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Chapter 530 The Struggle for Spoils of War

?Tension gripped the four individuals.

Perched upon the highlands, Resarite held command as the overarching strategist.

Nearby, Milan and Venice\'s Governors, inexperienced in the art of war, stood merely as spectators.

Clad in a shimmering silver armor, Nora, astride her horse, gripped her lance firmly.

The stirrups clanged with each movement, a testament to her readiness.

Alongside her in the valley, waiting for the signal to charge, was Marquis Rolf.

Unlike those driven by cowardice or fear, the Marquis was a feudal noble with a sharp business acumen, fully aware of his stance and status in the heat of battle.

His white steed, restless, repeatedly scraped the hard ground with its hooves, mirroring the Marquis\'s own anxiety.

He frequently questioned Nora about when they would attack.

Nora\'s response was always the same: they awaited Resarite\'s command, for he was the true commander of the battlefield.

Marquis Rolf scoffed at this, "Aren\'t you a princess? If you can\'t even hold military authority in battle, how will you control your generals when you ascend to the throne?"

Nora\'s reply was cold and stern, "We wait for orders. Avoid needless agitation."

Rolf, disdain evident, subtly tightened the reins of his horse, which quietly stepped in a direction opposite to Nora.

His mindset was not that of a professional soldier like those from Brandenburg.

In his traditional feudal view, since everyone was fighting for Nora, her relinquishing of military command was her own affair.

However, if Nora herself was commanded by military authority, it reflected her incompetence and weakness.

In Rolf\'s eyes, such a person was unfit for the throne.

This marked the beginning of a rift between him and Nora.

When Resarite finally issued the command, Nora and Rolf galloped forth, followed by a stream of musketeers, heavy infantry, and Chain Armor guards.

At that moment, the balance of the battlefield shifted decisively in favor of Howard\'s forces.

In the aftermath of the battle, a resounding victory was achieved with the complete annihilation of the enemy forces.

Anna played no small part in this triumph.

In the final moments of the conflict, she bore the critical responsibility of controlling the northern passage, a task fraught with immense pressure.

Anthony, leading his heavy cavalry, was intent on tearing Anna\'s forces to shreds.

Meanwhile, Fransi and others, seizing the opportune moment, were quietly preparing to break through from the side.

Though Anna\'s command was primarily light cavalry, a significant portion comprised her own troops and those loyal to Howard.

Anna had always been meticulous about the equipment of her forces.

Her light cavalry was notably well-equipped, reflecting her attention to military upgrades.

Similarly, Howard\'s direct light cavalry units were also well-equipped, indicating his deep concern for his army\'s armaments.

This trend was evident in most of their allied forces.

However, the light cavalry from the commercial republics, Savoy, Oli, and Marquis Rolf\'s contingents, presented a varied picture.

The commercial republics, despite their wealth, had only a handful of light cavalry with generally mediocre equipment, contributing minimally to the battle effort.

Savoy, being a mountainous nation, had never emphasized cavalry strength, despite its status as a duchy.

The infrequency of cavalry use led to a certain neglect in this area.

For this war, a conscription order was issued, gathering knights and cavalry from within the domain.

This effort barely assembled a dozen knights and about a hundred cavalrymen.

Excluding the less than ten heavy cavalry, the rest were light cavalry, but their equipment was appallingly inferior.

Although classified as cavalry, many lacked even decent leather armor, let alone chainmail or lamellar armor.

The Kingdom of Oli was ensnared in a significant national stability crisis, with their already limited funds further strained due to their inability to open new trade routes.

This economic pressure was evident in the poor equipment of their light cavalry, where only about half of the soldiers had chainmail.

Marquis Rolf\'s light cavalry fared somewhat better, yet their gear still fell short of the quality found among Lord Howard\'s cavalry, although they were numerically stronger.

Anna nearly reached her limit holding the northern road.

Fortuitously, at this crucial juncture, Kaido, Boshni, and Alonso emerged from the depths.

Whether dismounted with broadswords in hand or mounted with lances, they led a specially assembled, dense troop formation to reinforce the northern path, joining Anna in blockading the route.

Howard, Bosiden, Vettel, and the Duke of Savoy led all the heavy cavalry in a fierce charge, delivering devastating blows to the enemy.

