Chapter 339: Remorse

The sound of ......the horn echoed in the withered fields of autumn grass, and an army of black crows appeared on the other side of the horizon, holding all kinds of flags, looking at the camp of the Northland coalition from a distance, and after a long while, several knights rode their horses in front of the crowd of people and shouted something, and then the crowd let out an indistinguishable cry, and then began to move, towards the camp arranged by the army of the Duchy of Madras under the hills in the distance. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

His Royal Highness remembered very well that after he made an oath and obtained the promise that the four major families of the Northland were willing to serve him, the next day the envoy of the Grand Duke of Madras came to the camp again, and he came to urge the Northland coalition to withdraw from the Duchy of Madras.

But when Count Kenmeth put forward the new conditions, the messenger smiled, and his eyes were full of sarcasm: "Lord Earl, do you treat the duchy as a fat cow? Do you think His Royal Highness the Grand Duke will agree to such conditions? As an envoy, I have no right to rebuke you for your wishful thinking, and I can only tell His Highness the Grand Duke what you have said as it is. But before I leave, I want to say to you, since you want war, then we will not disappoint you......"

After the envoy left, His Royal Highness was inexplicably excited, and he immediately made a large passionate speech, which meant that now he was almost torn in the face, and the Northland coalition army should seize this opportunity to attack the enemy first, and sweep the entire province of Delemke before the Duchy of Madras could react, occupy more territory, and wait for the arrival of the Grand Duke of Madras's army to engage in a tug-of-war, using elite troops to defeat or drag down the Duchy of Madras.

In response to the Second Highness, there were only four expressionless faces, Baron Shaheen was the first to speak, he thought that it was unnecessary to attack Dramke Province now, during this time he often led troops out to plunder the farms and orchards of those nobles, and he knew the situation in Delemke Province very well, those fiefdom nobles gathered private troops to defend in the castles, it was useless to attack those castles, even if they occupied the territory, they still divided their troops to stay, and dispersed their forces in vain.

Baron Philim, who had a serious face, also retorted that it was now the end of October, and there was only one month left before the arrival of winter, and it was impossible for thirty-five days to sweep the entire province of Dramke, and the entire province of Delemke was only one city of Kebo, and the rest were all manor castles of the nobles of the territory. However, Kebo City is a fortress city, and there is a garrison of 20,000 horses, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack......

The Count of Kenmeth smiled and advised His Royal Highness that there was no need to be so anxious, and that the envoy went back to tell the Archduke Madras that it would take at least ten days to send troops again, and that it would be mid-November. There is only half a month left for them to set up barracks to raise supplies for the winter, and compared with the Northland coalition army, which has basically completed the preparations for the winter, the army of the Principality of Madras has a better feel this winter. We can completely wait for work and spend this winter comfortably, and next spring can deal a fatal blow to those stupid birds who have been frozen for a winter.

In the end, it was Lorist who made a summary and did it according to the predetermined plan, regardless of the army sent by the Grand Duke of Madras, there was no need to do anything, and when the Grand Duke of Madras gathered a large army in the spring of next year, there would be a big battle. Lorist expressed his belief in the combat effectiveness of the Northland Alliance, as long as the army assembled by the Duchy of Madras was defeated in a battle, then it would be much easier to destroy the Duchy of Madras.

The military discussion ended, and the four nobles of the Northland got up and bowed respectfully to the Second Highness and then retired, without giving the Second Highness a chance to persuade again. Only one of the Second Highnesses was left to grit his teeth in the big tent, regretting that he had not been able to take the lead of the Northland Coalition before signing the oath.

The oath is a guarantee from the superior lord to the lower lord, as long as the lower lord completes the tasks assigned to the superior lord in the oath, then the reward promised by the superior lord on the oath will be established or honored immediately, and there is no need to go through the consent and approval of the superior lord.

The oath is generally in triplicate, with one for the upper lord and one for the lower lord, as well as one for the public. The second highness has six copies of the oath, one for himself and one for each of the four lords of the Northland, and the next one will be announced on the first day of the new year, when the Count of Kenmax will hold a grand New Year's banquet in the former Grand Duke's Mansion in Gildusk on behalf of the four families of the Northland, in front of all the nobles of the Northland, that is, those lords who are supported by the Norton and Kenmax families. Count Kenmasse said that this move represented the return of all the Northland nobles to the right path and devote themselves to the command of His Second Highness.

