On February 18th, 1768, in Gellint Athon, the vanguard of the northbound convoy, led by the Tiger Ross and Yuri, the commander of the scout light cavalry, headed for the Baron Seuras, the downstream ferry of the Midobro River. They have to build pontoon bridges, set up camps, and meet the convoy and refugee teams that arrive later.
El also rushed to Kebo City to report to Lorist on this day. He had recuperated in Nadgas City for a winter and had just recovered from his injuries. He couldn't wait to hire a carriage and drive back with four guards. El brought two pieces of news to Lorist. One was that on the way back, he encountered a Royal Guards force sent by His Highness the Second Highness, with a number of about 10,000 people. They would arrive in Kebo City in two days.
The second news is that His Royal Highness is building a fortress at a dangerous mountain pass more than ten miles away from Vanades City, that is, on the road leading to the fortress castle of Lichtana. million workers.
Lorist looked at the map and felt a little strange.
Fatty Shi, Bodfinger, Terman and the others discussed a lot. Fatty Shi thinks that the more than 10,000 soldiers of the Royal Guards who are rushing towards Kebo City should come to take over the city defense. After all, Kebo City is the center of Dremke Province, and it is also a fortress city, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. After Riester made it clear that he refused to stay behind, it was impossible for the Second Highness to abandon the city in vain. With 10,000 soldiers stationed there, even if the Second Prince invaded, it would be enough to resist the invasion for a long time.
But why the Second Highness wants to build a fortress more than ten miles away from Vanades City is beyond comprehension. Normally speaking, he should vigorously strengthen the defense facilities of Vanades City and transform it into a fortress city. As long as they occupy the traffic center of Vanades City, they can control the initiative on the battlefield, advance and attack, retreat and defend, and have no worries.
In the end, Bodfinger's opinion was the most reasonable. He believed that the new fortress built by His Royal Highness should be able to ensure the rear route, and also be able to respond back and forth during the defensive battle, forcing the enemy to besiege Vanades City with all their strength. Another point may be that even if the city of Vanades is captured, as long as the defenders retreat to the fortress behind, they can still guarantee that Yungeshandra Province, which is newly included in the territory of the Kingdom of Antinak, will not be invaded by the enemy.
Lorist agreed with this opinion, but the convoy and the refugees will leave Kebo City soon to return to the family territory, and it's none of their business if the fights here are turned upside down in the future. What everyone should care about is when they can cross the river and set foot on the Northland.
Two days later, 10,000 soldiers from the Royal Guards Corps sent by the Second Highness arrived at Kebo City, and Fatty Shi handed over the city defense and 20 million catties of grain to them.
To the surprise of Lorist and the others, the Royal Guards did not reinforce the city defenses, but began to tear down the city walls. It took them more than ten days to tear down all six walls on three sides. It was clean, and then destroyed more than a dozen towers, and finally walked away with food...
"My day..." Fatty Shi cursed: "What a vicious scheme, he is using our motorcade as bait..."
Lorist said with a gloomy face, "We must speed up the transfer. Fortunately, we set off a few days earlier. If we delay our departure until now, it will be too late. Order the scout light cavalry to increase the scope of inspection and investigate the territory of Dremke Province The movement of the nobles. Especially the southern border bordering the Kingdom of Iberia. The remaining supplies and personnel here will be transferred to the downstream ferry immediately... "
No one expected that His Highness the Second Highness would send troops to demolish the city wall of Kebo City. He was abandoning the fortress city of Kebo City. There are still more than 300 miles from Kebo City to the downstream ferry of the Midobro River. With such a large convoy to the north and the burden of 100,000 refugees, it will take at least two or three months, not to mention that there is Mituo With the Bro River in front, it will take more time for so many horses and vehicles to cross the river...
It's the end of February now, even if the second prince led his army to invade Dremke Province more than a month later, it would take about fifteen days at most to reach Kebocheng from the border. When he found out that Kebo City was abandoned, he had two choices. One was to march towards Vanades City, and the other was to chase the northbound convoy and block the northbound convoy by the Mitobro River...
