When Duke Alma came to Fletcher Village with Raphael, Ralph was still building defense facilities without knowing anything.
When he saw Duke Alma, Ralph's expression was extremely complicated - of course he knew Alma and had known him for thirty years.
Alma broke away from Lion Knight Order more than thirty years ago and became Knight Commander of Horn Summon Ranger Corps in the following years. Ralph was just a young ranger at that time.
Moreover, Alma could have become Grand Commander of Horn Summon Ranger Corps. At that time, Alma was Lord Long River Town and had a high reputation in Long River Town.
But after a tragedy occurred in Lion Lake City, the original Lion Lake City lord Elfwan was transferred because he failed to protect the king and nobles, and lost the Lion Lake City territory.
Alma rescued Mad King and was named Lord Lion Lake City.
But later Alma killed some scum in his family. Parricide was a serious crime, so he lost his family's territory in Long River Town. Just in time, Duke Elfwan, who lost Lion Lake City, took over Long River Town.
The two dukes are equivalent to exchanging territories. This result is of course not a coincidence, but the result of the mutual support of these close friends.
However, as a result, Alma did not become Grand Commander of Horn Summon Ranger Corps.
After all, the purpose of Ranger Corps is to defend the homeland, so letting a lord outside the jurisdiction of Long River Town serve as the leader is not in line with the traditions and charter of Ranger Corps.
Moreover, after Alma was sealed to Lion Lake City, he took charge of Lion Lake City Flag Guard, which made him completely unable to hold the position of the Horn Summoning Knights.
Lion Lake City Flag Guard was actually formed by Duke Elfwan. Now this unit is the Lion Lake City heavy cavalry led by Forster at the beginning.
In fact, the establishment of Lion Lake City Flag Guard also originated from the tragedy caused by Leonardo in Lion Lake City - too many noble lords were killed, causing Lion Lake City to feel empty for a while.
Moreover, Elfwan originally lost the Lion Lake City territory due to poor defense and failed to withstand the Lion Knight Order led by Leonardo.
Although he has been transferred to Long River Town, Lion Lake City is the hometown of Elfwan after all, so before he left, he armed the wealthy citizens with property in Lion Lake City and formed a heavy cavalry force between civilians and nobles.
The newly formed Lion Lake City Flag Guard is actually similar in nature to Horn Summon Ranger Corps. It was originally a civilian army with the purpose of protecting the countryside.
Elfwan handed over Lion Lake City Flag Guard to Alma in order to quickly equip Alma with the ability to protect Lion Lake City.
Of course, it was also to allow himself to continue to maintain influence in Lion Lake City. During the years when Elfwan was healthy, the Lion Lake City heavy cavalry actually helped Elfwan in battles many times.
And Count Oden became Horn Summon Ranger Corps Grand Commander.
Alma and Elfwan have indeed always been best friends who cooperated with each other. Elfwan was providing opportunities for Alma until his death.
However, Count Oden and Ralph have gradually become enemies of Alma in the past thirty years. In addition to conflicts of interest, there are also conflicts in concepts and behavior patterns.
For example, what Alma is doing now is something Oden and Ralph absolutely cannot do...
"Ralph, old man, I know you don't like me now. But it doesn't matter, as long as you still like your only son."
Alma looked at Ralph with his head held high. "I just need your help..."
"Your Majesty the Duke, what you do will only make me look down on you..."
Ralph shook his head, his eyes filled with contempt.
"It doesn't matter... I never care what others think of me. Ralph, I want to become Grand Commander of Horn Summon Ranger Corps, and I need your support. You also know that my patience is limited. For the sake of your son, tell the young people of Ranger Corps that I should be their leader."
Alma shook his head with no expression on his face.
"Killing the leader of Ranger Corps members? Bah!"
Young Raphael kept struggling and his attitude was extremely fierce. Alma killed twenty rangers in front of him. One can imagine his anger.
"Shut up, kid, I don't want to hurt you..."
Alma turned around and asked his subordinates to block Raphael's mouth, and then stared into Ralph's eyes. "This is your only son, Ralph. He is brave and determined, and has great power. A good future. I swear, if you are willing to help me, I will make Raphael the next Grand Commander. Of course, you don't have to agree, as long as you are willing to leave him forever... I will give you five minutes to think about it."
