The night was getting dark, but Lorist didn't feel sleepy. He leaned alone on the deck chair under the grape shed, letting the silvery moonlight shine on him sparsely through the luxuriant grape branches and clusters of fruits...
Why are you unwilling to send troops? Lorist asked himself, without him, thinking about the future safety of the Norton family. In fairness, Lorist had to admit the talent and strategic vision of His Highness the Second Highness, he saw it accurately and grasped the timing very well. Taking advantage of the fact that the army of the business alliance is currently being restrained in the south of the mainland, they suddenly move towards the provinces of the former empire that the business alliance has seized.
Before the peace agreement between the Qigeda Kingdom and the Central-South Eight-Power Allied Forces was signed, the Commercial Alliance could not bring back its main force and elite army from thousands of miles away, so it could only swallow the bitter fruit. Under such circumstances, the business alliance cannot even go to war with the Second Highness, otherwise the newly stabilized situation in Central South will be turbulent again, and all the results and prices paid will be reduced to ashes. The only choice it can make is to fight with the Second Highness. discuss…
Don't look at the loud voice of the Second Highness wanting to recover all the former empire's territory, in fact, he was not prepared to recover the two provinces of the former Rulm Duchy that took the initiative to join the business alliance, in order to let his surprise attack The war will not really irritate the business alliance, and they will fight themselves to the end desperately.
Just like what Lorist said, the current business alliance is no longer the weak force that has been pinned down by the Krissen Empire for more than a hundred years, but has truly developed into a big country and a leader in the Galintia continent. strong country. However, the Antinac Kingdom has already been severely damaged by more than ten years of civil strife and wars. It inherited the orthodox status of the royal family of the former Krissen Empire, but it did not inherit the strength of the former empire. The trend of strength and weakness has already been reversed.
The reason why the Second Highness wants to launch this surprise war is to take advantage of the business alliance to recover the lost territory when the business alliance is now ignoring the north. This is the only good opportunity. Once the business alliance stabilized the situation in the central and southern parts of the mainland, the Second Highness would never have the chance to regain the occupied provinces. On the contrary, he would face strong pressure from the business alliance. At that time, he can only be on the defensive, let alone unify the territory of the former empire.
In the former Krissen Empire, the great prince Ridley who was the first to launch a rebellion and provoke the three kings to fight for the throne led to the seven-year civil war and finally split the empire. The provinces of Campona and Puerto Org in the Ridley Kingdom he established, The province of Anderwolf was occupied by the business alliance, especially the province of Puerto Org, a large mining province, became the territory of the Vicia Chamber of Commerce, one of the seven giants of the business alliance. And the northwest region of the original Ridleys Kingdom has also become the territory of the so-called Zithuram Principality, which is clearly a vassal of the business alliance and exists as a buffer with the Antinac Kingdom.
In addition to the two provinces of the former Principality of Rulm who voluntarily joined the Commercial Alliance, the Commercial Alliance occupied five provinces and one area of the former Krissen Empire. If the Second Highness does not recover these territories, then his so-called revival The aspirations of the Krissen Empire cannot be realized. Therefore, the bottom line for His Royal Highness to launch this raid war is to recover Campona Province, Puerto Orgue Province, Anderwolf Province and the Northwest Territories.
Then Chen Bing forced the business alliance to negotiate a peaceful truce before the border between the two provinces of the original Duchy of Rulm, and demanded that the business alliance return the two provinces of the original Duchy of Rulm on the condition of reopening the trade route. In this way, the great cause of the unification of the former Krissen Empire was completed in the hands of His Highness the Second Highness. He will also restore the royal family and regain the throne, and become the great emperor of the ZTE Empire that will go down in history...
A good calculation does not mean that the result will be wonderful. Lorist admitted that the raid launched by His Royal Highness would catch the commercial alliance by surprise, and the first strategic goal of recovering the provinces of Campona, Porto-Org, Anderwolf and the southwest region can be easily achieved. However, Chen Bing's idea of forcing the commercial alliance to negotiate peace talks with him to return the two provinces to the border of the two provinces of the former Rulm principality is too natural. Even if His Royal Highness agrees to the condition that the commercial alliance reopens the trade route in the Kingdom of Antinac, it is impossible. It will make the business alliance bow to His Royal Highness, and the most likely thing is that the two countries will fall into a long confrontation war...
