Chapter 320: The Earl of Churchwick's Narrative

"Your Royal Highness, although I am the great swordsman of the Principality of Forendo, I don't know the details of this battle, but I only went into battle when I assisted our little prince in the later stage to lead his troops to besiege the royal city of Fideliga. Earl Churchwick of the Duchy of Handra www.biquge.info was involved in the planning of the whole war, and he should be the one who knows the war best, so let's ask him to introduce it to you. The Great Sword Master of Limad said.

Grand Duke Fisabrun nodded, and his gaze turned to Earl Churchwick: "Can Lord Earl tell me about the process of this war, as a soldier, I am really curious about the unexpected outcome of this war." When I first heard that His Royal Highness sent troops to attack and capture the royal city of Fedeliga, I always thought that the outcome was decided, but I didn't expect that the whole outcome of the war in two years would change so much, which is really surprising. As a first-hand witness of this war, I believe that the Earl must have a lot of feelings......"

Earl Churchwick didn't expect that he would suddenly become the center of attention of the banquet, seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on him, he secretly scolded the great swordsman of Limad in his heart, and he had to get up again, and secretly glanced at Lorlist, but saw that Lorist was also curious, and finally let him breathe a sigh of relief:" His Royal Highness, although I participated in the whole process of this war, in fact, our Central Four Duchyes were forced to set up an alliance to confront His Royal Highness, originally we were just out of self-preservation, but the development of the war later also surprised us. Truth be told, this battle was not what we wanted, but it turned out to be a victory that forced us to win......"

No one expected Earl Churchwick to say such a thing, and there was an uproar in the hall. It didn't matter what was just curiosity, but the little prince of Doc of the Duchy of Forendor snorted, as if he was very dissatisfied with Earl Churchwick for saying such a self-deprecating and majestic speech, and the great swordsman of Limad and the golden knight around him were surprised. On the contrary, the Earl of Dallek of the Principality of Sabaji sat there with a somewhat gloomy expression.

Earl Churchwick took a deep breath: "As we all know, the four central principalities have always been the mainstay of the former Krisson Empire, with a total of twenty-nine provinces in the empire, and the tax revenue of the eight central provinces accounts for forty-five percent of the former empire. During the imperial era, whether it was foreign wars or internal counterinsurgency, the eight central provinces contributed under the leadership of the four grand dukes, and made outstanding contributions to the empire. Even in the more than 170-year-long war with the Business Alliance, the sacrifices made by the eight central provinces were the greatest.

During the civil war of the empire, the three kings competed for the throne, and the four grand dukes in the middle of the country had to support the alliance to protect themselves in order to keep the essence of the empire, and in this case, they also gave the three princes a huge amount of valuable assistance, because he represented the orthodoxy of the Christian royal family. But then the rebellion of the Grand Duke of Madras irrevocably changed the situation, and the empire was divided into three kingdoms and seven principalities.

Although the four archdukes in the middle of the country established the principality, they immediately faced the invasion of the eldest prince, and we resisted the eldest prince for two years, exhausted from the battle, and suffered heavy losses, but we finally won the victory and obtained a precious peace. After only a few years of recuperation, and just after recovering a little of his strength, His Royal Highness came to the city again, and put forward intolerable conditions to the four Grand Dukes, forcing our Central Four Duchyes to gather coalition forces again to protect themselves......"

"Oh, what kind of conditions did His Royal Highness offer to you in the Central Four Duchy?" said Grand Duke Fisabrun, touching his chin and beard, looking curious.

"Move the seal, and let the four archdukes attack the Duchy of Madras with their family arms......" replied Earl Churchwick.

Grand Duke Fisabrun was stunned for a moment, and several beards on his hands were torn off by him at once: "Your Second Highness is crazy, how can you put forward such a condition, isn't this forcing friends to be enemies?"

Earl Churchwick spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "I don't know why His Royal Highness would put forward such a condition to the four Grand Dukes, everyone knows that this is impossible at all." The eight central provinces have been the family territories and spheres of influence of the four Grand Dukes for two or three hundred years, and they are deeply rooted, just as the Grand Duke of Fakr declared, their family blood has long been deeply integrated with this land, and no one can separate them.

A few years ago, when His Second Highness rose to prominence in the Kingdom of Andinac, the nobles of our four principalities were very happy about this, and even pinned their hopes on him for the revival of the Cresson Empire. For us, it was a pride to be a nobleman of the Krisson Empire. Our Grand Duke has said that it doesn't matter if he is the lord of the principality or not, as long as the empire needs it, he can cancel the title of the principality at any time and return to the embrace of the empire.

But none of us expected that the Second Highness would come down, he defeated the Great Prince, led 200,000 troops to the eight central provinces, and put forward such conditions to the four Grand Dukes, so that the eight central provinces would become the direct territories of the Andinac royal family, and required the four Grand Dukes to serve the empire, and send private troops to lead us nobles to attack the Duchy of Madras, so that the titles and territories of our nobles can be determined according to the merits we have made......

