I'm not a lord

Chapter 149 The Duke of the Swamp Opens Champagne Early

News will gradually become distorted or even twisted during transmission.

In fact, the total number of troops under Lin En's command was about 900, but only more than 600 of them appeared on the front battlefield of Green Lake Territory, including 200 longbowmen.

But in the mouth of Baron Heron, he could mobilize an army of nearly a thousand people and shoot out a rain of arrows that covered the sky.

By the time the news spread in the taverns of Sanhe City, it had become an army of over 2,000 and thousands of longbow mercenaries.

There was an uproar in the city, and all the taverns were talking about this newly emerged powerful nobleman.

"Do you think it's possible for this White Bear Baron to attack Sanhe City?"

This concern is completely normal, as the wealth of the Baihe River Basin is concentrated in Sanhe City.

If we could capture the city and grab some money, we would never be able to spend it all in our lifetime.

Besides, the military is extremely expensive these days.

From a normal person's perspective, the army of Baron White Bear must include a large number of mercenaries. Just robbing a few baronial territories would probably not be enough to cover the mercenaries' wages.

It is perfectly normal to plunder the areas around Sanhe City.

A disheveled insider said mysteriously, "That's impossible. He's the son of Earl Coldwind. Do you know who Earl Coldwind is?"

Immediately, a kind person offered him a beer and said, "Tell me in detail."

"Let me tell you, this Earl of Cold Wind is the Duke's most trusted favorite!"

"So you mean it was the Duke who instigated Roman to start the war?"

"I didn't say that, but I can be sure that he will never attack Sanhe City."

After the rumor spread out of Sanhe City, the number of troops under Baron White Bear did not continue to expand.

After all, he is just a baron. He can't possibly raise an army of several thousand or even tens of thousands, right?

However, the personal image of the White Bear Baron began to rapidly expand.

At first, they were just despicable and shameless noble robbers.

Then he became an unspeakable man-eating devil.

In the end, it evolved into a terrifying demon bear from the White Bear Territory. A drunkard even swore that he saw with his own eyes the Baron of the White Bear Territory transform into a giant bear and tear the knight to pieces.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Lynn.

You are scolding Baron Roman of White Bear Territory. What does that have to do with me, the Lord of White River and the future Earl of White River?
Because the terrain of the Baihe River Basin is relatively closed and the temperature has not yet fully warmed up, Lin En can't even hear the wind and rain outside.

He had just arrived at Cang Lu Territory with his army.

Although he had completely defeated the White River Alliance, the four barons were either killed in battle, surrendered, or fled.

But taking over territory is also a troublesome matter.

Whenever he arrived at a new territory, he would cordially meet with the local general manager, all managers and some village representatives, publicize his policies to them and win the support of these middle and low-level managers.

At the same time, Lin En also had to check the account books, make a rough population count, arrest the original ruling class, and arrange troops to control local security.

Each territory would take him one or two days, and it would take another two or three days to reach the next territory.

Moreover, for the time being, he could only take a cursory look and it was difficult for him to gain an in-depth understanding of the specific conditions of each territory.

Fortunately, it is only early March now, and Lin En still has enough time to arrange for this year's spring plowing.

Old Albert has arrived in Green Lake Territory and left behind several experts to guide the local spring plowing operations.

As the rivers and streams thawed, the water power workshops in White Bear Territory and Shoal Territory finally recovered.

At present, blacksmiths are working hard to make a variety of iron farm tools such as hoes and plowshares, which will be promoted throughout Baihe in a while.

In the past year, Lynn not only improved the productivity of White Bear Territory, but also cultivated a group of reliable and advanced talents.

These talents cover many fields including agriculture, carpentry, forging, and territory management.

As the territory and the number of people expand, these talents will also have a broader stage.

To ensure that they could successfully promote advanced technology, Lynn left a squadron of soldiers in each territory.

If soft tactics don't work, try hard tactics.

When Lynn took over the Heron Territory and just arrived at the southernmost River Swamp Territory, the Duke of Swamp, who was far away in the Crown Territory, had already received an urgent message from a fast horse.

In fact, the Duke of Swamp is holding a large-scale celebration banquet at this time.

Just yesterday, he won an epic victory.

Compared to the bitterly cold White River region, the climate of the Crown Territory is warmer and more humid.

Therefore, the Duke of Swamp had already concentrated his forces in mid-February and attacked the city of Cologne on the east side of River Bay Castle.

The city of Coron is located on the lower plains of the Quiet River. It is the second largest autonomous city in the Crown Territory and its economic status is second only to Amber Harbor.

'Kelun' is the transliteration of this city.

In the common language of the continent, its original meaning is 'colony' or 'settlement'.

