Viking: Master of the Icy Sea

Chapter 243: Conspiracy

Sensing the young man's fear and helplessness, Edmund secretly rejoiced, though his expression remained solemn.

"Our two families lack the King's trust and our power is meager, making us prime targets for him to eliminate. We can only take a risk and fight back."

Learning that they were going to war with the Snake of the North, Buden panicked even more. "When it comes to marching and fighting, how can we compare to Wigg Teyne?"

Edmund slowly shook his head. "It is not just us. Duke Imon of Ireland is of Ragnar's direct bloodline; surely he is very interested in the throne of Londinium. Gunnar has Princess Enya, or rather Queen Enya, and also intends to invade Britain. Furthermore, the Flemish merchants have suffered heavy losses. To reclaim the textile market, they will also dispatch troops."

Hearing Gunnar's name, Buden's panic slightly lessened. The Frankish cavalry's combat strength was formidable, enough to rival the King's standing army and the Royal Guard.

"When do we take action?"

Edmund took out paper and pen. "Wigg could strike at any moment. The sooner, the better, of course."

After writing a letter to the town of Bruges, Edmund stamped his seal at the end. Noticing Buden's slight hesitation, he almost forcefully grabbed the other man's left hand and stamped his seal on the letter as well.

Next were letters addressed to Gunnar and Imon. Edmund continued to have Buden stamp his seal, afraid the man might suspect him. Edmund handed the final letter to Buden.

"I have a distant relationship with Ivar and Imon. You must find someone to deliver this letter, and make it quick."At this moment, Buden had still not recovered his wits. He stared at the two seals at the end of the letter, completely at a loss for a time.

'I merely embezzled a thousand pounds of wealth. How did I end up raising an army in rebellion?'

Seeing his colleague's foolish appearance, Edmund worried that he might back out at any moment and immediately found an excuse to leave. "I will have men head to Flanders and Normandy right now. You must also hurry."

Outside the courtyard, Edmund vaulted into the saddle and charged out of the village at an almost sprinting pace. Gazing at the man's gradually receding back, Buden's mind violently shook.

'Not good, it seems I have been played.'

That batch of wealth was hidden in Scunthorpe, equivalent to his own spoils of war. Even if the matter of hoarding the treasure were exposed, the King would at most reprimand him and order him to hand over the money. It was impossible for the King to risk offending all the great nobles by forcibly stripping him of his title.

An unknown amount of time passed before Buden finally figured everything out, but it was already too late.

Returning to his territory, Edmund dispatched men to contact Gunnar and the towns of Flanders.

Soon, the envoy sent to Flanders returned, claiming that the group of textile merchants had a strong reaction. To defend the existing commercial order, they were willing to provide four thousand men. Most were untrained commoners with weak land combat capabilities.

However, the merchants could also hire cavalry to join the battle, such as the second sons and illegitimate children of knights. As long as they were willing to spend the money, scraping together several hundred cavalrymen would not be a problem.

"Four thousand men. Counting my conscripted militia and that boy Buden's, we can muster at least six thousand. That is enough to cause quite a stir."

A few days later, an envoy brought back news from Gunnar. The Viking traitor's ambition was still burning hot. As long as civil war broke out in Britain, he would immediately persuade the Frankish King to mass his forces, projecting to dispatch troops within two months.

Despite persuading Normandy and Flanders, Edmund's heart remained uneasy. Before long, Buden sent word that he had convinced Imon to go to war. However, the latter deeply hated Gunnar's betrayal; even if they defeated Wigg, subsequent conflicts would be unavoidable. "Never mind that. We just need to survive this immediate hurdle first."

The winter winds and waves of the North Sea were fierce, preventing the forces from Flanders, Normandy, and Ireland from crossing the sea. Edmund's greatest fear was that the conspiracy would be leaked. He went to the church to pray almost every day, begging that Wigg would not discover his secret plot.

Amidst his fears, time gradually slipped away. The King and the Cabinet focused their energy mainly on surveying the fields of the five counties and dismissing unqualified officials, completely oblivious to the impending rebellion.

The Royal Palace, Cabinet meeting room.

At this moment, a large stack of parchment booklets was piled on the conference table. Gorm took out the master ledger on top and reported the results of their half-year-long work to the King and his colleagues.

Despite encountering numerous setbacks, the Cabinet still managed to obtain detailed statistical data covering the population, acreage, and wealth possessed by the residents of the five counties.

Looking at the dense handwriting, Gorm felt a sincere sense of exhaustion and relief. During the old dynasty, his work had only one focus: satisfying the various needs of the royal family. Often, he was responsible for amassing wealth, and then the Palace Steward was responsible for keeping the royals happy. In name, he was the Prime Minister, but in reality, he was no different from a domestic slave.

After the new King ascended the throne, his rigorous and meticulous nature caused the Cabinet's workload to surge abruptly. However, Gorm preferred this current state of affairs rather than willingly degrading himself to wallow in the mire with a sycophantic eunuch like Paffis.

Clearing his throat, he read aloud the various statistics. "...In summary, the five counties have three hundred and twenty-two thousand, three hundred and five permanent residents, comprising sixty-two thousand households."

After the Prime Minister finished his report, Wigg silently calculated his own assets: the five counties held a population of three hundred and twenty thousand, while Tyne County and the Northern Marches held three hundred and thirty thousand, totaling six hundred and fifty thousand.

Simply looking at the numbers, the six hundred and fifty thousand population in his directly governed territories was not vastly different from Ireland's five hundred thousand.

However, upon closer inspection, the vast majority of the subjects under Ivar and Imon were locals. Due to their chaotic and disorderly management, the Irish had an extremely low level of approval for the Duke. The only forces they could truly rely on were forty thousand Viking immigrants.

In comparison, his direct territories boasted one hundred and forty thousand Viking immigrants. Furthermore, Queen Heregyth was an Angle, and the Crown Prince possessed half Angle blood, effectively boosting the Anglo-Saxon residents' approval of the Royal Family.

In addition, Wigg had imparted agricultural techniques free of charge back in the day, helping the Wales Region escape famine and drastically increasing the local residents' favorability toward him. Although the region did not pay direct agricultural taxes, they provided indirect commercial taxes and could supply high-quality longbowmen during wartime.

Then there were the Picts of the Northern Marches. After many years, they had grown accustomed to the rule of the Tynemouth family. They could provide taxes but were unsuitable as military recruits.

Finally, there were the Gaelic Clans of the highlands. They lived in bitter hardship and possessed fierce, fearless temperaments. Their hiring costs were low, making them excellent reserve troops.

Taking all factors into consideration, the Royal Family's strength was vastly superior to that of the domestic nobles.

The two remaining Dukes each had their own disadvantages. Imon was still young, and rebellions were frequent in his territory. Theowulf only controlled Oxfordshire; the rest of the regions, such as Worcester, Telford, and Chester, acted independently and refused to submit to the Duke's restrictions.

The Earls varied in strength. A few of the more powerful earldoms were roughly equivalent to one of Wigg's counties, so individually, they posed no threat. That was, unless Wigg enraged the nobility as a whole, triggering a large-scale rebellion.