"It's funny that you're talking to me about time now. Why didn't you think about speeding up the rearmament? I admit that it is true that there is more emphasis on domestic industry when thinking about finance, but I have never said anything about refusing to pay for the military, or that there is no need to rebuild the army. It is your own misjudgment that causes this aspect to be delayed. ”

The muscles in the Marquis of Brackbarn's face twitched, but he had to admit that the Chancellor had a point.

The actions of the giants after the end of the Northern Campaign are incomprehensible. They did not follow the trend south, nor did they send emissaries to contact the kingdom, all of which was unconventional.

The Marquis of Brackbarn thus slowed down the rebuilding of the army. Stimulated by the fiasco of the war, he wanted to do his best to strengthen his fighting power in the process of rebuilding, select the strongest soldiers, eradicate all kinds of corrupt imaginations within the Saxon army, and at the same time to meet the financial support for the kingdom's industry, so as to form a good cycle of expropriation...... However, no one expected that the northern giants would suddenly send troops at this time and occupy the city of Moldon.

"Among us are the spies of giants." The Marquis controlled his anger and forced himself to switch questions: "Hutson is the most typical example, he led 20,000 elites to Morente County to assist in the defense, but took the initiative to join the giants. He is now appointed by the Giants as a general in the Imperial Security Force, and it is said that he has recruited as many as 30,000 soldiers. ”

King George's eyes were gloomy: "They are shameful traitors. ”

"Cohen also took refuge in the giants." The Chancellor of the Exchequer said hatefully: "He used to be a waste abandoned by the family, but he has the direct blood of the knighted family." If it weren't for this, he would never have inherited the title...... Damn it, he once swore allegiance in the portrait of the kings of the ages...... He...... Should be hanged! ”

"It doesn't make sense to talk about that now." The Marquis of Brackbarne's anger eased slightly, he kneaded the part between his eyes with his fingers, and looked very tired: "Let's talk about the port of Levine, the overall situation has deteriorated at present, and the Giant Vanguard is less than a hundred kilometers away from London. ”

Hearing this, King George felt his heart twitch instantly.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer stared at the Marquis: "What countermeasures do you have?" ”

"The scouts reported that the Giant Vanguard was no less than 20,000 men, and they were well-armed and carrying cannons. Thirty, or thirty-five. The scouts did not dare to lean too closely, and could only observe with binoculars from a distance. Calculated by the speed of the giants' march, they have entered the capital county today. ”

"I have requisitioned 40,000 troops to concentrate on London, and with the existing garrison here, that is 80,000. They are all trained regular troops with strong combat effectiveness. In addition to this, there are 120,000 reservists coming to London, and we can organize no less than 100,000 men in the city to fight. At present, the biggest problem is the lack of weapons and equipment, and the rate of musket equivalence of the more than 200,000 reservists is less than 15 percent. ”

King George chimed in: "Let them be the halberders." ”

The Marquis of Brackbarn shook his head and smiled bitterly: "I only found 30,000 halberds in the warehouse. I asked the people below to make a batch of 50,000 sticks. The quality of the halberd body is certainly not as strong as that of the special product, but it is barely usable with the urgently built gun head. But even if these weapons are sent down, there are still many people who are empty-handed. ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked: "Can these people hold London?" ”

The Marquis of Brackbarn did not answer immediately. He was silent for half a minute before he said uncertainly: "If there are only 20,000 giants coming from the direction of Levanne, they cannot pose a threat to London." But since yesterday, until I walked into this room half an hour ago, all the intelligence showed that the giants were stronger than they had imagined. I estimate that the actual military strength will probably have to double or even more than this number. ”

"If that's the case, the Battle of London will be brutal." The Marquis of Brackbarn did not hide his opinion: "There are not enough weapons and equipment, and many people will die." ”

King George clasped his hands, his heart filled with fear and anger, two emotions dominating his brain: "Is there no better solution?" Give an emergency mobilization order, or increase the production of arms in a short time? ”

The Marquis of Brackbarn glanced at him: "I have already asked the Xiuang Brothers about increasing production as soon as possible. They replied that they could supply four thousand arquebuses by tomorrow evening, but their asking price was high......"

