Chapter 159: Imagination and Reality
Taner has already begun ordering the raiding group to retreat.
Recently, we have been losing scouts continuously.
His tactics were discussed with Rand at the beginning, the most simple and unpretentious plundering tactics.
Scatter out scouts, then decide whether to fight or flee, and if no one is around, plunder.
If caught up, never be attached to the looted things, and make sure to preserve your strength.
As long as we are not outnumbered, we won’t fight.
This tactic is disgusting.
What's even more disgusting is that this looting group robbed people as well. In a sense, the ones responsible for logistics are the very people who were robbed.
These captured people were responsible for transporting the captured goods to the defense line.
In other words, the logistical cost of this force is so low that it is almost nothing.
If they are caught, the worst that can happen is that they will be snatched back.
Anyway, as long as you retain your strength, you will have countless opportunities.
And once they are transported across the defense line, they cannot be taken back.
However, the coalition forces of the Northern Alliance have already begun to withdraw, otherwise they would not have been able to reach the northern border in time for the autumn harvest. The Southern Kingdom was also preparing to rest and did not immediately resume the fight for ownership of the gold mine.
Although unlike the Northern Alliance, the Southern Kingdom was not constantly harassed by orcs and trolls, but it was not completely free of troubles, such as the elves and the murlocs in the South Sea.
If you really ignore it, you may still miss the autumn harvest.
It would be a big loss if the autumn harvest was missed. The income of most nobles depended on the output of the land. Without this part, the annual income would be greatly reduced.
However, the nobles of the Kingdom of Lensa still have a lot to do. After the northern coalition army withdrew from the southern territory, a considerable number of the nobles who were looted were ready to regain their face.
Of course, they had long forgotten that it was they who first attacked the Northern Union.
However, they did not need to command or fight in person in this battle. They only needed to hand over their soldiers to the Snow Fox Countess.
Although it was heard that the Countess Snow Fox suffered a loss in the previous border friction, no noble in the Southern Kingdom believed that this was a problem with the Countess Snow Fox's command.
Because it was obvious that the Frost Moon Kingdom's group of looting bandits and nobles who had no aristocratic manners were taking advantage of the fact that they were attacked from both sides and taking advantage of the situation.
Overall, the Frost Moon Kingdom gained from this border friction, which means that the Kingdom of Lensa and other southern kingdoms that were plundered suffered losses.
There are so many nobles who have suffered losses, not to mention the Snow Fox Countess.
The military command ability of the Snow Fox Countess has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the Southern Kingdom.
At this time, the Snow Fox Countess finally breathed a sigh of relief. With the gathering of the army, the group of greedy robbers finally began to restrain themselves.
She had never seen such a disgusting style of play and such a difficult defense.
That line of defense had been constantly reinforced, and the manpower used was snatched from the Southern Kingdom, naturally including the population of her Snow Fox Territory.
The thought of the soil that was dug up and the people that were taken away from her territory, all used to strengthen the defense line, and this increasingly solid defense line kept disgusting her, preventing her from using a large number of troops for revenge.
Now she is waiting for the army to gather, and she will give these robbers from the Frost Moon Kingdom a good beating when they gather.
From a national perspective, the size of the assembled army is still small, but for a viscounty, it is a disaster.
Of course, the nobles of the Frost Moon Kingdom were well aware that these looted southern nobles would not tolerate this, so they were prepared to fight back. However, they did not see that far. Rand had built a defense line at the beginning and was constantly reinforcing it during the looting.
But even if the other nobles realized it, they did not have enough initiative to immediately start preparing for defense. After all, it would not sound good to say that they were afraid before the battle.
Also, they didn't want to give all the limelight to Rand.
A newly promoted viscount who was originally just a commoner has already been in the spotlight too much. If many nobles originally did not care about the impact that Rand would have, they now truly feel the impact of Rand's appearance on the domestic political situation.
Although it was not much, Rand's appearance in the royal city this time did have a real impact on the trial between Count Flying Fox and Count Stag.
In the royal city, many nobles and Rand had the same plan. Now that what needed to be done had been done, it was just the right time to set off back. After all, everyone already knew that there were a number of top-level cultists hidden underground in the royal city. If they happened to encounter them, not all nobles would be guarded by top-level professionals.
And even if there is, the probability of death if attacked by surprise is still high.
Although Rand has two top professionals by his side and a team of well-equipped and well-trained guards, he does not intend to take care of these things. Earl of the Stag and Marquis Black and Brown are also planning to leave.
There was really no reason for him to stay here any longer, and he felt like he was definitely being targeted.
