Chapter 122 The Situation of Feiliu Fort
October 1444, 10 of the Imperial Calendar, Feiliu Castle.

Feiliu Fort, located at the mouth of the Ibe River and the Nauan River, is the water and land transportation hub and political center of the entire Thousand River Valley.

The church's metropolitan cathedral for the entire Thousand Valley Diocese is in Feiliu Castle.

The Port of Valo outside Feiliu Castle is the most prosperous port in Qianhe Valley.

Among the many commercial ports, warehouses and shops, a trading house as big as a castle rises from the ground, overlooking the small houses.

On the first floor of the trading house, which is as spacious as a lord's hall, sit merchants from all over the continent.

There are gold-plated merchants from Norn, dwarf traders from the Crucible Highlands in the north, Sealand merchants wearing vests in the cold weather, and even blood slave merchants with pale skin and red clothes.

Most of them came to sell various handicrafts, and what they wanted was dyes and alcohol.

On the first floor, businessmen who travelled far and wide were covered in dust and talking loudly.

"I heard that a bandit named Thomas appeared in the Gaotai Mountains. He claimed to be the adopted son of the Saint, and even the great-grandson of the Saint."

"Don't mention them. Some time ago, someone appeared in Nanmangde. I don't know his name. He called himself Shengsun's sworn brother and called himself Shengsun brother."

"Once the Holy Knights arrive, these people will be turned into dust."

Catherine couldn't help but sigh when she heard the discussion of these businessmen.

During this period, in order to cover up its failure, the church announced that there were more than 100,000 short-haired people.

Due to the intentional or unintentional actions of the church and the empire, mobs emerged in large numbers everywhere like mushrooms after a rain.

Most of these mobs were public servants who had fled floods and famine, as well as a large number of refugees, and even a number of bankrupt robber knights.

Since they are accomplices of the short-haired gang, it is naturally justified for the church to send troops to encircle and suppress them.

Once these people are killed, the land will be vacant and it will be a good opportunity for immigrants from Leia and Fran.

Qianhe Valley is not like the coastal areas. The manors will be driven out of business by cheap smuggled grain, but it is still profitable for the local landlords.

This has always been the claim of the feudal nobles of the empire.

Between suppression instead of appeasement and work instead of relief, they chose suppression instead of relief.

Catherine took a sip of wine in silence, but her thoughts drifted from the cedar pillars in front of her and the discussion of the crowd to the past.

Since the end of the Hundred Years' War, the abundant military virtues could not be released and had to be digested internally, resulting in earl-level annexation wars being very common.

Due to the partiality between the Church and the Empire, the Imperial Heavenly Soldiers often took action themselves, causing the local nobles in Qianhe Valley to either go bankrupt or die.

The ethnic distribution of the upper nobles in the Thousand Valley changed from 90% Kush to 20% Frank, 40% Leiyan, and 10% Norn.

Among the upper nobles here today, except for Duke Danai of Kush, who is a real Thousand Valley man, the rest are basically Franks, Leias and Norns.

They don't care about the interests of Qianhe Valley at all.

"It's stable, completely stable! New news! Xiaochi City has been breached!"

"The interim city council was dissolved, eight councillors were hanged, and the interim speaker and three councillors absconded!"

"Really?"

"The church's official circular looks very real at first glance."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, this little Chicheng is in big trouble."

"Not necessarily." The pot-bellied dye merchant crossed his legs. "The Duchess of Hema Stone is behind the Little Pool City. There are also many businesses of the Norn Lords in the territory. They can do whatever they want, but they can't rob too much. They can only rob a little bit."

"What?"

"Wouldn't that give the Norn Lords an excuse to intervene in the Thousand River Valley? The Duchess of Hema Stone is keeping her troops in place, so they dare not rush in."

"I think the negotiations have already been concluded. I know Prince Conde and he will not ignore the overall situation."

These businessmen rolled up their sleeves and slammed the wine glasses in their hands on the table, causing the wine to spill all over the table. They looked very knowledgeable and powerful.

But Catherine knew that these few people were so weak that they could not even fart in front of Prince Condé.

She asked someone to copy a few briefings for her and studied them in comparison.

As expected, the "throwing into the cellar" incident in Xiaochi City has ended. Prince Kongdai cut the Gordian knot and reached a negotiation agreement with some merchants and small landowners in the city.

The two sides worked together to disarm the city militia. Prince Condé personally charged into the church and rescued the old bishop who had been eating radishes in the cellar for a month.

I thought they could hold out for a few more months.

