Unknown Knight

Originally, King Ragnar had two purposes in letting Aix speak. One was to get some inspiration from his speech, and the other was to use his speech to ease the tense atmosphere at the banquet. To put it bluntly, he just wanted to liven up the atmosphere.

But what he could not have imagined was that this businessman had such profound insights. He had no idea what strategy was. How could he know that every Chinese person was a descendant of a civilization that had been baptized by five thousand years of trials and tribulations? For them, any person who had read history was a strategist, military strategist, or counselor. This was absolutely not an exaggeration.

Otherwise, how could a person who started with nothing be able to establish a unified dynasty through hard work? This was simply unimaginable and impossible in their view. Otherwise, they would not have added the names of their ancestors to themselves and placed special emphasis on inheritance and bloodline.

"This must be a descendant of a noble family, no, he must be a descendant of a great noble family..." The nobles and King Ragnar at the table all thought so in their hearts. Aix, who didn't know if he was really pretending this time, saw everyone staring at him in a daze, and thought that his speech was a little shocking, so he smiled at everyone and returned to his seat.

As soon as he sat down, he was greeted with warm applause, especially from King Ragnar, who stood up and applauded him, and then led everyone to stand up and applaud him, causing Aix to stand up as well, feeling very surprised.

At the following banquet, it was Aix who became the protagonist. These nobles came over to chat with him one after another. Some asked him directly about the details of the war, while others said that the amount of snow salt ordered yesterday was too little and they had to add some more. They all conveyed their goodwill and intention to win him over, which made Aix a little flattered.

Especially King Ragnar, who was still drunk and holding his hand after the banquet, asking him about his personal situation, such as whether he was married, what plans he had for the future, etc. Later, he even asked him if he wanted to become an official and a de facto noble of the Nordic Kingdom.

This made Aix feel very unsure, but fortunately he knew his own weight, so he said that there were still 5 or 60 people in his caravan who needed to be supported, and currently he just wanted to do business well. King Ragnar did not care about his refusal and seemed to understand it.

Finally, he personally sent him out of the palace, which surprised Fatis and Bandak who were waiting outside. They wondered whether Aix had become a new noble of the Nord Kingdom, or had married his children to some nobleman, which inexplicably gave him a new halo in the hearts of the two.

The next day, Aix was about to lead the caravan to leave Sagos and head to Kulau to try to open up a new trade route. But before leaving the warehouse, King Ragnar's secretary came to ask for an important matter, so Aix had to postpone the trip for a day.

When he arrived at the palace, he found that there were only five nobles coming to dinner this time, but they were all heavyweight and trusted nobles of the Nord Kingdom, including Idenjar, the lord of Tihar, whom he knew, and Iayajar, the lord of Wochemze, another lord of the Nord Kingdom. After Ragnar introduced Aix to them and exchanged greetings, he had to volunteer to serve as the kingdom's royal chef again. There was no other way. King Ragnar was picky now and only recognized his cooking for banquets. As a result, Aix wanted to stop being a merchant and just open a big restaurant in the city of Sagos, which would guarantee profit.

During the banquet, Aix also sat at the last seat. During the banquet, Ragnar repeated Aix's opinion last night to the two new city lords, and won the unanimous approval of these powerful nobles. However, there was basically no confidentiality in this era. The nobles all knew that once the Nord Kingdom wanted to take action against the Vaegir Kingdom, it would be impossible for the Vaegir Kingdom not to notice. After thinking about it, the dishes on the table were cold, and these people did not come up with a safe solution. As a last resort, King Ragnar had to ask Aix for advice again.

Aix also knew that once King Ragnar mobilized troops in Sargos, it would certainly alert neighboring countries. Once the first-mover advantage was lost, it would be almost impossible for these loose alliances of nobles to do anything. They could only make up for it with strategies. After thinking for a while, he said:

"It's not that difficult actually. We can create some conflicts with the Kingdom of Swadia on the surface, and then send a small force to make it look like we are going to fight with the Kingdom of Swadia. The purpose of gathering troops is to attack the Kingdom of Swadia, so that they can let down their guard and deal with the Khergit Khanate with peace of mind. The Kingdom of Swadia, which is under pressure from two fronts, will definitely take the initiative to negotiate peace with us after discovering that we have not launched a substantial attack on them. In this way, we can use the gathered forces directly to attack the empty Kingdom of Vaegir, and achieve the ultimate goal of the strategy. I call this tactic 'making a feint to the east and attacking the west'."

