thefictionvixens Chapter 159: Mediocre people bother themselves
Chapter 159: Mediocre people bother themselves
In the eyes of Duke White Tiger, now that Zhang Wei has captured the Corno Fortress, his next move must be to follow the trend and capture the city of Naville, thereby ensuring the safety of Sina Port.
However, if the Duke of White Tiger lost the city of Naville, then the sphere of influence under his control would only be the White Tiger Fortress and the White Deer City located to the south of the fortress.
Faced with such a situation, Duke White Tiger had three options:
First, he could concentrate all his forces to march northward and engage in a head-on decisive battle with Zhang Wei;
Second, he could also march eastward, quickly capture the capital, and try to hold the emperor hostage to command the princes;
The third option is to advance southward, first capture the Hasa Fortress south of Bailu City, then occupy the Glax Fortress further south, and finally occupy the southern Zovia Port.
In this way, Duke Baihu can emulate Zhang Wei's strategy, ensure that sea routes are unobstructed, conduct trade with other countries, maintain stable financial income, and then plan future development blueprints.
Just when Duke White Tiger was hesitating, Zhang Wei sent an envoy, Tian Feng, to meet Duke White Tiger.
The peace terms proposed by Zhang Wei were very concise and clear - as long as the Duke of White Tiger was willing to hand over the City of Naville, Zhang Wei would guarantee not to attack the White Tiger Fortress within ten years.
After a brief thought, Duke Baihu couldn't help but feel something in his heart. He also wanted Zhang Wei to personally acknowledge that the eldest princess was the legitimate heir to the throne.
Tian Feng couldn't help but chuckle after hearing this. He looked at the Duke of White Tiger in front of him and asked with a somewhat teasing tone: "Now that the queen is still alive and the other princesses are safe and sound, isn't it too hasty to discuss who is the legitimate heir at this moment?"
Duke White Tiger did not insist on his own opinion, but he had heard that Zhang Wei was best at breaking promises and contracts.
Therefore, he made a hard request to Zhang Wei - he must come up with a way to sign the peace agreement in a way that absolutely cannot violate the agreement. Otherwise, the two sides will have to continue fighting until death.
Zhang Wei readily agreed to the condition of the Duke of White Tiger, and specially invited the High Priest of the Goddess of Life and the High Priest of the Sun and Moon Sect to go to Naville City together to formally sign a peace agreement with the Duke of White Tiger.
When Duke White Tiger learned that Zhang Wei was able to invite the high priest of the Sun and Moon Sect, he was quite surprised.
However, when he learned that the price Zhang Wei paid to achieve this goal was to give up the offensive against the towns of Huai'en and Bourne which had fallen into the control of the Sun Moon Sect, he began to have some unique views on the Sun Moon Sect in his heart.
He thought to himself: Since Zhang Wei can make a deal with the Sun Moon Sect, why can't I, the Duke of White Tiger, do the same?
On this beautiful and sunny day, Zhang Wei and Duke White Tiger signed the peace negotiation agreement in joy.
However, the people of Naville who were watching the ceremony on site felt as if shrouded in a heavy haze and were in an extremely heavy mood.
For these people, today is undoubtedly a day full of humiliation. They once swore allegiance to their lord, but now they are ruthlessly betrayed to their former enemy in front of everyone. What's more tragic is that they have been deprived of the right to express their opposition!
As the agreement was signed, the wary Duke of White Tiger hurriedly led his troops to evacuate the city and head south.
At this time, Sister Cheng, the high priestess of the Sun and Moon Sect, stared at Zhang Wei charmingly with her watery eyes, and said coquettishly: "Are you trying to drive me away again?" Facing Sister Cheng's question, Zhang Wei did not respond directly. He only raised the corners of his mouth slightly, revealing an unpredictable smile.
"You men are so cruel and ruthless." Although Sister Cheng said this, she did not forget to cast a charming glance at Zhang Wei. Then, with the support of many believers, she slowly left the city of Naville and embarked on her journey back to the royal capital.
At this time, the High Priestess of the Goddess of Life asked Zhang Wei about his next plan. Zhang Wei looked towards the north with a firm gaze and answered simply and clearly: "Make money and train soldiers. Without money, there will be no soldiers; without a strong military force, how can we fight on the battlefield?" After saying this, his eyes became more determined.
Zhang Wei had indeed wanted to open up the northern trade route and use the caravan to search for the missing Sword Hero and Fire Hero in order to convince the king to allow him to restore the trade route with the empire to the north.
The world is unpredictable and ever-changing. Who could have expected that the king of a country would be assassinated? At this point, the whole country was in turmoil and civil war was imminent. Although Zhang Wei had already taken action, not only attacking the territory that originally belonged to the royal family, but also driving monsters to attack the territory of the Duke of White Tiger, as far as the current situation was concerned, the kingdom had not yet completely fallen into a state of civil war, and all parties were still taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Now that a ten-year peace agreement has been signed with the Duke of White Tiger, Zhang Wei has lost the opportunity to expand southward and march eastward to the capital in the short term. As a result, the options before him are very limited. In addition to strengthening maritime trade, his eyes naturally fell on Lionheart Castle. If the information provided by the queen and others is correct, then the Duke of Lionheart and his army are very likely hiding in the city of Antiphis in the north of the capital. In other words, Lionheart Castle is in a situation of being leaderless at this moment!
If Zhang Wei could seize this excellent opportunity and capture Lionheart Castle in one fell swoop, then the trade route to the north would surely be in his pocket.
There were many different opinions on Zhang Wei's plan to go north and take Lionheart Castle. Some people supported it, believing that it would be better for Zhang Wei and others to take over Lionheart Castle instead of letting it fall into the hands of the Empire due to the chaos within the Kingdom. In this way, they could not only increase their own strength, but also gain more bargaining chips in negotiations with other forces in the Kingdom and the Empire.
However, opponents also put forward many reasons. Some people advocated that the current focus should be on the development of Sinnar Port, especially the expansion of naval power and maritime trade; others firmly believed that this was the perfect time to recuperate and should take this opportunity to concentrate on collecting intelligence and make a decision after gaining a deep understanding of the dynamics of all parties.
In addition, there are some more peculiar objections. For example, Yuan Shao sent a letter to Zhang Wei, the content of which was concise and clear: Is Zhang Wei really sure that the teleportation array of Lionheart Fort is no longer functioning properly? If the teleportation array is still usable, it means that the Duke of Lionheart has successfully connected his territory with Lionheart Fort...