Looking at Princess Gina's nervous appearance, Duke suddenly felt a feeling in his heart, maybe among the high-level leaders of the entire Fran Empire, the only one who really cares about the life and death of Storm Castle is the Princess Gina in front of him.

"Don't worry, Stormfort is my lair, and the people there are also my people, how can I ignore it. And the Ice Demons have been beaten back by me, at least they don't have the strength to attack Stormcastle this summer. ”

"Fight back, the Storm Army is as strong as here?"

Jena's face was full of surprise, she had experienced the strength of the ice demon, and it could be said that under the threat of the ice demon, Storm Castle would end up with death at any time. And Storm Castle has been more than a hundred years since the establishment of the French Empire, even during the reign of the most powerful Henry IV, it has not been able to counterattack the past, and Storm Castle can do this without any foreign aid?

"Jena, the Storm Army is now far more powerful than you think, and there are more than 20,000 people who have officially joined the Storm Army sequence. And Storm Castle continues to absorb the homeless, and at the same time intends to create a storm market, once the human resources are sufficient, the storm army will continue to expand. By the time I get back, with the newly established Storm Troopers, there may be more than 30,000 men. ”

Duke may hide the strength of Storm Castle from others, but he doesn't want to hide anything from Gina, and the number of future plans of the Storm Army has already been told to Gina. Because if it weren't for Gina, maybe Storm Castle wouldn't even have the foundation for its initial development, and it would be thanks to Gina's help that he could have today.

Of course, the more important point is that Gina is one of the few friends Duke has in this world, and she is the kind of friend who can be trusted and confided.

After listening to the figure of 30,000 Duke, Ji Na stared at Duke with a pair of big eyes, because the number of 30,000 people was almost a quarter of the strength of the entire French Imperial Army. If you add the strength of the private lords such as the Lion Army, the total strength of the entire Imperial Army is only more than 200,000, and a Storm Fort can have a military strength of more than 30,000 people, which may be second only to the existence of the Lion Army among the lords.

Duke is also the son of Duke Otto, and in a sense, the Storm Army is also a lion battle flag, and it is not an exaggeration to be considered a lion army at a critical time. Then the direct troops of Duke Otto's Lion Army, plus the Silver Moon Army, the Maple Leaf Army, etc., have theoretically been able to exceed the scale of 80,000 people, which is already the number of catching up with the Imperial Army.

After going to the border of the Storm Army, Jina began to gradually get in touch with military affairs, and began to understand her father's precautions and suppression of Duke Otto. It's just that Ji Na never understood why her father did this, Duke Otto said that it was not an exaggeration to say that they were uncles, brothers who had a lifelong friendship with their father back then!

It was at this moment that Princess Jina suddenly understood, why was her father so jealous of Duke Otto, an opponent who was almost equal to the imperial royal family's military strength, how could the royal family not be afraid and wary?

This is no longer any emotion, as long as the royal family exists for a day, the French Empire is still the Henry family, it is impossible to allow such a powerful local warlord force to exist. Probably, Duke Otto had no ambitions to replace him, but who would dare to guarantee that his son did not, and his future heir did not?

Seeing that Princess Jina's face became a little pale and she didn't speak, Duke thought that Jina was shocked by the scale of his storm army's expansion, so he continued proudly: "Little Nizi, now you understand my Duke's strength, do you really think I am a straw bag?"

As he spoke, Duke smirked smugly, he didn't think of Jina's status as a royal princess at all. The most important reason why Duke is like this is that he also does not count himself in the Otto family, and the strength of the Storm Army has nothing to do with the Lion Army!

"Duke, with the current territory of Stormfort, can you support so many troops?"

Princess Gina asked again, she knew that Duke and Duke Otto had nothing to do with each other, but if she wanted to maintain such an army, it was hard not to think of Duke Otto helping behind her back.

"Of course, Storm Castle is developing rapidly in all aspects now, as long as there is a certain amount of time, when the Storm Market is established to do business, let alone 30,000, there will be no problem with many people!"

Now all the goods sold in Stormcastle are on other people's territories, which means that the turnover tax and the commercial vitality brought by them are all to help other territories make wedding dresses. But once the market in Stormfort is built, not only will it be able to absorb a lot of manpower, but Duke will be able to collect taxes from all the transaction amount!

The previous economy of Stormfort was unhealthy, basically in a wartime economic system, and if Duke didn't recruit these people on cash-for-work, there would be basically no other small businesses in Stormfort. People can't live on porcelain and iron alone, as their income grows, they need more spiritual and material things, and prosperous commerce is a must.

The Stormmarket is not only for Duke to sell Stormcastle items, but also for merchants in other realms to sell their own items. Once this giant market is fully formed, it will be able to replace Andorra la Vella, if not the exaggerated words of replacing the imperial capital, at least as a trade center like Andorra la Vella.

Duke can be said to have endured the Prince of Andorra's appetite for a long time, which is an expenditure of more than 20,000 gold coins a month, which can help Stormcastle with many things. As a result, now the Prince of Andorra has continued to develop and transform his Andorran Prince's army with the help of this fund, and the generals of the Third Army of the Empire have been bought, and Alpine City has now completely become a vassal of the Prince of Andorra.

In the future, according to Duke's estimate, one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, and the Prince of Andorra is destined to fight with the Prince of Andorra.

Hearing that Duke didn't say anything about Duke Otto, Princess Gina felt a little better, she believed that Duke would not lie to herself, at least Duke's expansion of the army had nothing to do with Duke Otto's ambitions, it was just a pure act of self-preservation.

If Duke knew what Princess Gina was thinking, then he also agreed with his army expansion, which really had nothing to do with Duke Otto's ambitions. But this has something to do with his own ambitions, the ultimate goal of the expansion of the Storm Castle is the Holy See, but it is very likely that the first thing to stand in the way of the Storm Army is the Fran Empire!