"Has an agreement been reached?" Lorist asked quietly.
This is a very rich mansion in the aristocratic area of the Royal City of Windbury. It was originally the residence of an Earl of the Southern Province of the Kingdom of Iberia. It was only after the owner was executed by the Grand Duke Fessabrun four years ago on the charge of treason. All the luxurious mansions were sealed off. As the Grand Duke of the Northland, Lorist could live in the Rose Palace, but he didn't want to get together with the Second Highness and the others, so he chose this mansion as his place to stay.
When Fatty Shi came back, it was almost dusk, and he found Lorist sitting by the window of the gloomy study room watching the sunset in the sky. Hearing Lorist's question, he took off the cloak on his body and handed it to Genorio beside him, ordering: "Bring me a bottle of fruit wine, the tea I drank all afternoon has no taste at all. .”
"Your Highness, an agreement has been reached. The Grand Duke Fesabrunn is willing to pay a horseshoe gold worth one million goldfords as a ransom for the freedom of the 40,000 soldiers of the Third Frontier Ranger Regiment, but what they want is that we allocate the 40,000 soldiers well." Equip your weapon." Fatty Shi pulled up a chair and sat beside Lorist.
"Hehe..." Lorist sneered: "It seems that the Feisabrun family has a very rich family. They just donated a million to the Second Highness, and they can take out a million as a ransom in a blink of an eye. It seems that they will sell it to them next time." The price of the commodity has to be doubled. But it’s just a million, and he wants us to equip 40,000 people with weapons and equipment, and his idea is really good.”
The soldiers of the Border Ranger Legion of the Feisabrun family were equipped with cavalry 103 standard armor and weapons customized from the Norton family, and a set required sixty-five goldfords. After the surrender of the Third Frontier Ranger Regiment, its equipment and weapons were recovered by the Norton family. Now the Grand Duke of Feisabrun wants to use horseshoe gold worth one million gold fords to re-arm the 40,000 surrendered soldiers. No wonder Lorist said He has a good idea.
"Your Highness, this agreement needs your consent before it can be implemented. If you don't agree, we'll argue with them slowly. Anyway, it's not us who are in a hurry." Fatty Shi said.
Lorist shook his head slightly: "It's not that simple. What do our three allies say?"
Fatty Shi took a glass of fruit wine from Genorio and took a sip: "Earl Felim and Earl Shaheen think that we and the Grand Duke Fesabrun belong to the Kingdom of Antinac now, and we are both The allies who went to the four principalities in the middle of the country can let them go, there is no need to press them so hard. The Duke of Kenmes did his best to help us bargain, but the Duke of Feisabrun killed him. This is their bottom line, except for this They won't be able to give out a single Goldford for a million dollars. As for our Majesty the King, of course he is speaking for the Feisabrun family.
Lorist was silent for a moment, then sighed: "Forget it, there's no need to worry about it, lest people say that our Norton family is petty. The soldiers of the Third Frontier Regiment are different from the troops we captured before. Their families In the territory of the Feisabrun family, and they were forced to surrender, they have always been unconvinced, thinking that our victory over them was a coincidence. Especially when their legion leader took the responsibility of surrendering in front of them, he drew his sword and killed himself. It makes those soldiers have resentment and desire for revenge towards our Norton family, we can't let them be used by our family, the longer they are imprisoned, the deeper the hatred, let them go back."
"Your Highness, then you are not afraid of letting the tiger go back to the mountain. If the Feisabrun family fights with us again in the future, these soldiers will be super powerful?" Fatty Shi was somewhat disapproving of the release of these more than 40,000 veterans.
"Hehe, super strong combat power? Just rely on them?" Lorist laughed, dismissively: "I admit that spiritual strength will make these soldiers more effective in fighting against our Norton family in the future, but So what? Are we afraid? True strength is not only dependent on the spirit, but also requires excellent weapons, perfect defense, long-term cooperation, hard training and invincible confidence. After these soldiers If we really fight against our family, after being defeated by us again, they will fear us from the bottom of their hearts, be afraid of us, and when their spirit is crushed by us, they will be useless and have no fighting strength at all."
Fatty Shi downed the fruit wine in the glass in one gulp: "Okay, then follow this agreement."
"Wait..." Lorist said, "Don't be cheap, that old guy Fesabrun. You can ask Director Speer, I remember that after we destroyed the Principality of Madras, we seized a lot of tattered leather armor and Scrap copper and rotten iron weapons were all collected by Director Speer and thrown into the warehouse to become moldy. You go and transport these junk over to equip the 40,000 captives of the Third Frontier Ranger Regiment. If Fesabrun If the old guy protests, tell him that the original sixty-five sets of cavalry 103 standard equipment are now sold at a discount of 50 Jinford, and if you bring another two million, you can change them, or come to me to turn against you .”