Thinking about the huge supplies and scale carried by the northbound convoy, with the greedy nature of the second prince, it is easy to figure out what choice he will make...
Lorist was so angry that he was willing to hand over Kebo City to the Second Highness, and the original intention of giving out 20 million catties of grain was to hope that the Second Highness would send troops to defend Kebo City, blocking the Second Prince's troops, so that they could travel northward. The convoy and the refugees bought time to cross the river safely and arrive in Beidi. But he really didn't expect the Second Highness to do such a terrific thing, simply abandoning Kebo City and putting the convoy in danger.
"My God!" Lorist looked up to the sky and sighed. He was not afraid of the second prince's army. Armed with the current scale and strength of the convoy, it was not impossible to resist the attack of the second prince's army and even defeat them. You can kill three thousand enemies and lose eight hundred, so why let your family's armed forces make sacrifices for the Second Highness's hegemony in vain? Even if he defeats the second prince, what benefits can he gain? Nothing, maybe he offended the second prince's father-in-law, the powerful Duke of Fessabrun...
Indeed, no one is a fool, neither Lorist nor the Second Highness. Lorist wholeheartedly wanted to avoid this mess, he was unwilling to take advantage of the fire for the Second Highness, he just wanted to bring the convoy and refugees back to the family territory for construction and development, and to form a unified system. The Second Highness had to drag him into the water, and wanted to use the force of the Norton family's northbound convoy to buy time for himself to prepare for the battle. He even hoped that the convoy's armed forces would fight the second prince for both losses, so that he could benefit from it.
A hero is a hero, not a fuel-efficient lamp! Lorist had to admit that he had miscalculated, and should not have pinned his hope of sticking to Kebo City on the Second Highness. Now the Second Highness has come down to make a drastic move, and he has been put on fire again.
"Come on, pass the order down..." Lorist pondered for a moment and issued a series of orders.
"Order Bodfinger to lead the heavy armored corps to the crossing of the river as soon as possible, take over all the affairs of the camp, arrange and organize manpower to cut trees and build defensive facilities..."
"Order Ross, Terman, and Pete to lead armored lancers, knights, and horse archers to confiscate the vehicles, sheepskin rafts, and small fishing boats of the nobles in the Dlemke province. The more the better. If there are rebels..." Luo Rist paused, and coldly spit out four words: "Shoot to kill!"
"Order Farea and Malek to lead the garrison to stop the rear and maintain the order and security of the convoy and refugees. Anyone who deliberately delays the journey and makes trouble will be killed without mercy!"
"Order the Artisan Battalion, no matter what method is used, more than four pontoon bridges across the river must be built as soon as possible, and the lack of materials and utensils will be collected by Ross and the others."
Reddy stood behind Lorist and wrote down the orders one by one on the animal skin paper, and handed it to Lorist for signature. Pat melted the red beeswax and dripped it on the signature, and Lorist turned the ring over on the beeswax Stamp it. Finally, Pat turned the animal skin paper with the order written on it into the small silver tube, dripped beeswax on the upper and lower joints of the small silver tube, printed the angry bear badge, and then handed it over to the guards to deliver the order.
"We also have to move faster. Before the end of this month, no matter what, we must finish transporting the grain in Kebo City and leave here." Lorist turned his head and said to Fatty Shi.
Fatty Shi nodded.
…
It was already March 6th when Lorist arrived at the ferry of the Barony of Seurath. Except for nearly a thousand abandoned people who were kicked out of the convoy and the refugee team in Kebo City, all the convoy personnel and refugees were rushing to Ferry stationed camp came.
Three pontoon bridges have been built on the Methabura River, and the other one is more than half completed. A car camp was also set up on the opposite bank, and the convoy personnel and vehicles that arrived earlier were crossing the river on two pontoon bridges. There is also a relatively large pontoon bridge for vehicles to unload supplies after reaching the opposite bank and then return. The drivers leading the pack horses are all lined up and walk back from the pontoon bridge carefully and slowly.
