Riding and Slashing

Chapter 385 A New Mire
In June 358 of the Pendor calendar, the Filtsweans launched a surprise attack on Ravencrow City, the capital of Ravencrow Kingdom.

Haakon the Iron Oak Lord 'Sturdy Shield' led a large-scale fleet to appear in the bay of Raven Crow City, and quickly landed on both ends of Raven Crow City.

The total number of pirates, smugglers and mercenaries who landed is close to 3000.

'Sturdy Shield' Haakon himself landed on the north side of Ravencrow City with hundreds of troops, guarding the northern bridgehead, preparing to stop the reinforcements from the west of Ravencrowland.

And the lord of Fieldsweanson's Fortress 'Iron Bold' Haraven, and the new lord of Mirkcastle 'Fatty' Horothgar, led an army of more than 2000 people to land in Olin Town in the south of Ravencrow City, and led the army Go straight to Ravencrow City.

There are only [-] solitary troops in Ravencrow City, and they are all second-line troops. In addition, the king and important lords are not there. Facing the attack of Fieldsville people four times their own, they can only struggle.

Fortunately, Queen Ursula of Longsong Harbor ignored the previous suspicions and sent the Falcon Knights to restrain the Fieldsweans, which prevented Ravencrow City from being quickly captured.

It seems that the people of Fieldsville are in a good situation, but King Vidis was furious when he got the news.

"Who the hell sent Haakon and Haraven to attack Ravenclaw?! The Ravencrows are our allies now! And...our boats can't enter the inner sea of ​​Lion Lake at all. Where did Haakon get it? Battleship?!"

King Vidis anxiously stroked his bald scalp, pacing back and forth in the camp.

"According to the news from Haakon, it was Ursula who provided you with twenty large and medium-sized warships. These warships originally belonged to the Ravens—this business is actually pretty good. For us, with these two With ten warships, we can completely control the entire inner sea of ​​Lion Lake, not to mention Ravencrow City, the entire northern part of the continent can only tremble under our fleet..."

'Red Sword' Earl Aidin analyzed calmly.

"Battleships... Ha! If those battleships are in my hands now, I certainly don't mind falling out with the Ravens. But Aidin, do you really think Haakon and Haraven will obey my orders after getting those battleships?" ? They attacked Ravencrow City privately without my order, obviously wanting to rely on those warships to occupy Ravencrow City and the entrance to the inner sea of ​​Lion Lake as a warlord..."

Vidis gritted his teeth and said: "I am the king of Fieldsway, the Ravens will only hate me, and their counterattacks will all be directed at me, but what benefits have I gained? I have gained nothing, and will welcome The revenge of the Ravenclaws is coming! Duke Adarian, who fell into the bay, will definitely send troops to the city of fog cage..."

"The Valkyries are still in Mistcage City, they should be able to stop Duke Adarian...don't worry so much."

Earl Edin relieved.

"Perhaps... But they won't go out to meet the enemy unless they are paid enough... However, the economy of Wucage City has collapsed..."

Vidis looked at his best friend and smiled bitterly: "Aidin, my situation is much worse than you imagined. I came to attack Sarleon City this time, in fact, it was just to use Sarleon City to pay off the debt... I I'm about to go bankrupt. If Fog Cage City becomes a battlefield, I'll be completely bankrupt..."

Aiding froze for a moment, then sighed understandingly: "I'm about to go bankrupt too..."

It is true that most of the great lords of Fieldsway are relatively poor now.

Especially those with a little conscience like Vidis and Aidin...

More than two years ago, the west coast was plundered by the fleet of the Bacchus Empire—it was Li Ang's idea. He made a list of fruits for Mario, and then General Sura took the shadow wolves to zero yuan. bought a...

Since then, Fieldsway has been gathering a large army to fight, and it has lasted for two years now, without stopping for a moment.

The tug-of-war in the west of Sarleon Land not only dragged down the Sarleon Kingdom, but also dragged down Fieldsway-the pirate lords on the west coast would not have developed agriculture, they have always relied on commerce, smuggling, and pirate business and fish to sustain the economy.

The continuous wars cut off most of the trade routes established by Li Ang in Changhe Town, and the same is true for Fieldsway - most of their trade routes were also cut off, and the special products on the west coast could not be sold inland at all.

Since most of the troops had to go to war, it was difficult to smuggle to the Barkley mainland. It was also difficult for the pirates to get any big business in the past two years, and the looting share handed over to Vidis was not much.

As a result, the economic environment in Fierdsway is getting worse day by day, and it is naturally difficult to collect conventional business taxes.

Coupled with the continuous war, the protracted tug-of-war in the west of Sarleon Land swallowed Vidis's wealth like a bottomless pit, but he didn't dare to withdraw his troops at the time. If he did, Agathon and Kryon would definitely pursue them. This will bring the battlefield to Fieldsway - and the economy will collapse even faster then.

