Chapter 288: Preparation

If Allen wanted to have a head-on confrontation with Ulric stationed at the Seven Forks Fortress, or even create a deterrence that would make the nobles around him waver.

The power he currently possessed did not reach this level.

Of course, if it was just comparing the elite degree of the troops, it was more than enough.

The combat effectiveness of the Noldor Elves was the best in the Pendor continent. Whether it was long-range output or close-quarters combat, even the horse combat that they were extremely unskilled at, they could be called the best on the continent. No knight had the confidence to defeat a Noldor Elf head-on.

It was just that fundamentally speaking, an army only having elites was far from enough. Or rather, fifteen hundred elites were not enough.

If it was the two surprise attacks of White Deer Castle and Long River Town, of course they could be dealt with, and it could even be said to be easy. But wanting to defeat a kingdom army with complete arms, this number of people was a bit stretched.

Even if they could win, I am afraid it would require many Elves to pay the price of their lives. If Allen still wanted to borrow the power of Elaklai in the future, he must pay more attention to this point.

The population of Elves was really too small. Too many casualties might cause dissatisfaction among the four masters.

To truly exert the combat effectiveness of these elites, at the very least, there needed to be a large number of auxiliary soldiers to deal with necessary but fragmented work such as transporting grain and grass and setting up camps.

And after the battle officially started, there also needed to be a sufficient number of ordinary troops capable of containing the opponent's effective forces, commonly known as cannon fodder, to create opportunities for these Elves to make a decisive strike.

And all of these required a certain amount of time to prepare.

However, Allen believed that he could still strive for a certain amount of time.

The messengers sent by Foucher had already been caught up by the Twilight Knights, who were faster and had better endurance. As for the team that ran the farthest, that is, the few who wanted to take a boat to Lion Lake City to report the news, they were killed on the spot by Allen flying over.

Of course, wanting to hide the news of Long River Town forever was an impossible thing. But as long as the messengers were killed, turning clear news into uncertain rumors, and then transmitting it according to the conventional speed and method, it would be much slower.

When a war begins, the least lacking thing between two countries is rumors. Lords and nobles who get the news generally have to send people to investigate to avoid being deceived.

Moreover, the Baccan Empire's army was stationed opposite Ulric. He couldn't easily retreat. Retreat meant that the Ravenstern Kingdom abandoned the Seven Forks Fortress and also abandoned the defense against the Baccan Empire.

And behind the Seven Forks Fortress was the capital of the Ravenstern Kingdom, Ravenstern City.

For Ulric, this was a difficult multiple-choice question.

And those individual lords who heard the wind and rain, and could bring troops to support as soon as they got the news, were generally idiots.

For such people, Allen didn't mind having more prisoners in the dungeon, and maybe he would have more loyal vassals.

Nobles with simple thoughts are always easy to fool. However, this situation is rare, and it is even impossible. Even the lords who are still upright are all human spirits. They just don't want to do evil, but they know what is evil.

At the same time, in order to prevent his enemies from getting specific information too early, Allen also scattered all the Twilight Knights. They would kill any suspicious people wandering around Long River Town, covering this area with a thick fog of war.

This series of actions should be enough to buy a month's time, and Lord Montwo had roughly the same concept.

Then the rest was to recruit soldiers.

The location of Long River Town in the Ravenstern Kingdom was not particularly good. Although it was next to a lake, the river connecting the lake was very short and did not flow directly through the most fertile area of the kingdom, Ravenstern City, but instead became an underground river after flowing into a mountain.

So, in the case of not being able to pass ships, the commercial atmosphere here was not particularly strong, not as good as Lion Lake City further north.

But even so, Duke Alama's treasury also had a lot of wealth, because Long River Town was the large town closest to the Noldor Forest. There were some shops selling Elven goods that were deeply loved by nobles, and a large number of merchants and noble representatives came from other places to buy these extremely expensive goods every year.

Alama could receive taxes until his hands were soft.

Now, this money was cheap for Allen.

Soon, the news that the new ruler wanted to recruit soldiers spread throughout the streets and alleys of Long River Town, as well as the surrounding manors and villages, within a day.

The treatment was extremely generous, and the settlement fee was twice as much as in the past while providing food and housing, which was extremely rare in the Ravenstern Kingdom, which implemented the noble enfeoffment system. Many times, lords conscripting serfs actually didn't give money.

