Chapter 447: Ravine Meant for Someone Else

Helixen knew nothing about the Count of Basel’s grand strategy. And just as with the lord of Wischelbach, I didn’t tell him. It was valuable negotiating material, and I planned to spring it at the decisive moment.

"The lord of Wischelbach told me the provincial lords aren’t on good terms with the Swiss Confederation."

"More precisely, we’ve been suffering under Zurich’s high-handedness."

"The merchant guildmaster offered to connect me with the Swiss Confederation."

"Those followers of Mammon would naturally prefer the honey the Swiss Confederation hands them. The reason our lands have no specialty goods left is entirely because of those wild dogs of Mammon that Zurich sent in."

Basel has already suffered an economic invasion by the Swiss Confederation. Outside of farm produce, nearly every manufactured good is Swiss-made. And even the farm produce ends up going to the Swiss Confederation at cheap prices.

The Swiss Confederation’s territory is mostly mountainous, so they’ve always had to import food. That’s why they’ve poured themselves into expansion, trying to seize neighboring territory with farmland.

And Basel is a region with enough farmland to make the Swiss Confederation hungry.

All of this came from the Count of Basel’s decision to join hands with the Swiss Confederation, and the provincial lords were deeply unhappy about it. That their unhappiness never went any further was only because the count’s army was so strong.

But that same Count of Basel not only lost the civil war, he went head to head with me and got thoroughly wrecked. And that was with four hundred supposedly invincible Swiss mercenaries at his back.

To make matters worse, I’ve been tearing across Basel’s lands at will and have now occupied two provincial territories. With the count unable to stop it, his influence is crumbling fast.

"The Count of Basel has called a total mobilization. How many men do you think he’ll gather?"

"A thousand at a rough guess. More, if he’s hired mercenaries."

"Swiss mercenaries showing up again would be a headache."

"It won’t be Swiss mercenaries. It’ll be riffraff, mostly."

"And how do you know that?"

"My liege forced two choices on me. Answer the total mobilization, or pay the cost of the war. Asking for war funds means he’s out of money."

Unable to put up the money, the lord of Hagenhausen had provided troops instead, and on the way to Basel he’d run into me and been stripped clean. Can things possibly go any worse for the Count of Basel?

Helixen laid out every piece of information he had, as though he’d made up his mind to hold nothing back. Honestly, there were so many secrets that I started to wonder whether he was in his right mind.

I learned everything from the weak points of the castle to the personal relationships among the knights serving the Count of Basel. Is his anger at his liege really that deep? This is exactly why I refuse to install vassal houses in my provincial lands.

Sending an estate manager is a better arrangement. So far my vassals haven’t shown any hunger for land of their own. There’s no telling how things will go later, but perhaps they stay quiet because my influence over them is so strong.

In any case, the biggest prize was learning that the Count of Basel’s war chest is empty and he can’t hire Swiss mercenaries. Still, the enemy has numbers, and now they’ll come hunting me in earnest.

Before that happens, I have to take my next target, Landschaft.

[Gale Plunderer Trait 2/5]

Whatever else I skip, I’m filling this one out.

The trait is far too sweet to pass up.

"The Baron of Landschaft is an arrogant, cunning man. He has a great deal in common with my liege. He’ll certainly know my territory has fallen, and he’ll have his defenses ready."

"Hmm, arrogant and cunning..."

With a disposition like that, he’ll have a strong ego, which means he’ll be vulnerable to provocation. In that sense, the lord of Wischelbach was a very difficult opponent. If his heir hadn’t taken the bait and come out, taking the place would have been impossible.

Now I understood why that quest paid 50,000 points and 500 gold coins. By contrast, though I never mentioned it, the quest reward for taking Hagenhausen was only 10,000 points and 100 gold coins.

Which meant the difficulty shifted with the lord’s disposition.

"I’m not sure whether I should ask, but how will you settle the matter with your wife?"

"Nothing can be done immediately. There are procedures to follow."

"I see. I promised to act as your witness, so just say the word whenever you need it."

"Thank you, Baron."

But then Helixen smiled a chilling smile.

That smile stuck with me and I couldn’t shake it. Hmm, surely not?

I wrapped up the plundering of Hagenhausen, loaded up an enormous haul of spoils, and headed back to Hissen. Helixen’s head butler would manage Hagenhausen in the meantime. He’d figure it out.

The moment I arrived, August came rushing in with a report.

"My lord! Word has come from Vintenheim!"

"What happened? Did they stop the enemy assault?"

"They repelled it safely. Though part of the harbor was lost in the process."

Viktor did an excellent job.

That’s light damage, considering the men who came were set on burning the place down.

When the Count of Basel finds out the operation failed, will he fly into a rage, or will he simply sink into stunned despair? I set that future pleasure aside and ordered the units to reorganize.

Truly, a massive amount of spoils had piled up. The plunder accumulated so far came to roughly 48 gold coins. Gathering that much from raiding small territories is an impressive feat in itself.

Basel really is a wealthy region. For all their moaning about being exploited by the Swiss Confederation, the simple fact that most of their people have a fair amount of money makes Basel a rich territory.

What would raiding a place like Rosenheim get you? You’d struggle to scrape together 10 gold coins. And income from quests came to 600 gold coins. That’s my main revenue stream, really.

Points had piled up to a full 95,000, too. To prepare for Basel’s attack, I put 30,000 points into Strong Soldiers (10%) in the army branch of the passive skills, raising it to level 3, Strong Soldiers (30%).

Every soldier belonging to Streit had their abilities improved by 30%. For the Streit Gunners in particular, who have a unit rank, their D-Rank Discipline 30%, Firepower 30%, and Accuracy 30% stack for a combined 60%.

They’re small in number, but wouldn’t these gunners be the strongest in all of Europe? The Rosenschmidt blacksmith family is hard at work improving the firearms, and if that pays off, the unit will become a terrifying monster.

They’d hold their own against Spain’s tercio.

I locked up Heindel, the lord of Wischelbach, and Helixen, the lord of Hagenhausen, and crossed the Basel border again. The third time now? Crossing the border has become as easy as setting out on a day trip.

I don’t know how this day-trip war will end, but plenty is going to change. We passed Hagenhausen and headed south. Thanks to the Searcher Scouter, we didn’t lose our way this time.

We destroyed what looked like a reconnaissance unit and captured five riders heading somewhere as reinforcements, took their horses and equipment, and sent them on their way. Small but steady gains as we advanced without a hitch.

"My lord! A small cavalry unit spotted! Let me take this one!"

Barosi, who’d developed a taste for earning distinction, shouted cheerfully and picked up speed, but I waved the flag to call him back. The enemy information shown by the Commander Scouter identified them as a decoy unit.

"That’s bait. There’s an ambush nearby, so stay alert."

"What? How would they know where we are to set an ambush...?"

"They must have eyes on us from somewhere we haven’t spotted."

There’s nothing to be done about watchers sitting outside the Commander Scouter’s range.

So I ignored the decoy unit and went straight to looking for the enemy’s ambush site. We found a small ravine with good cover on both sides. And there sat an ambush force led by the Baron of Landschaft himself.

Without hesitating, I led the Gale Knights into the woods. Cavalry has a hard time maneuvering in forest. But we were light cavalry who treated the woods like home. I drew my cavalry sword instead of the halberd.

We fell on the startled enemy soldiers in an instant.