Now, let''s go crush the rest of the small lords.
I have issued an ultimatum to the other minor lords.
The gist of it is as follows.
＜We have destroyed one of the lords because he waged war against the Count. The defeated are not so frightened as to offer their surrender with the intention of taking sides. That is why he took his lands. Of course, those who declared their willingness to serve the Count early would be treated well.
If you want to fight a war, I will not stop you, but only those who are willing to lose their ancestral lands should do so. Since warfare is a matter of risking one''s life in the first place, why should we even spare the land? ＞The war is a risk of life in the first place, so why spare even a piece of land?
Soon the four lords offered their services with hostages.
That leaves only three. We will crush them.
However, it did not end up being a proper war.
First of all, even if the lords were willing to resist, their vassals did not follow them.
"I have come to serve the Count!" I have given up on my lord and have come to you!"
A lot of vassals came to me saying such things.
I knew that the vassals of a lord must also be small lords. In order to protect themselves, they would choose to leave their lord.
I have promised to treat them with respect.
The more word spreads that they will benefit by following me, the easier it will be to pacify them.
Finally, something like this happened.
The first vassal of the Nobun family, a viscount, came to me to show his allegiance.
"My family was originally a branch of the Nobun family, and I have served in this position for about a hundred years.
"Well, you seem to be very determined to abandon your main family in such a position. I''m very glad to hear it.
There is no falsity in these words. When such a vassal abandons his lord, other vassals are sure to be upset. More and more of them will give up any further resistance.
"I am willing to reward you handsomely for your success. You will have lost the enemy''s eldest vassal without a fight.
"Ha! However, I felt that I had to show my gratitude to the Count in some way, so I have brought you a gift.
The man was in a good mood. He must have prepared something good. It was hard to believe that such a treasure would be in the possession of an important retainer of a small lord, but the attendant at his side was holding a box of something.
"Take a look at this.
The squire opened the box.
Inside was a head. Not one, but two.
"I have come here to cut off the heads of the viscount and his heir as a pledge of obedience! The House of Noven is doomed! This is my own proof of vassalage!
Hey, Oda Nobunaga, are you there?
--Who are you to call the High King yourself? I''ll tolerate it. The High King is kind to funny people.
I want to kill him. Am I wrong?
--Actually, the High King once did something similar. Just before the fall of the feudal lord Takeda, his chief vassal Oyamada Nobushige came to report that he had betrayed his master''s house. They died.
I see.
I have a question for you.
What do you mean? Is it about the land of the Noven family?"
"Do you think I would take on as a vassal a man who would voluntarily kill his own master without being asked?"
The man''s face turned blue.
"No, my master was too stupid to do this ......, not that I am disloyal ......."
"I''m not interested in your loyalty. I''m just saying I can''t trust you. Go to ----."
The captain of the White Eagle Squadron, Rayon, who was standing nearby, immediately slashed the man to death. His followers followed.
"It''s an insult to me that you think you can buy my pleasure with such a thing. Do you think that the enemy of my enemy would trust you so quickly!"
I then proceeded to destroy the Nobuns and the two other families that had been practically destroyed.
As our troops approached, many forts and castles were almost destroyed by their own soldiers who tried to desert. Rumors were spreading widely that any fortress that defied me would be slaughtered.
If this is the case, it would be better not to attempt defensive battles in individual forts from the beginning, but I guess that the castle commanders would eventually get scared and become intimidated, even though they would resist their lords on the surface. They make a plan to fight the lord, believing that he will fight them, but the plan collapses spectacularly.
I think that the number of wars has been considerably reduced by dropping one fortress by force without any sacrifices, which in turn has reduced the number of casualties.
After all, there are many harmful effects of attacking slowly as before.
Even if you know that there is no way to win, you will try to fight by formally besieging the enemy, and skirmishes like this will happen again and again, so the number of casualties and injuries will increase.
And if you have to go far away, you have to prepare provisions for your troops.
Finally, I approach the castle of the northernmost lord of Fordonia, who had been resisting me until the very end.
As expected of a lord''s castle, it is very strong and it is difficult to attack by force, so I decided to surround the enemy for a few days to see what would happen.
We also wanted to see if reinforcements would come from the neighboring province of Nagouri.
A siege is a tactic that assumes reinforcements will come from somewhere. Simply defending the castle is never enough to win the war.
According to the intelligence report, there would be no immediate reinforcements from Nagouri. They must have thought that it would be impossible to prevent us from unifying the province.
As we slowly closed the siege, the enemy eventually expressed their willingness to surrender under certain conditions.
"If your family surrenders, we will spare your men''s lives.
When I told this to the enemy''s messenger, the other side seemed to accept, and his family left the castle and came to us.
With this, my unification of Fordonia is complete.
Next, it is my turn to attack the province of Nagouri in the north.