Chapter 143: Henned's Ransom

By the time Josk and Vasima returned with their large group, it was the sixth day of the expedition.

Lorist was walking on the castle tower with Baron Camorra, who had come from afar. The purpose of Baron Camorra's trip was the captured Henneid, the Golden Knight, and a dozen Silver Knights.

"Lord Camorra, did my ears mishear or did you have a problem with your expression? I really can't imagine that a Golden Knight's ransom money is only a hundred gold coins of the Imperial Old Man's head. It's not a ransom, it's an insult to a Golden Knight, and it's a contempt and humiliation to the Norton family. I can't accept the price offered by Duke Lukins. ”

Lorist was really surprised, even if he was ready to bargain, but such an outrageous ransom price was something he never dreamed of, and if such a ransom price was sold and spread, then the Golden Knight Henned had no other way out than to cut himself.

For example, in a knight's tournament, a knight who fails a challenge must hand over a complete set of weapons and equipment such as mounts, armor, and weapons as a trophy for the victor, or as a ransom for the equipment. It is generally about thirty or forty gold fords, which is one hundred to one hundred and fifty gold coins of the old man's head of the empire. This is still a knightly tournament, a competition rather than a battlefield.

If a silver knight is captured on the battlefield, then all his weapons and equipment, including himself, are the spoils of the victor, and if he wants to be free, he must first redeem his equipment mount and even his screes and servants, if the ransom price is fifty gold fords, then multiply by two to be one hundred gold fords, and this hundred gold fords are the silver knight's ransom.

In other words, if the silver knight paid one hundred and fifty goldfords, he could take back his equipment mount and leave with his squire and servants. The victor may also set up a banquet to send each other, and it can be regarded as not knowing each other.

If this silver knight still has a title on his head, then he has to pay a corresponding ransom for this title, after all, nobles are always worth more than quasi-nobles. These are the rules of the battlefield, and no nobleman would go against such traditions. But be warned, this refers only to the Silver Knight.

Few Golden Knights will become captives on the battlefield, this is mainly because the combat power of the Golden Knight is much stronger than that of the Silver Knight, from the perspective of fighting spirit, the golden level fighting spirit is more durable on the battlefield, attack, defense, and endurance are also higher, and it is generally difficult to leave a galloping Golden Knight without paying a tragic price or secretly attacking.

The best way to deal with the Golden Knight is the Golden Knight, the duel between the two Golden Knight in the battle often becomes the biggest attraction of the entire battlefield, and unless the strength of them is too different from each other, the general loser basically ends up in blood-stained battlefield.

It is not that there are no Golden Knights who have become prisoners, the most recent example is that Bisaia, the Golden Knight of the Duchy of Volendo, was seriously injured in a bloody battle with the army of the Kingdom of Redlis and fell into a coma and became a prisoner of the Grand Prince. It was only with three thousand gold and a sword worth a thousand gold that the Grand Duke of Forundo touched the heart of the eldest prince and freed Bisaya, which became a beautiful talk for a while.

The ransom money that Duke Lukins gave to his golden knight was a hundred gold coins for the old man's head of the empire, which was converted into more than thirty gold fords, which made Lorist feel incredible. Although Henneid was not captured on the battlefield, but was drunk and captured. Lorist didn't expect Duke Lukins to give him a thousand gold merit, but five or six hundred was always wanted, right? After all, the ransom money also represented the value and face of a golden knight.

Does this strange Northland Grand Duke have any brains, he is digging his own grave when he quotes such a price, and once it spreads, does he expect someone to work for him? What is going on? Lorist felt very strange.

"Lord Camorra, please don't joke, okay? This is a matter of honor for a Golden Knight, not a joke. I don't believe Duke Lukins would be so ignorant as to offer such a ridiculous ransom price......" Lorist said to Baron Camorra.

Baron Camorra was speechless except for a wry smile.

Ten days ago, Viscount Kenmax returned to Gildusk, the capital of the Duchy, and brought back the remains of the Chevani Knights, as well as the news that the Golden Knight of Henneid had been captured and that the four thousand troops of the two Northland Legions of the Norton family had been wiped out, shook the entire Dukedom and spread to the Northlands. When Duke Lukins heard the bad news, he smashed the newly furnished study, and he screamed frantically for revenge in the Duke's Palace, cursing the Norton family, and vowing to kill all those related to the Norton family.

