Throne of the North.

Chapter 405: A battlefield, a bait

When the werewolves broke through the Fragrant Plains Fortress and entered the North Wind Province, the scene that appeared was more tragic than ever before, because the werewolves would kill the nobles.

Just like when a new wolf king appears, he either drives out the old wolf king or kills him in battle.

That's what werewolves do, they need food, but they don't need human nobility.

Since werewolves don't have much interest in killing ordinary people, why is it even more tragic?
Ryan looked at the news coming from afar and deeply realized the inseparable connection between the nobles and knights and the commoners and slaves.

Under the orders of the nobles, countless civilians and slaves followed the knights to resist the werewolves, but once the war broke out, the werewolves would have no scruples.

The nobles resisted with great determination because of the threat of death, and the werewolves' bloodthirsty desire to attack turned the North Wind Province into a bloody mess.

More and more people fled to Lingdu County, Tieshan County and Yinchuan County, but werewolves soon followed them. The nobles here defended their castles and didn't care whether the werewolves passed through their territories to other places. They even hoped that there would be fewer werewolves and they would stay away from them.

This is why werewolves continue to appear in Lingdu County and bring increasing pressure to the nobles here.

"How can we deal with such a large number of werewolves?"

On Rhino Horn Mountain, Ryan thought about it for two whole days, but still couldn't come up with any good solution.

Either they fight to the death, taking advantage of human's fear of death to start a war with werewolves in every corner, or they use what Rosalind said, using absolutely extraordinary means to burn the werewolves with the flame of life.

Whatever the outcome, the cost is horrific.

Ryan wanted to seek an intermediate result because many people had died in the North Wind Province.

"The army... is difficult to assemble."

"After the Xiangshan Plain Fortress was breached, except for the troops that retreated to Hanshan City and did not leave due to Viscount Landa's pressure, the remaining combat power was tightly held in the hands of the nobles. They were unwilling to give up the troops in their hands to protect their own lives."

The nobles whose lives were threatened by werewolves would never let their troops leave their side for any reason, even if the emperor came.

In this situation, when Ryan gathered his army to attack the werewolves, only one type of people would become his soldiers, and that was slaves.

There are no civilians, because once they leave the territory, especially the lord who needs them to serve as soldiers, they are marked as slaves at that moment.

Plus fleeing, being displaced, and getting sick...

Ryan thought about it for a long time. Apart from Rosalind's method of exchanging her life for his own, there seemed to be no better way.

"One general's success is built on the sacrifice of thousands of men."

Ryan said with emotion that he had seen that once he succeeded, everyone would praise him, but he completely forgot that this fame was built on the skeletons of hundreds of thousands of humans.

After thinking this through, Ryan's eyes became firm. He was not a saint. When there was no other way, he would just do it.

Lingdu City.

Baron Ryan's army once again left the Frozen Territory and appeared outside Lingdu City. An army of 50,000 people had been assembled here. Lingdu County and Tieshan County contributed half of the number, and the remaining half came from refugees from surrounding counties. Just as Ryan thought, those nobles would not let people out and leave their castles empty.

Fifty thousand slaves with pale faces and cracked hands and soles due to freezing were the army assembled by the Marquis of the North Wind. Ryan even suspected that if he sent these fifty thousand people into a forest to chase a wild boar, the wild boar would eventually escape.

It's too fragile. Fifty thousand is not a real number, because when Ryan came here, he saw more than a dozen people died of hunger and cold in the stinking military camp.

In the end, he still got 50,000 people.

I’m afraid even the knights in charge of this matter don’t know exactly how many there are.

"Is this the army that is going to recover the lost land of the North Wind Province?"

Ryan smiled. Beside him, Rosalind suddenly appeared like a ghost. He seemed to have some ability to escape into the shadows.

"They are not yet, but they will be soon."

Rosalind pulled out a crystal with a drop of dark liquid sealed inside.

"what is this?"

"A potion made from the blood of the Demon Lord."

Rosalind's face was a little pale. He took out more crystals. Inside each crystal, there was a drop of black potion.

"I prepared 30,000 copies. You don't know how much it cost me."

Rosalind gritted her teeth. Only she herself understood how much of her savings and resources other than wealth she would spend for these things.

"not enough."

Ryan shook his head and pointed to the chaotic military camp in front of him.

"Thirty thousand copies is not enough."

"I know."

Rosalind did not refute. She knew the power of his things and she had seen the fighting ability of werewolves.

"I will continue to prepare, but it's too late now. The nobles in those counties have gone crazy. If this continues, His Majesty the Emperor will not be able to withstand the pressure brought by the nobles and will declare me an enemy of the empire."

"Can this still happen?"

Ryan was curious and Rosalind was helpless.

"You don't know how many nobles have died in the face of werewolves. If we delay any further, even the Grand Duke won't be able to bear it."

