plumnovel #122 - The situation of Flying Castle
#122 - The situation of Flying Castle
Imperial Calendar 1444, October 26th, Feiliu Fort.
Feiliu Fort, located at the confluence of the Yibei and Nauan Rivers, is the water and land transportation hub and political center of the entire Qianhe Valley.
The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Church in the entire Qianhe Valley Diocese is located in Feiliu Fort.
Varo Port, outside Feiliu Fort, is the most prosperous port in the Qianhe Valley.
Among the many commercial ports, warehouses, and shops, a merchant house as large as a castle rises from the ground, overlooking the small houses.
In the merchant house's first floor, as spacious as a lord's hall, sat merchants from all over the continent.
There were gold-gilded merchants from Nuoen, dwarf vendors from the northern Furnace Highlands, Xilan merchants wearing vests in the cold weather, and even blood slave traders with pale skin and red clothes.
Most of them came to sell various handicrafts, seeking dyes and wines in return.
The merchants traveling north and south on the first floor, covered in dust, shouted and talked loudly.
"I heard that a bandit named Thomas has emerged in the Gaotai Mountains, claiming to be the adopted son of the Holy Grandson, the Holy Great-Grandson."
"Don't mention them, a while ago in Nanmangde, one also popped up, name unknown, claiming to be the Holy Grandson's sworn brother, calling himself Holy Grandson Bro."
"Once the Holy Knights arrive, these people will surely be reduced to ashes."
Catherine couldn't help but sigh upon hearing these merchants' discussions.
During this period, in order to cover up its failure, the Church对外宣称 that the Duanmao numbered over 100,000.
Under the intentional or unintentional actions of the Church and the Empire, waves of rioters sprung up everywhere like mushrooms after rain.
These rioters were mostly public farmers fleeing famine due to floods, as well as a large number of refugees, and even many bankrupt robber knights.
Since they were accomplices of the Duanmao, it was naturally doctrinally flawless for the Church to send troops to suppress them.
After killing this group of people, the land would be vacant, perfect for immigrating people from Leia and Fran.
The Qianhe Valley is not like the coast, where manors would be bankrupted by cheap smuggled grain, it was still profitable to be a local landlord.
This was the consistent claim of the imperial feudal nobles.
Between suppression in lieu of appeasement and work relief, they chose suppression in lieu of relief.
Catherine silently took a sip of wine, her thoughts flowing from the fir pillars in front of her and the discussions of the crowd to the past.
Since the end of the Hundred Years' War, the abundant martial spirit could not be released externally, so it could only be digested internally, leading to very common count-level annexation wars.
Due to the Church and the Empire favoring one side, the Imperial Heavenly Soldiers often personally intervened, causing the local nobles in the Qianhe Valley to either go bankrupt or die and have their clans destroyed.
The distribution of upper-class noble lineages in the Qianhe Valley changed from 90% Kushite to 20% Fran, 40% Leia, and 10% Nuoen.
Now, among the upper-class nobles here, except for Duke Dane of Kush, who is a genuine Qianhe Valley person, the rest are basically Fran, Leia, and Nuoen people.
They have no regard for the interests of the Qianhe Valley.
"Stable, completely stable! Breaking news! Xiaochi City has been breached!"
"The temporary city council has been dissolved, eight councilors have been hanged, and the temporary speaker and three councilors have fled!"
"Is that real?"
"The Church's official announcement, absolutely real."
"Tsk tsk tsk, Xiaochi City is in for a rough time."
"Not necessarily." The pot-bellied dye merchant crossed his legs, "The Xiaochi City behind it is supported by the Duchess of Hema Stone, and there are many Nuoen Grand Dukes' industries within its territory. They can mess around, but they can't grab too much, only a little bit."
"Why?"
"Wouldn't that give the Nuoen Grand Dukes an excuse to intervene in the Qianhe Valley? If the Duchess of Hema Stone doesn't move, they won't dare to enter rashly."
"It is estimated that the negotiations have been settled, Prince Kongdai, I know this person, he won't disregard the overall situation."
These merchants rolled up their sleeves and slammed their wine glasses heavily on the table, spilling wine all over the table, acting like they knew astronomy, geography, and were directing the world.
But Catherine knew that, among these few, if they could even let out a fart in front of Prince Kongdai, it would be considered that they hadn't clenched their buttocks tightly.
She had someone copy a few briefings and studied them comparatively.
Sure enough, the "Thrown into the Cellar" incident in Xiaochi City had ended. Prince Kongdai quickly cut through the mess, reaching a negotiation agreement with some merchants and small landowners in the city.
