On the last day of July, the Ulster Free Federation, Austria, the training ground of the Baseton Military Academy.

More than 400 cadets of the military academy marched in full armor. On these childish young faces, there is an unprecedented seriousness and coldness, and some people even turn pale because of nervousness.

On the viewing platform on the north side of the training ground, Principal Ademir Leno delivered an impassioned speech to the upcoming Baseton student group. On the VIP seat behind him, there were more than a dozen military officials, including Colonel Lemisis, chief of staff of the 8th Garrison - according to the arrangement of the General Staff of the Federal Army, the Batton Student Regiment will be deployed to the 8th Garrison on the border with the Kingdom of Wessex.

In the first row of the cadet queue, Weiss held his head high and looked ahead. General Leno was at the helm of the Patston Military Academy, and although he did some real things to improve the teaching conditions and improve the treatment of the instructors, his bureaucratic style made it difficult for him to be loved by the cadets like the previous principal, General Vanton. In normal times, Weiss would have felt that his words were dull and lackluster, but now it is different from the past, this trip is not to the exercise ground, but to the real battlefield, and no one can guarantee that he will return to the military academy alive. As a result, everyone was engrossed in Principal Leno's speech, even if the content was still as empty as ever.

More than a month ago, when the Norman Empire had just sent troops to North Fries, the world did not expect that the situation would go out of such a strange route: in the Battle of Bergest, the Royal Fleet of Wessex attacked bravely, and as a result, most of the main force was lost, and the remaining ships were withdrawn to the mainland in disarray, and after successfully seizing air supremacy, the Norman army swept away the leaves in the autumn wind, and it took only 9 days to quell the independent rebellion of the Yoken people with the Friesian government army, and drive all the Wessex troops out of North Fries.

At this point, the Norman Empire had become the number one winner in the Northfries crisis. The world speculated about how the Normans would deal with the follow-up, and as a result, the Norman Empire uncharacteristically signed an Iron Alliance agreement with the Friesian Kingdom in a swift manner, promising not to encroach on an inch of the Fries' territory. Over the next two weeks, Norman forces continued to march into North Fries in the name of clearing the Yorken guerrillas, and reinforced the Northern Fleet with a large number of ships drawn from the Home Garrison, the Reserve Fleet, and the Eastern Fleet. By this time, the discerning people had already seen that the Norman Empire's appetite was not just to control North Fries, but to have very terrible ambitions. Sure enough, the Norman Empire, in the name of the Wessex army crossing the border to attack the Friesian government army, invoked the terms of the Norman-Friesian Steel Alliance, directly skipped the external communication, and declared war on the Wessex Kingdom!

Faced with the notoriously defensive Wessex army, the Norman army launched a blitzkrieg that shocked the world. On the day of the declaration of war, the Norman Northern Fleet rushed to attack the Kus Air Harbor in Wessex, and the new weapons that smashed the main ships of Wessex in the Battle of Siege once again became the can opener on the battlefield, and the Norman warships continuously dropped "devil bombs" outside the range of the defenders' ground anti-aircraft artillery fire, and it took only half a day to tear a big hole in the air defense circle of the Kus Air Harbor, forcing the Wessex ships stationed here to take off to meet the battle. The ensuing battle was almost a rehash of the Battle of Bergest, where the Wessex fleet fought stubbornly and saw the light of victory at one point, but was ultimately defeated.

Having lost the important strategic stronghold of Kus Air Harbor, the Wessex army's defense in the southern region was completely passive, while the Norman army uprooted one Wessex stronghold after another and annihilated one Wessex force after another with first-class air-ground coordination tactics and leapfrog offensive strategies. After half a month of fighting, the Wessex army gradually lost confidence and morale under successive setbacks. Faced with such a situation, the Wessex high-level had no choice but to adopt a strategy of shrinking the defense on the one hand, and asking for help from the Ulster Free Federation on the other.

The Wessex-Ulster alliance was originally a defensive alliance, and if either side provoked a war abroad, the other side did not have to take part in the war. The Norman Empire's accusation that the Wessex army invaded the Kingdom of Fries is not very clever in itself, the key is that it is an indisputable fact that the Kingdom of Wessex previously sent troops to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Fries, and the federal government actively mediated and mediated, but it was manipulated by the Wessex high-level several times, causing the federal government to be deeply passive. When the Norman army invaded the Kingdom of Wessex, the top of the Confederation knew that the two countries were closely related, but there was a serious disagreement over the declaration of war on the Norman Empire. Many military and political officials believe that the ambitions of the power class of the Wessex Kingdom are too inflated, and the military attack of the Norman Empire can make them calm down and examine their own situation again, and the Ulster Free Federation only needs to exert a certain amount of pressure on the Norman Empire militarily, so that the Normans cannot go north with all their strength, with the geographical environment of the Wessex Kingdom that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if the elite of the aviation force is lost, it can hold out for a long time. During this period, the Confederation was able to prepare for war and take the opportunity to find out the military strength of the Norman Empire, which was a good idea to kill two birds with one stone - this idea of taking advantage of the fisherman was very popular not only in the middle and upper ranks, but also in the general public, even though the prestige of President Leibold denounced this as appeasement and called on members of Congress to vote in favor of the declaration of war, but neither congressional vote reached the required number of votes.

