novelraw Chapter 132: Demarcation
Chapter 132: Demarcation
Ch 132: Demarcation
In mid-June, Vig’s envoy escorted two raiders to Londinium, requesting an audience with the King.
Learning of Tyne’s attack by five hundred raiders, Ragnar interrupted the envoy’s statement, saying in an unquestionable tone:
“This ends now! Tell Vig that I will deal with Eric next.”
In Ragnar’s view, as the conflict between the two sides escalated, the cause of the matter no longer mattered. Currently, the domestic situation was unstable, some nobles were disloyal, and it was not suitable to go to war with Norway; the dispute could only be resolved peacefully.
“Ulf, you go to Oslo and tell Eric to control his people. Britain and Norway have plenty of land; there’s no need to fight over a barren island.”
“Me?”
Ulf had only come to hand over warhorses and just happened to catch this mess; he reluctantly agreed.
Soon, Ragnar had Pascal draft a royal decree, sealed it, and gave it to Ulf. “King Eric is considered my ally. Be mindful of your attitude; don’t be too ostentatious.”
“Yes, sir.” At this time, Queen Sola on the right had something to say. Ragnar gestured for her to be quiet to prevent disturbing his thoughts.
“Vig attacked Bergen across the sea and won a great victory. Conversely, the Lord of Bergen incited raiders to attack Tyne and suffered a crushing defeat. Why is that?”
He first considered the number of people. Vig brought a thousand men, while the Lord of Bergen only brought five hundred.
The former won, the latter lost. Was the Lord of Bergen’s defeat due to having too few men?
The next moment, Ragnar rejected this conclusion.
As an experienced legendary pirate, in his opinion, the most important thing in a raid is speed. If the Lord of Bergen recruited more raiders, the longer the delay, the easier it would be to leak the news, causing Tyne to prepare in advance, and thus losing the element of surprise in the attack.
“Therefore, the key to Vig’s victory lies in his standing army. Once this guy made up his mind, he could immediately gather troops and attack Bergen, catching Lord Ohr off guard.”
Ragnar picked up his empty goblet, and Aslaug hurriedly refilled it with honey wine.
The sweet, cool wine flowed down his throat, and Ragnar’s mind raced. He beckoned Pascal and whispered a question to the Prime Minister:
“What is the projected fiscal surplus this year?”
“It’s hard to say, maybe between 500 and 1000 pounds.”
Enough.
Ragnar put down his goblet and announced the formation of a new Imperial Guard, consisting of an estimated seventeen hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry.
If a rebellion broke out somewhere, Ragnar would not need to wait for other nobles to arrive and muster; upon receiving news, he would quickly deploy the Imperial Guard and suppress the rebellion before it spread.
In addition, he also planned to build a fleet to patrol the English Channel, to purge pirates, and to prevent Francia from attacking across the sea.
“Are you sure?” Pascal warned. “If all the surplus is used up, what if there’s another emergency?”
“Tax increase!” Ragnar cleared his throat and issued a new decree:
From this day forward, customs would be established in Dover, Kent. Importing warhorses would require payment of a sixty pence tariff, and various products sold to the continent would also be taxed.
Pascal looked up at the King and found that he was resolute. Helpless, he drafted the decree.
After finishing, he handed the parchment to Ragnar for his seal, filled with worry: “Is it worthwhile to levy taxes to form this Imperial Guard at the cost of lowering the favorability of all the nobles?”
Ten days later, the carrack carrying Ulf arrived in Oslo, and he delivered the royal decree to Eric.
In the letter, Ragnar suggested that both sides acknowledge the status quo; there was no need to provoke a war between the two countries over a broken island. It would be better to focus on domestic affairs.
After reading the royal decree, Eric muttered:
“Domestic affairs? The population of Northern Europe has been dwindling. In the past, peasants fought over cultivated land; now, large areas of farmland in the countryside are uncultivated, and farmhouses have become habitats for wild beasts. If Ragnar were to handle this, I’m afraid he wouldn’t be able to come up with any other method.”
Although he didn’t have the exact figures, Eric understood that Norway’s taxes and population were far lower than those of the Kingdom of Britain. If a full-scale war were to break out, he wouldn’t even be able to conquer Tyne.
With no choice, he had to sacrifice some face and announced the settlement of the dispute:
The two countries would cease hostilities, restrain their vassals, and the border would be restored to its pre-war state.
Given that Lord Ohr of Bergen had disappeared, Eric dispatched Prince Young Eric to “temporarily” take over Bergen. Ten years later, Bergen would be returned to Ohr’s heir.
With King Eric’s rambling, the Shetland Islands dispute was declared ended.
Overall, Eric lost face but gained benefits. He got rid of a powerful vassal who liked to oppose him and took over Bergen, the second-largest settlement. The royal family’s annual income increased by three hundred pounds, making it the biggest beneficiary of this dispute.
Vig went to great lengths to obtain a barren archipelago with a total area of fifteen hundred square kilometers, and there was almost no profit to be seen.
The only one who suffered a loss was Lord Ohr. Not only did he lose his life（ afterwards, Vig learned the news and swore that he had not killed Lord Ohr ）; at the same time, his family also lost control of Bergen.
Although King Eric announced that Bergen’s rule would be transferred to Ohr’s heir upon his coming of age, smart people knew that this was just an empty promise. Ten years is too long; who knows what “convenient” accident might happen, and Bergen could completely become a directly governed territory of the royal family.
Having reached a treaty, King Eric held a banquet to entertain Ulf. The main dishes were honey wine, roast pig, and cheese, traditional dishes; unfortunately, the latter showed no interest.
Since being transferred to Kent, Ulf’s standard of living had suddenly improved. Kent, as a trade transit point between Britain and the continent, provided him with huge profits, with luxury goods such as wine, cinnamon, cloves, pepper, truffles, and sugar readily available.
Six months ago, he had hired several Frankish cooks. Including the existing Norse and Anglo-Saxon cooks, his palate had become extremely refined, and he did not appreciate these crude country foods.
Out of respect for his master, Ulf forked a pork chop, symbolically chewed it twice, and swallowed it down with honey wine.
“Country folk’s skills are really poor. The spices on the roast pig’s surface haven’t permeated the inside at all; the pigskin is burnt, but the pork inside is still a little raw and smells of blood.
Eric is really pitiful. As King of Norway, his life is still worse than that of an ordinary West Francia lord. No wonder Vikings always want to move to Britain and West Francia. Tsk tsk, life in Northern Europe is simply unbearable.”
It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but difficult to go from luxury to frugality.
At this time, Ulf gradually accepted his new lifestyle, and most of his colleagues were in the same situation. Ragnar wanted to dissuade them, but ultimately did not act, because his life was the most luxurious.