Ashtiton.

The royal capital of the kingdom of Aqui.

King Qadir III, though not a diligent king, sat on his throne at this time, listening to the reports of his ministers. The attendees of this imperial council were all important ministers of the empire.

According to the report of War Minister Andrasius, the big war with Arubania, which was originally scheduled to start this year, has finally come to an end since the war began at the beginning of the year. The 300,000 Yaki troops participated in the general battle, and even the priest army of the Yaki country joined it, so it can be said that the battle was carried out with the strength of the whole country. In contrast, Arubania also sent 400,000 troops to meet it.

The battle was not going well at first, with the Yaggi Army at a disadvantage on all fronts, and in the end, it was the young general of the Priest Army, Vulture, who broke the situation. He led an army of 20,000 priests through the desert through the desert and cut off the Arubanian retreat from the rear, which eventually led to the rout of the Arubanian army in a full-scale decisive battle with the Yaqui army. As a result of this battle, nearly 300,000 Arubanian troops were killed, and more importantly, 35 generals were killed in the battle, and the military backbone of Arubania suffered unprecedented losses.

Originally, the battle was supposed to end in a complete victory for the Yaki army, but unfortunately the Yaki army was too scattered and relaxed its vigilance when chasing and defeating the fleeing Arubanian army, and was ambushed by a small group of Arubanian troops and suffered heavy losses. This enemy army took advantage of the victory and successively broke through the scattered sub-base army, which made the whole strategic situation very ugly, and finally the sub-base army had to choose to temporarily withdraw its troops, so the two sides gave up. The final result was that the Yaji Army also produced more than 150,000 war casualties before and after, which can be said to be a defeat for both sides. However, the heavy losses of Arubania established that Yaki had firmly held the upper hand in the war between the two countries, and that Arubania would not be able to launch an offensive for a long time to come. And Adlem, the commander who finally saved Arubania's defeat, also became a hero of Arubania.

Kadir III was satisfied with this result, but of course he was a little apprehensive about the greatest feats made by the Vulture of the Priest Army, which meant that the status of the Priest Army would be greatly improved, which was not good for the royal power; And the other piece of news is completely negative. Jakbu, the lord of the Tiers Mountains, sent an army to recruit the rebellious bandits, but the whole army was wiped out, and almost the entire Tiers Mountains were lost, and now all except the city of Hykum had fallen into the hands of the thieves, and the port of Portsmo in the south was completely isolated.

Kadir supported the armrest of the throne with his elbows, touched his newly trimmed beard, and glanced around the ministers and generals with a frown, before speaking: "My lords, although Count Jacob is young, he should still be a useful talent, and the generals he chooses are not general. But how could he defeat an army of less than 20,000 thieves with 50,000 people, and he was so miserably defeated that he even lost the Dils territory. I'd like to hear your thoughts. ”

Prime Minister Usubu stood up first and said, "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that there is a problem with Lord Jakbu's employment. Dara is a defeated general, Gernus has been exiled for many years, he has long been unfamiliar with fighting with troops, I am afraid that he is still dissatisfied with His Majesty, how can he do his best to lead his troops? It turns out that both men have surrendered to the thief army, which led to this defeat. ”

As soon as Usubu said this, it immediately caused a small fluctuation among the generals. Kadir III swept his eyes over, and the generals regained their quiet. At this time, the old general Ulysses stood up and said: "I can't agree with the opinion of the Prime Minister, from the battle report sent, there is no major omission in the command policy of Lord Gurnas, all his actions are to strive for the possibility of victory, only because the intelligence system and command of the thief army are better will become passive everywhere. In addition, according to the reports of the surviving soldiers, it was precisely because of the unfortunate plot of the thief army that our army lost its unified command and suffered defeat, and the defection of Lord Gernas was a matter of later and should not be confused with the responsibility for defeat. ”

Usubu was about to open his mouth to retort, but was stopped by Kadir waving his hand. Kadir changed his posture and continued to stroke his beard, "Lord Chancellor, Lord Ulysses, you don't seem to understand my thoughts. I don't want to hold the defeated accountable now, we can't punish the defeated generals who surrendered to the thief army, and how the lords who lost their territory are punished just need to act in accordance with the laws of the country. What I want to know now is your assessment of the strength of this army of thieves and the corresponding policy on how to destroy this force. Although the Dils Territory is barren, the loss of such a land will not make me and you as a king have any glory on our faces, right? ”

When Ulysses heard this, he immediately replied: "Your Majesty, the old minister thinks that this thief army has been properly commanded in several battles, and it is obvious that there is a quite good commander, and I heard that this person's name is Li Tianhao, and he is the righteous son of the thief leader Chail. Now that several generals led by Lord Grunas have defected, the situation of our army must be known to the thief army. In addition, the cavalry losses in this war with Arubania were quite serious, and if you want to enter the army, you can only use infantry, so the speed of the march will inevitably be slow, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of a surprise attack, so it is more suitable to fight steadily, so we should make full preparations for this, rely on the Nanluo River as a transportation and supply line, prepare for long-term operations, and gradually disintegrate and eliminate this bandit army. ”

"Your Majesty, Wechen agrees with General Ulysses that this war with Arubania is also a heavy loss for our country, and all sides need a time to recover and prepare. Weichen thought that since he wanted to do it, it was better to make enough preparations and give the thief army a fatal blow with the power of thunder. Fortunately, the Arubanian army has suffered heavy losses this time, and it is absolutely impossible to start a war against our country in a short period of time, which just gives us time to calm the rear. ”

Kadir looked around at the ministers, and none of them expressed any objections, on the one hand, because Ulysses and Andrasius had more pertinent opinions, and on the other hand, because Ulysses had a high reputation in the army, and if he wanted to say anything against it, the prime minister Usub did not speak, and it was not necessarily useful for others to say it.

The opinions of the ministers did not correspond to Kadir's ideas. He originally wanted to take advantage of the fact that the foundation of the thief army was not yet solid, but it was obvious that everyone was exhausted by this year's war with Arubania, and they would not approve of starting a new war at this time, so it would be difficult to force them to send troops. It wasn't something he had to fight for, and he had more pressing things to deal with right now. At the moment, he said, "Since there is no objection from everyone, let's prepare according to the advice of Master Ulysses." Prime Minister, how much time do you think it will take to complete this preparation? ”

Usubu hesitated for a moment and replied, "If you want to use an army of about 100,000, it will take at least half a year to prepare. ”

"I'll give you nine months! Be sure to be well prepared, and you will draw up a detailed battle strategy and a list of personnel to participate in the battle and submit it to me. That's all for today's Imperial Meeting, I'm a little tired, I need to take a break. With that, Kadir got up and left.

"Greetings to Your Majesty." The ministers stood up, saluted respectfully, and watched their king gallop towards the **. Everyone knew that their king was going to devote himself to his fruitless work of creating an heir to the throne.