Volume 4 Chapter 11 Losing the chance of cooperating
The kingdom’s north was naturally different from the south. Banta City was in spring, but Lorren City that was less than two hundred kilometers from the northern border was still in the chill of winter.
However, his highness Eric was filled with flames right now. Not only did it easily surpa.s.s the chill in the air, it even surpa.s.sed spring and burned with the heat of summer.
It was time to perform his merit!
Looking at the thirty thousand northern army soldiers full of vigor and well equipped outside the city, his highness Eric had never been as confident as he was right now.
He even felt that with the thirty thousand northern army soldiers, he could not only attack the gate of the Sack Kingdom, he could even reach their capital and make the entire Sack Kingdom fall under him.
At that time, with this unparalleled military merit, who would be qualified to compete with him for the throne?
However, his common sense told him that this wasn’t realistic.
The thirty thousand northern army troops seemed like they were stronger, it was all because of the various goods the large n.o.bles of the kingdom sent him. The logistics problem that always puzzled the northern army was solved, so the northern army’s mentality changed and it seemed like their battle efficiency increased.
But even like this, it was impossible to rout the entire Sack Kingdom with the thirty thousand northern army troops.
While conducting strategy meetings with Duke Stagg, Duke Stagg had explicitly warned his highness Eric that he can’t expect to defeat the Sack Kingdom.
Even the Lampuri Kingdom of several hundred years ago couldn’t do this, it was impossible to achieve even with the powerful support he had now.
The reason for launching this war was to give his highness Eric military merits that would increase his chips when it came to competing for the throne.
So Eric’s goals were clear this time, it was to defeat the Sack Kingdom’s army several times and take some advantages from the Sack Kingdom. It wasn’t to go too deeply into the Sack Kingdom.
As long as he had the merit of defeating the Sack Kingdom, it would be a very powerful chip.
If he really wanted to completely defeat the Sack Kingdom, that was asking for trouble.
Thinking of Duke Stagg’s urgings, his highness Eric couldn’t help knitting his brows and giving a soft snort.
“We couldn’t defeat the Sack Kingdom before because you n.o.bles weren’t willing to contribute your strength. After I take the throne, I will definitely take the kingdom in my hand. When I mobilize the entire strength of the kingdom at that time, I don’t believe I can’t defeat the Sack Kingdom!”
Of course, his highness Eric only dared to think of this, he never mentioned it before.
It was only because of the support of the large n.o.bles led by Duke Stagg that he could have the advantage when it came to competing for the throne.
Otherwise, with his own strength and not to mention that he didn’t have any military merits, it would be hard to even maintain his five thousand private guards.
Thinking of his five thousand private guards, his highness Eric looked past the northern army and fell onto another group before his brows knit even deeper.
This formation was crooked and compared to the uniform one of the northern army, it was like their formations were drawn without using a ruler.
The soldiers of this formation were very lazy and they were very dispirited. Compared to the northern army soldiers that were filled with vigor, these soldiers were completely lacking.
In these few months, his highness Eric had spent most of his time in military camps, so he was no longer someone who understood nothing about military matters.
The current him could see with one look that if his five thousand private guards were to face an equal number of northern army soldiers, he was certain that his five thousand private guards would collapse without being able to resist at all.
But he couldn’t do anything about this. Although his father had announced that he was one of the successors and had the right to a private guard of five thousand, his power was limited and it was impossible for him to raise these many guards.
The five thousand people were given to him from the private armies of the n.o.bles, so he could imagine their quality.
His highness Eric didn’t believe in these five thousand people, so naturally he didn’t put importance on them.
Of course, he hoped that he could train five thousand trusted subordinates in the future because that would be his own strength.
But his own strength was just too weak right now. The main reason was that he didn’t have money, so he couldn’t consider this.
Thinking of this, his highness Eric couldn’t help feeling jealous and envious of Seveni.
According to his reports, Seveni had also finished recruiting her five thousand guards.
Compared to his five thousand guards that had no battle strength at all, one part of Seveni’s five thousand guards was picked from the elites of the private forces of the n.o.bles supporting her, so their battle strength was completely different from his subordinates.
The other portion were people recruited by Seveni.
With Seveni’s good reputation in the kingdom and adding in the good treatment of her guards, the guards she recruited were all elites and had good battle strength.