Fame and prestige are the benefits that nobles flock to. However, in the current North Wind Province, if there is a large-scale death of nobles, no one will look into any reasons. The nobles will only look at the results.

What was the result? Under the decision of the Emperor and Grand Duke Meyers, the nobles of the Northern Wind Province suffered heavy casualties.

No matter what, the nobles of the North Wind Province are all nobles of the empire. In terms of status and style, they are the same as all other nobles. They are loyal to the emperor, and loyalty is mutual.

Ryan watched Rosalind make a slave swallow a two-finger-wide crystal, and then watched the slave in front of him turn into a cruel demon follower.

After a long time, as Rosalind killed him, Ryan came back to his senses and asked:
"Do they want to eat?"

Rosalind was a little confused. Eating? Then she shook her head.

"The power of demons is to burn their life force and souls to fight. If they eat, they eat their own souls and lives to sustain."

Ryan disagreed and said:

"With so much change, how can I not eat more?"

After saying that, Ryan turned and left. Not long after, a new order from Marquis Beifeng came from Lingdu City, which required the nobles to use the food stored in the ice warehouse in the frozen soil territory as rations for the army fighting against the werewolves.

This move caused dissatisfaction among many nobles, but it was useless.

It is a consensus that the army needs food. The Marquis of the North Wind, who was still in his infancy, has already become a well-known and long-time marquis who issued many orders as governor.

The nobles were certainly not stupid. They knew that the source of this order was not decided by Marquis Beifeng, but now the nobles still needed Baron Ryan and his army, so they did not think more about it.

A mighty army of 50,000 set out. Actually, there were more than 50,000 troops, because the order of Marquis Beifeng was real. Food was transported to the military camp, and everyone knew that they would be able to eat if they followed the army.

This reason alone makes the army bloated.
"What we need to do is to force the werewolves to fight us in one place."

Rosalind's methods are obviously not so easy to control. If there are too many battlefields, the humans who have become demon followers will not care whether they are orcs or humans. In fact, humans will be more hostile to them.

So at this time, a complete battlefield is needed to fight a decisive battle with the werewolves without any unnecessary means.

Otherwise, once the werewolves react and start fleeing in all directions, there will be no solution if they use cunning means to delay the duration of the demon potion.

With the wisdom of werewolves, Ryan felt that if this was true, most of the werewolves would leave.

"Then... we need a battlefield, a battlefield that can gather all the werewolves and humans." "To gather the werewolves, we need a bait."

As the army moved forward, Ryan continued to use the process of elimination.

Humans only have one chance in this war, so the battlefield cannot be dispersed. If the battlefield cannot be dispersed, either the werewolves will make a desperate attack on a certain place, or they will need a suitable bait. The two can be the same condition, and the choice of bait can be based on counties. The three counties of Lingdu, Tieshan, and Yinchuan that have not yet fought a fierce war with the werewolves can be excluded, because most of the werewolves are not in these places, and it is impossible for all the werewolves to cross the nobles' territories to attack these three border counties.

The remaining Longshan, Leiyun, Beifeng and Hanshan County, and Jinmaisui City are all possible options.

Among them, the last two were excluded by Ryan first, not because they were not close to werewolves, but because of their value.

These two cities are currently in the hands of Viscount Landa. There is no need for the werewolves to take them down, and if they want to occupy them... it is not too difficult for the werewolves.

But just like the fortresses in the Xiangshan Plain, these cities, strictly speaking, are also fortresses of the nobles.

If they just want to plunder, then these places are good choices, just like when the orcs went south before, they would not attack the noble castles which are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and require huge costs to break into, but would choose villages and towns.

However, through the gathering of various information, Ryan just couldn't believe that the werewolves just wanted to plunder and reduce the number of orcs.

After all, if that's the case, why are there only werewolves entering the Borean Province up to now, and no orcs from other tribes?

Wouldn't it be most reasonable to reduce the number of those orcs?

The orcs have great goals. What they want is not only the wealth created by humans, but also humans themselves.

While thinking about the werewolves in the Borean Province, we must also see that the entire north of the empire is facing a full-scale invasion by orcs.

This is not a decision made by the Silvermoon Court itself, but a consensus of the entire orc family. Therefore, looting cannot be an answer.

Therefore, as bait, it must be of sufficient quantity.

Longshan County, Leiyun County, and Beifeng County all have sufficient weight. The territories of a marquis governor and two earls are among them. Even Beifeng City, the most populous city in the province, is also included.

Among these three, Longshan County was the first to be excluded.

Because everything Count Sauron has... Count Winter has, and even more.

Under the same conditions, Earl Winter is better than Earl Sauron, so the value of Longshan County is less than that of Beifeng County.

Now, there are only two counties left.

Between Leiyun County and Beifeng County, where is more suitable to be a battlefield or bait?
Ryan wondered what the royal marquis and provincial governors of the human empire were like to the werewolves.

"Brand, what do you think of the werewolf civilization?"

