After receiving the military order from Duke Jonathan, Richard once again summoned the officers to the Great Tent to discuss the matter.

When everyone arrived at the big tent of the Chinese army, Richard got straight to the point and said: "Duke Jonathan has issued an order, asking us to solve the noble coalition in central Stanic as soon as possible, and then join the main force led by Duke Jonathan to attack Kleinas City together." The order has been given, and everyone is discussing how to complete it. ”

After everyone read the duke's warrant, Burton was the first to stand up and ask, "Lord Earl, does Duke Jonathan have a specific time limit?" ”

Burton is the cousin of Viscount Raphael, already a seventh-order silver knight, and the commander of the coalition of nobles in the province of Rahe.

The aristocratic coalition under Richard's command set out with a total of 16,000 soldiers. Among them, 4,000 troops were sent from Haaland's territory, 4,000 from Geda provincial nobles, 5,000 from Lahe provincial nobles, and 3,000 from Gascoyne province.

In the previous battles, the casualties of the allied forces of the three provinces were close to 1,000, and most of the losses came from the province of Gascoigne.

After the capture of Bulsen Castle, Richard asked Kalani to guard the grain route with the combined forces of the nobles of Gascoigne, and Loster led a second brigade to escort the serfs, and now the army on the front line was 12,000 men.

Among the coalition forces today, the army of Lahe Province is the largest and the most heavy. Burton was the representative of the coalition of nobles in the province of Lah, and Richard had to heed Burton's opinion.

"The duke did not set a specific time limit, but the wording of the order was quite harsh, requiring us to deal with the enemy as soon as possible and cooperate with the main army to fight."

"In this situation, it is very difficult to storm strongly, and Duke Jonathan has asked us to settle the battle as soon as possible, which is really difficult for some strong people. My opinion is still based on me, and I don't disrupt my own rhythm. Continue to besiege the city for a while, and wait until the beginning of August, if the city runs out of food, it will naturally be a decisive battle with us, and if there is still food left in the city, we should make plans to retreat. ”

Burton's remarks were in the interests of the Central Route Army.

The nobles of the three provinces are not the direct army of Duke Jonathan, and after entering the war this year, they have completed their tasks excellently, successfully pinning down the coalition of nobles in central Stanik and not allowing them to go north for reinforcements.

Duke Jonathan's order obviously increased the burden on the Central Route Army, and Burton's words implied that he was reluctant to take on this responsibility.

After participating in the war, the Central Route Army won two battles and obtained a large amount of booty, and the population alone grabbed nearly 100,000.

The Middle Route Army has been plundered, and many nobles of the allied army of the three provinces are now satisfied, and do not want to fight hard with the enemy.

Burton's words represented the opinion of a large part of the population, and even the military spirit was on his side. Even if Richard still wants to continue to make meritorious contributions, he must take care of the morale of the soldiers, and his orders must not deviate too far from the soldiers' ideas.

Richard turned his head to Sharp and asked, "Old Chief Sharp, what is your opinion?" ”

Sharp commanded the coalition of nobles of the province of Geda, with 4,000 soldiers under his command. Compared to the nobles of the province of Lahe, the nobles of the province of Geda were closer to Richard. In particular, the noble soldiers of Heihe County admired Richard very much, and like the soldiers of Harland's territory, they were the backbone of Richard's control of this army.

"Can you write a letter to Duke Jonathan to recruit the nobles of Nero's castle?"

"The nobles of Central Starnik are all members of the Linus family, not to mention the blood feud between the Linus family and the Jonathan family, and it is impossible to recruit them in the current situation. These people have a grudge and no trust in us, and if they rebel before the battle, it will bring us even more trouble. ”

Baron Sharp was also opposed to the assault, and he said calmly: "After two months of siege, the morale has been much lower, and it is easy for the enemy to seize the opportunity to seize the opportunity and win a victory.

For the last two months, the defenders of Fort Nero have been inaccessible to the outside world. There has been no news from the outside for a long time, and the defenders' morale must be unstable, so I think it is better to drive the sheep under Nero's castle, so that the defenders can see that our food and grass are still very sufficient, and stimulate the enemy. If we can attract the enemy out of the city, we will take advantage of the situation to encircle and annihilate the enemy who comes out to attack, and if the enemy is still moving, it can also break the morale of the defenders. ”

Since none of his men are willing to attack, Richard will not let the soldiers of Haaland's territory be used as cannon fodder to fill the city.

Richard simply followed Baron Sharp's plan, and the next day let the sheep graze around the castle, deliberately letting the defenders see it, in order to show that the allied forces of the three provinces had a lot of food and grass.

