"Father means that you will be in charge of suppressing the war at sea, while Sapphire's Orders of Chivalry will be the main force of the war. The taxes will be divided equally between our two families."
Anthony revealed the Sapphire Grand Duke's interest plan.
In previous years, Sapphire Grand Duke had been in charge of suppressing the war against the possible Dragon Knight, ensuring that the battlefield was maintained at the level of an ordinary Knight. Therefore, all Orders of Chivalry's harvest had to pay taxes, especially ores such as metals, which had to be distributed by the Grand Duke himself after the war.
This time, Sapphire Grand Duke's plan to let Liszt suppress the war, and then divide the taxes in half was a more reasonable plan.
Liszt thought for a moment and agreed, "Yes, but you need to come up with a more detailed plan. How many ports and ships are there in the Eagle Kingdom, as well as the distribution of shipbuilding technicians, must be investigated clearly. I hope to obliterate all their naval forces in one battle, so that they won't dare to step into the sea for decades! "
"Your Highness's ambition is admirable. As the host of this naval campaign, Anthony will certainly investigate all the details," Anthony replied in a deep voice.
Looking at Liszt, whose face still had traces of immaturity, but whose tone was full of shrewdness, he could not help but be deeply touched.
… …
The core members of the Sapphire Family had a lot of discussions about Liszt, especially in the period following the dragon-slaying war, where discussions about Liszt were launched almost every day.
An 18-year-old Dragon Knight, and possibly an even younger Magic Shooter, was unimaginable.
Sapphire Grand Duke knew Leewilliam, the Earl Of Coral Island at that time, very well. Leewilliam was very courageous and talented, and was a rising noble count with relatively high potential in the country. However, his heir, Levis, belonged to the conservative generation. He thought that the Tulip family would need several generations of hard work to rise to the rank of Marquis.
He had never expected such a huge variable to appear.
At first, Liszt did not attract much attention.
When the eldest prince besieged Juniper Castle, he looked at Liszt and felt that he was a good young man, so he intended to cultivate him. Then, in a flash, Liszt won the title of Viscount and was promoted to Sky Knight, taking away the title of the youngest in the country.
At this point, Liszt really entered the eyes of Sapphire Grand Duke.
As the ruler of a country, the Grand Duke definitely had to pay attention to the young people in the country. These were the future candidates for nobility, and also the people he sowed his loyalty to.
However, without waiting for the Grand Duke to act, Liszt once again became the successor of the Ghostswordsman, a top expert capable of defeating domain knights. When he received the news, the Grand Duke convened two meetings with his advisors to discuss Liszt's matter, and Anthony also participated in them.
In the end, the Grand Duke decided to recruit Liszt as his follower.
However, Leewilliam interrupted him with an excuse that "the son is going to help his father fight for the title of Marquis before the separation of the family". The Grand Duke could not do anything about it. He obviously believed that the position of Marquis left by Marquis Bull after his betrayal had provoked Leewilliam to reach an agreement with his son to fight for the title of Marquis.
This was understandable, so he put it aside for the time being.
"At that time, Liszt was not a Ghostblade. I'm afraid that he had already succeeded in riding a dragon... The Dragon Knight was naturally not willing to pledge loyalty to my father." The thoughts flashed in Anthony's mind. "And when Leewilliam said that Liszt was going to pledge loyalty to me in a few years, he was just fooling me."
When he thought of this, he could not help but feel unhappy that he was being played like a monkey.
However, as the qualified heir of the dragon-rearing family, Anthony did not let his personal feelings affect him. After Liszt succeeded in riding a dragon and joined forces with a Magic Shooter to kill a Dragon Knight, he had quickly changed his attitude and placed Liszt on the same level as his father.
He did not look down on Liszt because of his young age.
He knew that the sea would no longer be under Sapphire's influence in the future.
During the internal discussion of the family, his father had said with difficulty, "Sapphire's era as the overlord of the sea has ended. Anthony, when this country is handed over to you, you must learn to be patient and know how to make choices... Unite with Iron and Steel Ridge to suppress Liszt, and unite with Liszt to contend against Iron and Steel Ridge. You need to grasp the balance."
As for himself, he frowned and asked, "Father, what if Liszt becomes overbearing after his rise?"
"Then divert his attention. The Eagle Kingdom is such a big piece of meat in front of him. Why would he want to gnaw on the hard and meatless bone of Sapphire? Once Liszt establishes a country, he will understand that it is too difficult for a country on the sea to rely solely on the sea unless they rob the mainland of resources. "
"But Father, if I can't become a Dragon Knight, I don't even have the confidence to contend against a Dragon Knight and a Magic Shooter."
The Grand Duke pondered for a long time before replying to his heir, "Adapt to the situation."
...
Coming back from his thoughts, Anthony concealed his inner sigh — he found that Liszt's ambition was greater than he had imagined.
The Sapphire Grand Duke's goal was to destroy the Eagle Kingdom's fleet, but Liszt wanted to destroy the port and completely cut off the Eagle Kingdom's power on the sea. This was undoubtedly treating the sea as his own backyard and not allowing anyone to touch it casually.
Today, he would not let the Eagle Kingdom touch it.
Then tomorrow, would he not let the Grand Duchy of Sapphire touch it?
Deep in his heart, Anthony was still relaxed on the surface. After determining the overall policy of the sea campaign, he talked and laughed with Liszt, chatting about some aristocratic anecdotes.
During the lunch banquet, everyone was toasting each other and it was very lively.
Because he was anxious to go back to make the battle plan for the sea campaign, Anthony returned by ship in the afternoon.
When he left, Liszt, who personally went to the dock to see him off, looked at the fast palace sailing away, and said to his followers with great emotion, "Anthony is a good man, a qualified heir to the Duchy. Except for his mediocre talent, he has no shortcomings."
The followers smiled awkwardly.
In this Knight system where strength was king, it seemed that mediocre talent was the biggest shortcoming — of course, in terms of talent, Anthony was not too mediocre. A Sword Saint in his thirties, who was bound to become a Sky Knight in the future, was in line with the identity of a king.
As for riding a dragon, many heirs of the Duchy could not ride a dragon, and this was not Anthony's only shortcoming.
However, looking at the liege's tall and straight back, the followers felt that the liege was right. According to Liszt's standards, Anthony was indeed mediocre. Or perhaps it could be said that 99.9999% of the people in this world were mediocre.
So no one answered.
Of course, following such a Lord was the glory of the Knight, but it was also a lot of pressure, for fear of being despised by the Lord.
Liszt, who did not realize that he had caused great harm to his followers, turned around and ordered, "Commander Markus, Commander Fox, prepare the Orders of Chivalry as soon as possible and form a fighting force. It will not be long before we face another war! "
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