Chapter 161, Autumn Rain
After Louis, Duke of Connet, and Duke Lyonnasay had left for a while, King Richard sat alone on his throne, thinking about all this.
Undoubtedly, his great-nephew Anxi-Desmond is ashamed of his great trust and teachings. It was his mistake that ruined the entire chivalry army. For this war, his great-nephew and grandson must bear a heavy responsibility.
Now, the king had to face the aggressive dukes, and the lost army needed a huge sum of money from the kingdom's treasury to compensate for the loss. In a short time, the king didn't know how to find such a huge sum of money.
It seems that it is time to discuss the loan with the Grand Duke of Marienburg "Lender" Van der Gouber-Schulz. When he thinks of the money owed by the royal family to Marienburg, the old king's face twitches. Heartache, he did the math last year, and Brittania already owed Marienburg more than 100,000 gold coins in short-term royal debts, which is not considered a long-term debt.
Well, money aside, Richard still has to deal with who is responsible for this.
First of all, he must set a tone, that is, as a king, he must not bear this responsibility, otherwise his throne is in danger of being shaken.
Anyway, Ang Hee is dead.
Adelaide also died, only Baron Lane survived.
Thinking of this, Richard's heart burst into flames. If there is a slight change among them, for example, Ryan died, and one of Anxi or Adelaide survived and led the 6,000 remnant army to obtain It would be nice to win.
Then the nature of this war can be completely changed. He will vigorously publicize this tragic victory, make the commander of this army a national hero, and vigorously advocate that the destruction of Wanmoyan can make the country worry-free for decades, creating a kind of "Victory is victory" and "big legendary victory" to keep everyone's mouths shut.
But the one who survived and won in the end was the chosen champion of the Fairy in the Lake—Lian Macado.
Although this kid is very strong, he has never been one of his own, never.
On the contrary, he has extremely rich factions. He used to be the White Wolf Knight, his adoptive father was the White Wolf Knight, and his godfather was the Duke of Griffin of the Empire. "Long-legged" Francois' vassal, from any point of view, he is not his own.
At the same time, Bastogne's army was also included in his army.
But can Richard punish Ryan directly? Can he hold Ryan responsible for not going to the rescue of the knightly army, to rescue the Marquis of Anxi?
In fact, it doesn't work, Richard's mature political wisdom tells him that he can't be held accountable, at least not now, because Ryan brought back the victory.
At this juncture, he was a hero of the country, and Richard must not punish him publicly, or his prestige must be damaged.
But from his standpoint, he can't give this guy who doesn't belong to his faction too high a reward, otherwise it would be tantamount to encouraging the knights to set up another hill and not obey orders, which would further weaken the royal power.
This is no different from being an enemy. Inside the kingdom, Francois, Duke of Winford and Berhemond, Duke of Bastogne, have always had deep conflicts with him. The armies of the two duchies did not suffer major losses, and experienced the baptism of blood and fire.
Under the ebb and flow, the king didn't want to let them benefit anymore.
But this came back again, the same sentence, it was Ryan who dismantled the Wanmo Rock, and he brought back the victory.
This is almost a dead end, and going around is still a dead end.
The king knew he needed to think about it from another angle.
As for not holding the triumphal ceremony, it is not a big problem. With such a heavy loss, not holding the triumphal ceremony can be barely justified from any point of view, and Ryan can't force it. The eight dukes who have been wiped out will oppose it .
After thinking for a while, the king gradually understood.
Victory is definitely still a victory. There was no disastrous defeat in this chivalry war.
Instead, it was a glorious victory!
So since you don't want to give the credit to the living, then give it to the dead!
As for Ryan's group, let them hang out first, kill their arrogance, and then give them enough rewards to shut them up.
Now, we have to wait for the arrival of the dukes. The king and the dukes will have a meeting to discuss how to end this war.
…………
In late September, when Ryan led the right-hand army out of the forest, the autumn atmosphere in the Kingdom of the Knights of Brittany was getting stronger, and the serfs were numbly harvesting food.
Walking on the field, the knights felt very relieved. Through their efforts, they protected the people in the field.
They are winners now.
There is nothing more glorious than defending the country.
There used to be a saying that if the knights of Brittania did not seldom initiate wars because of defending their homeland, if it were not for the Holy Grail knights who need to protect the holy land of ladies, perhaps the knights of Brittania able to conquer the world.
