The new moon is densely covered with clouds, and the wind is howling.
However, the barracks on the mound was still in full swing. His Second Highness had already learned how to use skis under the guidance of Lorist, and the Second Highness was so excited that he ordered the soldiers to rest the snow in the entire barracks and become a snowboarder. A great ski slope. Braving the cold wind and heavy snow, having fun with the knights under him...
Looking at the galloping knights and soldiers on skis in the barracks, Lorist thought, maybe skiing and ice skating can be well promoted in the family territory and become a winter competition event, which is better than family territory. It is better for the locals to hide in their houses habitually in winter. Ashamed to say, now that the family territory is in winter, the third town of Fengleyuan has made the sheep bumping festival a well-known big event, and other towns are basically closed.
It's not that Lorist doesn't want to introduce some sports from his previous life to his family territory, it's just that it's inappropriate. This is a world of vindictiveness, for example, the three major ball games, if you use your vindictiveness to play ball, it is simply a game of cheating, kicking a violent ball with one foot, and throwing a blue plate with one hand, the entire blue board is smashed to pieces. As for rugby, let alone the high level and application of fighting spirit is the key to victory. To put it bluntly, a golden knight with fighting spirit shield can hold the ball from his own backcourt to the opponent's frontcourt and score a goal. Like dragon slaying, the opponent's team has nothing to do with him, because his grudge is at the gold level.
At present, the more fashionable sports in the Lowton family's territory are those old traditional sports such as swordsmanship, archery, spear throwing, throwing axe, and horseback riding. It's not that Lorist has never thought about holding a sports meeting in the family's territory. The active atmosphere gathers People's hearts, but then I really stopped this idea because I couldn't find a suitable mass sports event. Sometimes holding such a sports meeting is not just a question of whether it is lively or not. What Lorist considers is to take this opportunity to circulate the economy in the family territory, so that the gold coins of the citizens have a place to spend instead of being stored blindly.
The Second Highness stood in front of Lorist in a beautiful gyroscopic movement, and the guards all around applauded, and Lorist also clapped his hands a few times as if joking: "Your Majesty, your skills are getting better and better." Well, you are really talented and wise, you can learn everything quickly!"
His Highness the Second Highness smiled complacently: "It's not bad. In fact, it is not difficult to learn this skiing technique. The difficulty is to master the balance and body coordination. I found that the soldiers who have awakened the fighting spirit learn better than those who have not awakened the fighting spirit. quick… "
"Yes, Your Majesty, you are right."
"Lock, you are still so polite. I told you that we are called brothers in private. You are the only one left in the Norton family, and the blood of the Christen royal family is only flowing in me now. The two of us have the same fate. pity."
"Hehe, Your Majesty, without me in the Norton family, I still have many collateral bloodlines, such as Krisia and her brothers, as well as my half-brothers. I myself have three sons and two It's my daughter. Your Majesty should take care of your body, you haven't shed any blood for the Antinac royal family yet!"
His Highness the Second Highness sighed deeply: "My mind is full of revenge for the war of restoring the country, I have no other thoughts. Well, the weather is about to improve, the snow has stopped today and the wind has calmed down. It will clear up. Locke, are you going too?"
Lorist bowed his head: "Yes, Your Majesty, we have been here for three days, and we will set off to return to the North as soon as the weather clears tomorrow. There are so many affairs in the family territory that we cannot delay, not to mention that we will return to the Northland after the spring of the new year. The Kingdom of Iberia launched an attack, which is a major event, and there is no delay, and we have to go back early to check the situation of various combat preparations. I believe His Majesty would also like to see the Kingdom of Iberia perish, right?"
His Royal Highness nodded: "Of course, this is a kingdom established by rebellion. Although the rebellious second prince has been executed by me, it is really unpleasant for the Iberia Kingdom named after him to still exist. This matter is Come on Brother Locke, I hope that the Norton family's armed forces can destroy this hateful and sad kingdom as soon as possible."
"Hehe, Your Majesty, the demise of the Kingdom of Iberia is not a matter for our Norton family. His Royal Highness Duke Kenmes, Lord Felim and Lord Shaheen's family armed forces will all send troops together as agreed. Only in this way can we use the greatest strength The advantage in military strength wiped out the Kingdom of Iberia in one fell swoop. Next, we have to deal with the invasion of the Fesabrun family's border rangers and the harassment of the southern province by the four central duchies. It may take a long time to end this war. Time..." Lorist has already made long-term psychological preparations for the war to attack and destroy the Iberian Kingdom.