When the Northern Kingdom was first established, this place was the main stronghold for southerners advancing inland along the Jing River. Later, it gradually evolved into a large autonomous city with a permanent population of over 10,000.

After obtaining royal permission to become a municipality, Cologne has remained loyal to the royal family, paying a considerable amount of taxes to the royal family every year and providing military support to the royal family in wartime.

Not only that, the city of Coron is also the western gateway of Amber Port, firmly blocking the main waterway leading to Amber Port.

The Duke of the Swamp chose the city of Cologne as the target of his attack. His main purpose was not to remove the nail, but to attract all the royal forces.

His thoughts were surprisingly consistent with Lynn's.

The area of ​​the crown territory is really large and the population is dense. Although it would be great to continue to capture cities and territories, it would also cause the army under the Duke of Swamp to continue to disperse.

And every day the war lasted, a huge amount of Northern Gold Shield would be burned.

In order to achieve his goal in one go, the Duke of Swamp decided to attack the enemy where they must rescue.

If the illegitimate king had not been fooled, he could have captured the city of Cologne, used the city's wealth to feed the army, occupied this autonomous city loyal to the royal family, and opened up a road to Amber Harbor. In any case, he would not have lost anything.

The Duke mobilized a total of 4,000 soldiers, including 500 court knights and their attendants, plus some local noble knights, and several large mercenary groups.

Among them was the Power Mercenary Group where Lin En once served.

The army set out in mid-February and arrived at the gates of Cologne four days later. They began building engineering equipment such as catapults, pretending to storm the city.

King Maurice received the military intelligence and was indeed fooled. He quickly recruited nobles from all over the country and put together an army of 5,000 people to personally support the city of Cologne.

Although Morris was just an illegitimate child, he was neither legitimate nor justified.

But he was the banner chosen by the royal faction, and now he has been officially promoted. With the title of "King in the North" and the strong foundation of the Urenis family behind him, he can mobilize most of the vassals loyal to the royal family.

If we look at the number of people alone, the Duke of the Marsh is slightly at a disadvantage.

But war is never just about numbers.

Upon hearing that King Maurice was personally leading his army to support, the Duke of the Swamp immediately gave up the siege of Cologne.

He led his troops northward, setting up camp at the edge of the forest north of Cologne, quietly awaiting the arrival of the king's army. Through intelligence work, the Duke already understood the composition and overall combat capabilities of this army.

The king's army mostly came from nobles from all over the country, plus a small number of city militia and royal guards.

Due to the complex composition and the king's low voice, the command of the army was divided among four powerful earls.

At the same time, the Crown Territory had not experienced a large-scale war for over a hundred years. Although the local noble knights were well-trained and well-equipped, most of them only had experience in small-scale combat.

On the other hand, the main force of the Duke of Swamp is the court knights he has trained for many years. They have been fighting with the other two dukes for many years and have rich combat experience.

Although the mercenaries came from scattered backgrounds, they were all veterans of many battles, forming a sharp contrast with the king's army.

The Duke also got to know the King's character.

This king, who was promoted from an illegitimate child, is over 40 years old this year. Despite his age, he does not have much prestige.

In order to establish his personal prestige, he was very eager to win the war.

Therefore, the Duke of Swamp focused on defense when forming the battle array. He ordered the most elite court knights to dismount and form a dense square formation, holding spears to resist the cavalry charge.

The mercenaries hid behind these dismounted cavalry and were responsible for suppressing the enemy with crossbows.

In addition to arranging the battle array, he also dug trenches in front of the battlefield and buried a large number of chevaux de frise stakes.

During the long-term friction with the other two dukes, the Duke of Swamp had already developed a plan to deal with the armored cavalry.

That is to let the knights dismount and form a battle line, and fight the enemy with spears, crossbows and various fortifications.

He had never used this plan against his two old rivals and had kept it hidden until today.

That’s right, the tactics used by the Duke of Swamp were exactly the replica of the tactics used by Lynn in Green Lake Territory.

The principles of war are similar. After playing cavalry duels many times, smart commanders will always be enlightened.

Of course, this tactic certainly involves certain risks.

If the cavalry dismounts and lines up, they will lose mobility and are very afraid of being attacked from the rear. They need the enemy cavalry to take the initiative to attack, and they must also limit the direction of the enemy's attack.

That is why the Duke of the Swamp had his back to the forest and set up multiple trenches in order to lure the royal army to the predetermined battlefield.

The course of the war was exactly as the Duke expected.

After the royal army arrived at the battlefield, they first sent out the city militia to shoot at the Duke's army.

The two sides used crossbows to fight each other, and finally the mercenary crossbowmen won by attacking from above. The city militia could not bear the losses and retreated.

