A Cather-style steel helmet, an R30 field suit, black boots, a Grumman M3.2K rifle, and a leather bullet pouch – this is standard equipment for Ulster Free Federated Army soldiers. With the launch of the national mobilization, the glorious Basston Student Regiment was once again integrated into the army's combat sequence, and each student soldier was assigned weapons, equipment and supplies according to the standard of an active soldier, carried out various military tasks, and was put into the front line when necessary to kill the enemy. This practice, following the tradition of the Federal Army, has trained excellent combat-oriented commanders for the army, but it has also been criticized by people. You must know that the Gaston Military Academy produces a qualified cadet, and it consumes a hundred times more national resources than training recruits. On the battlefield, in the face of the enemy's guns, there is no essential difference in the probability of casualties between student soldiers and ordinary soldiers.

Upon arrival at the 8th Garrison, the Baston Student Regiment was sent to patrol the wooded terrain in the southern part of the area. Weiss, who made a big splash at last year's fall conference, has become the "rising star" with the most attention among third-graders. He, along with Otto Lunders, Joffen Grund, and Luen-Schmidt, were appointed deputy commanders of the 1st to 4th Combat Battalions, the highest positions that cadets could hold in the Student Corps at this stage - given that the Free Federation of Ulster and the Norman Empire were on the brink of war, and the Basston Student Corps was faced not with training exercises, but with the possibility of war at any time, the federal military assigned the experienced Colonel Lori Capes as the commander of the student regiment, and he selected four active duty officers to serve as battalion commanders, Sixteen instructors and inspectors were sent to serve as company commanders or inspectors, and the cadets competed for the positions of regimental staff officers, deputy battalion commanders, and vacant company platoon commanders on the basis of their academic results, school recommendations, and self-recommended speeches.

For the first week, the Baston Student Corps did not find anything unusual in the patrol area, and everyone's attention was still focused on the general situation. Receiving edification and baptism in such a top military academy as the Baseton Military Academy, their horizons are naturally higher than those of ordinary soldiers, and their thinking is more broad-minded than ordinary people. They were well aware that for such a large and populous country as the Free Federation of Ulster, the national mobilization, once it began, was on the fast track to war. Only during the communication-response period when the mobilization order has just been issued, the government can still urgently suspend it, and when the mobilization system is operational, any order to stop mobilization will have catastrophic consequences, so no decision-maker will risk issuing such an order. When the mobilization is completed, millions of soldiers are incorporated into thousands of combat units, astronomical war materials are transferred from warehouses or production lines to combat areas, and the entire country's economic system has also shifted to wartime mode.

In the current situation, the probability of such a scenario is very small!

A complete national mobilization is a complicated and lengthy process. The criterion by which countries measure the effectiveness of mobilization is usually the shortest time it takes for reserve troops to assemble, equip and travel to the operational area. According to the mobilization schedule, it took 18 days for the Ulster Free Federation to assemble and deploy its 165 field divisions, while the Norman Empire seemed to be able to assemble its 120 field divisions in 14 days, which was about the same. However, the situation was very different now than it had been when the mobilization plan was formulated: the Norman Empire had added the region of North Fries and half of the Kingdom of Wessex to its actual control, and its forces had to balance both the home and northern fronts, both offensive and defensive. Although the de facto control of the Ulster Free Confederation has not changed, it used to be only on guard against threats from the west, but now it needs to deal with both the enemy that may attack from the west and the north.

By the second week, the Federal Army's border guard units began to detect unidentified aircraft crossing the border. The aviation units have been on full alert, intercepting and expelling aircraft that have entered the country illegally on many occasions, and the ground forces have also entered the second level of combat alert -- the alert level is second only to the combat alert. At this stage, the Baston student regiment stationed in the southern part of the 8th garrison was equipped with horses, and the patrol method changed from foot to bicycle, which naturally improved a lot of efficiency, but unfortunately the superiors vetoed their proposal to use aircraft for air patrols, otherwise, the efficiency of alert patrols could be greatly improved.

Because of the hostile attack during the last autumn parade, the cadets of the Baston Student Corps were extra vigilant during the patrol, so that there were several false alarms. Time passed, and the expected Norman scouts never appeared in this depth of three or four hundred miles from the border, but the external situation deteriorated day by day: the Norman army once again advanced to the capital of the Kingdom of Wessex, and fought fiercely with the Wessex army in the mountain city of Wallenz southwest of Tik City for two days and two nights, defeating the famous elite Wessex Guard, and it is rumored that the Wessex royal family and government have made the decision to abandon the capital and retreat to the north to continue to organize resistance. In this way, the Wessex army only had the ability to defend and not counterattack for a short time, and most of the territory and resources of the Wessex Kingdom were used by the Norman Empire, and then, there was basically nothing to prevent the Norman Empire from waging war against the Ulster Free Federation.

