"Your Highness, the gains from capturing the Fedriga royal city are all recorded here." Malek set a beast-hide folder on the table.
This was the city lord's manor in the inner district of the Fedriga royal city. After capturing the city, it had naturally become
Lorist was standing by the window at the moment. This relatively intact side hall had been converted into his study and the office where he summoned subordinates to discuss affairs. Before the side hall, a large expanse of ruins reduced to crumbling walls had been dug up with several large pits. Many guards were in the pits and on the rubble, using small shovels to search through the debris for valuables. The filtered stone and refuse had been piled into several small mounds beside the pits.
Lorist looked up at the overcast sky, sighed, and turned to ask Malek, "Today is already February thirty-third. In two more days the rainy season will arrive. Looking at the sky, it might rain as early as tomorrow. Have the living quarters for the refugees and prisoners been arranged properly? The next month spent indoors is going to be hard to endure..."
Malek replied expressionlessly, "Your Highness, please rest assured. All the prisoners have been concentrated in the military camp in the western district, under Lord Bodenfeng's supervision. City defense is under Lord Jost's charge, while the refugees have been placed in the residential area of the eastern district. Their morale is stable, and they are willing to serve in our family's armed forces. During the rainy season's one-month duration, their supplies and order will be managed by Lord Dolles."
"What about our family armed forces' garrison arrangements?" Lorist asked again.
"Those are ready as well. Tiger Ross placed the Flying Tiger Corps in the southern district and the Rock Corps in the northern district. Temporary camps have already been constructed for both. There won't be any problems getting through the rainy season," Malek said.
"You've done well—very thorough and considerate," Lorist praised. He walked to the table, picked up the beast-hide folder, flipped through it, and raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Hmm? We only captured about four million goldfords this time?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Malek said. "These goldfords were all found in the treasury. I questioned the personnel who had been guarding it, and they said this was the Vicia Trading Company's reserve fund. Most of it was intended to cover a full year's salary and benefits for the armed corps soldiers and the employees of the company's various departments. The rest was kept as an emergency reserve against unexpected shortfalls."
"The total value of all the materials we captured amounts to nearly ten million goldfords. But unfortunately, most of the grain and supply warehouses were set ablaze as the Vicia Trading Company's senior executives fled. The grain and military equipment our soldiers managed to salvage were quite limited. The majority of the remaining warehouse contents were various alloy materials of high value but utterly useless for our current situation."
This was within expectations. The Vicia Trading Company was the Commercial Alliance's largest producer of weapons and military equipment, possessing its own integrated mining, refining, and forging systems. During production and experimentation, naturally large quantities of expensive alloy materials were stockpiled in warehouses. The problem was that these materials were all useless to the
For the Norton Family, these high-value alloy materials were a complete dilemma—too valuable to discard, since they were worth several million goldfords. But transporting them home was equally pointless and would only waste shipping costs. After all, the Norton Family had its own refining and forging departments. The family-standard equipment they produced was no inferior to the weapons and armor from the Vicia Trading Company—if anything, it was superior.
Lorist would have loved to find someone to sell these alloy materials from the Fedriga royal city to, but the trouble was that alloy materials worth several million goldfords would be hard to find a suitable buyer for. The
Pointing at the stacks of documents and data piled in the corner of the study, Lorist said with a bitter smile, "Over these twenty-some days I've carefully reviewed all the documents and archives that weren't burned. But I couldn't find any production ratio data for those alloy materials. I suspect it was all destroyed in the fire. I don't know if Reidi and El have found any clues about the material-ratio technicians among the prisoners. I really want to know what materials were used to cast that great iron gate inside the northern gate..."
"Sorry, Your Highness, I have no authority to inquire about that. Whether Reidi and El have made any progress, I'm not aware," Malek said, his expression unchanged.
"Oh, that's right, I forgot. I really shouldn't have asked you about that. Forget it, Malek. There were many unexpected situations during this siege that prevented us from carrying out our original plans. But we've still captured the Fedriga royal city and destroyed the Vicia Trading Company—that's two objectives achieved. With the rainy season coming, all supply distribution and administration will be your responsibility!" Lorist clapped Malek on the shoulder.