Fatty Shi laughed aloud: "Your Highness, you are too poisonous, that old fellow Feisabrun must be vomiting blood. This is simply a slap in the face, okay, let's do this, anyway, the agreement only says to give them equipment , but there is no rule on what equipment we must give them..."
Lorist sighed again: "I don't want to do this either. I'm afraid that the Second Highness will spread slander and slander for our ignorance, and the Feisabrun family will hate us to the bone. But I'm sorry, I can't just watch Watching the Feisabrun family regain their vitality and strength. Compared with the Second Highness, the Feisabrun family is our biggest threat."
Fatty Shi stopped laughing, and after a while he also sighed: "Your Highness, are you angry with Earl Felim and Earl Shaheen? They are allies of our family, but now they are holding us back. Maybe we We should consider rescinding the covenant with them. In fact, many people in the family think that if there is no alliance of the four Northern Lands, maybe our Norton family's power will expand faster and wider... "
Lorist finally stood up, walked to the window and stood by the window, looked at the houses on the street in the distance and asked back: "You think so too? The alliance of the four Northlands is a drag on our Norton family, not a burden." help?"
Fatty Shi shook his head: "Although I don't think so, I also feel that Your Highness, you seem to value the alliance with those three allies too much. In fact, even if the three allies unite together, they can't resist our family's attack. Since the Principality of Deras and the Kingdom of Iberia, some people in the family have always thought that His Highness is taking too much care of the three allies. Like the Kenmes family, who monopolizes a province, we also allowed him to establish a maritime merchant fleet, and the North Sea A share of the proceeds from the trade was given to them.
As for Earl Felim, we not only sent troops to help him return to the family territory, but also sent troops to help him stabilize the situation. We even went to war with the Felim family for them, sacrificing and losing tens of thousands of loyal and brave family members. Many family knights and officials thought that our attack on the Iberian Kingdom was actually a big loss, and that the Felim family took advantage of it.
There is also Earl Shaheen, who was originally a golden knight under the former Duke Lukins of the Northland. If it weren't for our family's full support, he would not have become a member of the four families in the Northland. How could he be qualified to fight with our Norton family? What about on a par
Although I do not support these statements, I also think that Your Highness, you really take good care of those three allies. But I think His Highness must have a reason and deep meaning for doing this, it's just that our vision is not as far as His Highness, and we can't see clearly. "
Lorist laughed aloud: "Okay, stop flattering, even if you want to shoot, you have to be decent, but I think you still don't have much talent for flattering."
"Perhaps you don't believe it. I didn't put much thought into it when I first proposed to form four alliances. I just wanted to find a way out for the newly produced goods in the family territory. Compared with the four alliances in the Northland, I am more What I value is the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce, and I hope to sell the family's goods to other provinces through the Chamber of Commerce. As for the alliance of the four Northern Lands, the original purpose is to calm down those three." Lorist lowered his head and looked aside. Plating steps while talking.
"Shocking?" Fatty Shi was very surprised. Lorist had never revealed this to anyone.
"; Yes, shock." Lorist said: "At that time, we just joined forces with the three of them to dig a hole for the second prince, and then with the cooperation of the three of them, we defeated the first army of the second prince's Iberian Kingdom in one battle. Allied forces with tens of thousands of nobles. Then you went crazy and wiped out all the nobles in the northern land except those three allies. The excuse was that they helped the second prince attack our Norton family's territory.
Think for yourself what would have happened to the North if I hadn't proposed an alliance at that time. Obviously those three will join forces against us Nortons. Because our Norton family armed and swept up the territorial nobles in the entire Northland. For those three families, if they don't want to repeat the mistakes of those territorial nobles, they can only unite to deal with our powerful enemy, the Norton family. And if we want to use family armed forces, although we can wipe out the three of them, the loss of our family armed forces will be great. building.
That's why I suggested that the four families form an alliance, and the hearts of the three allies will be settled, so that there will be no more wars in our northern land. Everyone will work together to fight against the threats from the Principality of Madras and the Kingdom of Iberia. Gain time for our family's development program. It's just that I didn't expect that this guy, Kenmax, managed the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce so well that he tied the four of us tightly together with benefits, so that this covenant has been maintained until now. "
Lorist had already plated most of the circle in the room, and he continued: "At first I didn't value this alliance very much, but until our family's Shilovas Island was attacked and led us to expedition to Haneyabad Islands, after the destruction of the slave kingdom, I discovered the important role of this alliance. Without those three allies helping us to isolate the pressure from outside the Northland, it would be impossible for our Norton family to hide in the Northland so safely. The development and construction in the land has enabled the family's strength to grow rapidly.
