214 – Midterm Check (3)
The afternoon of the third day after the meeting.
Before starting the war, he ordered all his vassals, barons and above, to come to the audience room in the palace to show his dignity and authority as a king.
In other kingdoms or empires, it would take a few months after issuing a convocation order to gather all the nobles, but in preparation for war, nobles of baron and higher resided near Orléans Castle…
In just one day, I was able to gather all the nobility to the convocation point.
The rest of the work was done so quickly, so this is why absolute monarchy is so good
Stepping slowly, step by step, on a carpet made of red velvet that stretched all the way to the throne that only a king or emperor could step on.
And with a light but dignified gesture, I climbed the throne and looked at my subjects.
Then, an overwhelming sense of pleasure that I hadn’t felt when I was a count or marquis, or a sense of omnipotence that seemed like I could do anything, filled my head.
This is probably why all those in power have a desire to become kings or emperors.
Desperately feeling those emotions, he raised his right hand and then lowered it.
“Everyone take your seats.”
The nobles heard the sound and all sat down in their seats, and I spoke to them in a solemn voice.
“We cannot live with the same sky as the emperor of the Eline Empire. Because he calls me and you, who have risen to secure legitimate rights, as traitors, and tries to extort the property of the Lords with dirty teeth.”
From the point of view of the Elaine Empire, we, who set up our own independent kingdom and do not serve the emperor Adolf, may be seen as the world’s killers.
Because people have a tendency to make judgments based on their own standards without considering the viewpoints of others.
As an example to prove that, a word that can be cited would be ‘romance if I do it, and affair if someone else does it’.
So aren’t we taught since childhood to be objective rather than selfish, to be tolerant of others, and to judge ourselves with strict standards?
Because then you can lose sight of the objective facts and fall into egotism.
“Then I will ask the Lords. When we swore allegiance to the Emperor of Elaine, he was obliged to defend us. But, what did he do to the nobles of our kingdom?”
With that said, Balt, Frost, Biermann, etc… Everyone, including the core nobles of our kingdom, stood up and denounced them all at once.
“He tried to isolate and kill us on an impossible expedition!”
“The devil, dirtier than pagans, and the already dead Duke of Orléans have left us alone in the Yellow Plains, with an army of over 80,000! Sold out!”
“You are scum who tried to treat you like a slave without guaranteeing any territory or rights to your Highness who swore allegiance!”
I was the one who decided to stay on the Yellow Plains.
Ordinary serfs, soldiers, and low-ranking officers may not know this, but among nobles with a title of baron or higher, there is probably no one who doesn’t know about it.
However, if I had retreated then… The army of the French Empire would have driven the emperor and plundered the territory with the momentum.
We would have sold or raped the families of territories and nobles, and filled their stomachs with our wealth.
At that time, I even judged that it was an opportunity to eat the two counties of Iris and Architel, but the primary cause was largely due to the emperor’s failure to grasp his own capabilities.
They stopped their entreaty by lifting the scepter, which symbolizes royal authority, and spoke quietly.
“The anger of the Lords is justified. But now he must lay down his anger and keep his head cool, and his heart must have the courage to fight against injustice. With that mindset, we will wage war to protect the kingdom’s honor and property. Does everyone agree to this?”
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The nobles raised their right fists to the sky while standing up and responded with cheers in unison.
“Then I understand that everyone agrees. From now on, as the commander-in-chief of this expedition and the king of the Kingdom of Creutel, I will explain the outline of the war to conquer Elaine in the future.”
Accordingly, the attendant next to me handed over the plan that I had prepared in advance.
“A total of 200,000 troops will be mobilized for this war, and the troops will be divided into two. One unit is the 1st Corps, which is composed of 150,000 soldiers led by me, and the other is the 2nd Corps, which is composed of 50,000 soldiers led by my father. The 1st Corps will gather at Orléans Castle, occupy Falcon Fortress in the County of Perius, and move toward Alas and County of Jacques with momentum. After the fall of Fort Falcon, when the Duke of Brussels led his forces out of the territory, the 2nd Corps began to advance from Nantes, aiming for an opening.”
Until now, I’ve only used one corps, so there’s a high chance that my opponent won’t think that I’m going to split my forces into two.
No, even if there are people who think to prepare by anticipating all the variables, a large force of over 150,000 will attack, and even if they claim, ‘We need to mobilize more soldiers to defend the flank!’, They will be ignored.
Because from the point of view of the Elaine Empire, the first thing to do is to eliminate the 1st Legion, which is the fire that fell at the feet.
“Then I will first explain the strategy of the 1st Legion. If an army of tens of thousands were on the move, some of the necessary food could be procured locally… As soon as the number exceeds 100,000, it becomes very difficult to maintain supply with food requisitioned locally. Therefore, the path of the friendly forces will be limited to only stable routes on which a large number of supply units can march. And it is speculated that the first obstacle to be encountered on the way will be the ‘Falcon Fortress’.”
Translated, it is a gigantic fortress that means a fortress to attack enemies like a flying hawk.
As a fortress built by the first Emperor of the Eline Empire to prevent the invasion of a large army… It is an impregnable castle with a record of defeating an army of over 100,000 with only 20,000 soldiers.
The place where the castle is located is a basin about 100 meters above sea level, and the shape of the castle is a round shape surrounding the basin.
The area around the top of the castle is a gentle hill, but the road up there is wide enough for three wagons to pass, but there is only one.
Even if you try to send troops to cross the wall, a bottleneck occurs because there is only one road, and it takes a lot of time to overwhelm it with pages.
And in the meantime, the enemy is a structure that can slaughter the soldiers entering through the bottleneck in the open space around the castle wall.
Also, the castle’s stone walls are so thick that it’s hard to break them with our field cannons and catapults, so I’ve said it all…
So, in order to attack the castle, there is a record that they found a place where a small number of troops could penetrate, such as a cliff or a side road, but they were all found at the ‘top’ and failed.
“Therefore, the enemy must have stationed 30,000 to 40,000 troops in advance at Fort Falcon in order to cut down the strength and strength of our allies, and try to stop us there as much as possible. After that, they will see an opening and divert the large army they have gathered together in a different direction to attack us.”
There are few troops that can enter the castle at once, so it will take time to put in a large number of soldiers, and it will take a lot of time to get out of the Falcon Fortress.
When our army, which was extremely deprived of physical strength in a siege, escapes from the castle and marches to the next battle area, we are vulnerable to the enemy’s diversionary attack.
The emperor of the Eline Empire must be aiming for just that.
“Then, how are you planning to attack? Are you going to set fire to Mount Falcon, where Falcon Fort is located? Then, because of the forest fire, our allies…”
If you set fire to the mountain, the soldiers inside will surely be trapped inside the castle and roasted whole…
If you set fire to a place that is already densely forested, except for cities, in the worst case, your allies may be caught in the fire and annihilated.
Before that, the wind blew from top to bottom in the mountains, so even if there was an arson in the end, there is a very high possibility that we would take all the damage.
“No, from what I did research, I heard that Mount Falcon is covered in dense forest. So unless you are near a castle, it will be difficult for enemies to come down recklessly because of the thick trees. Therefore, as soon as the allies arrive at Falcon Mountain, they pretend to engage in siege and siege warfare, enter the forest near the castle and dig a tunnel to the bottom of the castle wall. Then, they will set a large amount of gunpowder in the crypt surrounding the wall, set fire to it all at once, and blow it up, destroying the wall. Take the chaos and occupy the castle. The strategy after this will fluctuate greatly depending on the enemy’s movement, so let’s take a break and discuss it.”