106 – The Three Quarters of the World – 8
To be honest, the odds were half and half. There was half a chance that the Holy Kingdom would accept it, and half a chance that it would not.
But this time it seems like he somehow accepted it. If Seongguk had not accepted it, they would have had to move on to Plan B.
Plan B is simpler. The Principality of Plos is aiming for world domination. So, it would not be long before a war was launched against the Petrine Republic, and they took advantage of that opportunity to cede territory in exchange for reinforcements from the Petrine Republic.
Of course, you can settle on the Taspilia Peninsula using this method, but the problem is that when you go this way, conquest takes much longer. So, I secretly hoped that Plan A would succeed.
And it was a great success. I thought it was about a 50/50 chance, but I guess I was lucky.
Anyway, our army handed over the largest of the three conquered cities to the Principality of Plos and took the two smaller cities.
The citizens of the Petrine Republic could not help but be taken aback.
“Well, on a fictional day, soldiers of the Arcadia Empire are walking around the city. “When are those guys going to leave?”
“Going out. I feel like I’ll be sitting down for the rest of my life. Those guys won the war. Both in military force and in diplomacy. So there’s no way you can kick them out.”
“It wouldn’t have happened like this even if those damned bastards from the Holy Kingdom of Lydia hadn’t sold us out! “You f*cking hypocrites!”
Quang! As the merchant slammed the desk, another merchant took a large gulp of wine and said:
“Well, those from the Holy Kingdom of Lydia were also great Taspilians. Isn’t it true that Taspilians sell their wives and children? “You can easily sell it to someone else’s country.”
“That is correct. Ha ha ha! However, I feel bad after always selling and becoming the one being sold.”
“Really. It’s just like that. I wonder what will happen in the future… “
“I hope this doesn’t become a battlefield.”
And the situation went as they expected. Princess Leonia had begun stationing many of her soldiers on the Taspilia Peninsula.
Leonia also stationed her soldiers and rewarded those who had performed well in her previous battles. Diane de Balboa was given the northern part of the territory of the former Petrine Republic, and Isabel, Julia, and Charles each received a reward of 5,000 ducats.
And he appointed two commoners who had been active in the previous two battles as knights. It was not impossible to appoint commoners as knights in this era, but no nobles actually did so. This is because there is strong opposition from existing articles.
However, Leonia von Arcadia was a person who judged people based on their ability rather than their status, so as long as she had ability, she would be appointed as a nobleman or knight even if her social status was poor. Just as he appointed Charles Jean Rochepol, a fallen nobleman, as a count.
And the newly appointed musketeer commander was also like that. The commander’s name was Taiki Lopez, and he was originally from the thieves’ guild in Taspilia and was skilled at gathering information and behind-the-scenes operations, but he realized that his aptitude lay in combat and command rather than behind-the-scenes operations, and became a soldier.
And the other one was named Georg Adele, and he was originally a servant of Leonia. However, every time he went to the battlefield, he read the trends and made great achievements, and he elevated Leonie Agaiza, whom he considered unusual, to a knight.
Through this battle, the ranks of Leonia’s forces were organized to some extent. Number one was, of course, Leonia, and number two was Diane de Balboa.
In fact, this was an unprecedented thing, because it was difficult for other powers to imagine that the port leader would become number two. This was partly due to the fact that the princess only looked at ability, not origin or history, and Dian had played an outstanding role in the last battle, and Dian’s army numbered 3,000, which was much larger than the armies of other nobles.
Number 3 is Charles Jean Rochepol. It would be right for an ordinary monarch to place someone with strong military power at the top, but Leonia appointed Charles, who won the diplomatic battle, as number 3. In other words, Leonia implied that she judged merit from a strategic perspective rather than from a simple military merit (as a warrior).
Number 4 was Isabelle. Isabel has been active as the princess’s left arm for a long time, and she is versatile both physically and mentally, so she could still be the princess’s number 4.
Number 5 was Yuria. Yuria had grown up with the princess as her knight-guard since she was young, and her military and commanding skills were quite outstanding, so it was a natural thing for her to do.
Numbers 6 and 7 were Taiki Lopez and Georg Adele, respectively. Of course, since these were people who had just recently become knights, there was no need to worry too much.
Everyone was satisfied with their rank, and although they were competing with each other to achieve merit, they did not hate each other because they all got along very well.
The power of Leonia continued to grow stronger.
—–
Duke Lucrezia of Flos of the Duchy of Flos and Duke of Leonia von Arcadia of the Duchy of Claudia divided the territory of the Petrine Republic! This quickly spread throughout the Taspilia Peninsula.
