Rain poured down outside the window.
It was mid-March. On the Galentea Continent, March marked the rainy season. In the continent's south, the rains could last for nearly two months or more. But the Northland sat in the central belt of the continent. The towering Demon Dragon Mountain Range blocked maritime climate currents from both the east and west, so the rainy season in the Northland typically lasted only about a month, or even as briefly as twenty days.
Now the family boasted as many as sixteen Gold Knights. Had the Grand Duke of Madras not had a second-tier Great Swordmaster at his side, Lorist wouldn't have bothered making the trip at all. But because of the surprise attack on West Digle Province, Lorist had once again missed Diliana's due date. While he was basking in the glory of conquest and enjoying the attentions of his two new loves, this young aunt of the Dina family had added another little master to the
Lorist gazed at the map for a long while.
"Locke, are you worried about the Madras Duchy campaign? The Rock Fortress Legion has already seized Kobor City, cutting off the supply lines to the hundred thousand or so enemies camped across the river from our base. From the account books captured at Kobor City, we've found that they had planned to transport another batch of provisions and equipment before the rainy season. Now that's gone. Once they endure this rainy season, I reckon those ten-odd thousand soldiers of the Madras Duchy army will be starving. They'll have no choice but to surrender..."
Lorist shook his head. "The situation in Madras Duchy is already settled—it can't stir up any more waves. I've already ordered the Flying Tiger Legion to march westward immediately after the rainy season ends and force those hundred thousand enemy troops to surrender. Actually, you've seen Bodfeng's report—cutting off the supply lines has already tipped them off that we've taken Kobor City, but the arrival of the rainy season prevented any counterattack.
We've confirmed that the enemy over there is the Ocean Mountain Legion, fifty-six thousand strong. Originally they had ten thousand garrison troops each in Vannades City and Kobor City, plus another twenty thousand garrison troops transferred from the Hinderson Mountain Range and over ten thousand private soldiers from Madras nobility. It's clear that the Grand Duke of Madras had been planning for a decisive battle with us once spring arrived. But we didn't give him the chance.
Without Kobor City's supply of provisions and equipment, those hundred thousand troops in the Madras army are going to have a miserable time during the rainy season. But I estimate that with their remaining stores plus the mules and horses in the camp slaughter pens, they can still scrape by on half-rations through the season. Sending the Flying Tiger Legion west isn't about fighting a decisive battle—I've already written to Ross to let him know his primary mission is to keep the enemy bottled up in their camp. Because when the rainy season ends, it'll be time for the winter wheat harvest. I won't allow the enemy to leave their camp and harvest the wheat to get through the food shortage.
Per our plan, the Flying Tiger Legion will lay siege to the enemy's main camp while Henet leads his Shahin Family Legion to besiege the seven fortress castles in the Hinderson Mountain Range. Without Kobor City's logistical support, the remaining twenty thousand garrison troops over there will be forced to surrender within two months at most. The Kenmais Family forces will head to West Digle Province to relieve the Rock Fortress Legion, allowing the latter to take ships back to Shilovas Island to await the next phase of operations. As for the
Fatty Shi flipped open a folder and scanned it. "Locke, after the Rock Fortress Legion seized Adris City, we captured thirty-eight Madras Duchy fief lords from the Grand Duke's estate. According to the seized list of titled nobility, the duchy had a total of sixty-three noble families. Originally it should have been over eighty, but a few years ago the
Also, while those loyal nobles of the Grand Duke of Madras didn't attend the reception banquet at the Grand Duke's estate, their wives and daughters did, and they've fallen into our hands. Among the hundred-plus noble ladies, young misses, and young masters we captured at the Grand Duke's estate, they're all family members of those nobles. I was thinking—we could use this to make surrender offers to those lords. As long as they bring their troops to surrender, we could allow them to take their families and wealth and leave Madras Duchy for wherever they want to go, with no interference from us, and we wouldn't hand them over to the Second Prince either. This might just break their will to resist..."
Lorist nodded. "Fine, we can do that. I'll write to Borg and Ross to coordinate with you. Let's achieve victory with minimal casualties and the lightest possible cost. I hope everything in Madras Duchy can be settled before June."
"Locke, if we release those close confidant nobles of the Grand Duke of Madras, won't the Second Prince have objections?" Though the Second Prince was nominally the former king of Andinak, the Norton Family knights typically addressed him as "Your Majesty" to his face while calling him "the Second Prince" in private. Fatty Shi was no exception.
"He won't. We have no need for that, and no obligation either." Over ten years of lordship had made Lorist increasingly integrated into this world, increasingly like a true lord. Causing trouble for the royal family and superior lords was something every fief lord on the Galentea Continent was happy to do.