A bad premonition welled up in the king's heart: "How much do they want?" ”

"Seventy-five pounds per gun." The Marquis of Brackbarne had already scolded people for this, and he was no longer angry at the moment, only a cold sneer: "The previous purchase price was only three pounds and five shillings and seven and a half pence...... These black-hearted guys, they want to take advantage of this opportunity to make a good profit. ”

The system of the Saxon kingdom was peculiar, and the king could act arbitrarily on some insignificant matters, but the specific affairs had to be negotiated by the ministers of defense and finance. This amounted to a reduced version of the constitutional monarchy, with royal power somewhat restricted. To put it simply, the king can find someone guilty, and if the other person is a commoner, he will kill him if he says a word. But if the status is special, such as nobility, or Elizabeth's amazing wealth, the king must listen to the opinions of important ministers.

The Huang Brothers Iron & Steel Complex falls into the latter category. They are responsible for the exclusive supply of arms to the kingdom, and of course they also have some privileges and knighthoods. Although it is extremely immoral to sit on the ground because of the situation, and it will also arouse the anger of the king, in the eyes of the capital forces, all this can be ignored, and the gold pound in the pocket is the most important.

The room fell silent.

After a long time, the courteous Chancellor of Finance said earnestly: "I propose that the principal persons in charge of the Xiuang Company be arrested at once, and all their property should be confiscated and all that should be returned to the state treasury." ”

King George immediately responded: "I approve, it should have been this way a long time ago." ”

The Marquis of Brackbarne didn't say anything, he thought for a few seconds, raised his eyelids, swept his gaze over the king and the chancellor of the exchequer, and slowly shook his head: "This matter is not as simple as you think. The Xiuang family has infiltrated the military too deeply, especially the generals and supervisors in charge of logistics. Even if we want to deal with the Xiuang family, we will be hindered from below. ”

He lowered his head, thought in a gloomy mood, and let out a long sigh: "Now is the best opportunity to deal with the Xiuang family, and at the same time the worst opportunity. ”

The king's whole face was contorted because of his anger, and he let out a low roar: "...... They...... He is a sinner in the Kingdom. ”

"But they are not our enemies, at least not yet." The Marquis of Brackbarn saw this matter more far-reaching, and it was much clearer than the king: "The giants of the north are our greatest enemies. We must persevere, and we must win this battle. ”

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had not spoken for a long time, slowly opened his lips: "You are an expert in the military, but I still want to say that the current situation is already very bad, and we have no geographical advantage to defend south of Morente. If you stick to London, even if you win this battle, I am afraid it will not play much role in the overall situation. Besides, we don't have many troops at our disposal at the moment, and the size of the city of London is too large, I'm afraid it's ......."

Although Laurent is not a general, she is not completely ignorant of soldiers. An important premise of the battle to defend the city is "city scale". If the city is too small and does not have enough space, it will be easily covered by the enemy's artillery fire, and then form a direct crush by the besieging party. If the city is too large, it will cause the defender to scatter the troops, which can easily lead to the opponent breaking through in a single point of attack.

The City of London falls into the latter category. The city has a population of 3 million people, and the city walls were demolished during the reign of George during the reign of the seventh king, and the different areas of the city were divided into streets. Of course, there are still more than 40 towers of various sizes in the suburbs of the city, but most of those buildings are only used as lookouts. To make matters worse, because of the long period of peace, there was no war in Saxon, and the military did not have enough money to maintain the city's defenses, so the towers were handed over to the police department as a rest area for armed patrols.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was impressed by these events because he had been ordered to return from an envoy from the Kingdom of the Lord a few years earlier, and on his way into the main city of London, he passed by a tower. At that time, police officers in red and white striped uniforms were dismantling the gun mount accessories. It was a "T" shaped steel frame mounted on the top of the tower, divided into two on the left and right, with a steel slide at the bottom, and a steel slide in the middle for the installation of guns, which could be adjusted according to different calibres and sizes. This type of device is common in all kingdoms, and is a common facility in military fortifications and urban fortifications.

