Chapter 259 Countermeasures

The Duke of Kent held the report in his hand, and he had an urge to tear it to pieces.

Who made Graman make so much money?

He looked up and saw the porcelain vase on the table, and he took it and was about to throw it on the ground.

But the Duke's hand was suspended in the air for a long time and could not throw it down. Finally, he put the vase back to its original place with an awkward look on his face.

Maltz called the intelligence director in again and ordered him to go to the hall to call his confidants and let the others disperse first.

After a while, the confidants arrived, including Emerson Wilder. As for the Duke's son, he did not come. Recently, there were many things that required him to come forward in person, to reorganize the army and recruit new soldiers, so he had been running around outside.

The Duke told his confidants about the current predicament.

"We must find a weapon that can restrain the fire crossbow and thunder hammer, and then we can crush them with the advantage of numbers."

But how easy is this? The existing bows and crossbows are not as good as the previous two in range and power. Everyone thought hard, but they never thought of a good plan.

"Uncle Kent, I have an idea, but I don't know if it's feasible."

Emerson suddenly spoke, and Maltz immediately said, as if he saw light in the dark: "Oh? Tell me about it!"

"Have you heard of longbows?"

"Longbows? We have them here too!"

"The longbow I'm talking about is not an ordinary longbow, but a longer and bigger one."

Emerson gestured with his hands and introduced it to everyone in the study.

"This longbow is about 1.5 to 2 meters long and is made of yew. Elm and oak can also be used instead, but yew is better because it is strong, not easy to break, tough, flexible, and can be pulled wider."

"Its range can reach about 200 to 300 meters, which is comparable to the fire crossbow of the Arda people. And it is very powerful. It can penetrate leather, padded armor and fabric at a distance of about 220-260 meters, or penetrate chain mail. Plate armor or fish scale armor can resist its penetration; but if it is hit head-on within 100 meters, even plate armor cannot resist it; at a range of 50 meters, the longbow arrow can be said to be indestructible."

Emmerson's description made everyone's eyes light up. This weapon is too terrible.

"Really? Emerson, is the 'longbow' you mentioned really that powerful?"

Emerson hesitated for a moment, "Well... I also heard it from others, so it may be a bit of bragging, but it is always true that the longbow is powerful."

Marts Kent made the final decision: "We must try it anyway. Do you have a way to make this bow and arrow? Or you can buy it."

"I don't know how to make it, but I know where to buy it. But Uncle Kent, just buying it is not enough. Training soldiers to operate longbows is not easy. It must be done through long-term training over many years. Training is required to become a qualified longbowman. "

"What is the solution to this problem?"

"Mercenaries."

"Mercenaries?"

"Yes, Uncle Kent, hire longbowmen, preferably longbowmen from large mercenary groups."

Marts Kent narrowed his eyes. He knew the existence of mercenaries. In some war-torn areas, there were a large number of such people who worked for money. They either worked alone or formed groups. Some large mercenary groups would grow to a very amazing scale, and their combat effectiveness could even rival the army of a powerful lord.

However, most mercenaries were extremely corrupt and had no sense of honor. It was common for them to play the role of bandits. Although the local soldiers recruited in the territory also robbed, they still had some consideration for the feelings of their fellow countrymen. As a complete outsider, the mercenaries did not have such constraints.

Of course, the latter feature was not within the scope of Maltz Kent's consideration. The only thing that made him a little worried was the price of the hire money. The price that could make others work hard would definitely not be low.

But if he could defeat the alliance of lords who opposed him and annex their territories and wealth, especially that of Paul Graman, what he paid would eventually be returned many times over.

The Duke slapped the table and shouted, "Great, little Emerson, this is exactly what I need, weapons and soldiers are all available at once."

Emerson puffed out his chest and said, "If Uncle Kent is interested, I am willing to go and contact the various mercenary groups."

Marts agreed, "Okay, I'll leave this matter to you. The price is negotiable. The main thing is to be able to gather enough troops."

Emerson reminded him, "But this takes time. Before the mercenary group arrives, we still need to find a way to trip Graman's legs. Although his army has stopped moving now, there is no guarantee that they will resume the attack."

The Duke said sadly, "Yes, this is indeed an imminent problem."

The intelligence director who had been silent on the side suddenly said, "My Lord Duke, please leave this matter to us."

"What good ideas do you have?"

The intelligence director smiled slightly, "Earl Graman has made his territory very successful in the past year, but he doesn't know that he has buried two volcanoes under his buttocks. Although the volcanoes are still relatively small, they will erupt sooner or later."

The Duke instructed him to continue.

"The report mentioned that Alda has developed a new method of salt production, which can produce salt quickly and in large quantities. On the surface, this is a very good thing, but..."

"But what?"

"There are a large number of salt people in the coastal area who rely on boiling salt for a living. They rely on the traditional method of boiling salt to make salt. They cannot compete with the new salt production method in terms of cost. Salt merchants do not buy from them, which makes the salt people miserable. We are almost losing our livelihood, as long as we..."

Before the intelligence chief finished speaking, someone in the room shouted: "I know what you want to say? This is a bad idea! Your Excellency, you must not use this method."

The speaker was a vassal of the Kent family. He said righteously: "Although we are at war with Graiman, we are both nobles after all. How is it unbecoming to incite the untouchables against their own lords? "

Other aristocratic confidants also shouted:

There is no mistake. One post, one content, one 6 one, one book, one book, one read!

"Yeah, it's absolutely ridiculous!"

"Treasonous!"

The head of intelligence stopped talking. Without a title, he couldn't understand what the gentlemen were thinking. It was obvious that his buttocks were on fire.

The Duke of Kent waved his hand irritably: "Okay, we'll discuss this later. Do you have any other ideas?"

Several methods were proposed one after another, but none of them were feasible in Maltz's mind.

"Emerson goes to contact the mercenary group who is good at using longbows. We will retrain an army and try to block the Arda people before the mercenaries arrive."

The Duke finally declared.

Everyone dispersed, except for the intelligence chief.

"Before, you said there were two volcanoes under Graiman's butt. What was the other one?"

The intelligence chief's eyes lit up and he whispered: "The countryside."

"What's he doing in the country?"

"After repelling the pirates, Earl Grayman implemented a decree - 'Land Consolidation', which consolidated the scattered cultivated land of various landowners and yeoman farmers through replacement, aiming to make better use of the land."

"This law sounds good."

"Yes, the law is good. But there are many people in the countryside who conceal the area of ​​their farmland in order to evade taxes, and there are also many people who occupy a large amount of public land because of lax management. Uh... you also know that this phenomenon always It’s repeated.”

Maltz smiled bitterly and motioned for the supervisor to continue.

"In the process of replacing and integrating farmland, the first thing to do is to inventory each family's real estate and measure the actual area of ​​farmland..."

"Furthermore, the quality of farmland can be good or bad. No matter how hard we try to maintain fairness during the replacement process, some people will feel that they are suffering a disadvantage."

"So we can make a big deal here."

After the intelligence chief finished speaking, Maltz Kent thought for a long time without saying a word, and finally just said: "You should step back first."

After the director left, the Duke's study fell silent.