Ralph certainly cannot give up his only son...
No matter how determined a tough guy is, there will always be weaknesses.
With the cooperation of Ralph, all members of Horn Summon Ranger Corps came to Fletcher Village to gather.
In just two days, Alma became Grand Commander of Horn Summon Ranger Corps in name only, and took Horn Summon Ranger Corps to the west.
He claimed that he would lead Ranger Corps to 'suppress bandits'.
Ranger Corps's large army actually happened to pass by Godric and others who broke through the siege and returned to Brave Shield Fortress. The closest thing to them was actually only twenty miles apart.
This was the route deliberately guided by Alma. Horn Summon Ranger Corps did not approach the hilltop where Godric was besieged.
There are indeed a large number of "gangsters" in the west of Fletcher Village. The Horn Summon Ranger Corps members who do not know the truth have indeed seen many Crimson Brotherhood members with their own eyes, so they have no doubt about Duke Alma's purpose.
So, just three days later, Alma led all members of Horn Summon Ranger Corps to 'pursue' a large group of gangsters and arrived at the jurisdiction of Lion Lake City, near Payne Village.
But after arriving here, they lost track of the Crimson Brotherhood members...
Alma has asked Kaidelen to take Crimson Brotherhood's rogue knights and robbers in a circle to Brave Shield Fortress.
Of course he will not let those Crimson Brotherhood bandits enter any village in the Lion Lake City jurisdiction...
If these unruly and difficult-to-control gangsters appear in Lion Lake City, they will arouse the dissatisfaction of the Lion Lake City nobles against him, especially his Horton Family people.
Half a year ago, many villages were harmed by Foucher and Crimson Brotherhood...
Everyone in the family knows that Alma is connected to Crimson Brotherhood. If brotherhood members appear in Lion Lake City's jurisdiction in large numbers, Horton Family will give up on Alma.
In fact, it is difficult for Crimson Brotherhood members to unite together. There are Crimson Brotherhoods in every Pande Continent city, but they have no common leader, no clear hierarchy, and no serious army.
This is a huge underworld organization that obtains wealth through assassinations, collection of protection fees, drug trafficking, selling human organs, and catching and selling slaves. It is probably the largest organization in the entire continent, but this organization is very loose and difficult to manage.
Many seemingly ordinary civilians, businessmen and even nobles are also members of Crimson Brotherhood, but they all belong to various gangs. Gangs in various cities have been fighting each other for territory, so it is difficult to unite.
However, Duke Alma spent a lot of money to buy many rogue knights, and asked these noble gangsters to recruit people from various cities to form such a large army, and asked Baron Cadelon to coordinate and manage it.
Alma persuaded Kaidelen to fully support his price, which is to give these rogue knights to Kaidelen and become Kaidelen's private soldiers.
Crimson Brotherhood members have been inquiring about Raphael's movements. Raphael was able to find traces of robbers near that hill. Of course, Alma deliberately sent people to lure him. His main purpose was to catch Raphael.
Use Kaidelen who is familiar with the terrain to catch Raphael, and trap Godric and Charles, making Fletcher and Ralph's Border Camp empty, and preventing Godric and Charles from ruining his affairs.
Then Alma used Raphael to force Ralph to cooperate, becoming Horn Summon Ranger Corps Grand Commander, and used Crimson Brotherhood again E members induced Ranger Corps to launch a large-scale campaign to suppress bandits. All members left the eastern region and were unable to assist Brave Shield Fortress - Brave Shield Fortress temporarily became an isolated city.
The current mission of Kaidelen is to take the Crimson Brotherhood members back to the eastern border, completely occupy Ralph's camp and Fletcher Village, and then besiege Brave Shield Fortress.
--This is the same trick as when Alma occupied Long River Town, but this time he has more goals to achieve.
Use Crimson Brotherhood's robbers to capture Brave Shield Fortress, and then lead Horn Summon Ranger Corps to "recover the lost ground", and you can gain a good reputation by standing tall and standing.