His Royal Highness originally wanted to sign an oath with Count Kenmeth and his family, but Count Kenmeth thought that this move was inappropriate, because it would easily give the impression that the Four Northland families were dividing the alliance between the Second Highness, and in the war to destroy the Duchy of Madras and conquer the Kingdom of Iberia, the four Northland families were often required to cooperate with each other. Therefore, when signing the oath, the four major families should be the mainstay, so that when the time comes, they will be involved with each other, one will be prosperous, and the other will be lost, they are all grasshoppers on a rope, and no one can escape.

As Count Kenmasse had said, he also wanted to pull his family out of the way so as not to be affected by the three allies. But at present, he can't do it, because his move will arouse the suspicion of Lorist and others, and then guess whether the Kenmath family and the Second Highness have made some private agreement, which will not only affect the alliance of the four families in the Northland, but also affect the restoration plan of the Second Highness, so Count Kenmax thought about it, and would rather let the family and the three families in the Northland suffer losses than let the Second Highness's journey to restore the country suffer setbacks......

His Royal Highness was very appreciative of Count Kenmeth's deep sense of righteousness, and decided to use Count Kenmeth's suggestion to write an oath with the four major families of the Northland, the content of which was the conditions that he and Count Kenmath had negotiated. When His Royal Highness signed and stamped the six oaths and pressed his finger prints, Lorlist, Baron Philim and Baron Saheen all bowed down to him. At that moment, His Royal Highness was full of ambition, and the four major families of the Northland were at their disposal, and all the enemies could soon see themselves making a comeback and conquering the world.

It was only when Lorist and the others almost simultaneously rejected the proposal of the Second Highness to send troops as soon as possible and sweep the province of Dramke, that the Second Highness found that although he was the superior lord of the four major families in the Northland, he did not have the slightest restraint and command power over the armed forces of the four major families, and even the guards around him were assigned by the four major families. Now, in addition to the Golden Knight named Lippired, Chrysya and the other three Silver Knight are recruiting soldiers in the Norton family territory and guarding the standard equipment of the White Lion Legion that Lorist has given back to them......

The Second Highness did not give up, and found Lorist and the others, and persuaded them to follow their own advice, and the soldiers were fast, and did not take advantage of the fact that the Duchy of Madras was still transferring troops to lay down a piece of territory, disrupting the steps of the Grand Duke of Madras's troop transfer, but let them gather troops and wait for the Armageddon, which was the biggest decision-making mistake. Because at that time, the Principality of Madras will be able to mobilize the strength of the entire Principality by virtue of its geographical advantages and people, and even if it loses the decisive battle, it can turn to local defense and drag the war into a confrontation stage.

The only way to seize the month before the onset of winter is to conquer the province of Delemke, if not to occupy it, to destroy this area, to reduce the war potential of the Principality of Madras as much as possible, and to force the incoming army of the Principality of Madras to have no support in the province of Delemke, and to raise no food and grass supplies. In this way, in the event of Armageddon after winter, morale is completely demoralized and vulnerable......

Since Lorist and they are going to Armageddon, His Royal Highness has also cleverly changed the method of convincing them. He pointed out that before a decisive battle, we should also try to reduce the enemy's strength, rather than sit back and watch the enemy gather forces. His Royal Highness believes that the Duchy of Madras is a fat bison, and the Northland coalition should hunt this bison like a wolf, try to create wounds for the bison, and contain the bison's frontal attack, until the bison loses too much blood and can no longer hold on, and then inflicts a fatal blow, and the Duchy of Madras will be destroyed.

In order to convince Lorist of them, the Second Highness also used himself as an example very generously, pointing out the lessons learned from his defeat in the Kingdom of Redlis's defeat against the coalition of nobles of those territories in Anderwolf Province two years ago. His Royal Highness said that the army under his command at that time did not have a decisive battle with those noble coalition forces, but fought three or four decisive battles, and each time the noble coalition army was defeated and dispersed. Even if the Andlviv province was occupied by the army of the Second Highness, they still retreated to Majik Province to continue to deal with the army of the Second Highness, and won the support of the four central principalities and the commercial alliance, and finally persevered until the final victory......

Therefore, Armageddon could not defeat the Duchy of Madras in a single battle, as Lorist and the others imagined. His Highness thought that there was a high probability that the Northland coalition would be dragged into a long guerrilla and sabotage war by the nobles of the Duchy of Madras, as he had encountered in the province of Andróv, which would have adverse consequences for the future war. Only by preemptively sending troops to sweep the manor castles of those territorial nobles in the province of Delemke and destroy the war strength of the Duchy of Madras is the most correct strategy at present. The Northland coalition must seize this fighter plane, and not let the soldiers stay in the barracks for a month with nothing to do.

