Warhammer Divine Throne

Chapter 1198: Chapter 519: A Lively Winter Festival (End)

The Winter Festival holiday lasts for two weeks, during which time the southern people of Brittania live in peace and prosperity. Against a backdrop of developed economy, thriving agriculture, and flourishing animal husbandry, the sharp conflict between the peasant class and the knight class has temporarily eased. With the threats of green skins, beastmen, and undead successively eliminated, many wastelands have been redeveloped, and many knights have started to form armies to claim new titles by developing the wasteland. They often bring along dwarfs, and the fixed tax has incentivized peasants to farm actively. The advancement of mining and metallurgy has brought better farming equipment, and affluent peasants are beginning to attain the status of free people. Everything is progressing in a positive direction.

Except for the Borelion Duchy, where Duke Theodoric’s ”sentence” has not ended, causing the entire duchy’s internal affairs to remain in chaos. The duchy’s knights have barely managed to expel Count Tobalo of Estalia and his army from Borelion, breathing a sigh of relief and preparing to rebuild their homes. They haven’t even noticed that Duke Theodoric’s most beloved granddaughter, Fiona, is missing.

On one evening during the holiday, Laine returned to the winery after visiting Surya. Since Francois was also spending the Winter Festival here this year, it was convenient for Laine to discuss many matters with Francois. The wealth of life experience and political acumen of his father-in-law has greatly benefited Laine.

At nightfall, the atmosphere on the third-floor terrace of the winery was pleasant. Everyone gathered around a round table to admire the snow. Francois, Mogiana, Jerald, Laine, and Veronica sat together, savoring dwarf Bagman beer and chatting about recent events.

Ollica handed a cup of hot beer to Mogiana.

Teresa and Aurora were busy wrapping up work at the Wizard Tower and intensively training the witch students. They do not rest even during the Winter Festival. On the other hand, Veronica, whose mana has been low recently, has been accompanying Laine.

”The scale of the recent rebellion in Leonais was really large, luckily Lorne suppressed it in time.” Laine said while filling a cup of hot beer for Veronica. He turned to Francois and continued: ”If it weren’t for Lorne defeating the rebellion army in the battle of Rein, the rebelling peasants might have gathered ten thousand people.”

”So what if they gather ten thousand people? Just a big mob.” Francois dismissed the thought, ”Lorne’s talent is indeed remarkable. Suppressing peasant rebellions is not a problem. The real issue is that suppressing the rebellion doesn’t fundamentally change the existing problems in Leonais. What Duke Aldred can do for now is to ensure that the remaining over a thousand knights maintain the security of Leonais Castle and its surrounding core areas. The north remains beyond his control, and food won’t fall from the sky.”

In the first week of the Winter Festival, Leonais saw the largest peasant rebellion in history. Tens of thousands of peasants gathered, shouting various slogans and taking up sticks, pitchforks, grass forks, sickles, and hoes to formally initiate an uprising. They chanted rejection of the Ten-Nine Tax, refusal to perform labor, and decided to seize Leonais by force to establish a ”nation truly belonging to the Lady of the Lake.”

The rebel army snowballed in size, pillaging streets, attacking castles, breaking open granaries, and leaving destruction everywhere except the temples of the Lake Fairy and the Holy Grail Church which they dared not touch. This peasant rebellion quickly grew into a wildfire, expanding within moments to tens of thousands of people.

Duke Aldred of Leonais had no means to counter this. He couldn’t even muster the military provisions needed to suppress the uprising, as Leonais Castle hadn’t recovered from Egil’s destruction, leaving its warehouses empty to accommodate disaster victims, and the gold coin reserves of the treasury were also depleted. With no food or military pay available, Aldred could only watch as the rebelling peasants gradually formed into a large army, marching towards Leonais.

However, the Knight Kingdom’s court wasn’t entirely unresponsive to Leonais’s dire situation. When the rebelling peasants merged into a large army, Lorne, as the Kingdom Regent, did not summon peasant armies but immediately led a thousand knights to Leonais to assist Duke Aldred in suppressing the rebellion.

The rebel army had tens of thousands, whereas Duke Lorne’s forces consisted only of a thousand knights, having to divide forces to garrison along the way. This seemingly unequal battle, as expected by Laine and Francois, quickly ended. The two sides encountered each other on a plain within Count Rein’s Territory in Leonais, where Lorne personally led over eight hundred knights in a charge against tens of thousands of rebelling peasants.

The battle concluded in just thirty minutes.

Tens of thousands of rebelling peasants crumbled instantly in the face of the group charge by over eight hundred knights. Several rebel leaders were slain on the spot, and the entire rebel army was utterly defeated under Lorne’s assault, dissipating into thin air, stabilizing the situation in Leonais once again.

But as Francois mentioned, suppression is easy; how can rebelling peasants confront the master knight in a direct battle? The real solution to the core problem of the revolt is solving the peasants’ famine issue. At least making sure they have enough to eat or won’t starve is necessary to prevent further rebellion. However, as of now, even the nobles in Leonais can only barely fill their stomachs, and the food problem cannot be resolved in a short time.