Unknown Knight

Watching Nia walk away, Aix breathed a sigh of relief, then hurriedly rode back to the territory.

As soon as he got home, he called Manid and asked him to notify all the core members to come for a meeting. After everyone arrived, Axe circulated Rodlaboye's letter to everyone. After reading it, everyone had different opinions. Some said that this guy wanted to rob us last time, so why should we help them? Some said it might be a trap; some said it was a good opportunity to make money, and so on. In the end, Axe felt that only Old John and Amanti's opinions were pertinent.

When everyone had almost finished speaking, Old John said to Aix:

"The nobles are a class that values ​​communication. My Lord, you have just been granted a title locally. You should get in touch with the nobles around you and gain their friendship and recognition. Only when your reputation among them is high can you consolidate your position and obtain external assistance when necessary."

"Brother John is right. Communication between nobles is very necessary. If we can gain the friendship of more nobles, it will also be beneficial to consolidate the territory. I call this ruling power, which is almost the same as reputation. Nobles can gain ruling power by hosting banquets for other nobles, forming marriages, diplomacy, providing help on the battlefield, and providing help when other nobles need it.

My Lord, do not underestimate the power of rule. If the power of rule is too low, other nobles will question it, or even exclude it. If you make a mistake, you may lose your territory. If the power of rule is high, it will be very helpful to the nobles. It is easy to obtain new territory when the territory is redistributed. If the power of rule is high, it is even possible to become a king. For example, King Gryphus of the Rhodok Kingdom was elected as the king because of his high power of rule. "

Amanti continued what Old John said to Aix. He was a man with a strong academic atmosphere and liked to create new words in an academic way. This sovereignty was his masterpiece. Aix carefully thought about what he said, nodded in affirmation, and then said:

"Although Rodelaboye wanted to rob us some time ago, there is no conflict of interest between us. After all, he is the lord of Kulau City. Kulau City is in an important location and has developed commerce. It is an important node for our caravans to travel. I think we should give him support this time, which will also make it easier for us to make money in the future. As for traps, Fatis, Desevi, how is the training of your new recruits going?"

"The 30 new infantrymen have reached the required level of proficiency in the use of spears and crossbows and can take on the responsibility of defending the territory," said Fatis.

"The training of 50 archers converted from bandits has also been completed. They were all selected elite shooters and are capable of performing hunting tasks. Among them, 20 have extraordinary archery skills and can be called sharpshooters." Desevi continued.

Aix nodded and said:

"Pick 10 new infantrymen and 10 archers. Together with the existing ones, we will send 56 people to trade this time. I believe that with so many of us cooperating with the chariot formation, we will not be afraid of enemies with double or triple our numbers. Rodelaboya's army? Give him some courage."

After that, everyone burst into laughter, and then Aix arranged various preparations, asking everyone to be ready today and set off on time tomorrow.

The next day, the 56-member caravan gathered outside the village. After shouting slogans three times, Aix waved his hand and everyone set off.

This time, the trade was different from the previous ones. The main point was uniformity. First, the weapons and equipment were uniform. After a period of preparation, the craftsmen in the leather workshop worked overtime to cover all the chain mail with leather that was both defensive and heat-insulating. The coat was also hot-stamped with a dragon pattern. The archers also wore standard leather armor, leather hats, and leather boots. Second, the trucks were uniform. There were 16 new trucks. Amanti used the uniform specifications required by Aix to supervise the production. All the vehicles were almost identical, which was unimaginable in this era.

Thanks to the use of new trucks, the caravan reached the city of Tiha in just two days. As expected, the price of coarse salt here dropped sharply, selling for only 80 copper coins a bag. The caravan bought up all the coarse salt that was less than 100 copper coins, which directly raised the price of salt here again.

After explaining the delivery of goods, Axe went to the big slave trader Ramon to see if he could buy a craftsman who could make wine from him. However, he was turned down. Ramon no longer had the enthusiasm he had before and was lukewarm. There was something wrong with the way he looked at him. Axe suspected that he knew about Cress, but he didn't think so.

The caravan did not stop in Tiha City and left early the next morning. Originally, Aix wanted to meet the city lord, Idenyar, to get close to him, but he was rejected. The guards said that the city lord was sick and not suitable to meet guests.

After leaving the city, Aix looked back at Tiha City and felt that something was wrong this time. It seemed that the whole city was unfriendly to him.

