I'm not a lord

Chapter 353 Let Lynn dream for another six months

While Lynn was enjoying the company of a beautiful woman and wielding royal power, Otto III was miserably traveling through a blizzard.

"Your Majesty, if we go another five kilometers south, we will reach River Bend Fortress." The scout returned to the temporary camp covered in snow.

Otto, who was warming himself by the fire, shouted upon hearing this, "Let's rest here for half an hour, then walk the last five kilometers. Tonight we'll go back to River Bend Castle for drinks and meat!"

His hundred or so personal guards cheered and praised His Majesty's wisdom.

But these guards forgot that they were trapped by the heavy snow entirely because of His Majesty's 'wise decision'.

A week earlier, Otto had led over a thousand elite troops to garrison River Bend Fort.

Lynn feared that Otto would launch a surprise attack on Three Rivers during the snowy season, and Otto was equally afraid that Lynn would launch a surprise attack.

Therefore, both sides tacitly agreed to station troops in the border area at the same time.

Lynn recruited four thousand new soldiers in White River Territory in one go, increasing the strength of the garrison to nearly ten thousand. Otto, on the other hand, simply took charge himself, garrisoning River Bend Fortress as the king.

This could also be seen as a way for the emperor to guard the nation's gates.

Since Otto was already there and Coldwind Valley was just north of River Bend, he decided to take the opportunity to inspect the surrounding area. So he led several hundred guards out of the city under the pretext of hunting and headed north.

Rather, protecting the fortress was his secondary objective; his primary intention was to inspect the newly occupied territories.

Coldwind Valley was originally the territory of Earl Coldwind, who was captured by Otto but refused to submit. In the end, he and his eldest son froze to death in the Tower Prison of Amber Harbor.

As for Earl Coldwind's wife and young son, who were left behind in his territory, they disappeared in the chaos without a trace, either having perished or fleeing to other territories to live in anonymity.

Even before Earl of Coldwind's death, Otto had already divided his territory into three baronies, which were then given to three young nobles from the Kingdom of Rui.

Otto's purpose in this inspection was naturally to extract some resources from these three territories.

When His Majesty the King arrived, the three barons treated him to a feast, but they were ultimately unable to resist Otto's extortion and were forced to hand over a large amount of grain and gold.

However, according to Otto, all these supplies and wealth will be invested in the great war against the 'Kingdom Traitors', and also in protecting the unity and peace of the Northern Kingdom. Not a single penny of the nobles' contributions will be wasted.

It was precisely because of escorting these supplies that Otto and his guards were delayed on the road and were unable to return to River Bend Castle until dark.

"It's all because of the unpredictable weather in the North. It was sunny when we set off in the morning, but by evening it suddenly started snowing heavily, causing several carriages to break down on the road."

However, Otto never reflected on himself; he had absolute confidence in himself and never engaged in internal strife.

Instead of looking for your own mistakes, look for excuses from others and the outside world.

After resting, Otto led his guards on their way through the heavy snow and reunited with the main force of River Bend Castle just before the road was completely swallowed up by snow.

Upon entering River Bend Castle, Otto had just sat down, taken a sip of warm wine, and was about to change his clothes and go downstairs to the restaurant for dinner when someone impatiently knocked on the door.

"Your Majesty, I am your loyal servant, Arno, and I have important military intelligence to report to you."

But upon hearing that it was Arno, who was in charge of gathering military intelligence, Otto had no choice but to order him in.

As soon as Arno entered, he couldn't wait to boast: "Your Majesty, I have obtained extremely important intelligence in both the Swamp Territory and the White River Territory, including the blueprints for the bronze cannons and plate armor you need!"

"Really?"

Upon hearing this, Otto's anger vanished, and he jumped up with a look of delight. "Where are the blueprints? Bring them here so I can see them!"

Arnaud then handed over a stack of pale yellow manuscript paper.

As soon as Otto got his hands on it, he noticed that the paper felt a little off, but he didn't care about that right now and quickly flipped through the manuscript.

But after just one glance, he frowned deeply: "Arno, are you sure that what's in the blueprint is the bronze cannon?"

It's no wonder Otto was suspicious; the bronze cannon drawn on the paper was very crude, with lines that weren't even straight, and it could only be vaguely seen that the thing looked like a large bronze pot with wheels.

Otto couldn't help but wonder: Did Lynn use this thing to force open the gates of dozens of castles? Could Arno be trying to trick me with false information?
Arno bowed slightly and replied with extreme confidence, "Your Majesty, this blueprint was drawn by a spy I sent to the Swamp Territory. I only received it today, so it may indeed be a bit rough. But I can confirm that this is the bronze cannon that Lynn equipped in his army."