Allen didn't care about this. Anyway, he wasn't spending his own money. His situation now was a big gamble, and he had to put all the chips that could be put on the table on it.

If he won, he would sit on the Silver Throne and become the new king; if he lost, he probably wouldn't have any life danger, but he would waste the Noldor Elves' investment and need to continue to hibernate and wait for the next opportunity.

Of course, the next opportunity would probably be far away.

In the first few days, the recruitment points were completely ignored. Civilians, landlords, nobles, merchants, and even those gangsters wandering the streets were all watching, wanting to see if there were any warriors who dared to sign up first.

After all, whether the opponent could stand firm in Long River Town was a problem. After Duke Alama returned, it might lead to a situation where there was life to take money but no life to spend.

And another part of the reason was that the residents of Long River Town who had some family background could not avoid having some hatred with the Noldor Elves. They were also worried that they would be maliciously retaliated against after joining the opponent.

And another part of the reason was that when Duke Alama responded to the King's call, he had already taken away a batch of soldiers. Those who wanted to fight to win a family business had basically left.

The remaining ones were all civilians who lived a solid life. Unless it was a last resort, they were unwilling to step onto the battlefield.

For various reasons, the recruitment points set up in various streets were very deserted. It could be said that there was not a single person who signed up.

However, Allen was not in a hurry, because he knew that this situation would not last long.

Sure enough, three days passed quietly, and some people couldn't hold back and started to inquire about the news.

They had no other way.

Ever since Long River Town changed hands, the town had basically fallen into a state of stagnation. Many people lost their jobs because of this, and most of them earned the kind of daily-settlement wages.

To put it popularly, it was earning today to eat tomorrow, and earning tomorrow to eat the day after tomorrow. Such families basically had no surplus grain, and naturally had no ability to resist risks.

And this part of the people, the kind-hearted Lord Foucher had already picked out for Allen, that is, the civilians who had helped defend the city on the city wall. Like these existences who couldn't even be counted as militia, Allen didn't make things difficult for them and released them all.

Locking them up still required managing food and drink. If it lasted for a long time, they would definitely be resented. It was better to be generous and release them in exchange for some favor.

These released people lived by doing odd jobs on weekdays, and helped nobles defend the city during wartime to get a little bit of wages to buy food, or simply received a portion of grain to go home to support their wives, children, and parents.

However, this battle ended very quickly, and those nobles were locked in prison one by one. In the past few days, the new ruler had forcibly stopped most of the commercial activities in Long River Town, so there were not many ways out for these poor civilians.

Or to put it simply, Allen left them a way to survive, a way to survive that was better than being forcibly conscripted.

Soon, when some people returned home with grain, settlement fees, and a contract, the recruitment points that were once ignored were instantly overcrowded.

After all, most adult men living in this era would not watch their wives and children starve. In order to survive, these bottom-level civilians basically didn't care who they were loyal to.

Their basic demands for doing things were nothing more than to survive. Those frameworks of honor and hatred could not bind these bottom-level people.

Everyone was about to starve to death, who cared about some things that were there or not.

Only those who had rights and constant property, that is, nobles and landlords, were still struggling with whether they should become a "shameless" wall grass, abandon Duke Alama at this time, and join the new king.

These days, they had also been active. Many people had prepared extremely precious gifts and wanted to visit the new ruler, but Allen didn't pay attention to them, but handed this work to his newly appointed mayor, Paul.

This former tavern owner had served Allen for nearly seven or eight years. His loyalty was enough, and he knew the major families of Long River Town extremely well.

Recently, Allen sent a full 120 Noldor Rangers to assist Paul, letting him deal with those nobles who had existed in the city for a long time.

The order was to kill a part of the people who sold Elves, win over a part of the allies who could be fought for, and finally suppress those troublemakers who didn't listen.

As for how to do it specifically, Allen let Paul handle it himself.

Because this town would be managed by him in the future. In order for future work to proceed smoothly, and also for his family to obtain a knight's title, Paul would definitely do his best to handle those nobles.

This was an opportunity for the family to change their destiny, and he couldn't help but work hard.

Of course, Allen himself was also very busy. He was receiving waves of Lion Knights who came to defect to him.

In just one week, dozens of knights and hundreds of attendants arrived in Long River Town, dusty, and called Allen Your Majesty as soon as they met, as if they knew who they were going to be loyal to from the beginning.