Fatty Shi chuckled. "Got it. But what about those thirty-eight captured nobles?"
"If they're old fief lords from the former Krisen Empire—those holding viscount titles or above get their rank reduced by one tier. Barons can just be let go; there's nothing to reduce them to. Later, we can transfer their fiefs to Winston Province. If they're nobles the Grand Duke of Madras personally created, then we won't recognize their titles or territories. Release them, confiscate two-thirds of their assets, return the rest, and let them go wherever they please," Lorist replied.
"Wow, that cuts the number of fief lords down quite a bit. A rough count puts the remaining ones at around twenty." Fatty Shi scanned the list in his hand, then recalled something. "Locke, what if those close confidant nobles of the Grand Duke of Madras still want to keep their titles and territories?"
"Tell them their titles and territories will be reduced by one tier, and they'll become vassal lords under our Norton Family. We'll cite their meritorious service as the pretext for accepting their fealty. The Grand Duke of Madras wasn't an incompetent man—anyone he chose to value and employ must have had exceptional qualities. We might as well give them a chance. Perhaps these people could also provide some additional strength to our Norton Family."
Lorist thought for a moment, then added, "Oh, and for the Yuchenko and Sabuli families—no rank reduction or territory transfers. Just have them become our vassal lords, but their territories will still need some adjustments."
The Yuchenko and Sabuli families were the families of Lorist's two new beauties. By trading on their daughters' favor with Lorist, these two families had not only escaped punishment but had also smoothly switched their allegiance. Who knew how many people were green with envy? It also showed that the head of the Norton Family, the new Grand Duke of the Northland, was a sentimental and responsible noble—simply because he hadn't discarded them after getting what he wanted...
Fatty Shi gave a knowing smile. "I heard things got pretty heated a while back?"
Lorist awkwardly rubbed his nose. After returning from Adris City to Rock Fortress, he had naturally brought his two new loves along. This had infuriated the eldest Miss Dina: "My sister and I didn't even fuss about our status and followed you, and on top of that we let our young aunt bear a son for you! Yet you used the Madras campaign as an excuse—not only missing the birth, but bringing back two beautiful conquests as well! This is absolutely too much! I'll fight you to the death, you heartless bastard!"
"How did you smooth it over?" Fatty Shi was quite interested. Though the eldest Miss Dina was prone to jealousy and petty moods, she had an excellent reputation among the retainers and knights. First, she had worked hard to cultivate herself into a Silver Female Knight. Second, all her conflicts and tempers with Lorist had been kept private—she understood the bigger picture. Even when she had schemed to elevate her own sister, she had first consulted with the Norton Family's key retainers, and once she realized it was futile, she immediately dropped the idea rather than pestering Lorist about it.
"Nothing to it. I promised her I'd move the Dina Family's territory from the Andinak Kingdom to Dremek Province and accept them as our vassal territory," Lorist said with a bitter smile. "Also, I promised to bring the sisters along whenever I go out in the future. She said she absolutely won't allow me to come back with a few new beauties every time I leave."
"Ha ha ha..." Fatty Shi burst out laughing.
Lorist walked to the liquor cabinet, fetched a bottle of fruit wine, opened it, and poured a cup for Fatty Shi.
"Oh, right, Your Highness. Knight Malek has submitted a report requesting disciplinary action against himself, asking to take responsibility for the civilian uprising and massacre in Adris City." Fatty Shi picked up a blue folder he always carried with him and pulled out a parchment document. "It arrived yesterday afternoon. Take a look."
Lorist took the document, glanced at it, and then did something that surprised Fatty Shi—he held the paper over the candle flame and set it on fire, watching the flames leap up and consume it.
"Locke, what are you doing? That needs to be filed..." Fatty Shi was stunned.
Lorist shook his head. "This document doesn't need to be filed. All reports regarding the Adris City uprising are to leave no paper trail. Furthermore, I'll send Knight Malek a commendation and have him submit a list of those who performed meritoriously. He handled the uprising correctly—decisively and cleanly. I told them long ago that Adris City was the Grand Duke of Madras's stronghold, cultivated over forty years. The hundred thousand residents living in the city all had deep ties to the Madras family. Stationing only ten thousand men to hold it was frankly careless. If Knight Malek hadn't struck hard and acted decisively, once we were driven out of the city, I guarantee that West Digle Province would have immediately erupted in a massive resistance movement.
Across the entire West Digle Province, aside from Adris City itself, the Grand Duke of Madras hadn't created a single noble fief. Instead, he had established nearly forty farmsteads and estates, gathering close to two hundred thousand people. The families of the Ocean Mountain Legion soldiers lived there—that was precisely why the Ocean Mountain Legion had become the Grand Duke of Madras's most elite family forces. The Grand Duke had essentially held their families hostage; if they fought poorly, their families would suffer, which forced them to fight desperately for victory.
