On the surface, François's words seemed to have hit the nail on the head.
When the meeting resumed in the afternoon, Morgiana conveyed the news she had received after contacting Laing.
The king and the lady had approved the northern nobles' plan to attack Obion.
At the same time, Laing also learned from Morgiana that the dukes were very resistant to building a new fortress. The Knight King wondered if he had been too hasty. He had previously said that he had to cherish and conserve the manpower of the people, but now he was going to start a huge construction project.
No, no, no, he couldn't be Yang Guang. Laing thought that he could only do one at the same time. It wasn't easy for him to lay the foundation for the Knight King's Kingdom, so he didn't want to overturn it so easily.
At the same time, Laing also realized that he had underestimated the northern nobles' desire to fight, as well as Lauren's eagerness to prove himself as the kingdom's regent.
The eagerness of Lauren and the northern nobles to fight made Laing feel awkward. After careful consideration, the Knight King decided to agree to Lauren's proposal for an expedition to Obion, but he had three conditions.
The first was to unite the local Truth Sayers and the Empire's garrison in Newland Province. They had to figure out the local geography and the peculiarities of Obion before starting the war.
The second was that the Knight King requested that the northern nobles organize their own troops and raise their own resources. At the same time, the war had to end before the spring plowing.
The third was that Laing requested that the war had to be focused on plundering Obion's resources and destroying the barbarians' strength. They couldn't go too deep into the land and fight too much.
These three requirements were relatively strict, but the northern knights and nobles were very happy when they saw that the Knight King was finally willing to let them go all out. They immediately elected Regent Laun as the commander-in-chief of Obien's expeditionary force and prepared to organize an expeditionary force of 20,000 men to attack Obien.
Obion Island was about 500 kilometers away from the Brittany mainland. It would take about two weeks to reach the island. It was already early December, and the spring plowing would begin at the end of March next year. There was not much time left for the northern nobles.
As for the southern nobles, Leon's request for them was to build a permanent fortress on the path leading to Tyrell and the Withering Swamp from the Black Mountain Range.
The Knight King expressed his concern about the Skaven Ratmen in the south, and most of the Dukes agreed with him. Unlike the Empire, which vehemently denied the existence of the Skaven Ratmen, the Brittany knew about the existence of the Skaven Ratmen with the help of the wood elves. Throughout history, there had been many battles between Knight King and the Ratmen.
Just like that, the national policy of attacking from the north and defending from the south was formulated. Apart from that, Laing also ordered Morgiana and Lauren to send more people to investigate the movements of Noska and the northern barbarians. This kind of operation was very dangerous, but also very necessary.
Let's rewind time a little to Morgiana and Lauren's discussion.
"Also, when can you come back?" At the end of the communication, Morgiana asked with a hint of bitterness.
"About two more months," Laing said softly to the reflection of the pure water in the jade bowl.
"As soon as possible." Morgiana's voice had a hint of expectation and bitterness. Her face was reflected in the water, and her expression was quite rich. "I'm not in a hurry for you to come back to accompany me. There are many things that you can leave to Suria when you're not around, but now that you've taken Suria with you, it's hard for the Dukes to make a decision."
You liar! Laing's face was full of black lines as he looked at Morgiana's bitter expression. The Lake Goddess was cold and arrogant. At the same time, because she had been in power for many years, she was even more aloof and unapproachable. Only when she was with Laing would her expression be so rich. Laing knew that Morgiana must be counting down the days until he came back.
However, they had an agreement, so Laing could not say anything more. The King nodded. "Then that's all for now. Be sure to investigate the barbarians' movements."
After receiving Morgiana's confirmation, Laing put away the jade bowl and turned off the communication.
Suria was sitting next to him, and the Knight King listened to the whole conversation. The graceful female knight was about to say something when she saw Laing reach out his hands. Suria quickly understood what her husband meant. She smiled gently and leaned into Laing's arms. "What's wrong, my husband? What's troubling you?"
"I'm a little too nervous." Laing hugged Suria and gently stroked her beautiful long legs wrapped in thick black velvet stockings. Feeling the silky smooth texture and the soft fragrance in his arms, Laing hugged his wife on his lap. "I'm too anxious. I almost made a serious mistake."
"Serious mistake? You mean building the stronghold, right?" Suria immediately understood Laing's meaning. The Queen stretched out her slender finger and tapped Laing's forehead. "You're too anxious. We just finished building the Grand Canal that connects the north and the south. The Grand Canal of Landuin connects the Sannes River in the north, the Grismorie River, the Shinon River, and the southernmost Bereon River. This is already a great project. You should let everyone rest for a while and then consider building the stronghold."
"Yes, I want to be Li Zhi, not Yang Guang." Laing nodded. The Knight King knew that he was anxious again.