I dispatched a large number of spies, and only by bribing soldiers in the former swamp territory did I learn its exact appearance. Moreover, many ordinary people in the swamp territory had also seen this thing, and the spies only dared to submit the blueprints after verifying it from multiple sources.

These days, it's not difficult to gather intelligence on enemy weapons and equipment as long as you're willing to invest the resources.

The core reason is that the battlefield was very narrow at this time, the weapons were not very lethal, and the scope of the war was also very small.

In addition, the lack of entertainment activities has led many ordinary people to flock to war scenes, thinking that they are exciting. Once a war breaks out in the surrounding area, they will find a suitable small hill to watch the war.

For example, during the decisive battle between Lynn and Anna, the regent of Golden Deer, on the north bank of the Sami River, many serfs from surrounding villages came with their wives and children to watch the battle, as if the whole village had come to watch a play.

In this decisive battle, Lynn's troops used mortars.

During the subsequent siege of Golden Deer Fortress, many citizens of Golden Deer Fortress even took small boats to watch the battle from the lake.

Since these citizens did not need to stand on the city walls to face the bombardment of cannons, and since the city council had already surrendered to Lynn, they would even stand up and cheer for every cannon shot.

This novel gadget that can explode with a deafening sound is baffling to everyone.

Just like a child seeing fireworks for the first time, full of love and enthusiasm for new and exciting things.

Aside from the curious civilians who witnessed the bronze mortar, the swamp territory also had many surviving soldiers who directly faced the shelling.

Arno knew very well that Lynn would protect the relevant craftsmen closely, so he sent multiple groups of spies deep into the swamp territory to gather intelligence. After extensive investigation, they actually managed to compile a relatively clear drawing of the bronze mortar.

Otto was very dissatisfied with the blueprint. He snorted and asked, "What's the point of just looking at it? What I want to know is, what methods did Lynn use to make the stone fly up to the city wall? He couldn't have stuffed a dozen people into such a small weapon and thrown the stone, could he?"

At this time, the most common long-range siege weapon on the continent of Dievas was the counterweight catapult, with large catapults capable of launching stone projectiles weighing hundreds of kilograms over two hundred meters.

Its range is longer than that of ordinary crossbows, allowing the attacking side to strike the defenders on the city walls from a relatively safe distance. However, this thing is very troublesome to use. Not only does it require a lot of time and materials to assemble at the foot of the city wall, but it also requires manpower or animal power to pull down the arm and launch stone projectiles using the lever principle.

Therefore, the attacking side had to first surround the city walls, and then spend one or two weeks assembling the catapults. If the siege did not go smoothly, these things could not be taken away and could only be burned on the spot.

In contrast, the bronze mortar used by Lynn was much smaller than a catapult and had wheels that could move, yet it could still fire stone projectiles to bombard the city walls.

Knowing only the appearance of the cannon was useless to Otto; he wanted the principle, the specific operating principle!

Arno immediately replied, "Your Majesty, the spies have also made progress on this. They have discovered that Lynn uses something called gunpowder, which produces a loud bang and black smoke when ignited, and then stone projectiles fly out of the bronze cannon's barrel."

"Gunpowder? What's that?" Otto's face was full of question marks.

However, as a monarch knowledgeable in military affairs, he could more or less guess the purpose of the gunpowder.

Gunpowder simply replaced manpower and levers, 'throwing' stones out in an unimaginable way.

Upon realizing this, Otto cursed inwardly: That damn Lynn, he always manages to come up with some unpredictable new things!

Arno shared the same sentiment. He lowered his head even further and replied softly, "Your Majesty, I have ordered my spies to find out the specific method of gunpowder production as soon as possible. However, the snow season has arrived, and we will not be able to obtain specific information until at least next spring."

Below the blueprints for the bronze cannon were detailed blueprints for plate armor and water-powered forging hammers. Lynn used water-powered forging hammers to process iron ingots, thereby forging the plate armor uppers. As far as I know, plate armor's defensive capabilities far surpass those of chainmail, and even exceed those of the plate armor in the Southern Territory. The reason Lynn's cavalry legion was able to defeat the Swamp Territory's court cavalry was because they were equipped with a large number of plate armor.

It was highly unlikely that the onlookers and surviving soldiers would know detailed information about gunpowder. If Arno wanted to find out any relevant intelligence, he would have to send spies to infiltrate Lynn's army or the core workshop.

