"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..." echoed in the yellow field of autumn grass, and there appeared on the other side of the horizon a black and crowed army. After a long time, several knights rode their horses and shouted something in front of the crowd, and then the crowd gave out indistinct shouts, and then began to move, heading towards the distant hills of Madeira. He left the camp set up by the Sri Lanka Army.
His Royal Highness remembers very clearly that just after he signed the oath and obtained the promise of the four major families of the North Land to serve him, the envoy of the Grand Duke of Madras came to the camp again the next day. He came to urge the North Land Coalition Army Withdraw from the Principality of Madras.
However, when the Earl of Kenmes put forward the new conditions, the emissary smiled, and his eyes were full of sarcasm: "Master Earl, do you treat the Principality as a fat cow? Do you think His Royal Highness will agree to such a condition?" Don’t forget that no matter how fat a cow is, it also has a pair of sharp horns. As a messenger, I have no right to reprimand your wishful thinking. I can only tell His Royal Highness exactly what you said. But before I leave, I would like to thank you You say a word, since you want war, then we will not let you down... "
After the envoy walked away, His Royal Highness was inexplicably excited. He immediately delivered a long passionate speech, which meant that he was almost torn apart, and the Northern Allied Forces should seize this opportunity to attack the enemy first. Before the Principality could react, it swept across the entire Dremke Province and occupied more territory. After the arrival of the Grand Duke of Madras's army, they could start a tug-of-war and use their elite troops to defeat or drag down the Principality of Madras.
There were only four blank faces in response to the Second Highness. Baron Shaheen was the first to speak. He thought it was unnecessary to attack Dremke Province now. During this period of time, he often led troops out to plunder the farms of those nobles. Orchard, knows the situation in Dremke Province very well. Those fiefdom nobles gathered private soldiers to defend in the castles. It is useless to attack those castles.
Baron Felim with a serious face also retorted that it is now the end of October, and there is only one month left before the arrival of winter. There is only one Kebo City in the province, and the rest are manor castles of the nobles in the territory. But Kebo City is a fortress city, and there is a garrison army of 20,000 horses. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is impossible for the Northern Allied Forces to capture Kebo City in a short period of time. It will only cause heavy casualties to their own attacking troops...
Earl Kenmes smiled and advised the Second Highness that there is no need to be so impatient. The envoy went back to tell the Duke of Madras that it would take at least ten days to send troops back, and it would be mid-November by then. There is only half a month left for them to set up barracks and raise supplies for the winter. Compared with the Northland Allied Forces who have basically completed their winter preparations, the army of the Principality of Madras has had a better winter this winter. We can completely wait for work and spend this winter comfortably, and in the beginning of next spring we can deal a fatal blow to those stupid birds who have been frozen for a whole winter.
In the end, it was Lorist who made a conclusion, and proceeded according to the predetermined plan, regardless of the army sent by the Grand Duke of Madras, and did not need to do anything, and wait until the Grand Duke of Madras assembled the army in the spring of next year to have a decisive battle. Lorist expressed his belief in the combat effectiveness of the Northern Alliance Army. As long as the army assembled by the Principality of Madras is defeated in the first battle, then the subsequent destruction of the Principality of Madras will be much easier.
The military discussion ended here, and the four northern nobles stood up and bowed respectfully to the Second Highness before retiring, without giving the Second Highness a chance to persuade him again. Only His Highness the Second Highness was left alone in the big tent, gnashing his teeth fiercely, regretting that he had not been able to obtain the leading power of the Northern Allied Forces before signing the oath.
The oath is a letter of guarantee from the upper lord to the lower lord. As long as the lower lord completes the tasks assigned to the upper lord in the oath, then the rewards promised by the upper lord in the oath will be established or fulfilled immediately, without the need to go through the upper lord. Agree and approve.
The oath is generally made in triplicate, except that the upper lord and the lower lord each have one copy, and there is also a copy published to the public. His Royal Highness has six copies of the oath, one for himself and the four lords of the Northland, and the next one will be held on the first day of the New Year. The former grand duke's mansion in Dusk City held a grand New Year's banquet, which was announced in front of all the northern nobles, that is, those lords supported by the Norton family and the Kenmes family. Earl Kenmes said that this move represented that all the nobles of the Northland had returned to the right path and devoted themselves to the command of His Highness the Second Highness.