When the trial ended that day and Count Flying Fox was found guilty, the mustachioed Count Flying Fox first looked at Count Stag with an inexplicable look, and then at Rand, skipping over the Marquis Black and Brown and the judge.
Count Feihu must want revenge on him.
This is how the world is. No one will think about what they have done in the past. What they can truly experience are only their current gains and losses, and the people who brought about these gains and losses.
Count Feihu would never think about his previous betrayal of the domestic nobles. He would only remember that Rand escorted the evidence to the royal city to disgust him.
Of course, the above are all Rand's malicious speculations about Count Flying Fox.
Now the problem arises. Although Rand does not think that Count Flying Fox will really lose his mind like that, if Count Flying Fox really wants to destroy him at all costs, then the problem will be very serious.
Count Feihu was originally the Grand Duke of Needle Leaf. His family had a long heritage, and including hired priests, there were at least three top-level professionals in his family, and possibly even more.
There are also the upper-level professional corps, the mage corps, and the knight corps.
As time goes by, these military forces will eventually shrink to the level of a normal earl, but this cannot be accomplished in a short period of time.
The process of a family's decline is a very long one.
Besides, a normal earl is much stronger than the newly promoted viscount Rand, not to mention Earl Feihu, who was originally a grand duke.
The probability that Count Feihu really lost his mind and attacked him directly was very small, but that didn't mean that Count Feihu wouldn't use other ways to disgust him that were easier to avoid suspicion.
In fact, Count Flying Fox had disgusted him twice. Once was on the defense line. Rand was sure that it was he who passed the information to Countess Snow Fox.
If the information obtained by Count Feihu himself was not biased, Rand might have suffered a loss.
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The second time was in the royal city, when a group of young nobles blocked his way and tried to harm or frame him as a cultist.
In order to avoid being attacked by Count Flying Fox on the way back, Rand originally planned to go with Marquis Black and Brown and Count Stag. The three territories of Brown Moon Deer are quite close to each other, but now the situation has changed.
Because there are many small and medium nobles who plan to go with Rand.
Some of the lesser nobles already knew that Rand was protected by top-level professionals, but many did not know.
Unlike the great nobles, the small and medium nobles do not have reliable sources of intelligence, and often the intelligence they obtain is just hearsay and not true.
But they were very clear about one thing: when Rand came, he brought a whole team of 86 guards to the royal city because he needed to escort prisoners.
Many of the plans to go with Rand.
Prevent the cultists from coming out of the sewers in the royal city and then attack them.
Before Rand came to the royal city, many nobles found it difficult to understand Rand's strength because they had never seen it with their own eyes and could not feel the impact.
For example, before, the petty nobles under the command of Earl Stag and Earl Greenleaf tried to hinder Rand's growth by looting, because they took it for granted that Rand would not be strong enough to stop them and could only be forced to swallow the loss.
Maybe they had originally planned to plunder and then give some to Rand, and finally force Rand to serve as their pawn.
Of course, they soon realized the disparity in the world and discovered that Rand was actually the person their feudal lord wanted to make friends with.
Moreover, they suffered a disastrous military defeat and finally paid a huge ransom to Rand.
The same is true now. Many nobles originally only had a superficial understanding of Rand's strength, development potential, and military command ability.
They probably knew that Rand had unlimited potential in the future.
Most of them would choose to at least maintain a good relationship with Rand on the surface, such as inviting Rand to banquets and dances, and asking unmarried female juniors in their family to invite Rand to dance.
But this is all conceptual. Conceptually, Rand is just a young man who has just become a viscount for half a year.
No matter how good the future is, can it compare to those heirs of great nobles?
Maybe Rand will become the strongest among the Viscounts, but becoming an Earl? The probability is too low.
Maybe there is hope. Perhaps Rand is the most likely among all the viscounts to become an earl, and the most likely to leap from a small or medium-sized noble to a great noble. However, this most likely possibility still has slim hope.
And if you can't become an earl, won't you still be a small or medium noble?
No different from them.
But actually seeing Rand's guards in the royal city was another feeling.
In particular, some knowledgeable people recognized the attire of the White King's personal guards.
At least after seeing this, they felt that Rand could give them a sense of security in this kind of situation.
In the end, it turned out like this: Rand, Earl of the Stag, Marquis of Black and Brown, and many small and medium nobles formed a huge convoy.
Since they just asked to go with him, Rand had no reason to refuse them.
And this is good for Rand. With so many nobles walking together, at least they will no longer be attacked by Count Flying Fox.
And if there is an attack by cultists, it will be easier to deal with with more people. After all, these small and medium-sized nobles also have their own guards.
(End of this chapter)