Early in the morning of the second day, the Knight's Mansion.

Bang bang bang!

Bang bang!!

The two of them, who were "exercising" in the bedroom, were interrupted by a banging on the door.

The shy Lottie quickly pulled her clothes over her body, and then pushed the angry Art to open the door.

With an angry look on his face, Art walked to the door naked and scolded: "Who knocked on the door early in the morning!"

"Brother-in-law! It's me, Felix. Felix replied anxiously through the door.

Art closed his eyes and bared his teeth, and asked hatefully, "Why are you knocking on my door early in the morning?"

"Brother-in-law, urgent, open the door!" Felix tapped the door a few more times.

Art gave him a blank look and opened the door.

Felix looked at Yat who was full of chì luǒ, and then glanced at Lottie on the bed, knowing that he had ruined the good things of the two, and said with a smile: "Sister and brother-in-law, I'm sorry, I ruined your good deeds."

"Tell me something!" Art was very angry.

"Brother-in-law, Ron is gone!" Felix said.

Art reacted and said with a cheap smile: "Isn't it normal for Ron to be gone?" Ollie is also gone~"

"Brother-in-law, I'm not kidding, Ron suddenly disappeared, along with his horse and weapons and armor."

Felix noticed that Ron was in an abnormal mood from the time he returned to the wooden castle until the end of the banquet yesterday, so he went to find Ron to hunt and relax early this morning, but when Felix came to Ron's new house, he found that Ron's shadow had long since disappeared, along with his horse and weapons and armor.

"Ron's mood yesterday was a little abnormal, and it was my mistake to be too busy to talk to him yesterday." The anger in Art's heart suddenly dissipated and turned into a trace of worry.

"You mean his horses and weapons and armor are gone?" Art asked Felix.

"Isn't it~ Now Mrs. Emma is going crazy, begging me to come to you."

At this time, Lottie wrapped up and walked over, "You go and ask Ollie, Ollie was called by Ron for a while yesterday evening, and Ollie came back with a bad face. ”

Felix turned around and ran downstairs to the servants' room to find Ollie, Lody's personal maid......

"Ron, why did he suddenly disappear?" Lottie grumbled under her breath.

"I was careless." Art said as he went back to the bed, put on his clothes, and prepared to go out.

"Where are you going?" Lottie asked.

"Go tell everyone not to worry about Ron, he must be chasing the army, I'll ask the sergeant major to catch up and have a look~" said Art and ran downstairs.

"Poor Ron~" Lottie sighed......

Due to Ron's private departure, Art's original plan to rest for an extra day was also canceled, and early in the morning of the third day back to the valley, Art gathered a few soldiers who had returned home to visit his relatives and hurriedly mounted his horse.

............

In the following early March, both the armies of Challus and Art were on the road day and night, and never entered the castle along the way, except when Art went alone to meet the Bishop of Orlov when he passed through Lucesen.

Heading north, the two armies finally reached Besançon, the center of the Count of Burgundy, in mid-March.

After three days of simple repairs outside Besançon, the Earl of Baldwin instructed the palace granaries and arsenals to allocate a quantity of rations, baggage, weapons and armor to the two armies.

This is the third time that Art has entered the Earl's Palace, but the first two times are different, this time Art was invited to come as a confidant of Count Balwin.

Balwin met Art in a separate office in the inner house, and the Earl Balwin, who had always been old and able, began to look a little tired, and had yawned several times in quick succession as soon as he sat down.

"Lord Gongxiang, you should pay more attention to your body, Boguo still needs a pillar like you." As he spoke, Art respectfully handed a small box to Earl Balwin.

Balwin took the box, opened it gently, and found a small piece of brownish wood on the raw silk in the box, and he frowned as he looked at this ugly thing that he didn't know what it was.

But a faint fragrance hit the nasal cavity, Balwin pinched the small wooden segment and sniffed it under his nose, and his frowning brows suddenly relaxed, "This is ~ This is Shi Mu Xiang?" ”

Art is also worried that Earl Balwyn is illiterate, and it seems that the magnates have a lot of knowledge.

"Lord Gong Xiang is really well-informed, this is indeed stone and wood incense, the merchants of the East call it agarwood, I bought it from a Persian merchant at a high price, but this kind of thing is too rare, so I got such a little. I think Miya-sama must have been overworked lately, and scraping a little bit of scrap every day to burn incense can calm your mind. ”

Balwin put Shi Muxiang under his nose again, closed his eyes and sniffed for a while, opened his eyes to look at the young man, and said with a smile: "Then I will accept your heart." ”

Balwin closed the wooden box and placed it on the wooden table behind him, and then said to Art, "Time is short, let's talk about it briefly." ”

"I have brought you back from Provence this time because something big is about to happen on the side of the court. Although it seems to be calm at the moment, the clouds are in the sky and the rainstorm can come at any time, so I need to be prepared. Presumably, all the way north, Challis has also told you a lot of things, and I should also have a general understanding of the current complex situation in the whole country. ”

Art nodded slightly.

