"If you want to help the Shang Alliance make a feint, the scale of this battle can neither be big nor small!" spoke General Montgomery, chief of staff in the northern theater of San Jose.

After receiving the advice of King Lucius of the Merchant Alliance, the Imperial Council soon decided to respond to the plan of the Merchant Alliance's companions. The war tied the two nations together, and the Deciks became their common enemies.

Count Mosicke gave this task to the front staff and asked them to make a plan based on the current situation of the war. The front-line staff has worked hard for three days, but for the time being, they have not been able to come up with a reliable plan. The plan of the Shang Alliance was to use about 10,000 troops to carry out a series of military operations in the occupied areas of the former Carlin, Manning, and White Harbor, with the main purpose of contacting the local resistance groups.

However, the Shang Alliance was afraid of attracting retaliation from the Desik Dispatch Army, so it was necessary to keep the Desik Dispatch Army in a state of "combat readiness" and not act rashly. And how to make the Desik army be in a state of combat readiness at all times, and at the same time not be able to bear too many losses, this is the headache of the General Staff these days.

"Do you want to follow Viscount Slim's previous actions and strike at the sentry point from Red Leaf Town to the Kursk region again?" a staff officer suggested of his own.

"It doesn't mean much", General Montgomery vetoed his proposal, "Let's not say that the nodes of these posts are now more guarded, and their material transfer speed has increased, and at the same time, their vigilance has also increased. Our actions against these sentry nodes are basically not very good. ”

"Then, directly attack the frontal defense line of Kursk or Red Leaves, or Red Leaf Town, which is closer to the Shang Alliance?" another staff officer suggested.

"Peng!" General Montgomery slapped the young staff officer on the head, "Didn't your teacher at the Royal Military Academy teach you, the losses in offensive battles are much greater than those of the defenders, we are feints, do you really go to attack people's main positions and look for death?"

The staff officer didn't dare to speak, and he really took it for granted.

"Go, go clean the barracks toilet for me, don't come back if you don't clean it!" General Montgomery was not going to let him go, the staff officer had to prepare to go out in a gloomy manner, "Forget it, remember it first, and talk about it tomorrow, continue to come and discuss this plan for me!"

When Count Mosicke returned to the front headquarters, he saw this enthusiastic scene, General Montgomery with a group of top students of the Royal Military Academy, making a plan for a feint.

"How, Montgomery?" asked Count Mosicke, "is there a complete plan of action?"

"It's not too good, but there is no better way now, we are going to launch two lightweight counterattacks in both the Red Leaf Town and Kursk directions, using about 5,000 to 8,000 troops, using long-range attack weapons such as trebuchets. The aim was to mislead the Desiks into thinking that we were going to carry out a tentative attack before the great war. But I'll tell you the truth, Count Mosick, the timing is really not good, and there is usually no one to fight in the winter. So we can only use this way, but the Desik people are not fooled, that's another matter. ”

Count Mosik came to the map and looked at it carefully, and nodded, "It's a safer way." The political significance of this battle is greater than the military gain. We've just finished the war in the south, and Viscount Slim won't be back until he's cleared the Desik rout, so organize the front line yourself. Do as you say, and temptation is the Lord. If the Desiks really don't fall for it, then forget it, I don't think it's likely that they will be able to mobilize their troops to the Shang Alliance in the middle of winter. ”

"Speaking of which, what have the Shang Alliance been trying to do lately?" General Montgomery still didn't understand.

Count Mosik didn't finish, looked around, and then clapped his hands, "Everyone go out and let the guards guard the door." When there were only two men left in the room, the Earl of Mosique found a chair and sat down, motioning for Montgomery to sit as well, "King Lucius has sent us a letter of state, which states his needs. But he doesn't say anything else in the national letter, and what I and you are going to say below is the result of the analysis of the cabinet ministers of the Imperial Council in combination with our intelligence within the Business Alliance. ”

After the Merchant Alliance stabilized its defense, King Lucius became the new leader of the Merchant Alliance, and under his strong leadership, the Merchant Alliance set up three committees, military, diplomatic, and production, which were responsible for the unified organization and decision-making of the entire New Merchant Alliance. Among them, King Lucius is now the most prestigious leader of the entire merchant alliance due to his excellent qualities in the "Great Evacuation of White Harbor" (Note 1).

However, the problem lies in the business alliance itself. The country was originally made up of a number of small nations, and even after losing the war against the Desiks and losing many of their lands, many of the nobles of those small nations made it to Mister City alive.

