Now you want to build this straight road in Dremke Province, and our family budget has exceeded six million goldfords. In my opinion, building a straight road is more important than war. Therefore, Your Highness, for the balance and safety of the family's finances, I suggest temporarily suspending the war against the Antinak Kingdom. In order to restore the Second Highness, let our family overspend by nearly one million Jinford. Personally, I think this is very important. Very ill-advised behavior. "
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