Chapter 221: Planning for the 'Trade Protection'

"How long will that leave us to hire mercenaries and train our men?" Rhydian was rightly concerned. Their forces were not that great in number when put on the scale of nations. Even in a deeply fractured place like Shuluk there were going to be larger armies than Braydon could muster. Especially since this was meant to be kept as quiet as possible.

"Our first batch of ore should arrive in Narabun safely. I do not want Alima thinking I have gone back on my words and pulling strings against us. It will be ore from the second shipment that 'goes missing'. Considering the travel time, that should give us just under a month to prepare." Braydon did not want to rush now that things were slowly falling into place. As soon as the various lords and bandit groups in western Shuluk became aware of him building up his army, time would not be in his favour.

Braydon had not gained any land from the rewards that the King had given him and Fiveria was more peaceful than it had been in decades, there was no obvious reason for someone like him to be increasing his military power. The sooner that he alerted either his neighbours in Fiveria or Shuluk, the worse things would be for him. He wanted to act by surprise. Gathering an army under the nose of your neighbours was something that had to be done gradually.

"How much are we actually attempting to take? We do not want to overextend and lose everything." Nela Brought up perhaps the most important point. If they tried to take too much, they might get caught out of position or have themselves spread too thin to protect their gains.

"Rhydian, you might not have taken part in my father's disastrous defence but surely you should know of the more defensible locations in Shuluk." Braydon looked to Rhydian to suggest the best places to anchor themselves in the east of Shuluk. Nothing would be as good as the brimstone mountains but he wanted to expand beyond what he already had.

"The best physical barrier would have to be the White River that runs through Shuluk but that is too far out of reach from us. Not unless we gain the power to take more than half of the country. Other than that, there are a lot of highlands in Shuluk, a number of the castles in the east are very well placed for our needs. The problem would be taking them. Since we are talking about gaining the most defensive locations in the region, taking them in the first place will be hard." Rhydian was right, even if most of the battle ready men in Shuluk were not guarding castles in the east, it would not be easy to take a castle that was well placed.

"What would you suggest to get around that then?" Braydon did not doubt that Rhydian had already thought about this point.

"Since we want to focus on taking over the iron mines along the Brimstones, we do not have to go particularly deep into Shuluk. Essentially we want to protect the most area possible with the fewest castles necessary. It depends on how many of the mines we want to take." Rhydian replied. Not exactly the answer Braydon was expecting but it was true enough. The fewer castles they had to take, the more men they could devote to each one.

"Collin, do we have a map of Shuluk somewhere in the castle?" Braydon wanted to see where the mines were on the map. They would mostly be along the mountain side but they were by no means evenly distributed.

"I thought you would never ask, Sire." Collin Pulled a rather large scroll from seemingly thin air and laid it out across Braydon's desk.

"The most prominent mines are on here, the smaller mines are not shown however. Even if they were, I doubt the ones that were in use back when this was made are still functional. The prominent mines are still around though." Collin noted as the map unfurled. It was evidently a slightly older map, likely one from Braydon's grandfather's time. He doubted that his father would bother to have one made.

"And the territory boundaries are out of date." Rhydian mentioned when he looked at it. Not all that surprising considering that the map was made two generations ago. Nor all that important since Shuluk was in a state of civil war and they could assume all of the lords were enemies unless Alima Shuluk told him they were on her side.

"Most of the mines are to the north of us. We should focus there, all we would need is one castle to the south." Braydon noted when he looked at the map. There was still one large mine south of his territory but he would rather prioritise the larger prize.

"There are two good ones. Here and here." Rhydian pointed out the two closest castles to the south of Cliforge.

"Is that due to proximity or another reason?" Braydon asked.

"Mostly due to proximity. It would be bad if there was a castle that we did not control closer to Cliforge than our own. The highlands make moving quickly a challenge, so distance is everything if we need to defend." Rhydian nodded at Braydon's question. One of the two castles that he had pointed to was a bit further south than the other but closer to the mountains whilst the other was further from the mountains but slightly closer to Cliforge.

"Let's go with this one. It can protect a wider area even if it is a tiny bit harder to defend." Braydon pointed to the latter of the two. There was trying to take lands closer to the mountains and then there was hugging them. He wanted to at least have some room to move if his gambit was successful.

"Then we can focus on expanding as far north as we can. If we reach the Serheshi border, all the better." Rhydian agreed. And if they managed to reach the Serheshi border, that would be one less direction to defend from. He doubted very much that the Serheshi republic would take kindly to Shuluk nobles trying to move through their land to attack Braydon. Even less so when those lords were the rebels.