Chapter 382: Nibbling Away at the Effects of Tactics
Stone Pa.s.s, inside the Lord’s official residence.
In the narrow pa.s.sages and corridors, the chain-armored Swadian infantry had completely occupied this place. They held military spears that were made of custom-made materials and lined up to form a patrol or sentry team within the official residence.
In just half a month, Stone Pa.s.s had completely become Kant’s territory.
The first local territory.
Although they could not build buildings or recruit troop cla.s.ses, it was of great strategic significance.
This stone pa.s.s was like Kant’s Tiger Prison. It could defend the natural moat, attack, or retreat. As long as this area was not lost, it meant that Kant still had the initiative against the Dukedom of Leo.
With the current strong cavalry, he could launch a tactical attack.
The plains of the northern county were like beauties with open arms.
Even the southern and eastern counties were similar.
The flat plains stretched as far as the eye could see. Occasionally, there would be farmland along lakes, streams, and rivers, including the radioactive knight territory around the castle, which was a village.
Due to the dukedom of Leo’s regime, the People’s livelihood depended on the military.
The village was located around the castle or city.
The village was the estate of the Knight and was responsible for protecting the castle or city.
Sometimes, there were no knights in the Knight’s territory. Only the village chief, the finance officer, and the sheriff were there to help the Lord Knight manage the village. Every month, they would pay the taxes that should be paid to the Lord Knight for his daily expenses.
This led to the lack of military strength in the village.
Usually, there was only about 30 armed militia stationed in the village, and the sheriff was in charge of commanding them.
However, their duty was not to eliminate the surrounding bandits but to maintain the rule of the Lord Knight. At the same time, when the finance officer started collecting taxes, they would deal with those traitors who dared to defy the tax or hunt down those runaway slaves.
As for the bandit group that came, they would obediently take out part of their finances and pray that they would not interfere with each other.
Of course, the bandits also understood the strength behind the village.
They had a tacit understanding.
The bandit would take a fixed amount of silver coins and food and then leave.
Or they would ask the villagers if there was a trade caravan pa.s.sing by, and then use the village to hide and rob those fat and greasy trade caravans. If they met a trade caravan owned by a n.o.ble who was the enemy of the n.o.ble behind the bandit group, it would be even more lucrative.
The trade caravan of the enemy n.o.ble would not need to show any mercy and would directly start a ma.s.sacre.
The silver coins that they robbed would all belong to them.
There would also be people to deal with the goods.
There were even some villagers who could give them some silver coins as a reward for providing information.
Therefore, the entire dukedom of Leo, including the villages at the gra.s.sroots level, was in a strange state of free-range. This was also a drawback of the feudal era. It was completely a feudal system. Other than their lord, they did not have to be loyal to anyone.
After all, the lord of my lord was not my lord, and the va.s.sals of my va.s.sals were not my va.s.sals.
That was the meaning of it.
No one cared about the estate outside of the territory.
In addition, in recent years, the royal authority of the Dukedom of Leo had been suppressed. The authority of the Grand Duke of Leo, Cameron, had been compressed into the southern county territory. The security of the entire country had fallen into such a complicated environment.
This was also the reason why there were many bandit groups within the territory of the Dukedom of Leo.
The complicated environment naturally led to chaos.
Correspondingly, Rolf’s infiltration into the dukedom of Leo was like a fish in water.
It was like a fish in water.
There was no obstruction in the infiltration process.
From the pa.s.s of Hard Stones to Logue Castle, the highest place in the northern county territory, and then down the southern side of the mountain range of lions to the west, arriving at the Marburg where Viscount Kevin was. Then, they turned north and returned along the execution mountain in the eastern county territory.
This was a triangle, and it was also the route with the most trade caravan of table salt.
But Rolf still went back and forth smoothly.
According to his words.
It was as if he was leading his troops in a military parade!
Along the way, he defeated a few bandit groups that wanted to investigate their background, and spread his fierce reputation. Not to mention that other bandit groups did not continue to have designs on them, even the n.o.ble’s troops did not forcefully stop them.
Rolf did not lead the heavy cavalry troops led by Mamluke and Sarrandian Horseman.
There were only 500 desert bandits.
They came and went like the wind.
With extremely high discipline and tenacity cultivated in the desert, they beat up the enemy bandit groups until they were completely dumbfounded. In fact, during the night raids, the enemy bandit groups could only helplessly send people to make peace.
