Page 132
Apparently, the method of complaining that Lynn told him was very effective, and within just one meal, the hostility of most of the poor had been eliminated.
After eating and drinking, Redel rejected the poor people and miners who wanted to join the team and liberate themselves, and asked them to think about it for a few days before making a serious decision.
Although expanding the team was urgent, he was more aware that recruiting too many unqualified people would only make the army loose and ineffective.
"You will lead the men to keep watch tonight. You must be more careful and never take it lightly." Redel assigned a personal guard and instructed.
Although the soldiers in the castle had been killed by them, it did not mean that they were completely safe.
Previously, he had ordered the arrest and hanging of all the notorious rich families and minor nobles in the castle. The handling might not be clean, and they needed to be on guard against the remnant forces that could launch a sneak attack at night.
After arranging everything, Redel, who had been extremely tense, finally relaxed a little. Just as he was about to go back to have a good sleep, Lynn's voice rang in his mind.
"It seems that you are already very experienced in doing these things!"
Redel had long been accustomed to the occasional extra voice in his head, so he was not surprised at all. He scratched his head and said awkwardly, "This is all thanks to your guidance, Mr. Lin En."
Without the miners around him, Redel took off his disguise. He was not very old, but he had to pretend to be mature in order to give everyone confidence.
"It's just guidance. When it comes to real practice, you still have to rely on yourself." Lynn responded with a smile. Redel's performance was even better than he expected. In the beginning, he had to teach him how to lead the operations and arrange tactics. Now, in just over half a month, he can make some arrangements on his own.
"But I have to tell you some bad news. The Earl Joyce you let go has fled to the palace. This means that your liberation of the miners in the southern part of the kingdom has been exposed!" Lin En continued solemnly. "The army that came to attack you is led by Duke Rickman, a total of 15,000 people, and several bishops and some priests are also coming with the army."
The expression on Redel's face immediately became extremely solemn. Just one bishop had caused them huge trouble, not to mention that there were several bishops coming this time.
Although the lightning-inducing technique is powerful, it can only exert its extraordinary power on thunderstorm days. It only takes a few times for him to compete with those bishops who can cast divine spells.
A regular army of tens of thousands of people could easily destroy them.
You have to know that Joyce, whom they dealt with before, only brought a thousand people when he came to attack them, and the guards of the entire earldom were only about two thousand people, most of whom were temporarily recruited serfs. Even so, they needed to rely on cheating to win.
Redel struggled for a long time, and finally sighed and said, "I can't defeat them. It seems I can only hide in the mountains."
This is the only way out.
"No, that's not necessary. I have a way for you to defeat the Grand Duke." Lynn's voice sounded again.
Redleton's eyes lit up and he had no doubt about Lynn's statement. He had seen all kinds of bizarre tactics of the other party, which were very powerful and made Earl Joyce run around in circles.
"I've sent you some reinforcements. Of course, you still need to buy some time, about ten days, and the legion led by Rickman will arrive in five or six days at most." Lynn explained.
It was not easy to transport the entire musketeers from Iyeta to the Kingdom of Hadrata, especially the artillery, which could not be transported quickly...
……
A few days passed in a flash, and the army assembled in the royal capital, under the shouting of Grand Duke Rickman, marched towards the earldom in a show of force.
However, when Rickman was halfway through the journey, he realized how unethical those lowly slaves were. Not only did they set up many traps along the road, they also sent a guerrilla force to hide in the nearby mountains.
There were no people to be seen during the day, but at night when they were preparing to rest, these miners would suddenly jump out and shoot a wave of rockets from a distance, and then run away without hesitation, regardless of whether they hit the target or not.
Although they were too far away and it was the middle of the night, the arrows were not very accurate and hardly hurt anyone, but they still made them feel uneasy.
These people are like mice squeaking in your ears, and when you get up and want to hit them, you can't find them.
As a last resort, Grand Duke Rickman had to rescue the bishops who were accompanying the army. He used his magic to get rid of these elusive and annoying rats, and seized 150 crossbows in one go.
"What a stupid tactic. They actually delivered such precious bows and crossbows to our doorstep!" Rickman said with a sneer. Before, he thought that the leader of those miners was quite capable and a difficult character to deal with, but now it seems that he can only use some despicable little tricks.
A earldom could have looted three hundred powerful crossbows at most, which was also the only means for those mobs to fight against them. But the other side gave away half of them at once. It can only be described as stupid!