If Duke Alma obtains Brave Shield Fortress and controls the dangerous border area, he can use Long River Town's safety as a bargaining chip to completely coerce Horn Summon Ranger Corps into doing his bidding.
He initially asked Foucher to send people to build a camp and build a bridge by the river. This was originally intended to coerce Ranger Corps.
Alma has never forgotten his family's original territory, Long River Town... This plan has consumed all his savings. He wants to finish it all in one battle and make full use of the Crimson Brotherhood members who are about to give it to Kaidelen.
Moreover, he took Horn Summon Ranger Corps to Payne Village near Lion Lake City, killing two birds with one stone.
Alma directly approached Lion Lake City First Banner Guard.
This is a heavy cavalry force of more than 200 people. They are currently gathering in Penn because they found a large number of armed troops approaching in the east.
Due to the large number of invading troops, out of caution, Lion Lake City First Banner Guard Bannerlord Granlon did not act lightly, but deployed defenses at Payne Village.
But Granlon never expected that these people were actually Horn Summon Ranger Corps, and the leader was his old lord Duke Alma.
Duke Alma, who brought all members of Ranger Corps with him, had Granlon stand behind him again in just a few minutes.
Horn Summon Ranger Corps has a total strength of more than 900 people, and they are all elites.
Ranger Corps, who has a large number of people and strong combat power, certainly has a huge deterrent effect. Granlon doesn't know that Ranger Corps was just fooled...
You must know that Horn Summon Ranger Corps was only protecting the security of the eastern region before this, and almost never left the eastern region, let alone entered the jurisdiction of Lion Lake City.
Payne Village was able to take Ranger Corps away from the east and appeared in large numbers near Lion Lake City. From Granlon's point of view, there was only one possibility - he thought that Ranger Corps was fully controlled by Alma and became a private soldier!
In this case, Granlon must of course be submissive...
Moreover, in addition to the deterrent power of Ranger Corps, there is another sentence that works - "Granlon, follow me with the flag guard. I know that the families of the flag guard members are under the supervision of Forster. Let's change everything."
The family members of this unit have always been controlled by Forster, but the young noble master probably did not expect that his father would do the opposite and easily instigate rebellion against this elite unit.
After all, Alma is the lord of Lion Lake City, and it is only natural that Bannerlord Granlon of First Banner Guard should return to his old master.
In the next half day, Granlon brought Alma into Lion Lake City without attracting attention, and privately visited the commanders of various troops in the city.
Two Knight Commander and a dozen knights were killed one by one by Alma and Granlon. Most of the troops in Lion Lake City quietly returned to Alma's hands overnight.
Just as Alma said, as long as he appears in Lion Lake City, no one dares to do anything to him.
That night, Forster became the prisoner of Alma.
This is also what Lion Lake City Flag Guard's heavy cavalry did. They tied Forster in his sleep in front of Duke Alma.
From the moment Alma started planning to capture Raphael, within just a few days, Lion Lake City returned to the hands of the old Duke.
Forster finally gave in to his father and confessed everything under the whip and salt water, including the matter with his sister.
Alma expelled him from his home and exiled Forster and his sister to Raven Territory.
Subsequently, Baron Cadelon's 'scout' sent the news that 'Gatu people and the bandits are joining forces to attack Brave Shield Fortress'.
Alma immediately took most of Lion Lake City's troops and marched towards Brave Shield Fortress together with Horn Summon Ranger Corps.
Like a loyal minister who actively defends the country's borders.
Brave Shield Fortress, Lord's Hall.
After successfully breaking out and rendezvousing with Leofric, Godric, Charles and others entered Brave Shield Fortress for rest.
There were too many wounded in the team, and Liwa was even dying. Only Brave Shield Fortress had military doctors to treat his injuries.
When they passed Fletcher Village, they received a report from the craftsmen of Ralph, saying that Duke Alma had become Horn Summon Ranger Corps Grand Commander, and was taking Ranger Corps to the west to 'suppress bandits'.
Godric can naturally realize that the thousands of Crimson Brotherhood members must have been created by Duke Alma, because it reminded him of the previous incident where Alma sent an army to 'suppress bandits' to control Long River Town.
But this time, Long River Town has knights sent by the king to monitor him, and Duke Brennus's son, Malbert, is here. Alma should not have any intentions of Long River Town.
