I'm not a lord

Chapter 174 The Devil is Also a God
Kalebo readily agreed to Lynn's request to recommend talented individuals.

Because he really needs Lynn's help now.

If he could persuade Lynn to launch a full-scale offensive against Three Rivers City, then his mission would be considered a complete success.

Once he returns to White Eagle Castle, he will undoubtedly receive the Duke of the Valley's commendation, and his chances of being promoted to senior advisor will be even higher.

Moreover, from Kalebo's perspective, it's always wise to be on good terms with a powerful emerging force like Lynn.

The more friends you have, the more paths you have—this universally applicable principle is something that Kalebo, as a diplomatic expert, could not possibly be unaware of.

Besides, recommending talented individuals to the White River Territory would not do any harm to Kalebo.

He would only look for talent for Lynn, but he didn't guarantee that these talents would be willing to come to White River Territory.

Anyway, all he has to do is fulfill his duty of finding the right people.

Given the current tense 'employment environment' in the North, if the nomination is successful, Kalebo will benefit both sides, gaining face from both.

Even if it doesn't work out, no one has the right to criticize him.

After all, Lynn's 'origins' were relatively low, his territory was newly established, and he also faced pressure from the Duke of the Swamp.

It's quite normal that those graduates find Baiheling unsafe and unstable, and therefore are unwilling to come and serve there.

Lynn, being such an enlightened and good lord, could certainly understand this. At the dinner table, he said on the spot, "You can handle this matter as you see fit. If it succeeds, all the better. If it doesn't, I will never blame you."

Since the Earl was so sincere, Kalebo could only promise again and again that he would recommend the most suitable talent for the White River Territory.

The two drank from dusk until late at night, finishing most of a barrel of expensive aged mead. The table was littered with cups and plates, but the host and guests were clearly having a great time.

The next day at noon, Kalebo couldn't wait to embark on his journey back to White Eagle Castle.

It wasn't that he didn't want to linger a little longer, but rather that his ship was still in Sanhe City.

He had to cross the war zone to get back to Sanhe City and board the ship.

The battle between Baihe Territory and Sanhe City is not yet intense, and this road is still relatively passable.

Kalebo feared that further delays would change the course of the war, so he wanted to return to White Eagle Castle by ship as soon as possible.

As it turned out, his worries were completely unnecessary.

Just two days after the start of the war, the raiding war in the western suburbs of Mikawa began to take a strange turn.

Lynn had just seen Kalebo off when he received urgent military intelligence from the front lines.

This morning, as planned, the second brother, Hugh, plundered a church estate on the western outskirts of Three Rivers.

When he led his heavily armored cavalry into the village as usual, he found it deserted.

Almost every farmhouse door was wide open, and the house was either empty or only occupied by an elderly man or woman who could not walk.

A few grains of rye were scattered on the ground inside and outside the farmhouse.

The stables were also empty; the draft horses that should have been grazing quietly were nowhere to be seen.

Clearly, the serfs who were able to run had already fled with their livestock and stored grain.

The second son found several elderly serfs who remained behind and, after several inquiries, finally figured out the reason behind it all.

Because he had a very limited number of cavalry, he could only raid one manor at most per day.

However, there are more than a dozen large manors in the western suburbs of Sanhe City, each covering a vast area.

After the second brother spent two days looting the two manors, the Church of Three Rivers, which was responsible for the defense of the western suburbs, immediately adjusted its response.

The church quickly relocated the serfs from the five northern plantations to the south, taking with them the large livestock and most of the stored grain.

The Church of the Three Saints in Three Rivers City is essentially no different from the Lord's Church.

However, their control over the grassroots level is much stronger than that of ordinary leaders.

In the western suburbs, each estate has a monastery or church.

By ringing the bells at different times and frequencies, the monks or priests stationed in the manor could quickly convey messages throughout the entire manor.

At the same time, the village head and most of the serfs were devout believers who carried out the orders given by the church without question.

In addition, the second son's looting activities over the past two days have truly terrified these serfs.

Therefore, as soon as the church issued the order to relocate, these serfs moved south with their families at top speed.

To avoid being hunted down by the White River Territory, the serfs even migrated south overnight, giving the second son no time to react.

When he led his troops to plunder again the next morning, all he saw were empty villages.

Looting?

The village was left with only old men and women who could neither work nor walk. There was not a trace of valuable ironware, cloth, or large livestock. What was the point of robbing them?

However, all of this was within Lynn's expectations.

The city council and church of Sanhe City are not ignorant fools. When they realize they cannot defeat them, they will naturally choose to reduce their forces and relocate the population.

We can't just let the serfs stay at home and wait for the cavalry of Baihe Territory to come and burn, kill, and plunder at will.

If things get even more extreme, the church could even resort to a scorched-earth policy.

