Unknown Knight

Chapter 374: Enemies of the Kingdom

Soon, a letter from Harold Boyer arrived at Aix's desk.

Harold was still self-aware. In the letter, he did not address Aix as brother as he did in the past. He probably felt ashamed and did not have the face to address Aix as brother. The tone of the whole letter was unusually polite. He always used "you" at the beginning and "your Excellency" at the end. He no longer had the tone of an older brother as before. It felt as if a loyal servant who had followed his master for several lifetimes was reporting to his master.

In the letter, this guy first found a lot of excuses for himself, saying that he was coerced by King Yarogerk into the siege of Kudan City and the subsequent joining of the Customs Union, including the water fort that blocked the river, which was built by King Yarogerk's order. He completely shirked his responsibility and was just short of telling Aix that he was innocent.

Then Harold Boyer changed the topic and played the emotional card with Ax, recounting what happened during their honeymoon period, saying that he was still grateful for Ax's kindness and was always thinking about how to repay Ax. The hypocritical Ax smacked his lips. If Harold Boyer was present at this moment, Ax would probably spit in his face.

It was not until the end that Harold Boyer said what Aix wanted to hear. At the end of the letter, Harold Boyer assured Aix that he would dredge the river immediately and clear out all the hidden piles in the water. He would never collect any more taxes from the caravans in the territory again. He also said that if Aix needed it, he could also provide food and fodder for Aix's passing army, help repair equipment and so on.

After reading Harold Boyer's flattering and hypocritical letter, which was full of flattery and fawning, Aix despised him even more, and even felt sick. He threw the letter into a pile of documents to be destroyed with disgust, and then said to the guards:

"Call a meeting of all the lords in the city."

Not long after, the news that Aix burned down the water fort of Kulau City spread. This news corroborated some previous rumors, and the news that Aix was going to attack Tiha City seemed to have been confirmed.

The entire Territory of Aix seemed to be preparing for this event. All kinds of food and supplies were continuously transported to Kudan City by land and sea, and the territory's caravans also purchased food from the surrounding areas at high prices as if it were free.

Ix also had frequent correspondence with King Ragnar and other Nord nobles he once knew. It is said that in the letters Ix promised huge profits to these Nord nobles, especially King Ragnar, to whom he sent several waves of money and supplies.

Wait, this series of abnormal behaviors by Aix made the atmosphere in the entire northern part of the continent suddenly tense. The messengers of the noble lords kept shuttling between the various territories, communicating with each other's information, for fear of missing anything.

Nobles with vision and strength are even more prepared and alert at all times. They know that once there are major changes in the situation, opportunities will arise from these changes, and these opportunities can only be seized by people with strength.

The backbone force stirring up the current changes in the situation is undoubtedly Aix. It is his series of actions that have promoted the changes in the current situation. He is like a chess player. Although he is strong, he has many powerful enemies. So he dare not act rashly at the moment, but is trying hard to prepare, for fear of revealing flaws and giving the enemy an opportunity to take advantage.

One of his biggest enemies was King Yarogerk, the nominal overlord of Aix. This king, who had worked hard for half his life, originally planned to deceive a discarded pawn who could help him resist the Khergits for a while, but he did not expect that Aix would actually gain a foothold in the remote Asloum, and then he defeated the infiltration and invasion of the Khergits several times in a row, and grew rapidly in a very short period of time. Before long, he was able to help the kingdom resist Saiga Khan who led a large army to invade again in Kudan City.

The then King Yarogerk admired this new boye who constantly surprised him. After the Kugits were defeated, he decided to support Aix to restrain the three major city lords in the country in order to consolidate his ruling position.

However, he did not know the identity of the time traveler X, and he could not imagine the time traveler's terrifying growth rate. It seemed that overnight, X had become his nemesis, and his surprise eventually turned into a shock.

Therefore, King Yarogerk had mixed feelings towards Aix, including jealousy, anger, fear, appreciation, envy and so on.

Especially after Aix returned to Kudan City not long ago, he easily put down the rebellion of Lady Katia, whom he secretly supported, and regained control of the entire territory.

If Aix could stop there, King Yarogerk would decide to slow down and temporarily acknowledge Aix, the rising new force in the kingdom. However, Aix was an uneasy man. He immediately launched a surprise attack on Sagiche Fort and fought hard against the Khergit army led by Saiga Khan in Sagiche Fort, almost sparking the third war between the two countries. Now he was planning an expedition to Tiha City to seek revenge on Eden and his son.

This made King Yarogerk more and more afraid of Aix. In his eyes, Aix was a ferocious beast that was gradually growing and becoming stronger through war. Sooner or later, this ferocious beast would retaliate and bite him, the king, with its bloody mouth.

In particular, not long ago, Aix released thirteen of his elite soldiers. According to these thirteen elite soldiers, Aix not only has the strength that appears on the surface, but also has a large iron mine, a large coal mine, and even a gold mine further north along the river from Tangquan Fortress. In these mines, there are hundreds of slaves and miners mining. The number of people in these mines alone exceeds that of the largest mine on the continent.

One of the soldiers worked as a laborer in an iron smelting workshop near Tangquan Fortress. He said that there were more than 200 craftsmen in the workshop, and several carts of iron were produced every day. These iron materials alone were a huge fortune. If all these iron materials were forged into weapons, how many people could be armed? King Yarogelk did not dare to think about it.

This information, combined with previous intelligence, is enough to show that Aix's current activity is well-founded and not just a momentary show of bravery.

At the same time, it also shows that Aix's ambitions are not small. If he is allowed to grow and develop further, he will sooner or later become someone he cannot shake, and thus threaten his rule.

As a veteran in the political arena, King Yarogerk knew very well that he and Aix would have to fight sooner or later, and given Aix's momentum, the sooner the battle came, the better for him as the other side gained strength and the other side lost strength.

Fortunately, Aix's previous disappearance gave him an opportunity to gather together the nobles who were alienated from him in the country in the name of maintaining orthodoxy. Later, he established a customs union against the Territory of Aix, which bound the nobles in the country tightly together and formed an alliance of interests, so that almost everyone now regards Aix as a hostile force.

This is King Yarogerk's greatest reliance at present. He decided to make careful plans based on this and get rid of Aix, the growing threat to him.