Lorist once persuaded His Royal Highness that the commercial alliance's high-end combat power was several times higher than that of the Principality of Antinac, and it was impossible for the Commercial Alliance not to dispatch the Storm Sword Master to threaten the Kingdom of Antinac when the battlefield situation was lagging behind. It's just that the Second Highness believes that even the Storm Sword Master would not be able to blatantly come to assassinate him, the king, and he is in the hundreds of thousands of troops, so his safety can be guaranteed. Even if the Storm Sword Saint came, he could use the army to trap him to death. He didn't believe it, could a sword master be able to stop his hundreds of thousands of troops
The Duke of Kenmes is willing to send troops because His Royal Highness promised to make the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce the Royal Chamber of Commerce after completing the great cause of the unification of the empire. Guaranteed, he has great benefits and rights in various business aspects such as taxation, shop opening and real estate purchase, so the Duke of Kenmes is moved.
Duke Felim was willing to send troops, and the Second Highness also gave him very good preferential conditions, including immigration, financial assistance, tax relief, etc. But the most important thing is that Duke Felim was originally a knight. Defeating enemies on the battlefield and plundering wealth is a legitimate way for him to get rich. He is a warrior who loves war by nature.
Duke Shaheen is very similar to Duke Felim, both of knight origin. For them, war is the most convenient way to plunder wealth. Moreover, although the Duke of Shaheen has become a duke, he only has one earldom in the province of Delemke. He desperately hopes that he can also monopolize a province as the family territory like the other three families in the Northland, instead of nesting In Dremke province, the territory under the jurisdiction of the Norton family, it made him feel like he was depending on others.
What the Second Highness gave to Duke Shaheen was a letter of oath, as long as Duke Shaheen dispatched the family armed forces to help the Second Highness complete the unification of the empire, then the Second Highness would send the province of Cribia, a province of mineral resources in the Kingdom of Antinac Canonize him as a hereditary family territory. This is Duke Shaheen's favorite province. He asked for this province when he went to the four principalities in the middle of the year, but was rejected by the Second Highness because he had done nothing in the war. Now that the Second Highness was tempting, and then guaranteed by the oath, Duke Shaheen forgot the resentment towards the Second Highness and the oath that he would no longer serve him, and obediently boarded the pirate ship.
Perhaps the Second Highness hoped to let the three of the four Northland alliances board the ship first, and then let them persuade Lorist to help each other, but Lorist refused them mercilessly. The Norton family has nothing to ask for now, and the next step is to establish a principality. And if you do that, you will be guaranteed that the Second Highness will turn around first and deal with the Norton family. It wasn't that Lorist was afraid of the Second Highness's hundreds of thousands of troops, but that he was unwilling to bear the name of rebellion, ruining the nearly 300-year reputation of loyalty of the Norton family.
The Duke of Flanders came to visit last night, and he told Lorist that he also agreed to send troops. It's very simple. His Highness said that if the empire is unified, then he can let the Forendo family return to the original family territory of Perolina Province. This is an irresistible temptation for the Duke of Forendo. For more than two hundred years The Forendo family gave birth and rested there, built a summer palace, and even the family cemetery is on the outskirts of its capital, Pedro City...
The Duke of Forendo agreed to send troops to help His Highness the Second Highness. This decision disrupted the plan of the Norton family and the Forendo family to jointly develop the Yungeshandela province. At the same time, the initial investment of the Norton family and the Forendo family has been useless. Because if the Forendo family returns to the original family territory, Yungeshandra Province will be taken back by His Highness the Second Highness, and any further investment in development funds will be used to make wedding dresses for others, and the Second Highness will take advantage of it for nothing.
While expressing deep apologies, the Duke of Forendo proposed to shelve the development plan first, because he didn't know whether the outcome of the raid was good or bad. In order to return to the original family territory, he also tried his best this time. Throwing all the family armed. But if he can't get what he wants, he will still return to Yungeshandra Province, and pay a higher price to ask the Norton family to restart the investment and development plan...
Lorist expressed his understanding of the Duke of Volund's desire to return to the original family territory, and also agreed to temporarily shelve the development plan for Yungeshandra Province until the end of this war. The Duke of Forondo expressed his deep gratitude, and at the same time told Lorist that the conditions for the Second Highness to persuade the Grand Duke Hansk to send troops were the same as his, and he promised that after the unification of the empire, he would also return to the original family territory of Drama Province, and the Grand Duke Hansk also agreed. He readily agreed.
In fact, the four grand dukes in the central region, except for the Sabaji family who are latecomers, the Forendo family, the Hansk family and the Fakel family are all the first batch of territorial nobles who were conferred in the central region by the former empire's founding emperor, Cresson I. In the past two hundred years, their family has made countless contributions to the empire, and they were gradually promoted from a small nobleman to a grand duke. Therefore, the attraction of the original family territory to them is self-evident, and the Second Highness just went back and forth like this So the two grand dukes were willing to work for him, which made Lorist admire the second highness's thoughtfulness.