The Northland is really too big. It is a province of the empire, but its area is as large as three Dremke provinces. With the previous strength of our Norton family, even if we control the entire Northland, it will attract countless coveted wolves. In particular, there are only three major traffic routes in the Northland. If someone blocks our Northland, we will be cut off from the territory of the former empire. To put it bluntly, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but to put it bluntly, it is unique in the world. Even though Niujiao Bay in Beihai City can lead to the outside world, a single sea route cannot support the sale of a large number of goods and commodities produced in our family territory.
So even though our family's armed forces are strong enough to sweep the entire Northland, I still maintain the four alliances of the Northland. Even if I want to monopolize the entire Northland, I still adopt the method of territory replacement instead of tearing up the covenant and using force. The Kenmes family, speaking of it, was the first hostile family that had a bad relationship with our Norton family. Before I returned to the family territory, they were launching an aggressive offensive against our family. At that time, the Norton family was beaten into a turtle. Can only be beaten passively.
Logically speaking, I should destroy the entire Kenmes family and burn their bones to ashes in order to dispel the hatred in my heart, right? It's a pity that the father of the Duke of Kenmes is indeed a man with a unique vision. He avoided my soldiers decisively and ran to the eastern part of the Northland to find a life. Finally forgave them. Then in the contact, I found that the business talent of Ken Max is comparable to yours, but you are in charge of the overall situation, while he focuses on business and interpersonal communication. It is this appreciation that makes us friends.
Among the three allies, the Duke of Kenmes is the one with the farthest vision. He knows very well that as long as this alliance is maintained, the Kenmes family can smoothly transform from a commercial family to a traditional noble family. This is why he has spared no effort. The reason why I devoted myself to running the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce. Similarly, with the expansion of the sphere of influence of our four alliances in the North, the influence of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce is also increasing day by day. For the Duke of Kenmes, this is a good thing that has the best of both worlds.
I once heard a local dialect, which means that there are three stakes for a fence, and three gangs for a good man. Although the Norton family has been passed down for two or three hundred years, they are still a small nobleman on the border of the Northland at heart, and they are incomparable with those powerful noble families with a long history on the mainland. In the former Krissen Empire, the Norton family was famous for their loyalty, so we insist on allegiance to the Antinak royal family, the orthodox inheritance of the Krissen royal family. This is like placing a heavy burden on our family. Easy to remove on the back is difficult.
You should be very clear about the scruples the Second Highness has towards our Norton family, and our family has reached the top of the nobility, unless we can independently establish a duchy, but this is impossible, and it is not allowed by the Second Highness . If you rebel, the reputation of the Norton family's two hundred years of loyalty will be ruined. This is not something I can afford. The reputation of rebellion is not good, and I don't want to be accused by thousands of people.
So now, the four northern alliances have become very important. If you think about it, our four families cooperated tacitly at the beginning, which caused the Second Highness to suffer a big loss, but our Norton family took advantage of it and obtained the jurisdiction of Dremke Province and Winston Province. It has become the sphere of influence of our Norton family. In the eyes of His Highness the Second Highness, the four Northland families are one, and he has no way to target any one, so he can only find a way to destroy our alliance first.
If there is no alliance of the four Northern Lands, then the Second Highness only needs to deal with our Norton family, and slandering us with rumors can cause our Norton family's reputation to plummet. But we have three allies, and the general moves of the Second Highness are not easy to use. This is why I am glad to have established an alliance. No matter which family the Second Highness is targeting, he must consider whether he has the ability to withstand the counterattack of the other three families.
This attack on the four central principalities is a bait, but we have to swallow it. Earl Felim wanted to revive the Pegasus family's prestige. Currently, the family territory encountered a manpower bottleneck. It is not surprising that they turned their attention to the four central duchies. And Earl Shaheen has never been good at managing territories, so it is understandable to want to plunder wealth. They swallowed the bait thrown by His Highness the Second Highness, so we have to accompany them, just as you told me, our family will also benefit from attacking the four central duchies, so the alliance of the four Northern Lands must be consistent with the outside world Instead of being easily provoked by the Second Highness to form a gap.
It's just that I didn't expect the Second Highness to include Grand Duke Feisabrun in this time. The old guy asked to release the soldiers of the Third Frontier Corps who surrendered to us, clearly wanting to restore their strength. Count Felim and Count Shaheen are now dazzled by the benefits that can be gained from attacking the four central duchies, while Duke Kenmes doesn't understand how powerful the Duke of Feisabrun is, so they don't want to speak for us because they are worried about attacking The decision of the four principalities in the middle made waves again. That's why I agreed to release those soldiers. The only pity is that without these free labor, many projects we have to carry out will be stopped. "
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