Baron Gebhard has been in a bad mood recently. He doesn't know why Baron Hill next door has gone crazy. He wants to compensate him for every trivial matter?
The chickens in his territory were stolen, the farmers in his territory cut down his trees, etc.
These days, he has received more than ten letters from Baron Hill complaining and demanding compensation, and each one is worded more harshly than the last.
In the last letter, Baron Hill even stated that this was a serious provocation to him, and if Baron Gebhard was still indifferent, he would seek compensation in his own way.
The threat in the letter was very obvious. If Baron Gebhard did not pay or apologize, he would start a war.
Baron Gebhard didn't take Baron Hill's threat seriously at all. As a noble, it is commonplace to fight from time to time. What's more, judging from such a trivial matter, most of them are just leading each other's troops and watching a few
The cavalry charges in one wave to determine the winner.
Then the two sides sat down to discuss the issues, and the losing party paid symbolic compensation for the losses and gave some money and land, and a farce-like war ended.
This kind of thing has not happened before. Many of his mountain territories were seized from the hands of small nobles in the southern mountains in this way.
This time, it's probably the same.
It’s not like he hasn’t competed with Baron Hill before, with each winning and losing, and overall the boundaries haven’t changed much. Baron Gebhard knows very well that the strength of both sides is about equal, and no one can really do anything to the other.
Several years have passed since the last time he fought against the opponent. That time he was slightly inferior and lost a small piece of land to the opponent. This time, he just took the opportunity to get it back.
However, just because the other party was so provocative, it was most likely that he had recently gained a lot of wealth from the commercial taxes in Argauland, and that was why he had the idea of expanding his territory.
Thinking of this, Baron Gebhard wanted to curse.
After Aargau took the lead in collecting business taxes, the surrounding nobles also followed suit. Given Bern's geographical location, even if the tax rate is lower than Aargau, the money received is not as much as Aargau.
Unlike Otto who collected taxes from the count as a whole and shared the profits with his vassals, in the Bernier region, each noble, from counts to knights, collected taxes in their respective territories.
But in this way, there is no doubt that almost all the income is taken away by the Count of Bern, because the Count of Bern has the largest territory. The caravan is not a fool. Since you can only pay the tax once, why pay more.
Lords like Baron Gebhard, whose territory is close to the Alps and not on the road that caravans must pass through, can only watch others make money without receiving a penny.
It is not that no nobles in the Bern Territory have complained to the Earl about this problem, but I don’t know whether the Earl is really old and confused, or he is reluctant to part with the huge dividends from commercial taxes. The result of the final complaint is that each vassal received a little money that is better than nothing.
.
It is very possible that Baron Hill used his wealth to hire a mercenary force. It is better to be more careful. Perhaps, he can contact a noble with better connections to help?
Sure enough, a few days later, Baron Gebhard received a letter of challenge from Baron Hill.
During the Carolingian Dynasty, nobles were still quite "graceful" in general wars. Even if they were to fight, they would make an appointment in advance for the time and place.
Both sides bring their own vassals and knights, recruit levies at will, and engage in a small-scale weapon fight as if they were punching in. After the winner is determined, it will be over.
After all, we are all nobles. We can meet each other without looking up. If we count carefully, we might have some connections with each other, so there is no need to work so hard.
Therefore, Baron Gebhard quickly agreed, made an appointment with Baron Hill, and sent someone to inform the allies he had already found.
"Knight Wade, Baron Gebhard has already agreed. I will trouble you a lot next.
However, I think that since the other party agreed so readily even though they knew I was deliberately provocative, they might have called their allies."
In a low castle, Baron Hill looked at the letter in his hand and said to Wade with a smile.
"Don't worry, Baron." Wade smiled slightly and didn't take the other person to heart at all. "This time I brought the cavalry troops carefully built by Master Otto. Even if Baron Gebhard has helpers, they can't be us.
opponent."
"In this case, I feel relieved." Baron Hill laughed and raised his glass. "To victory, to Master Otto, cheers."
"cheers!"
On the appointed day, Baron Gebhard took the lead in leading his army to the appointed place. This time, he was full of confidence. There were five knights in total, one regular knight, nearly twenty cavalry, and five hundred
Soldier, that Baron Hill, what are you going to do against him?
Baron Gebhard sat on the horse, chatting and laughing with the knights around him, and was in a very happy mood.
But soon, Baron Gebhard stopped laughing because he saw the belated arrival of Baron Hill and the army he led.
One, two, three, four... no need to count, there must be hundreds of cavalry.
Baron Gebhard's pupils shrank and he looked at the scene in front of him in disbelief. How could a small Baron like Hill be able to gather a hundred cavalry?
Bad! Baron Gebhard suddenly realized that this was not Baron Hill's idea at all, but Count Aargau, no, Baron Otto's idea.
At this moment, Baron Gebhard even wanted to turn around and run away, but his reason told him that even running might not be useful and would also lose his reputation, so he had to wait uneasily where he was.
At this moment, he had lost the courage to resist. He did not think that hundreds of his men could stand up to the elite cavalry of Argauland.
"Good afternoon, Baron Gebhard, long time no see. May the gods protect you." Baron Hill smiled and rode forward, greeting the other party enthusiastically.
Baron Gebhard forced out a smile that was uglier than crying and reluctantly responded:
"May the gods also protect you, Baron Hill, good afternoon."
This time, he is afraid that he will have to lose at least one knight's territory. How can he be happy?
"Oh, Baron Gebhard's territory is developing very well, with strong soldiers and horses. No wonder the poor people in the territory dare to come to my territory to show off their power. It turns out that they rely on the protection of His Excellency the Baron."
Baron Hill looked at the troops brought by Baron Gebhard with great interest and teased them with a smile.
"You..." Baron Gebhard was furious. He wanted to say that it was all fabricated out of thin air, but now that the situation was stronger than others, he could only endure it.
"Your Excellency Baron, this is all a misunderstanding. I am willing to compensate for the loss of your territory. Let's not fight today."
"Humph, no fight?" Baron Hill sneered, and his color changed instantly. "I wrote to His Excellency the Baron many times before, but His Excellency the Baron never responded. Now he told me not to fight and was willing to compensate me for my losses.
, isn’t it a little late?
Even if I agree, my knights will not agree."
"Then..." Baron Gebhard's expression changed again and again, and finally he uttered a word weakly. "I surrender and give up, no more fighting!"