"Don't you dare go back? What happened?"
Li Ang was shocked. How brave is this girl? She was able to formulate such a big gladiator rebel plan. She was not afraid when she contacted the rebels alone. She was not afraid when she ran to the Lionheart Kingdom for help.
And Li Ang can see that she has killed people, and more than one or two - she has always been calm and composed when facing all kinds of blood on the battlefield outside Erudition City, just like a veteran who has been on the battlefield, she was not even afraid when that Castro rushed towards her.
Although Li Ang did not know that Alina led the team to kill countless nobles in Siyuan City, some temperaments can be distinguished at a glance.
How dare such a girl do something?
"My family is urging me to get married... someone came to ask for my hand in marriage, and my father has already decided to agree. It is said that the betrothal gift is very large, so much that my father has no reason to refuse..."
Alina curled his lips. "The point is, I'm not very good at refusing this time... it's very troublesome."
"It's hard to refuse given your status? Who is it?"
Li Ang is a little curious.
"Lionheart Kingdom imperial cupbearer, Royal City Guard commander, King Ulrich's adopted son, Duke Brennus's heir, Cliff Bay's legal ruler, Sava Fortress lord, Malbert."
Alina said a long list of titles helplessly. It was obvious that they were memorized from documents such as letters.
"Huo... there are so many people, you definitely can't fit them in your home..."
Li Ang blurted out a complaint.
But he also immediately understood why Alina could not say no - this kind of marriage is not a family matter.
This is a state matter.
As Malbert and Alina, this marriage proposal is actually an attempt to repair relations between the two countries.
In addition, Malbert is now the lord of Sava Fortress. When Bacchus Empire needs to recuperate the most, Alina must consider the security of the country. It is really difficult for her to refuse.
"Don't be ridiculous... you know him, right? What kind of person is he?"
Alina asked seriously.
"Well... to be honest, that guy is handsome, handsome, talented, smart, flexible and capable in both civil and military affairs. In addition, he is of noble birth, rich and powerful, so he has a bright future..."
Li Ang was filled with words of praise as soon as he opened his mouth.
"No flaws at all? Is there such a perfect person?"
Alina rolled his eyes and asked angrily.
"There are some shortcomings..."
Li Ang twitched his chin and thought about it, "There is only one shortcoming that I know of - he may have a short life."
"He has a grudge against you?"
Alina glanced at Li Ang in surprise.
"That's not true... but he will probably have a grudge against King Ulrich soon."
Li Ang looked like a prophet, looking like a magician. "But if nothing else, he must have robbed my convoy to pay tribute to Lion City. Knowing that this would offend King Ulrich, in order to protect himself, he immediately proposed to your family..."
"Ah?"
Alina tilted his head and looked at Li Ang: "Why do I feel like it's a frame-up..."
"No, no, no... I'm a decent person."
Li Ang acted like a gentleman. "You may not know that Malbert was originally King Ulrich's default son-in-law, but little Princess is only ten years old now, so they have never been engaged before... If he had not offended the king, he would definitely not have gone to Bax to propose marriage."
"... I see... it seems like I really have to hide to avoid getting into trouble..."
Alina bit his lip and thought for a while, then suddenly said, "Lord Li Ang, how about... you kidnap me to Long River Town?"
"Ah?"
Li Ang was dumbfounded. "What did I kidnap you for?"
"If I'm not wrong, Malbert may not have robbed your fleet of tribute to the king out of his own will... You are deliberately looking for an excuse to give yourself, the king and the princess a reason to attack him, right?"
Alina reacted very quickly to these strategies. "He came to my father to propose marriage at this time. He probably used the marriage contract to protect his own safety before Lion City could react, so that Lion King would not dare to touch him. The betrothal gift that my father had no reason to refuse probably came from your motorcade... But I don't want to be this victim."
"Then you just need to tell Mr. Justus about this... As long as he knows the situation, he will probably give up on this marriage."
Li Ang is still a little confused. "Why do you want me to kidnap you?"
"Lord Li Ang, my father is the governor of the Bacchus Empire after all..."
Alina sighed, "For him, this engagement will give the empire a chance to recuperate, get a fund to rebuild Siyuan City, and also allow my father to get involved in the Lionheart Kingdom king The opportunity for a bit dispute can even lay the foundation for taking back Sava Fortress in the future... This does have many benefits for the Bacchus Empire. My father will never give up on this engagement, and I am afraid he will urge the marriage even more fiercely..."
