Knight and Wand

Chapter 123: The Age of Conflict
The gate was closed, and guards wearing sword-wing emblems were guarding outside.

Gathering his companions around the table, Leon spread out the parchment map on the table and pointed his finger at a location on the border of the barony, southwest of Farolis City, west of Pleton and northwest of Longka.

There was originally just a blank space there, but now, Leon had drawn a small triangle there and marked the name "Wachter".

"There is a small fortress here that was completed by Baron Elliver two years ago. It is the outpost of Farolis City to defend against the Wolf Territory. It is currently stationed there with 200 soldiers led by Sir Marcelo. They will send someone to Longka to contact us in a few days.

Lohak, you take your men to Fort Wachter to record the route, so that if we are attacked, we can support each other in the north and south." Leon instructed his companions.

"Understood, leave it to me." Lohak nodded in agreement.

"Azerien, you return to Selva today, suspend the military camp construction, and summon all craftsmen and Selva laborers to reinforce Longka. We must build sufficient defense measures before the threat arrives."

After instructing his two partners on their tasks, Leon and Old Brian discussed the terrain around Longka and the tactical plans in case of attacks from all directions.

Most of the tactics were planned by the old knight who claimed to have experience in leading troops, and several young people listened quietly.

Leon only recalled the historical battle examples he had seen in his previous life, and occasionally gave some suggestions to old Brian. He did not have too many doubts about the professionalism of himself as a centurion.

Wooden walls, arrow towers, fences, trenches, chevaux de frise. Leon didn't dare to discuss the details of how to arrange fortifications. The scale of possible conflicts in the future might not be large, but it would also affect the safety of thousands of people in the surrounding areas.

If Gunnar's army rushed into the territory of Farolis, even if the Wolf family did not deliberately massacre the people, the size of the army was there after all. The harm caused by the looting and plundering alone would surely cause casualties among the people far exceeding the number of casualties in Selva.

The long military meeting ended and everyone dispersed to carry out their respective tasks.

The atmosphere in Longka suddenly became tense and solemn. All the villagers were mobilized voluntarily. All the men stayed behind, while the disabled, children, women and children evacuated Longka and headed for Selva.

Leon patrolled the terrain around Longka, looking for where the enemy was most likely to advance and whether there was a hidden place where an ambush could be set.

Standing on a high hill in the northwest, Leon looked into the distance at the fields in the direction of Wolf Territory. He tilted his head and noticed that the girl next to him had worry in her eyes.

“You have a lot of questions, Olivia.” Leon came to the other side.

The girl stopped gazing into the distance and looked back at her lover in front of her.

"Leon, even if we return the villagers to the Gunnar family and explain the origins of those undead souls, can we not resolve the misunderstanding and eliminate the possible bloody conflict?" Olivia asked hesitantly.

Leon shook his head regretfully at her: "Those villagers are not the real source of conflict between Gunnar and Farolis. They just happened to be the trigger for the dispute between the two families. To the two lords, they are no longer important.

But if we explain to the Gunnar family where those ancient undead spirits came from, try to resolve the so-called misunderstanding, let them notice the anomalies in the Nightmare Forest, and even discover the truth about the disappearance of the cursed land."

He sighed helplessly and looked towards the forest in the south: "Then the small conflict that may happen now will really turn into a bloody battle for the unowned territory."

Leon pointed to the general direction of Castle Avalon to Olivia, and carefully explained to his lover: "Do you know where the city in the forest that I took you to more than a month ago is?
It is located directly south of the current Gunnar family territory. Such a critical location not only serves as a base for Baron Elliver's southward expansion, but also a pass that can contain the Gunnar family in the future.

Given the hatred and conflict between the Wolf Family and the Thorn Flower Family, the Grey Wolf Baron will not allow our Lord Elliver to expand southwards and revive the family, and he will not miss the opportunity to obtain the Nightmare Forest or even the enemy’s territory to the south.”

Seeing Olivia's complicated expression on her pretty face, Leon raised his hand to rub the girl's golden hair and told her, "Faced with the evil neighbors watching over him, Baron Elliver wants to revive and find a way out for his family. Baron Gunnar has been eyeing Thorn Flower for many years and wants to annex the territory. The contradictions between them are irreconcilable.

Now that I am a vassal of Farolis, I naturally have to put the safety and interests of my own territory and the Territory of Thorns first.

Olivia, when the Wolf Lord's army attacks, they will be no more merciful than the Kantardars. You must never hesitate to raise your sword and face danger."

