The hot summer breeze blew against the roadside of Count Glamorgan's territory. Laing, Suria, and the Lady of the Lake sat together in a pavilion in the beautiful Lady's Garden, drinking afternoon tea.
The dark elf Olica sat beside Laing, pouring tea for him. Suria's maidservant and the head maid of the castle, Sylvia, stood behind Suria. The head maid glared at Laing for a while before looking away with a red face.
"Laing, you left the army behind and returned. Will there be any problems?" Suria sat down gently. The female knight was a little worried. Laing had rushed back to Mu Xilon's territory after they had just obtained it. Suria felt a little guilty, because at this moment, Laing's best choice was to stay in Mu Xilon and preside over the situation.
"There won't be any problems." Laing smiled and shook his head. He looked at the distant sky. "Don't forget, it's already their land. They'll naturally do their best."
Since the land had already been given out, there would naturally be people to deal with the rest. Laing left the army behind and rushed back to the castle. This time, many of the knights stayed in Mu Xilon. Of the six barons under his command, only Grand Baron Deven, Hex, returned to Count Glamorgan. The other five barons, including Alfred Frey and Dyde, stayed in Mu Xilon.
Moreover, from another point of view, they had followed Laing for so many years, so it was only right that they be rewarded.
"When do you plan to succeed the throne?" The Lady of the Lake leaned lazily on her chair. She asked with interest, "Are you waiting for Richard to die?"
"No, after everything is settled in Mu Xilon, I can almost succeed the throne." Laing frowned. He felt the summer breeze blow past his face. The duke sighed. "First, a canal that connects the north and the south."
"Good idea, but you have to convince Bastogne and Bordero." The Lake Fairy stretched out her hand and stroked her long golden hair. Her long golden hair cascaded down to the ground like a waterfall. The goddess was wearing a pair of champagne-colored bow heels. Her feet wrapped in flesh-colored stockings gently hooked around the tips of the shoes. The Lake Fairy was indeed relieved when she saw that Laing was willing to negotiate with Lyonarcy.
Although the Goddess of the Lake was on Laing's side, the first Duke of Lyonassi, Silluff the Bold, had also dedicated his entire life to the Knight King. In his 350 years of life, he had never stopped fighting. Now that Lyonassi was in such a difficult situation, the Goddess of the Lake couldn't bear to see it.
Sometimes, everything in the world was like this. The decisions of mortals were influenced by emotional factors. As long as there was emotional fluctuation, it would be reflected in the subspace.
The canal was an extremely important matter. This was the decision that Laing had made after much consideration.
In the Old World, danger lurked everywhere, and security was a serious problem.
Even the richest and most powerful Rick Territory in the Empire was still a land of dense Dark Forest. Orcs, Green Dwarfs, and bandits roamed around. Even though the Emperor's army could constantly dispatch troops to eliminate the bandits, traveling and trading were still dangerous.
The nobles of the Ricker Territory also had a deep understanding of this. Since William III, the entire Ricker Territory had begun large-scale canal excavation activities. Hundreds of large and small rivers and canals formed the Ricker Water System. All the large and medium towns in the Ricker Territory were connected by canals. The waterways were very wide, and the banks were clear. In addition to the patrols of the Ricker Navy, water transportation became a relatively safer way to travel and trade.
Because of this, under the large-scale reclamation, road construction, and improvement of planting along the river, a large number of free people and merchant classes in Rick Territory began to occupy the mainstream here, leading to the emergence of the citizen class.
Laing planned to excavate a canal that would connect the Grismori River and Chalon River. It would be the key to connecting the North and South.
But it was imaginable that this would be met with opposition. Apart from the conservative faction, the construction of the canal would definitely affect the manors of the nobles along the way. More importantly, the construction of the canal would also lead to the rise of the free people and merchants.
"Baldero shouldn't oppose you. After all, Bodrick knows what business brings to him and his Dukedom." The Lake Fairy held the Holy Grail in her hand as she pondered and said, "As for Bastogne, most of the nobles there are Holy Grail Knights. With your current prestige, they won't oppose too much, as long as you can make them see the benefits."
