Unknown Knight

Outside the palace of Sagos City, the captain of the guard took the five silver coins handed over by Aix and said with a flattering smile:

"You are so polite, sir, and always think of our brothers." Now he didn't dare to act superior to Aix as he did before. Now Aix was a count who was higher than him, and the tips he gave him every time exceeded his monthly salary. He had to not agree politely.

Aix waved his hand and said:

"It's nothing. You brothers have worked hard on guard duty. Use this money to buy some drinks."

"Thank you, sir. Please wait a moment. The messenger will be here soon. His Majesty the King has been thinking about you these days."

'Maybe he's thinking about the food I cooked,' Axe thought.

At this moment, the guard who had been delivering the message came out and said:

"My Lord Earl, His Majesty the King invites you!"

Aix nodded to the captain of the guards and the gatekeepers around him, and walked in. The captain of the guards paused and shouted loudly:

"The good man of Suno City, the noble of the Kingdom of Swadia, the Count of Talboria, Lord Aix is ​​here to see you——!"

Aix couldn't help but smile after hearing this, thinking that these Nords, whose ancestors were pirates, had just established their country a few decades ago, and now, only in the second generation, they had begun to learn the etiquette of the old kingdom in a serious manner, becoming more and more like the local feudal aristocrats. No wonder the country had not made any progress over the years.

As soon as he entered the hall, before he got used to the dim light, Aix heard a hearty laugh. Ragnar stood up and walked towards him quickly and said:

"Hahahaha, you miss me so much. If you don't come to Sagos, I will send troops to the Kingdom of Swadia to kidnap you. Oh, what a pity! Oh, how come you have become a vassal of that guy Harlaus? I was planning to give you a piece of the newly conquered territory." As he spoke, he patted Aix's shoulder, his tone full of regret.

After experiencing the trap of King Harlaus's reward, Aix couldn't take it seriously and just followed his words:

"How can that be possible? Your Highness led all the ministers to fight hard to gain this territory. I have made no contribution to the kingdom. How can I be worthy of this honor? I dare not, I dare not."

"Oh, sir, you are too polite. If it weren't for your strategy, we wouldn't have been able to capture Fort Ismorola so easily. I didn't expect that attacking the city would be so difficult, and we didn't continue to expand our victory. Come on, sir, sit down and talk..."

After King Ragnar's boasting, Axe roughly guessed the situation of the entire battle. Although King Ragnar concealed some mistakes in command and the decline in the combat effectiveness of his soldiers for the sake of face, Axe still saw the fact that King Ragnar was no longer able to fight.

In general, King Ragnar was well prepared for this war. Not to mention the feint against the Kingdom of Swadia beforehand, he had assembled an army of nearly 2000 people. It should have been possible to capture the Kingdom of Vigia, which was fighting on two fronts, at least the city of Kudan. However, he did not expect that his advance would be stopped by the Fort of Ismorola, which had only more than 100 defenders. Its defender, Javier Boye, was well prepared and defended the city desperately. He actually held out for two months before the castle was breached when his soldiers were exhausted and food and grass were depleted.

King Ragnar said that he suffered heavy losses, with more than 100 casualties, and that the nobles did not continue the attack because the weather was cold and they did not want to fight anymore. However, Aix thought that King Ragnar was talking nonsense, because a people from further north would be more afraid of the cold than the Vaegirs. Nord means northerners in Swadian. He estimated that the Nord Kingdom had at least 300 casualties, and it might be more than that. This should be the reason why the nobles did not want to continue the attack.

In an era dominated by the feudal system of nobles, many nobles could even refuse the king's call if there was no interest, no friendship, and no direct benefit. As long as it was not excessive, the king could do nothing about such nobles. Therefore, in order to win over the nobles below, the nobles often held banquets to invite them to eat and drink to build friendships, and also married their daughters to each other, calling it political marriage, all to strengthen the ruling power. The whole country was like a large tribal alliance, and each noble had his own affairs and interests, and was relatively independent. Once their interests were seriously damaged, they would definitely not do it, especially the Kingdom of Nord, which was originally an alliance country established by the original pirate tribe.

Therefore, the judgment that Aix made after combining all the information obtained was: the Nord Kingdom gathered its army and fought a bloody battle at Ismorola Castle. Although it captured the castle at a heavy cost, the Ragnar Kingdom had to choose to withdraw due to strong opposition from its subordinates.

Logically speaking, the troops should have been withdrawn and everything should be over. Why was this Ragnar still talking to me about this war so much? Was he afraid that I didn't know that he had suffered a setback in the Ismorola Castle? I'm afraid it's not that simple, so I asked tentatively:

"Your Highness, there is no need to be modest. The kingdom has not expanded its territory for more than a decade, but you have captured a castle this time, and it is a very important strategic location. This is a great victory."

After hearing Aix's boasting against his will, King Ragnar's eyes lit up at first, then dimmed and said:

"That being said, you also know that the Viegirs are very vengeful. Their King Yarogerk once wrote to me, asking me to withdraw from the Ismorola Castle and compensate them for their losses. Haha, it's really ridiculous. I'm not afraid of them, but you also know that the lords are busy with spring plowing right now. If they attack us, I'm afraid we will be a little hasty."