The most important thing was that Seveni’s five thousand guards were all equipped with military magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Just in terms of battle strength, Seveni’s private guards could even match several times their numbers when it came to northern army soldiers, not to mention his highness Eric’s private guards.
Moreover, other than the personal military magic machines, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had equipped Seveni’s private guards with several Magic Trebuchets. It didn’t state their specific uses, but they were certainly powerful military magic machines.
Like this, even if they both had five thousand guards, the battle strength between the two was like heaven and earth.
The most important reason for this gap was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
Thinking of this, a bit of regret appeared in his highness Eric’s heart.
When Viscount Leslie came to meet him in Lorren City, he had urged him not to completely go against the Frestech Chamber of Commerce because Xu Yi wanted to develop the Lampuri Kingdom, he wasn’t against cooperating with his highness Eric.
His highness Eric didn’t even consider Viscount Leslie’s proposal since he wanted to separate himself from Seveni.
Later when Dulaketon City’s Count Mich.e.l.le wrote a letter that suggested cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, his highness Eric also refuted it.
Then when the news came several days later that Xu Yi had stated his att.i.tude to everyone at the product release, showing support for her highness Seveni, it meant that there was no possibility of his highness Eric being able to cooperate with Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
His highness Eric didn’t care about this news when he heard it a few days ago, thinking that Xu Yi really was stupid.
But now that he thought about the difference in battle strength, he thought about the strong support the Frestech Chamber of Commerce could provide to the other side, he found that he might have really missed out on something.
But since matters had reached this point, his highness Eric was clear that he couldn’t turn back and there was no meaning to regret.
Since Xu Yi showed his support for Seveni, then Eric would clearly mark the border with him or he would arouse the suspicions of the large n.o.bles and that would be disadvantageous to him.
“It’s fine, once I get my military merit and take the throne, I’ll control the entire kingdom. A trivial Frestech Chamber of Commerce will still fall into my hands.”
His highness Eric clenched his fist as his face revealed a confident smile once again.
“Your highness, it’s about time. We should prepare for our pre battle mobilization.” Count Stagg reminded him from the side in a small voice.
Before his highness Eric came, Count Stagg would have held the t.i.tle of Lorren City’s City Lord.
He had held the post of Banta City’s City Lord for less than a year before being transferred. He thought that he would be in Lorren City for some time before being moved somewhere else, but he never thought that in less than a month, his highness Eric would come out of nowhere and take the position of City Lord from him.
Although Count Stagg had received instructions from his family and had been helping his highness Eric during this time, he found that as more time pa.s.sed, Count Stagg felt more and more doubt towards his family’s decision to support his highness Eric.
It should be said that his highness Eric wasn’t stupid, rather he was quite the intelligent person and could be considered brave and diligent. In the half a year since he came to Lorren city, he had obtained a certain amount of prestige and built a foundation in the northern army, so his performance could be considered good.
But after being with his highness Eric for a while, Count Stagg noticed a very prominent shortcoming. It was that he was very stubborn, which could come from his own pride.
As long as he was certain on something, he wouldn’t accept any suggestions that other people made.
Even if he looked like he was considering it, when it came to actually doing it, he still followed his own ideas and didn’t adapt at all.
This was clearly shown in how he treated the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
After being the City Lord of Banta City for a year, Count Stagg’s impression of Xu Yi was different compared to before.
Before leaving Banta City, he had a new look of Xu Yi and wasn’t filled with hostility towards him like when he first arrived in Banta City.
He not only understood the value of Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, he even seriously started considering the possibility of the Stagg Family cooperating with Xu Yi.
Because of this idea, Count Stagg had even proposed to his highness Eric not to completely shut out the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
But his highness Eric had denied Count Stagg’s suggestion and even doubted Count Stagg of being misled by Xu Yi during his year in Banta City. He even suggested that Count Stagg was going against the Stagg Family.
From that moment on, Count Stagg knew that there was no chance of his highness Eric cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and it was also impossible for the Stagg Family.
Looking at the vigorous northern army troops that seemed very strong, Count Stagg gave a deep sigh in his heart.
“Even if he disagreed with cooperating with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, as long as he bought those military magic machines from them, wouldn’t the northern army’s battle strength soar? Rejecting the Frestech Chamber of Commerce like this, is it really good?”