The caravan arrived at Sagos after only a day and a half of travel from Tiha. King Ragnar was as enthusiastic as ever and personally greeted them at the gate of the palace. The two of them held hands and chatted for a while. Aix turned the topic to the Lord of Iden, but saw that King Ragnar immediately looked displeased. Seeing the situation, Aix did not continue the topic, wondering if the two of them had a conflict?

That night, Aix had to cook a meal for King Ragnar himself. There were only a few people invited to the dinner from the Kingdom of Ragnar, only a few trusted nobles. This time, Aix did not sit at the last seat, but was invited by King Ragnar to the first VIP seat on his left.

I don't know if he was happy to see X, but King Ragnar was particularly relaxed today and drank a lot of wine. It was no use even though his confidants advised him to drink less. Gradually, he drank more and more, and his mouth started to leak. He cursed from time to time, alternating between comprehensible Swadian and incomprehensible Nordic. X didn't understand the general meaning of the words, but he could tell that they all revolved around one person, Edenjar, the lord of Tihar.

Sometimes he would pat Aix's shoulder with regret, saying that he regretted not taking Aix away earlier and making him his subordinate, and that old man Harlaus got such a good deal. Although he was drunk, Aix knew that he was telling the truth, because he patted him so hard that even Aix, who was already very big, felt pain.

Aix was also a down-to-earth man. Seeing King Ragnar's true feelings, he treated him as his own. He could not bear to see him lose the dignity of a monarch, so he kept toasting him. His toasts were full of admiration and respect, which made the old man Ragnar so happy that he couldn't stop smiling. Naturally, he drank more and soon fell drunk. Everyone carried him to the bedroom to rest.

After returning to the hall, Aix accompanied a few nobles for a few drinks, then found that no one was in a very good mood, so they said goodbye to each other and left.

In the end, Aix couldn't bear the doubts in his heart anymore, so he stopped Reyekjaar, who was more talkative, and asked him why Ragnar was acting abnormally tonight.

The Lord of Kulinburg was also a close confidant of King Ragnar, and he did not regard Aix as an outsider, so he told him the whole story.

It turns out that all the causes and effects come from this Idenjar, who was the adopted son of Ragnar's father, King Harkrim. King Harkrim liked Idenjar very much because he was a chubby boy since he was a child, so he let Idenjar grow up with Ragnar, and the two of them have been brothers since childhood.

This guy is also very capable. Not only is he smart, but he also has strong martial arts and military capabilities. He worked his way up from an ordinary guard to the position of Lord of Tiha. It was fine before, and Ragnar relied on him a lot. But for some reason, he began to disobey King Ragnar in recent years.

Take the last battle of Ismorola Castle for example. King Ragnar originally wanted him to lead the attack, but he said that his soldiers had just arrived and had not recovered their strength yet, so he took the lead in disobeying orders. As a result, everyone's enthusiasm was not high from the beginning, and the siege was delayed for so long.

The same happened during the siege of Fort Djerbo. King Ragnar asked him to send some soldiers to participate, but he said that the last attack on Fort Ismorola resulted in heavy losses and the soldiers were unwilling to go to the battle, so he was rejected again. As a result, many nobles also followed suit and refused to send troops, so King Ragnar only recruited more than 300 people. If these people were led by King Ragnar alone, people would laugh their heads off when the news got out. In desperation, King Ragnar had to let his confidant Remardjaer lead the troops to attack.

King Ragnar was very upset with him for disobeying orders twice in a row, but he could not do anything to him. He was now supported by the nobles in the country. Excluding the neutral nobles, there were more nobles supporting him than King Ragnar. So King Ragnar's mood was imaginable. He might not even understand why the people he regarded as brothers were now taking the lead in opposing him.

Having read some history books and watched some palace fighting dramas, Aix knew what was going on. It was because he had accompanied the dragon for so many years that he thought he was imbued with the dragon's aura and began to look down on dragons.

Also, although King Ragnar seems violent and fierce, he is actually kind-hearted and generous. He gives people the impression of being carefree and open-minded, which naturally makes the scheming and resourceful Edenjar look down on him. In fact, King Ragnar is very good to his own people, just look at how he treats Aix.

After figuring out what was going on, Aix resigned from Reyekjar and returned to the warehouse to rest. Before going to bed, he thought about it and realized that the reason why Idenjar had treated him like that before was because he regarded him as a member of King Ragnar's faction. It seemed that he had no choice but to stand on King Ragnar's side and find a way to help him consolidate his rule again. After all, Aix felt that this king was not bad and was a suitable partner.