"Oh, I see." Axe said. He now understood that the last bloody battle had made King Ragnar cowardly. He was afraid that the Vigians would be free to settle accounts with him. By then, he was afraid that not only would the newly acquired Ismorola Castle be lost, but there would be even greater losses. So he continued:

"How is the war in Kudan City going now?"

"I heard from the caravan that the battle was very fierce. After the failure of the last field battle, King Yarogelk concentrated the troops gathered from all over the country in the nearby Loma Castle and did not dare to go to support. However, the Khergit Khanate is not good at attacking cities and will not be able to capture Kudan City in a short time. I estimate that they may withdraw their troops soon."

"I'm afraid you will have to face the army assembled by King Yarogerk by then," Aix thought.

"Is it possible to make peace with King Yarogerk?" Aix asked again.

"In fact, I just wanted to seize the Ismorola Castle at the beginning, and I didn't have too many other thoughts."

"Are you kidding me? I'm going to believe what a pirate like you says?" Axe thought to himself.

"After all, this castle is like a sharp knife inserted into our country. I must get it. After I captured the Ismorola Castle, I sent someone to deliver a letter of negotiation, but that coward Yarogelk was still arrogant and refused to agree no matter what."

After hearing this, Aix was speechless. Is this how you ask for peace? You are the real coward. You are so cowardly that you have lost your mind. But he said calmly:

"As long as the Kingdom of Vigia agrees to peace talks, it will be fine? The contract can be torn up."

"No, no. They are suffering heavy losses right now. Once they sign a contract with us, even if King Yarogerk wants to gather his army to attack our country, the nobles in their country will definitely not agree. At least they will not start a war for one or two years."

"This is...?" Seeing how convinced he was, Aix felt that this was not the view that King Ragnar should have, so he asked.

"Oh, this is the judgment of Idenyar, the Lord of Tiha, and the other lords also support his opinion."

'It's this Yidenyar again. It seems that he is not ordinary. The losses were so heavy at that time. It was not wrong to negotiate. But what's the situation of disbanding the troops and then negotiating? Isn't this setting a trap for you? And it seems that the nobles all support his suggestions, which shows that Yidenyar's reputation among the nobles is still very high. I'm afraid he has big plans. I have to pay attention to Yidenyar in the future.' Aix thought to himself, and thought of the prosperous trade in Tiha City and his manipulation of the snow salt business this time, which made Aix feel that this person is not trivial.

"In fact, it's not that difficult to get the Kingdom of Vijia to sit back at the negotiation table." Axe said after a moment of hesitation.

"Oh, sir, what brilliant idea do you have?" Upon hearing what Aix said, King Ragnar immediately became excited, and it seemed that he really wanted to negotiate.

"How many standing troops can Your Highness send out to fight?" asked Aix.

"I have 600 elite soldiers on standby and can be sent out to fight at any time!" King Ragnar said proudly. It felt as if he had not 600 elite troops, but 6 elite troops. Aix almost laughed out loud in his heart.

"This is very important, Your Highness." Aix gave him a way out, not believing that he did not need to leave troops to defend his city of Sagos and the newly occupied Fort Ismorola.

"Well, I can summon 400 elite soldiers, plus my own 200 elite soldiers, 600 elite soldiers should be no problem." For the sake of his dignity as a king, Ragnar tried his best to make up for himself.

"That's enough. In fact, we only need 300 elite soldiers." As he said that, Aix walked straight to the map on the wall of the hall.

"Now that King Yarogerk has withdrawn domestic troops twice, various places must be empty. Your Highness can force the Kingdom of Vigia to negotiate as long as he attacks here." As he spoke, Aix pointed to a castle called Jerbo.

"Is that so? I heard that there aren't many defenders in Kulau City. Why don't we attack Kulau City?" The Kingdom of Ragnar looked at Aix hopefully.

What a loss of mind! Aix was speechless now. It was estimated that taking down Kulau City was the main goal of King Ragnar's war this time. Shaking his head, Aix said:

"Kulao City is not an option. It is very close to Loma Castle, where King Yarogerk's army is stationed. It is also very important. Once Kulauo City is threatened, his army may come to support it at any time. However, Djerb Castle is far away. King Yarogerk's army is gathering for Kudan City and will not come from so far to support it."

"Although Fort Jerbo is now underdefensible, it still has 100 men. I'm afraid 300 men won't be able to take it, sir."

Hearing that King Ragnar was still daydreaming, Aix smiled and said to him in a gentle voice:

"Your Highness, our soldiers are not as good as the Vigers in siege, but we are better than them in field battles, so there is no need to attack Djerper Castle. We just need to besiege the castle. Once the food and grass in the castle are exhausted, King Yarogerk will be afraid that Djerper Castle will be lost again, so he will have to sit down and negotiate with us. Isn't our goal achieved, Your Highness?"

"Hahahaha, well, you are worthy of being called a sir. I must thank you very much!" King Ragnar's worries were eliminated, and he seemed to have regained his confidence. His loud laughter echoed throughout the hall.