"I will do my best to protect you and the people, Leon, but..."

Olivia asked gloomily, "We are all Orlanders. Why can't those bigwigs unite and work together to defeat the foreign enemies in the south? Why are they so obsessed with fighting each other?"

Leon looked at the innocent girl who was still confused, and felt pity for her. He couldn't help but hold her in his arms.

Confused Olivia did not resist her lover's hug, but closed her eyes peacefully, turned her head to Leon's chest, and listened to his strong heartbeat.

Leon understood that during the 16 years that Old Brian raised Olivia in a secluded corner of Selva, he taught the girl martial arts for self-defense, taught her proper etiquette, and guided her values ​​to be upright and kind.

But there was no time for the girl to understand the complex yet simple disputes among the noble lords.

Especially considering her true royal identity, old Brian had obviously always instilled the macro concept of "Orland" from the royal perspective into the girl as a matter of course.

But many lords of the Northern Kingdom must have a completely different view from the girl's current one.

".Olivia, in your opinion, the Kantardars are the foreign enemies.

But in the eyes of Baron Gunnar from the Farayel Territory, I am afraid that in the entire Grey Fir Valley Territory, except for the royal party allies, everyone else is an enemy. "Leon explained: "The lords of the Kingdom of Orland are far from being as close as family."

Having already learned lessons from Old Brian and a certain "historical" figure, he now knows more about the history and current situation of Orland than Olivia, who has lived in the Selva village for a long time.

The Crown of Kronia, Ostania, Roman, Garsom, Braden, Great West, Farayer, and Grayfir Valley are all the territories of the Northern Kingdom today, although their boundaries have changed a lot and are different from those in ancient times.

But in history more than 600 years ago, outside the territory of Cronia there were several different northern kingdoms.

It was not until the Drakmar family, which ruled Kronia, through the efforts of several generations of kings, used the strategy of forming alliances and making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones, that the northern countries surrendered to the black dragon banner and established "Orland".

The process of establishing the Northern Kingdom was not a thorough unification like the Qin Dynasty sweeping across the world and the Han Dynasty ruling the world as Leon remembered.

Orland did dismantle those small kingdoms with his powerful military.

However, the dismembered regions still had to retain or give birth to new great lords due to various political and practical reasons.

Some of them were granted fiefdoms because they had helped Orland during the unification process.

Some are difficult to conquer completely and the cost is too high, so they can only compromise with certain interests in exchange for the nominal submission of those powerful forces.

Now, after six hundred years of changes, the two most powerful nobles in the Kingdom of Orland are the Duke of Tymerien and Bomya and the Duke of Westral.

In addition, the lords of various sizes in the Falayere District in the west and the Bleden District in the far north actually maintained a delicate relationship with the Orland royal family, where they would only obey orders but not declarations.

".If you want all the lords in the north to unite as you wish, I'm afraid there are only two ways in this era." Leon told the girl about the general situation in the north and also expressed his simple personal opinion: "Either there is a big enough interest or threat to make the lords across the country know that only unity can win and maintain their own interests and security.

Otherwise, the kingdom will have a few more generations of wise and capable rulers who will find a way to eliminate those nobles who are too independent.

It would be best if no great lords ever appeared in the country again, so that Orland's royal power would be completely above everyone else and an order that could not be questioned or violated would be established.

In this way, a hundred years later, the concept of Orlando may be truly rooted in the hearts of the lords and the people. By then, the small nobles will obey the only order, and the internal struggles should be much more restrained than they are now."

Of course, Leon did not elaborate to the girl. There was no point in going too far. In his opinion, as long as the feudal state form did not change and the times did not continue to progress, this would only be a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution.

Once the monarchy declines during the Age of Strife, small lords still have a chance to grow in the chaos, and then another cycle of history begins. Moreover, even a truly unified empire can fall into a dark age of chaos and near collapse due to internal strife for hundreds of years, let alone this feudal kingdom with many lords.

Of course, fortunately, apart from the overseas Norsemen, there are not many complicated foreign races in this area, which at least ensures that no matter how chaotic it is, there is always a limit.

The Feru people all spoke the same language and used the same writing system, so there was no need for them to kill each other. This might have been an important factor in why Orland was able to rule the north relatively easily more than 600 years ago.

"Leon, I think I understand. Thank you, you still know as much as before."

Olivia understood vaguely, silently digesting her lover's words in her head.

Leon responded with a wry smile, merely reciting the historical examples from his memory.

But to be honest, he didn't really care whether Orlando could achieve substantive unification of the country in the future.