Li Ang probably understands a little bit. Justus is indeed a person who forgets his own interests. This can be seen from his willingness to leave Erudition City to give General Clerion room to develop.
A selfless person is of course a good quality for the country, but the biggest problem with this kind of person is that he is too selfless - this kind of good quality is often very bad if it is placed in the family, because he will think that his wife, children and children should also do whatever it takes for the country like him.
"But with Emperor Marius's character, he probably won't agree..."
Li Ang thought about Emperor Marius's appearance, "He would probably rather personally lead the troops to attack Sava Fortress and steal the money from Malbert."
"Yes, but His Majesty has nothing to do with my father in this matter... That's why I asked you to kidnap me - in this case, Your Majesty will definitely declare war on the Lionheart Kingdom, and naturally this engagement will not exist!"
Alina smiled at Li Ang, "I think you also want Bacchus Empire to declare war on the Lionheart Kingdom now, don't you?"
At the same time, Lion City.
"Your Majesty, I am Eric, and I am Oath Knight who is loyal to Count Li Ang. On behalf of Lord Li Ang, I bring you the trophies obtained from Dexia..."
In the throne room, Eric, whose body was covered with scars, was meeting the king.
"I have received the letter from Li Ang, and I have seen the trophies. You have worked hard... But what happened to your injury? Did you get the injury in Dexia? Li Ang actually let a wounded person like you travel thousands of miles. I really don't know how to show sympathy to my subordinates..."
Ulrich saw a lot of jewelry and brocade, and was obviously in a good mood. Everyone knew they were concerned about Eric's injury.
Eric's current appearance is indeed a bit miserable.
All the equipment was damaged, and you could tell at a glance that it had just gone through a tough battle;
There was bloody gauze wrapped around his head, and there was faint blood leaching out;
The left side of the face was red and swollen, the lip was damaged, and it was obvious that he had been punched hard on the face;
Only half of the gauntlet on the right hand is left, and the other half is also dented;
My legs are also wrapped in gauze, and I am limping...
Just by looking at this, you can tell that he must have had a battle with a powerful enemy not long ago, and he was definitely not the victor...
"No, Your Majesty! Originally, the loot I brought back should be five times as much as here! Your Majesty, I want to sue Lord Sava Fortress Malbert! He robbed the convoy we used to transport the loot to you!"
Eric was very excited. "I originally thought that the Sava Fortress range was under the rule of the lord of the Lionheart Kingdom, so it would be safe for us to pass by... But I didn't expect that the knights of the Lionheart Kingdom would rob us!"
"What?! Are you sure you read it correctly? How many were robbed?"
Ulrich stood up from Silver Throne, his expression became serious.
"I tried my best to escape after the death battle... but I could only take away 20% of the loot, and the other 80% was robbed by Malbert! At that time, there was a team of Lion Knight patrolling next to us, but they turned a blind eye as if they were all blind - because the people who robbed all carried the banner of Malbert!"
Eric became angrier as he spoke and was about to cry, "Your Majesty, that was originally given to you by Lord Li Ang, it is your trophy!"
The marshal of the kingdom leads troops to invade enemy territory. If the purpose is to capture a town, then the captured territory will be distributed by the king, and the marshal will be able to obtain the right to distribute the spoils;
But if the purpose is not to capture the city, then a share of the spoils must be given to the king.
This has been a practice for hundreds of years, and Duke Brennus did the same thing before.
Li Ang sent Lion City a large amount of loot before returning to the army, which originally made Ulrich quite happy.
But now, knowing that more of the loot that should have belonged to him had been robbed, and it was actually Malbert who did it, Ulrich is really angry...
Because he knows that Eric will never tell such a lie in the throne room - this kind of thing is easy to prove. Lying will not only lead to death, but also implicate Li Ang.
Moreover, Malbert is indeed very likely to do so...
After all, Brennus often does this - Brennus even often takes Lion Knight Order to rob business travelers in other countries!
But the problem is that Brennus's robbery proceeds will always be divided into half of Ulrich's, and he will definitely not snatch the spoils given to the king!
But this bastard Malbert actually stole the money Li Ang gave to him?
"Come here! Go and give Malbert an order to come back and see me!"
King Ulrich is basically shouting in a roaring way.
In April of Pendor Calendar 356, Bacchus Empire declared war on the Lionheart Kingdom.
The reason for the declaration of war is that Miss Alina, the adopted daughter of Emperor Bacchus Empire, was kidnapped by Marshal Count Li Ang of the Lionheart Kingdom...