Baron Camorra and another Golden Knight, the deputy captain of the Northland Legion, Bitson, managed to calm the Duke's anger and began to plan to send troops to take revenge on the Norton family.

When the Duke calmed down and prepared to mobilize the troops for the expedition, the three of them were stupid, the Duke's Union had no troops to adjust, this, this is too devastating, the Northland Army with 20,000 troops, oh, now there are only 16,000 or 7,000 troops, and at most 5,000 people can be recruited, two brigades. It's a joke, isn't it, 4,000 people are gone, and these 5,000 people are ready to go over to deliver food?

There are many reasons for this result, first of all, the Northland Army is a small legion, with a total number of more than 21,000 people, and the legion is subordinate to two corps, each corps has four brigades of about 10,000 people, and the Northland Army is not a field army, but a garrison army. The southern dukedom had a capital city, a fortress castle, three manor castles, seven towns, and a rope bridge, all of which had to be stationed to ensure local tranquility. Especially the capital, the Hengdeli Ford Rope Bridge checkpoint and the Fresd Fortress Castle next to it, these three places are the key places to prevent the forces of the second prince from entering the Northlands, and the troops stationed in each place are already very stretched.

The most important reason is that Duke Lukins, in order to save money, disbanded the garrisons in various places after the formation of the Northland Legion. At that time, the Duke thought that with the Northland Legion, the garrison was completely redundant, and allowing the Northland Legion to be stationed in various towns and manor castles could completely replace the function of the garrison, and save the garrison's military expenses, which was a good thing to kill two birds with one stone. Besides, the Duke doesn't think that there are any territorial nobles in the Northland who need the entire army of the Northland Legion to be dispatched, and sending one or two thousand people is enough to sweep the four directions.

Now that the 4,000-strong expeditionary force has been wiped out, it is simply a big slap in the face, and then I found that I can't fight back, and it has made the duke very popular. Then there is another problem, the Duke's men can stand alone with only five golden knights, Tabek was seriously injured by Lorlist, and he has to lie in bed for a year. The most decorated Giovanni had been killed in battle, Henneld had been captured, and now there were two Golden Knights, Oldmar, who guarded the Hendryford Bridge checkpoint and the Fort of Fresder, and Beatson, who was in charge of the capital's defenses.

Duke Lukins pinched his nose and told Baron Camorra to find a way to get the Henneid knight back first, and the price of four hundred goldfords was painful, as for the silver knights and the soldiers of the Northland Legion, let them go first, and it was not too late to rescue them after the Norton family was destroyed.

Knight Beatson thinks that 400 Kingford is too little to let the Norton family give Henneid freedom, and hopes that the Duke will give him more chips, so that he can save Knight Hennet as soon as possible to understand the process of this battle, and know the true combat power of the Norton family before finding a way to deal with it.

The Duke insisted that the four hundred gold fords were already the maximum amount he could give, and the three of them were arguing when they suddenly heard the butler's report that a knight of Cyvani had fled and brought back a military report written by the knight of Cyvani to the Duke.

The Chevani knight's squire looked very embarrassed, he and another companion suffered a lot as they climbed over the Morgen hills, and unfortunately encountered a monster black-backed iron-toothed leopard, and his companion was wounded and fell into a deep ravine with the black-backed irontooth leopard in his arms, and he finally made it out of the Morgen hills and trekked day and night back to the city of Gildusk. Although he was wounded and tired, he still remembered the instructions of the Chevani knight and rushed to the Duke's palace as soon as possible, and presented the silver cylinder that the Chevani knight handed over to him to the duke.

The Duke pulled out the vellum paper from the silver cylinder and began to look at it. Knight Bitling and Baron Camorra were also curious, and wanted to know what Knight Cavalley had written, but the letter was in the hands of Lord Duke, and the two could only wait. As for the squire who had delivered the letter, he would have known of the death of the Chevani knight, and was sobbing with tears and snot.