Only then did everyone understand that it turned out that we, the nobles, were all rebellious to the empire in the eyes of His Second Highness. We were very sad and angry, and sent a representative to protest to His Royal Highness. But no one saw His Royal Highness, only heard that he was very sick. At that time, we all thought that he was deliberately avoiding us, and when he returned, he was furious and unanimously demanded that the four Grand Dukes form an alliance to fight against us, and increase the aid to the nobles of the former Kingdom of Redlis, and use them to contain the army of His Royal Highness.

No one wants to be a rebel against the empire, but the situation has to force the nobles of our four principalities to become enemies of His Royal Highness. However, the coalition forces of the Four Duchies only confronted the army of His Royal Highness II, and did not intend to provoke or take the initiative to attack. Unexpectedly, the Second Highness was really seriously ill, and the army of the Antinac Kingdom without him was defeated in the battle with the nobles of the former Redlis Kingdom, and was lured into a trap to let the water wash away 70,000 people, and the situation changed, and it is said that the Second Highness hurried to the front line with illness to stabilize the whole situation.

To tell the truth, our four principalities have gathered 200,000 allied troops to confront the army of His Second Highness, and although there is no major war, the price to pay is also very huge. The peace of five or six years has indeed restored some vitality to the four principalities in the central region, but the 200,000 troops of the Second Highness have made the four principalities face the greatest crisis and pressure, although the Second Highness has dispatched tens of thousands of troops to sweep away the aristocratic coalition of the former Ridlis Kingdom, but the more than 100,000 troops stationed on the border of the Principality of Farkel and the Principality of Handla are a sharp axe hanging on the heads of the eight central provinces, and no one knows when it will fall.

During the pre-imperial period, the population of the eight central provinces was nearly 3.5 million at their peak, and they were the essence of the empire. After the civil war of the empire, the population dropped to 2.8 million, followed by the invasion of the four central principalities led by the barbarian army of the kingdom of Ridlis led by the Great Prince, wars, natural disasters, man-made disasters, famines, and plagues, and in just two years, the remaining population of the eight central provinces was less than two million people, almost half of which disappeared......"

When he said this, Earl Churchwick's expression became a little excited: "What the four central principalities want is not war, what we hope for is peace." But what His Second Highness brings is not peace, he forces us to obey his orders, orders us to get into his chariot, and disobedience is rebellion. The four central principalities could only gather the coalition forces again to guard against the army of His Royal Highness. However, after a year-long confrontation, we were forced to consume countless grain and grass reserves, and the able-bodied men went to the front, and a large amount of land in the rear was abandoned and left uncultivated......

"I'm sorry, Lord Earl Churchwick, I can ask, your four central principalities are so difficult to bear the consumption of 200,000 people of grain and grass, where did the more than 200,000 troops deployed by His Royal Highness in the Kingdom of Redlis come from?" Lorist suddenly interrupted him.

"Oh, as far as I know, the Second Highness's army in the Kingdom of Redlis totals nearly 270,000 people, of which 150,000 are the 1st and 3rd Royal Guards Regiments transferred from the Kingdom of Antinac. There are also 120,000 troops from the former kingdom of Redlis, mainly deployed in the province of Cambona, who surrendered to him after the surprise attack of the Second Highness and the capture of the royal city of Federiga. His Royal Highness had only transferred the First Imperial Guards Legion, and organized these surrendered troops to attack the nobles of the Kingdom of Ridlis, but the effect was not very good, and these surrendered troops were repeatedly defeated, resulting in the war being delayed.

Later, after being swept away by the flood of 70,000 troops, His Royal Highness finally lost confidence in these surrendered troops, and transferred the Third Legion of the Royal Guards from the Kingdom of Antinac, which was fully responsible for the sweep and elimination of the rebellious aristocratic coalition forces of the Kingdom of Redlis, while the First Royal Legion maintained the oppression of the four central principalities together with the remaining surrendered troops, and there were a total of 130,000 horses and horses confronting the coalition forces of our four principalities.

Due to the surprise attack on the royal city of Fedeliga by His Royal Highness the Second Highness before, which enabled him to completely seize all the armaments and grain and grass materials prepared and stored by the eldest prince in the royal city, we estimate that the army of more than 200,000 troops of the Second Highness can be consumed for eight months. At that time, everyone thought that the war would end soon and that His Highness would win. But no one expected that the nobles of the rebellious former Ridley Kingdom would hold out for so long and continue to deal blows to the Second Highness. Even if His Second Highness lost nearly 100,000 people, so much grain and grass consumption after the winter passed made His Second Highness unbearable.

At this time, His Royal Highness used three methods to deal with the consumption of grain, grass and materials and improve the morale of the front-line troops, the first method was that he issued a grain requisition order, that is, to collect their reserve grain from all the citizens of the Kingdom of Ridleys, and then take out a part of the porridge to give to the people who were expropriated to drink, and make every effort to ensure the food supply of the front-line troops. After this order was issued, His Royal Highness stood against all the civilians of the original Redlis Kingdom, and rebellions broke out......