Count Li Ang, who was returning to Lion Territory, also quickly sent back the military report and gave an explanation for the matter - when Li Ang's army marched towards Toba City, Bacchus Empire sent General Agathon to lead a fleet to sneak attack Aishikeman, which was originally occupied by Li Ang, so Li Ang "captured" Ms. Alina in an attempt to exchange for the city.
But General Agathon refused to change cities, so of course Li Ang could only take Alina away...
Moreover, in order to avoid the retreat route being cut off by the Bacchus Empire, Li Ang could only withdraw its troops immediately and let the kingdom's army prepare for the Bacchus Empire's attack.
For King Ulrich, there is no problem with what Li Ang did - since Bacchus Empire robbed Aishikeman, then It is indeed appropriate for Li Ang to seize a hostage and seek explanation from Baxian; when Bacchus Empire declares war, Li Ang's retreat route can easily be cut off, and it is also appropriate to withdraw troops quickly.
But Emperor Marius is different. He doesn't care about the specific reasons at all. He originally planned to take back the lost ground. For him, any excuse will do...
As a result, Bacchus Empire and Lionheart Kingdom became hostile again.
But the two countries have not sent troops to each other for the time being, because neither side is ready for war...
King Ulrich has no money and cannot afford to fight a big war for the time being;
Emperor Marius has no troops and cannot fight for the time being...
All we can do is have a verbal spat first.
At the same time, Li Ang's army also returned to the Lionheart Kingdom's territory.
The army was officially disbanded in the north of Sava Fortress, letting the small lords go back to their respective homes. Li Ang's own troops also returned to Long River Town.
Li Ang did not start calculating the benefits of this troop dispatch until all merchants were ensured to return to their territory safely.
Li Ang can share half of the proceeds from the auction of Aishikeman, totaling one million dinars. This money will be sent to Long River Town by Ramon in one or two months, because Bacchus Empire was purchased with the price of the land deed, and it will take a certain amount of time to realize the land deed;
It is precisely because it has not been cashed out yet that Bahaman will not mess around in a short period of time - he has to wait to get his share of the money first.
Four million dinars of supplies were obtained from Emil Xixis.
This includes four hundred thousand in cash;
An iron mine priced at 600,000 yuan;
Gold, silver and other hard currencies worth 1.2 million;
Dozens of carts of bloody jewelry and fabrics worth around 800,000 yuan;
The final payment was a few hundred horses and gold and silver vessels worth six hundred thousand dinars.
Ramon subcontracted the iron ore to several slave owners for mining, and he was able to get some income from the subcontracting. However, Ramon would smelt it on site and send the pig iron ingots after initial smelting to Long River Town once a month. This allowed Li Ang to reduce transportation costs. It was really uneconomical to transport ore over long distances.
According to Ramon's estimate, there is approximately 50,000 pounds of iron ingot production per month - not iron ore, but iron ingot production.
In this era, there is only so much production capacity. Fortunately, this is a long-term business, and Li Ang has not invested any time or manpower.
In fact, iron is also very valuable in this era. Fifty thousand pounds of pig iron is worth about ten thousand dinars.
In other words, this is a long-term business with an annual income of about 120,000 dinars, but Emil Xixis is only used for 600,000 dinars. Obviously Ramon and Li Ang have taken a big advantage.
Under normal circumstances, industries that can bring stable profits, such as mining, are priced based on the expected output in ten or even twenty years.
Of course, the main reason why Emir sold it at a low price was because he could not mine it himself - the iron ore was in Yaxing, very close to Xingar, but too far from Toba City.
After Emir gets Toba City, the iron ore will definitely not be able to be taken care of, and maybe Bill Kadan will take it away. It is normal to transfer it at half price.
As for the blood-stained jewelry and cloth, a small part was sent to the king, probably worth hundreds of thousands of dinars.
In addition, most of them were robbed by Malbert - these robbed materials are worth at least more than 600,000 dinars.
Those hundreds of horses have been given to Alina. This is what was promised. Li Ang can indeed fulfill what he said and never breaks his promise.
What actually falls into the hands of Li Ang is cash and various gold, silver and copper products - that is, hard currency that can be used as currency, totaling about 2.2 million dinars.
In addition, there are also 'ownerless war horses' 'taken in' under Gazi Mountain...
The total number exceeds 2,300 horses - this is actually a division of the spoils with Agasong. Gazi Mountain actually has nearly 5,000 horses. Li Ang and Agasong don't even want the old, weak, sick and disabled.
That's why Li Ang would be so generous as to send hundreds of horses to Alina - he already has too many horses and there is too little pasture to raise them.