Baron Sharp was experienced and accurately estimated the mood of the defenders, and when he saw tens of thousands of sheep, the defenders immediately knew that it was impossible to expect the enemy to retreat in a short time.

Although Nero's castle has a lot of food, it is enough to last for nine months under normal times, but when the wall is cleared, more than 4,000 soldiers poured into the castle, plus the soldiers' families, nobles, grassroots bureaucrats and other chaotic personnel, and tens of thousands of people have increased in the castle.

There are tens of thousands of more mouths, and the food is suddenly insufficient.

If all went well, Fort Nero would be able to hold out for four or five months, until Richard ran out of food and retreated.

But there were accidents in the war.

Richard had aerial scouts, and in early May, through aerial reconnaissance, discovered a large granary of the defenders, and then concentrated on burning the granary with fire oil bombs thrown by trebuchets, losing more than 2,000 tons of grain in the city.

After this battle, the defenders learned their lesson and adopted the method of dividing the grain storage and digging cellars to store the grain, and now there is only one month left in the grain storage, and they can only hold out until the end of June.

The grain store is getting less and less, and the nobles who defend the city are becoming more and more worried. They knew in their hearts that once the food ran out, if the defenders did not surrender, they would have to eat people in order to survive. If it comes to this, Fort Nero will become a hellish scene.

Stimulated during the day, the nobles in Nero's castle asked Viscount Nero to open the gates and organize an army to raid the enemy and rob the sheep.

Seeing the anger of the crowd, Viscount Nero summoned everyone to the mansion to discuss countermeasures.

The aristocratic coalition under Richard's command could not be united. Under the command of Viscount Nero, there are also people with evil intentions.

Fort Nero had been besieged for two months, and had not yet waited for reinforcements, and the nobles of the city knew that the situation had become extremely dangerous. They knew in their hearts that the kingdom of Grant was much stronger than the Grand Duchy of Starnik. Moreover, there was chaos within the Grand Duchy of Starnik this year, and members of the Linus royal family killed each other, losing thirty or forty thousand regular troops.

These 30,000 or 40,000 regular troops are all descendants of the Linus family, and the number of troops controlled by the Linas family adds up to 100,000.

Although the strength of the Grand Duchy of Starnik is not weak, the dukes in the south and the border nobles in the north may not be willing to fight for the Linus family?

Although the Jonathans' appeal in Stanic has declined a lot, after all, they are the former masters of the country and can influence a large part of the middle forces to keep them from participating in the war.

The war has continued until now, and the future of the Linus family is no longer good, and many nobles are unwilling to sit in the dangerous city. There are many people who want to break through, including Viscount Nero's clansmen.

The nobles of the city had breathing, professional clansmen, and soldiers who followed. Just get out of danger. Enter the Kingdom of Lane, the Kingdom of Delong and other countries, and still have the opportunity to fight to become a hereditary nobleman and restore their identity. Those who are willing to follow Viscount Nero to defend the castle are actually a minority. It's just because Viscount Nero is a powerful epic knight and has a high prestige in the coalition that there is no public infighting.

"The enemy drove the flock, deliberately let us see, in order to provoke us. We must not be fooled, as long as we persevere, everything will be in a way. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Viscount Nero went straight to the point and expressed his opinion.

"We only have enough food to eat for a month, and there are no reinforcements outside, and the enemy has tens of thousands of sheep, even if they drink goat's milk and eat mutton, they can hold out until the end of August, and the enemy army can still be replenished from the rear. We will run out of food next month, what will we do then, will we really eat people? Most of the population of the city is the families of the soldiers, can we give the order for the soldiers to eat their families? ”

The first to speak out against it was Viscount Casaro, who had 1,500 soldiers under his command and was second only to Viscount Nero in strength in the city, and he raised his objections, which were echoed by many.

"Viscount Casaro is right, I think the best way is to organize the elite out of the city and launch a night raid to burn the enemy's food and rob the enemy's flock. As long as the battle can be successful, the enemy will retreat because of the lack of food.

If the night attack is not successful, we should also plan ahead and not be trapped in this place. Seven thousand soldiers have no food to eat, and the most likely thing is to surrender to the enemy, and then all of us will die. As soon as Casaro finished speaking, the Viscount of York spoke in agreement.

Most of Viscount York's soldiers were lost in the Ferramane Mountains, and although he was not a bare-bones commander now, he only had three hundred descendants around him, and his voice was far inferior to the other two viscounts, and he could only be equal to the baron.

