After the border conflict subsided, Yate's army continued to be stationed for ten days. It was not until it was confirmed that there was no movement from the Dean family that Yate took the army back to the valley and stationed it in the open space of Beiguan Army Fort. However, Art did not dismantle the temporary camp built on the border. Instead, he asked Simon to repair and strengthen the temporary camp and turn it into a military fortress of the Border Knights. In the future, the expanded guards of the border outpost and the recruited peasant soldiers will be stationed here.
????This border conflict has brought a lot of benefits to Att. In addition to battle losses and soldier casualties, Att has a surplus of 40,000 pfennigs in "war compensation" and five fine war horses. The most important thing is that Att's caravan will be able to Smoothly get involved in the southern goods trade and get a share of the gold-flowing river...
????On the day he returned to the valley, a letter from the palace was quickly delivered to the lord's mansion in Yate by the county's courier.
The order letter was issued in the name of the Prime Minister of the Palace. The letter reprimanded Art for launching a private war without authorization and detaining the palace guard knight. Art was strictly ordered to release the detained palace guard knight Dean immediately after receiving the order.
????Yat ignored the order because it was accompanied by a large pile of paperwork. In addition to the information sent back by several "Eagle Eyes" planted in the Northland, among these documents and letters is a private letter written by Earl Baldwin himself to Art.
Earl Baldwin praised Art's fighting on the southern border in a private message. Nowadays, the struggle between the two forces in the palace is very subtle. Earl Baldwin is relatively on the weak side. At the southern border, Art has suffered a loss from the Dean family, which belongs to the camp of Count Bernard, the finance minister. This makes Baldwin, who has always been passive, feel a little happy.
Earl Baldwin revealed that the palace actually had no time to pay attention to this small conflict on the southern border. This order was issued entirely by the Prime Minister of the Palace out of favor for the Minister of Finance. Therefore, Art did not need to pay attention to the Prime Minister's weak order. The victorious side should enjoy the fruits of the battle. The palace had its own Earl Baldwin to deal with it, and Earl Baldwin also secretly indicated that Art was regarded as a trusted force.
With Earl Baldwin resisting the pressure from the court, Art naturally turned a deaf ear to the order to release Dean immediately. He increased the ransom of 10,000 pfennigs to Old Dean in the name of the Dean family not keeping their promise to the knights, and asked Old Dean to deliver the ransom and horses to Boulder within five days, otherwise he would increase the ransom of 5,000 pfennigs every other day...
Art let go The two letters looked at a large pile of newspapers and other documents on the table, raised their heads and ordered Felix: "Felix, ask the kitchen to prepare some delicious food for the county courier, and then take him to Cooper to receive a reward of eight pfennigs. Tell the courier that he will be rewarded for delivering documents and letters to me in the future." Felix turned around and went out, and Art picked up the intelligence information collected from various places and studied it carefully.
After filtering out the scattered and trivial news, Art learned several important things from the intelligence sent back by the "Eagle Eyes".
The first is the war in Provence and Lombardy in the south. In May, when Arte was engaged in a vigorous anti-bandit battle in the county, Provence also launched a large-scale counterattack against the Lombard army that invaded the country. From Auster under Mount Carmel in the east to La Bousoix in the center and then to Valence in the west, all the armies on the entire central Provence front line moved at the same time. In just half a month, they pushed the front line southward for hundreds of miles and recaptured five cities and more than 20 castles and fortresses. The city of Aosta in the eastern region was completely exposed to the crisis, and the battle line moved to the hilly area between Aosta and Wilno. It had been two years since the army of the Principality of Lombardy entered Provence. How could it be possible that the territory captured with great effort was recaptured? So Duke Witout gathered the southern army and planned to go north again.
Although Provence has gained a comparative advantage in the war in recent months, the war lasted for several years. Provence neither had the financial resources accumulated by Lombardy's developed commerce nor the fertile and prosperous agriculture of Burgundy. Therefore, when Lombardy was in the south When Fang was gathering his troops, Provost sent his deputy palace minister to the north to ask for support from the Count of Burgundy...
In the north, the battle between the Count of Burgundy and the Duchy of Swabia gained an advantage due to the intervention of the Duchy of Burgundy. In March this year, the war in the east, which had been stalemate all winter and spring, took a turn. The Principality of Burgundy sent three thousand elite soldiers to the eastern border to expel the Swabian army that invaded the Burgundy Country in one fell swoop. In June, after the troops of the Principality of Burgundy retreated, the Principality of Swabia began to mobilize troops on the border again. However, the border war between the Principality of Burgundy and the Principality of Swabia will not break out on a large scale for the time being, and both sides have calmed down.
In July, the court of Burgundy issued an order to the entire county. The court called on business travelers from all over the county to purchase grain supplies from the north and transport them to the south to support Provence in its rebellion against Lombardy. At the same time, the palace was also preparing to organize troops to send reinforcements to Provence.