Following this, Nora and Marquis Rolf\'s infantry, advancing from east to west, encircled and engaged the enemy\'s remaining northern forces, achieving a complete rout.

The tactics were all orchestrated by Resarite.

Howard, to avoid arousing suspicion among other lords, deliberately refrained from commenting, maintaining a semblance of impartiality to reassure them.

Personally, Howard believed that simply defeating the enemy forces was sufficient; there was no need for a relentless pursuit to the bitter end.

However, Resarite seemed to embody a certain Brandenburg-

like ruthlessness, arguing that they must seize this rare opportunity for total annihilation.

He insisted that if the remaining enemy troops were allowed to escape and regroup with another division, the allied forces of the nobles might find themselves overpowered again.

This chance, he argued, could not be squandered.

Nora supported Resarite\'s view.

Howard, after a glance at Nora, held his peace, acquiescing to the strategy.

The battle in the valley had ended.

Soldiers busied themselves cleaning up the battlefield, performing their duties, while Howard scarcely glanced their way.

His indifference was not born from disdain, now that he had risen in status, towards those who needed to plunder from battle to upgrade their equipment.

Rather, Howard had more pressing matters to attend to.

Securing spoils of war did not necessarily mean discarding inferior gear in favor of superior armaments.

If one\'s own equipment surpassed that of the enemy\'s, there was no need for exchange.

What to do with these spoils varied from person to person.

Some thought of selling them to merchants in exchange for money, enough to provide a lavish meal for their families.

Others contemplated taking them home, gifting the gear to their children to encourage early training in martial arts, better preparing them for self-defense in the future.

Then there were those who were neither in a hurry to sell nor to give away the equipment, but rather held the intention of storing it at home.

Armor, helmets, weapons, and greaves weren\'t always at their highest market value in normal times, nor even during the throes of intense warfare.

Their value peaked during the initial stages of war when nobles scrambled to purchase equipment from the market for their soldiers.

Vettel was particularly attentive to this matter, and so were the governors from various commercial republics.

They were all looking for the profits these equipments could bring.

The Governor of Venice, pushing aside blood-soaked soldiers with eyes gleaming with avarice, bent down to scrutinize the array of equipment laid out on the ground.

He pondered over how to convince these simple-minded fighters, who knew only of battle cries and combat, to part with a greater share of the spoils.

In doing so, he could line his own pockets with the proceeds from their sale.

The Duke of Savoy watched the Governor of Venice with a feeling of discomfort, and finally spoke up, "Why are you looking so shifty? Can\'t you act decently?"

The Governor of Venice, thinking he had misheard, straightened up in surprise and responded, "What? What are you talking about?"

The Duke of Savoy narrowed his eyes, regarding the Governor of Venice as one might a rat.

Shaking his head, he asked, "Are you in need of money?"

Standing tall, the Governor of Venice replied, "No, not at all."

"Then why are you eyeing those equipments so intently?" inquired the Duke of Savoy.

The soldiers around, who had been silently seething with anger, felt a sense of vindication seeing the Duke speak up for them.

Not all of them were under Venice\'s command, so the Duke\'s intervention emboldened them to voice their disapproval of the Governor.

They used what they deemed their most polite language, yet it still conveyed their discontent to the Governor of Venice.

The Governor felt his face grow warm with a mix of embarrassment and irritation.

By the time Howard and Nora arrived, the Governor of Venice and the Duke of Savoy were on the verge of a confrontation.

The Governor of Venice defended himself, insisting he had no intention of coveting the spoils of war and was merely looking.

He accused the Duke of Savoy of being suspicious without cause.

The Duke of Savoy, however, remained adamant in his belief that the Governor harbored ill intentions, accusing him of wanting to plunder from the warriors who had fought valiantly, branding him as a person devoid of honor.

Howard and Nora were not present when the incident occurred.

As such, it was challenging for them to discern which party was in the right.

However, Howard was astute in his approach.

He questioned the Governor of Venice, "Where were you during our battle against Castile?"

"I was supervising the artillery on the high ground," the Governor of Venice replied.

This statement was met with a chorus of jeers from the soldiers.