The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Doug's attitude towards the demons is complicated. Having cooperated with the demons, Doug naturally knows their wolfish ambitions, but the demons are indeed a powerful ally.

However, what the demons demanded far exceeded what Doug could accept, which was the main reason why Doug had broken ties with the demons.

The demons' desires are too great. Those concessions have actually become demon territory, but the demons don't seem to be satisfied with that. They covet even more.

After seeing that Doug was unwilling to give up any more, the demons went to the Eastern Territory and found the nobles there. The nobles of the Eastern Territory, just like Doug had been, were very confident that they could control the demons and began to assist them in annexing the Northern Territory.

But now, things are different. Doug's collapse is happening faster than expected. These demons have keenly noticed this and have once again targeted Doug, the gambler.

"Insolence! Why don't you just ask me to give you the entire kingdom!"

Upon hearing the conditions offered by the demons, Doug angrily rummaged around on his body and finally pulled out a musket from his waist.

"Your Excellency, you should think this through. This is certainly better than being caught by your nephew-in-law, isn't it?"

The demon envoy calmly looked at Doug, even taking a leisurely sip of tea.

"Besides, aren't you still the governor in name only? You're just ruling over a separate territory."

The demons demanded that Doug surrender to Lind, cede most of his land, and establish a border relationship with Lind. In return, the demons stationed troops in Doug's territory to help him fight against Lind.

As for where the border will be drawn, that depends on where the final battle line is held.

Not only that, the demons also demanded that Doug change his religious beliefs, switching from worshipping the goddess to worshipping the demon god.

If he were to comply with the demons' conditions, Doug wouldn't even have the authority to deploy troops in his own territory. He would have to get the demon garrison's approval for everything, and he wouldn't even be able to protect the faith within his territory, completely losing his autonomy.

Doug pointed his musket at the demon envoy, but looking at the black muzzle, the demon envoy quipped, "What's wrong, Governor? You didn't hesitate this much when you invited us to kill your father."

After his arm trembled several times, Doug put down the musket and said, "The situation was different back then. Back then, the capital was there to help us, but now, the capital is not on my side."

"This is simple."

The demon envoy replied, "Although we cannot change the capital's attitude, we can help you negotiate with the Eastern Territory. At least during your counterattack, the Eastern Territory will not make any further moves."

The demon envoy's attitude didn't seem like he was lying, and Doug was somewhat surprised that the cooperation between the Eastern Territory and the demons had reached this level.

Doug thought for a moment and continued, "And it's not that I disagree. Right now, the gray and white collars are launching such a fierce offensive. You should at least let me see if you can really stop them before we can even talk about this business."

Doug's idea is good. He'll use the demons as tools to test their combat strength. If they're really stronger than the gray-collar workers, then Doug won't need to choose them.

Even if they're not as good as white-collar workers, they can still see the current combat strength of the demon race and maybe even weaken it.

The demon envoy raised an eyebrow, seemingly having guessed Doug's thoughts, and asked, "That's certainly possible, but we demons won't do small-scale skirmishes. If you're going to do something, do something big, how about it?"

"Big? What do you mean by that?"

Doug had a bad feeling.

"The Governor is currently unable to stop the Gray Collar army, so he is planning a general offensive, right?"

Doug nodded. Given the enemy's superior equipment, Doug wouldn't stand a chance in skirmishes or siege battles. The only hope lay in large-scale battles.

After all, Doug is fighting on home ground. With the manpower of those nobles drawn from the countryside for so long, the number of Doug's army has now swelled to an astonishing number, not to mention the number of professionals among them. Even if they were placed on the southwestern border, they could completely contend with the Kingdom of Anjou.

So when he heard that the Kingdom of Anjou had been defeated by the southwestern border army armed with new weapons, Doug wasn't even that depressed anymore. It turned out that it wasn't that he was too bad, but that the enemy's weapons were really too strong. What about the Anjou professional legion? They couldn't beat the new muskets either.

And thinking about how I managed to hold out for so long against such powerful muskets, Doug realized that I was far stronger than the army on Anjou's side.

"Since it's a general offensive anyway, why not include our demon race as well? We can take advantage of this offensive to demarcate the boundaries of governance with the opposing governor, what do you think?"

This means that the demons will also join the all-out attack.

Although this would make it difficult to test the strength of the demons, the more people involved in the final battle, the better.

"So, in what form should the demons join?"

At this point, Doug was already somewhat tempted, since he had no other options left.

"What form? Of course, it's a form in which we take the lead."

The demon envoy said nonchalantly, "Our demon army has the right to mobilize your soldiers, and demon generals have higher command authority than your generals. Do you have any objections?"

"My personal guards are no good, and I must decide the battlefield arrangements. I am still the overall commander."

The demon envoy knew his request was too outrageous and that Doug wouldn't agree to it directly, so he nodded when he heard what Doug said.

"It doesn't matter, we'll definitely win in the end anyway."

Doug found it strange. The demons had fought against the Gray Collars' army and the resistance before, and had mostly lost. Where did they get the confidence to take down the Gray Collars' army?

Moreover, the demon that Doug was asked to convert to was someone Doug had never heard of before, and it was hard for him to imagine that a new god would suddenly appear in this era.

Doug had also investigated this deity. He heard that it was dug out of the permafrost several years ago and has only recently begun to slowly awaken.

Doug didn't believe the legends about this god at all. Many of the legends were made up on the spot, directly grafted from other gods. It was a standard evil god, not to mention that it was unearthed.

It's said that this so-called demon god can really respond to believers, but Doug isn't really interested. The goddess is also said to be able to respond to believers, but the higher-ranking nobles know the specifics.

Besides the accumulation of faith over the years, the faith in the goddess also stemmed from the divine magic and holy water of the Papacy. At its peak, the Papacy was an existence that even the king had to look up to.

Moreover, no one knows if the goddess will suddenly start responding to believers again. This has happened before in history. Even if the goddess's church declines for a period of time, as long as the goddess starts responding to believers' prayers again, the goddess's church will rise again.

Therefore, although nobles usually do not attach much importance to their faith, it is not an easy thing to change their faith.

Doug then discussed the final battle with the demon envoy. Because they needed to prepare to divide the territory with Lind, the Valley Army, which was originally planned to be saved for last, had to be used in advance and could not be used until the last minute as originally planned.

Doug's army must now mobilize to keep Lind's army out. The further out they are, the larger Doug's territory will be when the borders are divided later.

Furthermore, because of the need to resume cooperation with the demons, many permissions that were previously impossible to grant have been opened to the demons, such as allowing a large number of demon troops to enter the country.

It's no longer the small-scale raiding teams of the past, but a real demon army is about to enter the northern border.