????The second is the struggle within the palace. According to the information provided by Sir William, the religious guard of Bishop Olof, the body of the Marquis of Ivrea, the ruler of the County of Burgundy, is getting weaker and weaker, and the court doctors have been unable to cure the Marquis' illness. Just when the world thought that the Marquis was about to hand over the power of ruling the county to the prince, rumors began to spread that "the prince Robert is not the Marquis' biological child". The Marquis refused to comment, but the matter of passing the title to the prince has never been completed...
Just when the Count was aroused by this rumor, in a remote mountainous area in the southwest of the Principality of Burgundy, Count Flanders Hugues of Longxia was secretly entertaining a group of former relatives and vassals in his territory. The young Count of Flanders, who seemed to be indifferent to the situation in the Count of Burgundy, was actually already in trouble.
At put down the document in his hand, he put his right hand on his forehead and analyzed the current situation carefully, trying to find the best path for himself in the complicated situation.
Nowadays, the entire Southern Continent is in constant turmoil. In troubled times, crises and opportunities coexist. Only those who are good at seizing opportunities can rise quickly. Now that my strength is still very weak, if I want to rise in troubled times, I need to seize every possible opportunity.
It is not Art's turn to worry about the struggle in the palace. He is just a small chess piece now, and he cannot control the direction of the entire chess game. All he can do is to make himself a chess piece that the powerful are unwilling to give up easily.
After thinking for a long time, Art had some preliminary ideas. He asked Felix to call several of his close subordinates to the Lord's Hall to discuss the next stage of arrangements.
The war has just ended, and the entire valley is recuperating, so the stewards and officers are still gathering in the valley, and soon the Lord's Hall is filled with people.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Art stopped chatting with Cooper in a low voice, "Everyone, have you rested for more than ten days, have you felt better?"
Everyone laughed happily.
"Okay, we have to work even if we haven't taken it easy. We called you here today to discuss our next steps."
"After the border battle, we not only obtained a huge ransom and a few fine war horses, but more importantly, we successfully opened up the southern goods trade. Once we get involved in the southern goods trade, we will continue to make money to support our troops and expand our strength."
Ya Ya. Te looked at Salt, the manager of the caravan, and said: "Sart, once the Northland Trading Guild accepts us as a member, you will lead the caravan and immediately start entering the Northland's southern goods market. You must establish a stable southern goods sales channel in the North within half a year. If you think the conditions are suitable, you can fix a group of southern goods sales shops in several important cities in the north. When the time is right in the future, we can also set up our own southern goods shops to directly handle the goods carried by the caravan."
“Sir, will the Dean family really let the guilds in the North accept us? Will they make things difficult for us everywhere?” Salt raised concerns.
Matt nodded and said: "Your worries are not unnecessary. The Dean family will not be willing to let us get involved in the southern goods trade. But they will not make any big moves at the moment. They can decide the life and death of our caravan in the North, and so can we. Seize their southern throat! After this border battle, they have tasted how hard our fists are. I believe they will not fight us easily again, because we dare to fight harder than them."
"My lord is right."
Art looked around the crowd and said loudly: "I plan to call our caravans, shops and this trade road collectively the Continental Trading Company. The Continental Trading Bank is under the civil administration and is temporarily supervised by Salt. Bishop Olof and Earl Baldwin will also get a share of the pie. I will use the profits of the trading company to fight for us." After the caravan has stabilized the southern goods market in the north, I will slowly turn to the south. Now that the war in the southern continent has sapped trade, it is a perfect opportunity for us to enter. I plan to establish a southern caravan from the southern continent to the border outpost area for storage, and then the northern caravan will transport the goods from the border to the north for sale. The Dean family cut the size of my caravan in half, so I will find a way to go to the south to make up the remaining half. "
"My lord, I will start working on this matter."
"Don't worry, you must first stabilize our steps in the north before considering matters in the south. What's more, we don't have the qualifications and conditions to intervene in the southern business."
"Yes, my lord."
At finished arranging the caravan's affairs, he turned to the civil affairs officials and said: "Everyone, now we have gained a place in the southern part of the country, and we have also obtained In order to achieve temporary peace, I believe that our Valley Knight Territory, Boulder Town and the border outpost area will not be invaded by foreign enemies in the future. This period is an excellent opportunity to develop and grow, so you must try your best to make these places prosperous..."
Just when Art was explaining to the civil affairs officials that they would continue to recruit refugees, open up wasteland to grow food, build the Beiguan Army Fortress, build houses, forge weapons and armor, and many other matters in the coming period, the Sentinel Team responsible for patrolling and training outside the valley sent people back to the wooden fort in the valley.
"Sir, Brother Ron is back, and there is an exotic warrior with him!"
At suddenly stood up and said in surprise: "Let's go to welcome the return of our warriors."
…