Chapter 42: Domination

In ancient times, Emperor Chanda, who intended to conquer the eastern part of Xueshan Mountain, summoned one of his close ministers and sent him to Shandong to inspect the local people and products

The envoy spent four years traveling through the land east of the snow-capped mountains

He departed from Chanda, first sailed to the North Sea, followed the Blue Ice River upstream, and finally disembarked at Kudan, and then, the envoy followed a caravan of Salanders from Kudan over the snow-capped mountains, and after a long trek, he crossed the rugged snow-capped mountains, and went to the east before the arrival of winter. Iron and everything else they lacked

These Orientals were irascible and brave, and tribes often fought with each other at the slightest friction, and the severity of the battle was rare even in Middle-earth

When facing the Salander soldiers or the expeditionary team of the Chandas, these people have no sense of organizing to resist, they feel that the neighboring tribe may be a great threat, so when the foreign soldiers recruit these people, they will often join the invaders in groups, and the cruelty of these people makes the expeditionary force itself feel terrified, and the expeditionary force wonders why these people slaughter their compatriots so cleanly

The Chanda official carefully studied the production of the east, walked through the forests, inspected the mines, went out into the fields in the autumn to see the crops of the Viecians, quietly observed the fights of the Vikians, hid in the wooden houses in the winter, and wrote everything about the Vivians on parchment

Four years later, the Chanda officials returned to Chanda

His report was short and forceful, "The land is too cold, and its people are like pesky bees, and my report ends here, and there is no other news for you."

It is often said that this courtier was prejudiced against the world east of Snow Mountain, so he was not highly evaluated, but people often overlooked an important point: the first few books on the land of the East were written by this courtier

That was many years ago

Although the Chanda Emperor lost interest in it, the bishops did not think so, since the Orientals came out of the forest, countless traveling priests came on mules, and when the Chanda Emperor lost most of the land in disarray, his shepherd continued to send missionaries to the east of the Snow Mountain

The impact of this effort is so far-reaching that even after the Zenda royal family has long since died, the Wikibians still have a vague loyalty to the royal family in their hearts

If the Wikibians had accepted the Western Church based on Paraven, perhaps the entire history of the East would have changed in the Easterners, where the Wikibians bowed to the great shepherd of Zenda, while the Berks kissed the scepter of the Bishop of Paraven, and the Berks have a natural hatred since then, like firewood and dry grass piled together, as long as there is a little spark, the Berks will fight to the death with the Wikibians

When the Berkh commanders led the collective conversion of their subjects, the bishops of Paravon were ecstatic, they regarded it as a major victory over the emperor, and the bishops of Paravon had always hated the emperor's fingering of the church, and they pointed out that the eastern church was actually a pile of toys in the hands of the emperorWhen the emperor fell, the western church only coldly watched the destruction of the emperor and the fall of the eastern church, and provided a small amount of aid, and never bothered again

For a while, the people of the Western Church thought that the Eastern Church had completely failed, and the Pope triumphantly issued an edict to the 'confused people' of the Wikibians, asking them to cooperate with the merger of the Wikia Church, and the Wikibian pastor immediately replied, "Okay, so when are you going to come to the East to receive our baptism?" ”

The collapse of the Chanda Empire was only a chagrin of a church split, and the struggle between the Eastern and Western Churches was still raging when the empire was long gone

As the people of the East, the Berks loyally accepted the leadership of the Western Church, which allowed them to receive great assistance from the Westerners, but also gradually made them appear mavericks in the East

Years ago, when the overjoyed Wikibians accepted Harlaus's invitation to cross the snow-capped mountains in droves, the opportunity that the Berks had been waiting for for a long time finally came, and the Berks crossed the Cheka River and attacked the Wikibian fortress Minnikov had mastered the pass, and the Berk cavalry crossed the Cheka River in the autumn and entered the heart of the Wikirians

The startled King of Vekia immediately summoned his army on the continent of Karad to come back, but this was understood by the marshal of the expeditionary force as the kingdom was suspicious of himself, and after a period of preparation, Marshal Vekia executed the generals loyal to the king, blocked the fortress on the snowy mountain, and the Vicchian people who established themselves on the Karad continent and called the king of the east of the snow mountain were struggling to support, and the eastern Vikia, which had lost most of its elite troops, was vulnerable

Soon, the king of Vekia on the east side of Snowy Mountain was executed by his subordinates, and his head was sent to the Berks, who hoped that the Berks would stop the war, but the Burks were unwilling to give up this great opportunity, and they continued to attack the stronghold of the Vikians, driving the Vecchians out of the Turan field of Féiwo, cutting off the connection between the Vecchians and the Iron Shield River Valley, forbidding the Vekian tribes to marry each other, and shaking the foundation of the Vikians through assassination and division