The next morning, Aix met with the two guys who stayed in Sagos and listened to their reports on the intelligence they had collected during this period. Most of the intelligence was commercial, and Aix asked Manide to record the useful information.

One piece of information caught Aix's interest. It said that Sera Khan of the Khergit Khanate vowed to capture the city of Kudan. It was said that this was because a Vigia sharpshooter in the city of Kudan shot and killed a Khergit namen with one arrow. The key point was that this namen was Sera Khan's good ally. The two grew up together and were as close as brothers. No wonder Sera Khan was so angry.

Just as he was thinking about how to turn this information into something valuable, King Ragnar's secretary suddenly came to him and King Ragnar summoned him.

Seeing that he drank so much last night, Aix thought of going to the palace to find him in the afternoon. It seemed that His Majesty the King was very anxious.

After entering the palace, the two of them went to Ragnar's study together. Aix did not beat around the bush and asked King Ragnar directly if there was anything he could do for him. He would never refuse anything he could do.

Originally, Ragnar wanted to be more oblique and vague, after all, as a king, he still had to save face, but seeing how sincere Aix was, he had no choice but to speak out what he was thinking:

"Sir, I'm sure you know that I don't want to fight anymore. But if I return the Ismorola Castle to the Kingdom of Vigia, the nobles in my country will definitely not agree. But if I don't return it, the Kingdom of Vigia will not agree either. I'm in a dilemma now. Can you think of a solution, sir?"

"Your Highness, don't worry about this. In fact, I came to see Your Highness this time to help Your Highness solve the current dilemma."

Seeing King Ragnar being so frank, Aix said with a smile, then took out the letter from Rodlaboye from his arms and handed it to King Ragnar with both hands.

After reading the letter, King Ragnar's hands were shaking with excitement, and he said to Aix with shining eyes:

"Sir, do you mean that the Kingdom of Vigia has run out of ammunition and food? Can we attack with all our strength to seize more territory?"

"No, Your Highness is wrong, quite the opposite." Aix said firmly.

"Desire is really a blinding force. I shouldn't have shown him this letter!" Axe thought.

"Why?" Ragnar was puzzled.

"Not long ago, I went to Kulau and Rivadin. King Yarogerk has already risked his life for a war. Under internal and external pressure, the nobles in his country have a relatively unified will and are very united. They are like a hungry brown bear. They will risk everything to fight anyone who provokes them. Your Highness, are you willing to be an enemy of the Kingdom of Vijia?"

What Aix actually wanted to say was, with your status in the country, can you be an enemy to others? Seeing that King Ragnar didn't say anything, Aix continued:

"The Khergit Khanate's army has been besieging Kudan for half a year since last year, but has not been able to capture the city. This is enough to show the determination of the Vaegir army led by King Yarogelk to resist. The Vaegir army is now concentrated in Fort Loma and has not engaged the main force of the Khergits. With one side gaining strength while the other losing, do you think the Khergit Khanate's army can win if they fight?"

“This…, this…” King Ragnar was speechless.

"Now is the best opportunity for peace talks. The reason why King Yarogelk did not launch a decisive battle is that he was afraid that we would attack from behind, so he stationed his army in Roma Castle. The location of Kudan City is very important to the Kingdom of Vigia. Once it is lost, the entire Kingdom of Vigia will be exposed to the iron hoof of the Khergit Army. Therefore, even if it means losing places like Djerb Castle, King Yarogelk will launch a decisive battle with the Khergit Khanate.

It would be bad if the Vigians, with their victory, came back to Your Highness to recover the lost territory. If Your Highness lost the war, it would shake the foundation of the country! Why not make peace with the Vigians while the Kugit army still has the strength to fight, so that they can go and fight the Kugits without worry, and we can keep the current results. Your Highness can also appease the people of the peace talks faction. Isn't that the most beneficial?"

After thinking for a while, King Ragnar said uncertainly:

"What if King Yarogerk disagrees?"

"Nothing can have an absolute result until it is accomplished, but we have to do it under the current circumstances. Since Your Highness trusts me, I will definitely do my best to make it happen. We just need to do this, this, and that..."

Aix had to say some more words to reassure King Ragnar. Idenjar's opposition had completely made him lose his confidence as a king. Aix used to be a manager in a company and understood King Ragnar's current dilemma. He was in a dilemma where he was asked to take responsibility but not given the power.