"Who's that?" Suria did not understand.
"It's the story of the two emperors of the ancient dynasty of Aurora … Let me tell you." Laing hugged Suria and told the story. Olika soon came in and began to listen with interest.
After telling a long story to Suria's satisfaction, Laing signaled that he wanted to go out for a walk.
Coming out of the king's suite, Laing met Talleyrand. The elven noble was leaning on a crutch. When he saw Laing, he immediately showed a flattering smile. "Your Majesty, good morning. I'm very happy to see you here. Your appearance has made the sky clear."
"…" Laing looked at the dark clouds and thunder in the sky. He did not know whether Talleyrand was flattering or mocking him. "Mr. Talleyrand, are you used to living on the warship?"
"It's okay. It's much better than living in the cowshed at Charles' place." Talleyrand made a dangerous joke. He humbly bowed. "I said that Charles' manor is similar to the cowshed, not that the cowshed is similar to Charles' manor, Your Majesty."
"You have a special sense of humour." Laing smiled and nodded. He noticed that Olika came out of the king's suite. When Talleyrand saw Olika, his legs trembled like a mouse seeing a cat. "What's wrong, Mr. Talleyrand? Is Olika so scary?"
Does this king know who his maid is? Talleyrand looked at Olika's warning gaze and swallowed. He supported himself on the deck and smiled perfunctorily. "As an Asur, this can't be helped."
This explanation made sense, and Laing did not probe further.
The three of them walked a few steps along the deck, and Talleyrand answered fluently. This high elf could always say some humorous quips. Even when Laing deliberately asked him, "If Finnuba and I fell into the water, who would you save?", Talleyrand humorously and wittily replied, "Your Majesty, you are so great. You must know how to swim!"
After walking for a while, an injured Old Guard walked in front of the three of them. He was leaning on crutches like Talleyrand. Laing recognized him. He was called Yves, an old guard from Montfort. He was hit by the Undead Cannon in the naval battle at Dragon Fjord. His leg was smashed, and his bones were broken. He was seriously injured.
Thanks to the high elves' excellent medicine and superb medical skills, an Old Guard like Yves was supposed to be forced to retire. But now, he only needed to rest for three months and wait for his bones to heal before he could return to the battlefield.
Just this point alone, the large amount of medicine given by the high elves allowed Laing to earn back all the cost of his trip to Ossouin. Not to mention, the Kingdom of Safry was willing to partner with Laing to set up a hospital in Muxilon.
"Your Majesty, look at that soldier. He's lame, but he's very strong physically and mentally." Talleyrand pointed humorously at Yves and then at himself. "But Your Majesty, I've known for decades that I'm lame. Not only are my legs lame, but my body and mind are also lame."
"Anyone can stand up and face everything that's in front of them." Laing clasped his hands behind his back. The majesty of the Knight King was almost overflowing. "Physical disability is not a reason. Talleyrand, I believe you can find a place for yourself somewhere else."
"But definitely not in Ossouin," Talleyrand shook his head. "As long as I'm in Ossouin, I'm a lame person, in every sense of the word."
High elves liked handsome men and beautiful women. Even Tegris was discriminated against when he was young, let alone Talleyrand who was not strong, not handsome, dressed shabbily, and had a physical disability. Laing nodded inwardly. Discrimination was really everywhere.
"But in the Old World, in the human world, I, Talleyrand, am a healthy person. Not only am I a healthy person, but I'm also superior to others!" Talleyrand continued self-deprecatingly. "Humans are used to the elegance and wisdom of elves, as well as longevity, so I wanted to come to the Old World. I can't solve my mental disability, but I can change the environment. I can become half a head taller. This thing named Talleyrand has finally found someone he can get along with equally. What a good deal."
This person is really smart! Laing's expression did not change.
"Talleyrand?"
"I'm here, Your Majesty."
"Are you willing to be the foreign affairs minister I send to Nur?"
"It's an honor, and I'm extremely happy."
… I'm a smart person's cut-off line …
A few months passed in the blink of an eye. With the arrival of the spring of 2514 of the Empire calendar and the return of the Knight King and His Majesty Laing, Brittany ushered in the most glorious era in history.
This era was called the "Golden Age" by all the historians and writers of later generations.
In politics, the great Knight King, the "Unifier" Laing -Macado, continued to deepen the reforms of Brittany. He further limited the privileges of the great nobles, eased the conflict between the serfs and the knights, and abolished a large number of exorbitant taxes and low taxes, greatly improving the living standards of Brittany.
In terms of personnel, the bureaucratic system Laing had been brewing for many years finally appeared in Brittany. With the help of the churches and the nobles, the circuit courts and officials began to appear. Most of them were ambitious farmers, workers, destitute nobles and peddlers who had been trained by the churches. The rights of local nobles and village elders to interpret and adjudicate laws were taken away.
