Byron filled the hall with a halberd of the Lumberjack and the Salander cavalry, the former hating these nobles from the bottom of his heart, while the latter could hardly understand what the Rhodoks were saying, which made the Rhodok nobles attending the banquet feel very depressed. Therefore, these magnates of the city were very restrained at the banquet, so what Byron said, as long as it was not particularly excessive, they all agreed.

Byron made sure that his soldiers wouldn't be bothering them, and that they had to make sure that their industries could get up and running as soon as possible, and that the city's economy wouldn't decline. In addition, they had to give up the dinar they had deposited in the vault and give him the money as a gift to Byron. However, Byron also promised that as long as he could rule Viruga, they would compensate them in some way.

Although those who have saved money are ruthless, but the form is forced, and no one dares to say a word.

However, Alleyne also reminded Byron after the banquet that he had an arrogant attitude and had to rule the city after forcibly stealing people's money, and that he had to be careful of possible confrontation and revenge from the nobles in the city. These nobles and wealthy people controlled the economic lifeblood of the city, and to a certain extent, they also controlled the army and the city council, and even the Count of Mateas relied on their help in the management of the city, and even provoked factional strife to clamp down on a family, which should not be underestimated.

Although Alleyne was arrogant, he was very good at dealing with all kinds of noble problems, so Byron listened to his advice, promised to reduce the taxes on the various families of Veruga, and secretly gave some of the weaker forces in the past a lot of dinars to support them in order to gain their support.

And after the logging team joined Byron's troops and made great achievements, Byron even started the idea of using the Rhodoks to control the Rhodoks.

After all, although it is said throughout the continent that the Rhodoks are united, the formation of a military formation as solid as a wall of steel. But when Byron was given the title of Serindil, he noticed a difference in the situation. The mountainous areas northwest of Rhodok are poor and backward, and the lords here have no advantage except that they are not afraid of foreign enemy attacks, so they naturally do not have enough money, and the pressure is transferred to the lords.

In order to cope with the high taxes, the mountain people can only continue to poach, which leads to the punishment of poachers in this area is becoming more and more severe, and once the incident happens, they can only live as robbers and bandits. By now, the Northwest bandits have spread all over Rhodok, and the bandits are like the forest bandits in the south of Swadia, and they cannot be killed inexhaustibly. These people, like the mercenaries of the lumberjacks, have no good feelings for the nobles of Rhodok, and they can be used by Byron.

This time, Fatis no longer objected, he also knew the situation of Byron now, and knew that Byron was in urgent need of expanding his army. However, he was still worried about the discipline and morale of the bandits, so he worked with Bandak to develop a training program for them.

Together with Bandak, Desaivi ransomed the bandit captives from the ransom broker, and then relied on them to get in touch with the bandit gang northwest of Viruga. Byron also encouraged the members of the logging team to wear the new equipment they had seized from the city's armory and went to the surrounding villages and towns, so that they could persuade their relatives and friends in Rhodoc to join their troops, and that they would be willing to reward them according to their heads.

The citizens of the city did not dare to use it at present, but there were many idlers in the village, and this was the kind of person he recruited when he first arrived in Swadia. After a little training, you can be sent to the battlefield, and you can still be cannon fodder. In particular, there are few people in Rhodok, the peasants have received a little training in spears, and there are many hunters who are skilled in bows and crossbows, so it will be better to be armed.

The only problem was that Rolf had plundered the surrounding villages and towns in order to distract the Viruga defenders, and now it might be difficult to convince them of himself, so Byron could only pretend to sympathize, deliver supplies, and reduce taxes. I have to say that the method of reassuring the people that these rulers have worked very well, as long as it is not the death of their own family, those villagers will soon forget about the previous events.

Byron was busy for almost a week to gather his army, during which time he kept an eye on the form to the north, and the army of Rhodok outside Fort Gruenwald did not move south after receiving the fall of Viruga, but advanced towards Fort Agorlon, seemingly intending to repair there. This gave Byron an opportunity, and he hoped to attack them as they retreated.

However, this plan is also very risky, if he wants to attack the other side, then he will have to take most of the army with him. The nobles of the city could not be trusted, and it would be bad if they encouraged the citizens to take up arms and rebel. However, if this army is not destroyed, the threat of Viruga north will not disappear, and Byron will have no sleep all day long.

After much deliberation, he sent Fatis to carry about 100,000 dinars worth of gold and jewels back to Dehrim for emergency purposes, sent Irene to stay in Viruga with 300 peony mercenaries and many newly recruited recruits, and he and Kenrad marched north with about 1,600 soldiers, intending to tentatively attack the transferred Rhodok force.

In this battle, Byron actually had no bottom in his heart, after all, the difference in the number of people between the two sides was nearly doubled, and the mixed cooperation of his own troops was not good, and it was not easy to win.

So Byron sent more than a dozen waves of scouts to find out the news, and if the other side was prepared or the morale was good, he would retreat, and if he was not the opposite, he would attack.

He also sent messengers to Viruga in case something happened in the city.

But the good news came quickly, and it was two.

The first news came from Desaivi, and many of the bandits and mountain people who had fled to the east for their lives were willing to join Byron's army, and they were accompanied by young men from villages near the mountains who wanted to join the army. Together, these people numbered more than 400 and could have cooperated with Byron to launch an attack.

The second piece of good news was that the Rhodoc army was infighting. After Count Mateas fled to Agolonburg, he ordered the troops to all go to Agolon to help him retake Viruga.

But the part of the army belonging to Count Rimusk had had enough of the siege 🏯 in the already bad weather, not to mention the fact that after Count Rimusk was captured, no one paid them salaries and supplies, and Viruga's army was unwilling to help them. After a long time, there was a gap between the two sides.

They didn't want to fight anymore, and their commander also wanted to return to Imer and raise a ransom to ransom their count. What's even more interesting is that after a big quarrel between the two commanders, the army was completely split, and the commander of Count Mateas did not keep them at all.

Byron had two troops to deal with, but the difficulty was greatly reduced. Count Mateas's 2,000-strong troops are still advancing towards Fort Agoron, while Count Rimusk's 1,000 soldiers who have lost their fighting spirit are heading south, hoping to return home as soon as possible.

The demoralized miscellaneous army was no threat to Byron, so he directly ordered a northward march to attack the 2,000 Viruga army of Count Mateas. Once they were done, there would not be enough troops in Agolon to move south.

However, at this time, the situation in the city of Viruga seems to be a little bad.