Rebirth of the Viking King

Early the next morning, a long list of hostages were dragged into the encirclement of Wanghai Fortress like livestock. Before Loki could say anything, the Mercian Captain immediately ordered everyone to put down their weapons.

Because among all the hostages, the first one is King Aelle III of Northumbria with a huge belly.

Behind him, there are also the King of Kent "Lan Shaoer", the Crusader Commander "Hamilton" and a long list of senior leaders of the coalition. When counting the number of people early in the morning, Loki discovered that the only two key targets not in the team seemed to be King "Ecbert" of Wessex and Prince "Lancero" of Mercia.

If your team had better luck yesterday, catch these two people as well.

The war might even end there.

The group of people swaggered back to Wanghai Fortress under the gaze of countless ballistae and lancers. For a moment, it was impossible to tell whether they were turtles in the urn or generals returning in triumph.

Suddenly there were so many distinguished guests in the "prisoner of war camp". As expected, the Mercian engineering team had no intention of poisoning them anymore, just as Loki thought.

What was unexpected was that Loki did not choose to go out of the city to defend against the enemy, and he did not choose to use the hostages in his hands to start negotiations.

The two sides inside and outside the fortress were once again in a stalemate.

This stalemate lasted for half a month.

**

For half a month and 15 days, no one knew what the Viking Duke was going to do. The soldiers who were watching on the carriages only knew that he would regularly drag several kings to the city wall for a walk to let the soldiers outside the city know that their kings were still alive.

Other than that, it was a long and boring stalemate.

"This guy"

"He doesn't want to kill us here?!"

The Mercian captain who was in charge of the entire "Wanghai Fortress Siege Plan" asked the adjutant next to him in confusion.

"Doesn't he know that with the production capacity of the seven countries in England, we can afford to spend another 10 years with him?"

Faced with this question, the adjutant smiled bitterly and shook his head.

If they could understand what was going on in the Vikings' minds, this war would not have even started. The shrewd kings had a hundred ways to kill them through agreements and negotiations, instead of passively fighting each other.

"Your Excellency, what I don't understand is why these Vikings haven't extorted gold coins from us yet?"

“Aren’t these beasts going out to sea to rob just to get gold coins?!

Good guy, they have almost gathered half of the royal families from the seven countries of England. With this kind of trump card in hand, they can negotiate even if they want to leave half of the kingdom.

But look

How many days in a row has the chief minister in charge of negotiations been turned away?

Is it possible that this Viking lord captured the three kings because of his hobby? "

While the generals outside the city were confused, the king, generals and nobles who were imprisoned in the city were also very puzzled.

Loki did not abuse them. Instead, he ate and drank well every day. He even captured a group of servants to take care of their daily life. The English nobles were not afraid of Viking pirates asking for money or making any exaggerated conditions.

As long as he puts forward conditions, things can be discussed.

What they feared most was that Loki would remain silent throughout the whole process without any substantive communication. He neither made any conditions nor harmed their lives.

Playing your cards according to the routine is not terrible.

People who can't figure out the routine are the most troublesome.

At this time, Loki, who was being speculated by everyone, was having dinner with "Honest Man" Elan, the king of Mercia, in the suite on the top floor of the castle as usual.

With a large number of hostages of the king and nobles in hand, Loki can safely leave the cooking task to the English servants. As a result, food within the fort has improved significantly.

Today's rice bowl is peas and beef stew, served with a long baguette. Entering the room with food, Loki first served a bowl to the old man.

On the second night, he did not put it down in front of him, but instead handed it to the girl in white across the round table.

On the night of the raid on the apple orchard, the girl in white on the roof of the manor faced Loki after transcending the dead souls and raised a question and a request.

The question she asked was: "Are you a Viking lord?"

Loki nodded.

The girl looked at him, her blue eyes seemed to be able to penetrate his soul.

"Take me to see my father, I miss him."

Therefore, Elizabeth Ellan was brought back to the Sea Watch Fortress by Loki. She became the only "hostage" who could travel freely within the castle.

Loki discovered that Elizabeth was a true saint.

Before meeting this girl, Jerome was what he ideally expected a Holy Bishop to be. However, compared with Elizabeth, Jerome is still a little more "human" after all.

During the defense battle of Hanshui Village, he could pick up weapons without hesitation and chop down Duke Bernard's private army.

After the war, he took up arms and sent the dying people to heaven, and he did so without hesitation.

Elizabeth is different.

After entering Wanghai Fortress, even though the Viking warriors around her were her enemies, she would use holy light spells to treat any sick or wounded as soon as she saw them.

After a brief contact with Loki, she immediately became impressed with this lord when she discovered that the legendary Viking barbarian immediately let go of the residents and craftsmen in the city after capturing the city.

This respect transcends race, class and status.

In the eyes of the girl, he was even more merciful than most of the Holy Bishop generals.

In the past ten days, Loki had dinner with Elan and his daughter almost every day. The few people started from eating stiffly to chatting about some English living habits. After ten days, most of the barriers have been almost eliminated.

Finally, on this day, when the old man put the first spoonful of food into his mouth, he asked the question that had been bothering him for a long time.

"Duke Loki, what exactly do you want to do?"

Captured three kings of the Seven Kingdoms of England, more than forty hereditary nobles, and nearly a hundred generals. If the Duke of Loki's request is just "land" as he said, the bargaining chip in his hand can be exchanged for almost any province in any country in England.

Even if he asks for more, he can definitely start a negotiation where the lion opens his mouth.

Because the resource "hostage" is time-sensitive.

After procrastinating for a long time, a new king is elected in the kingdom, and the hostages in his hands will immediately become worthless.

Faced with this question, Loki just smiled and shook his head.

“Old man, I once said, I need land.

With all due respect, given the abilities of my men, it would be easy to plunder territory by violence. But if I did, I would be caught up in the endless revolts of the people of Mercia.

To put it bluntly, I do not have the ability to fight against the sea of ​​​​people, no matter culturally, economically, or even in terms of force. If I really do this, the most likely thing that will happen is that both my warriors and the people of Mercia will fall into the abyss.

Therefore, I must ally with you and obtain the land from you in a fair and cooperative manner.

Since it is a cooperative relationship, I must show you my working ability.

Capturing these geese plucking the feathers of neighboring monarchs is just a bonus on the negotiating table.

Later, I have a bigger fish to kill!

I have a hunch that this big fish is about to take the bait! "