Chapter 287: Secret Agents and Nails
At this time, the city of Toba had hung a flag with intricate patterns. The pattern of the flag was light yellow smoke extending outward from the void, generally showing a chaotic state of light and darkness interweaving.
That was the banner of the Knights of the Dusk, from Alistair.
Leon's main force had left Toba City and headed towards Mount Ghazi, but he left Alistair here, along with Eric and several hundred of his most loyal non-commissioned officers.
Competent and loyal people always have to take on more difficult tasks...
Of course, it is dangerous to stay in Toba City. If something unexpected happens, you may not be able to escape from the 800-mile desert.
But Eric volunteered to be the last one to come. Although he was not very good at martial arts, he was smart and brave enough.
This guy who rose all the way from a mercenary to an archon is a natural player in big situations. He will never panic under any circumstances - this is the most important quality for people who do big things.
"Sir Eric, I've been ordered to report to you! Are you sure you want to evacuate here?"
A knight came riding from the north with about thirty cavalrymen, and as soon as he arrived at the military camp, he came to report to Eric.
Eric can indeed be called a knight now. He is an official knight under Leon and has always held important positions. In fact, Leon can even get him the title of baron, but Eric is unwilling to do so.
Because the barons of the Kingdom of Sarleon must swear allegiance to the king and be granted the title directly by the king.
But Eric believed that everything he had now came from the lord, and he did not intend to serve anyone other than Leon.
For most warriors in Sarleon, this is the embodiment of chivalry, which is "sole loyalty" - only being loyal to the lord you swear to follow, and as for the king... may he live long.
"We are evacuating D'Shar... Eren, withdraw all your men back to Sarleon. Your mission has been completed. This is the reward that Lord Leon left for you."
Eric handed the knight a purse.
The knight named Eren had a scar on his nose. He was a subordinate of Fothert, and the scout captain who was sent by Leon to patrol thirty miles north of Toba City.
"Sir Eric, I haven't accomplished anything yet. Lord Leon, do you want to withdraw the entire army back to Sarleon?"
Ai Lian took the bag of money, but just hung it around his waist without even counting it: "I have been spying on the military situation in the north of Toba City, but I have never found anything unusual - for a scout, no abnormality means no credit..."
It seems that although Leon has always been fair in evaluating military merits and has not forgotten him when distributing rewards, Eren still wants to achieve more military merits.
"Eren, you probably don't know Lord Leon very well... His order is to let me take charge of logistics, and all the troops except me must withdraw to Sarleon. From what I know about him, there should be no more battles to fight here..."
Eric shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly: "I'm not good at fighting, so Lord Leon usually doesn't let me participate in difficult battles...Toba City has now been occupied by the Dusk Knights and Bridge. Alistair is not easy to deal with, so Lord Leon decided to quit while he can."
Eric was obviously fooling around, but Eren never knew the exact situation of the battle, and the flag of the Twilight Knights was indeed on the castle...
"Aren't you going to capture Toba City? Sigh... Before the expedition, Lord Fothert asked me to work harder in front of Lord Leon... But I haven't participated in the battle until now, and my sword hasn't even been stained with blood..."
Eren sighed, "I don't know how to explain this to Master Fothert when I get back."
"Ha, Lord Leon never cares whether you have killed a general and captured a flag. He only cares whether you have obeyed his orders 100%. As long as you follow his orders, you will be rewarded regardless of whether you have fought a battle or not. Don't worry, retreat. You will definitely get a share of the credit!"
Eric patted Eren on the shoulder and said, "Besides, there's no point in attacking Toba City anymore. All the treasures in the city have been taken out."
"Then... I'll go catch up with the main force. Has Lord Li Ang led the main force to the direction of Mount Gazi? I don't know if there will be any battles to fight along the way. I have to get some credit!"
Eren looked loyal and only wanted to achieve success.
Eric smiled and said, "The main force will definitely not move as fast as you. I know you want to stay with Lord Leon, so go ahead."
"Thank you for your advice, goodbye!"
Eren nodded and saluted, then left with his cavalry.
Eric looked at Eren's back and frowned.
