the Kingdom of Subic, the capital of Mantas;

In the main hall of the castle, the ministers of the kingdom were holding the newly arrived letters, and they were all examining them with incredible eyes, as if they did not believe their own eyes. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"The 30,000-strong army was annihilated like this, is this a shame, or is it a joke of the front-line officers?" The ministers looked at the letter in their hands and spoke in a mocking manner. Of course they knew it wasn't a joke, but their previous way of thinking and habits of thought weren't willing to convince them of it.

"Your Majesty, we should immediately mobilize our troops to destroy them and punish those officers who have derelict their duties, the kingdom cannot accept such a disgrace!" A general rushed to the throne in a rage, his voice almost shouting. For them, the weak and incompetent regime of the Free Cities Alliance has long been in their pockets, and now their prey is biting their hunters to death, which is absolutely unacceptable to them.

"Should we think about negotiations, the dispute between us and the Warcraft is not over yet, those Warcraft are still staring at the vast land to our west, we should not fight on both fronts at the same time with the loss of a large number of troops, it is very disadvantageous for us." One of the ministers proposed another option, he was not the so-called Lords and factions (most of the lords and factions in the kingdom had been suppressed and exiled), but he still advocated temporary negotiations due to military and political needs.

"Our frontiers have been invaded by them, and South Anker has fallen into the hands of the enemy, and this is already a matter of sovereignty for the kingdom, and we cannot let it go. It took so much to reunite the kingdom, and we can't afford to back down in front of a group of people in the southwest and a few people from the east, and His Majesty's cause will be ruined! The general did not let up at all, and still insisted on his previous proposal.

"Your Excellency, I understand your thoughts and support your proposal. But consider how our Treasury feels, the war with Warcraft has already used up most of the war budget, and the major forts and border defenses need to spend more. Before those southern lords handed over the taxes to us, we now had enough money to pay off the barbarians in the mountains, let alone the pension of 30,000 troops and the military expenses and logistical maintenance of 100,000 men. The Chancellor of the Exchequer lifted his head out of the thick pile of financial statements and shook his head in dissatisfaction.

"Isn't there any more money?"

This time it was our Majesty the King who spoke, and it was clear which officers he was supporting, but when the Chancellor of the Exchequer said these words, he was not happy.

"Not only that, Your Majesty, we have already lost more than 20,000 heroic warriors in the previous Warcraft War, and with this loss, the kingdom has already left this world with 50,000 warriors. Now that we know that the strength of the other side is far beyond our imagination, once a large-scale war starts, the loss of the kingdom may make the whole country unable to recover within five years, and the economic problems will be more serious, and we may not be able to stop those southern lords from what happens in the high places. "The Home Secretary also spoke, and with one mouth it was very pessimistic. The Chancellor of the Exchequer next to him glanced at him, and also added at this critical time:

"Although our defeat is unacceptable to everyone, it is not worth paying such a big price for this small piece of land."

After the two of them had finished speaking, even the generals next to them said nothing, and all of them waited for His Majesty the King to speak, to give a result of this meeting, to put an end to the matter, or to cause a new beginning.

However, His Majesty was silent at this time, as if waiting for something, and the other ministers were also waiting, waiting for the vital military intelligence report to be delivered to His Majesty, and the battle report from the Southwestern Front directly determined the final outcome of this meeting.

After a long wait, one of the guards finally hurried into the hall with a tightly packed letter, which was handed over to the king's chief of guard, who in turn passed it on to his majesty. The king took the letter, tore open the cover, and read it. And the other ministers and generals also stared closely at His Majesty's face, speculating about what they might be responsible for later.

His Majesty's brow furrowed deeper and deeper, and then he put down the letter, pondered it on his cheeks for a while, and then handed it to the Secretary of State for the Interior, and then said with a blank face:

"Anker has also fallen, and the rebels in the southwest have occupied all the south of Anker."

The king's words were very light, but to these courtiers it was like thunder, and all the people came over, and the battle report was passed one after another, and after reading the letter, everyone stopped speaking, and the scene was silent for a while. The proponents of peace knew that there was no chance of negotiation, and those who advocated sending troops began to think about how to fight these formidable "invaders" on the lands of the kingdom.

"Now it's clear that now that the other side has already hit Anker, then we have only one way to fight. You should know that if the other party continues to move closer, relying on my sister and those old stubborns in the south to go north, the whole south of the kingdom will not belong to us. His Majesty looked at them and said very calmly.

"I want to.... With some emergency measures, we can still support this army for a while. The Chancellor of the Exchequer hesitated for a moment, then finally stepped forward.

"We can recruit young people, we can organize some troops on a temporary basis, but the quality will not be very good." The Home Secretary also stepped forward, and his attitude became as clear as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. They were well aware that now that the rebels had broken through the border areas in the south of the kingdom, the consequences could be dire if they continued to advance inward. There was no point in continuing to hold on to a question that might divide the whole kingdom, and the king could not accept it.

"Very good, then our problem is very clear in the next meeting, war is inevitable, you can tell us how we can win this battle." His Majesty nodded and raised his hand to signal the meeting to continue, and it had become a pre-war military meeting.

..............

In the south of the kingdom, the city of Anker.

At this time, the streets of Anker City were filled with skeletons and barbarians, and in the city lord's mansion, the city lord's seat was also seated with a new master.

"You're Maravich, Lord of South Anker?" I sat in the castle lord's spacious seat, holding the documents I had collected, and looked at the somewhat aged man in front of me.