"My lord, let's go to the manor castle to rest first." said Bodfinger who came to welcome him.
Lorist saw that Bodfinger was referring to the manor castle of Baron Seuras, and asked casually, "Where is Baron Seuras?"
"Who?" Bodfinger looked puzzled.
"I'm talking about the local lord." Lorist said.
Bodfinger suddenly realized, and pointed to the ferry pier: "Over there..."
Lorist turned his head and saw four or five corpses dangling in the wind on several tall wooden frames at the pier...
"Who did it?"
"Yuri and Rose," Baldofinger replied.
"Why?" Lorist asked.
"The lord refused to allow us to build a pontoon bridge, saying that the Baili Riverside was his territory, and he had to pay him the crossing fee if he wanted to cross the river. Yuri and Ross got angry, so they hung him up, and occupied it by the way. his estate castle."
Lorist was speechless, another one who wanted to die by himself, didn't he have eyes, and didn't look at the strength of the soldiers and horses who came, he thought it was the peace time of the former empire, no one dared to offend the nobles. When is it too late to retreat to the manor and castle to guard against death, and dare to come to ask for the cost of crossing the river
Yuri and Rose are not easy to talk to. One follows Lorist and is one of the earliest start-up members of Dawn Academy, and the other has just been given the title of Tiger by Lorist. In particular, the two of them went north with the convoy and hanged no less than a hundred lords and nobles in the Kingdom of Antinac, and they had long since lost their awe of the noble class. Not to mention serious calculations, Baron Seuras belongs to the side of the Grand Duke of Madras, which is a hostile camp, and there is no pressure on Yuri and Ross to hang him.
"Forget it, take them down and bury them. After all, they are old acquaintances, and it doesn't look good hanging them like this."
"Yes, my lord."
Ten days later, Ross, Terman, and Pete came back. This was the third time they went out to expropriate, and the surrounding area had already confiscated, so they ran a little farther, confiscated more than a thousand carts and came back. More than 100 sheepskin rafts, dozens of small fishing boats, and more than 200 large carriages full of supplies were seized after they hanged three rebellious territorial nobles and ransacked their homes.
Lorist found that the sheepskin rafts, small fishing boats and Locke boats manufactured during this period were enough to build six pontoon bridges, so he stopped Ross and his group's enthusiastic plan to go out to collect again, and arranged to bring those vehicles to history. Fatty speeded up the transfer of personnel, while letting the soldiers rest for two days, and then just cut more wood to make wooden rafts to speed up the process of building the pontoon bridge.
On March 18th, the travel-stained Yuri arrived at the ferry, and he brought a message to Lorist.
On March 12, 1768 in the Gelinthian calendar, the king of the Kingdom of Iberia, known as the second prince, Krissen Iberia, led an army of 70,000 troops, claiming to support the Duke of Madras in fighting Andy. The invasion of the Nak Kingdom attacked the Antinak Kingdom through the Dremke Province of the Principality of Madras.
This time the second prince borrowed three regiments from the frontier regiment of his father-in-law, the Duke of Fesabrun, together with his own garrison and the private army of the nobles of his domain, gathered more than 70,000 troops, and entered Dremke. Province.
"My day, where did he get the rations? Didn't he just start harvesting the winter wheat?" Lorist wondered, and immediately understood: "Paralyzed, each one is better than the other. The second prince is aiming at De Lai." The winter wheat that is about to be harvested in Muke Province is coming, borrowing grain to fight against the enemy, the idea is to expropriate winter wheat for army rations!"
But now Lorist doesn't care about the second prince's army at all. Five pontoon bridges, large and small, have been built, and the sixth one is under construction. The team members and refugees who came later did not need to wait in the camp at the ferry, they could cross the river directly to rest in the camp on the other side.
The only thing that worries Lorist is the grain reserves of more than 120 million catties. If a four-wheeled carriage transports 2000 catties of grain, 10,000 carts can only transport 20 million catties at a time. Go back and forth six times.