The second method was to confiscate the property of the nobles of the former kingdom of Ridlis for military purposes, and all the confiscated property was used to reward the victorious soldiers. Although this method restored the morale and combat strength of the front-line troops, it forced all those neutral nobles to the side of the rebellious nobles, and those rebellious nobles who were originally cornered by the Royal Third Guards Regiment immediately had reinforcements and a large number of new troops to replenish them, and began to fight with the Third Legion of the Royal Guard, and even won several small battles.

The last option was to transport food from the Kingdom of Andinac to the rescue. It's just that the road is far away, coupled with the loss of manpower and being robbed by the rebellious nobles, a hundred catties of grain were transported to the front line, and less than twenty or thirty catties remained. As a result, the troops stationed at the front line were only half-starved, and the food in the camp could only be stored for three days.

Archduke Fakel, the commander of the coalition forces of the four principalities in the middle of our country, was very keenly aware of this opportunity, and after the Fude Business Alliance unexpectedly and suddenly sent troops to capture Cambona Province and cut off the grain route from the Kingdom of Antinac to the Kingdom of Redlis, the Grand Duke of Fakr ordered us to collect a batch of cattle and sheep and slaughter them and throw them into the cauldron to boil, so the troops of the more than 100,000 His Highnesses who confronted us collapsed by starvation. ”

"I still have a question, why do the nobles of the former kingdom of Ridleys, that is, the nobles of the territories of the province of Ander Wolf so desperately oppose the Second Highness? As far as I know, the nobles of the territory of the province of Ander Wolf have always been at odds with the eldest prince, and they have formed an alliance to resist the great prince's violation of their interests. As the Second Highness who conquered the Kingdom of Ridleys, he should know this very well, if he wants to pacify the Kingdom of Ridleys, he needs the help of these nobles, what makes these nobles and the Second Highness enemies of life and death, do you know this reason?Earl Churchwick......" Lorist looked at Earl Churchwick and asked.

"Uh......" Earl Churchwick thought for a moment and replied, "I guess I know some reason, I have met with several nobles of the province of Anderward, and according to them, the conditions offered by His Royal Highness to their surrender were to reduce and transfer their seals, and asked them to pay a ransom as atonement for their rebellion against the eldest prince, so they fell apart." Originally, these territorial nobles only wanted to deal with the Second Highness by non-cooperation, but who knew that the army of the Second Highness directly raised the butcher's knife, and several nobles were destroyed, and in the end, everyone had to raise their banners to resist......"

Lorist smiled bitterly, this is pure dizziness. His Royal Highness really thought that he could go down to the world with hundreds of thousands of troops in hand. I have already suffered the loss of those territorial nobles in Anderwolf Province, but I didn't expect to turn around and use the same trick against the four central principalities, and as a result, I forced my friends into enemies, which is really my own death.

Shifting and reducing the seal is indeed the best way to weaken the strength of those territorial nobles, but it also depends on what the situation is, and this strategy can only be implemented if you absolutely control the situation. The Second Highness thought that the 200,000 army was in control of the situation and decided to implement this strategy, showing that he was too anxious, which was simply self-defeating.

"By the way, Earl Churchwick, did you not find the whereabouts of His Second Highness after conquering the city of Federiga?" asked Earl Kenmeth.

"No, no one has discovered the whereabouts of His Second Highness, and he disappeared without a trace like the eldest prince. In fact, after the four principalities in the central part of the country collapsed the more than 100,000 troops on the border, they wanted to stand by and watch, and they didn't want to have any more conflicts with the Second Highness. But what happened next angered everyone in the Four Duchy, and His Royal Highness actually took advantage of the confrontation between our coalition army and his army on the border to let the army of the Grand Duke of Melain enter the territory of the Duchy of Sabaji from behind, burning, killing and looting, and due to the lack of defense, a large number of territories fell, and nearly 10,000 old and weak women and children were killed.

At this time, the merchant alliance sent representatives, and the four Grand Dukes, who were finally enraged, decided to send troops to the royal city, each of which sent 20,000 troops, and the rest went to the Duchy of Sabaji to deal with the invading army of the Grand Duke of Melein. On the 21st of July last year, our army besieged the city of the king of Fedeliga and demanded that His Highness leave the city and surrender, and we guaranteed his life. But this offer was rejected by one of the golden knights defending the city......"

"Golden Knight?" Lorist sat up straight.

"Well, under the Second Highness, there are five tigers and six golden fighting rank generals, they are the most trusted subordinates of the Second Highness, and the first flower is the golden female knight, her name is, called, called Nuo...... Gram...... Krisya ...... "Earl Churchwick's face suddenly changed drastically, and he secretly looked at Lorlist, and his body trembled a little.

...... (To be continued.) )