But the Second Highness was absent-minded, wondering if he was listening to Lorist. Taking off the skis on his feet and kicking the snowdrift next to him with his leather boots, the Second Highness raised his head: "You are leaving tomorrow, so I will treat you to a drink tonight, just the two of us, it's a treat for you." Tomorrow is your farewell, do you think it is okay?"
Lorist smiled and saluted: "Of course, it's my honor."
In the evening, Lorist only brought Shi Huade and two skins of fine grain brew to the meeting. The fine grain brew was made by Lorist according to the method of brewing rice wine in the farmhouse in his previous life, using selected rice through three steams and three brews. It is a kind of high-grade liquor, but the quantity is limited, after all, it consumes too much food, and it is usually only enjoyed by Lorist and several high-level family members.
The igloo where the Second Highness lived was indeed empty, there was no one else except two cooks who were busy with barbecue outside the big tent, Lorist ordered Schward to stay outside the tent to heat the wine, and he stepped into the big tent among.
The Second Highness was leaning on the desk and thinking about something, and he didn't even notice that Lorist had entered the account. He didn't wake up until Lorist called His Majesty three times in a soft voice, and quickly got up to invite Lorist to sit down, and then took a pat on the table. Clap your hands and order the cook outside the big tent to serve the food quickly.
His Highness the Second Highness sat at the head of the big tent, and Lorist sat at the lower left of him. The table in front of the two was quickly filled with roast meat, boiled apples, smoked turkey and other dishes.
His Highness raised his wine glass and said, "It's in the wild and supplies are limited. It can't be compared to the feast in the imperial capital in the past. I hope Brother Locke will not be offended."
Lorist also raised his glass: "Your Majesty, you are welcome. The delicacies of mountains and seas, delicious wine and food, can't compare to the honor of being accompanied by His Majesty in person? I will drink this wine."
His Highness also followed Lorist and drank the wine in the glass in one gulp: "Thank you..."
"Your Majesty, I also brought a wine brewed by myself, but this wine is a bit strong and needs to be sipped slowly to taste its flavor. I wonder if Your Majesty wants to try it?" Lorist said.
"Okay, let me taste it." The Second Highness was a little curious.
Lorist clapped his hands for Shi Huade to come in, first poured himself half a cup of the already hot fine grain brew, and then poured half a cup for the Second Highness. His Highness looked at the steaming wine glass with great interest.
"Your Majesty, this wine tastes good when it's warmed up in winter, but it should be drunk in small sips, just like me." Lorist took a sip of refined grains as a demonstration.
His Highness laughed, he felt that Lorist was too stingy to drink like this, he took a sip from the cup, not too big but not a small sip, and then his whole face turned red all of a sudden: "It's so spicy, hot, So hot… "
After inhaling for a long time, he returned to normal, and then his eyes glowed: "I understand, Locke, those guards of yours followed you to march thousands of miles on skis in winter like this, do they all carry such skin bags with such powerful weapons around them?" Wine, take a sip to restore heat when it’s cold?”
Lorist nodded first, and then shook his head: "Your Majesty, it is true that my family guards are accompanied by spirits to prevent the loss of body temperature in the snowstorm. But what they serve is potato roast, which is not the same as my spirit. There is a big difference in grain brewing. Mine is brewed from Faliqiu rice. Such a small skin is worth more than ten gold dollars. If I wanted to equip everyone in the family armament, I would have gone bankrupt long ago.
Moreover, the potato roast served by the family guards is also rationed for each person, and it is absolutely not allowed to drink too much in a day. Your Majesty, this is the advantage of having fewer people and easy supervision. You think that a legion can use skis to carry out large-scale mobile transfers in winter and raid enemy strongholds anytime and anywhere. In fact, cold-proof clothing and not getting lost are just two common defects. Take this rationed spirits as an example, For a legion, no matter how strict the military law is, it can't stop the soldiers from drinking secretly, so what you get will be a drunken army, and the combat effectiveness cannot be guaranteed. "
His Highness the Second Highness sighed deeply, raised his wine glass again, and took a small sip this time: "Tsk..."
"Locke, I've wanted to have a good talk with you for a long time, let's have an open and honest talk tonight, shall we?"
Lorist's expression changed, "As you wish, Your Majesty."