The Second Highness originally wanted to sign the oath with Earl Kenmes and his family, but Earl Kenmes thought it was inappropriate, because it would easily cause the four major families in the Northland that the Second Highness was splitting their alliance. Moreover, in the wars to destroy the Principality of Madras and conquer the Kingdom of Iberia, the cooperation of the four major families of the North was often required. Therefore, when signing the oath, the four major families should be the main ones, so that when the time comes, they will be involved with each other, and one will prosper and the other will suffer. They are all grasshoppers on the same rope, and no one can escape.
As Earl Kenmes said, he also wanted to pull his family out so as not to be implicated by the three allies. But he can't do it at the moment, because any movement of him will arouse the suspicion of Lorist and others, and then speculate whether the Kenmes family has reached some private agreement with His Royal Highness, which will not only affect the covenant of the four Northland families , it is more likely to affect His Royal Highness's plan to restore the country, so Earl Kenmes thought about it, and would rather let the family and the three families in the Northland be implicated and suffer losses than let His Highness's journey of restoring the country suffer setbacks …
His Royal Highness admired Earl Kenmes' profound understanding and righteousness very much, and decided to adopt Earl Kenmes' suggestion to write a letter of oath focusing on the four major families in the Northland, the content of which was the conditions he had negotiated with Earl Kenmes. When His Royal Highness signed and stamped the six oaths and pressed his fingerprints, Lorist, Baron Felim and Baron Shaheen all bowed their heads to him. At that moment, His Highness the Second Highness was extremely ambitious, and the four major families of the Northern Lands were at his mercy. All enemies would soon see him make a comeback and conquer the world.
It was only when Lorist and the others almost simultaneously rejected the Second Highness's proposal to dispatch troops as soon as possible to sweep up Dremke Province, that the Second Highness realized that although he was the upper-ranking lord of the four major families in the Northland, he had no respect for the armed forces of the four major families. Without the slightest restraint and command power, even the guards around him were appointed by the four major families. Now beside the Second Highness, apart from the Golden Knight named Lippired, Chrisya and the other three Silver Knights are all recruiting soldiers in the Norton family territory and guarding the standard equipment of the White Lion Legion returned to them by Lorist. …
The Second Highness did not give up, and found Lorist and the others again, earnestly persuading them to follow his advice, to fight swiftly, not to take advantage of the time when the Principality of Madras is still mobilizing troops and condemning generals to lay down a territory and disrupt Madeira Grand Duke Si's steps of mobilizing troops instead allowed them to gather their troops and wait for the decisive battle. This was the biggest mistake in decision-making. Because at that time, the Principality of Madras will be able to mobilize the strength of the entire Principality by virtue of its geographical advantages and harmony with the people. Even if the decisive battle fails, it will be able to switch to local defense and drag the war into a stalemate.
The only way to seize the month before the onset of winter is to fight against Dremke Province. Even if you can’t occupy it, you must smash this area to pieces, try your best to reduce the war potential of the Principality of Madras, and force the coming Madras The army of the Principality of Las could not receive any support in Dremke Province, and could not raise food and supplies. Only in this way can we lose all morale and be vulnerable in the decisive battle after winter...
Since Lorist and the others were going to have a decisive battle, the Second Highness also wisely changed the method of persuading them. He pointed out that before the decisive battle, we should also try our best to reduce the enemy's strength, instead of sitting and watching the enemy gather its forces. The Second Highness believes that the Principality of Madras is a fat buffalo, and the Northland coalition forces should hunt the buffalo like wild wolves, inflict wounds on the buffalo as much as possible, and hold back the buffalo's frontal attack until the buffalo loses too much blood. If you can't stop, give another fatal blow, and the Principality of Madras will soon perish.
In order to convince Lorist and the others, His Royal Highness also graciously used himself as an example, pointing out the experience and lessons learned from his failure in the campaign against the coalition forces of the nobles in the territory of Andover Province two years ago in the Kingdom of Ridleys. The Second Highness said that it was not that the army he commanded did not engage in a decisive battle with those noble coalition forces, but fought three or four decisive battles, and each time the noble coalition forces were defeated. However, those nobles in the territory of Andover Province were defeated and fought again, and refused to surrender even if Andover Province was occupied by the army of the Second Highness, they still retreated to Magik Province and continued to deal with the army of the Second Highness. And won the support of the four central duchies and the business alliance, and finally persisted until the final victory...