At the same time, Laing began to revise the laws of Brittany to protect the interests of the new freedmen and farmers while limiting the privileges of the nobles and their exploitation of the serfs. At the same time, Laing officially enshrined 'incompetence is a sin' in the law. From then on, those who couldn't produce a proper knight for four generations only had two choices. The first was to have their fiefs confiscated and become freedmen, and the second was to participate in the Araby Expedition.
In terms of economy, the Lady of the Lake dropped a super heavy bomb.
After a thousand years, the church officially announced a tax reduction. The church's tithe would be changed from 10% to 15%.
Don't underestimate these few percentage points. The Lady of the Lake alone gave up more than a hundred thousand crowns of income.
Everyone in the kingdom knelt down to thank the goddess. Many serfs cried until dawn and kowtowed non-stop to thank the goddess for her grace. Their fanaticism for the Lady of the Lake reached new heights.
In terms of military affairs, the Obien Expeditionary Force led by Laun won a great victory.
In the middle of the 1st month, 2514, the 25,000-strong Obien Expeditionary Force landed on Obien Island under the escort of Poseidon and Le-Angoulan. Their opponent was the Norsk barbarian tribe known as Vanaheimlin. It was a barbarian tribe with more than ten thousand barbarian warriors, hundreds of Chaos Warriors, thousands of Chaos Reaver cavalry, and a dozen or so Swamp Demons and Chaos Beasts.
Yes, they imagined the enemy to be that large. But the northern nobles soon discovered that Vanaheimlin's resistance was far weaker than they had imagined.
The first battle was the battle of Corpse Demon Island. In this battle, Ron and the others were fully prepared to face a tough battle. However, the expeditionary army soon discovered that the defenders of Corpse Demon Island were only a few barbarian Marauder Battle Gangs, less than a hundred barbarian Marauder Horsemen, and less than two hundred Marauder Spearmen.
This was a joke to the expeditionary army, which had more than 25,000 men and had bought (on credit) a large number of firearms from Muxilong's factory.
Laun initially thought that the cunning Norsk barbarians might be believers of the Falcon God, so he advanced cautiously. But by the time he reached the core of the barbarian settlement, he only encountered a dozen Barbarian Champions.
That's it?
Laun personally led a group of Holy Grail Knights and slaughtered the dozen Barbarian Champions.
Then, the Obien Expeditionary Force began their righteous journey of plundering. For some reason, there were very few Barbarian troops on the island. Almost all of them were left with the most basic forces to defend the city. Even the legendary Chaos Warriors and Chaos Champions seemed to have disappeared.
No one understood why, but there was no doubt that this was a heaven-sent opportunity. The Obien Expeditionary Force plundered an unimaginable amount of resources from Obien Island, which was rich in all kinds of magic ores and gold and silver. As the Obien Expeditionary Force progressed, almost all of the Brittany ships that could carry goods went to Obien Island to 'transport goods'.
Even so, they still went back and forth three times.
The consecutive victories made the Obien Expeditionary Force a little complacent. Fortunately, Laun was still able to restrain his subordinates. But even as the commander-in-chief and regent, he was unable to suppress the desire of the knights, nobles, and serfs under his command to march into the depths of Obien Island.
Count Clement led more than two thousand troops deep into the interior of Obien Island near Konquata Tower, hoping to obtain more spoils of war.
Then, the entire army, along with hundreds of rangers, disappeared without a trace. It was as if these two thousand people had completely evaporated from the thick fog of Obien Island.
Laun personally led the three thousand elite troops of the Obien Expeditionary Force. Together with the Prophet of the Lake's spells and the large-scale magic scrolls he got from Morgiana and Veronica on credit, they went deep into Obien Island to search for traces of the two thousand troops.
They only found a few terrifying scenes of large-scale Chaos Sacrificial Ceremonies. Dozens of people went crazy on the spot, losing their rationality. Laun immediately ordered a retreat, but the army was still attacked by a large group of Chaos Demons. Fortunately, Chaos Demons could not exist in the mortal world for long. Moreover, Laun's troops were all elites. After leaving behind more than three hundred corpses and praying to the Goddess for guidance, Laun successfully led the army out of the thick fog of Obien Island.
The regent of the kingdom suppressed the fear in his heart and announced to everyone that they were about to return in victory. He was ready to draw the curtains on the Obien Expeditionary Force.
At the same time, Laun was even more curious and wary of the northern barbarians' intentions.
"I must immediately inform His Majesty Laing and Her Highness Morgiana of our findings in the depths of Obien Island!"
"What are the barbarians doing?"
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