I'm not a lord

Chapter 105 October Plan
In July, the old knight Bova of the Shoal Territory was instructed by Flora, the regent of the Shoal Territory, to visit the White Bear Territory in the name of an envoy.

He rode his horse and hummed a little tune as he led the white bear, but he didn't expect that he would be robbed by the second brother halfway.

Two of his companions were buried, and he himself was captured.

This man was timid and cowardly, and was eager to survive. He exchanged his life for another by swearing allegiance to Lynn, and his loyalty was also tested.

Then Lynn released him back to the Shoal Territory, ordering him to act according to circumstances and move around more within the territory.

After all, Bova was a legitimate landed knight. Even if the regent Flora suspected him, she did not dare to restrict his personal freedom without evidence. She could only order her lover Henrik to keep a close eye on him.

Henrik was too rough in his work, and as time went on, he gradually relaxed his surveillance of Bova.

With Bova's constant movement, Lynn has opened the entire map of the Shoal Territory and learned the specific locations of the main buildings and fortifications in the Shoal Territory.

From the map, he could also see that two new watchtowers had been built to the north of the Shoal Territory, which were obviously built to target the White Bear Territory.

Now that Bova has risked being exposed by sending his son to White Bear Territory, there is a high probability that he has important intelligence.

Lin En first glanced at the panel and found that Bova's loyalty had quietly risen to 90 points, which was higher than when he just swore allegiance.

After confirming their loyalty, he signaled the second son to bring Bova's son into the cabin.

He was a sturdy young man from the North, about fifteen or sixteen years old. He wore a brown linen shirt and looked about the same as Bova, even the fear on his face was exactly the same.

Walking into the room, the young man saw Lin En sitting on the chair, looking dignified without any anger. His throat suddenly tightened, and he stammered hoarsely, "Excuse me, are you the Baron of White Bear Territory?"

"I am the White Bear Lord Baron. Don't panic. Sit down and talk slowly."

Lin En smiled and tried to comfort him. He asked Lao Liu to bring a wooden stool to the boy and handed him a cowhide water bag.

The young man had been hiking in the forest for nearly three days, covering more than 60 kilometers. He was really exhausted and his throat was so dry that it looked like it was smoking.

He took the water bag and gulped down half of it before he could barely catch his breath.

Then, speaking with a still somewhat stuttering accent, he relayed the information provided by Bova to Lynn.

Bova originally wanted to write a secret letter and have his son deliver it on his behalf, which would be more solemn.

But since he could not read well, he could only ask his son to tell him the story orally.

Fortunately, the young man's logic was still clear, and he completed the information transmission intermittently.

The information that Bova passed on to Lynn this time mainly included three aspects.

The first is the specific deployment of troops in the Shoal Territory, including the stationing of eight feudal knights and the specific locations of the watchtowers within the territory.

In order to make the intelligence more accurate, Bova also asked his son to bring a simple sheepskin map.

However, the map was poorly drawn, far worse than when Lin En first picked up the pen to draw it, and only the outline could be barely seen.

Secondly, the female regent Flora plans to form an alliance with the Green Lake Ties to jointly resist possible invasions.

Bowa hopes Lynn can launch an attack soon.

Time waits for no one. If we sit idly by, the Shoal Territory and the Green Lake Territory may form an alliance, making the attack much more difficult.

Thirdly, all the knights of the Shallows Territory were clamoring to attack the White Bear Territory. They were indignant about what happened to Bova, and they also coveted the sky-high ransom that could be obtained in exchange for the second son of Earl Cold Wind.

However, the female regent Flora strictly forbade the knights to take the initiative to attack, and the two sides had differences of opinion.

Lynn arranged a military camp for Bova's son to rest for a while and asked him to bring a message to Bova.

He then returned to the castle and summoned his brothers to hold a military meeting in the study.

Lin En combined the panel map and the intelligence provided by Bova to draw a complete and clear map of the troop deployment of the Shoal Leader.

After understanding the current situation and carefully looking at the map, the third brother said with a hint of worry:
"Brother, Green Lake Territory has a larger population than Shallow Bank Territory. The two baronies combined can send at least fifteen regular knights and nearly eighty knight squires. If they form an alliance, it will be extremely difficult for us to defeat them with our current strength."

Green Lake Territory is located on the south side of Shoal Territory. It is named after a small green lake within its territory. It is adjacent to the White River and is a medium-sized barony.

Green Lake Territory and Shallow Beach Territory are separated by seventy or eighty kilometers. They also have no special industries and are mainly based on agricultural planting. The population is slightly larger than that of Shallow Beach Territory, and there are no less than eight knights.