The reason these nobles initially supported King Lucius was that Lucius promised them that they would reclaim the territory of the Merchant League and defeat the Desiks. However, for more than a year, except for a few military operations within the Shang Alliance, there were no plans for a counteroffensive. These nobles, who have lost their fiefdoms, homes and status, sigh and sigh on the streets of Mister every day with nothing to do, and their mood is getting worse and worse.

Although King Lucius had a high prestige, the nobles within these merchant alliances were not vegetarians. After a long period of dissatisfaction, some rumors began to appear in the Shang League, saying that "King Lucius vainly wants to become the emperor of the Shang League, and is unwilling to recover the land that the Shang League has fallen in the short term......"

The reason why a rumor is called a rumor is because it spreads so fast. However, within a few months, this originally nonsense rumor became rampant, and many foreign nobles began to face and face up to it.

King Lucius, of course, was not willing to sit idly by, whether he was really noble or pretended, and he had to face the rumors that the city was full of rumors if he remained still. However, with the strength of the Shang Alliance, King Lucius had to retreat.

At this moment of crisis, in order to cooperate with our actions, Kaman had mobilized a small army to Kalin to carry out activities, and in this small event, the headquarters of the New Business Alliance learned a very favorable news that in the large area of the northern lost territory, many large and small underground resistance groups have sprung up.

Some of these resistance groups were the exiled aristocratic organizations of various countries, some were the remnants of the regular army of the broken merchant league, and some were even patriots in the countryside. In short, these large and small resistance groups were very active in the northern part of the Shang League, which made it difficult for the Desikhs to deal with it. But the resistance also has its own problems, lack of food and clothing, and insufficient weapons and equipment, many members of the resistance group do not have decent weapons at all, and many even use wooden sticks.

After meeting with the commander of Kaman's small force, Lord Knight Koster, he reported the news to the Merchant Alliance's headquarters. At this moment, King Lucius seemed to see a solution to his current predicament.

The Military Council led by King Lucius prepared to launch a large-scale combat operation in the occupied territories of Carlin, Manning, and White Harbor, with the intention of contacting the underground resistance groups operating in the three countries, and to be able to link these resistance groups together to form a unified and organized field force. In this way, it is good to give an explanation to the nobles in the merchant alliance: look, we are not inactive, we have achieved such great results with only a small part of the army.

But King Lucius was not without his concerns. Originally, the actions of these underground resistance groups were mainly small-scale battles, and most of them were sabotage of Desik army camps, sentry posts, and patrols, and the Desikhs sometimes did not bother to deal with them. However, if the regular army of the Merchant Alliance really intervened, it would be difficult to ensure that the Desik people would not launch a comprehensive clean-up operation in the occupied area, which would also be quite unfavorable to the overall situation of the Merchant Alliance.

Therefore, Lucius hoped that San Jose could help them and start a war on the San Jose battlefield, which should be large enough to attract the attention of the Desik base camp and the emperor himself, and to keep the Desik army within the merchant alliance in a state of combat readiness. This would not only benefit the military operations of the Merchant Alliance, but also ensure that the Deciks would not dare to devote all their energy to the resistance groups in the Merchant Alliance.

"But what good is this done to our San Jose Empire?" General Montgomery couldn't help asking.

"You can't say that," Count Mosik sighed, "we now have a common enemy with the Merchant Alliance, and that is Desik. If the allies are in need, we should still help, although there is no benefit, but the loss will not be too big, so I will ask your staff to make a good plan. ”

General Montgomery shook his head, "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Lord Earl, if you have anything else to hide from me, please be sure to let me know." ”

Looking at General Montgomery's cool eyes, Count Mosicke seemed to be a little moved, "If I don't tell you, won't your plan be done?"

"Of course, if we don't know everything, we will inevitably make a missing plan. ”

"Well, actually, this is our oversight. "Count Mosique recounted an offer made by King Lucius to San José, who rejected one of his offers and suffered considerable losses. Now King Lucius has given a second suggestion, and if he still refuses, the cabinet ministers of the Imperial Council find it a little unreasonable. If King Lucius's plan really worked, it would not be a big loss.

"So, you've been bitten by a snake once, and you're scared?" said General Montgomery with a sigh of relief.

"You can understand it this way, this King Lucius is not very old, and he really has a strategic vision. So this time, the Imperial Council will not let go of this opportunity. ”

Note 1: In the later stages of the war between the Shang Alliance and the De Rec, in order to preserve the hope of a comeback, King Lucius directly ordered the troops in the White Harbor Kingdom to give up resistance, and within the twenty-six days of the Battle of Manning, the soldiers and civilians of White Harbor evacuated almost the entire kingdom, and those materials became the hope of the revival of the Shang Alliance.

Historically known as the "Great Retreat of White Harbor".