"In fact, the greatest opposition is from the Conservative faction of the Kingdom." Laing nodded. The Duke was confident about this. "But now, no one can oppose me. This is the best time to settle this in one go."
Suria snickered for a while when she heard that. She couldn't help but feel a little happy.
Indeed, after a series of wars and incidents, the Conservative faction of the Knight King no longer had the ability to oppose Laing's will. Instead, they often had to ask for help from the Southern nobles.
For example, the old fox François had just announced that he would lend the Northern Dukedoms a total of 15 thousand crowns. The money would be used to pay off the unpaid pensions, rebuilding the towns and repairing the castles. The annual interest was around 10% to 15%. Apart from that, the Southern nobles, including Laing, opened their granaries and prepared to send food to the Northlands.
Under such circumstances, the Conservative nobles couldn't even straighten their backs to oppose Laing's decision.
At the mention of that, Suria took the initiative to say, "Come to think of it, a lot of Leonardian serfs have come to our territory recently. Many of them are women. They often stay in bars and inns."
Laing couldn't help but smile when he heard that. Staying in Leonardian was a euphemism. Surviving in Leonardian was already an incredibly difficult task. With the rise of the freedmen in Laing's dominion, even the serfs had quite a bit of money and food to spare. It wasn't strange for a large number of female serfs from Leonardian to make a living there.
"Hmph!" Silvia, the head maidservant behind Suria, snorted with disdain. She seemed a little unhappy. "I think we should banish them all!"
"Where there's demand, there's a market." Laing didn't really mind. "Even if we banish them, as long as there's a market, others will come. There's no point in doing that. "
"You're right, master." The dark elf put the pastries into Laing's mouth. Seeing that Laing had returned, the dark elf maidservant was obviously in a good mood. "Others will come. This won't solve the problem at the root. It's just the nature of mortals."
"But in the long run …" Silvia still didn't like these outsiders.
"You'll get used to it in the future." Laing smiled. "Let's not talk about the long run. Just the knights under my command are very popular with the noblewomen of Leonardian. After recovering Musillon, many noblewomen expressed their willingness to marry. For example, Baron Deven Hex, who came back with me this time. A countess has taken a fancy to him. Other than Hex, there are also many other noblewomen who are willing to marry him. Many rangers are troubled by happiness. Many of the kingdom's knights found out that they can marry the daughters of barons or even countesses."
"That's too … strange, isn't it?" Sylvia's face turned red. "The baron's daughter is going to marry a knight-errant?"
"But that's the reality." Sulia smiled gently and said, "Marriage is good for stability. Also, the large-scale marriage between your knights and Lyonnesse will help promote the integration of the nobles. This is good news. We should encourage the knights to marry more."
"Okay!"
They chatted for a while. It was time for afternoon tea, which was also Suria's daily "relief time." With Silvia's help, Suria returned to her room to rest.
Before leaving, the female knight held the hand of the Goddess of the Lake and her husband. She placed the small hand of the Goddess of the Lake into Leon's big hand. The female knight said seriously, "My lady, I'll leave Leon in your care for this period of time. You must help me look after him!"
"Don't worry! Suria, leave it to me! " The Lake Fairy smiled. The goddess's face was indescribably proud. "I won't give any chance to those b * tches outside!"
"Then I'll leave it to you." Suria smiled sweetly. She turned to Laing and said, "Did you hear that? My husband, you must get along well with each other during this time! "
"Uh …" The duke was a little annoyed. He opened his mouth, but under Suria's sharp gaze, he could only nod as if admitting defeat. "I know."
"Then I'll go rest. Laing, you must be tired after rushing back," the female knight said kindly. The female knight said considerately, "Go take a bath and have a good rest. The lady will have dinner with us tonight."
"Please follow me, master." The dark elf's eyes lit up. "Let me help you take a bath."
"Okay!" Laing did not say anything else. He followed the dark elf to the bathroom in the castle.
… I'm the dividing line of the bath …
At the same time, the Old World, the outer sea of the southern kingdom.
