Seize power

It turns out that for most castles, as long as the people inside work together and defend earnestly, external enemies find it very difficult to conquer them. Especially in the absence of siege weapons.

Don't underestimate even a single ladder; it's hard for an ordinary knight to produce a qualified one.

Therefore, Jeffrey coveted territory and hoped Henrik would help him conquer a few castles to earn some credit. Although he was described as a Chivalrous Bandit by the system, that was just a background story. The real Jeffrey was merely a famous brigand knight who organized the Chivalrous Bandits.

In reality, he was still a landless brigand knight.

For Henrik, his life was no different from Jeffrey's.

"Alright, it's a deal. But you must share some of the credit with me."

Jeffrey nodded in agreement.

So, the two brigand knights each led their men, pretending to be a routed regular army, and headed to the nearby castles for assistance.

Unfortunately, Jeffrey's plan failed as the nearby knights weren't that foolish. Although Jeffrey and Henrik's brigands pretended to be regular troops, their rogue aura was unmistakable. The garrison on the castle walls wasn't foolish; they could smell the brigands from a distance. Naturally, they refused them either openly or secretly, and some even shot arrows to prevent the brigands from approaching.

Most of the nearby castles were under Schmalen's authority. Their main pillar was still fighting on the battlefield. But at the moment, a group of brigands claimed that "our army was defeated." This naturally make the people inside the castles suspicious and refuse to open the gates, even summoning nearby farmers to seek refuge inside the castle.

Not only did Jeffrey fail to capture any castles, but he also brought trouble upon himself.

Those castles in strategic locations lit fires to warn their allies to be cautious of brigands. Consequently, if Damian's army continued to advance, they would face a land full of thorny castles.

...

On the other side, Damian encountered numerous troubles as well.

Besides those from the defeated and captured Schmalen forces, there were many defeated and captured knights.

Knights typically do not die on the battlefield, as even peasants know that knights generally pay a hefty ransom.

So these knights gathered in the prisoner tents, clamoring for Damian to provide better treatment, or they would go to the church to denounce Damian's dark rule.

Of course, this was a joke.

But providing prisoners with qualified services turned out to be a moral principle. It made it seem like they were Damian's superiors.

Although such qualified services are obtained through paying a large sum of money, for the knights, this is an indispensable form of dignified treatment. Otherwise, how would they differ from ordinary captives?

The final pressure came from the army itself.

After defeating Schmalen, the entire army clamored for Damian to quickly distribute the promised bonuses.

This led to two issues.

First, Damian still needed the army's initiative. In other words, a group of well-fed dogs wouldn't bite; they needed to stay hungry, turning into wolves.

Second, the army's clamor inevitably damaged Damian's prestige. If this issue wasn't resolved now, it would be difficult to re-establish authority later. Not to mention, there were still a group of knights nearby eyeing for power, hoping to seize his command at the first opportunity.

But ultimately, it was Damian's own problem.

In a normal war, would you spend a hundred gold coins to reward the army?

No. Because even if you win, you must end up losing money.

Damian urgently needed to mobilize the army's combat power, so he broke this rule. And now, breaking the rule has brought its consequences.

He must quickly come up with a reliable plan that would maintain his dignity while continuing to motivate the army to fight.

So... what should I do?

Damian was thinking about a strategy in the camp, while Jeffrey and Henrik returned with dejected expressions.

They had expected severe punishment for their foolish actions, but Damian, upon hearing what happened, suddenly thought of something and was very pleased.

He immediately had someone "accidentally" spread the word that the enemy's resistance was so fierce that the vanguard didn't manage to seize a single grain.

This news greatly disappointed many farmers who had suffered significant losses during the summer civil war and were hoping to gain food from their neighbors in this war.

In medieval warfare, often when both armies couldn't conquer each other's castles, the conflict would turn into a war of attrition where they would steal each other's wheat to undermine the opponent's economic capabilities.

Objectively speaking, in the medieval era with extremely low food production, such a brutal method was necessary to balance the dynamic gap between population and food supply.

In this way, the army was stabilized for the moment.

However, morale was declining, and the soldiers hoped that Damian would distribute the rewards soon so they could use the money to buy enough food.

At this moment, Damian hurriedly implemented a second plan.

"What? The bonuses will be replaced with food first?"

The militiamen gathered in front of the herald, expressing their surprise and delight.

In modern times, anyone suggesting replacing wages with food would likely be sued. But in ancient times, especially in rural areas where money couldn't be easily spent, food was more important than money.

"And an extra thirty percent more food when exchanged?"

The militiamen were overjoyed and wanted to show their gratitude to Damian.

Then someone informed them, "When the army returns, they will rest in the Free City of Gothingen, where a trade fair will be held, and merchants will assist in exchanging various currencies and food."

In no time, the militiamen forgot all their previous discontent.

With these three strategies, Damian successfully stabilized the army's morale.

But for the knights, he used a different approach.

He summoned the knights with military achievements to the camp and told them, "You are all knights and nobles, so I can prioritize giving the money to you."

The knights, upon hearing this, happily accepted.

However, this matter inexplicably spread.

The rumor quickly evolved into "the knights took all the rewards, forcing Commander Damian to use his own money to distribute food at the market."

With certain individuals fanning the flames, the rumor escalated, leading Damian to face the private soldiers of the knights for the first time.

Many soldiers and militiamen of them have believed the rumor and came to join him.

At this point, Damian finally succeeded in gaining command over all three armies, bringing the left and right wing troops under his control as well.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Damian opened the military storage and distributed half of the food to the farmers, secretly confirming the rumors that the knights had taken all the rewards.

The knights could not have imagined that Damian would use this incident to strategically seize their troops.

They were still mocking this fool for actually distributing money.

After all, medieval nobles had a notoriously poor reputation for distributing rewards, failing to fulfill their promises has almost become the norm.

But what does it have to do with Damian, who comes from a modern society?