In August, the warmest season of the year, the Ulster Free Federation, which had enjoyed twenty years of peace, was once again shrouded in the shadow of war. In the middle of the year, the Norman Empire, which had largely completed its mobilization for the war, sent a high-level diplomatic mission to the Free Commonwealth of Ulster. Duke Diribes-Roland, the Norman Foreign Minister of the Norman Empire, who had gained a good reputation during his previous visit to the Commonwealth, came to Liberty City on a so-called peace mission to meet with President Lebold and hold consultations with the military and political leaders of the Commonwealth. The Duke of Roland stated that the Norman Empire was willing to sign a twenty-year peace treaty with the Free Commonwealth. During this period, the Norman army never entered the territory of the Union for any reason, and the Union army never left the territory of the Union for any reason, except for persons of exchange and exchange.

An unconditional peace agreement for twenty years of peace sounds very tempting. However, the Normans hid their preconditions in the terms of the agreement that the Union troops could not leave the Union territory, and therefore could not interfere with the Norman army's military operations in Fries and Wessex, in other words. The federal government can only hide at home and watch the countries outside be occupied by the Norman Empire one after another, and the Norman Empire twenty years later will most likely become a supergiant that the federal government cannot defeat!

Most of the federal military and political officials were resolutely opposed to the Normans' delaying tactics, and the commander-in-chief of the army, General Nichols, even issued an angry voice at the plenary meeting of the National Defense Committee: "If you want to fight, you will fight, and you will not flinch!"

Admiral Nichols' statement was certainly full of pride, but not everyone in the military's top brass was as upright and resolute as he was. In the early stage, it was precisely because of the short-sighted ideas of some people that the Kingdom of Wessex independently fought against the Norman Empire, and the result was a complete defeat. Under the chairmanship of President Leibold , the National Defense Committee unified its rhetoric and made a decision at the strategic level: it would not give in to the Norman Empire, even if it was a full-scale war. The bottom line was for the Norman army to immediately stop the offensive on Wessex and end the war with armistice negotiations. On this basis, consideration could be given to accepting the Norman Empire's claims for compensation, including claims to North Fries, as well as part of the Wessex territory.

Knowing the attitude of the top level of the Federation from the mouth of the federal diplomat, Duke Roland, the Norman Foreign Minister who visited the Federation, smiled awkwardly. Two days later, Norman artillery shells began to fall on the city of Tik, the capital of Wessex. That same night, the Federal Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war on the Norman Empire - out of the last hope for peace, before officially declaring war on the Norman Empire, the federal government issued an ultimatum that the Norman Empire would immediately resume negotiations with the Norman Empire as soon as it declared a ceasefire on all fronts within 12 hours.

This 12 hours were used by the Norman Empire to intensify the attack on the capital of Wessex, and the heavy bombs dropped by flying warships blasted one gap after another in the thick walls of Tik City, which was unparalleled in the world, greatly shocking the Wessex soldiers and civilians in the city. After a dismal end of his visit, the Norman Foreign Minister and his men traveled north to the Kingdom of Wessex in an attempt to persuade King Edra II to give up his resistance, but was met with a decisive refusal. The King of Wessex arrogantly stated that he and the royal family, the government, and the soldiers and civilians who were determined to resist the Norman invasion were retreating to the bitter cold of the north, which had not been conquered by a foreign tribe for thousands of years. They would hold out there until the Normans withdrew from the kingdom of Wessex.

At the end of the ultimatum, the Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs sent a note declaring war to the Norman ambassador in Free City, announcing that from immediate effect the Free Commonwealth of Ulster and the Norman Empire were at war, and instructed the Norman diplomats to leave the Commonwealth within a limited time, and at the same time formally recalled the diplomatic officers of his country to the Norman Empire.

Two hours later, the Norman Empire declared war on the Free Confederation of Ulster.

At this point, the three great powers, which occupy 64% of the land area and nearly 70% of the population of the planet Orens, are once again involved in the war. The middle-aged and elderly people in these countries still have fresh memories of the cruel and ruthless war scene of the last war, and they were often silent when talking about war in the past, but when the time of war really came, most of them still responded to the call of the country without hesitation and put themselves into war preparedness in the way they could.

This magnificent picture of war has begun......