"You two are my blood brothers. There's no need to be so formal — relax,"
But his words did nothing to put the two men standing in the center of the large tent at ease. They exchanged a glance and instead became even more deferential, bowing as they replied: "My lord, please give us your instructions. We will not hesitate even at the cost of our lives."
Lorist managed a bitter smile and dropped into a chair draped with saber-toothed tiger hide, letting out a long, deep sigh. Ever since he had stubbornly ignored everyone's advice and insisted on beheading nearly one hundred thousand captured nationals of the Haneabada Kingdom, then stacking the severed heads of the fallen enemies into a thirty-three-meter-tall pyramid of skulls he called a "jingguan," he had noticed something: whether it was the family knights or the family soldiers, every pair of eyes that looked at him now held a deep, unmistakable fear.
The other day he had spotted Eral looking as though he were lost in thought and decided to play a joke — he snuck up behind him and gave him a pat on the shoulder. When Eral turned around and saw it was him, he practically jumped three feet off the ground in fright. And as for
Then there were the slave gladiators who had wanted to return home. Lorist had merely made a polite show of asking them to reconsider, and immediately half of them changed their minds, declaring themselves willing to serve the
Damn. He had chopped off one hundred thousand heads and immediately turned himself into a demon lord. The act of building a jingguan from human skulls was especially shocking and revolting. Yet look at Nebit Port now — a place with over four hundred thousand people, and everything was in perfect order, commands followed without question. The freed slaves followed the Norton Family's rules and regulations with rigid precision; there was not even a single loud argument to be heard. It all looked so harmonious…
Great. He was now more terrifying to those liberated slaves than those wretched old slave masters had ever been. Lorist could not decide whether to laugh or cry. He had slaughtered those hundred thousand Haneabada captives purely out of his deep loathing for the descendants of slavers and pirates — better to wipe them all out and pull up the roots once and for all, saving himself future headaches. But another part of Lorist had also wanted to show the Norton Family's claws and fangs, so people would stop picking fights with them when they had no idea what they were dealing with…
The trouble was that this display of authority had perhaps worked too well. It had turned Lorist into a lonely man, isolated and feared. He looked at the two men standing stiffly inside the great tent. In a sense, they were his elder brothers — the illegitimate sons of the former Baron Norton, Morosinge and Wiligsen. And here they stood, summoned by Lorist, visibly trembling with fear as though they were treading on thin ice.
"Norton Morosinge. Family Knight, Silver Three-Star. Currently serves as Captain of the Seventeenth Company, Third Battalion, Heavy Infantry Regiment. Displayed exceptional courage and decisiveness during his years of service, and won the deep admiration of the soldiers under his command…
Norton Wiligsen. Family Knight, Silver Two-Star. Currently serves as Captain of the Third Company, Scout Light Cavalry Battalion. Leads from the front in battle, brave and tenacious, wounded multiple times yet refusing to retreat, holding his position until victory..."
Lorist tossed the dossier onto the table. "It has been eight years since I returned to the family's territory and inherited the title. As my father's blood and my elder brothers, you have both served admirably. That pleases me greatly — you have proven yourselves worthy of bearing the great Norton name. I've called you here today to discuss one matter: the defense of the Haneabada Islands.
You should already know about the family's plan to bring the Haneabada Islands under its governance as overseas territories. I intend to establish the Haneabada Islands Garrison Regiment, made up of five battalions. Morosinge will serve as Regiment Commander, and Wiligsen as his deputy."
Both Morosinge and Wiligsen were stunned. As Lorist's illegitimate elder brothers, they considered it generous enough that he treated them equally — they had never expected to be given the opportunity to lead independently so soon. In other noble families, illegitimate sons were always suppressed and looked down upon.
Lorist smiled faintly. "Don't overthink it. Your success is exactly what I want. I look forward to the day when you earn lands and titles through your service to the family, establishing branch houses of the Norton Family. Only then can our Norton Family grow ever stronger. I won't deny I have my own selfish reasons for choosing you — I want you to prove yourselves in independent command, hone your leadership abilities, and lay a solid foundation for the future."
Lorist unfolded a beast-hide map of the Haneabada Islands. "Come look, both of you. Let me explain the family's defense strategy for the islands. The Haneabada Islands Garrison Regiment will consist of three land battalions and two naval battalions, each three thousand strong, with the same organization, equipment, and compensation as the guard battalion. The three land battalions will be deployed at the Royal City, the Hill Country, and Nubit Port — new castle fortresses will be constructed at each location to serve as their garrisons.
Additionally, naval camps will be built at Nubit Port for the two naval battalions, equipped with sixteen armed warships to patrol the entire archipelago and defend against external enemies. Wiligsen, you are to report to Sembawood and train with the naval corps in ship handling and naval combat. There's no rush to establish the two naval battalions — I'm giving you three years to complete the task.