The two viscounts took the lead, and the barons below spoke in agreement. Seeing that there was such a great opposition to the defense of the city, Viscount Nero knew in his heart that his opinion was already unpopular.

The soldiers of the noble coalition under the command of Viscount Nero were all locals. In order to stabilize people's hearts, he gathered the families of the soldiers in Nero Castle, and now these soldiers' families have all become a burden.

If you want to break through, you can't escape with the old and weak. But abandoning the soldier's family, it was difficult for the commander to give this order.

A soldier is not a robot, and it does not mean that any order given by the commander must be carried out.

If Viscount Nero's army was a guest soldier, the situation would have been easier to handle. Whether it is hunting and killing the old and young in the city, relying on cannibalism to defend the city, or organizing soldiers to break through, as long as the force has the advantage, it is very easy.

But Viscount Nero led all the soldiers of his hometown, and if he wanted the soldiers to eat his wives and children, no matter who gave this order, he would inevitably be eaten by the soldiers.

Viscount Nero knew that the enemy had set a trap and that it was impossible to succeed in a sneak attack out of the city, but the officers under his command were full of affection, and most of them were unwilling to continue to defend the city.

Opinions are not unanimous, and if the quarrel continues, there will be infighting.

Viscount Nero slammed on the table and shouted, "You let me think about it, but tonight the enemy must have set a trap and launched a night attack, and I will not agree." ”

When everyone left, Viscount Nero weighed it carefully, and since the contradiction was made public, the nobles did not want to defend the city, and Viscount Nero was powerless to disobey the opinion of the majority. can only organize a breakthrough according to their wishes.

Early the next morning, Viscount Nero had a meeting with the noble lords. At this meeting, he was relieved and expressed his willingness to organize soldiers and launch a breakout battle.

"You go back and count and see how many soldiers are alone, willing to follow us?"

The nobles returned to the barracks, counted the soldiers, and reported them to Viscount Nero.

After looking at the statistics, Viscount Nero found that there were only more than 300 soldiers without family ties. The rest of the soldiers had relatives, and most of these soldiers with families were reluctant to follow them to break through and flee to neighboring countries.

The soldiers were willing to defend the city mainly to protect their families.

For the past two months, Viscount Nero has been preaching to the soldiers about the brutality of the enemy, declaring that after the alliance of the three provinces breaks through the city, it will definitely be slaughtered. Fearing the slaughter of their families, the defenders fought bravely.

"There are only 300 people, how can we protect everyone's family. The reason why I opposed the breakout was that I was afraid of messing up the morale of the army, and I knew that it would be difficult to succeed in the breakout. ”

Of the 7,000 noble troops in the city, there were only six or seven hundred cavalry. There are ten hereditary barons and three hereditary viscounts among the members of the nobility, which add up to more than a thousand people, including the distant nobles. A large part of these people are old and weak, women and children, and only a small number of hard-hearted people can ruthlessly abandon their families.

Relying on a few hundred cavalry, it was simply impossible to break through with this batch of burdens.

Seeing that Viscount Nero was still hesitating, Viscount York persuaded: "If you don't break through, you can only wait for death, and there is still a chance to escape if you break through." In this situation, you are our leader, and we can't hesitate, we should make up our minds. ”

"Tomorrow I will order the soldiers to go out of the city to counterattack and contain the enemy's main force, you and the backbone of the Casaro organization, with all the cavalry in the castle to break through, if we can break through the encirclement, we will meet at the Sola Castle in the southern Daron Mountains."

Hearing the breakthrough route planned by Viscount Nero, Viscount York asked with a shocked face: "Let's not go to Linus Castle and go west into the Kingdom of Linus?" ”

Viscount Nero shook his head and said, "After the enemy conquers Nero Castle, it will inevitably converge with the main forces in the Linus area. The vicinity of Linus Castle was full of enemy troops, and we went in this direction, unable to evade the pursuit of the enemy at all.

My advice is to move southwest, from Sola Castle over the Daron Mountains, through the territory of the Allen family, into the kingdom of Delon. ”

"Duke Allen is willing to let us through? The dukes of the south were not willing to take responsibility at all, and if they did their best, they could mobilize an army of 100,000. With an army of 100,000 joined, we can easily drive out the enemy. ”

Hearing the words of Viscount York, Viscount Nero also hated the Duke at both ends of the South. But hatred can't solve any problems, and he can only hope that the Alan family will turn a blind eye and let them take political refuge in the Delong Kingdom.

(End of chapter)