Now that he decided to adopt the strategy of standing against each other and waiting for the civil strife in the Principality of Handela, the Second Highness immediately summoned the nobles and legion commanders of the various territories under him, and redistributed the strength of the more than 300,000 troops. First, the battalion retreated fifty miles and moved to the border of Westwood Province to set up camp again. However, the military camp Dazhai established this time needs to establish defensive positions and guard towers to prevent it from being attacked by the enemy.
In addition, Dazhai was divided into two, the two heavy armored regiments of the Duke of Kenmes and the Flying Tiger Legion of the Norton family, and the Pegasus Legion of Earl Felim were arranged on the left, blocking the Duke of Handra from the Duke of Faker. Arteries and directions of the province of Crimea. As for the White Lions, the Third Frontier Ranger Regiment and the Reserve Regiment led by the Grand Duke Fesabrun are on the right, with the province of Pedrona in the Principality of Forondo behind them. The two large villages, one on the left and the other on the right, are like two sharp knives on the ribs of Westwood Province, which makes the Principality of Handela, who is the defender, very uncomfortable with this new situation.
If the Second Royal Highness does not move the camp, then the task of the Red Army Corps of the Principality of Handela defending the Weilongni Pass is to hold the defensive position of the pass to the death. The Legion and the Green Forest Mountain Legion of the Principality of Faker, which is located in the Matenemadi Mountains and Rivers on the right, can also sneak attack on the camp or flank the camp when the enemy is not prepared, and involve the attack of the Allied forces of the Kingdom of Antinac. But now that the battalion has retreated fifty miles, the defenders don't know which direction the Second Highness will attack next, and the places where the three legions are stationed on the front line may be attacked.
In order to find out the purpose of His Royal Highness's withdrawal of the camp, the defending Principality of Handa sent many scouts down the mountain to investigate. However, the fifty miles that the Second Highness retreated back were all plains, where light cavalry galloped freely. All the scouts who came down the mountain encountered the attack of light cavalry, but surrendered or died. Suddenly, the scouts sent by the defender suffered heavy casualties. The lucky few will be able to report back what they have detected.
Standing against each other is not a truce, but a continuous mental pressure on the defensive enemy without taking the initiative to attack, and finally forces the enemy to collapse due to the unbearable pressure. His Highness did a very good job at this point. Although he retreated fifty miles, he ordered Lorist's Flying Tiger Legion and the two legions of Grand Duke Feisabrunn to use the mobility of the cavalry to suddenly appear in the enemy's three defenses. In front of the position, make a feint posture so that the defenders dare not relax.
After arranging the layout of the two camps on the front line, His Royal Highness handed over the affairs of the front line to Lorist and Grand Duke Feisabrunn respectively. It was nothing more than one person in charge of a large village, and continued to maintain pressure on the defenders to prevent the enemy from jumping over the wall in a hurry. The sneak attack and so on, and he himself led the family army of Earl Shaheen to return to the city of Pedro. In the next two years, the Summer Palace in Pedro City will become the base camp of the Second Highness, where the Second Highness will handle the affairs of the newly occupied three duchies, eight provinces and the kingdom, and preside over the development of the eight provinces and construction, providing sufficient armaments and supplies for the frontline army.
Looking at the various military flags fluttering in the distance, Duke Kenmes, who came to see His Highness off, turned his head and said to Lorist, "Henneid is so stupid, he didn't get any favors from His Majesty this time, he's so stupid He was regarded as a thug by His Majesty. I bet that His Majesty is planning to take the nobles of the Duchy of Forendo when he returns to Pedro this time, and Henned is the knife in his hand."
This time, he agreed to cooperate with His Royal Highness to adopt a strategy of not attacking each other to deal with the four grand dukes in the middle. Grand Duke Fesabrun asked for a legion of weapons and equipment and a quota of 50,000 immigrants after capturing the Principality of Handra. Duke Kenmes took By two years the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce had promised duty-free passage throughout the kingdom. Count Felim asked for 30,000 young and strong laborers after the war to open up the southern province. Lorist got another three years of tax holidays for the family territory and the jurisdictional territory, so it can be said that each gets what it needs. It's just that Earl Shaheen was too straightforward, and asked His Highness to assign him a province rich in mineral resources as a family territory after the war, without any specific rewards.
"It's a blessing to be stupid." Lorist said, "Henneid went to serve His Majesty as a knife this time, and it was actually His Majesty's compensation for him. Now all the troops of our family are here, and all the logistics and supplies we need are all there. Long-distance transportation is required, which is really costly. Although the Principality of Forendo has not suffered much damage from the war, its accumulated food, grass and military supplies have almost been consumed. Although the harvest of winter wheat is not without benefit to His Majesty, it can It cannot support the army for a long time.