Aix's words were still selfish. Old John, Bandak and other old caravan friends were all from the Kingdom of Swadia. His plan, to some extent, would divert the war elsewhere, prevent the country from fighting on two fronts, and try to minimize the impact of the war on the people of the Kingdom of Swadia.

After hearing what Aix said, King Ragnar clapped his hands excitedly and laughed excitedly:

"This is a brilliant plan, haha, a good way to make a feint to the east and attack in the west, let's do it this way."

Several other people also praised Aix's plan, especially the two city lords who had just arrived today. They took the initiative to come over and communicate with Aix. Aix also wanted to have a good relationship with them. After all, he would have business in their city in the future. Everyone said a lot of compliments to each other, and after the banquet, both the host and the guests had a great time.

The next day, King Ragnar, knowing that Aix was going to Kulau to open up a new trade route, asked the secretary to invite Aix again.

After arriving at the palace and dismissing his attendants, King Ragnar took Aix's hand, handed him a bag of silver coins and said:

"I know that I have forced you to stay for the past few days, which has delayed your earning money, but I still have an important matter to ask you. I don't trust others. I hope that when you go to the Kingdom of Vigia to do business, you can also find out the domestic trends so that I can respond in time. Here are 200 silver coins. Although it is not much, it will be used as activity funds."

How could Aix not agree to this? He could only pat his chest and promise:

"Don't worry, Your Highness. I will report to you the latest developments of the Kingdom of Vijia in a timely manner."

Patting Aix on the shoulder, King Ragnar continued:

"Originally, I wanted to grant you a fief, but the territories in my country have basically been awarded, and there is really no extra territory to give out. It would be unfair to you to grant you a place that is too bad. In addition, there are many nobles in my country who are not very familiar with you. If you rashly confer a title on them, some people may not accept it. Therefore, if you win this battle, I will definitely record your great merit and make you a member of our nobles."

After saying that, he pressed Aix's shoulder hard again. Aix was so excited that he wanted to bow down on the spot, but he was afraid of losing the dignity of the time travelers, so he could only yell in his heart: System, you are finally willing to give benefits to time travelers!

Aix knew that in the Middle Ages under the feudal system of nobility, it was difficult to obtain a noble title, let alone a noble with a fiefdom. However, the Nordic Kingdom was an exception. These Nords, who had just become nobles from tribal leaders in the northern continent, did not have too many class concepts. As long as you had strength and reputation, and gained their recognition, it was not difficult to obtain a noble title. However, in the Kingdom of Swadia, the Kingdom of Rhodok, or countries such as Vigia that were too deeply influenced by the aristocracy, it was difficult to cross classes unless your strength was strong enough to influence the destiny of the country.

So whether King Ragnar's words were true or just empty promises, they were still very attractive to Aix, and made his palms sweat with excitement.

After leaving the city of Sagos, the caravan traveled for two days and arrived at the Ismorola Castle of the Kingdom of Vigia. This is a stone castle from the previous dynasty, built on a platform, surrounded by shooting platforms protruding from the city walls. The structure is compact and has a very high defensiveness. Although it does not occupy a large area, it is very critical. It controls the bridge across the Kulau River in the distance. The geographical location is very important, just dividing the Nordic Kingdom into two by land. If it were not for the prosperous water transportation of the Nordic Kingdom, the isolated Wochela City would have been annexed by the Kingdom of Vigia long ago. Therefore, the two countries fought fiercely over this castle. This is also the reason why Aix suggested that the Nordic Kingdom should go north rather than south. Only by occupying this castle can the Nordic Kingdom have a safe depth and can carry out other strategies with peace of mind. Otherwise, it will be constrained everywhere and it will be difficult to achieve anything.

The guards of the castle were very alert and checked everyone coming and going very carefully. Aix asked his acquaintance Manide to go and trade some goods, and then continued to move around the city without daring to stop for too long. It seemed that the Kingdom of Vigia attached great importance to the Ismorola Castle, and Javier Boyer, who guarded the city, was also an extraordinary figure.