Three years ago, the Grand Alliance of the Wikibians on the eastern side of Syracuse finally dissolved, and the King was still killed

The king of Western Wikia, who was in Kudan at the time, took the opportunity to claim that he was the king of all the Wikibians, and demanded that the Eastern Wikibians swear allegiance to him in exchange for protection, a call that exacerbated the division of the Wikirians: some of the Wikibians defected to the Berks; Some Wikibians sought refuge near the snowy mountains; There are also Wikibians who are reluctant to leave their land and stay where they are

The Lepnin family, for example, stayed near the southern forests

They were reluctant to pledge allegiance to the Burkes, still disillusioned with the Noble Alliance of Vekia, and distrustful of the former traitors to the west

However, the Berks did not allow instability to arise around the towns under their rule, and they sent messengers three times in succession: they demanded that the Lepnin family hand over the hostages, and the patriarch himself went to the town to swear allegiance to the Berke lord

The Lepnin family refused one by one, and also executed a low-ranking Berke nobleman who spoke wildly for the fourth time, and the Berks did not send a messenger with a letter, they sent hussars

The cavalry, led by Nil Pilsudski, seemed to have received information and suddenly passed through the forest while they were busy farming, bypassing the stone walls that the Lepnin family had painstakingly built, and appeared to the south of the Lepnin family castle

The alarm bells rang piercingly, and they became the death knell for the demise of the Lepnin family

The hussars wiped the Lepnin from the southern forests like a mudslide, and Neil had a habit of putting the heads of dead men on the tips of his spears, and when Neil returned victorious, he executed many of the Lepnin people, whose heads were chopped off, and could be seen at any time from the Lepnin castle to the forest; But for the nobles, Neil simply hanged them, and he regarded it as a gift to leave the corpses of his enemies intact, and it is said that Lech also had a penchant for it, which he found to be extremely effective in deterring his enemies

It is also true that after the misfortune of the Lepnin family, the Wikiians who were hiding in the forest with their family surrendered to the Berks not long after, because the resistance of the Wikis was too fierce, the Berks thought that it was not cost-effective to occupy this land, and they hastily supported some puppet Wiki Lords, and then withdrew from the southern forest, those puppets only had the support of the Berks, and were extremely hated by their compatriots, in order to survive, they could only intensify their attacks on the Wikis

The situation of the Berks in the southern forest has deteriorated, and even if the Wikibians can't regain control of it, the Berks can't even settle here, and the land is destined to go through a long tug-of-war

Now, in the Southern Forest, several factions are entangled with each other, each trying to annex the other and preserve its strength

The once wavering Vikian nobles are now nominally Berkes servants, but they rebel at the first opportunity;

The Berk-crowned Vickyan puppets controlled several towns and the few surrounding lands, and a squadron of 300 Berk cavalry was stationed in the towns to help the unrooted puppet lords rule

At the southeastern end of the southern forest, there is an open pasture, where salt, cattle, sheep and horses are produced, and several Kugit tribes occupy the pasture, and the Berks take many hostages of the Kugit tribes through an armed attack, so as to control the Kugit tribes and serve themselvesThe Burks stipulated that the Kugit could do business with the Vikyans, and could sell cattle, sheep and donkeys, but they were not allowed to sell horses to the Vikyans, although the Berks demanded so, But the huge profits have kept the Kugit tribe secretly sending horses to the Wikibians

At the end of the steppe, there was the Creel Khanate, a vassal state of Salander, which was constrained by the suzerainty and could not participate too much in the competition in the east, which made the Creel Khanate unexpectedly become a semi-neutral trade area, and thus made a lot of profits, although forced by the strong armament of the Berks, the Creels had to make concessions in some aspects, but due to the protests of the Salander Sultan, the influence of the Berks on the Creel was gradually decreasing

The Lepnin family is gone

At least Nikolai could only think this for a long time, after the Burkes evacuated the southern forest, Nikolai sent people to secretly visit his family, but the news he got made him sink into the abyss, and he even wanted to lead his subordinates into the Eastern Regions, to join the alliance that was still resisting, to avenge the family, but after the defeat in the Frost Castle, King Vekia issued a strict order: the mountain pass checkpoint can accept refugees from the west, but it is absolutely forbidden to let anyone go east