This is of course an unreliable speculation, but it also shows how afraid humans in the old world are of the knights of the knight kingdom.
The army marched along the road, and then arrived at the Castle of Artois, which was only one day away from Courona. Ryan received an order from the King of Knights, and the army would rest in the Castle of Artois, with only Ryan waiting. Several leaders can go directly to Courona and wait until the notice. Of course, they will collectively rest at the Castle of Artois tonight.
This order has already made Ryan smell something different. Normally, an army cannot enter a city after fighting a chaotic creature. Generally, it has to rest for a period of time to see the aftermath.
But Ryan still smelled something different.
When the army approached Artois Castle, the sight in front of him made Ryan's eyes widen.
An army is already waiting for them.
No, not an army.
It is two armies.
Under the towering castle of Artois, two elite kingdom knight troops are waiting for their arrival.
On the left, the family crest banner of the red fire dragon is swaying in the wind, and the golden tassels under the banner are swaying with the autumn wind.
Under the banner, the fiery red Bastogne Kingdom knights in full armor were waiting for the battle. Their shields were uniformly engraved with the coat of arms of a red dragon on a yellow background. Dozens of Kingdom knights stood in a very neat line.
With golden helmet and silver armor, Yu Yi is brilliant.
The knight standing at the front has the might of a giant dragon. He has a resolute face full of vicissitudes. Around his body, the space is sinking slightly, and there is light red energy surrounding him. Watch him in motion.
There is no doubt that he is the patriarch of the famous Red Dragon family, Duke of Bastogne, "Beast Butcher" Berhemond de Bastogne: "Salute to the knights who have returned from victory!"
"salute!"
On the right, the pure daytime horse is flying in the clouds with the family coat of arms banner, and the Pegasus knight holding the banner is shuttled in the golden autumn sunset.
"Long-legged" Francois, the Duke of Wenford, smiled and stood in front of the knights of the Wenford Kingdom in silver helmets and white armor. His elegant face was full of smiles. When he saw Ryan and the others arriving, the Duke himself waved: " Good afternoon, soldiers, good fight."
"Father!" The Aintree brothers and sisters called out one after another. They didn't expect the Duke to be waiting for them here!
"Father! I..." Gabriel also rushed in front of the Red Dragon Duke. The Red Dragon Duke smiled roughly, and then patted him on the chest: "It's okay, I didn't embarrass the family."
Only Ryan was left in place, and the Holy Grail Knight himself smiled awkwardly.
Get used to it, since he came to this world, he has always been alone.
The careful Surya immediately realized Ryan's embarrassing situation, and she immediately turned to Ryan and said softly: "Come here together, Your Excellency Ryan, father has something to tell us."
"Okay." Ryan shrugged, seeing that the female knight was so considerate, a little warmth rose in his heart.
The Red Dragon Duke came up to shake hands with him and signaled: "Thank you, young man, I have already heard what Gabriel said, and I won't say any more nonsense. I'm also a Holy Grail Knight, and I will remember you."
"You're welcome, this is what I should do." Ryan could feel the extremely terrifying aura coming from Duke Bohemond.
The Duke of Red Dragon is stronger than Francois, Duke of Winford. Among the strong human beings that Ryan knows, only the Witch of the Lake God and the Duke of Griffin can match him.
This model of chivalry, the great sanctuary knight has always been committed to serving the fairy of the lake. His dream is to become a holy grail knight and guard the holy land of the fairy of the lake, but the fairy of the lake ordered him to accept the land sovereignty of his ancestors. Govern the people, not charge as a Grail Knight.
Even so, the duke became a famous beastman slayer. In addition, the duke himself was not interested in governing the territory. He always entrusted this task to his deputy, and then led his family knights to Slaying evil, his lance pierced through doom bulls and green warlords, and his longsword slew vampire counts and champions of chaos.
The Duke firmly followed the teachings of the fairy in the lake. When the opponent was a human being, he used a lance and never made up the knife as long as he knocked the opponent off the horse. This earned him the respect of countless people, even if he His enemies also admire his noble character. The Duke is always committed to fighting evil in his territory, and will only return to the castle to rest when the territory is safe.
"Thank you, Ryan, you've done a good job." Francois came to Ryan, and he reached out and patted Ryan on the shoulder: "It's not appropriate to say anything else here, let's enter the Castle of Artois, let Let me arrange the accommodation and dinner of the army first, the soldiers are all tired."