Therefore, it is impossible to defeat the Principality of Madras in one battle as Lorist and the others imagined. The Second Highness thinks that there is a great possibility that the Northern Allied Forces will be dragged into long-term guerrilla warfare and raid warfare by the territorial nobles of the Principality of Madras just like what happened to him in Andover Province, which will affect the future situation of the war adverse consequences. The only correct strategy is to preemptively send troops to sweep up the manors and castles of the nobles in the Dremke Province and destroy the war power of the Principality of Madras. The Northern Allied Forces must seize this opportunity, instead of letting the soldiers stay in the barracks for a month with nothing to do.
Lorist didn't argue with the Second Highness, but just pulled a map of the Principality of Madras to conduct a simple battle deduction. With the current strength of the Northland coalition forces, if they want to wipe out the manor castles of the nobles in the province of Dremke, they must divide their troops into four groups, each with about 20,000 people, so as to conquer those two to three thousand nobles. Castles guarded by private soldiers, even if the casualty rate is the smallest one-to-one, the Northland coalition forces who attacked the manor castles of the four or five nobles in each route had suffered half and half casualties, so they had to return to the army. A third of the territory of Lemke Province.
The biggest weakness of this strategy is that there is no way to send troops to besiege Kebo City, because the reinforcements from the Principality of Madras will arrive soon. First, the Grand Duke of Madras may send his most elite seamount army to come for reinforcements. Second, Sending 20,000 troops from the garrison on the Xingdesen small mountain range to carry out a flanking attack, the troops on the way to Kebo City will be in the most critical state. Once they are defeated, they will even endanger the safety of the camp at the riverside ferry.
If 40,000 to 50,000 troops are sent to besiege Kebo City, then the troops sent to sweep up Dremke Province will not be enough to protect themselves. But if the reinforcements from the Principality of Madras in Kebo City are ignored, they are likely to attack the ferry camp. There are only nearly 10,000 people guarding the camp. This is not because Kebo City has permanent defense facilities. If the camp is destroyed, the consequences will be unimaginable. The four groups of people who went out to raid will be homeless, and the entire army may be wiped out.
Lorist unceremoniously pointed out that the main reason for the failure of His Royal Highness's Raidlis Kingdom's attack was not the protracted tug-of-war with those territorial nobles in Andover Province, but the cut off of the back road. The fall of the army caused the second highness's troops at the front to lose their food and supplies, which was the biggest factor in the failure. Of course, this has a lot to do with the lack and difficulty of logistics and supplies that the Second Highness did not expect to change in the battle situation. But now it seems that the Second Highness has not really realized where he failed. At this time, allowing the Northern Allied Forces to attack first is repeating the failure of the Raiders Kingdom Raiders.
The Second Highness was furious, thinking that after the attack of the Northern Allied Forces, the armed forces of the Norton family and the Felim family could just come to reinforce and fill the vacancy of the camp at the ferry crossing by the river. A steady stream of troops were sent to wipe out the territorial nobles in the entire Dremke Province.
Baron Felim retorted on the spot. This is absolutely impossible. His Highness does not know the armed forces of his family and the Norton family. They are all heavy armored infantry, good at defending but not good at attacking. Only Baron Shaheen's two light cavalry regiments are used as scouts here. The current layout and size of the camp are precisely for these conveniences for the defense and wintering of these heavy armored infantry.
It is really a genius idea to let these heavy armored infantry who are good at defense to attack and sweep up the territorial nobles in Dremke Province, and then let the cavalry corps of their own family and the Norton family who are good at attacking come to the camp to defend. Baron Felim sneered, even if he and the Norton family's cavalry corps rushed to defend the camp, but then the heavy armored infantry came back after attacking, and with the current size of the camp, there is no way to accommodate so many troops. Among other things, the consumption of logistics supplies for the two cavalry regiments' horses throughout the winter is an incomparably huge number...
There is no need to argue any more, just follow our predetermined strategy, from now until winter, we just need to keep this big camp. As for whether to attack or not, everyone should wash up and go to bed early, don't worry about it. Lorist walked away after he patted his buttocks.
The Second Highness was so angry that he almost vomited blood, what do you mean by washing and sleeping, don't bother thinking about it, is it me? The distraught Second Highness took out the oath book and looked it over carefully, really wanting to find a regulation that can restrict the armed forces of the Lorist and Norton families.
Then... His Highness suddenly realized that he seemed to be fooled by Earl Kenmes... Earl Kenmes dug a big hole for His Highness, and His Highness jumped into it happily...