Lorist didn't argue with His Royal Highness, but just pulled a map of the Duchy of Madras for a simple battle situation. With the current military situation of the Northland Alliance, if you want to sweep the manor castles of the territorial nobles of Demke Province, you must divide the troops into four roads, about 20,000 people on each road, so that you can conquer the castles guarded by two or three thousand noble private soldiers, even if the minimum casualty rate is one to one, the Northland Coalition forces that attack the manor castles of the four or five territorial nobles on each road have suffered half of the casualties, and they can only return to the army, and the results of the battle are only one third of the territory of Demke Province.

The biggest weakness of this strategy is that there is no way to send troops to besiege Kebo City, because the reinforcements of the Duchy of Madras will arrive soon, first, the Grand Duke of Madras may send his most elite Haishan legion to reinforce, and second, from the garrison on the side of the small mountain range of Hinderson to send 20,000 horses to flank the attack, then the men and horses going to Kebo City will be in the most critical state, and once defeated, it will even endanger the safety of the riverside ferry camp.

If forty or fifty thousand men were sent to besiege the city of Kebo, it would not be enough to send more troops to sweep the province of Delemke. But if you ignore the city of Kebo, the reinforcements of the Principality of Madras are likely to attack the camp of the ferry, the camp is only nearly 10,000 people to defend, this is not a permanent defense facility in the city of Kebo, once the camp is broken, the consequences are unimaginable, the four people who go out to sweep will be homeless, and the whole army may be annihilated.

Lorist unceremoniously pointed out that the main reason for the failure of the Second Highness's raid of the Kingdom of Redlis was not a protracted tug-of-war with the territorial nobles of Anderwolf Province, but that the back road was cut off, and the loss of Cambona Province deprived the troops deployed by the Second Highness in the front line of food and grass supplies was the biggest factor in the defeat. Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that His Royal Highness did not expect the changes in the battle situation, the lack of logistics and supplies, and the difficulties. However, it seems that the Second Highness has not really realized that he has failed there, and at this time, letting the Northland Alliance attack first is repeating the mistake of the failure of the raiders of the Kingdom of Ridleys.

His Royal Highness was annoyed and angry, thinking that after the Northland coalition attacked, the armed forces of the Norton family and the Philim family could just come to reinforce and fill the gap in the strength of the riverside ferry camp, which would not cause the consequences of the fall of the camp at all, and even send a steady stream of troops to sweep away the territorial nobles of the entire Dramke Province.

Baron Philip retorted on the spot, this is absolutely impossible, His Royal Highness does not know the armed forces of his family and the Norton family, the current Northland coalition army in the camp is mainly armed by the legions of the Shaheen family and the Kenmax family, they are all heavy infantry, good at defense and neglected to attack, only Baron Shahin's two light cavalry regiments are used here as scouts. Now the layout and size of the large battalion are precisely for these conveniences, for the defense and winterization of these hoplites.

It was a genius idea to let these defensive hoplites attack and sweep the nobles of the province of Dramke, and then let the offensive cavalry legions of their own family and the Norton family come to the large camp to defend. Baron Philim sneered, even if he and the Norton family's cavalry corps arrived to defend the camp, but then these hoplites came back after attacking, with the current size of the battalion, there was simply no way to accommodate so many men and horses. Not to mention anything else, the consumption of logistical materials for the war horses of the two cavalry legions alone throughout the winter is an incomparably huge number......

There is no need to argue any more, just follow our predetermined strategy, and from now until winter, we only need to hold this large camp. As for not attacking, let's wash and sleep early, don't bother with that. Lorist slapped his ass and flashed.

The Second Highness was so angry that he almost vomited blood, what does it mean to wash and sleep, don't bother to think about me? The angry Second Highness took out the oath and looked at it carefully, trying to find a regulation that could restrain the arming of the Lorist and Norton families.

And then...... His Royal Highness suddenly found himself as if he had been fooled by Count Kenmax...... Count Kenmax dug a big hole for His Second Highness, and His Second Highness happily jumped into it......

