85_85536Now, more than 100 years have passed since the heyday of the Knights. However, the traces of the destruction caused by the Knights in the Great Frontier Region, as well as the bad influence they caused, still lingered in the hearts of the nobles of Wende.

They fear another resurgence of the Knights. This in turn affects the balance of the large border areas. It was in this concern that the Wende nobles, including Henry of Shilonsk and Dietrich of Livonia, all looked to Otto of Mystia.

Under William's direction, Duke Otto already had an influence far greater than his own title. Although people did not think of him as the leader of the alliance, or the leader of the alliance. But he did not resist asking him for advice in case of trouble.

Duke Otto played the role of a military advisor, or a think tank.

So Duke Otto stood up, nodded to the Grand Dukes and nobles, and then said, "Things are not as bad as they imagined, my friends. ”

His calm tone was more convincing than the slightly frantic and exuberant words of the Gothic knights:

"Yes, the situation is not that bad. We are not dealing with 200,000, 150,000 or 100,000 Tartarian troops. According to intelligence, we are only facing about 50,000 enemies. It's a partial division. At the same time, the Khan of Tartaria and his cowardly army were not there.

Their main forces are advancing into the territory of the Slavites. Presumably, they were more interested in the Slavites, who could be better conquered. ”

Hearing Duke Otto's words, the other nobles breathed a sigh of relief. After that, according to the prompt of Duke Otto, he picked up the text he had in hand and began to read.

After that, the sound of a relieved "whew" spread through the conference room like a contagious disease. A confident, calm smile returned to their faces again. Seeing this scene, Ciboland felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

He walked out of the cold bench of the Knights with joy and came to the war-torn land of the Great Frontier Region, hoping only to lay a foundation of his own here. He also knew that if he wanted to establish a new knight state in the border region, it would not be enough to rely on his own strength.

The Knights' strength is temporarily in the majority of the coalition forces. The number of knight troops was about 10,000, and the number of mercenaries was about 30,000, forming a powerful army of 40,000 people.

It's just a pity that this army is a tree without a source of water and roots. If you don't do everything you can to open up the situation, the army of the Knights, who have run out of supplies, will soon collapse. Three-quarters of the mercenaries will leave without hesitation. And the knight troops, which numbered about 10,000, would also split.

Yes, Cibeland was only the nominal supreme commander of the Crusaders of the Order, and in reality, his influence was very limited, except for a group of troops that he personally controlled.

Because there was no independent territory, and because after the internal migration, too many nobles and merchant children were absorbed, so the current Gothic Knights are not so much an independent organization as an alliance and a hodgepodge.

After launching the crusade and collecting donations, although Ciberland tried very hard, he only won a part of the military power and the money raised. The rest of the supplies and troops were in the hands of the sub-commanders of several other knights. Even a few Gothic nobles who were only nominally knighted. Some of them were barely obedient, others only maintained a superficial respect for Siebolland, and in fact went their own way, as if they were Fleya.

Yes, it's like Freya, William's aunt. Although she herself is ranked in the order of the Knights, and does not have a lot of weapons and powers. But after the rise of the Hereford family. Against the backdrop of the imminent start of the Second Great Frontier War, Freya's position naturally rises. And more importantly, the Crusades of Tartaria, and the nobles' fundraising, both related to the Hereford family. Freya naturally has a head start in this matter.

Under William's command, Freya obtained a knightly army of more than 1,700 noble knights and servants, mainly the second son of the family, bankrupt ranger knights and mercenary knights. And hired three thousand well-trained mercenaries from the "great" mercenary regiment. It became a decisive force in the Crusaders of the Gothic Order.

In addition to Freya, there are several high-ranking knights and children of great nobles like her. They accounted for more than two-thirds of the strength of the Order's crusaders.

So, Sieboland is well aware that if he wants to make a difference, there are two things that are most important.

The first point is to unite the crusaders of the Gothic Order around themselves. The second point is to rely on the power of Wende's native aristocracy.

The former can guarantee the establishment of his knightly state, and the latter can ensure that his knightly state can survive and grow for a long time.