What happened next is forever fresh in the memory of Baron Camorra, he saw the Duke's face suddenly flushed, his eyes protruded, his nostrils were bubbling roughly, the whole person went crazy all of a sudden, this time it was really crazy but not the usual madness, the Duke would be like thunder, regardless of the three seven twenty-one raised the small table next to him and smashed the small reception room, his mouth was cursing loudly, scolding Giovanni and Henned: "Two bastards! I will kill you! I will break you into ten thousand pieces!" What did you do, you lost my gold coins, my 300,000 gold merits! My gold coins! Giovanni, you did a good job! Why don't you bring my gold coins back first! Henned, how did you protect my money! My money! My money......

Baron Camorra was very surprised, and when he saw the few pieces of vellum paper fall to the ground, he hurriedly picked them up, found a corner that would not be smashed by debris, and began to look at them, and the Beatson Knight also came over, and the two of them huddled together to watch.

Soon the two of them understood why the Duke was crazy, and they both blamed Chervani, you should write down the unfavorable situation of the battle and why the whole army was wiped out, why did you have to write about the massacre of the residents of Kitano Town and then how much property was seized, and also noted that the value of this property was about two or three hundred thousand gold fords, such a large amount fell in the eyes of the Duke, and it was still gained and lost, how could the Duke not go crazy with the Duke's disposition of treating money as his life?

Perhaps it was the Duke who scolded him so badly, but the loyal attendant weakly reminded him: "Lord Duke, Lord Cervani has died heroically in battle......"

The duke, who was carried away by the gold coin, turned to the attendant with red eyes, and the words that popped out of his mouth were like cold winter, making the people present feel cold to the bone at once......

"Dead? He thought he was dead, and I wouldn't let him go, and he lost my money, 300,000 gold fords! He was a great crime! He had to pay my money! Someone, someone!" The Duke's roar resounded throughout the Duke's Palace.

"Go and raid Chew Chew Ovani's house, confiscate everything, kick out his family, throw his body at a mass grave and feed it to wild dogs!

"Your Excellency, you can't do this......" Knight Beatson and Baron Camorra were shocked, and hurriedly stepped forward to stop the Duke's order.

"No, why can't it? It's all Cervanny's fault, why didn't he bring my gold back first, and had to attack the Norton family's castle first? Why did he send 300 longbowmen from Kitano Town to the point that Kitano Town was attacked by a sneak attack due to its lack of defense, so that my gold coins fell into the hands of the enemy? Why did he only attack Kitano Town once when he rushed back, and he gave up the siege with 1,700 soldiers on hand and only thought about retreating and annihilating the whole army? If he is not guilty, then who is guilty?" the Duke asked, leaving Knight Bitson and Baron Camorra dumbfounded.

"And you ......" the Duke turned his red gaze to the poor squire again, "You shameful deserter, you are a shameless coward like your lordship, you have betrayed my trust, you have discarded my gold...... Come on, hang him for me immediately, immediately, drag him out!"

The attendant, who had worked so hard to complete his mission, was stunned by the Duke's rage, and was dragged out by the guards of the Duke's palace without a sound. Baron Camorra only felt a chill in his heart, and his whole body trembled, and he suddenly realized that the Duke in front of him was so strange......

It wasn't until the guards came to report that the poor squire had been hanged from a flagpole outside the Duke's palace that the Duke seemed to calm down.

"Camorra, you go to the Norton family tomorrow and tell them that I will pay for Henneth and those Silver Knights to be ransomed. Remember, Henned's ransom is one hundred Imperial gold coins, and those silver knights are ten coins per person...... "Lord Duke's eyes are still blood-red......

Baron Camorra's face changed drastically: "Great, my lord, this, this can't ......"

The Duke's voice was very calm, and the calmness made Knight Beatson and Baron Camorra tremble involuntarily: "You just tell the Norton family that I won't give these sinners an extra copper." I have redeemed them not to set them free, I have to punish them, and they should not have lost my gold......"

Baron Camorra walked out of the Duke's palace in a deep and shallow foot, and stood outside the gate to see the corpse of the squire hanging high. Turning his head to look at the Beatson Knight, the Beatson Knight also looked at him, and the two were relatively speechless......

Finally, the knight of Beatson muttered softly, "Lord Duke is really crazy...... Hello for yourself...... Perhaps, you should go and tell Henneid that it would be better to be a captive of the Norton family than to come back......"

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