The conditions and tasks in the oath are clear, and they were all agreed by the Second Highness after thinking about it. But now the Second Highness looked at the conditions in the oath book, which were extremely dazzling. He looked at the map of the entire former Krissen Empire for a night before he realized that even if he could unify the territory of the former empire in the future, the territory of the Principality of Madras and the Kingdom of Iberia was apart from the Eastern Wilderness controlled by the Fesabrun family. Except for the province and Muyeyuan province, they are all connected with the Northland. In other words, these places are all under the control of the four major families of the Northland. As long as the covenant of the four families exists, the territory that occupies one-third of the former empire's territory will become impossible for His Highness the Second Highness to enter, and the water cannot be splashed. where to enter...
Just like in Dremke province, His Royal Highness promised to let the Norton family transfer the nobles who supported them, which is equivalent to admitting in disguise that these transferred nobles are all vassal lords of the Norton family, as long as Madras The Principality's demise and the province of Dremke were about to be controlled by the Norton family became a reality.
The most deceitful thing is to appoint Lorist as the Governor of Windbury. The Second Highness forgot that Windbury is the capital of Winston Province, so even if the nobles in the territory of Winston Province are all appointed by the Second Highness, But Lorist is the governor, the current official is not as good as the current one, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, even if the Second Highness orders any order, it will be in the governor's hands first, Lorist can ignore such orders with unreasonable reasons, and sometimes the time is slow Slowly clean up those nobles who did not obey their orders and enfeoffed to Winston Province...
His Royal Highness regretted it more than ever, which was equivalent to handing over the entire province of Winston to the Norton family. Then he found a condition in the oath that was extremely unfavorable to him, that is, it did not stipulate when the Norton family would capture the imperial capital and allow His Highness the Second Highness to reassert the throne. During the process, as long as the territory is occupied, the conditions that the Second Highness agreed to the four major families in the North will take effect immediately.
For example, after capturing the province of West Degrad, the promise of the Second Highness to grant this province to Earl Kenmes as hereditary family territory will take effect immediately, and Earl Kenmes will be automatically promoted to the title of Grand Duke. The Duchy of Lars must perish. Another example is that when the armed forces of the four major northern families occupied Winston Province and the Royal City of Windbury, then Lorist would automatically become the governor of Winston Province, and the Royal City of Windbury would become the city directly under the governor's control...
Blind, how could you believe Earl Kenmes, a man who was born as a profiteer! His Highness was in pain, especially when he didn't find the time when the four major families in the Northland promised to help him fight back to the imperial capital to help him reset. This date can be made immediately after the fall of Madras, or it can be ten or twenty years later. The four major families in the Northland can enshrine the food and drink of the Second Highness in the Northland, and then slowly implement their strategy according to their own decisions and interests...
Although in the oath, the Second Highness is generous to others, using the interests of the Principality of Madras and the Kingdom of Iberia as a guarantee for the four major families of the Northland to work for him, but he found that these promises When he unifies the territory of the former empire in the future and almost makes the territory controlled by the four major families of the Northland an independent kingdom, he still wants to chop off his own hand. How could he be so obsessed with ghosts and sign and stamp the oath
No upper lord dared to renege on the oath, because the oath was the most sacred guarantee, an oath made by the upper lord to the gods in the name of his family and ancestors. His Highness the Second Highness knew very well that the oath was a guarantee for the four major families in the Northland to work for him and recognize him as their superior lord. And if he repented, not only would his reputation be worthless, but the four major families in the Northland could also use this reason to refuse to recognize him as their upper lord and return to the free aristocracy. At that time, not only did he lose his nominal restraint on the four major families in the Northland, but he also gained four more powerful enemies...
The Second Highness is standing on the top of the castle in the middle of the camp, watching the army of the Principality of Madras appearing on the horizon in the distance, gathered in the camp about two miles away from the camp of the Northland coalition army, and they are also busy Building camp walls and various defensive facilities, digging trenches, and an endless stream of transport carriages continuously transporting various materials.
The more people gather, the better, now I can only wait patiently. When the coalition forces of the four major families in the Northland and the army of the Principality of Madras engage in a decisive battle in the spring of next year, and both sides are wounded, it may be their turning point. Only when these arrogant soldiers suffer from the lazy Northern Allied Forces and fight to the death with the Grand Duke of Madras in Dremke Province, can I fish in troubled waters. As long as I recruit people to form the White Lion Army, I will can gain dominance in this war.
That's what Second Highness thinks...
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