At the same time, Fieldsway is an alliance country, and the relationship between the lord and Vidis is not a relationship of loyalty in the conventional sense, but an alliance cooperation, that is to say, they and Vidis are actually opposites in terms of identity wait.

After all, Vidis was just a big pirate leader before being elected as the leader of the alliance. He is not much different from other pirate lords, except that he has the most popular friends...

The great king Vidis is actually more like a marshal, because he can't force any lord to order, and he must pay most of the money and food when he summons the lords to send troops.

Although he can share most of the spoils, the problem is that Fierdsway hasn't gotten any decent spoils in the past two years.

It is true that a lot of sites are occupied, but those sites are either empty or impoverished...

Howling Castle was massacred, and the lord was Inna, who didn't obey orders;
Short Howling Village has been harmed by drunkards, and has never been popular;
Fort Cane was once occupied by Brennus, and experienced several heretical crossings. It was so poor that it had no food to eat, and it even needed Vidis to subsidize military rations for relief;

Later, Azgold was occupied. This place was considered rich at first, but after several months of fighting, Azgold was left with only refugees and ruins;

Until a few months ago, Cliff Bay and Mimmosh Castle defected to Vidis. Vidis originally thought that the time would finally turn around and make a fortune. Cliff Rock Bay is a rich place with a large population There is also a lot of arable land, and it has always been a good place with plenty of money and food.

Unexpectedly, the main reason why Cliff Bay defected to him was that there was no food to eat - the three prophets had been entrenched here before, and in order to deal with Roland, they created a lot of uncontrollable fallen people.

As a result, the area around Qiaoyan Bay and Mysterious Marsh Castle, all the way to the far village, no one dared to farm this large area before. The fields have been deserted for two seasons, and the grass has grown taller than people. There is no food in Qiaoyan Bay... …

Vidis originally thought, if there is no food in stock, there must be dinars, right?
But when he took over Cliff Bay, he realized that the dinars in the hands of those nobles had already been exhausted by Brennus and the three prophets in turn...

Moreover, even if you have money, it is difficult to get food in Fieldsway - the entire west coast is short of food, only those farmers around Kui Lake in the east of Guangxiao Bay are better at farming, and there is not enough food in the first place.

The domestic economy collapsed, the food production was insufficient, and the war continued. Merchants were afraid to do business. This caused the prices of food and daily necessities in Fierdsway to double rapidly.

Vidis and Aidin both have consciences, they don't want to plunder the civilians under their rule, and they don't want to treat the soldiers under them badly—they both know that if they plunder the civilians at this time, it will be even more difficult for the economy to recover .

So they became very poor in these two years.

Vidis, in particular, is already borrowing money everywhere.

In order to maintain the situation, he borrowed a lot of money, food and supplies from the rich merchants in Wucage City, and also owed a lot of military pay to the pirate lords.

Fieldsway is no different than other kingdoms. These debts must be repaid, or else he will be the king at the end—he borrowed the debts using the fog cage city as collateral.

His attack on Lion City this time was actually to pay off his debts.

Sarleon City is the center of the entire continent, surrounded by the best fields. Vidis intends to move a large number of residents to Sarleon City's surroundings, use his own fog cage city to pay off debts, and then organize farming.

In this way, he only needs one harvest season to solve the food problem, and then relieve the entire country from the economic crisis.

Even if Sarleon City cannot be conquered, at least the area around Luxin Lake can be occupied. As long as the troops are kept near Barranley until next year, the problem can be solved.

Unexpectedly, before the battle of Lion City started, something happened at Cliff Rock Bay - Haakon's attack on Ravencrow City at this time was tantamount to driving Vidis to a dead end...

Ravencrow Kingdom and Fieldsway were originally allies. Before Bacchus Empire and Sarleon Kingdom formed an alliance, of course Vidis could only form an alliance with Ravencrow Kingdom to fight.

Now tearing up the covenant and attacking other people's capital, this is a deadly enemy!

A pirate leader like Haakon may not be very sensitive to this kind of diplomatic status, but Vidis can imagine with his toes that the Ravenclaws will definitely retaliate at any cost. No matter whether Ravencrow City will be captured or not, at least Iron Oak Fortress and Mistcage City will certainly be counterattacked by the Ravens.

That bastard Haakon got twenty big ships. He didn't care too much about Iron Oak Castle. He could hide in the sea and be at ease, but Vidis's fog cage city would definitely become a battlefield.

This is not a question of whether the Fog Cage City can be defended, but whether the Fog Cage City can be turned into a battlefield, or Vidis will go bankrupt directly...

In other words, Vidis had to retreat to keep the city of fog, and the flames of war must not be allowed to reach the city of fog.

"Do you want to withdraw the troops? Is there any other way?"

Aidin sighed: "Although we may not be able to conquer Sarleon City, we would definitely be able to occupy the cultivated land around Luxin Lake... But if we withdraw our troops now, Li Ang's troops may chase us to the area of ​​Long Howling Fort. All land will be lost."