Although Catherine still had no expression, Mitternich seemed to see her disappointment and said softly, "It's great that they can hold out for so long under Prince Condé's attack."

With a helpless smile, Catherine knew that Mitternich was right. How could a mortal fight against a supernatural being? That was why she contacted the two land nobles.

They don't have much supernatural power, but it's better to have it than nothing. The strength between supernaturals is not much different, so if they can't win, they can just go in a stalemate.

Between ordinary people and extraordinary people, whoever cannot win will lose.

Over the years, Catherine has traveled far and wide and seen a lot. She even went to the battlefield in person to inspect the fighting effectiveness of the Knights of the Imperial Order.

The conclusion is that it is impossible for mortals to fight against the extraordinary, no matter how highly organized they are.

Putting aside the combat capability of the Knight of the Imperial Order itself, the warhorse he rides is incomparable to a normal horse.

The war horses they rode were mostly Highland horses with curly ears from the Centaur grass.

This kind of warhorse is fed with potions since childhood. Each horse is no less than 1.7 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighs more than 2,000 pounds when grown up, which is almost one ton.

The only drawback may be that their long-distance mobility is inefficient and slow, but their peak speed for short-distance charges can reach 50 kilometers per hour.

This is when both the man and the horse are wearing armor.

The knights of the Order who rode on them would each wear an absurd amount of steel armor weighing over 100 pounds.

Normally, the weight of a suit of armor should not exceed one-third of the wearer's body weight.

With the help of the Knight's Breathing Technique, a Knight can wear armor that is two-thirds of his body weight.

A 180-pound Edict Knight can sing, dance, and recite poetry while wearing 120 pounds of plate armor, and run a half marathon before he exhausts his energy.

This is without potions or monks' blessings.

Even if hundreds of old farmers attacked such a knight together, they might not be able to break his armor.

Not to mention that they were riding fast-moving war horses, the old farmers simply couldn't keep up with the speed and could only be repeatedly attacked.

A Highland horse weighs 2000 pounds, the horse armor weighs 200 pounds, a fully armored knight weighs 300 pounds, plus weapons and other miscellaneous items, the total weight reaches 1.3 tons.

When ten knights of the Imperial Order charged, it was almost like a Dayun heavy truck with a row of bayonets installed on the anti-collision beam, rushing at a speed of 50 kilometers per hour.

Of course, the Imperial Knights seldom charged directly with heavy cavalry, because it was not cost-effective. It was not a problem with the people, but mainly a problem with the horses.

A good Highland warhorse was too expensive, and sometimes, in order to avoid damaging the horse, the Royal Knights would even dismount and fight on foot.

The normal combat mode of the Order Company is that the cannon fodder infantry holds the line, the squire knights harass, the square flag knights cut corners, and the Order Knights command, supervise the battle and make the final decision.

If both sides have extraordinary talents, then it will be a different tactic.

But no matter what, to deal with mortals, extraordinary knights such as the Squire Knights and the Banner Knights are enough.

"Speaking of which, there has been no news from Sissi for a while. Didn't he go to the High Castle to contact the Ruoan Party?"

"Let's not talk about this kind of thing here." Holding down Carl's hand, Mitternich whispered.

Yes, Vyssey was Prince Condé’s first stop. Who knows what happened to Sissi?
Full of worry, Catherine finished the last sip of wine and then received the news from the owner of the guild's main building.

After standing up, Catherine did not return to the hotel, but came to a reception room where a middle-aged monk with a Pauline hairstyle was waiting anxiously.

"Oh, my dear Lady Catherine, my love, my..."

"Okay, okay, let's talk about flattery later." Although the meaning was not good, Catherine's gentle voice was full of intellectual teasing and a bit of girlish mischief.

"Ma'am, I have found what you want..."

"Does he know the purpose of my visit?"

"He said he could guess..." Seeing Catherine frown, the middle-aged monk quickly added, "But he is willing to take the risk. If you can write off his debt and not sell it to the debt collector, you will be his second parent."

"Okay, I see."

"Is it credible?" Mitternich asked in a low voice, "Should we still go?"

Catherine thought for a long time and finally made up her mind: “Let’s make more preparations. We have to go no matter what.

Now that the situation is like this, if the teacher really falls into Constance's hands, there is no telling what he will do."

　p.s. Finally caught up.

　　By the way, Centaur Grass is not wrong.

　　The Centaurs think that the grassland is not a grassland, but a clump of grass. They call the highlands of the dwarves flying grass.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)