Beside him, Brand thought for a moment and replied:

"The strong prey on the weak. The law of nature created the werewolf civilization. If you are strong enough, you can become the wolf king. The royal family of the Silver Moon Court can only be because they are strong enough."

Ryan nodded.

"That's right. Being strong is what is valued in werewolf civilization."

He took a deep breath. This answer didn't seem to require much choice.

Among the several counties currently at war with werewolves, Thundercloud County is the worst off, because Marquis Beifeng cannot leave the mountain at all. Thundercloud County is so weak that it can't even mobilize much of an army. The war between the nobles and Earl Weiss consumed all the resources of Thundercloud County.

The Marquis of Beifeng, who came from afar, brought with him extraordinary people. His army was formed temporarily and could not be compared with the local tyrants in Beifeng Province at all.

The only thing that Leiyun County can compete with the nobles for is the great noble title of Marquis of Beifeng, and the identity of the royal governor.

But the Marquis is still a suckling baby.

North Wind County, Ryan has made his choice. North Wind County is the battlefield he needs. It is also a bait to lure all the werewolves there.

Next, the second question is how can a werewolf take the hook and how can this bait be successful?

Lai looked at Rosalind and asked:
"I wonder how the Grand Duke is handling the North Wind City incident?"

The army stopped, and Ryan wanted to wait for the outcome between himself and North Wind City, which made Rosalind angry. They had agreed to give it to North Wind City later, but Baron Ryan went back on his word and demanded it now.

But Ryan would not explain too much. It was better to break his promise to Rosalind and Meyers than to expose the matter behind the scenes and give Meyers a handle.

Ryan wants to use North Wind County as bait, which means that many people will die there, the population, nobles, and land will become barren, and the territory of Earl Winter will suffer heavy losses, and even the Earl Winter family will be destroyed.

If the Meyers family later told the nobles that this happened because Baron Ryan wanted to turn the place into a battlefield...

The nobles will resent him, Ryan, and this matter will determine whether Ryan chooses to tell the Meyers family about his decision and plan at this moment.

If they were not told that Baron Ryan had broken his promise, and if they were told, the Meyers family would have something on Ryan and could easily collude with the nobles of Beifeng County to target him.

If both sides harm each other, then it will be Meyers who will suffer. After all, in the current political circle of the empire, Ryan is born to rely on Earl Clayton and stand on the side of Grand Duke Fleming's family.

The impact will not be too great.

Rosalind left angrily. She needed to contact Shaya and let Shaya contact Grand Duke Meyers, otherwise Ryan would not lead the army to recover the North Wind Province.

But he couldn't control the army beyond Ryan.

Because of food, the army provides food for free every day and they don’t have to do anything. This kind of life is too good. If possible, the soldiers would rather stay here for the rest of their lives.

Under such circumstances, given the orders of Baron Ryan and Rosalind, the soldiers would only choose the former. After all, they came in because Baron Ryan assembled the troops.

Well, whether active or passive has nothing to do with the wishes of these slave soldiers themselves.

But Ryan didn't expect that this matter would be so troublesome.

On the first day, there was no movement, and on the second day, Rosalind still did not return.

The matter of handing North Wind City over to Ryan was more troublesome than imagined, and there was already chaos in the emperor's palace in the imperial capital.

"Your Excellency Grand Duke Meyers, every city in the empire, every human being, even you, Grand Duke Meyers, are my people."

"The honorable Columbus gave you land and made you nobles, but that doesn't mean that nobles can interfere with the power that belongs to the emperor. Moreover, I have not abandoned the Northern Wind Province. Even if it is thirty years later, I will move the people of the Northern Wind Province to live in the land of the south. Their emperor will give them a comfortable living environment!"

Columbus III roared, but the elderly Archduke Meyers remained indifferent, and even had a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.

But he lowered his head and said respectfully:
"As you said, every noble and commoner in the empire is your subject, but Beifeng City needs a manager now. There are hundreds of thousands of subjects there, but now, Marquis Beifeng cannot manage that city."

The emperor looked indifferent and said mockingly:
"You chose it, my Lord."

"I didn't think it through."

The emperor was greatly pleased with what Grand Duke Meyers said. This was the first time he heard the Grand Duke of the empire say that he was wrong. The emperor's majesty seemed to blossom at this moment.

"But why that Baron Ryan? The child of the Clayton family."

The emperor is naturally familiar with all the nobles within his empire, including their bloodline, heritage, history and present.

The five ranks of nobility had already been compiled into a list in the emperor's mind.

"Beifeng City was previously controlled by Marquis Beifeng, so he should be the one who is most familiar with it."

"Because Baron Ryan has excellent military talent, he needs population to form an army to clean up the orcs."

"Four fortresses in the north have been breached. Your Majesty, you also need nobles who are truly good at war to drive out the orcs for you."

Archduke Meyers' words made the emperor's eyes darken.

(End of this chapter)