"Locke, my brother, what I have never understood is why you are not willing to help me. With the strength of your Norton family, if you were willing to help me, you would have already unified the territory of the former Christen Empire. At that time, you My monarchs and ministers can all leave the reputation of ZTE in history... "
"Your Majesty, you think our Norton family is very powerful, but do you know how it came about?" Lorist sat up straight and said seriously, "Your Majesty, do you still remember the first time we met ten years ago?" Shall we meet? Our family’s northbound convoy was blocked at the border of the Principality of Madras, in a dilemma. Two to three hundred thousand people are desperate and facing collapse, and they are the key to the rise of our Norton family in the Northland.
Your Majesty, do you know what the family territory looked like when I first returned to the Northland? Outside, Duke Lukins, the Grand Duke of the Northland, threatened our family to kneel down to him for allegiance. Inside, there were rebel citizens who occupied the only small town in the family territory and defended themselves. Our family has only one maplewood manor with more than 2,000 people left, and at that time I had to face the invasion of the next door lord, the Kenmes family, who forcibly occupied our family territory.
Remember our meeting at that time, Your Majesty, your situation at that time was much better than that of our family. You used our northbound convoy to wipe out the rebellious territorial nobles in the kingdom, and regained the ruling power of the kingdom. Then we cooperated with our family to sweep the Principality of Madras and occupied Yungeshandra Province by force. After our convoy headed north, you led the army to turn eastward. Liu Shuichuan defeated the eldest prince and forced him to cede the two southwestern provinces for peace. In that year, Your Majesty, your reputation spread all over the world, and you were hailed as the new generation of military god.
But during the next five or six years of truce, Your Majesty, you went the wrong way. You vigorously expanded the army of the kingdom, and even organized an army of more than 300,000 people. This is almost all the output of the entire kingdom was spent on this army, and you missed the best period of letting the kingdom rest. time.
Your Majesty, please don't interrupt me, let me finish first. Maybe you have your reasons. You have always wanted to restore the territory of the former empire and revive the prestige of the former empire. But you have forgotten that war is not simply a competition of military strength, just like your 300,000 army, do you know how many of them are willing to fight for your dream
The imperial civil war lasted for seven years, and after two or three years of stability, the nobles of the kingdom became restless again. Your Majesty, do you still remember the hundreds of thousands of refugees wandering in the kingdom at that time? They were originally from the imperial capital, but they became refugees due to the war. We took half of it away, and you, Your Majesty, used the territories of those nobles who were slaughtered to settle the other half, which brought the stability of the entire kingdom.
Their most urgent wish is to live a stable and peaceful life, but your majesty perfunctory them with the words of patience and devotion, and you will compensate them after the empire is unified. This is why your majesty, the whole kingdom of Antinac after the defeat of the kingdom of Ridleys The real reason why the nobles rebelled and made Princess Kerry the queen and all the troops did not resist, because your promise has become empty words.
When Your Majesty was expanding your military force and preparing for war, those refugees who accompanied our convoy to the Northland gained a stable life. We keep our promises so that they will no longer experience the pain of war, so in addition to fighting against the tide of monsters and countering the attack of the second prince, we have been staying in the family territory to develop silently, paying attention to people's livelihood, and spending a lot of money to develop the family territory. Try to give these refugees who followed us to the Northland a stable and peaceful home. As a result, our Norton family was ridiculed as a bear who stalked the ground, unwilling to leave our den.
Your Majesty, when you arrived in the Northland to express your appreciation for the prosperity of our Norton family territory, do you know how much effort and price our family has paid for the development of the family territory? If you hadn't organized an army of 300,000 to prepare for the conquest, the kingdom would have been thriving. You have missed an opportunity to restore the territory of the kingdom this time. As long as you settle down and work hard to develop for ten years, then in ten years you will be able to wipe out the territory of the former empire as you wish. "
After listening to Lorist's statement from his confidant, the Second Highness just silently sipped the refined grain brew in the cup, and remained silent for a long time after drinking.
"Locke, my brother, perhaps this is the biggest difference between you and me. I hope to complete the unification of the former empire first, and then re-draw the development route on the empire's territory. But you have developed a place Then I stretched out my hand elsewhere. I can't develop the kingdom first like you, I have been worried that an overly peaceful life will destroy all my ambitions, and make me content with pleasure instead of fighting for power again.
The loss of the throne this time made me reflect a lot. I will no longer be so desperate to invest everything in armaments. I will learn from your family and take control of one place before moving on to the next goal, developing production and armaments. To two correct. But I hope to get help from your Norton family in this process, and provide me with some of your weapons. "The Second Highness finally opened his mouth, but his tone was asking for help.
Lorist hesitated for a while: "Your Majesty, please explain your request. If it can be done, I will definitely agree."
…