This is countless times more difficult than figuring out the appearance of the bronze cannon.

However, Arnault remains confident, for no other reason than that he has money.

Otto had approved a considerable amount of funding for his activities, and he had also saved up a lot of money while he was raiding around with Duke Lothair of the Swamp.

With enough money, you can even bribe the devils of hell.

Lynn couldn't possibly bury all the soldiers and craftsmen who knew the truth in the ground. As long as he was willing to spend money, he could always pry some people's mouths open.

In fact, Lynn had done a good job of keeping things secret, managing the relevant craftsmen and their families in a centralized manner.

But every action leaves a trace, and the movement of people will inevitably leak some information.

With Otto and Arnault's tireless efforts in researching, these new technologies will eventually be fully exposed one day.

However, as long as Lynn crushes all his opponents before that, whether or not the secret is leaked becomes irrelevant.

Otto knew, of course, that time was of the essence, but he couldn't rush things. He could only nod helplessly and say, "Arno, you are indeed facing a difficult problem. Thank you for your hard work this time. You'll have to keep trying in the future."

Looking at the blueprints for the bronze cannon in his hand, and then at the blueprints for the plate armor and water-powered forging hammer below, Otto, who was usually inhuman, surprisingly uttered a few human words.

In Lynn's army, hundreds of sets of plate armor have been issued, mainly to the cavalry regiments and core officers of the rank of company commander and above.

Given its large surface area and the fact that it has been in use for more than two years, it is natural that information about plate armor cannot be kept secret.

Arno's spies approached Lynn's cavalry through various means and finally managed to obtain detailed information about the plate armor.

The technology of plate armor is far less sophisticated than that of artillery; it is simply a large piece of sheet metal forged and shaped, with a few ergonomic features added.

In terms of large-scale deployment, plate armor is actually less practical than plate armor suits.

Even without a water-powered forging hammer, Otto, who had access to a large number of skilled blacksmiths, could still replicate the work by referring to the blueprints.

Judging solely from the level of forging, the blacksmiths of the South are far superior to those of the North.

As for the water-powered forging hammer, the technical content of this thing is even lower. A skilled carpenter can figure out its operating principle with just a glance. What Otto lacks is ideas and inspiration. As long as there are technical drawings, it can be reproduced.

Moreover, the relevant technology had already spread, and blacksmith shops in every county of Baihe Territory were using it, so obtaining the blueprints was not difficult for Arno.

He initially looked down on this civilian technology, but because the water-powered forging hammer was tied to plate armor forging, he presented it to Otto along with the other technology.

"His Majesty's kindness to me is deeper than the icy sea. For His Majesty's honor and for the glory of the Northern Kingdom, I will continue to dedicate myself!"

Encouraged by Otto, Arnaud adopted the demeanor of a loyal dog, swearing to serve him to the death.

As a former mercenary leader, he was very familiar with this kind of act; he had previously pledged his loyalty to Lothair quite often.

Arno then reported, "Your Majesty, there is another piece of military intelligence. Lynn has recently been recruiting new soldiers in the White River Territory. It is said that the garrison there has exceeded 10,000 men. Moreover, the shipyards in Three Rivers City and Golden Deer City are speeding up the repair of ships. It is said that the shipwrights are even working through the night with fires burning."

Otto put down the blueprints in his hand and sneered, "That damned Lynn is definitely trying to use the municipality's merchant ships to surround River Bend Fortress, but I've been prepared for this for a long time. Next year, I'll definitely teach him what defeat is."

River Bend Fort is located on an island in the middle of the river. The best way to surround it is indeed to use the navy.

Of course, this only applies to sieges. Ordinary arrows and catapults are useless against this fortified fortress, and its food reserves are enough to last for several years.

Moreover, Otto not only deployed a large number of elite troops in the city, but also ordered the Amber Harbor authorities to speed up the preparation of the ships.

When the ice melts next year, a large number of armed merchant ships will flood into the Tranquil River, completely blocking Lynn's waterways.

Otto was very confident in his navy, after all, Amber Harbor had the largest number of merchant ships in the entire North, and could completely overwhelm Golden Deer and Three Rivers.

At that moment, Otto suddenly remembered something and asked, "Speaking of which, isn't today that damned guy's coronation ceremony?"

Arno nodded and replied, "Yes, today."

Otto picked up the silver cup on the table, drank the remaining half of the wine, and said with a hint of ferocity and arrogance in his voice: "Then let him dream for a few more months. Next autumn, we will be watching the maple leaves by the lake at Golden Deer Castle!"

(End of this chapter)