At the beginning of July, the Norman army occupied the richest southern part of the Wessex Kingdom at an unexpected speed, not only dealing a heavy blow to the Wessex royal fleet, but also annihilating the Southland Army, the most elite of the Wessex army. Intimidated by the unprecedented might of the Norman army, the top level of the Federation finally formed a relative unity of consciousness to put pressure on the Norman Empire by raising the level of national defense mobilization and holding large-scale military exercises on the western border, but the Norman army was advancing on the battlefield of Wessex, and this conventional means had little effect. By mid-quarters, the Norman army had approached the capital of Wessex, Tick, on two fronts. The federal government issued a warning to the Norman Empire through diplomatic channels that if the Norman army attacked the capital of Wessex, its significance would go beyond the scope of counterattack operations, and the Free Commonwealth of Ulster would regard this move of the Norman Empire as military aggression, and the defensive alliance clause of the Treaty of Ulster-Wessex would automatically take effect, and the two countries would immediately enter a state of war.

After two decades of recovery and development after the war, the Ulster Free Commonwealth was significantly ahead of the Norman Empire in terms of industrial strength and national defense mobilization capabilities. The Normans should have been well aware of the gap between the two countries, and from intervening in the North Fries crisis to entering Wessex proper, they were all under the guise of a local war, neither carrying out full mobilization nor turning to wartime production, but in the form of demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall, drawing troops from various defense areas to reinforce the Wessex battlefield, thus creating a defensive void on the eastern border. In response to the Federal Government's warning, the Norman government relented bitterly: they gave Federal diplomats a promise that they would never attack the capital of Wessex, and stated that the Normans were willing to accept the armistice on the condition that Wessex accept the armistice demands of the Norman Empire and the Kingdom of Fries.

However, the armistice conditions proposed by the Norman Empire and the Kingdom of Fries were not only harsh, but also suspected of trampling on the dignity of the Kingdom of Wessex, and even the federal diplomats felt ashamed to say it, how could the royal family and government of Wessex accept it?

As a result, the Norman army continued to march across the territory of Wessex. They did what they promised, and instead of storming the capital of Wessex, they reversed their forces and made an unstoppable attack on the southeastern part of Wessex. By mid-July, the Wessex Eastland Legion, with nearly 200,000 elites, had only a few tens of thousands of remnants left, and several strategic strongholds and industrial towns fell into the hands of the Normans. It is important to know that the southeastern region is an important mineral and industrial area of Wessex, where one-third of the country's tax revenue comes from, and it is also the land border between the Kingdom of Wessex and the Free Federation of Ulster. Once the Norman army fully occupied the southeastern part of Wessex, it not only severed the land ties of the Ulster-Wessex Alliance, but also gained a strategic springboard to attack the Free Federation of Ulster from the north.

It was only by this time that the Federation, who had illusions in the Norman Empire, gloated over the Kingdom of Wessex, and had little understanding of their own situation, finally realized what a mistake they had made: their most powerful allies had been crippled, their inherent geographical superiority had been broken, and their own combat readiness was not satisfactory...... In the current situation, whether the Normans are quick or protracted, it will be difficult for the Union army to achieve a great comeback like in the previous war.

The day after the Norman army conquered Rose, an industrial city southeast of Wessex, the Ulster Free Federation finally announced a national mobilization - all male citizens between the ages of 17 and 49, as long as they were in good health, were included in the army's conscription, which meant that the federal army opened the door to almost a steady stream of soldiers; All registered industrial and mining enterprises, whether state-owned or private, were to be transferred to wartime production in accordance with the dispatch of the National Defense Commission; All the human and material resources of the Federation, from the moment the mobilization order was issued, were all integrated into the Federal Defense System - this is the most valuable wealth of experience that the Federation people have gained through the last war!

Having learned of the national mobilization of the Ulster Free Confederation, the Normans did not hesitate to issue their general mobilization order. Hundreds of years of military tradition, a perfect staff system, a smaller land area, a more concentrated population distribution, and more developed transportation facilities gave the Norman Empire a more sophisticated mobilization system. Even so, the Norman diplomats in the Confederation immediately inquired about the possibility of terminating the general mobilization, and received the reply that the Norman Empire would cease mobilization within 24 hours and declare a ceasefire, and withdraw its troops from southeastern Wessex within 10 days. Under this premise, a tripartite armistice was negotiated between the Norman Empire, the Kingdom of Wessex, and the Free Confederation of Ulster.

The initial response of the Norman side to the federal government's request was to extend the 24-hour period to 48 hours, and verbally promised that the Norman Empire would guarantee the withdrawal of all troops from southeastern Wessex within ten days, provided that both countries stopped mobilizing at the same time.

Under the chairmanship of President Leibold, the Bundeswehr Council held an emergency meeting and, after heated debate, voted down the Norman Empire's request for a grace period, which had to make a decision before the expiration of 24 hours. Once the time limit is exceeded, the national mobilization of the Ulster Free Federation will proceed according to the established plan, and the fully equipped federal forces will launch a counterattack against all external forces that threaten the security of the country.

After receiving a final reply from the federal government, the Norman Empire ceased to make active efforts to avoid confrontation between the two countries, and began to secretly recall diplomatic and civil servants posted to the Commonwealth, retaining only some officials in high-ranking embassies. Just four days later, the first Norman combat force of reserve officers and reservists arrived in the Kingdom of Wessex, and in the southeastern part of Wessex, the Norman army, which was pursuing the enemy's rout, reached the federal border and clashed with the Union army that received the Wessex soldiers into the Union, resulting in casualties on both sides. Although the conflict did not expand in scale, and the two armies withdrew to fortifications near the border, both the Norman Empire and the Free Federation of Ulster increased their forces in this area, and the confrontation soon escalated to the rank of a legion, and the Norman Northern Fleet, which defeated the royal fleet of Wessex in one fell swoop, also appeared for the first time in the Wessex-Ulster border area, and the 2nd and 3rd fleets of the Federation Army also arrived in the 8th garrison.