There are still three or four months before the next grain harvest here. No matter how capable your majesty is, you will not be able to produce grain in such a long period of time. In addition to arranging farming to encourage production, the cost of grain and grass transported by logistics is too high and expensive , so the best way is to clean up those territorial nobles in the Duchy of Forendo. It is estimated that His Majesty can easily obtain the food and salary of 300,000 troops for a year with this knife. And during the execution of Henned, are you still worried that he won't be able to drink the soup? His Majesty would turn a blind eye to any two or three hundred thousand Jinford. "
Earl Felim snorted unhappily: "This guy got lucky, I hope he won't be drawn over by His Majesty."
"Hehe..." Duke Kenmes hurriedly smoothed things over. After all, Earl Shaheen is related to him, and his cousin is now the mistress of the Shaheen family: "Don't worry, Henned is a bit stupid, but he It is still very clear that our four families in the Northland are connected together, and His Majesty is just using him, and it is impossible to win him over. Besides, at the end of last year, your two families were different. Your Majesty was furious. I guess His Majesty's idea of attacking those nobles in the territories was also inspired by you two... "
Earl Felim was speechless. It was indeed a bit unreasonable to move the refugees and raid the nobles of the Principality of Faker at the end of last year, but Lorist was plausible: "You don't understand our predicament at that time, you think His Majesty just We have given us food and grass for 150,000 people for 15 days, but is it possible to let so many refugees move to the city of Windbury? If we don’t sweep those noble territories, how can we get food and clothing? And we helped His Majesty clean up the law The instability factor in the Principality of Kerr saves him the trouble of doing it himself. It is unreasonable for him to lose his temper without thanking us..."
Duke Kenmes and Earl Felim laughed dumbfounded, that is Lorist, His Majesty has nothing to do with him. His Highness the Second Highness can be considered majestic, but he always suffers when he meets Lorist. Even the remaining three families of the Four Northern Lands Alliance took a lot of advantage from His Highness the Second Highness.
Lorist was actually upset, why the Second Highness dismissed those noble allied forces, but refused to let him go back to the Northland, and even pretended to let him take charge of the affairs of the front line, and adopted a strategy of not attacking the front line. What urgent business? There will be no major battles in the future, and the small matter of maintaining the offensive pressure on the defensive positions of the Principality of Handra can be handed over to Tiger Ross. Why do you leave yourself here to bask in the sun...
Lorist felt that he had fallen into the big pit he had dug this time. Thinking about staying here for two years, he felt that life would be worse than death. However, seeing that the Grand Duke Fesabrun was also kept on the front line by His Highness the Second Highness, he felt more psychologically balanced. People are like this, it is pain when one person is unlucky, and it becomes happiness to see someone who is unlucky with him.
Thinking about it carefully, Lorist thinks that the Second Highness's arrangements for him and the Grand Duke of Feisabrun are really interesting. If the two of them are allowed to return to the family territory, maybe Lorist will have the idea of the Feisabrun family again. . This is also helpless, whoever called Zhou Bian from the four Beidi families was only such a target to be bullied. Moreover, the Feisabrun family had already gotten so close to His Highness the Second Highness. Lorist did not want such a threatening force to stay next to the family territory, and would never hesitate to suppress it when he could.
Although the Second Highness is hostile to the four alliances of the Northern Lands, he is far away, and as a king, he has to be measured. It is impossible to directly tear his face and fight the Norton family, so Lorist will do it even if the Second Highness suffers. It's very ingenious, as long as the Second Highness doesn't get the handle, no one can do anything to him, and the Second Highness has to be concerned about the strength of the Norton family, even if he wants to turn his face, he has to think about whether he can afford it...
Now His Royal Highness is forcing Lorist and Grand Duke Feisabrun to stay on the front line and not allowing them to return to the family territory, and has also given them the right to make decisions on the fly, so it is obvious that they should calm down and not return to the family territory Just make up their minds and start internal strife? Now that the kingdom is in the final battle against the four principalities in the middle, the Second Highness does not want any further twists and turns between the Norton family and the Feisabrun family, so as not to affect the frontline battle situation.
You all go to the Principality of Handela if you have the energy, and you all stay under my nose and don't make any troubles. It seems that His Royal Highness understands very well that although the Feisabrun family signed an armistice agreement with the four alliances of the Northland, it has already annoyed with the surrender of the Feisabrun family to him and the strong support of the Feisabrun family. Without Lorist, whoever becomes the head of the Norton family will not allow the Second Highness and the Feisabrun family to form a flanking attack on the Norton family. As long as there is a chance, Lorist will definitely not let the Fisabrun family go. As for the armistice agreement, just tear it up. If you want to go to war, you will never have to worry about finding a good excuse.
If only Lorist was kept but not Grand Duke Feisabrun, then Lorist would definitely not stay at the front line with peace of mind, and might leave without saying goodbye with the family armed. As for the Duke of Fesabrun and not Lorist, it is impossible for the Grand Duke of Fessabrun to stay here in peace. Perhaps after a while, he will hear the news that the territory of the Fessabrun family has been uprooted by Lorist. So everyone can rest assured only if both of them stay on the front line, and they can keep each other in check. This should be the calculation of the Second Highness. He stayed in the summer palace in Pedro City by himself, and he can effectively restrain the two from major conflicts and contradictions.