It took almost eight days to reach the destination after stumbling all the way. Rickman did not choose to attack the city directly, because Joyce had dug a secret passage from outside the city to the inside of the castle in order to leave himself a way to escape. Now was the time to use it!
Rickman immediately dispatched an elite team, together with a bishop, to sneak into the city through a secret passage under the cover of night, lock the city gate, and even contact the minor nobles in the city to carry out an internal and external attack.
Things went extremely smoothly. After less than half an hour, the tightly closed city gate was opened. Rickman immediately led his men in, but was surprised to find that all the rebellious miners had withdrawn.
It was like a punch on cotton, which made Rickman very depressed.
Joyce was so excited to return to the castle that his eyes were filled with tears. However, when he hurriedly brought people back to the manor and opened his treasury, he saw an empty scene.
All the gold and silver were divided up by Redel, and the priceless treasures were buried, leaving only four white walls.
"These despicable thieves!" Joyce was so angry that he vomited blood and almost fainted on the spot.
Chapter 263: Reinforcements from the Sky
Grand Duke Rickman led his army to take a short rest in the castle.
An angry Joyce captured several subjects and interrogated them harshly, only then did he realize that all his wealth had been distributed by Redel to the poor in the castle.
Moreover, some people followed the other party and ran away before they arrived.
Joyce was so angry that he started cursing and immediately gathered all the poor people who were still stranded in the territory. He ordered them to return all the property they had taken and to hand over an additional 20 silver coins as punishment. Those who could not pay would be whipped!
At the beginning, Joyce carried out the task personally, beating several citizens until they were bloody. He finally breathed a sigh of relief when he was exhausted and handed the task over to the guards.
Some of the poor people who were reluctant to give up their fields and houses, or who did not have a good impression of Redel and did not obey his orders to hide outside for a while, were extremely regretful and their resentment towards Joyce became even deeper.
As for the nobles and wealthy businessmen who had escaped everything by hiding in tunnels and dark rooms, they were jubilant. When Joyce denounced Redel's banditry, they even spontaneously assembled a private army of 500 people and let Joyce be the commander. They were ordered to kill those damn miners and take back their treasures!
This was obviously a pleasant surprise for Joyce. Before this, he had even considered whether to recruit some poor people again to form a temporary serf army, at least to strengthen his morale so that he would not be completely without manpower and had to rely only on the Grand Duke's guards.
It is much more convenient now, and it is really unbecoming of a noble to let his own troops carry hoes and miners to the battlefield.
At night, the spies that had been sent out earlier reported back that they had found the miners about ten kilometers away from the castle. There was a large group of them, roughly estimated to be tens of thousands.
"It seems they haven't run far!" Rickman breathed a sigh of relief. What he was most worried about was that these people would break up into small groups and disappear without a trace, making it impossible for him to complete the eldest prince's request. That would be a real problem.
"Keep tracking, but don't alert them!" Rickman instructed. He had no intention of pursuing them at night, but was going to rest here for a night.
Rickman had already understood the other party's insidiousness and cunningness from the previous experience, and chasing him in the dark in the middle of the night might bring him trouble again.
Try to intercept the enemy in the plain area ahead, then all their despicable conspiracies and tricks will be exposed!
Thinking of this, Rickman shook his head and sneered, "If these stupid miners hold on to this castle, it might take some time to deal with them."
"They must have heard of your reputation, which frightened them so much that they fled in panic. Even if they have the support of the castle's strong walls, it cannot make up for their inner weakness!" Joyce flattered.
Rickman couldn't help but burst into laughter, and a group of nobles also echoed him. They gathered together to talk and imagine how generous the reward would be from the generous Prince Harold after this victory.
"By the way, where is the Second Prince? Why didn't I hear any action from him when I was in the capital?"
Listening to everyone's boasting, Rickman suddenly remembered this matter and felt vaguely uneasy. This matter was related to the establishment of the crown prince, and the other party should be very anxious.
"I heard that His Highness Hattar and several earls had disagreements on the deployment of troops. Perhaps this is the reason for the delay." A baron responded after thinking carefully.
"There is an internal conflict at such a critical moment. His Royal Highness the Second Prince is indeed not fit to ascend the throne..." Rickman said mockingly, and his heart was completely relieved.