In addition, those Crimson Brotherhood members appeared on the northern border - then, Alma may want to deal with Brave Shield Fortress!
So he ordered all troops to enter Brave Shield Fortress to prepare for war, and sent people to convey orders to Long River Town to summon troops to come for support.
"How did Lord Godric, Duke Alma become the leader of Horn Summon Ranger Corps? Ralph shouldn't support him..."
Leofric still don't quite understand.
Of course Godric didn't know the reason. He thought for a long time and finally came to a conclusion, "No matter what method Alma used, I at least believe that the people of Ranger Corps will not attack us... As long as we can defeat those gangsters, his plan will not succeed. All we have to face for the time being are the members of Crimson Brotherhood."
"No, maybe there is Gatu people..."
Liwa suddenly opened his eyes from coma at this time, and said something with a pale face.
Her injuries were very serious. Although she had been barely bandaged, the two fatal wounds on her chest and abdomen could not stop the bleeding. She was currently being cared for by Charles.
"Liwa... You'd better stop talking and have a good rest!"
"No, Charles, let me see Brave Shield Fortress... Ha, it turns out this is what this place looks like..."
Liwa grabbed Charles's arm tightly and asked Charles to help her sit up, leaning against Charles and looking around.
"Gatu people..." Leofric muttered.
"I made a deal with Gatu people... I know that the one who has the most contact with Gatu people is Duke Alma. He can even hire Gatu people to do things for him. Crimson Brotherhood is not capable of attacking Brave Shield Fortress, but Gatu people..."
Liwa's voice became lower and lower, and her face became paler. Sitting up suddenly consumed all her remaining strength.
Everyone looked at Liwa.
"She is right, we are going to face a tough battle..."
Godric nodded in agreement. "Miss Liwa, you... Miss Liwa?"
Liwa suddenly stopped moving.
"Liwa...Liwa, don't sleep, don't sleep! Liwa..."
Charles felt a sharp pain in his heart and burst into tears. He supported the limp Liwa and shouted helplessly.
He has realized that Liwa was able to sit up just now, maybe it was a flashback...
"Stop arguing...Charles, help me tell Lord Li Ang that I can't repay his favor. But at least, I'm back home..."
Liwa's voice gradually became as low as a mosquito. After the last murmur, her head hung down.
Until the last moment, she still kept her eyes open, looking greedily at everything in the Lord's Hall.
This is the castle her father built, but this is her first time entering the Lord's Hall.
It's also the last time.
She never recognized this as her home.
But she finally came home.
In the way a nobleman should.
Lion City.
After being held in a secret room for two and a half days, Li Ang finally met King Ulrich.
The king's face was too pale to be alive. This look reminded Li Ang of that Bacchus Empire spy.
However, even after seeing the king, the lord still lay on the bed and did not move.
"Li Ang, Bacchus Empire are attacking White Deer Fortress, you have to find a way to repel the enemy..."
Ulrich didn't care about Li Ang's rude behavior. He confidently gave instructions to Li Ang in the first sentence, as if nothing happened.
"Your Majesty, I am imprisoned here now. How can I repel the enemy? Can I rely on my thoughts?"
The lord lay on the bed and turned over, lying on his side facing the king, probably as a sign of respect.
"This is Igor... Oh, go back to your territory, I will give you some compensation."
Ulrich originally planned to blame it on Igor, but seeing Li Ang's appearance, he changed his mind and offered compensation directly.
"Your Majesty, what kind of compensation?"
Upon hearing this, the lord turned over and stood up from the bed, his attitude becoming extremely upright.
"I know your business is doing well, and I need a lot of funds now... You can find a way to help me raise one hundred thousand dinars, and I will grant your flag tax-free rights within my jurisdiction - this is a privilege that can only be obtained by the royal industry. Is this compensation enough?"
Ulrich's voice was low and his breath was weak. He was obviously in poor physical condition, but he kept his head held high.
"... Your Majesty, this is a transaction, not compensation..."
Li Ang shook his head, having a new understanding of the thickness of Ulrich's face.
But Li Ang also knows that what Ulrich proposed is indeed a win-win approach.