Two days later, the caravan arrived at Kulau, a city built on a river with prosperous commerce and many passing ships on the river. It is also a famous iron smelting center on the continent. The nearby mountains produce high-quality iron ore, and the blacksmiths here also have superb iron smelting skills. This is one of the reasons why Aix came here. He hopes to hire a few blacksmiths like old John here. This is an important part of his future plans.

But his idea was still a bit naive. Just as Ramon said, blacksmiths were scarce talents in this era, and the income and benefits were very good. It was basically impossible for a stranger to recruit blacksmiths in a strange place. Moreover, the local lords believed that blacksmiths were important resources and generally prohibited outsiders from recruiting them. Aix took Manide and Bandak to visit for a whole morning, but not only did they get nothing, they also got frustrated and were almost driven out by the mayor of Kulau and the city defense army.

Manid was worldly-wise. In the name of looking for the old blacksmith John, he slipped a few silver coins to the mayor, and finally found out from the mayor that John's blacksmith shop had closed down due to lack of rent, and his wife had returned to the rural village of Rebach with their two half-grown children some time ago. Everyone had to go to the merchant company to trade the goods they brought and purchase some urgently needed iron materials and tools. John's family could only wait until tomorrow to leave the city.

At night, Aix brought Bandak, Manide and Fatis to the tavern in Kulau City. Ever since he met such talented people as Fatis and Manide in the tavern, Aix would go to the tavern every time he went to a place. However, the tavern in Kulau City disappointed him. The tavern here was cramped and the air was polluted. It was full of blacksmiths who smelled of iron and sweat. Several of them could not stay any longer and returned home disappointed before finishing a glass of beer.

However, it was not all in vain. Aix heard two pieces of heavy news in the tavern. The first was that a war was about to break out between the Nordic Kingdom and the Swadian Kingdom. The cause was a cow lost on the border. Wars caused by such seemingly ridiculous things were not uncommon in ancient times. For example, the Wu-Chu War in our Warring States Period was caused by a quarrel between the Wu and Chu women who picked mulberry leaves. This was just an excuse for wanting to go to war. It seemed that the Nordic Kingdom had already begun to act. The second was that the troops of the Khergit Khanate had gathered in the city of Aichmor, and it seemed that they were ready to cross the border snow-capped mountains and attack the city of Kudan at any time. The Kingdom of Vigia had no choice but to mobilize the whole country.

Considering his plan to purchase food near the city of Dehrim, Aix decided to speed up his journey starting tomorrow. Everything has a chain effect. Once a large-scale military deployment is carried out, the price of food in the Kingdom of Swadia will definitely rise sharply.

In response to the second piece of news, he found an old caravan driver and asked him to ride back to Sagos City overnight before the city gates were closed. He believed that this news should be passed to King Ragnar first, and it was worth the 200 silver coins he gave him. At the same time, in order to prevent the news from being intercepted, he told King Ragnar in the letter that he could now attack the Kingdom of Swadia without worry. In response to the strong defense of Ismorola Castle, he also reminded King Ragnar in the letter to prepare more siege equipment, believing that King Ragnar could understand what he meant.

In order to save time on the second day, Aix decided to split the troops into two groups. Bandak took most of the caravan to the capital of Vigia, Zhivadin, while he took Fatis and Crice and rode to the village of Rebachi.

The village of Rebach is not big, and the three of them can easily find John's family through the village chief. However, Axe underestimated the trust between people in this era. Even if Axe took out old John's amulet, the mother and her two sons did not dare to go with them. In addition, the village chief exaggerated and tried to stop them, and the situation was deadlocked for a while. Seeing no hope, fortunately Axe brought Cress. After she, a Vigria girl, communicated in dialect, Axe used the "money ability" in time and stuffed 10 silver coins into the village chief, and the group finally set off.

Later, Aix learned that the reason why the mother and her two children followed them without worry was not because of Kress's communication or the ten silver coins he gave to the village chief, but because John's wife knew that her drunk husband was not worth ten silver coins to the slave traders. The village chief came forward to stop them because at that time, the villagers were all serfs of the lord, and they were considered semi-free private property and could not migrate privately. He had the right to stop them. Later, he took the money and let them go without worry because he could report that the orphan and the widow's family starved to death due to lack of income, and the lord would not ask too much, and ten silver coins were not enough for him to earn in a year.