A few days after the Second Highness left, Duke Kenmes and Earl Felim also bid farewell to Lorist. They were very good, and they were very big-hearted. They directly handed over their family's armed forces to Lorist's command, and then traveled lightly. One was going to deploy the commercial network of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce in the eight newly occupied provinces, and the other was going back to the southern province to supervise the family. The development of the territory, anyway, the Second Highness has no requirements for them to force them to be on the front line, and he is very relieved to hand over his family's armed forces to Lorist, so he doesn't have to worry about becoming cannon fodder. As Earl Kenmes said, our four families are one, and we can rest assured that we will be under your command...
Well, as soon as they left, Lorist felt bored. Although Earl Felim said that he would be back in two months, Lorist still felt bored, so he just focused on tossing the three of the Duke of Handela. Go up the defensive position. Didn't they say that their catapults are condescending, and they all use the principle of leverage, but the catapults can't be thrown as far as their own catapults, which is really bad. So Lorist found a group of craftsmen to make a dozen huge lever-type trebuchets, placed them in front of the three defensive positions, threw stones from the bottom of the mountain up the mountain, and smashed straight at the defensive positions on the hillside.
Lorist made such a big commotion that the Second Highness in Pedro City was also alarmed, and Pegasus rushed to the front line to watch the trebuchet. Lorist didn't care either, his crude giant trebuchet was not accurate enough to throw it far, and it was troublesome to operate, every throw required a dozen soldiers to forcefully pull the lever, and additional assembly was required. The heavy box, the frequency of throwing stones is too slow...
However, His Highness the Second Highness and the Grand Duke Fesabrun were already amazed by Lorist. Such a simple trebuchet is clear at a glance. It is a huge log frame, and a long and tough piece of wood is used as a lever. Hang a counterweight box on the upper tail, put a leather pocket on the head of the lever and put a stone the size of a human head, cut off the tether on the head of the lever with a single knife, and use the heavy counterweight box to hang down to lift the lever high , and then throw the stone to the defensive position on the hillside five or six hundred meters away...
This was really an unexpected surprise for His Royal Highness, he happily asked Lorist if he could make more of these trebuchets to smash the defensive position to pieces, and then take the opportunity to capture the defensive position at the mountain pass
Lorist shook his head and told him bluntly that this thing is useless. Look, the same catapult throws stones of the same size and weight that are separated by a distance of one or two hundred meters. No one can control the accuracy of this catapult. . So it's okay to harass the enemy with this thing, don't even think about taking positions with it, it's good luck to cause a little casualties to the enemy.
The Second Highness walked away resentfully, but before leaving, he drew this pattern of lever throwing stones. Lorist didn't care either. Anyway, if the Second Highness wants to use this kind of throwing stones to deal with the Norton family, it will be a joke. This lever-type trebuchet is huge and heavy, and it is extremely inconvenient to move. When the bronze artillery of his family appeared on the battlefield, this kind of trebuchet could only obediently become the target of artillery fire.
Lorist regards this crude giant trebuchet as a means of harassing the defensive position, and doesn't care much about the effect of the catapult, but the garrison armies of the three principalities on the defensive position can't stand it, because this thing is useless, and no one can stand it. I don't know where the next stone will be thrown. The soldiers entering the defensive position look up at the sky every day, afraid that if they don't pay attention, they don't know where to drop a stone and blow their heads...
In this way, the generals of the three garrison regiments discussed a solution, and then used a night attack to successfully go down the mountain to break through the guard, and burned the dozen or so giant trebuchets. So Lorist got angry, and ordered the craftsmen to rush to make these catapults, and paid out of his own pocket as a reward, made a giant catapult twice as large as before, and harassed the defensive positions again.
This time the stone-throwing Lorist changed his tricks, instead of throwing those human-headed stones, he shattered them. A large bag of fist-sized stones was thrown like a rain of stones. It was fatal, but it smashed the garrison soldiers on the defensive position.
Several garrison regiments couldn't stay still anymore, and went down the mountain to sneak attack again. But this time when he hit the iron plate, Lorist had already quietly transferred the Flying Tiger Legion's chariot steel crossbow corps to lie in ambush. A small number of them fled back to the mountain cleverly.
Then Lorist was inspired by the kerosene carried by the garrison soldiers who went down the mountain to sneak attack. He transported a large amount of kerosene from the rear, put it in clay pots and threw it out, and then threw fire stones, and soon the front of the defensive position was ignited. There was a raging fire. It can be considered that the garrison soldiers on the defensive position were well prepared, and quickly covered the kerosene and the burning ground with sand, preventing Lorist from taking the opportunity to attack successfully.
…