Kent Duke held the report in his hand and felt the urge to tear it into pieces.
Who made Greiman make so much money?
He looked up and saw the porcelain vase on the table. He took it and was about to throw it to the ground.
But the Duke's hand hung in the air for a long time, unable to throw it down, and finally put the vase back to its original place with an awkward look on his face.
Malz called Intelligence Director in again and ordered him to go to the hall to call a few of his confidants and let others disperse first.
After a while, the confidants arrived, including Emerson Wilde. As for the Duke's son, he did not come. Recently, there were many things that required him to personally come forward, organize the army, and recruit new soldiers, so he has been running around outside.
The Duke told his confidants about his present predicament.
"We must find a weapon that can restrain the Firebolt and Thunder Hammer, and then we can crush them with numerical superiority."
But is this easier said than done? The existing bows and arrows and ballistae were inferior to the previous two in terms of range and power. Everyone thought hard and never came up with a good plan.
"Uncle Kent, I have an idea, but I don't know if it's feasible or not."
Amerson suddenly spoke, and Malz immediately said as if he saw a light in the dark, "Oh? Tell me!"
"Have you ever heard of a longbow?"
"Longbow? We have one here too!"
"The longbow I'm talking about is not an ordinary longbow, but a longer and bigger one."
Amerson gestured with his hands and introduced to everyone in the study.
"This kind of longbow is about 1.5 to 2 meters long and is made of Yew Wood. It can also be replaced by Elm Wood and oak, but it is best to use Yew Wood because Yew Wood is strong, not easy to break, tough, flexible, and can be drawn wider."
"Its range can reach about 200-300 meters, which is already comparable to the Alarda People Fire Crossbow. And it is very powerful. It can penetrate leather, padded armor and fabric at a distance of about 220-260 meters. Things, or penetrating chain armor, plate armor or fish Scale Armor can resist its penetration; but if it is shot from the front within 100 meters, even plate armor cannot resist it; at a range of 50 meters, longbows and arrows can be said to be invincible."
Amerson's description made everyone's eyes light up. This weapon is too terrifying.
"Really? Amerson, is the 'longbow' you mentioned really so powerful?"
Amerson pondered for a moment, "Uh... I also heard what others said. It may be bragging, but it is undeniable that the long bow is extremely powerful."
Maltz Kent made the final decision. "You have to give it a try no matter what. Do you have a way to make this kind of bow and arrow? Or you can buy it."
"I don't know how to make it, but I know where to buy it. But Uncle Kent, just buying it is not enough. Training soldiers to operate longbows is not easy. You must go through years of long-term training to become a qualified longbowman."
"What's the solution to this?"
"Mercenary."
"Mercenary?"
"Yes, Uncle Kent, spend money to hire longbowmen, preferably longbowmen from a large mercenary group."
Maltz Kent narrowed his eyes. He was aware of the existence of mercenaries. In some areas with frequent wars, there are a large number of people who work for money. They either work alone or form groups. Some large mercenary groups will grow to an astonishing size, and their combat effectiveness can even rival the army of a powerful lord.
However, most mercenaries are extremely morally corrupt and have no sense of honor at all. It is common for them to appear as bandits and robbers. Although the local Soldiers recruited in the territory also robbed them, they still had some concerns about their fellow villagers. As mercenaries who were completely outsiders, they did not have such restraints.
Of course, the latter feature was not within the scope of Maltz Kent's consideration at all. The only thing that worried him a little was the price of the employment fee. The price that made others sacrifice their lives would definitely not be low.
But if you can defeat the Lord Alliance who opposes you and annex their territory and wealth, especially that Paul Greiman, you will eventually get back exponentially what you have paid.
The Duke slammed the table and shouted, "Great, little Amerson, this is exactly what I need. I have all the weapons and Soldiers at once."
Amerson puffed up his chest. "If Uncle Kent is interested, I am willing to go there and contact various mercenary groups."
Malz agreed, "Okay, I'll leave this matter to you. The price is negotiable. The main thing is to be able to gather a sufficient number of troops."
Amerson reminded him, "However, this will take time. Before the mercenary group arrives, we still need to find a way to tie Greiman's legs. Although his army has stopped moving forward, there is no guarantee that they will resume the attack."
The Duke said sadly, "Yes, this is indeed an urgent problem."
Intelligence Director, who was silent on the side, suddenly said, "Duke, please leave this matter to us."
"What can you do?"
Intelligence Director smiled slightly, "Earl Greiman has made his territory very impressive over the past year, but he didn't know that there are already two volcanoes buried under his butt. Although the volcano is still relatively small, sooner or later it will erupt one day."
The Duke gave him permission to continue.
"It is mentioned in the report that Arda has developed a new Salt Production method that can produce salt quickly and in large quantities. On the surface, this is a very good thing, but..."
"But what?"
"There are a large number of salt people in the coastal areas who rely on boiling salt for a living. They rely on the traditional method of boiling salt to make salt, but the cost cannot compete with the new Salt Production method. Salt merchants do not buy from them, so the salt people are almost losing their livelihood. As long as we..."
Before Intelligence Director could finish speaking, someone in the room shouted, "I know what you want to say? This is a bad idea! Duke, you must not use this method."
The speaker was a vassal of the Kent Family. He said righteously, "Although we are at war with Greiman, we are both nobles after all. How is it unbecoming to incite untouchables to oppose their own lords?"
Other aristocratic confidants also shouted:
"Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous!"
"Treasonous!"
Intelligence Director stopped talking. Without a title, he couldn't understand what the gentlemen were thinking. It was obvious that his buttocks were on fire.
Kent Duke waved his hands irritably. "Okay, we'll discuss this later. Do you have any other ideas?"
Some people have proposed several methods one after another, but none of them are feasible in Malz's mind.
"Amerson is going to contact a mercenary group that is good at using longbows. We will retrain an army and try to block Alarda People before the mercenaries arrive."
The Duke finally declared.
Everyone dispersed, only Intelligence Director was left behind.
"You said before that there are two volcanoes under Greiman's butt. What is the other one?"
Intelligence Director's eyes lit up and he whispered, "Countryside."
"What's he doing in the country?"
"After repelling the pirates, Earl Greiman implemented a decree - 'Land Consolidation', which centralized the scattered Farmland Consolidation of various landowners and farmers through replacement, aiming to make better use of the land."
"This law sounds good."
"Yes, the law is good. But there are many people in the countryside who conceal the area of their farmland in order to evade taxes, and there are also many people who occupy large amounts of public land due to lax management. Uh... you also know that this phenomenon is always prohibited."
Malz smiled bitterly and motioned for the supervisor to continue.
"In the process of replacing and integrating farmland, the first thing to do is to inventory each family's real estate and measure the actual area of farmland..."
"Also, the quality of farmland can be good or bad. No matter how hard we try to maintain fairness during the replacement process, some people will feel that they are suffering a disadvantage."
"So we can make a big splash here."
After Intelligence Director finished speaking, Maltz Kent thought for a long time without saying a word, and finally just said, "You should step back first."
After the director left, the Duke's study fell silent.