As we all know, conquest and domination are two completely different concepts.
The former often only requires defeating the ruling class that originally occupied a certain area, and then beating up all the dissenters. It is an extremely simple military operation.
And those who achieved this to the extreme were the Mongols who came out of the grasslands.
Because they have never established a truly effective rule, they often adopt indirect methods to absorb wealth and maintain their huge territory, and the tax farming system is the best proof.
However, the latter requires thorough political, economic and cultural reforms or integration into the original system, which cannot be completed overnight.
Under normal circumstances, as a conqueror who wants to rule a conquered area, he often needs to exchange interests with local snakes to ensure that the other party will cooperate with his taxation.
Otherwise, the cost of administration, security and taxation alone would be a terrifying astronomical figure.
If these cannot be solved, then the so-called conquest is just a game of filling in color blocks on the map.
Anyone who plays this way will eventually collapse and disintegrate due to financial problems.
After all, the essence of rule is the ability to absorb wealth and resources from the land and people within one's control.
When a large piece of land and the people living on it cannot be used by the ruler, it has no value.
However, Zuo Si's method of solving this problem was quite clever, which was to eliminate the original aristocratic ruling system and introduce merchants, craftsmen and other citizen classes to re-establish the ruling framework.
Then let them distribute land to those serfs and tenant farmers, transition from the original manorial economic model to a market economy, revitalize the economy by giving more people the means of production, and vigorously develop commerce and handicrafts.
Almost every time he conquered and occupied a noble's territory, Zuo Si would appoint a large number of acting officials, and then let them compete with each other for the top position.
Especially those businessmen with rich family fortunes who have always been eager to obtain their due social status are the most active in this process.
The craftsmen also got together and based on the formula and drawings he provided, they successfully built a bronze cannon with decent range and power.
With this thing, most castles have basically become lambs on the chopping block to be slaughtered.
Often a few shots can crush the gate that was originally designed to withstand cold weapons and charging vehicles.
In just two and a half months, Zuo Si led his army to sweep through all the surrounding noble territories, and the size of the army skyrocketed from the initial 5,000 to 26,000 to 26,700.
Among them were mercenaries who joined halfway, as well as tenant farmers and serfs who after the land was distributed, each family would provide a young man as a soldier according to the negotiated terms of exchange.
So now the entire army is divided into two parts.
Some of them are mercenaries who work for money and have relatively loose discipline, while the other part are "good family members" recruited from the lower levels. Not only do they have to undergo strict drills every day, but their discipline is very strict and they are organized completely according to the specifications of the regular army and the standing army.
As Zuo Si's actions and threats became more and more serious, the remaining noble lords finally couldn't sit still and formed a coalition under the leadership of a great noble named Duke Bram.
Both sides gathered their forces in the Great Plains, only two hundred kilometers away from the royal capital, preparing for a great battle to decide who was the true master of the country.
Especially the aristocratic alliance, this time they basically came out in full force, and the heraldic flags representing the nobility were so densely packed that they were hard to count.
It is conservatively estimated that at least hundreds of powerful noble lords came this time, and the number of war horses alone reached an astonishing more than 10,000.
If one knight is equipped with an average of two horses and two retinues with the same number of horses, the cavalry unit alone is as many as 5,000 people.
What is the concept of five thousand armored cavalry, at least one third of which are heavy cavalry, appearing on the battlefield?
If I had to use one word to describe it, it would be devastating.
Once they charge, unless there is a thick spear formation or spear formation that is well-trained and strictly disciplined, the morale of the general army will soon collapse.
In addition, the noble coalition had more than 45,000 infantry including crossbowmen, as well as large slingers, ballistas and other heavy weapons.
"What, haven't you figured out the other party's identity yet?"
A man wearing exquisite ornate armor stood on a temporary high platform and looked at the camp opposite. My majestic face showed an unhappy expression.
You don't need to ask to know that he is the initiator and leader of the noble coalition - Duke Bram. He is also the most powerful lord in the kingdom and the closest to the king's throne.
In particular, the lavender pattern on the coat of arms represents that his family ancestors were once a branch of the royal bloodline.
This means that when one day he wants to replace the current royal family, he can provide very sufficient blood and legal support.
In fact, the biggest reason why Duke Bram has such great appeal, apart from Zuo Si's merciless extermination of the entire aristocratic group, is his family's royal bloodline.
By promising post-war benefits, he successfully united most of the nobles in the kingdom around him, and even those former political enemies had to temporarily bow their heads and choose to cooperate.