"The struggle for power in the Earl has become a foregone conclusion, and the forces behind the prince and the Count of Flanders have their own strengths and weaknesses, since I have placed a bet on the Count of Flanders, I can only go on with him."

"If you want to successfully seize the power of the country, a battle for the throne is inevitable. To tell the truth, the forces behind the prince are very strong, and ten of the twenty-two counties in the four provinces of the entire Boguo belong to their forces, and there are still many centrists, wall-riding factions, and free cities that do not take a stand. We have only the province of Jonah and the northern part of the province of ** under my complete control. Of course, the Midsummer region must have supported the Count of Flanders, and the Duchy of Burgundy also intended to further control the Count of Burgundy by supporting a new monarch, so we also secretly got the support of the Duchy of Burgundy. ”

"Right now, I'm cultivating my own forces, especially a group of commanders who are worthy of battle. That's why I've asked you and Challis to return north, because his grandfather and father were both military dignitaries of war, and your achievements are there for all to see. So this time I want to promote you to a knighthood, and when that day really comes, you can justifiably lead the army for me. ”

Balwin spoke very bluntly, and Art understood it very clearly.

"Thank you Miya-sama for your cultivation, Arte? Wood? Wells was willing to die for the palace minister. ”

Balwyn was very satisfied with Art's promise, "I also hope that you will also become the pillar of the kingdom in the future, and you will not die in battle." ”

Explaining the general situation of the country, Balwyn focused on the war in the eastern province of Jonah.

It turned out that the herald that Art and Challus return north to the east to regain lost territory was just a pretense, and that Balwyn had brought them and their troops back only to strengthen the forces available to him in case of a crisis that might erupt at any time.

As for the reconquest, it was just a matter of putting on the show of Challis and Art, and then successfully securing a reason that would allow Balwyn to propose a military merit for the two of them. Because the castle in Jonah Province, which had been captured by the Swabians, had already been attacked several times by Balwyn's men, and now only two men were needed to lead the troops to strike the final blow.

"The Swaben in the city can't support it anymore, you just take your soldiers and attack directly, the local army will assist you, and after recovering the lost territory, you will be stationed for a while, and I will operate for you on the palace side."

"As for Challus, he won't go with you against the Swabians, he'll go to the province of Jonah to recruit and train troops. However, his name will definitely be on the military merit book of the Reconquista, and you don't have to worry about it. ”

"I understand, I understand!"

Balwyn stood up and picked up a parchment book from his wooden table, "This is a letter from me in the name of the lord of the province of Jonah to support you in the surrounding castles, forts, and estates while you regain your lost territory and garrison it. ”

Art got up and took the letter and put it in his arms.

"My lord, then I will take my leave."

"Go~"

............

After several days of repairs in Besançon, at the behest of Earl Balwin, Art received more than ten sets of leather armor and short-sleeved half-body chain mail from the palace armament warehouse, as well as swords, spears and axes for wear and tear.

According to the arrangement of the palace, the hundred or so people under Art were organized into an independent and reduced company, and the official title on the court's troop dispatch book was the first company of the temporary formation of the border garrison corps, which was equivalent to the Janissaries sent by the palace to fight locally, and the commander was of course the palace guard knight Art? Wood? Wells.

Since it is an army equivalent to the palace guard, Yat naturally enjoys the military expenses of the palace, and Earl Balwin, as the deputy minister of the court and the military vice-minister, can still call the shots so that an army of more than 100 people can enjoy the treatment of the Praetorian Guard.

Therefore, for the next period of time, the soldiers of the first provisional company will receive a slightly higher salary than usual.

Art also carried out some reorganization of the army, and transferred the newly joined wandering knight Reyke to the fourth squadron as the temporary squadron leader, and the original fourth squadron leader Ron was transferred back to his side to form the guard, Ron served as the guard captain and military judge, and was responsible for the entire intelligence network of Art.

"My lord, we all support the selection of elites for you to form a guard, but the Ron brothers picked six elites, four of them are the cavalry of my sentry cavalry, and our sentry cavalry team has only ten cavalry with me, and he is going to leave four at once, isn't this a little too ~" Lusignon ran into Arte's military tent and kept complaining that Ron's hands were too dark.

"Ron was ordered by me to select the elite of the whole army, and I told you that I would give them my full support."

"My lord, we definitely support it, but we can't just pluck the hair against our sentry cavalry~"

Art coughed, "Uh-huh~ No, no, I have to tell Ron about this~"

.........