Compared to the desert bandits, who were fierce in the Salander Desert, the dukedom of Leo’s bandit group was still inferior.
They were not real bandits.
In other words, there were no bandits who would run when they got something and continue to run when they could not get it. They would not fight head-on with you. They would only go around like hyenas and give you a cold blow.
If I succeed, I will make a profit. If I don’t succeed, I will not make a loss.
What I did was a no-cost business.
It was so straightforward.
And during this half a month of infiltration, Rolf didn’t just plunder the trade caravan. This was just a pretense.
Most importantly, he had finally searched through most of the maps of the northern county territory. As long as the troops went out, they would be able to advance according to the map Rolf provided. With Kant’s memories in this life, they would pa.s.s through the entire place.
For example, the current stone pa.s.s. After Kant announced that he had conquered it, no one dared to go near it anymore.
The desert bandits that had spread out were not easy to deal with.
In addition, those batches of Sarrandian Hors.e.m.e.n were completely elite a.s.sault cavalry. Their abilities could be compared to ordinary knights, or they could be regarded as the best knight Squires. Ordinary troops would not be a match for them.
Moreover, those bandit groups were easily defeated one after another.
The area around the stone pa.s.s had already been made impenetrable by Kant’s management.
Among them, just like Kant’s previous generous tax reduction and exemption, as well as the policy of supporting small landlords, small merchants, and local civilians, any major or minor matters would quickly reach his ears.
These people had spontaneously become Kant’s supporters.
Lord’s mansion.
In the hall.
Kant was sitting in his seat and reading doc.u.ments.
These doc.u.ments were all reports from Trondheim Castle and Aaron City.
Within half a month, the castle and sent people to reopen the salt mines in the north, and continued to station troops at the posthouse of the salt mines, and arranged for new slaves to go there and continue to mine coa.r.s.e salt.
The city in the Senwaya range was still under construction.
The mountaintop was filled with buildings.
On both sides of the river at the foot of the mountain, the more gentle slopes had been opened up into fields.
High-quality wheat grains were turned into white flour in the hydraulic mill. Together with the smoked meat produced after hunting and the smoked fish obtained after fis.h.i.+ng, it became the basis for the city residents to eat freely.
It was also supplied to Trondheim Castle.
At present, the civilian population of Kant had already exceeded 20,000.
This was not even taking into account the situation of the soldiers.
The civilian population in Trondheim Castle was reduced to 3,000 people.
However, the population of Aaron City directly reached 15,000 people. The dense population even formed radiation, and it was already slightly cultivated on the mountain peaks around the summit.
Under construction, a large number of terraced fields had been built. Although they had not yet been put into use, they had gained many outlines.
Next year, they would be able to successfully plant and harvest them.
The irrigation channels had been dug, and they were just waiting for the high-tower irrigation channels and water supply trucks to be built. Then, they would be able to irrigate the cultivated terraced fields from top to bottom.
Kant had arranged for a mysterious spring to be on the summit.
Thus, as long as there was a tall tower irrigation channel similar to Rome, it would be able to satisfy the irrigation needs.
Connecting the water elemental plane with an endless supply of fresh water was exactly what agriculture needed. If it was just that small river, it might be very difficult to cultivate the terraced fields and build a complete tall tower irrigation network.
But even so, with the systematic construction and the efforts of the civilians, everything was getting better.
The second base was also getting more and more prosperous.
This was also related to geography.
Although the Senwaya range was a huge mountain range that spanned extremely far away.
But the city of Aaron, which was located on the outside of the Senwaya range, had yet to completely enter too deep into the Senwaya range. Coupled with the good road traffic, it was able to contact the Nahrin desert in time, so it was not afraid of being blocked.
The Stone Pa.s.s was also in Kant’s hands, so the possibility of being blocked in the end was reduced to the lowest.
Three points and one line.
This is exactly how the Nahrin Desert is now arranged.
From north to south.
It is entirely the salt posthouse, Drondheim’s castle, the central posthouse, and the pa.s.s, and then the mountain pa.s.s posthouse and the city of Aaron, which form a complete line of communication.
A steady stream of supplies pa.s.ses through this line, dividing and complementing each other.
Just like Kant’s original design.
It was very reasonable.
Kant was also satisfied with this.
Looking at the report above, the doc.u.ments were a summary of the current construction.