The conditions and tasks on the oath are clear, and they are all agreed to by His Royal Highness after thinking about it. But this second highness looked at the dazzling conditions on the oath. He looked at the map of the entire former Cresson Empire for a night and realized that even if he could unify the territory of the former empire in the future, the territory of the Duchy of Madras and the Iberian Kingdom was connected with the Northland, except for the Eastern Wilderness Province and the Makinohara Province controlled by the Fisabrun family. In other words, these places are under the control of the four major families in the Northland, and as long as the four family covenants exist, then this territory, which occupies one-third of the territory of the former empire, has become a place where the Second Highness cannot intervene and water cannot enter......

Just like the province of Delemke, the second highness promised to let the Norton family transfer those territorial nobles who were supported, which is equivalent to a disguised recognition that these transferred territorial nobles are all vassal lords of the Norton family, as long as the Duchy of Madras is destroyed, the province of Delemke is about to be controlled by the Norton family.

The most cheating thing is to appoint Lorist as the governor of Windbrie King City, the second highness forgets that Windbridge King City is the capital of Winston Province, so even if the territory nobles of Winston Province are appointed by the Second Highness, but Lorist is the governor, the current official is not as good as the current management, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, even if the second highness gives any order, it will first go to the hands of the governor, Lorist can ignore such an order for unreasonable reasons, and then there is time to slowly clean up those who do not listen to their orders to the territory nobles who are divided into Winston Province... ...

The Second Highness regretted it beyond measure, which was equivalent to giving up the entire Winston Province to the Norton family. Then he found a condition that was extremely unfavorable to him in the oath, that is, it did not stipulate when the Norton family would capture the imperial capital and let the Second Highness regain the throne, but stipulated that as long as the Duchy of Madras and the conquest of the Iberian Kingdom were destroyed, as long as the territory was occupied, the conditions that the Second Highness promised the four major families of the Northland would take effect immediately.

For example, after the capture of the province of West Degrad, the promise of the Second Highness to give this province to the Count of Kenmas as a hereditary family domain immediately took effect, and the Count of Kenmäth was automatically promoted to the title of Grand Duke, with the only restriction being that the Duchy of Madras must perish. For example, if the armed forces of the four major families of the Northland occupy Winston Province and capture the city of King Windbrie, then Lorist will automatically become the governor of Winston Province, and the city of King Windbridge will become the city directly under the governor......

Blind, how could he believe that Count Kenmeth, a man from a profiteer's background, was in pain, especially when he didn't find the time when the four major families of the Northland promised to help him fight to the imperial capital to help him restore the throne. This date can be made immediately after the destruction of Madras, or ten or twenty years later. The four great families of the Northland can worship the two highnesses with good food and drink in the Northland, and then slowly implement their strategies according to their own decisions and interests......

Although the two highnesses were generous to others in the oath, using the interests of the Duchy of Madras and the Kingdom of Iberia as a guarantee for the four families of the Northland to serve him, he found that when he found that the benefits of these promises would almost make the territory controlled by the four families of the Northland become an independent kingdom after he unified the territory of the former empire in the future, he still wanted to chop off his own hands, how could he be so deluded that he signed and stamped the oath and pressed his fingerprints?

No lord of the higher ranks dared to renege on the oath, for the oath was the most sacred of guarantees, the oaths made by the lords to the gods in the name of their families and ancestors. His Royal Highness was well aware that the oath was a guarantee for the four great families of the Northland to serve themselves and recognize themselves as their superior lords. And if he repents, not only will his reputation be worthless from now on, but the four major families of the Northland can also refuse to recognize themselves as their superior lords on this ground, and return to the free aristocracy. At that time, not only did he lose the nominal restraint on the four major families in the Northland, but he would also have four more powerful enemies......

His Royal Highness was now standing on the top of the castle in the center of the camp, watching the troops of the Duchy of Madras that appeared on the horizon in the distance gather in the camp about two miles away from the main camp of the Northland coalition forces, and they were also busy building the camp wall and various defenses, digging trenches, and an endless stream of transport wagons to bring in all kinds of supplies.

The more you gather, the better, and you can only wait patiently now. When the coalition of the four major families of the Northland and the army of the Principality of Madras have a decisive battle at the beginning of spring next year, and both sides are defeated, it may be their turning point. Only when these arrogant and lazy Northland coalition forces suffer and fight to the death with the Grand Duke of Madras in Demke Province can they fish in troubled waters, and as long as they recruit men and horses to form the White Lion Legion, they can take the lead in this war.

That's what His Royal Highness thinks......

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