In other words, they made the serfs burn down their farmhouses and throw dead animals into the wells, leaving not even a drop of clean water for the second son's cavalry.

Of course, even if the church really did implement a scorched-earth policy, Lynn wouldn't care.

He had no intention of occupying the western suburbs, nor did he intend to use this place as a springboard to launch a strong attack on Sanhe City.

Baihe Territory is not short of food or money; what it lacks is population and various talents, especially artisans and cultural figures in the cities.

A forced siege would inevitably lead to the deaths of many skilled artisans, something Lynn absolutely did not want to see.

What Lynn needs to do is to divide the city's factions as much as possible, undermine the city's will to resist, and then use means to instigate a civil war among the high-ranking officials in order to take over the city and its population.

"Continue burning farmhouses and do everything in your power to destroy the wheat seedlings on the estates, so that the western suburbs of Sanhe City will have no harvest this year!"

Lynn's strategy in response to the church's approach was: let them do what they want, we'll do what we want.

Migrate people? Do as you please, provided you actually have enough food to feed these unproductive serfs.

Not only do people need to eat porridge, but horses and sheep also need to eat grass every day.

Your church has given up so many estates, where will you find enough public pastures to feed the livestock that migrate south?
Moreover, the dramatic changes in the suburban manor will quickly spread to Sanhe City, and will have a huge impact on the lives of the citizens.

Let's take the most common firewood and charcoal as an example.

The more than 8,000 permanent residents of Sanhe City need firewood for cooking and heating, plus more than ten large blacksmith workshops that never stop operating, so the amount of firewood and charcoal consumed every day is astronomical.

Since no trees grow inside the city, the firewood and charcoal can only be supplied by serfs outside the city who cut down trees.

According to intelligence provided by Leon, after a long winter of depletion, the firewood reserves in Three Rivers City have also plummeted to rock bottom.

Although the city council urgently dispatched a batch of supplies from outside the city after the start of spring, the number transported was not large because the serfs outside the city were busy with spring plowing.

After gathering intelligence from various sources, Leon concluded that the city's firewood reserves would at most meet its needs for one month.

Coincidentally, 90% of the firewood supply for Sanhe City comes from several manors in the northern part of the western suburbs.

These estates are located near the White River Territory and have access to the dense black forests along the border.

The southern half of the estates in the western suburbs have been developed to their limit, with farmland everywhere and almost no forests.

At present, the serfs of several northern manors are migrating south out of fear of being plundered.

The firewood supply chain in Three Rivers City was thus disrupted, forcing the city to continuously deplete its reserves. Like striking a snake at its vital point, Lynn's strategy was to relentlessly attack the city's Achilles' heel, applying extreme pressure to force internal divisions within the city.

Of course, he wouldn't let go of those manors in the southern part of the western suburbs either.

He ordered his second and third sons to send out scouts to gather intelligence and find an opportunity to launch a major attack on the crowded manor.

The two of them naturally carried out Lynn's orders faithfully.

Over the next few days, the second and third brothers left only a few soldiers to guard the camp while they led the main force to attack in all directions.

The church has already reduced its military strength; if they don't act boldly, it would be disrespectful to the church.

In less than a week, the empty manors that had been strategically abandoned by the church suffered devastating blows one after another.

All visible human creations were burned, and the newly sprouted wheat seedlings in the fields were trampled.

Half of the land in the western suburbs of Sanhe City has been turned into vacant land.

Bishop Rothgier hasn't had a good night's sleep in the past few days.

Every night, he would wake up suddenly from nightmares.

He dreamt either of the church's lands and estates burning, or of Lynn leading a savage army into Three Rivers, the entire city trembling at the feet of the devil Lynn.

What reassured Rothgier somewhat was that whenever he woke up, a handsome young priest would come forward with a hot towel to serve him.

The city outside the window was quiet; the devil had not invaded.

He put on a soft woolen coat, walked barefoot to the window to feel the cool breeze, but smelled a distinct burnt smell in the night air.

This wind was blowing from the western suburbs of the city, carrying the smell of war.

"Damn devil!"

Rotegi gazed at the blurry night sky to the west, cursing through gritted teeth.

Those lands and those estates were all his property!

Although he had no children to inherit the bishop's authority, as long as he was in office, he could freely use the property of the Church of Sanhe City.

Over the past two decades, he has turned the church into his personal fiefdom.

No one in the church or even the entire city dared to disobey him.

But recently, his authority has been challenged one after another.

First, Lynn, the devil from the White River, brazenly launched an attack on the church estate, tearing apart the lie that God and the church could protect the serfs.

Later, Quinno, the militia chief of the city, openly opposed the church in the city council and even dared to refuse to send troops out of the city to help, allowing the church's land and people to be plundered by foreign enemies.