The uprising was aimed at stopping our operations, allowing the Ocean Mountain Legion to continue fighting us in Dremek Province, stalling for time in the hope that the situation might shift.
Heh, but they were only deluding themselves. The grand scheme was already decided—no amount of conspiracies could stand against overwhelming power. They never imagined that West Digle Province would become the exchange territory we gave to the Kenmais Family. After the great migration shuffled everything around, any remaining plots and schemes would lose their soil to survive. We'll just watch who ends up dumbfounded."
According to the territorial exchange agreement with the Kenmais Family, the Kenmais Family's domain in eastern Northland had a total population approaching 340,000—the result of a decade of slowly gathering refugees. The Kenmais Family would bring 250,000 of them to West Digle Province, while the Norton Family would be responsible for clearing out the existing residents so that the Kenmais migrants could immediately occupy fine farmland and homes.
To put it bluntly, the Kenmais Family would move their people from eastern Northland to West Digle Province, while West Digle Province's original residents would be relocated to eastern Northland. In Fatty Shi's words, it was a pointless shuffle on both sides. But for the Kenmais Family, it was better to bring their own subjects and seize the nest like cuckoos—otherwise, moving just the lord over would take years before things settled down.
"Locke, once the Ocean Mountain Legion and those garrison soldiers surrender, will they also be sent to eastern Northland for territory development and three years of labor service?" Fatty Shi asked.
Lorist considered for a moment. "Development of eastern Northland will have to wait a bit. The first priority for West Digle Province is relocating the families of the Ocean Mountain Legion soldiers and those garrison troops—let them acclimate to the Northland environment first. Next come the craftsmen and their families. These craftsmen will be the easiest group to integrate into our family, because no one values craftsmen more than we Nortons do. So we can offer them preferential treatment, allowing our family's workshops and foundries to recruit their needed personnel from among these craftsmen first.
As for the Ocean Mountain Legion and those garrison soldiers after they surrender—they'll go straight to road-building in Dremek Province. I want a direct highway from Vannades City to Kobor City and onward to the Northland completed within two years. I truly can't understand how the former Krisen Empire operated. If they'd built a straight road, it would only be five days from Vannades City to the Northland, yet they insisted on winding and twisting the road to triple the distance, turning a five-day journey into over fifteen days..."
Lorist's grumbling made Fatty Shi laugh. "Locke, you don't know how much effort the Krisen Empire put into building that road. First, it faced resistance from the fief lords. A straight road would cut through multiple lords' territories, and they demanded transit tolls, which the Empire refused. So they opposed having the road pass through their lands, and in the end, it had to be built along the borders. It's all recorded.
Second, the construction of that road filled countless nobles' pockets. The road-building in Dremek Province was famous in imperial history for its astronomical costs and absurd length—it took seven years to complete, at a cost equivalent to building seven similar roads in other provinces. There was even a newspaper that praised the road back then, saying this winding path was deliberately designed to efficiently transport goods from each lord's territory to the Empire's granary at Kobor City. It was absolutely laughable—utterly shameless."
Lorist laughed a few times as well. "I don't care what happened back then, but I absolutely won't allow such a thing to happen within our jurisdiction. All the fiefs in Dremek Province will be re-granted anyway, and the estimated ten-odd thousand surrendering troops from Madras Duchy can be put to road-building. Think of how much time a straight road would save—not to mention the military advantage of being able to deploy troops quickly. Within two years, I want that straight road completed."
"Your Highness." Fatty Shi stood up. Ever since Lorist had become the Grand Duke of the Northland, the retainers and knights had taken to calling him "Your Highness." Only a very few still addressed Lorist as "my lord." Fatty Shi used the nickname "Rock" in private, but in formal discussions of official business, he would address Lorist as "Your Highness."
"There's some bad news. The family's fiscal budget will see a significant overrun again this year. Besides helping the Kenmais and Shahin families with their territorial exchange, we also need to develop and build up the eastern Northland region and the Shahin Family's former territories in the Northland's southwest, while also managing the migration of West Digle Province's residents to eastern Northland. And our next military operation involves the Flying Tiger Legion's campaign against the usurper Queen Keri of the Andinak Kingdom.
Now you also want to build this straight road in Dremek Province. The family budget overrun has already reached six million gold Fordes. In my view, building the road is more important than war. So, Your Highness—for the sake of the family's fiscal balance and security, I suggest temporarily halting the campaign against the Andinak Kingdom. Having our family spend an extra million gold Fordes just to restore the Second Prince to the throne—I personally believe that would be an extremely unwise course of action."
...(To be continued...)