He was not an Orlander, not even a Serrian, and certainly not a Feru.

As a soul from outside the domain, he only hopes that he, his partners and friends, as well as the people he can protect, can eat and drink well and avoid disasters and sufferings, and everything will be fine.

Leon touched the girl's head in his arms and sighed in his heart.

In fact, there was a man who was ambitious and wanted to integrate the kingdom into one and achieve the great feat of unification.
That is Olivia's biological father.

The previous King of Orland, who had been in power for ten years and had tried to centralize power little by little, but took a wrong step and triggered a civil war, until his cousin, the current king, led a rebel army to attack the capital and was overthrown.

Not only did he die and his power was abolished, but he was also accused of various crimes and was branded as a "tyrant" throughout the world.

Leon felt a little sorry for his real father-in-law whom he had never met.

At least from old Brian's mouth, the late king was by no means a cruel tyrant as the current rumors say.

But for the people who never had the chance to see the king, and those who have not experienced the era of the previous king, the dead cannot speak to defend themselves.

What's more, he does have the only "charge" that is irrefutable to ordinary people.

Thinking of this, Leon hugged Olivia even tighter.

But anyway, it's all over.

Although Olivia didn't know the inside story, even if she knew, she probably wouldn't have any interest in the throne.

Leon had no intention of using the girl's blood to get his hands on the throne of Orland.

After repaying Miss Lola's kindness, he will be content to be a small lord, hugging Olivia every day, having a wife and children on the warm bed, and inviting friends to drink and eat meat on the 2nd, 3rd and 6th.

The main defense of Lonka that Old Brian was going to set up consisted of three wooden walls, one high and two low.

A circle of high walls separated a fire-proof distance and surrounded the village's houses and arrow towers. This will be Longka's last defensive stronghold.

The other two low walls are centered on Longka, one in the east and one in the west, and are built far away from the high wall, forming redundant depth areas.

The low wall will be combined with trench traps to extend from the river in the north of the village to the woods in the south, turning this small village into a simple pass to block the path.

The deep area between the high walls and the low walls will be divided into several areas by trenches and chevaux de frise, which can effectively stop cavalry.

Of course, generally no cavalry commander would be stupid enough to directly attack such targeted defensive facilities head-on.

If a battle breaks out, these things can only serve as auxiliary means to cooperate with our own infantry to delay the enemy and slow down the enemy's offensive efficiency.

It will take a lot of time to remove these obstacles that hinder the formation's progress.

If the invading enemy has fewer troops than ours, they probably wouldn't dare to attack such fortifications head-on.

If the enemy outnumbers you,
Unless you are really unable to defeat them and have no choice but to retreat, otherwise.
Leon stood on the top of Longka's newly built arrow tower and looked far to the north and south.

Woodland and riverside terrain.

This is the real key to determining victory or defeat.

Of course, the premise is that one's own front line will not be directly crushed by the enemy from the front.

Otherwise, they would have no choice but to run back to Selva to defend.

Leon looked back to the east.

The women and children who evacuated their families to the rear would join the local women and children and some laborers to build similar defenses on the northern slope of Seval.

Leon hoped that he would never have to use Selva's fortifications.

He also hoped that Lonka's fortifications would not be used.

It would be best if the enemy was stupid enough to attack directly the Fort Wachter where Knight Marcelo was stationed.

Even if they could attack the city of Farolis which had solid walls, that would be a blessing, so that he could directly join up with Marcelo's troops and easily close the gates and defeat the "dog".

Hoping that his opponent would not choose Longka as his target, Leon, with his good eyesight, suddenly saw a team carrying long and short weapons appear at the end of his vision in the east.

Of course, those were not the enemies that bypassed the Longka Pass. Look at the swallowtail flag of the Thorn Flower Family and the familiar figure leading them. This was Azerien who had returned to Selva earlier to dispatch reinforcements.

Just as he watched, as the reinforcements came closer and closer, he estimated the number of people. Even without counting the baggage train behind them, Leon found that there were twice as many people as expected.

He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, wondering where Azerien had gotten another phalanx of troops for him.

Leon turned around and climbed down the arrow tower, ready to go and meet his companions immediately, but when he reached the center of the village, he saw Corvis running towards him from the big house.

"My Lord!" the blond boy called out hurriedly.

Leon had no choice but to walk over and said, “What’s the matter? So anxious?”

Corvis ran to his master and smiled helplessly: "The griffin egg has cracked."

(End of this chapter)