Although the number of soldiers in White Bear Territory seems to be large, the quality of the soldiers is not satisfactory.

A group of new recruits who have never been baptized by the baptism of battle, although they can form a fairly neat military formation, how much strength can they display in a real bloody battlefield?

Especially those one hundred refugees, newly conscripted and with only a few days of training, would scatter in an instant if dragged onto the battlefield. The second brother carefully examined the map and retorted, "Yang, your concerns are unnecessary. These lords are selfish and only care about their own interests. Even if they form an alliance, they will never allow other people's knights to be stationed on their territory."

At most, Shallow Beach Territory and Green Lake Territory have reached a defensive alliance. If one side is invaded, the other side is obligated to send troops to support it. As for whether they will fulfill this obligation, it is still hard to say.

The second brother has followed Lin En the longest. He worked as a mercenary for several years before joining the gang. He knows the nature of the lords nowadays very well.

The vast majority of small and medium-sized lords are like guard dogs who only care about their own little piece of land.

Anyway, there are strong castles built in the territory. If foreign enemies attack, we can just retreat into the castle and wait for rescue.

The fourth, fifth and sixth brothers did not speak, but all looked at the eldest brother.

Lin En glanced at his brothers and said slowly, "What the second and third brothers said makes sense. Therefore, I plan to send troops next month to completely annex the Shoal Territory."

After saying that, he raised his right hand and pointed to the castle icon on the right side of the map:
"We don't need to be too distracted by Green Lake Territory. Even if they truly form a defensive alliance, it's not a big deal. From the beginning to the end, this war has only two difficulties: the first is how to prevent the knights of Shoal Territory from supporting the castle, and the second is how to capture this riverside castle as soon as possible."

Territory and castle are always inseparable.

The castle is the core of the feudal knight system and the foundation of the lord's rule over the territory.

Taking down a castle is basically equivalent to controlling the entire territory.

According to the information provided by Bova, there are always two knights stationed in the Shoal Territory Castle, including attendants, guards, stewards, male servants, etc. The total defensive force is maintained at around 20 people for a long time.

Don’t be fooled by the small number of people. This castle only has one narrow gate, and it is impregnable when the gate is closed.

If they wanted to attack head-on, they would have to face a brick and stone wall nearly six meters high, which would be difficult to break through even with ten times the number of troops in a short period of time.

Moreover, the knights in the territory are equipped with excellent war horses, and can quickly rush to the castle to support it when encountering enemies.

In addition to the castle, the feudal knights of the Shoal Territory all have their own small-scale manors.

These manors all have wooden fences two or three meters high, and are equipped with watchtowers for observation and early warning.

Once a war breaks out, the stewards and village heads living near the manor will retreat into the manor and, together with the knights and their servants, they can put together a defense force of more than ten or twenty people.

Overall, when the Shoal Territory is fully defending, it can mobilize a total of nearly two hundred professional or semi-professional troops.

If the old peasant conscripts, armed with pitchforks and flails, were included, the number might exceed a thousand.

Under the feudal system, the small nobles' external offensive capabilities may be mediocre, but their forte is to retreat and fight defensive battles.

The reason why Lin En continued to expand the number of troops in the White Bear Territory was to create a military advantage so that he could flatten the Shallow Beach Territory in one wave.

However, he did not plan to storm the castle.

As the saying goes, attacking the heart is better than attacking the city.

He still has several cards to play, and it would be stupid to bite the bricks.

Even though the Duke of Swamp has the most powerful army in the North, he still chooses assassination and other conspiracies to seize the castle.

When faced with a strong fortress, it is human nature to resort to some tricks, and there is nothing shameful about it.

As for setting the time for sending troops next month, Lin En naturally has his considerations.

Currently, the White Bear Territory has a total of 350 soldiers, including 200 serfs, 100 migrants, and 50 barbarian archers.

Among them, the last 150 men received too little training and could not go to the battlefield without more practice.

Moreover, Lin En has prepared some special measures specifically for the Shoal Territory, which will take some time to be in place.

Finally, he picked up his quill and outlined two clear marching routes on the map.

These two routes are straight and sharp, piercing into every vital point of the Shoal Territory with the precision of a scalpel.

Lin En picked up his pen and looked around at his subordinates: "In a month, we will attack the Shoal Territory from two directions. Do you have the confidence to take this territory within a week?"

All the younger brothers looked up in unison: "Yes!"

"Alright, now everyone return to your posts. Those who need to train should train, those who need to teach should teach. The meeting is adjourned!"

(End of this chapter)