Laurent was puzzled by this at the time, but later learned that this was the idea of the then chief of police, who believed that the war could not reach the Saxon capital in any case, and that the artillery had long since been removed from the inside of the towers, and it was useless to keep these steel parts, so it was better to dismantle them and sell them as scrap iron to the Xiuang Iron and Steel Company, so that although the money in exchange for a small amount, could buy some heating coal for the policemen assigned to the towers on duty that winter.

Scrap iron is of course worthless, but the steel parts are so heavy that they can be sold for at least five hundred pounds even if they are recycled.

The concept of the new construction is different, the same number and weight of steel fittings, plus the cost of installation, will require at least 20,000 pounds.

As a vassal of the kingdom, Laurent was also a close friend of Brackbarn, and he had seen the Marquis's military defense plan...... Those towers, which had long been abandoned, were again included in the important part of the city's defense.

This is indeed a very funny thing in the eyes of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it is also a trivial matter. But his mood also changed, first he couldn't cry or laugh, and then he became angry.

He went on to question the generals of the Saxon Kingdom, especially the military clique headed by the Marquis of Brackbarn, do you understand military affairs? Will you fight at all?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer feels he has good reasons to question it.

The 600,000 regular army and more military auxiliaries than that did not fall out of thin air. Money is needed to form or maintain the establishment of these people. At the end of the Northern Campaign, these bastards in the military headquarters just said lightly "We lost". No one has come forward to take responsibility for this, and no one has even felt guilty about it. The aristocratic officers seemed to have been unanimous in this matter, and without exception all claimed: the Vikings were defeated, the Plantagenets were defeated, the Rhines were defeated, and even the kingdom of the Lord and the Holy See, which were said to be the most capable of fighting...... So we also lost.

Laurent really wanted to rush to the military headquarters, point at those shameless guys and roar angrily: Do you still have a little shame in your heart?

However, he did not have the time or opportunity to do so, and the giants came too quickly, first capturing the city of Morent and then the port of Levine. Next up is London.

To be honest, he was suspicious of the plans of the Marquis of Brackbarn.

With the current dilapidated and decaying kingdom military headquarters, how sure are they that they will win the battle to defend London?

Take a step back, even if you win, what can you do?

The Giants' vanguard army from Port Levén was only 20,000 men, but the main force of the Giants from the direction of Morente was at least 200,000. Even if there are huge areas including Gondor County and many cities in the middle, the time consumed by the main force of the giants is only one and a half to two months. This is Laurent's estimate of the "A" rating of the combat effectiveness of the defenders everywhere.

What's more, there are many difficulties facing the military headquarters of the kingdom. Especially in support of the northern counties, there are almost no decent troops. Even if you rack your brains and concentrate a large number of reservists, you will not be able to equip them with weapons.

It is simply impossible for such an army to break through the Giants' defenses, and sending them to the front line will do nothing but add to the opponent's record.

To be sure, the Saxon kingdom itself was very powerful. No one noticed these problems during the Chengping period, because in the eyes of the aristocratic rulers, as long as a certain balance was reached, there was no need to pursue the highest, the best, and the strongest. But once a war breaks out, especially the barbaric madman of the Northern Giant, who does not play his cards according to common sense and uses superior forces and special means to gain superiority and advance rapidly in the early stage of the war, all the problems that are usually hidden under the surface of the water will explode in an instant, and then interlock into a group effect, and then evolve into a terrible disaster.

King George sat on the throne, and he kept shouting: "You have to think of a way, we can't just waste our time and do nothing!" ”

The Marquis of Brackbarne and the Earl of Lawrence were both focused on him.

Only an incompetent person would say something like this at such a time.

：。 ：m.x