Malek snapped to attention. "Please rest assured, Your Highness. I will do everything in my power to fulfill my duties. However, the most pressing issue right now is grain. I've already sent people to work out the numbers. The provisions our armed forces are carrying, plus those rescued from the burning warehouses—if we implement slight rationing—should be enough to last through the rainy season. But after the rainy season, we'll be facing a grain shortage."
Once the rainy season passes, the vast wheat fields outside the city will provide food for everyone for a period. When the skies clear, Tiger Ross will lead the Flying Tiger Corps to sweep through all the fiefdoms in Botoorg Province that were enfeoffed by the Vicia Trading Company, and there will naturally be grain and supplies to seize. At the same time, Bodenfeng will lead the Rock Corps to attack Camporna Province, where we can live off the enemy's provisions."
"When the weather clears, the logistics and supply train from Andewov Province will also escort large quantities of supplies here. At the same time, Josk's Hunting Cavalry Corps will arrive, escorting over a hundred thousand migrants to Northland. Remove those hundred thousand from the Fedriga royal city's population, and the grain pressure will naturally ease. By then, the seized grain plus the newly harvested winter wheat will be enough to cover our armed forces' daily consumption for several months."
What Lorist hated most was that the Vicia Trading Company's senior executives had indeed set fire to the royal city's southern commercial district and grain warehouses when they fled—just as that envoy had promised. Once the city fell, they would burn it to the ground, leaving nothing intact for the Norton Family. Since the Vicia Trading Company's leadership had kept their word, Lorist had no intention of breaking his either. After capturing those fleeing Vicia Trading Company executives, he disregarded the company's status and influence within the Commercial Alliance and insisted on executing every last one of the executives and their families, resulting in the Vicia Trading Company being permanently struck from the records.
When the grain and supply warehouses caught fire, Lorist immediately abandoned the pursuit and personally led his guards into firefighting efforts. Two days and three nights of work salvaged only a third of the grain reserves. And after the Fedriga royal city fell, the total population inside had reached nearly two hundred and eighty thousand. Grain supplies were indeed becoming tight. So for the next ten days or so, the Norton Family's armed forces had been escorting prisoners through every district of the royal city, searching for food buried beneath the ruins.
After Malek left, Reidi and El arrived. After the Vicia Trading Company's newly assembled miner defense force laid down their weapons and surrendered, Lorist had assigned Reidi and El the task of screening the prisoners for technicians and useful talents. Judging by their expressions, the task had apparently gone quite well.
"Your Highness, here is the list of screened individuals—one hundred and seventy-eight in total. Most are technicians, with some technical management personnel as well. Their families were fortunate enough to survive the fighting. We believe that once they're relocated to Northland, they will integrate smoothly into our family's territory," El reported.
"Your Highness, we also found the materials refiner who cast the great iron gate. His name is Motila, forty-seven years old, single. According to those who knew him, he's a technical fanatic obsessed with material refining and synthesis," Reidi added with more good news.
"Oh? How did you find him?" Lorist was quite pleased.
"Well, he found us, actually," Reidi laughed. "We were going through the prisoner camp questioning people when this Motila suddenly rushed out and latched onto one of our guards, refusing to let go, mumbling something under his breath. We were all startled. At first we thought we were under attack and nearly cut him down. But it turned out he'd grabbed the guard because of the refined steel armor he was wearing. His eyes lit up the moment he saw the armor we all had on. We thought he was crazy, but after asking around, it turned out he really is a technical fanatic—once he encounters a material that interests him, he forgets everything else. We heard that the two great iron gates at the northern gate were also cast from materials he provided, so we brought him directly back. Your Highness, would you like to see him?"
"What's he doing right now?" Lorist's curiosity was genuinely piqued.
"He won't let go of our armor. After we brought him back, we tossed him a spare refined steel gauntlet. Now he's in a room studying that gauntlet—won't even eat when food is brought. He only asked for paper and pen, as if he's trying to deduce the refined steel material ratios of the gauntlet..." Reidi guessed after thinking about it.
"Then leave him be. Let him study that refined steel gauntlet. As soon as the rainy season passes, send him to our family's iron ore refining base and deliver him to Master Sid. Tell him this man is a valuable talent and must not be treated carelessly," Lorist said.
"Yes, Your Highness."
...
The mountain path was stained with blood. Corpses lay scattered here and there along the road, their bodies pierced with arrows or caved in from heavy impacts—the marks of being struck by massive objects.
