Rise of the Empire Total War

On June 4, 1115 in the continental calendar, while the soldiers of the First Legion were building their new territory during a short vacation, a convoy from the west came to the city of Tus and asked Richard who was staying here to meet him. request. (Because Suken City was bombed continuously by artillery and became dilapidated, it was not suitable for Richard to live temporarily, so he came to Tus City to let Suken City clean up the ruins and rebuild during this period)

This made Richard a little surprised. After questioning, it turned out that this convoy came from the Kingdom of Swachiqi. Their leader was the kingdom's foreign affairs chief, Lelei. The convoy also carried 20,000 silver coins as a ransom. The purpose of this trip is not only to redeem his king, but also to seek peace.

That's right, the search for peace.

In order to bring the two countries back to peace, the Swachizi agreed to pay war indemnities, sever the alliance with other participating countries, and at the same time send their first heir as a hostage to Nord City—although this did not go through The consent of King Titos of Swachizi, but still legal, because the Kingdom Cabinet and the elected interim regent unanimously agreed.

From the point of sending the first heir as a hostage to Nord City, Richard was surprised by the handwriting of the Swachizi, although in this era there are many moves to send princes to other countries as hostages (even Richard’s father was sent to the Kingdom of Ravana as a hostage when he was a child, but he returned to the country soon), but he basically sent the second and third heirs, and rarely sent the first The heir in line - if the first in line heir is sent, the other party is generally an allied country that has been friends for generations, and there are very few hostile countries that have just ended the state of war.

Richard wouldn’t be surprised if he knew the thoughts of the high-level officials of the Swachitch Kingdom. Facing the mysterious and powerful weapons of the Winster Kingdom, the Swachitch people couldn’t find a way to deal with them all at once, so they thought He came up with another solution, which was to send his prince to the Winster Kingdom as a hostage, during which time he could learn the strengths of the Winster people, and after returning home, he could apply the learned technology to his own country.

Richard didn't know what they were thinking, so after thinking about it for a while, he agreed to the peace proposal put forward by the Kingdom of Swachic, and went to war with so many countries at once. Even if he won consecutive battles, he still couldn't bear it Yes, this kind of unbearable is not only the loss of soldiers, but also the civil turmoil in the conquered area, just like the over-expansion in the game Europa Universalis 4, annexing a large area of ​​​​land in a short period of time, no time for digestion, no matter how powerful the country is It is also unbearable.

This is also one of the reasons why Richard did not continue westward. One reason is that the situation of the soldiers is not optimistic, and he is also worried about the order in the newly conquered Pravia area. According to his expectations, Lamy, who has repeatedly provoked wars, will After the kingdom of Reis was conquered, the war could actually come to an end for the time being. After he digested the newly conquered territories (that is, promoted Christianity), he would consider continuing westward.

But agree to agree, Richard will not let go of this opportunity to blackmail the enemy,

Taking advantage of the opportunity of their king being captured by himself, Richard put forward other conditions: the two countries will start official trade, and at the same time, the Kingdom of Swachizi needs to open customs duties, and merchants from the Winster-Ravana United Kingdom will Exemption from paying excess taxes; the Teutonic Knights are allowed to rent a house in Slade, the capital of the Swachizi Kingdom, as a stronghold. The disposal of the Kingdom of Swachizi should be transferred to the Winster-Ravana United Kingdom for disposal.

Although he didn't understand what the Teutonic Knights were for, after a brief questioning, Laere felt that this militarized religious organization could not pose a threat to the kingdom's rule, so he agreed to Richard's conditions. As for the former condition, not having to pay customs duties would only cause a slight loss to the kingdom's finances. After consideration, Lei Lei also agreed to the exemption of customs duties.

But he didn't know Richard's intentions. Richard had learned from the memory of the Swachichi Kingdom in his mind beforehand that because the kingdom was close to the sea, it was rich in a kind of bone murex that could be used to make purple pigments. A kind of murex will release a yellow liquid, which can be turned into a purple dye after being exposed to the sun-this purple dye is very expensive, even if the technological level has advanced to the middle ages, people in this world still rarely obtain purple The method of dyeing, so purple is also a symbol of nobility in some countries.

The Kingdom of Swachizi is rich in murexes, so although the purple dye has not reached the level of popularization by the whole people, it can be used by nobles of all sizes. It is also to control the export of purple dye. The kingdom has a very high level of trade in this product The tax rate, and Richard’s request for exemption from customs duties and other miscellaneous taxes is for the trade of purple dyes. He can buy a large amount of purple dyes at a lower price, and then sell them at a higher price in other countries’ markets, that is, The middleman makes the difference.

After agreeing to these two conditions, the subsequent negotiations will be much more convenient. After some verbal battles, the Kingdom of Swachiqi finally redeemed their king Titos at the price of 20,000 silver coins. Forty thousand silver coins were paid to redeem captured soldiers and nobles, and the rest was used as war reparations.

As for the matter of sending the first heir to the Kingdom of Swachic to Nord City as a hostage, it was also finalized after discussion. After King Titos was redeemed and met his son in the country, the The prince was sent to Nord City, and then released back to the country after five years-this also means that there will be a five-year truce between the two countries. (This is not accurate, because the Kingdom of Swachiqi is restricted by hostages and cannot provoke wars, but Richard does not have this constraint. As long as he wants, he can tear up the contract at will and go to war against the Kingdom of Swachiqi. As for the fate of the prince who stayed in Nord City, I will not describe it further.)

After the contract was concluded, the 20,000 silver coins in the convoy were handed over to the soldiers Richard sent to receive them. After that, the convoy went to Nord City under the escort of a team of chain armor knights to meet their king.

At the same time, Magnus in Nord City finally recruited enough soldiers. In addition to the 1,480 sergeants provided by the Teutonic Knights, he also had 1,500 conscripts recruited from the Nord Territory. Thanks to the preaching of the pastors, these more than 1,500 conscripts are all Christian soldiers who are loyal to Richard. Although their combat effectiveness needs to be verified, their loyalty is not a problem.