As for Grand Duke Sabaji, his family was transferred to the central region by King Christen VI, and he didn't have too much nostalgia for the original family territory. Besides, the province of Chikses was occupied by the four Northland coalition forces and the Feisabrun family. He also knows how the armed forces have been ruined, and he doesn't want to go back and clean up the mess. Therefore, His Highness's promise to him was to confer the province of Porto Org to him as a new family territory. Like Grand Duke Hansk, Grand Duke Sabaji, who was trapped in the barren territory of the two southwestern provinces, immediately made peace with the Second Highness and agreed. In order to dispatch the family's armed forces to participate in this war.
At present, apart from the conditions for the Fisabrun family to send troops to participate in the war are unknown, the nobles of other territories have all agreed to participate in this war. Lorist did some calculations, and if the six grand dukes dispatched a family armed army, the total would be nearly 2.78 million troops, plus the 500,000 horses under the command of the Second Highness, it would be nearly 800,000. If you add the soldiers and horses dispatched by the Feisabrun family and the private army of those territorial nobles, it may exceed one million...
No wonder the Second Highness is so sure to force the Business Alliance to hold talks with him. Chen Bing million and the border, the Business Alliance might really be intimidated by the Second Highness and agree to all his demands. However, if the business alliance chooses to confront the Second Highness, then the food, grass and logistical materials accumulated by the Second Highness over the past three years can only guarantee the expenses of a million-strong army for two years at most. If an agreement on a peaceful truce cannot be reached within two years, the Second Highness's massive campaign can only end in failure.
This is a turbulent era, and the raid on the business alliance that the Second Highness is about to launch will surely shock the entire Galintia continent like a thunderbolt. Too bad the Norton family couldn't be a part of it. This is not Lorist's personal prediction of the unfavorable outcome of the war, but his conviction that once the Second Highness's strategic goal for the commercial alliance is achieved and a peaceful armistice agreement is signed to unify the former Krissen Empire, then shrink back to the external minions For the long-term stability of the empire, the Second Highness will soon turn his attention to the Norton family, and he will not let it go until the power of the Norton family is reduced to an acceptable level.
From the family's point of view, Lorist did not hope that the Second Highness's war would be successful this time, because it represented the beginning of a direct confrontation between the Norton Family and the Second Highness. But from a personal point of view, no matter how much he complained about the Second Highness's disposition and views of not being a master, he still had to admire the Second Highness's perseverance and obsession with unifying the former empire.
Where there is a will, things will come true, and the Baier Qinguan will eventually belong to Chu. Those who work hard, the heavens live up to it, and three thousand Yuejia can swallow Wu. These two lines of poems and couplets were my grandfather's favorite when I was young in the previous life to teach them, the juniors, to be diligent and studious, and make progress every day. But now that Lorist thinks about it, this is simply the best portrayal of the Second Highness. Look at him, after many ups and downs, still determined, only thinking about unifying the former empire to fulfill his wish.
It is really a headache to have an opponent like the Second Highness, especially as the upper lord of the Norton family, he is very good at learning lessons, and now he has skillfully grasped the measure of the Norton family, making you uncomfortable every time but unable to attack . On the surface, they are very magnanimous and considerate of themselves, but in fact, the two of them are very aware of each other's taboos and precautions.
Like this time when Lorist simply refused to send troops, the Second Highness said that he didn't care at all, but immediately promised the Duke of Flanders that he would return to the original family territory, and directly let the joint development of the Norton family and the Frundo family Territory plans come to naught. In fact, Lorist understood very well that this was an understatement, and that the Duke of Volunteer sent troops without the temptation of returning to the original family territory, but the Second Highness chose to use it, leaving you speechless.
For the Norton family, participating in this war is indeed harmful and useless, because the power and prestige of the Norton family as the next lord has reached its peak period, and it is impossible for the Second Highness to come up with conditions to strengthen the strength of the Norton family. Lorist agreed to join the war. And it's impossible for Lorist to cause the Norton family's armed forces to suffer in vain for the so-called great cause of unifying the empire. But Lorist is well aware of His Highness's character of not giving up until he achieves his goal. He can't let the most powerful Norton family's armed forces stay on the sidelines to watch the show, but now he can't think of any means and methods that His Highness will use.
Having a headache from thinking about it, Lorist stood up and was about to take a stroll in the garden. A slight wind sound came, and Lorist stopped in his tracks: "Who? Come out!"
Genorio, who was following behind, drew out his sword and stood in front of Lorist, posing as a guard.
A figure flashed in the shadow of the rockery ahead: "It's me."
The voice turned out to be Grand Duke Feisabrun.
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