The two sides cooperated internally and externally, disarming the city's militia. Prince Kongdai personally charged into the formation, stormed into the church, and rescued the old bishop who had been gnawing on radishes in the cellar for a month.
I thought they could last a few more months.
Although Catherine still didn't have much expression, as if sensing her disappointment, Mittenne softly said: "Under Prince Kongdai's attack, it's already very good that they could hold on for so long."
Forced to give a wry smile, Catherine knew that Mittenne's words were correct.
How could mortals have the ability to fight against the extraordinary? This was also why she wanted to contact those two land nobles.
They didn't have much extraordinary power in their hands, but having it was better than not having it. Between the extraordinary, the strength wasn't that different, if they couldn't beat them, they could stalemate.
But between mortals and the extraordinary, losing meant defeat.
Over the years, Catherine had traveled north and south, seeing a lot. She had even personally gone to the battlefield to investigate the combat effectiveness of the Edict Knights.
The conclusion she reached was that mortals could not fight against the extraordinary, no matter how high the degree of organization.
Putting aside the combat power of the Edict Knights themselves, the warhorses they rode were not comparable to normal horses.
The warhorses they rode were mostly Curly Highland Horses from the Centaur Grasslands.
These warhorses, after being fed potions from a young age, each had a shoulder height of no less than 1.7 meters and an adult weight of over 2,000 pounds, almost a ton.
The only drawback might be that long-distance mobility efficiency was relatively slow, but their peak speed for short-distance sprints could reach 50 kilometers per hour.
This was in the case of both man and horse being armored.
The Edict Knights riding on them each wore absurd steel armor weighing over 100 pounds.
Normally, the weight of a suit of armor should preferably not be higher than one-third of the wearer's weight.
With the blessing of the Knight's Breathing Technique, the Edict Knights could wear armor weighing two-thirds of their weight.
An 180-pound Edict Knight could sing, dance, and compose poetry while wearing 120 pounds of plate armor, and only exhaust his stamina after running a half marathon.
This was still without potions and the blessing of monks.
Such a knight, even if a hundred old farmers attacked together, might not be able to break his armor.
Not to mention they were riding warhorses that could move quickly, the old farmers couldn't keep up with the speed at all and could only be repeatedly charged and killed.
The highland horse weighed 2,000 pounds, the horse armor 200 pounds, the fully armored Edict Knight 300 pounds, plus weapons and other sundries, the total weight reached 1.3 tons.
When ten Edict Knights charged, it was almost equivalent to a heavy truck with a row of bayonets mounted on the crash beam, crashing over at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour.
Of course, the Edict Knights rarely directly used heavy cavalry charges, because it wasn't cost-effective, not because of the people, but mainly because of the horses.
A good highland warhorse was too expensive. Sometimes, to prevent damage to the horses, the Edict Knights would even dismount and fight on foot.
The normal combat mode of the Edict Legion was: cannon fodder infantry holding the line, squire knights harassing, banner knights cutting corners, and Edict Knights commanding, supervising the battle, and delivering the final blow.
If both sides had extraordinary individuals, it would be another set of tactics.
But in any case, dealing with mortals, the squire knights and banner knights, these extraordinary knights, were enough.
"Speaking of which, there hasn't been any news from Sisi for a long time. Didn't she go to Gaobao to contact the Roan Party?"
"Don't talk about this here." Pressing Carl's hand, Mittenne whispered.
Yes, Gaobao was Prince Kongdai's first stop, who knew what happened to Sisi?
Full of worry, Catherine finished the last sip of wine, and only then did she receive news from the owner of the guildhall.
Standing up, Catherine did not return to the inn, but came to a reception room, where a middle-aged monk with a Paolo hairstyle was waiting anxiously.
"Oh, my dear Ms. Catherine, my beloved, my..."
"Alright, alright, save the flattery for later." Although the tone was unkind, when spoken in Catherine's gentle voice, it was filled with intellectual banter and a bit of girlish playfulness.
"Madam, the thing you wanted, I have helped you find it..."
"Does he know the purpose of my trip?"
"He said he could guess..." Seeing Catherine frown, the middle-aged monk quickly added, "But he is willing to take this risk. You can write off his debt, and you haven't sold the debt to debt collectors, you are his reborn parents."
"Alright, I understand."
"Is he trustworthy?" Mittenne asked in a low voice, "Are we still going?"
Catherine thought for a long time, and finally made up her mind: "Let's prepare more. In any case, we have to go.
In the current situation, if we really let the teacher fall into Constance's hands, who knows what he will do."
ps Finally caught up.
By the way, the Centaur Grassland is not a mistake.
The Centaurs don't consider the grassland a grassland, but a large clump of grass. They call the dwarves' highlands Flying Large Grass.