Furthermore, three years from now, the garrison regiment must be able to provide the family with one thousand qualified, outstanding, well-trained soldiers each year, making it a reliable source of military manpower.
Oh, and one more thing — the inner city of Nubit Port will be allocated to Governor Shrike for the Governor's Office. He will establish a separate city defense battalion under the office's jurisdiction. The Governor's Office has the authority to oversee the garrison regiment, but the garrison regiment has no right to interfere with the city defense battalion. Do you understand?"
Morosinge snapped to attention and saluted. "My Lord, I understand. I will assist Governor Shrike and defend the Haneabada Islands."
Lorist nodded. "The detailed plans for establishing the island garrison regiment can be found with Knight Shrade. The Governor's Office's authority to oversee the garrison regiment pertains to military discipline and the annual financial audit, not to military command. This only changes in the event of an external invasion or a large-scale rebellion. I trust you won't let me down, and won't disgrace the Norton name. Go now, report to Knight Shrade, and discuss with him the difficulties and problems that need to be addressed in forming the garrison regiment."
"Yes, My Lord. We'll take our leave now."
In truth, the greatest gain for the Norton Family from the destruction of the Haneabada Kingdom was not wealth, but manpower and young laborers. The reason Lorist had always been reluctant to conscript heavily from the family's own territories was the fear of hindering their development. The Norton Family's armed forces consisted of two main components: regular field armies and town garrison units.
The field armies comprised two heavy armor regiments, two lance cavalry regiments, one war chariot and steel crossbow legion, one wheelbarrow-mounted steel crossbow legion, and additionally a bow cavalry battalion, a scout battalion, a thunderbolt catapult battalion, a guard battalion, a knight order, a women's battalion, and five elite guard battalions — forty-three battalions in total. With units operating below full strength, the total headcount stood at roughly one hundred and twenty thousand.
The garrison forces had three components. First, the recruit training camp. Second, five patrol battalions, composed almost entirely of retired family soldiers tasked with guarding various supply depots, mines, and workshops, as well as escorting material shipments. Third, garrison companies for each town and garrison platoons for each village. Their total numbers reached fifty to sixty thousand. However, their compensation was not as generous as that of the field armies — for instance, patrol battalions received only half the field army salary, and town and village garrison units received only a third, making them something between soldiers and civilians. Meanwhile, recruits undergoing training in the training camp received no pay at all, only a modest stipend.
Now Lorist was also building a naval corps with over seventeen thousand personnel. The total strength of the Norton Family's armed forces had swollen to nearly two hundred thousand, while the family's territories had a total population that had only just surpassed one million one hundred thousand. Calculating the ratio, it came to roughly one soldier for every five civilians — a level that could only be described as militaristic madness. The expansion of the family's armed forces had truly become reckless.
Lorist, for his part, had his own grievances. Though the family's armed forces looked impressive in numbers, only seventy to eighty thousand could actually be deployed for field operations. The campaign to conquer the Haneabada Kingdom had required mobilizing forty to fifty thousand troops and had nearly driven the family into bankruptcy over logistics alone. Yet expanding the armed forces had been a necessary evil. Beyond the ever-growing size of the family's territories, the most important reason was absorbing those prisoners whose terms of hard labor had expired.
After the first defeat of the Northland Grand Duke, nearly thirty thousand young male laborers had been captured. After three years of hard labor, over ten thousand who met the conscription criteria were absorbed, bringing the family's armed forces to nearly eighty thousand. There was no alternative — they couldn't very well let those men go serve rival families. After the second victory over the
Lorist's primary motivation for aggressively recruiting prisoners whose labor sentences had expired to bolster the family's armed forces was actually to increase the population of the family's territories. When a prisoner joined the Norton Family's armed forces, the generous benefits and compensation policies for soldiers incentivized them to bring their families to settle in the family's territories, thereby adding to the population. Moreover, these prisoners eligible for conscription had all awakened combat force and met the recruitment criteria. Refusing to accept them would mean pushing them into the arms of other families — only a fool would do such a thing.
Aside from prisoners, Lorist had not engaged in large-scale conscription from the family's own territories. Beyond the recruitment drive last year to form the naval corps, the main reason was the fear of disrupting the progress of territory development and construction. The family's territories were now bursting with vitality and needed manpower everywhere. The young male slaves liberated from the conquered Haneabada Kingdom would be the perfect supplement for the family's lands.