Not until Eren disappeared from his sight did he turn his head and ask in the dark: "Are you sure he is really one of the Three Prophets? He is Fothert's subordinate, don't make a mistake..."
"No doubt about it... This Eren is the Baron of Trubrun who was killed by Fothert. He is the 'Captain' - he should have died in Trubrun a long time ago. I have seen his corpse, and he also has this scar on his nose!"
A tall, thin middle-aged man walked out of the darkness.
This is Gronlon.
Granlong is now the lord of Payne Village. Ever since he was cleared of treason with the help of Leon, he has been keeping a low profile, as if he had disappeared.
But how could a man like Li Ang let his employees sit idle?
Fother had been used by the Lord to take the blame and act as a thug, and Granlong was no exception...
It’s just that Fotherg is the butcher in the open, while Granlong is the hound hiding in the dark.
They are all used to do dirty work.
Fothert did need to guard the town house in Changhe Town, but Granlon actually came to Desha with the army, but he didn't bring any troops with him.
This former flag bearer of the First Flag Guard of Lion Lake City is now Leon's secret agent, and Eric is his contact.
Fothert's fiefdom was in the eastern region, and he was considered a subordinate of Leon. But Granlon's Payne was in the Beibu Gulf, so he could only be a covert agent.
It was just like the 'Viper' secret agent unit under Governor Justus , except that Leon did not deliberately organize a unit, but let Granlong perform his mission 'inadvertently'.
The most important thing for a secret agent is to avoid revealing his identity. Having a group of specially trained dead-faced people as secret agents is actually more likely to reveal one's identity. It would be better to let a lord be a secret agent directly, which is less likely to be discovered.
Moreover, it seems that Lord Granlong, the Payne, has nothing to do with Leon...
In fact, Leon did not forget what Fother said. When cleaning up the Changhe Town area, he killed a baron nicknamed "Captain" in Trubrun, and he was a Lion Knight under Brunus.
Although Leon told Fothert at the time that he was "not interested in knowing the name of a dead man", how could he really not care about killing a Royal Knight?
Since then, Leon had arranged for Granlong to conduct a secret investigation, but at that time he only found out that the "captain"'s name was Eren, and he was the Lord of Trubrun appointed when Malbert was the governor of Changhe Town.
The original 'Captain Eren' himself was nothing special, he was just very good at dealing with bandits, and the man was already dead, so Leon just asked Granlon to keep an eye on him to see if Brunus would do anything because of it.
But Brennus didn't react, so the matter came to an end.
When the army was dispatched this time, Leon also had to guard against secret infiltration, so he asked Granlong to find the spy specifically - there would definitely be spy, especially when the army was recruited, it was impossible not to have spies.
This time, Granlon found a very special nail - this Eren, who is very likely one of the Three Prophets.
From the beginning, Leon had been suspicious of Eren, and even deliberately sent him to patrol the desert thirty miles outside Toba City, just because Granlon suspected that Eren was a traitor...
But at that time it was just a suspicion, and I hadn't figured out what this Eren was all about.
Afterwards, Leon added Malbert to his list of major clients and began to have people collect all information related to Malbert. Only then did he truly notice Eren's peculiarity.
This Eren was originally the Lord of Trubrun appointed by Malbert, but he is supposedly dead!
But now he has come back to life and has become Fawcett's subordinate - both of these are very special.
His resurrection from the dead means that he is most likely one of the Three Prophets;
He was once killed by Fawcett, and Fawcett must have recognized him, but he became Fawcett's subordinate, which means that Fawcett was probably also controlled by the Three Prophets!
"This Eren is obsessed with finding out the whereabouts of Lord Leon... but he certainly can't imagine that Lord Leon is not in the main force at all."
Eric sighed, "But if he is from the Three Prophets, then Fotherg... is he too?"
"I'm afraid... yes."
Granlon also sighed: "Fothert said he had killed Eren, but he took Eren as his subordinate. This doesn't make sense..."
“That’s not right…”
Eric shook his head. "I think if there is something wrong , he shouldn't be so stupid as to send Eren out to accompany the army. Doesn't he know that this will make Lord Leon suspicious of him?"