"Throw it away, if you can't keep the fog cage city, I'm afraid I will be thrown into the sea directly..."

Vidis's face was full of depression: "Now we have no allies... Ursula, heh, Ursula, that woman is a fart! If it would be beneficial to support her, I would have helped her kill Gregory a long time ago The fourth generation! Haakon is an idiot, twenty ships blinded his eyes!"

Seriously, it’s no wonder Haakon, twenty medium-sized warships can blind the eyes of most people in this era...

A country may not be able to build so many large and medium-sized warships even if it spends three to five years with all its power.

Even if a large city is exchanged for dozens of warships, many kings will find it a good deal.

Haakon stopped Amy at that time, and the condition he negotiated with Amy was that he planned to capture Ravencrow City and 'Ursula' in exchange for these warships.

However, it was too late to wait for the consent of King Vidis, Haakon took the business in private.

For this reason, he asked for [-] warships as the 'down payment', allowing 'Ursula' to stay in Cliff Bay, using Cliff Bay as a guarantee to ensure that he would not run away with the ships.

At the same time, 'Ursula' led 400 people in the Cliff Bay, which could also prevent Haakon from murdering and seizing the ship.

In order to negotiate this deal, the two parties exchanged positions.

Therefore, the current Cliff Bay has been controlled by Amy.

Oh no, it was controlled by 'Ursula' - anyway, the Falcon flag was planted in the port, and the person who traded with Haakon was also 'Queen Ursula'.

"I think that leader Haakon probably won't really capture Ravencrow City... He's probably just doing it for show. The friends he recruited seem to be either smugglers or mercenaries. It's impossible for this group of mobs to capture Ravencrow City. city?"

Bodaisi said.

"I don't care if they can capture Ravencrow City. It doesn't matter if they pretend to attack. I just need him to attack Ravencrow City... Even if he attacks with all his strength, it is really impossible to capture it. Ravencrow City, Ursula will definitely go to the rescue——I sent a letter to Ursula, asking her to send someone to support Ravencrow City, and she will definitely go."

Amy was at the port of Cliff Bay, looking at the remaining dozen warships in the harbor, she turned her head and said to Bao Daisy: "Destroy the port and drive the warships to Lion Lake City, our goal has been achieved , take away all the supplies in Cliff Bay, and leave nothing behind."

"Ah? Don't we occupy Cliff Bay? We really gave them twenty ships! Did we just leave after paying such a high price?"

Bao Daisi was stunned: "It is absolutely possible to occupy Cliff Bay now. They only have more than 100 people left here, and we can deal with it."

"No need, you can't hold it if you occupy it. Haakon's attack on Ravencrow City is tantamount to Fierdsway tearing up the agreement and declaring war on the Ravencrow Kingdom. Even if Haakon is just pretending to complete the deal with us, Fieldsway's army can only withdraw from Sarleon City... We will be surrounded by Fieldsway people if we stay here."

Amy shook her head: "Don't be obsessed with one city and one place... Our goal has been achieved, don't be so greedy. Ship... Hehe, how important is food for a ship? If the whole country can't afford food, no matter how much it takes What's the use of a ship?"

After speaking, she took off Ursula's helmet, stuck it on the railing of the pier, and walked towards the battleship.

Amy spent a lot of thought to deceive people, paid twenty warships, but got nothing, it seems like a loss?

Bodaisi thought.

But Amy didn't think so.

Her vision is no longer what it used to be.

What will Haakon or Haraven, or other Vanskerry pirate leaders, do after they get twenty warships, especially after they get these warships in the inner sea of ​​Lion Lake?

What would they do if they not only had battleships, but also captured Crag Bay or Ravendrow City?

Will they still obey Vidis' orders?
Actively sending equipment to the enemy, or even sending a large amount of strategic equipment to the enemy, sometimes does not make the enemy stronger...

Just like Emperor Marius provided two 'reinforcements' during the most difficult time for the Sarleon Kingdom, Agathon and Kryon's support did not make the Sarleon Kingdom stronger, but instead made it impossible for the Sarleon Kingdom to get rid of the quagmire of war, deep She couldn't extricate herself from it, and she couldn't get out until Amy abandoned Sarleon City.

But now, 'Ursula' gave the battleship to the Fieldsway people, allowing the Fieldsway people to attack Ravencrow City, and the war between Fieldsway and Ravencrow could only continue.

At the same time, Fieldsway will lose all his allies, and the real Ursula will not regard them as his own—Ursula is in Longsong Port, and if Ravencrow City is in danger, Ursula only needs to become Rin As the real queen of the Crowland, she will definitely support her, and she will definitely be an enemy of Fieldsway.

In other words, with Amy's own efforts, forces such as Fieldsway, Ravencrow Kingdom, Ursula, and Haakon once again formed a new quagmire of war.

(End of this chapter)