Allen felt very strange about this, but these fanatical knights gave an extremely consistent answer, that is, the guidance from the Goddess of Zeal, Eunomia.

Finally, the leader of the Lion Knights, Sir Azriel, gave an extremely reliable explanation, that is, the Goddess Eunomia, the only faith of the ancient Pendor Kingdom and the first main god of the continent, sensed that the rise of the Pendor royal family was at this time, so she would guide the Lion Knights to come and find their new king.

And the time was exactly the moment Allen put on the ring in Elaklai. As the person involved, he only truly understood at this time why Darion, who had always claimed to be the ruler of Pendor, would say that this ring symbolized the identity of the king.

Indeed, this ring was worn on the hand of the true Child of Prophecy and played an extremely critical role. Lion Knights rushed to Long River Town one after another, gathering under the Lion King Flag.

Now, Allen had more elites under his command, and he also had a large number of instructors to train those civilians who had joined the army.

It wasn't that he wanted to teach them how to fight in a short time, but just to teach these people how to wear equipment and how to march with the main force.

However, the teams that came to the door were not only these embers of the Lion Knights who were burning again, but also Sir Mokas Villar from Ravenstern.

This burly knight claimed to be Baron Villar and the legitimate lord of Dagon Castle. He was a loyal descendant of the North, and his family had been seeking the unification of the North and the Kingdom for more than two hundred years.

"Respected Your Majesty, I lead the famous Snow Lion Legion.

As warriors who are still loyal to the Kingdom of Pendor, we will fight for anyone who strives to unify the North and Pendor. I once served Ulric, but he is a complete coward. Now, he may not even intend to reconquer the North. He is simply not worthy of sitting on the Silver Throne!

Therefore, we intend to help you, the true royal bloodline. However, our treasury is very empty recently. If you pay us, I think I can find more soldiers to be loyal to you."

For Allen at this moment, this kind of combat power that came knocking on his door was, of course, the more the better. Thanks to the house raids, he was currently not short of money; compared to that cold, hard gold, this burning courage and determination were far more worth cherishing.

Time passed bit by bit, and Long Lake Town gradually became lively because of the recruitment of soldiers.

Now, not only civilians, but also those captured soldiers, nobles who wanted to speculate, merchants who thought their martial arts were not bad, and those Brotherhood members who wanted to get rid of the past, joined the army one after another.

Allen also gave generous wages and a contract with excellent treatment according to their physical fitness and the equipment they carried when joining. The highest reward even included a large number of shops and titles.

And the original owners of these wealth, some were serving their sentences in prison, and others had been hanged in the Sentinel Square of Long River Town.

Some people might have seen this part of the benefits, so they took risks. Allen didn't care about the reason. At this time, he only cared about the result.

And corresponding to this liveliness, the heads brought back by the Twilight Knights were getting more and more, which meant that a large number of nobles began to pay attention to Long River Town. The news that this place had fallen had probably spread throughout the kingdom.

Allen knew that the moment for him to set off had arrived, and the power he possessed at this time could be called powerful.

In just one month, more than two thousand civilians signed up and received simple armor and weapons. In other words, Allen used grain and gold coins to empty the bottom-level young and strong people living in Long River Town.

Captain Mokas Villar of the Snow Lion Legion, holding a large amount of wealth given by Allen, brought an army of more than a thousand people. Most of these people were cavalry and came from Ravenstern. Most of the knights in the team with well-equipped and majestic horses were descendants of exiled northern nobles.

As for the Lion Knights who gathered under the King's Flag again, there were only more than a hundred, and there were only three hundred attendants, not even one-fifth of the peak period.

But they rushed over with their attendants after getting the guidance, which could be said to be the most loyal batch of people under Allen's command. After all, the Noldor Elves were just guest troops.

With this, the soldiers under Allen's command rolled like a snowball to more than six thousand, and there were many elites. Although the number was not as good as Ulric's kingdom army, it already had a certain deterrence.

Plus Allen's various abilities, he also had a high chance of winning in a head-on battle with the enemy.

War horses neighed, and the bugle sounded.

On a morning with a growing chill, an army set off from Long River Town and headed toward Ravenstern City along the shore.

The new mayor of Long River Town watched his king leave on the city wall under the protection of many Elves. There were still quite a lot of messes for him to deal with next. ===== CHAPTER 289 =====