The five countries of the Taspilia peninsula were originally supposed to join forces against foreign enemies, but in this case, the Principality of Plos betrayed them and the Holy State of Lydia accepted donations and declared neutrality, resulting in three countries: the Republic of Petrine, the Republic of Salerno, and the Republic of Salabrica. I couldn’t protest outside.
However, the Petrine Republic had already lost two-thirds of its territory and was reduced to a state of semi-destruction, the Republic of Salerno was a weak state far below the Principality of Plos, and the Kingdom of Salabrica was nothing more than a weak corner state that was a kingdom in name only.
In the end, they were unable to defeat the Principalities of Plos and Claudia, who were at the peak of their power, and the two countries each ate one-third of the Petrine Republic.
Princess Leonia’s subordinates deep down didn’t deserve the fact that they had to give up half of the land they had conquered, but Leonia was confident.
This is because from the beginning, Leonia’s goal, or rather her agent Charles’s goal, was not to take control of the Petrian Republic, but to sever the solidarity between the Petrian Republic and the other countries of the Taspilia Peninsula.
And with this incident, solidarity was clearly broken. The Principality of Plos and the Holy Kingdom of Lydia betrayed. It would become difficult for them to join hands with other countries again. And…
“Bertolf von Ruitwert.”
Princess Lucrezia called her counselor.
“Yes, Your Majesty the Duke.”
“What do you think we should do in the future?”
“How can I…” “
“It’s a grand strategy. “If you were a strategist who studied under Count Krusenstein with Charles, you would have a grand strategy, right?”
“Ah, yes! There is. There is!”
Bertolf soon began to take out documents from his arms.
“Well, first of all, this is the route of Princess Leonia’s advance that I thought of. Princess Leonia shares borders with the Republic of Salerno, the Republic of Petrine, and the Principality of Plos, but among these three, the easiest for Princess Leonia to touch is the Republic of Petrine. The reason is that… “
“Because the Petrine Republic had already suffered a major defeat in the war and had only one-third of its territory left. And if you attack the Republic of Salerno, you will be on the border with a powerful country called the Kingdom of Swadia, so you will want to avoid strong enemies as much as possible. I guess it has to be these two reasons, right? “I know that much.”
“Yes, yes! Yes, Your Majesty the Duke. “It is as you said.”
“Then the question is what should we do now? The enemy is trying to attack the Petrine Republic and eat the remaining territory. How should we respond to this situation to keep the enemy in check?”
“We must not allow the enemy to conquer the Petrine Republic!”
“In what way?”
From Noble mtl dot com
“That’s… “
When Bertolf von Ruitwert failed to answer, Lucrezia du Flos sighed. I was brought in at the Department of Military Management because they said I was the third ranked student after Luna von Luitbert and Charles Jean Rochepol, but for some reason I was not very trustworthy.
Of course, Bertolph was not completely incompetent. He also had abilities. What skills he had, he had many connections. Starting with Charles Jean Roche-Paul, he was familiar with most of the people in the academy, so he was good at negotiating wherever he was sent. The problem was that he was weak at grand strategies like Charles Jean Rochepol.
“Bertolf. Listen carefully. “We have to fight Princess Leonia from now on.”
“Yep! That’s right! “We must stop it, even if it means war!”
“But I have no intention of just fighting. We are home and that is away. So we should make the most of our home advantage, right?”
“Of course!”
“So, if the Petrine Republic uses up its last strength to raise an army against Princess Leonia, we will join as reinforcements.”
“That means… “
“No matter how many times the Petrine Republic was defeated, it was fundamentally a wealthy country. If you recruit new mercenaries, you will be able to raise 5,000. And the number of soldiers that our army can mobilize is 20,000. If 25,000 soldiers are created like that, it will be twice as many as Leonia’s current army of 13,000.”
“Aha… !”
“So what should I do now?”
“Yep! “I will go to the Petrine Republic and offer to send reinforcements!”
Lucrezia thought as she watched Bertolph running away after saying that.
‘Maybe I should have hired another agent…’ ‘
Even so, there was no way there was another good tactician. It would have been best to have hired Charles Jean Rochepol, but unfortunately, Charles went under Leonia. It would be nice to hire Luna von Luitbert, but how do you hire the heir of the count’s family? The ransom price is too high.
For Lucrezia, who ultimately lost the recruitment competition, Bertolph was the best option. But at the same time, I also had these thoughts. If Bertolph, who was at least good at negotiating, had been taken away, it would have been a really big problem.