Ludwig, with his long, pointed ears, pricked up his ears to listen for the footsteps outside the tent, and only when he was sure that only one person was waiting outside the tent did Ludwig let him into his tent.

"Lord Governor! One of our Einsatzgruppen has been attacked by enemy mercenaries, and this is the fourth time in three days that this has happened! The city near the Black Swamp may not wait for our reinforcements to appear!" The person who brought the urgent information to Ludwig was a subordinate that Ludwig had always trusted, but now Ludwig no longer dared to trust the people around him easily, because he almost died at the hands of his own people.

Ever since Ludwig had taken over a large area of land in the northern part of the Duchy of Mageny, King Adam had sent envoys. The envoy not only brought King Adam's commendation and encouragement, but also brought a conspiracy against Ludwig by the magnates of the Winter Kingdom. A group of nobles led by the Marquis of Ampwör did not want to see Ludwig achieve greater and more feats, and the civilian officials who were already very relied on by Adam had become a thorn in their side, and even more so Ludwig, who was the best in this, and the red eyes hiding behind his back were oozing vicious hostility. According to spy reports, the Winter magnates had bribed Ludwig's people and ordered them to let Ludwig die quietly, and to blame Ludwig's death on the East Oguna Empire, so that they could continue to launch attacks in the eastern theater of operations.

At a lunch two days earlier, Ludwig's food had been tested for poison. Ludwig, who had lived with wild animals since he was a child, not only had a keen sense of hearing, but also a sense of taste and smell that surpassed ordinary people, so it was difficult to avoid Ludwig if he put something else in his food. Moreover, after the Blood Banquet incident, important people throughout the continent carried the corresponding antidote to that poison with them, and no one wanted to see their seven holes bleeding.

"How many people are there in that Einsatzgruppen?"

"One thousand, plus the other three, we have lost a total of three thousand five hundred," Ludwig's general couldn't help but yawn, he was also obviously woken up by the urgent information, "According to the information coming from the front, this is all the work of an elusive mercenary group, and their cavalry is very powerful. ”

"Are they the three mercenary groups of the Mercenary Guild?"

"It shouldn't be, those three mercenary groups are not cavalry-based mercenary groups, the latest intelligence shows that those three mercenary groups have entered the western territory of the Mageni Principality and are approaching Black Swamp City, and it is not known what their real purpose is for the time being. ”

Ludwig had already fallen asleep, not only at the sound of his own tent's footsteps, but also with the predicament he had to face. As the empty governor of the Sunrise Plateau, he commanded more than 100,000 troops, and he could have sent people to negotiate peace with the Duchy of Mageni, and led the victorious army back to the capital Cosephoti to receive the merit, but now he is like a man.

The reason for this is that there are countless nobles in the Winter Kingdom who are eyeing themselves, and now they have the power to fight, but the environment they are in has become dangerous. If the squad returned to the dynasty and returned to the military power, perhaps the danger he faced would be even greater. Even if King Adam wanted to protect himself, the nobles who ruled the land would look at him with red eyes and gritted teeth, and do everything they could to eradicate themselves. Such a situation is not a pessimistic and negative illusion, but a real threat, and the "lord of the snow leopard", who grew up with the beast, will not be unaware of the smell of danger.

Ludwig, who had just discovered this situation, thought of a countermeasure - to deliberately slow down the pace of his own march, first, to guard against the Imperial Army of East Oguna that might be in contact immediately, second, to arrange for his forces to be placed on the land of the Duchy of Magini, and third, to delay the time to return home. It's a pity that such a plan suddenly changed in variables, the regular army of the Principality of Mageni put all its combat strength into the battlefield to resist the Winter Army, and even the mercenary groups hired by the Principality of Mageni are united, especially the horseback mercenaries who have suddenly appeared in recent days, these guys have disrupted Ludwig's rhythm, and the city that has just been taken may be immediately recaptured by the Principality of Mageni Army due to lack of reinforcements.

"Give the order to the defenders of that city to abandon the city, and at the same time send three special forces of no more than five hundred men to meet the withdrawal, and prepare now. ”

The general was stunned for a moment before asking, "There is a large amount of grain waiting to be harvested around that city, and we have given it up, no matter how you look at it..."

"The supply of food is sufficient, and the defeat will hurt the morale of our army. Now that the morale of our army is rising, the strategic abandonment of the city is also convenient for us to rearrange the war against the Duchy of Mageni, and we must not lose control of the situation for the sake of a small profit in the near future. ”

"So what should we do with that elusive mercenary group?"

"I have my own way. ”

Early the next morning, Ludwig personally put on his armor and brought his own guard regiment to pretend to be one of the three reinforcements that had been planned. The 500-strong "elite" Einsatzgruppen led by Ludwig himself chose the least many, most rugged road to approach the besieged town, and he also had a cavalry of about 800 men on standby in the far rear, ready to support him.

