FINII

August 9, 1666, 30 minutes before the launch of the net

The Great Detachment of Jena, the main corps of the Imperial Army, in the "muddy zone" north of Lenny of the Julok Republic

While Namen Soleton received his rank of major, Gustav Hugh Kerman was waking up from a nightmare.

In the emperor's dreams, he saw his huge army crushed, trampled, and routed.

The black, silver, and gray uniforms were driven like sheep by a few high-ranking mages dressed in colorful and vulgar uniforms, and the court mages and priests of the empire either took off their uniforms and defected to the enemy, or trembled and helpless.

Then the Emperor woke up and realized that it was not a pure dream.

Cold sweat ran down his forehead, soaking the silky pillow. He remembered the rout of last night, of the flight that had lost his life in the night.

He left the Minister of War and his reserves behind.

He abandoned the vast majority of his army.

He didn't even know how many people had followed him safely to the location of the main army on the North Road. Last night's battle was too chaotic, with two armies of more than 100,000 men engaged in a scuffle around a dozen districts of Lenny and its environs, and his personal guards were also separated in that great melee.

This is war. It is a demon that no one can control, and all its actions cannot be carried out according to the predetermined plan, even the emperor of the strongest empire in the world cannot control it.

The Free Militia and the Nationalists around Lenny were also moved, and they fought fiercely with the Imperial Scout Cavalry all night. The detachments of court mages, commanders, and ministers were forced to break away from the formation one by one, and the emperor ended up bringing no more than a few dozen troops to the muddy area.

He didn't even remember when he had arrived at the outlying camp of the main legion, and perhaps he had lost his memory before then.

"I'm not even as good as my father, he can at least choose to die in the artillery battle. ”

The emperor stretched out his hand and wanted to grab the scepter "power" beside him, but he missed it. He remembered that he had left the scepter with Lennie. For some reason, the bed board under him seemed to be shaking.

He sat up and noticed that there seemed something strange about the ceiling above him. The ceiling was made of canvas—

"Carriage. ”

The Emperor recognized it as the largest freight carriage in the Empire, a large enchanted carriage towed by eight horses for the transportation of twenty-four and thirty-two-pound artillery shells. If the dukes need it, they will also use it to convert it into their own baggage center car.

Gustav himself had a baggage caravan of dozens of light and heavy wagons, carrying all sorts of equipment starting with "Royal", ranging from instruments from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to portable royal baths – but all of this was left to Lenny. It has probably been plundered by the rout, the emperor thought to himself.

"Ah, Your Majesty, you are awake. ”

It was a slightly unfamiliar female voice, and it took Gustav a few seconds to remember who the owner of the voice was.

It was the newest visitor to his court, the righteous daughter of the Duke of Figota. Of course, she also has a more sensitive identity, the daughter of the Empire's most dangerous enemy, which the Minister of Security has repeatedly reminded the Emperor of.

But Gustav also remembered that in the last escape of the previous night, only this woman was by his side at all times. As the chain of command collapsed due to the loss of the mage, she subdued some of the knights who had lost their command as quickly as she could, forming a makeshift cavalry squadron to defend the Empire's dignitaries.

But the Emperor didn't understand why he and her were the only ones in the carriage. Of course, there were actually the drivers of the carriage and the three or two guards who were on standby in the corner of the carriage, but in the emperor's opinion, these were not people of status.

"This is my main army on the Northern Front, right, Miss Duchess von Figota. What is the condition of my courtiers? Aren't they here?"

Danica Vilen von Figota put down the book in her hand and stood up.

The Emperor noticed that it was not a romantic novel that aristocratic maidens loved to read, but a "Statistical Yearbook of the Duchy of Figota", which was supposed to be one of the results of the work of the Royal Ministry of Security.

Instead of rushing to answer, Danika called a guard and told him to inform the courtiers who were commanding the troops before sitting down again.

"Your Majesty, you must wonder why I'm the only one here. This is because your courtiers are busy directing the army towards Lenny, and there is only one man who has nothing to do and is not qualified to listen to the secrets, so they left me here to explain the situation to you when you wake up. There was a slight resentment in Danica's statement, "Anyway, no one can use magic now, and without magic, no one can threaten your royal bloodline, and this arrangement is very safe." ”

The Emperor pondered for a moment and asked, "No one can use magic?"

"They've seen that supernatural magical structure before. "As soon as I told Lenny what had happened in Lenny, they said that they had seen a similar structure in the narrow south of Jena, most likely the work of the same unknown magician. Approximately fifteen minutes earlier, they had observed that an unknown structure in the direction of Lennie was rapidly expanding, and was connected to the ruined structure near Jena, forming a much larger magical shattering structure. It's not an anti-magic circle, because all magic items are still working, but we haven't figured out why people can't use magic. ”

Gustav frowned: "They dare to march on Lenny without even using magic?Who is in command of the army, whose decision is it?How can the fifteen brigades of the main army be mobilized so quickly......"