Aside from the forty thousand displaced refugees who had been abducted to Shilowass Island in the beginning, plus the six thousand or so island residents, there were a total of four hundred and ten thousand freed slaves. Among them were roughly one hundred thousand women and children, and one hundred and seventy thousand slaves were willing to settle down permanently in the Haneabada archipelago. The majority of these were second- and third-generation house-born slaves who had already started families — they had been born here and considered this place their home.
Of the remaining two hundred and forty thousand slaves, aside from the thirty thousand who insisted on returning to their homeland, the rest were able-bodied young men. Many had lost their families and homes, with nowhere to go, and most of them had originally been citizens of the Krisen Empire — either sold off by their lords or captured when slaving parties massacred their villages and turned them into slaves. Lorist ordered
If Baron Um and
"My Lord, Lord Zimwood has returned."
Zimwood was extremely busy. The naval corps, with over three hundred ships at present, was rushing to transport all manner of treasures and supplies from the Haneabada archipelago back to Shilowass Island. They had already made two round trips in September and October alone, yet what they had transported so far was less than a tenth of the total.
Lorist was now genuinely wealthy beyond measure. The hundred years' worth of accumulated treasure from the fallen Haneabada Kingdom had all become the Norton Family's war spoils. Setting everything else aside, they had seized seventeen million goldford in coin alone. Among these, two massive vaults buried beneath the royal palace's private quarters — which King Luther III had attempted to burn down in a self-immolation act — yielded six million goldford. Everyone who saw it was absolutely stunned.
Lorist genuinely couldn't understand why these descendants of pirates had such a fondness for burying their wealth underground. All it took was finding slaves who had served these great slave-owning nobles for years and asking a few questions — and every buried treasury they dug up hit the mark perfectly. The smaller ones held a hundred thousand or several hundred thousand, while the larger ones held over a million. Fatty Shi couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear as he looked over the spoils day after day. This much treasure was more than enough for the Norton Family to spend freely on development and construction for the next twenty or thirty years.
"Pass the order — summon all Family Knights of battalion commander rank and above to the great tent for a military conference to discuss our next battle plan," Lorist said.
All the Family Knights who received the summons were quite puzzled. The Haneabada Kingdom had already fallen — who else did Lorist plan to fight? The knights gathered in the great tent whispered among themselves in hushed voices.
"Silence! The Count arrives!" El shouted, and every Family Knight in the tent hastily stood at attention to await his entrance.
Lorist entered the great tent with the two Great Swordmasters, Injelec and Hughes, followed by Jim and Tagger.
"Salute to the Lord!" All the Family Knights inside the great tent performed a knight's salute to Lorist.
"That's enough, everyone sit down." Lorist waved his hand and settled into the tiger-skin chair at the center. The two Great Swordmasters, Injelec and Hughes, took seats on his left and right respectively. Earle and Jim, along with Tagger, stood behind Lorist.
"Tagger, step forward and read the intelligence you've gathered to everyone," Lorist ordered.
"Yes," Tagger walked to the front and opened a folder in his hands. "The Chikde Trade Company's northern merchant fleet arrives at the Kingdom of Haneabada twice a year to conduct trade—at the end of May and the end of October. The fleet's scale: forty to fifty ships, of which approximately sixteen to twenty are large ocean-going merchant vessels, with the remainder being medium-sized armed merchant ships. Personnel numbers range from four thousand to six thousand, with a first-grade Great Swordmaster in command.
Each time, the Chikde Trade Company's northern fleet first visits the Kingdom of Shayisya to complete spice trade before arriving at the Kingdom of Haneabada. The main goods traded include: contracted merchandise, daily-use commodities, weapons and equipment, wines and condiments, as well as fashionable clothing and luxury goods. It is said that the maritime trade route controlled by the Chikde Trade Company yields close to four hundred thousand gold Fides in annual profit.
At the end of May this year, the third young master of the Chikde Trade Company, Muribak, personally sailed to the Kingdom of Haneabada. At a welcoming banquet held for him by the great slave lord at Nubit Port, he let slip to the slave traders that the Norton Family on Shilovas Island had gathered fifty to sixty thousand displaced persons and was carrying out development and construction there. This intelligence directed the attention of those slave traders and slave-hunting parties toward our Shilovas Island territory, leading to the disaster we suffered."
After finishing the report, Tagger stepped back. Lorist looked at the Family Knights in the great tent and said with a furrowed brow, "I have no evidence to prove whether the Chikde Trade Company's third young master was the mastermind behind instigating these slave traders and slave-hunting parties to raid our family's territory. However, given the hostility the Chikde Trade Company has shown toward our Norton Family, we will treat them as being in a state of war with us. That is why I have called this meeting—to discuss how to annihilate the Chikde Trade Company's incoming northern fleet at Nubit Port and not let a single ship escape!"
…….(To be continued.)