The practice of using himself as a bait made many generals oppose, but Ludwig thought that the mercenary group that had been sneaking up on them must be eliminated, and he was obviously very confident in his personal guard group, even if it was an enemy mercenary mainly cavalry, it was impossible to defeat Ludwig's personal guard.

As Ludwig walked through a wooded area that was not tall and wide, the mercenary appeared. It was clearly not a suitable place for cavalry to play to their advantage, but Ludwig had already sensed the enemy's aura, and he immediately dispersed his men, ready to defend themselves at any time.

However, Ludwig and the elite guards beside him did not wait for the cavalry team to attack them, but waited for Fidel, who had only a dozen cavalry.

"I didn't expect that we would meet again here," Ludwig waved his hand and asked his men to put down their bows and swords, "Captain Fidel, I knew that we would meet again, and I also knew that you were highly regarded by the Duchy of Magini, but I didn't expect that it was the cavalry you sent to harass us." ”

Fidel and several captains rode on the best horses, and if Fidel wanted to turn around and run away, Ludwig's guards would definitely not be able to catch up, "Governor Ludwig, I don't want to be your enemy. ”

"Oh, what you're saying now is exactly the opposite of what you're really doing," Ludwig glanced at the man behind Fed, "and if you don't have a proper evacuation plan, you're probably going to be surrounded by troops ready to support me." ”

Vittorio immediately whispered something to Fiddle, and Fidel continued to respond aloud: "Governor Ludwig, this is what I want to say to you, I believe you will consider it in detail. With that, Fidel glanced over the woods, and an arrow without an iron arrow suddenly shot down from a tree, directly at Ludwig's horse. However, the arrow was so light that it did not penetrate the armor draped over the horse, and its effect only startled Ludwig's guards.

Ludwig noticed that the wooden arrow had a letter tied to it, and he was not surprised that he had grown up with the beast and had not noticed that anyone was hiding in the trees. Ludwig began to miss the parchment scroll that contained magical knowledge, but it was a pity that he only had it for a short time before it was returned to its rightful owner, otherwise he might have used that power to capture everyone in front of him, even if he had to do all the hard work alone.

Ayana jumped from the tree and got on Winotchy's horse, and Fidel said after Ludwig had the wooden arrow picked up, "We have no ill will. With that, Fidel quickly withdrew from the grove with a dozen or so men, and Ludwig did not let his men pursue, but only held the secret letter wrapped in the arrow tightly in his hand.

When Fid joined up with the more than 1,000 cavalry waiting for him on the outskirts of the woods, Fid asked Vittorio, "Can a letter convince the commander-in-chief of the Winter Army of our sincerity?"

Vittorio, riding the shortest of horses, could only hold his head high as he looked at Fidel, "If Ludwig is really in a 'belly and back' situation, as we expected, then he will definitely consider making further contact with us." If he doesn't have any worries, then our plan basically doesn't have any chance of success. It's like a business, and both parties have needs to have opportunities to cooperate. ”

Luca said: "The reward we are proposing is half of the territory of the Duchy of Mageny, such a tempting temptation is not something that ordinary people can resist, if this guy named Ludwig has a little ambition, he will definitely not let go of the heaven-sent opportunity, he can even proclaim himself king in this land!"

The words "self-proclaimed king" did not appear on the secret letter, at least not in the letter written by Vittorio himself, in which all the captains gave their opinions. For Fidel thought that Ludwig was a man loyal to King Adam, otherwise he would not have accepted an empty official position and had been entrusted with a position by the young king, who was ill and weak.

Ludwig's Einsatzgruppen succeeded in picking up the defenders of the lonely city, and he had a new plan after seeing the letter that Fidel had sent to him.

"We would like to have a win-win cooperation with you. These are the first sentences at the beginning of the letter. The letter was not very straightforward, but Ludwig could still read the meaning - the Duchy of Mageni did not want to continue to face attacks from the Kingdom of Cosey and the Empire of East Oguna, and he wanted to enlist the Kingdom of Cosey as a friend against the Empire of East Oguna, which was hostile to both countries.

This kind of plan of losing self-esteem and choosing to cooperate with the enemy is unacceptable to ordinary people, but Ludwig sees in the letter the face of a businessman - mercenary and uninhibited. Ludwig didn't know who had come up with this strategy, but it was certainly not the mercenary leader Fidel whom he knew. What touched Ludwig the most about this letter was not the return, but the redness behind Ludwig's back. The person who wrote the letter apparently guessed Ludwig's current predicament, but also knew that he urgently needed allies with common interests, not more enemies.