And in order to unite the forces of the Order, Ciboland wanted to make himself a banner and show his passion for war. At the same time, Siboland also hopes to attract Wende's local nobles in this way.

Unfortunately, his tricks don't seem to work.

Compared to him, who is not famous and can only shout slogans, people seem to prefer Duke Otto, who has heroic honor, calmness, and ideas.

He has enough prestige and also enough power. He was a native Wende nobleman. At the same time, his sister Freya was an important member of the Crusaders of the Gothic Order, and she was also an honorary knight of the Gothic Order. In this case, there is no one more suitable for the role of "leader" than him.

Perhaps, the only thing he lacks is his title and seniority. The Duke's title is slightly inferior to that of the Grand Duke, and it was only two years before the Hereford family received the Dukedom title. Lack of background, easy to be seen as a nouveau riche.

But under William's operation, Duke Otto managed to maintain a "friendship" with Archduke Leschek, which would not deteriorate, at least until the end of the Second Great Frontier War.

At the same time, with the help of Archduke Lesek, Duke Otto also quickly gained the friendship of Henry, Grand Duke of Shilonsk. And these two grand dukes, who both belong to the Trieste family, are the mainstay of the Wende Alliance. Duke Otto supported Archduke Henry as the leader of this alliance, and even hinted at the promise of persuading Archduke to continue to support Archduke Henry in the possible civil war of Wende, so as to help Archduke Henry become King of Wende, which made Archduke Henry overjoyed and relied on him extraordinarily.

The support of the two Grand Dukes of Trieste re-established the foundation of Duke Otto. And the marriage contract between William and Princess Elise added insurance to this relationship in terms of in-laws. Under such circumstances, there was no one to prevent Duke Otto from becoming the de facto commander, chief of staff and chief of staff of the coalition forces.

This made Siberland very uncomfortable. But there was nothing to be done. Duke Otto's soft and hard power was very strong. And now is the current time of the great enemy, even if there is infighting, at least after the centaurs of Tartaria have been repulsed.

"And what do you mean, Duke?" asked Siberland, holding back his impatience.

"It's simple. Duke Otto smiled and nodded to Cibolland, he was very personable, compared to the bearded and slightly obese Sibolland, it was simply heaven and earth.

"To ask what we should do and how to do it, we have to know what our opponent, the centaurs of Tartaria, want to do. "Duke Otto spoke eloquently—when it came to strategic matters, it was not Wilhelm who taught, but Duke Otto himself.

With the support of William's intelligence system, Duke Otto, who has sufficient information, is naturally able to guess the strategic intentions of Tartaria's centaurs to the greatest extent.

Unlike the rules for Ruthenia and Pilm, Sarida Khan had no intention of delivering a letter of war to the Wende.

According to Duke Otto's speculation, in fact, Sarida Khan did not even want to start a war with the Wende kingdom.

In accordance with his steady policy of expansion. He didn't want to swallow the entire Great Frontier in one go. Even the four countries of the Slavites.

For the two states of Holmgard and Novgorod, which were more northern, richer, but at the same time stronger, he did not want to annex them for the time being.

All he wants is that he has been entangled with Tartaria for too long, his strength is seriously lost, and there is no longer the value, meaning and necessity of Ruthenia, and Pilm. The annexation of these two countries is his real goal.

Of course, the above speculation, Duke Otto will not say. Because this will make people feel lucky that they will be spared, which is not conducive to the next war.

"So, let's talk about the next opponent we're going to face. My friends. Duke Otto said.

Almost at the same time, in Circassian Castle, less than 300 kilometers away from Krakow, William and Charlumi were conducting similar war rehearsals in their military conference room.

The conference room was a little deserted compared to before, because Freya had gone south to Krakow.

"Our opponent is Kublai, the fifth son of Sarida Khan. Perhaps the highest-ranking and most military-gifted of his sons.

There is some information that Sarida Khan intended this man to be his successor. Of course, this is just a rumor and cannot be taken entirely seriously. However, this also shows the ability of this centaur and his status in the Tartarya Khanate......".