Ever since they had completely mastered the stone pa.s.s, the defensive effect of the central posthouse had become much worse. It was not that it was not as important as before, but that the trade caravan and spies from the outside world were no longer able to go deeper into the Nahrin desert.
The stone pa.s.s had already blocked most of the trade caravan.
If they continued to go deeper…
Wouldn’t that mean that they were spies and spies!
When the time came, they would just have to kill this group of people with ulterior motives in the Nahrin Desert.
Desert Bandits, working together with the Sarrandian Horseman, plus the elite Mamluke, ordinary spies and spies, or the bandit group that took a detour into the Nahrin Desert in an attempt to make a fortune, all died miserably.
No one could hide from the people that came out of the Sarrandian Desert. Their experience in the desert was worth it.
But for now.
Desert Bandits were still the best scouts that had spread out on the plains.
Kant put down the doc.u.ment.
Everything was settled.
His plan still had to continue.
For example, the chess pieces that had been spread out, Kant planned to personally go and take a look this time.
Borg from the bankrupt family of the eastern County had received the great silver coin that Kant had given him to revive his family. Moreover, he had also used the ten Sarrandian Horseman riders that Kant had temporarily given to him to make a name for himself on the river of Resniston.
Even at the stone pa.s.s in the Northern County, Kant had heard of this young businessman who had risen to fame.
However, Borg still did not send anyone to contact him.
Kant was intrigued.
“It’s good to go and take a look personally.”
He had already made this plan, and at the same time, the preparations had been completed.
Kant personally led the team, with 10 Lion Knights as guards, 50 Sarion lion attendants, and Rolf leading, the 500 elite desert bandit who had already leveled up.
Knowing oneself and one’s enemy was invincible, not to mention that there was a mysterious pa.s.sage in the East Prefecture.
The pa.s.sage that connected to the underground river.
If possible.
Kant planned to build a new village there.
Furthermore, he would place the water bandit’s lair there to form the core force that controlled this river.
The moment he controlled this commercially developed river, Kant’s forces could follow the river and spread out. Be it entering the South Prefecture of the dukedom of Leo or the silver platter kingdom.
It was extremely easy!
Money had always been successful in opening the way.
And Kant, who controlled the table salt trade and the commercial river, would not be short of money?
Kant liked to nibble, not swallow. Right now, the dukedom of Leo had been infiltrated by Kant’s tentacles. Looking at the current situation, the status of the northern county, which had been completely infiltrated, was probably only second to Viscount Wayne.
If it was about military power, Kant, who had a heavy cavalry group, was not inferior to Wayne at all!
At the level of a viscount, he already had extraordinary power.
Although in Kant’s eyes, he was still weak.
But before he could completely swallow and leave no traces behind, he was still willing to use the delicacy of nibbling to slowly take control of the dukedom of Leo in his own hands.
As for the crown on the surface, it was useless to Kant.
The uncrowned king was enough.
Riding and hacking were his foundation!
The troops set off quietly, just like Rolf’s infiltration, quietly like the wind.
Fatis continued to take care of the Stone Pa.s.s. With the suppression of the troops stationed here, even if the entire pa.s.s was filled with spies and secret agents, they would not be able to gain the upper hand in the face of absolute force.
The residents had long been bought over by Kant’s money offensive and could be said to be extremely grateful.
Betrayal was impossible.
Except for those va.s.sal knights who wanted to go one step further.
However, even the va.s.sal knights who nominally pledged allegiance to Kant did not receive any important roles.
Even if they led their troops out and dealt with the demonized creatures or low-level jackals that they encountered daily, the troops would be a mix of the Swadian infantry and the original long-lance soldiers of the past.
Although they were nominally under the command of the va.s.sal knights, the Swadian Infantry, as a middle-level commander, could refute them.
This also meant that they also had the right to command.
It was equivalent to flying in the air.
If Kant or Fatis completely announced that they would strip these va.s.sal knights of their command, then these knights would not be able to take any of their soldiers away. After all, the current Swadian Infantry.., had built a good relations.h.i.+p with the lance soldiers at the Stone Pa.s.s.
In comparison, the superior att.i.tude of these knights and their disregard for the lower-level infantry would not make the resting lance soldiers truly loyal.
They would be loyal to whoever paid them and to whoever treated them well.
The lance soldiers at the stone pa.s.s were not stupid.
That was the advantage of nibbling away.
The light cavalry set out quickly, disappearing into the flat plain, to the eastern territory, a long-closed land.