As the militia retreated, it was unknown which earl gave the order, but the noble knights launched a charge without waiting for the militia to leave the battlefield.

The knights thought the militia was a nuisance and even used their lances to assassinate these friendly soldiers.

According to post-war statistics, less than 20% of the militiamen died from crossbows.

Most of the militiamen were killed by the lances of friendly knights.

After dealing with the troublesome militia, the knights of the royal army finally launched a collective charge as they wished.

In their eyes, the Duke of Swamp's army was just a bunch of poor bumpkins from the west, and they would definitely not be able to withstand their charge.

These arrogant knights ran headfirst into the trench, and a few unlucky ones fell into the trench and died on the chevaux de frise.

The remaining knights tried to bypass the trench, but were shot at by the mercenary crossbowmen.

Neither the chain mail nor the flesh and blood of the war horses were able to withstand the crossbow arrows, causing a large number of war horses to lose control. The royal army's first round of charge completely failed.

But the royal army's fighting spirit had been aroused. They completely ignored orders and launched wave after wave of attacks.

The Duke of Swamp's army withstood a full six waves of attacks. At the most critical moment, several teams of knights almost broke through his formation.

Fortunately, he brought his most elite guards to plug the loophole in time, thus resisting the overwhelming offensive of the royal army.

The battle lasted for an hour and a half, and in the end the Duke of Swamp won a great victory, achieving a brilliant victory of killing 2,000 people in battle, while suffering only 500 casualties.

King Maurice fled the battlefield under the escort of his confidants, and his troops also scattered.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the Duke of the Swamp retook the city of Cologne and celebrated wildly in the barracks.

Except for a few guard troops, most of his soldiers were drunk.

But the defenders of Cologne were so frightened that they didn't dare to leave the city to attack the camp, but just defended the city.

At the banquet, Laszlo, the eldest son of the Duke of Swamp, proposed:
"Father, I believe we should abandon the city of Coron and immediately march south to besiege Amber Harbor. That bastard king has lost his prestige, and no noble will fight for him."

Laszlo is in his early twenties, over 1.9 meters tall, with a strong build, amazing fighting power, and long golden hair that reaches his shoulders.

He perfectly inherited the excellent genes of his parents. He was invincible among his peers since he was a child. When he grew up, his fighting power was unrivaled in the duchy. He won a brilliant record of 63 consecutive victories in individual competitions and had never been injured.

In order to praise his bravery, the bards gave him the nickname "Golden Lion", which became his exclusive synonym.

Of course, Laszlo is more than just a muscular warrior.

With his father's deliberate cultivation, his political acumen is not too bad.

He could see that the current King Maurice had already lost face, and his father only needed to take advantage of the victory to advance eastward and besiege Amber Harbor, which would be enough to force the royal family to surrender and seize the crown of the North.

Upon hearing his eldest son's plan, the Duke of Swamp took a sip of scarlet wine and replied calmly, "No, we will stay in Cologne. I will send an envoy to negotiate with Maurice."

Laszlo was puzzled and asked, "Peace talks? Father, even if we really want to negotiate, we have to negotiate outside Amber Harbor."

The Duke of Swamp smiled and patiently explained to his son, "My son, you have underestimated the strength of the Uranis family and the power of Amber Harbor. If they really surround Amber Harbor, we may not be able to escape.

Now is the best time to negotiate peace. I will ask for the princess to marry you and personally put the crown of the North on your head. After I die, you will inherit the duchy, and then the entire North will submit to you. "

Compared to his impatient son, the Duke is more experienced.

Although he won a great victory in this battle, his troops inevitably suffered losses.

With the limited number of troops he has now, it is too risky to surround Amber Harbor.

Peace talks are more in line with our own interests.

The previous king left behind two princesses, one big and one small. The older one has married to the southern border, and the younger one has just turned sixteen, which is the perfect age for marriage.

If Laszlo could marry the princess, he would have a legitimate claim to the crown of the North, even more legitimate than the illegitimate king.

The Duke of Swamp values ​​the long-term interests of his family more than his personal reputation and interests.

At this stage of the war, continuing the war will be in no one's interest.

The two sides shook hands and made peace, the royal nobles were still able to control most of the crown territories, and their sons got the title of throne.

The only one who suffered losses was the illegitimate king Maurice.

But he had picked up the throne in the first place, so he deserved to lose it!
Now, what the Duke has to do is to send envoys to contact nobles from all over the country and continue to put pressure on the king to make him give up the throne voluntarily.

In the Duke's opinion, with Cologne's victory as a foundation, the Crown of the North is already in the pocket of their family!

But just as he was drinking and humming, an urgent letter from Sanhe City interrupted his fantasy.

(End of this chapter)