"Maybe Fotherg doesn't think Lord Leon knows Eren." Granlon frowned. "Forget it, we just need to report the situation to Lord Leon and let Lord Leon make the judgment. Anyway, I am sure that Eren must be one of the Three Prophets. As long as he reports the situation to the Three Prophets, it will be fine."
Eric shook his head in thought, muttering, "How could someone like Fothergill make such a mistake? Unless... that's not Fothergill anymore!"
Granlong was horrified: "It's possible!"
"But Lord Leon is probably still on his way here from Singar...Gronlon, you must return to Sarleon immediately and find Miss Amy!"
Eric quickly led a few horses out of the stable: "Tell Miss Amy about this, she knows what to do! I'll wait for Lord Leon here."
…
A few days later, Leon returned to the outskirts of Toba City again.
He came with Emile Xerxes to 'deliver'...
"Emir Khan Xerxes, I will not enter Toba. As you can see, the city is intact."
Leon brought Emil Xerxes to the outside of Toba and stopped: "Let's settle here."
Emile Xerxes looked up at the flag on Toba City and frowned: "Is that the flag of the Knights of Dusk?"
"Yes, Bridget must know that Sir Alistair of the Twilight Knights is now in Toba City... He is a free gift from me to you. I don't charge you for it."
Leon glanced at Bridget with a smile.
Bridge was stunned for a moment, then he sighed and said to Emile Xerxes: "Alistair was captured by Count Leon in Toba...I saw it with my own eyes."
"Since you have captured Alistair, why is the city still flying his banner?"
Emile Xerxes felt somewhat puzzled.
"If the city is flying my flag, how can I hand over Toba to you? I am the Marshal of Sarleon. If my flag is hung on the city, it means Sarleon has officially occupied this place - and then I sell the occupied city to you without the king's knowledge? Then can I still go back to Sarleon?"
Li Ang said as if it was a matter of course: "Besides, if you really fly my flag, who would dare to enter the city?"
Emile Xerxes and Bridge looked at each other and pouted. They probably both felt it was strange, but when they thought about it carefully, what Leon said was right...
"In that case... Bridge, go take a look around the city."
Emile Xerxes did not hesitate and prepared to inspect the goods.
There would certainly be no problem with the goods. Soon after, the crescent flag of Emile Xerxes was raised in the city, and a ragtag army of nearly a thousand men also entered the city of Toba. They were the rebels brought by Emile Xerxes and Bridget.
The emblem of the current Bahad Khan Kadan is the shining sun, while the emblem of Emir Xerxes is the crescent moon. The two brothers are clearly in opposition...
Eric withdrew from Toba with his non-commissioned officer corps, handing over control of several city gates to Bridge's troops.
"So... Count Leon, how do you plan to help me get the title of Bahad Khan?"
When Emir
"Ha, you have to settle this payment first, Emir Khan..."
Li Ang began to ask for money: "We agreed that we would pay for the goods. So far, you have only paid half. There is still one million left. We can only proceed to the next business after we settle the balance."
Emir Xerxes had already paid one million dinars at Sinjar, which was gold worth four hundred thousand, plus a mine worth six hundred thousand.
The mine was originally used for the auction of Ashcoman. It was an open-pit iron mine located east of Yaxing Village.
Of course, it was not convenient for Leon himself to mine this iron mine, but Ramon was happy to take on the job - Ramon was originally looking for industries other than the slave trade.
Moreover, Ramon subcontracted the operating rights of the iron ore to several slave owners within one day. For this industry that required a large number of slaves to work, Ramon knew countless subcontractors.
So it was actually Ramon who finally got the mine, but he would directly provide Leon with a steady supply of iron ore.
The remaining balance of one million from Emile Xerxes was supposed to be paid when the city of Toba was delivered.
"Count Leon, where are your troops?"
This question suddenly popped up in Emile Xerxes' mind.
"It's thirty miles to the northeast. Don't worry, I'm honest in my business and I won't rob you. I only have a few hundred people around me now. You can't deal with me, and I can't ..."
Leon looked at Emile Xerxes, shook his head and smiled: "But if you don't plan to pay, I can also recall the army and recapture Toba City..."