King Vekia was worried about getting burned

It wasn't until the resistance of the Vicchians in the Eastern Regions became more and more fierce that the King of Vekia vaguely saw the opportunity, and he relaxed the decree and allowed immigrants to cross the mountain pass to support some unimportant militia units and mercenaries in the east, and accepted the dispatch of the King of Vekia, and had 'volunteered' to fight across the snowy mountains, but until now, the King of Vekia still did not dare to openly raise the banner of armed support for the east

In the southern forests, some of the people who fled to the mountains lost their land, scattered in the mountains, most of these people had family members killed by the Burkes, hated the Burkes, they sympathized with and supported the resistance alliance of Vekia, although the number was small, but they still represented the former noble families such as the Lepnin family

Some of the lords still wore the banner of the 'steppe wolf' of the Lepunin family, and after Nikolai's people revealed their identities, the people discussed with each other that they were willing to accept Nikolai Lepnin as their lord, even if he had been expelled from the family, but he was still a Lepnin, a nobleman of the Wikibians, but the lords had one condition: Nikolai had to return to the territory in order to accept their allegiance

It's understandable, the lords need a lord to lead them against the Burkes, but this lord has to share their weal and woe in order to gain dominance and pay a price, you can't sit in a comfortable room and ask the lords to be loyal to you

Nikolai had no choice but to give up after learning the news, and at the same time, other ambitious Wikibians continued to recruit those lords, which made Nikolaga helpless, Nikolai himself could not leave, and he himself did not have a suitable heir to take over the eastern clansmen, his son was too weak to go into the wilderness, and he did not have the financial resources to support the operation of a family alone

That's what Nikolai has been worrying about for the past few months

At this time, the Berks sent an emissary, offering to make friends with the Vicchians west of Snowy MountainNikolai's heart was full of mixed feelings, he received the Berks coldly, he was not even willing to entertain them, and beat them to their own estates, and when Nikolai knew that these people were executed, his biggest fear was that the Berks would retaliate frantically, thus tearing apart everything in Eastern Wiki, and this thought made Nikolai resentful

But now, Nikolai suddenly saw an opportunity

Count Kalinin was a clever man, and he could tell the general idea of what was going on from a simple conversation with Nikolai

The Romanovs would move to the river flats and take over a piece of land there as allies of the Lepnin family, but this rule was not stable, the Romanovs needed an orthodox agent and, if this person was easy to control, it would be even better, so as soon as the Nikolai garrison mentioned the marriage, Count Kalinin thought of me

In the count's opinion, I am easy to control, and if I can unite with the Lepnin family, I will have the rightful right to rule, and the Romanovs will be able to make a big deal with this bloodline

I will complete the deal as an 'illegitimate child' of the Romanovs, that is, if necessary, the Romanovs can calmly dissociate themselves from me: it is much easier to declare that it is easier to abandon an illegitimate child than to abandon a full member if the Romanovs want to bsp; Count Kalinin told me all this in an unquestioning tone, of course, he only said that I had to be the bond that united the two families, and for the rest, he avoided talking about it

The Count smiled optimistically, "Congratulations, Victor, you're about to become a lord"

Alexei said that behind what is obviously good must be an abyss

"My lord," I asked the Count, after listening to him, "why didn't the Garrison Captain go on his own?" Finding an outsider to revive your family is something that only a madman and a fool can do."

The Count smiled and said to the garrison, "Look, this is the Romanov bloodline, how strong and powerful you will not be disappointed, Your Excellency, then, Viktor," the Count turned to me, "Maybe you don't understand very well, Your Excellency Nikolai has no right to revive the family in name, and even if he does, he doesn't have the energy to take care of the family affairs, this is almost a thing to start from scratch, and the Lepnin family certainly won't rely on outsiders to resurrect" The count paused, "because you will marry Sister Catherine"

"Am I now?"

The Count laughed and the garrison was not disturbed in the slightest, he stared at me as if he was looking at an unpolished iron sword, and the Count said, "No, Vidor, you are not qualified to marry the sole heir of the Lepnin family now, you have to go to the forest to prove your strength, you can only marry Sister Catherine as a lord."

"It's too dangerous there, there's no way I'm going to come back alive to marry Kaja, I'm not going to the forest"

The Count's smile faded away, and I heard Kaja behind me speak coldly, Mistress Leo looked at me worriedly, and Nikolai remained silent

"Count Viktor," said the Count, "of course you will go, I know what you think, I understand what you mean by the look in your eyes at Lady Catherine, do you know what that forest is?" That's the dowry that Lady Catherine married you."

Dowry, the word would have been sweet, but I smelled a faint smell of blood

The Nikolai garrison, who had not spoken, suddenly spoke, "It is also the bride price for you to marry the daughter of the Lepning family"