Lorist recruited Bodfinger and asked him to lead the heavy armored corps across the river first, and take charge of the defense of the camp on the opposite side. More and more supplies and personnel were crossing the river, and there were only Terman's knights and a squadron of scout light cavalry stationed there, which could no longer complete the security mission of the camp well.
Bodfinger was very worried that he would not be able to defend against the attack of the second prince's army after he crossed the river with the heavy armored corps.
Lorist laughed, now there is no need to worry about the second prince's army, because the second prince wants to collect military rations, and it is impossible for the second prince to come to chase the northbound convoy on light horses. Sitting here, small-scale wanderers come here just to deliver food to the door.
"By the way, after you cross the river, knock down the town on the opposite side, and call that viscount, um, probably the viscount of Dashev, and hang him at the gate of the city." Lorist ordered.
"Why? My lord, it's just a broken town." Baldofinger was curious. Ever since the convoy built a pontoon bridge across the river to transport supplies and set up camp, the broken town over there has always been very orderly, honestly keeping its doors behind closed doors, and not even a single person came to question and investigate. So much so that after Terman led the knights across the river, he didn't bother to take care of this broken town.
"The messenger sent by your convoy before crossed the river and rested in this broken town, but was accused of being a horse thief and was robbed and killed by the guards. Only five escaped. Last time when I crossed the river, I sent the viscount to the ferry to collect fees. The garrison team was hanged, why don't you just smash that den of thieves for me today." Lorist explained.
"Yes, yes, my lord."
Bodfinger led the heavy armored corps across the river and immediately launched a charge on the broken town by the river, and took down the broken town at the cost of zero casualties. Half an hour later, Bodfinger snatched a war horse and rushed back anxiously.
"My lord, there are not many people in that broken town. It is said that the lord Viscount Dawoff led the garrison and young men to attack the Norton family in response to the call of Duke Lukins of the Northland. It has been almost a month since he left... "
"What did you say?" Lorist almost jumped up when he heard the news brought by Bodfinger. Duke Lukins is so cunning that he has the idea of the Norton family again
"Order Yuri to immediately send scout light cavalry to inquire about the news of the Northland, and ask Jim to take a small team to get in touch with the family to see what's going on? He is a mercenary and knows the situation in the Northland very well. .Pat, you go too." Lorist calmed down, feeling that there was no need to be anxious.
Lorist was very familiar with the defense of Rock Castle's walls, it was easy to defend but difficult to attack. Besides, with the magic arrow Josk in charge, he can rest assured. Another passage leading to the interior of the family's territory has been cut off due to the burning of the rope bridge. Grand Duke Lukins called on the lords of the Northland to lead troops to attack the Norton family's territory. There is no other way but to break the Rock Castle. Just relying on the peasants and soldiers of those lords in the North to capture the Rock Castle? Hehe, that was a joke.
Lorist felt that he should investigate the situation first, and then make plans after all the supplies and personnel had crossed the river. This time, he had to do it well, slap that bullshit grand duke in the face fiercely, provoking again and again, did he really think that he could only passively defend himself from being beaten
Fatty Shi still used the transfer method of the Baili No. 1 Battalion, and finally sent the remaining supplies, convoy personnel and refugees to the ferry before the end of March, and immediately started crossing the river.
On April 3rd, the last wave of scouts and light cavalry who scouted the Second Prince's army also rushed back. The news they brought back was that the Second Prince's army was busy harvesting winter wheat and suppressing the resistance of the nobles in the territory of Dlemke Province. At present, there are not one out of ten territorial nobles in the southern part of Dremke Province. All the unlucky nobles who were hanged by the second prince on the gallows are all accused of fornicating the Kingdom of Antinac and resisting to rescue Madras. The Grand Duke's ally, the Iberian Kingdom army led by the Second Prince.
On April 5th, 1768 in Galint A.C., Lorist stepped on the ferry as the last person crossing the river and ordered the demolition of six pontoon bridges. At this point, the northbound convoy and refugees finally all arrived at the Northland Plateau.
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