January 1, 1446 of the Holy Calendar, the Birthday of God.
The ancient and prosperous continent of Miriah ushered in another new year.
Under the shining of the holy light, people from different countries and races gathered together to celebrate the beginning of the new year and the birthday of Lord Harald.
However, for the residents of the North, this year's God's Birthday is destined to be less peaceful.
At the beginning of the new year, when people in most parts of the continent were celebrating the festival, Charlotte de Castel, Countess of Castel and Lord of the North, personally led an army of 25,000 people north and issued an ultimatum to the rebellious Legris family.
An army of more than 20,000 is not a small number in any principality of the Crescent Kingdom.
Although Castel is a countship, many nobles believe that its wealth and prosperity have exceeded the minimum standard of a duchy in the conventional sense.
If it were the Western Yunet Empire, which had many vassal states, the territories that could be mobilized in this way would probably have exceeded those of many small principalities long ago. Only in the Crescent Kingdom, where the Grand Duke was powerful, did it seem less eye-catching.
But even so, as the most powerful force in the Crescent Kingdom after the twelve duchies, Castel's every move attracted the attention of various forces and became the topic of conversation in salons and banquets among the nobles.
Especially the protagonist of this rebellion, Earl Charlotte of the North, who had been in office for less than a year.
"The Youngest Countess", "The Pearl of Polder", "Rich Charlotte", "The Saint Who Walks on the Earth"...
Various titles and names made her the focus and discussion of many nobles.
Whether it was being the last heir of the Castel family or the promise Charlotte made to the Holy Court at the banquet in Boulder, any one of these things would be enough to make her a topic of conversation at the banquet of the nobles.
For a moment, the eyes of all the lords of the Crescent Kingdom were almost focused in the direction of Castel, wanting to know how this young and beautiful countess would quell the rebellion in her territory.
In the eyes of many nobles, although the 20,000-man army is powerful, Castel's rebellion is not simple...
Especially combined with some bad rumors about the third prince Philip in the royal capital not long ago, and the ingenious timing of the military ban issued by His Majesty the King, some people who believe in conspiracy theories even think that this countess, who is inclined towards the church, is likely to have been blacklisted by the Crescent Royal Family.
Of course, conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories, and the Crescent Royal Family did not react much.
Crescent King Louis V held a grand banquet in the palace as in previous years, inviting his vassals to the banquet and celebrating the festival together.
However, the third prince Philip and his wife Eleanor, Duchess of Boulder, who were supposed to return from the territory to meet their father and attend the court banquet, were absent.
Also absent was the current Duke of Violet, Hubert de Boistre-Lint.
Although there were always a few great nobles who did not attend the Crescent Kingdom's annual court banquet for various reasons, the fact that Bold and Violet did not attend still made some of the kingdom's nobles imagine a lot.
After all, one of these two families is the lord of the Earl of Castel, the other is a close neighbor of Castel, and the third prince is the nephew of the Duke of Violet.
Combined with the rebellion that happened to be everywhere in Castel and the ambiguous attitude of the Crescent Royal Family, it is hard for some perceptive people not to make some associations.
However, this has nothing to do with Charlotte.
Banquets and intelligence of this level are only accessible to the real upper echelons of the kingdom. No matter how rich Castel is, as long as Castel is a vassal of Bold, he will never be able to step into the real upper echelons of the kingdom.
Naturally, Castel had no access to this information.
Of course, Charlotte, who had already known about the conspiracy of the three princes through other channels, did not need it.
While Louis V was entertaining his ministers, she had already led her army through the Earldom of Tulip and approached the main force of the Glis family rebels.
With the support of Count Gaston, the Castel coalition forces, passing through Count Tulip's territory, did not need to cross the Dorne River at all. The army only needed to bypass it from the west and launch a direct attack on the rebels from the west.
The nobles who were traveling with him were surprised at the support of the Tulip Garrison. After all... being able to allow 25,000 soldiers to enter the Tulip Earldom must have involved great risks and pressure.
At this point, those nobles who had been doubting finally believed that Count Gaston, the commander-in-chief of the Tulip faction, really intended to assist Castel in suppressing the rebellion.
When Count Gaston led the main force of the garrison to leave the fortress and join the coalition forces, the nobles of Castel became more confident.
Unlike the Castel coalition, whose main force was conscripted soldiers from the nobility, many of whom did not even have armor and could only be considered peasant soldiers at best, the garrison of Earl Tulip was all dressed in armor, and many of them were lapel and plate armor comparable to that of the kingdom's regular army.
Although their numbers were small, only about three thousand in total, more than half of the soldiers had intricate patterns carved on their armor.
That's enchanted armor.
Tulip's garrison consists of at least 1,500 extraordinary soldiers armed with enchanted armor, which is enough to deploy a minimum magical array on the battlefield.
In other words, these 1,500 men alone could be counted as 15,000 men on the battlefield.
As for the remaining half of the soldiers, although they did not wear enchanted armor, they were all wearing plate armor, and... almost all of them were cavalry.
Elite, these are Polder’s elite!
Any Castell noble who has seen the Tulip garrison would have such a thought. In comparison, Castell's coalition forces still look a little shabby.
That is, the nobles' private soldiers and the 1,500 regular soldiers directly under Castel can hold the fort. They are better equipped, although they do not have enough enchanted armor, let alone form an array, but at least... the total number is greater than that of the Earl of Tulip's army.
There will be much less cavalry.
Although the Crescent Kingdom has always been famous for its heavy cavalry, and the Crescent Royal Family even maintains an elite enchanted heavy cavalry corps of more than 30,000 people, there are not many horse farms in the coastal Earl of Castel, and most of them are in the north.
Including the noble knights and cavalry from the direct jurisdiction, Charlotte's own cavalry force did not exceed 3,000 people, and the vast majority of the 25,000 troops were infantry.
However, if it is just to quell the rebellion, it is more than enough.
It was just a war at the earldom level, and at best it looked like a civil war in a small duchy due to Castel's size.
But an earldom is an earldom after all, and it does not have many extraordinary resources. Perhaps there is great potential for war in the future, but Castel, which has always focused on the economy, has not developed its military strength at this stage. Most of the enchanted armor in the territory was even seized by Charlotte from the Castel mine. In the eyes of higher-level lords, no matter how many people there are, they are just weaklings fighting each other.
In a world with extraordinary powers, it is much easier to supply the army. Especially for space magic, having more fellow mages and the space equipment accumulated by the noble families for generations can save a lot of non-combat manpower. Therefore, Charlotte did not encounter much logistical difficulties during her march.
After the army had marched for a week, Charlotte finally saw the rebels stationed on the banks of the Dorne River.
"My Lord Earl, our scouts have already engaged the rebel rangers, but the rebels don't seem to be taking any action for the time being. Should we send an envoy to issue a notice to persuade them to surrender?"
The noble who was traveling with him asked respectfully.
Charlotte hesitated for a moment and nodded:
"Go ahead."
Although she did not hold out much hope, it seemed that persuading the enemy to surrender before a war was also a tradition among the nobles of Miriah.
After receiving the order, the nobles quickly arranged for an envoy, but not long after, the rebels sent the envoy back.
Or to be more precise, the head of the envoy who came to persuade them to surrender was sent back.