The Emperor suddenly stopped, understood, and figured out the cause and effect.

On 6 August, the offensive of the main army was blocked, and he transferred the Duke of Figota back to Renni, where he reorganized the siege during this time, waiting for the road to Jena to be reopened. It seems that this army did not clear the roads at all, but assembled and prepared to retreat.

"They are preparing for a retreat. After the Duke of Figota returned to Renny, they had already given up on the march to Jena, right? The Duke and I knew nothing about such a big decision?! The Minister of War did not appoint a deputy, and who among the few generals left behind was so bold?"

The carriage came to an abrupt stop. The wooden door on one side of the carriage opened, and a cold, hoarse voice came.

"It's me, Your Majesty. It was I who made the main preparations for their retreat. ”

The courtiers rushed in, each with a nervous expression on their faces.

Seeing them come in, the serious expression on the emperor's face was soothed. He looked at the people who walked in one by one, and called out the surnames of all the senior commanders of the legion one by one.

"Aha. Marlborough, Fermat, Bacon, Hartmann. I'll just say that you guys won't be so bold as to prepare for the withdrawal of troops without a formal order from the Minister of War. No wonder my security department didn't react to this apparent arbitrariness. So, Natherqing, explain it. ”

"Your Excellency the Minister of Security. ”

Danika also hurriedly stood up and bowed to the leader. Of all these generals and high-ranking mages, she knew only the man who was the leader—a man whose prestige spread throughout the civilized world, and even more so in the nations of the free. The entire area of the fall of West Julok was sifted through by agents of the Royal Ministry of Security, and the fleeing refugees crowded East Rulock, Upper Italy, America and Asia, and even as far as the island of Interre. In the previous double battle of Jena-Blenheim, he was the same defeated general as she was, and almost died in Jena.

Sid Naser coughed heavily, as if he was about to cough out the lobes of his lungs: "Retreat is my order. With less than 30,000 people here, Jena can't be defeated, Your Majesty. I've tried it myself, and there's no point in trying again. ”

Compared to the security minister in the emperor's memory, Sid now looks even more haggard. He looked as if he had died once, his face pale like that of a vampire, and his eyes bloodshot. Obviously, this person had been supported by various enhanced magic for the past few days, and now he could fall at any moment.

"Looks like you're losing badly in Jena, Sid. Gustav glanced at Danika, "It's worse than I've heard." ”

"It's nothing, I was like that in the days before I met His Majesty Orestan. Thankfully, the Freer's pursuers were not as terrible as the usurers of Teresa. Sid coughed as he spoke, "The Free Army is more powerful than we thought, with new types of magic and magic weapons, excellent and cunning senior commanders, brave and creative junior officer corps, and disciplined soldiers who can fight to the last man. ”

The Emperor squeezed a sentence out of his teeth: "But what can you do if you retreat to Lenny? These 30,000 more men can make all the southern rebels surrender, or can they conjure supplies out of stones?"

Sid nodded calmly: "My original idea was to take this army south first, and then find a way to persuade you and Duke Figota to sign a peace treaty with the southerners." This peace treaty is even worse than the peace of His Majesty Erestan and is much stronger than the empire losing its emperor again and falling into civil war. If we stick to it, it's the inevitable end. ”

All the nobles in the carriage took a half step back in horror. This may have been their innermost thoughts, and they had lost faith in winning the war—but they didn't expect the Minister of Security to openly state this intention to the Emperor.

Danica looked at the Minister of Security in front of her in surprise, what he was saying now did not overlap with her impression of him. She even wondered if he really died once and became a completely different person. Is this still the cold and steely Minister of Security? Is this still the owner of the Palenia Palace?

Emperor Gustavus Hugh Koman was so choked that he couldn't speak for a moment, and his right hand slammed on the bed: "Good, good, good, Sid, you are worthy of being my father's hand-appointed minister, you are so frank and loyal." Then we are marching in such a hurry to hurry up and surrender to Lennie in case our defeated army dies too much, right, Sid?!"

The Minister of Security shook his head: "No, Your Majesty. We are here to win. Your adventure last night, though it was a failure, opened up another possibility for us. A much more honorable possibility than the signing of a humiliating peace treaty. ”

His voice sounded like two pieces of ground glass rubbing against each other, but it was surprisingly firm and powerful.

"We are here to win, Your Majesty. You lost that battle, but you probably won it!"