To some extent, this is a classic diplomatic victory.
If he can win this war, there is a high probability that he will replace the royal family and become the new king with the recommendation of many nobles.
When he thought that after several generations of hard work, the grand goal of hard work was about to be realized in his own hands, Duke Bram felt indescribable excitement and excitement, as if he had already seen the scene when the crown was put on his head.
.
"I'm extremely sorry, Your Excellency.
Most of the spies we sent out were caught.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The other party is very vigilant. Anyone who finds an outsider with a strange face and asks around for information will immediately be reported by the surrounding locals.
Because the untouchables who have stolen the land and power that should have belonged to the nobility are very supportive of the existing rule.
They fear that everything they currently have will be taken away from them again.
In addition, you can get generous rewards by doing so.
And those who were lucky enough to escape only got a few words about the Roald family.
It is said that this guy who suddenly appeared seems to be a prince from another country across the sea.
It is said that his ship was shipwrecked while crossing the ocean, and he drifted to our country alone in a small boat.
Later, he was invited by Viscount Lister Roald to the castle as a guest, and during the banquet, he agreed to enter into a marriage contract with the Viscount's niece Myrna.
But for some reason, something incredible happened the day before the wedding.
That is when Viscount Lister Roald revealed the fact that he was a terrible monster and had a fierce battle with the prince.
According to local descriptions, a huge black whirlpool even rose above the castle that day."
Another noble next to him hurriedly said all the information he had at the moment.
After all, in this era where transportation is basically by walking and communication is basically by shouting, the transmission of information is very slow and lagging.
Don't look at it. Two and a half months have passed since Zuo Si captured the first noble lord's castle, and even brought a large area of ​​land in the southern part of the kingdom under his rule.
However, the traditional nobles in the north near the royal capital reacted extremely slowly, and they finally realized the serious situation they were facing when they were almost at their doorstep.
The reason why this magical scene occurs is also very simple, that is, the sources of information for the nobles mainly rely on the huge network of interpersonal relationships established through continuous marriages.
Generally speaking, as long as there is a problem in a family's territory, other relatives can immediately learn roughly what happened through special channels.
But the problem is that Zuo Si's game is to eradicate the roots. He does not leave any way for the nobles who conquered and occupied the area to survive. He directly kills them with the family genealogy table, including businessmen who are closely related to them.
If you highlight one, you would rather kill a thousand by mistake than let one go.
This directly cut off the source of information that the nobles relied on, causing them to have no idea what happened. They could only learn from some merchants that a large-scale war had broken out in the south.
By the time their own spies brought back the news, Zuo Si had completed the conquest of the southern region of the kingdom and quickly grew into a terrifying giant.
Both military power and organizational mobilization forces at the entire social level are increasingly showing a trend of dimensionality reduction strikes.
Especially in those areas where the land of noble lords was distributed to tenant farmers and serfs, the enthusiasm for production and subjective initiative that broke out among the people were simply not comparable to what they had been under the environment of heavy exploitation and oppression for a long time.
The most important thing is that the emergence of this kind of regime will seriously shake the foundation of aristocratic rule.
Once the news spreads and serfs and tenant farmers in their own territory learn about it and follow suit, the consequences will be absolutely disastrous.
So the nobles immediately realized that they must kill it no matter what the cost.
Duke Bram was the first to realize this, and then used the prestige and appeal accumulated by his family over the years to become the leader of the kingdom's aristocratic group.
So he knew it was a big gamble.
If you win the bet, you can consider starting the process of "exchanging house books" to replace the existing royal family after winning.
But once they lose, the family's reputation and status will plummet, and maybe the entire country will be conquered by that foreign prince.
So for Duke Bram, this is a fateful war, and it is also a war that cannot be lost.
The only thing that makes him feel lucky is that currently he is the party that firmly holds the advantage, with more than double the strength of the enemy, and new noble lords are joining with their armies every day.
What's more, in the perception of traditional nobles like him, only knights, retinues and the professional soldiers who follow them have combat effectiveness.
For example, the mercenaries under Zuo Si who worked for money and the army composed of mud-legged farmers had no honor, courage or sense of honor at all, and they basically fled in all directions after being charged by the heavy cavalry.
Based on the combat experience of this continent, one or two hundred knights plus their retinues can easily defeat rioting peasants who slaughter tens of thousands of people.
Thinking of this, Duke Bram immediately asked in an uncertain tone: "How credible is it that Viscount Lister Roald is a monster?"
To be continued...