The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Wesker hasn't looked too good lately.

The word "read" was extremely sarcastic, making Wesker wish he could rush to the gray-collar workers' quarters and take them down immediately.

However, Wesker burst out laughing again after seeing the letters sent by the adventurers.

It's obvious to anyone with a brain that Jefferson was being controlled by the upper-class gray-collar workers, but just as Lind thought, Wesker had no intention of rescuing him at all, and even circulated the letter widely among the Allied forces.

Now, there's one less person to share the cake, but one more cake in total.

In his excitement, Wesker opened another bottle of champagne.

Although Jefferson knew the Allied forces' assembly time, attack time, and marching route perfectly well, Wesker was too lazy to change it; he would just attack however he planned.

Because each route was the result of repeated bargaining among the nobles.

The nobles had already decided who would attack which side and who would strike first. To put it simply, it was like gambling on which direction, place, and time Lars's rebels would escape from, and the nobles were placing bets on who could capture Lars's men at the right time and place.

Wesker, as the leader of the coalition, even received a lot of money because of this. Now that he has received the money, how can he give it back?

This is certainly not because Wesker did not take the war seriously enough, but rather because that was the way things were in this era. Even as the leader of the coalition, Wesker had no real power over the coalition. The situation was even worse than when my vassal was not my vassal, because Wesker had no authority to command even the armies of his own vassals.

Even though they had the authority to command, the training methods and command systems of the various nobles were completely different. Not to mention the weapons of the different armies, even the military system was not uniform, and logistics were managed separately by each. That's why the logistics team of the allied forces was so huge.

That's not even the most outrageous part. The command systems of different branches of the same family can be completely different. If there is competition, the branches will even give their military systems all sorts of random names, just to look more impressive than the other side.

Wesker's ability to organize such a coalition force so well, and even to command who goes first and who goes last, makes him a rare talent.

No wonder the Lars family has been able to keep these nobles in the North suffocating for centuries. The fact that they can achieve complete uniformity in their military system is a game-changer in this era.

Of course, the nobles were aware of the drawbacks of their military system, and the problems were even more numerous than that.

The nobles mostly recruited local farmers and idlers; minor nobles generally did not maintain professional soldiers.

These people were almost entirely untrained, with extremely low combat effectiveness, very low quality, and a shockingly high desertion rate.

Those who can carry out military orders are already elite troops.

However, none of these are problems, because these people are just cannon fodder in the war—this term doesn't exist yet, but it will soon.

No nobleman would care about the life or death of these ordinary soldiers; their only purpose was to serve the professional in the ranks.

This is also a tactic passed down from the Kingdom of Cape. Professionals lead ordinary soldiers to fight together. However, this tactic has gradually been distorted and corrupted over the long process of its transmission. The professional and ordinary soldiers, who should have been comrades-in-arms, have gradually become clearly superior and subordinate, or rather, master and slave.

The soldiers' weapons and equipment were all self-provided. Those with leather armor and pitchforks were considered well-prepared, and those wearing chainmail would be directly granted military rank. But it didn't matter whether the equipment was good or bad, since they were all consumables for filling in the gaps.

The real core remains the professional players within the team.

However, even in terms of professionals, the entire army is still very abstract. It is not unusual for a soldier to be ordered around by three or five professionals from different factions.

The noble lords' level in this regard was in no way inferior to Lena's practice of having three or five knights manage one serf.

It's quite normal for a soldier to suddenly become a member of another noble's army while fighting.

Of course, ordinary soldiers also have their advantages. For example, during privateering, professionals would help. Although most of what was privateed had to be handed over to the professionals, soldiers who were under the protection of professionals could still plunder more than before.

Why do people privateer? Sometimes, even after winning a battle, the noble lords wouldn't pay wages. If they didn't privateer, who would work? This was even the main source of income for some armies. Soldiers with professional skills were often more dangerous than bandits.

After waiting for several days, Wesker finally received the last nobleman.

"I'm sorry, I was worried that my son wouldn't be able to eat foie gras on his journey, so I asked an ice-type professional to prepare frozen foie gras for me a long time. As a result, it's late."

This nobleman clearly brought his family with him, so he had been preparing for a long time.

"It's alright, everyone else just arrived."

Wesker, displaying the demeanor of a leader, welcomed the nobleman with a smile.

This wasn't just polite talk; many people only managed to assemble at the very last minute, and it wasn't uncommon for them to bring their families. In fact, many noble families didn't come at all, and they only joined the army when it was halfway through its journey.

This was a war that would change the ecology of the western North, and also a gluttonous feast, a war that swept through almost all the nobles of this land.

After all, both Doug Lars and the King had promised that anyone who participated in the siege of the Lars family would be rewarded, and because of this promise, almost all the nobles had brought over all the people in their families who could go to the battlefield.

Even though these nobles knew that these rewards were actually not much and were mostly honorary, who doesn't have dreams? If they caught some important person, wouldn't they rise to prominence overnight?

Moreover, there are bards who write epics for themselves; who wouldn't want to leave their name in an epic?

But before setting off, Wesker and his allies watched Lucanus's bards' departure performance one last time before they were satisfied. The procession was long and impressive, with everyone chatting and laughing. Some nobles were even too lazy to ride horses and simply climbed into their carriages with their concubines in their arms.

This was a war whose outcome was already predetermined, and it would be a perfect footnote in his resume, according to everyone.

So much so that the entire expedition team had a spring outing atmosphere, with even an accompanying band and bards playing instruments and singing.

The main function of these bands was to ensure that the 50,000-strong army could confirm each other's location and not get separated.

Wearing a brand-new red cloak and his most stylish armor, Wesker looked confidently at the endless army stretching before and behind him, a perfect starting point for his epic saga.

"Can you win?"

"The royal envoy who was standing next to Wesker asked."

"It will win."

Wesker delivered a victory speech.