In Bishop Rotterge's view, the devil Lynn was indeed despicable, after all, he was a devil from hell, it would be strange if he didn't kill and plunder.

But what right does Kuno, a mere nobody, have to defy his authority?

Especially since the church and the city are an inseparable whole, this act of betrayal is even more despicable! He deserves to be hanged more than the devil Lynn!
Despite his aversion, Rotterjee's actions betrayed his true feelings.

After a moment's thought, he adopted Kuno's suggestion, gathering all three hundred soldiers under the church's command to surround the southern half of the estate, and then relocating the serfs and livestock to these estates as well.

Although these estates were indeed a bit crowded, they were still better than leaving them for the enemy to enjoy.

Moreover, the effect was immediate. The devil Lynn's army now only dared to operate in the empty manors in the north, and dared not go south to plunder these manors that were heavily guarded.

Of course, this did not alleviate Rotegi's hatred for Kuno.

He had determined that the enemy's total number of troops was no more than a thousand, and that the number of raiding troops dispatched each time was usually around four hundred.

If Kunno were willing to lead three hundred militiamen out of the city, in conjunction with the church's three hundred elite troops, they would be able to confront the enemy's raiding forces head-on.

Just one or two victories are enough to force the enemy to retreat to Baihe Territory.

But no matter how passionately Rotegi spoke in the city council, declaring his intention to annihilate the invading enemy, Kuno consistently refused to agree.

Mayor Jürgen was also influenced by this and tacitly approved of Kunno's attitude.

In meetings of this level, tacit approval is equivalent to consent.

Just as Rothegi was muttering curses under his breath about those grumpy faces on the windowsill, the young priest behind him gently reminded him:

"Your Excellency, please get some rest. Tomorrow morning you have a meeting at the city hall, and in the afternoon you will be visiting the serfs at the western suburbs estate."

"I'm not going. We won't get anywhere with this discussion anyway! How can we govern Sanhe City properly with those bastards around?!"

Standing on the open windowsill, Rotegi directly denounced the 'city faction,' which held half the seats in the city council, as vermin.

The factions outside the city and those inside the city have almost completely broken off relations. Even in front of those people, Rotegi dares to curse, let alone in his own home.

Then, Rotegi instructed, "We'll go to the western suburbs this morning and make sure to appease those serfs!"

He was, after all, a bishop who had seen many storms, and he did not lose his composure because of the bad situation in the war.

The foundation of the church in Three Rivers was the land and serfs outside the city.

Rotegier is able to distinguish between what is more important and what is less important.

Those serfs have lost their land and homes, and this is the time when they are most fearful.

It is said that a small number of serfs have already fled north to the Baihe territory.

It was also widely rumored among the serfs that as long as they pledged allegiance to Earl Lynn of White River, they would immediately receive farmland, grain, and livestock.

Of course, Rotegi must curb this evil trend of surrendering to the enemy and the devil.

But there wasn't much he could do; all he could do was smear the devil Lynn and then appease the serfs with kind words, making them believe that the church could protect their safety and would definitely help them reclaim their homes and lands.

Some serfs carried enough rations to last until the autumn harvest, and as for what to do after the harvest, Rotegi could only wait and see.

The next day, he indeed did not go to the city hall to attend that ridiculous meeting, but instead took a large group of servants and rode in a sedan chair directly to the western suburbs manor.

The palanquin, carried by four men, was the exclusive mode of transportation for the bishop in Three Rivers City, symbolizing the bishop's supreme status and authority.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving at the manor, Rotege heard devastating news that made him furious.

Just last night, a small number of serfs traveled north overnight to seek refuge with Lynn; their numbers numbered approximately forty or fifty households.

These serfs were the unfortunate ones who had been plundered in the first two days. They had not migrated south in time, so they had no stored grain or livestock.

The food provided to them by the monastery estate was quite poor, consisting of only two bowls of thin porridge each day, with not even a single pickled vegetable.

The church's propaganda efforts among the serfs were indeed extensive.

But a hungry stomach and a bleak future are clearly more convincing than any so-called god.

Even if Earl Lynn of White River is truly a devil, even if he is the mastermind behind the raid on the farm.

But if he is willing to provide arable land, food, and livestock, then he is a god who can redeem serfs.

These serfs were not fools; they knew they were just unlucky souls caught up in the war.

The church already suffered heavy losses in last year's refugee rebellion, and it is impossible for them to spare any food to help them through this year's crisis.

The price of grain in Sanhe City has skyrocketed, making it impossible to spare any grain to save these destitute serfs.

But life always finds its own way.

After much deliberation, the serfs finally recalled the enemy's propaganda during their raids on the villages:

Count Shirakawa will help anyone!

(End of this chapter)