"Your Majesty, we simply cannot take the position. The mountain path is too slippery during the snowmelt, the enemy holds the high ground, and the castle is well-defended. We've already lost three hundred-man squads and haven't even touched the castle's walls..." Lipired stood dejectedly before the Second Prince. As the Second Prince's most trusted
The Second Prince's face was equally ashen. Staring at the small castle perched on the cliff edge at the end of the mountain path, his mood was utterly bleak. Since launching the winter raid on the northwestern region at the end of December, victory reports had poured in one after another, sweeping through everything like a force of nature. First they had dealt with the garrison corps that the so-called Duke Zitulam had stationed at the border fortress, wiping out the entire twenty-eight-thousand-strong unit and making an excellent start for the raid.
The Second Prince then led the Storm Raid Corps to sweep through more than half the northwestern region, eliminating over thirty fiefdom lords enfeoffed by the Commercial Alliance, while his Blizzard Raid Corps had lost fewer than a thousand men. It was at this point that the enemy finally detected the Second Prince's raid—alarm bells ringing, signal fires blazing, smoke rising everywhere.
The writing was on the wall. Surrender was the only option left. The Second Prince was quite pleased with himself, resolving that once he caught Duke Zitulam, he would torture him thoroughly before putting him to death.
Back in the day, Zitulam had been a count in the Riedilis Kingdom with territory in Andewov Province. Because he opposed surrendering to the Second Prince, he had gathered nearly ten thousand men and fought a protracted guerrilla war against the kingdom's pacification army. He then devised an ambush that lured the pacification forces into a trap—a great flood that obliterated seventy thousand of the Second Prince's troops.
The Second Prince had harbored a deep grudge against Duke Zitulam ever since. When the Second Prince had been defeated at the Fedriga royal city, Zitulam had defected to the Commercial Alliance, been granted a duchy, and carved off the province of Hansdomos from the newly crowned Queen Keri. Together with the northwestern territories, he established the Zitulam Duchy as a buffer state between the Commercial Alliance and the Andinak Kingdom.
Later, the Second Prince overthrew the usurper Queen Keri with the Norton Family's armed forces and reclaimed his throne. He then sent the Norton Family's forces to retake Hansdomos Province. Duke Zitulam proved quite sensible, pulling his troops back to the northwestern region and allowing the Norton Family to reclaim Hansdomos Province without a fight on behalf of the Andinak Kingdom.
In the years that followed, Duke Zitulam stayed quietly in the northwestern region, never making any provocative moves toward the Andinak Kingdom. His garrison corps was equally pragmatic, holding positions more than ten li from the border, defending strongholds while avoiding any conflict with the Royal Guard Corps stationed along the Hansdomos Province border.
But no matter how harmlessly Duke Zitulam behaved, he remained a thorn lodged deep in the Second Prince's heart—one that festered until it was pulled out. The Second Prince had chosen this winter precisely to catch Duke Zitulam off guard, using the brutal cold to cut off his escape routes and make him a defeated foe—so the Second Prince could finally have his revenge.
But the Second Prince hadn't expected Duke Zitulam to have set up such a thorough early-warning system across the northwestern region. The moment the alert came, Zitulam had already prepared for a decisive defense in his own castle. The Second Prince besieged Duke Zitulam's castle all the way into mid-February, finally breaking through with the belated arrival of the catapults. Unfortunately, Duke Zitulam had fled again. With the February snowmelt, the Second Prince's Blizzard Raid Corps couldn't use their skis, allowing Zitulam to escape with over three hundred cavalry to this cliffside castle.
The mountain path was treacherous and slick. Attacking soldiers would slip and fall at the slightest misstep, and after several assaults, the castle's defenders had beaten them back with crossbows and rolling logs, inflicting heavy casualties.
"If only the catapults could get here! With shield carriages for cover, we could definitely take this castle!" Lipired said, unwilling to accept defeat.
The Second Prince shook his head. "The roads are muddy and impassable, and the rainy season is about to start. The catapults can't arrive anytime soon. Let it be for now. Don't worry—he can't escape. We'll pull back, set up camp on high ground nearby, and launch our assault after the rainy season. When that time comes, this traitorous rebel will still fall into our hands..."
"Yes, Your Majesty," Lipired said.
...