A huge fleet was sailing on the sea.
This was a well-equipped and well-trained army. Almost everyone was wearing high-quality armor. Under the scorching summer sun, they were lined up neatly on the deck, ready to guard against all possible threats.
On the ship's flag, an eagle's claw reborn from fire was vivid and lifelike.
A tall, powerful warrior with long silver hair stood at the bow of the ship. He was wearing a set of Vibrantly Gold Plate Armor personally blessed by the First Generation Great Demon Toad Lord, Great Demon Lord Kroc. He held the golden sword 'Glory' in his hand and a golden pendant of the Serpent God hung on his chest. Sotigo's battle spear was tied to his back and the battle spear had the aura of the Serpent God.
The ships of this fleet had a very deep waterline. Obviously, they were not just loaded with a lot of troops.
"Commander, I estimate that in another week, we will reach Magritte." Pedro Alvarado, the commander of the first company of the Ashes Corps, came behind the commander. His voice was filled with uncontrollable excitement. "We've finally returned to the Old World!"
"Pedro, you're an Estalian. Do you think we can recruit enough new soldiers in Estalia?" Forgen asked casually as he looked at the surging waves of the ocean.
"Estalia has never lacked people who have left their homes. The people here have always had the tradition of adventuring, my Legion Commander." Pedro nodded. "The key is, what level of recruits do you want, Legion Commander?"
"We don't have much time left. I hope we can recruit new soldiers who can fight." Fu Gen frowned when he heard this.
There was not much time left for this world. If he wanted to recruit a group of recruits who knew nothing and train from scratch, who knew how long it would take.
The great First Generation Demon Toad, Lord Kroc, had been resurrected under the power of the Emperor.
Its resurrection brought new hope to the servants of the Ancient Saint. Kroc knew how to rebuild the destroyed and lost Ancient Saint cities. Kroc knew how to repair and sanctify the polluted incubation pools. The First Generation Demon Toad prophesied that before facing the threat of Chaos, the servants of the Ancient Saint must first deal with the threat of the Skaven Ratmen.
The Ashes Corps had suffered heavy losses in the previous series of wars. Fulgen decided to lead three thousand people back to the Old World to recruit new troops. With the financial support of the Lizardmen, Fulgen decided to recruit thirty to fifty thousand new recruits to form a new expeditionary force.
"If we want to recruit recruits who can fight, it will be very difficult in Estalia," Pedro continued. "We are going to Tyrell to recruit new recruits."
"What about Brittany and the Empire? They are the most powerful countries in the Old World, right? "Fulgen asked with interest." Why not go to those two places? "
"Brittany's knights are the most powerful heavy cavalry army in the Old World. However, they usually don't accept employment. If you want to hire them, you must have an excuse for them to move out. For example, the Red Flame Expedition and the Arabi Holy War," Pedro said. "As for the Empire, it's not that we can't hire the troops there. However, we need to find a way. I wonder if the Army Commander has any acquaintances in the Empire?"
"If I don't have any acquaintances, it will be very difficult, right?" Fulgen laughed. It seemed that everywhere was like this.
"Yes." Pedro nodded.
"What about Tyrell?"
"In Tyrell, many people are willing to fight as long as the price is right," Pedro said. "We can recruit humans, dwarves, elves, ogres, and even green skin and undead in Tyrell as long as we have the money."
"Green skin …" Fulgen shook his head with a bitter smile. "Forget about the green skin."
"If the Army Commander really needs it, we can even recruit soldiers from the prince's territory at the border. The people there are all very powerful. However, at the same time, the people there are also a bunch of vicious scum with no discipline or morals," Pedro said. "Apart from that, if we are lucky enough, we can also recruit the winged cavalry from Kislöw. As long as they don't fight humans or dwarves, they are willing to accept any job. However, because they are bound by the oath of the winged cavalry, we don't know if they are willing to follow us on the expedition."
"Let's go to Estalia and Tyrell to recruit new troops first!" Fulgen finally made a decision. "While we are at it, I will also go to Brittany to meet my brothers."
"I have a gift for them."
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