"Okay." There will be a special clerk immediately.
Arranging accommodation and meals for more than 4,000 troops is hard work, but it is not up to the knights to do it. Ryan followed the two dukes and their descendants directly to the center of the Castle of Artois, where, The attendants have already arranged a sumptuous dinner table to reward the knights who returned from the expedition.
A group of people walked towards the inner courtyard of the castle. Ryan noticed that it was a very, very large three-story castle. It was piled up with thick stones. There was a window every ten steps or so, and the soldiers could look out from the inside. There are cannons and large bed crossbows on the walls.
"What a tight defense, who is guarding this castle now?" Ryan asked with interest.
Brittany is not completely without artillery.
Unlike the empire across the gray mountains, if the covenant between the empire and the dwarves is called the eternal blood alliance, then the relationship between Britannia and the dwarves can only be said to be mediocre.
The empire is rarely willing to share the secrets about gunpowder with the knight kingdom, so most of the knight kingdom can only spend a lot of money to buy some outdated or obsolete artillery from the empire or dwarves. These artillery are good for defending the city, but the effect of field battles is not good. up.
"The Castle of Artois is now managed by Baron Zieg. He rarely stays here. This is not his territory, but directly administered by the king himself." Francois took over Ryan's question: "This used to be The Duke of Artois, but after the Tower of Dole incident, the Duke of Artois also participated in the civil war."
"Duke Artois died in battle? But it's impossible to find an heir?" Ryan noticed that even though more than two hundred years have passed, Artois can still be vaguely seen in many places in the castle. The family coat of arms.
Red Dragon Duke Bohemond sighed softly: "I really can't find it."
"Why?" Now it was the female knight Surya's turn to ask, she was also very interested in this matter.
"At the end of the civil war, Knight King Taylor discovered by accident that the Duke of Artois and his family had been turned into vampires, and they were gradually becoming midnight nobles. In desperation, His Majesty Taylor and the Lake God Witch Your Highness launched the chivalrous war together, and wiped out Duke Chilfroy of Artois and his family."
"At this time, the entire Duke of Artois has been harassed by the beastmen for ten years. Many territories have been submerged in forests, and many people have been reduced to dust. After the war, the title of Duke of Artois cannot be found. The right heir, Count Vogel, who is most qualified to inherit the title of Duke of Artois, has died in the civil war, so the Dukedom of Artois is divided into the Duchy of Lyonnaise, Le-Anguillan and Connet. Split, obviously, since the Duke of Lyonnaise was the King of Knights at that time, the Duke of Lyonnaise was allocated much more territory than the other two dukes."
"That's right." Ryan nodded.
Unknowingly, it began to rain outside the castle.
The autumn wind is blowing, the night is rainy, and there are dark clouds outside the castle. The fine autumn rain falls from the sky, adding its last touch to the autumn harvest. Sitting in the banquet hall of the castle, everyone can smell the fragrance of the soil and the fragrance of the earth. fresh air.
Amidst the sound of rain outside the window, everyone sat down and enjoyed a sumptuous dinner. Ryan sat down at the end of the long table consciously, and Suria sat next to him upon seeing this.
Francois first looked at Ryan, then at his daughter sitting next to Ryan, and smiled meaningfully: "Ryan, do you know how much trouble you have caused in this chivalry war? Now apart from Pala The Duke of Weng and the Duke of Berleon, all the dukes in the entire kingdom are rushing to the capital of Korona, just to discuss the rewards and punishments for you and your army."
"I know." Ryan smiled wryly. He understood that it was a controversial decision for him not to go back to support the annihilated Marquis of Anxi but to go straight to the Demon Rock, because knights are professional soldiers and their vocation is to obey orders.
Although in terms of results and long-term perspective, Ryan did nothing wrong.
"Well, as long as you have self-knowledge, eat first, and after eating, let's analyze this matter carefully, and let us see what we can get and what price we have to pay."
"I understand, my lord."
The handling of any plot cannot satisfy everyone. It is normal to have your own opinions if it is controversial. I also welcome everyone to discuss it, but first put an unreasonable big hat on it, or just open your mouth and say that you have a halo of wisdom or something. Forget it, I can only try my best to ensure that the basic logic works. If everyone thinks it’s okay... I won’t write web articles here, right?