This statement was a big surprise to Gustav. At first, he even felt that this was a deliberate mockery by the Minister of Security: mocking him for losing so badly and abandoning all his subjects. He grabbed his scepter again with trembling hands, and scratched it again in the air.

But when the remaining generals and nobles agreed with Sid Nasser's view, Gustav had to doubt his own judgment. All are saying "Yes, Your Majesty." We're moving forward at full strength, and your hard work has turned the tide of battle," their bent down and excited expressions didn't look like fakes.

The emperor calmed down, held his chin with his hand, and nodded: "Go on, Naseqing." ”

Sid's statement was slow, but his statement was as clear as any intelligence report from the Department of Security: "Lennie is considered difficult to conquer because it has two forces that are unparalleled in the world. One is known for its multi-tiered walls and defenses, which have proven to be impenetrable in successive counterinsurgency wars, and the other that is often overlooked is its ability to be people and organization. Lenny was able to put his 100,000 citizens into the defense of the city, which no other city could. And last night, your adventures led to the rout of our Lenny Siege Corps, but it also temporarily destroyed both forces. ”

"The former was arranged by the Duke of Figota, who seized the time to destroy the walls of Lenny. But the latter," Gustav shook his head, "no, I don't think their army has been destroyed. Or rather, their losses will not be greater than ours. In the midst of such a war, their officers were able to pull up their troops and repeatedly organize the defensive line, and after a night, they must have rebuilt their army. ”

"But it wasn't an organized army. Miss Duchess told me that the lieutenant who pulled up the last of the defensive forces was from the General Army of the West. The corners of the Security Minister's mouth twisted into a sneer, as if he remembered some memory, "And their General Staff has even been conquered by us." In other words, the current Lenny Army is completely devoid of organized new units, and all enemy forces are busy reorganizing. And we have at least tens of thousands of defeated troops inside and outside Lenny. ”

"What do you mean......" The Emperor also vaguely grasped the key to this. But the key was too optimistic for him to believe.

The Earl of Marlborough, who was next to him, added: "It's like after a close battle, when both sides are exhausted, and we have a reserve of 30,000 men suddenly thrown into battle." In fact, we don't need 30,000. As soon as the two brigades of our rearguard arrive in Renni in the afternoon, everything will change. Our previous order to retreat came in handy, and most of our troops were already ready to go. ”

The Minister of Security summed it up: "That's why we have the audacity to give the order before you wake up, ordering all the troops to set out in the early hours of the morning and march to Lennie to crush the new army they have just organized and end this war!"

"It's not how many people you have, it's when, where, and what they can do, right? ”

"That's exactly what wars are, Your Majesty. I lost in Jena, you lost in Lenny, but sometimes you can accumulate victories from defeat. ”

The look of excitement on Gustav's face lingered only for a moment. Last night's defeat had dealt the Emperor such a blow that it had almost shattered all his self-confidence.

"But we don't have magic. The Emperor muttered to himself, "And they have." We don't know how many of their top mages can use super magic, but last night a female mage crushed 3,000 of us and shook the entire army. What if they still have the power to defeat our 30,000 men?"

"What if we already had magic, Your Majesty?"

The Minister of Security turned his gaze to the young man to the side. The Emperor finally noticed that there was a strange young face in the room that he was not familiar with.

"This young man who was next to Cardinal Ionette Hartmann was ...... Please forgive me for being clumsy. ”

"When I first saw the sky, I was terrified. The young man, speaking in ancient Corman, took a half-step back awkwardly, bowed, and bowed, "Isaac Newton." ”

"Isaac Newton. The Emperor thought for a moment, "Your relationship with the late Cardinal Jett Newton is ......."

"I'm his nephew. ”

"Then, if you are here, you must have made an indelible contribution to the Battle of Jena. The Emperor speculated.

"Not really. Newton's face turned red, "At that time, I had not been able to find a way to crack the enemy's secrets. But now that she's used that magic again, I've figured out the secret of the enemy's magic. It wasn't a magic to stop people from using magic - in fact, it was probably a technology to support people from using magic. I think I can teach you this secret, and while I can't guarantee that everyone will be able to adapt to it, at least one in ten people will be able to master it. ”

"Then there will be no problem. The Emperor nodded, "One tenth." An acceptable probability of a turnaround. ”

Newton nervously wanted to correct: "Your Majesty, I didn't say -"

Ionette on the side hurriedly yanked him.

The Emperor stood up.

His legs trembled slightly from the loss of his scepter, but his tone was resolute: "Take this opportunity, gentlemen. I agree with you marching on Lenny, and may the gods be on our side!"

It's not going to be bad anymore anyway, the emperor thought.

"Let it all end. He added.

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