Spies had reported before that an earl who supported Hattar was leading a small army, which was far behind him. It seemed that he was unwilling to give in, so he sent people to keep an eye on their movements.
"Then let them see with their own eyes how we crush those miners!" Rickman said decisively, and then raised the wine glass in his hand. "For our victory, and for King Harold!"
Everyone present raised their glasses and shouted in unison for His Majesty Harold!
……
Early the next morning, just after daybreak, Grand Duke Rickman summoned his troops to chase after them. To prevent these people from escaping, he dispatched a brigade of cavalry to go ahead and drive them to a suitable location.
Rickman has a big appetite. He not only wants to defeat the rioting miners, but also plans to annihilate them all in one go!
Such a resounding victory is the best gift he can give to the new king!
However, things did not always go as planned. Under the pursuit of the cavalry, Redl and his men ran all the way to a valley and defended on the spot. However, it did not go as Rickman expected. Due to the unfavorable terrain, the cavalry did not continue to pursue.
"If we had known we would be blocked here, we might as well have defended in the castle. Maybe we would still have a chance." Ham complained. Now they were trapped in this valley and couldn't even run away.
"That fortress belongs to Earl Joyce after all, and no one knows if he has left any tricks behind. It will only make things more troublesome if we are trapped inside and outside." Redel explained, and then said with a smile. "And our waiting is not in vain, the reinforcements have arrived, haven't they?"
"Reinforcements? Where are they?" Ham asked in confusion.
"It's in the sky!" Redel said confidently.
Ham and others looked up at the sky blankly, but there was nothing there.
Redel didn't see anything either, but he firmly believed that reinforcements had arrived because the wizard told him so himself.
The next moment, the miners felt the ground seemed to shake violently, and then a burst of light surged in the empty valley, and airships appeared in front of everyone.
Ham and the others stared in amazement at the exquisite creations in front of them that were difficult to describe in their shallow language. Each ship was more than 20 meters high. Recalling what Raeder said about the reinforcements coming from the sky, someone immediately shouted loudly.
"This must be a creation of God! God has come to save us!"
To these desperate miners who had never seen magic, these airships that suddenly appeared in the valley were like gods sent to save them!
For a moment, the shouts spread throughout the valley, and many miners knelt down and worshiped these huge structures that were taller than houses.
Chapter 264 Darren: My cannon is thirsty!
"Hey? What are they doing?"
Lydia was the first one to run down from the airship. What she saw was thousands of people kneeling and kowtowing to her. She was stunned for a moment.
After hearing everyone's shouts clearly, Lydia's face looked a little strange. It turned out that she was God's messenger. How come she didn't know?
Behind him, soldiers wearing fine leather armor and holding muskets also walked down from the airship one after another.
After several months of special training and fighting with monsters, these people no longer look like new recruits, and each of them is filled with a murderous aura.
Although Redel did not make a fuss like the miners and thought it was a gift from God, he was still shocked to see dozens of airships appear out of thin air in the valley with thousands of people coming down from them.
Naturally, Lin En attached great importance to the Musketeers' debut. He brought here almost all the airships manufactured in the workshop, including the batch that was originally promised to the Parliament. A total of seventy ships were gathered just to transfer the entire Musketeers and Artillery Team from Yieta to here in one go.
The reason for such a terrifying carrying capacity is thanks to the alchemists who solidified magic such as "Wind Whisper" and "Lightness" on these airships, which greatly improved the carrying capacity of these things.
This is also why it only takes one day to travel from Yieta to the Kingdom of Hadrata, but Lin En asked Redel to delay for ten days, just to wait for these airships to be modified.
In addition, Philip and others who were responsible for the production of the airship also came.
However, they were not here to help, but to test the performance of the weapons. Only in a real battlefield could the advantages and disadvantages of this new weapon be tested.
Darren led a group of halflings to carry down the new artillery, and then asked impatiently, "Where are our enemies? Where are they? Where are they?"
His cannon is thirsty!
The airship came from the opposite direction of the imperial army, so they did not collide directly.
"There is a cavalry team guarding outside the valley, about one or two kilometers away from here... As for the army led by the Grand Duke, there is no sign of them yet." Redel explained.
"No, they are already here, and they will be here in about half an hour!" Philip said very seriously, and put down a cylindrical object in his hand. This is a telescope made using the principle of glass convex and concave lenses. They also added an eagle eye technique to the outermost lens, which can see very far away.