218 – All-out war in Alas (1)
And a month later, I succeeded in securing a transport route from the Earl of Farius to the Earl of Alas without much resistance.
The nobles under my command argued that we should take this opportunity to occupy the entire Earldom of Farius, but I flatly refused.
Looking at myself like this, you might say that I lack a macroscopic perspective, but if I divide my soldiers to secure one Earl of Farius, it’s like giving the emperor time to prepare.
And if it were the Duke of Brussels who made it his life creed to follow me, there is a very high possibility that he would use that time to set up and fortify a camp in an appropriate place.
Even if you just put a wooden fence around the plain fortifications, it’s really hard to get over it, but if you give them enough time to build a defensive fort… ?
My chances of winning would go down exponentially, and the damage my soldiers would take would multiply. I can swear this on both my wrists.
Also, the serfs in the Earldom of Farius are not plundered or plundered excessively by our forces, so unless they have about 3 lives, there is no reason to rebel against them.
As I was gathering my thoughts, I saw Major Short approaching me to align his horse’s head.
Seeing how a guy who normally reports by letter or document tries to report so closely and secretly while on the march… It seems to be a report related to the operation that freed Earl Farius.
I wish it was about the Count’s head falling off…
“Long live His Majesty the King. Major Short, as you commanded, I released the raccoon cub and came to check on you.”
The intelligence unit values security, but I can’t believe the guards around me are suspicious and use passwords.
If another officer did that, it would be a situation where he would get angry and say, ‘Are you doubting the loyalty of my SS?’, But as an officer of the intelligence unit dealing with the most important information, being careful like that is probably a recommended virtue.
I sent a signal with my hand to the knights and soldiers of the SS and ordered them to stay away.
With all the SS members away, Major Short continued his words in a small voice.
“According to the report received just now, Earl Farius has safely joined the Elaine Imperial Army led by the Emperor. At the same time, while tracking him, we obtained information such as the size, location, and current internal situation of the Elaine Imperial Army, which information would you like to hear first?”
“Let’s start with the location and size of the enemy.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Currently, the enemy forces are presumed to be stationed in Hambringer Village, which is located on the border between the Earl of Alas and the Earl of Jacques, where our forces are heading. The scale of the enemy was 180,000 in total, and the commander-in-chief was the emperor who led 50,000 soldiers. All but three families, Millie, Shaver, and Pompadour, participated in the war among the great nobility of the count or higher.”
No matter how stupid the emperor may be, he seems to know that if he loses this war, the empire will fall into a kingdom, or worse, a vassal state.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gathered so many soldiers in his own territory.
The fact that the forces of the three families Pompadour, Milly, and Shaber did not join was probably because the French Empire was moving in earnest…
In other words, the emperor has become like a pair of scissors being attacked by both Franchi and me, and he must have loved it so much that he was so crazy and self-absorbed.
Also, wouldn’t it be nice to hear the news that 50,000 troops led by his father are robbing empty houses in the Duchy of Brussels when he runs into us in Arras?
“Apart from this, what are the 2nd Army led by your father doing to occupy the Duchy of Brussels?”
“As Your Highness has commanded, you must be marching slowly from Nantes to the Duchy of Brussels right now. And according to the information we received from His Excellency Baron Samuel, there are currently only soldiers in the Duchy to maintain minimum security. So he said that he would be able to occupy it without difficulty.”
Hearing that, I nodded with a satisfied expression and said,
“Very satisfied. Then, what happened to the most important raccoon release operation? What is the relationship between the emperor and the nobles?”
Major Short gave me a slightly disappointed smile before answering my question.
“Two spies who infiltrated the emperor’s army have been safely carrying out their missions and providing information to this day, and I have confirmed that soldiers who were released on purpose by Your Highness often complain when they are drunk. As a result, dissatisfaction with the emperor among the serfs who were forcibly conscripted grew stronger and desertions increased slightly, but the emperor soon took action.”
In this era of war, desertion while marching is extremely common.
To add a little bit of exaggeration, just as people breathe to live, it seems like deserters occur when troops march in war.
However, the increase in the rate of desertion is significant.
Because it is an expression of will that taking the risk of being caught and dying while escaping from the military is better than serving in the army.
Also, once desertion begins, it has the property of producing similar cases afterwards, and the aftermath of dropping the morale of the rest of the soldiers is enormous.
So the emperor quickly dealt with it by beheading them, but it would be difficult to deal with it neatly once such an atmosphere was established.
“Also, after Count Farius returned, we reported his treachery, but the emperor didn’t believe it all, so he didn’t charge him with treachery. Instead, I heard that he is giving preferential treatment to his spies by transferring them to his direct subordinate rather than under Count Perius, and gradually diminishing Count Perius’ right to speak and influence.”
“You are crazy. If you’re going to doubt it, put a check on it and isolate it from other nobles. If you act vaguely like that, the other nobles will sympathize with Count Ferius, who is being suspicious for nothing, and will be wary of the emperor… You are foolish indeed.”
There is a record of the well-known Liu Bang of Chohanji unifying the world and suffering several rebellions thanks to the ambiguous distinction between those to be killed and those to be saved when purging meritorious subjects.
There are so many examples that it is hard to count the cases in which the emperors of each country showed signs of suspicion before purging their powerful subjects, and then their power was weakened by being hit by a rebellion, or the emperor’s family collapsed.
So when you’re trying to purify a suspicious opponent, pretending to trust them and treating them well until you stab them in the stomach, then sending them off in one shot is a basic requirement as an emperor…. He is a really pathetic human being.
Well, thanks to that, I became the king from the Marquis of Creutel, so should I be thankful?
Major Short must have had similar thoughts before reporting to me, and smiled dejectedly.
“So, I heard that Count Farius and his vassal knights are complaining to other nobles who have been close to them for a long time, asking if they can treat those who fought and returned with loyalty like this. Some of the other count’s families have heard the story and have doubts about the emperor’s qualifications because of the appearance he showed from the last war, and among the soldiers, there are those who spread rumors that nobles will be killed by dogs even if they die for the emperor. There is.”
“There is no such thing as a dog game. From the emperor’s point of view, you might think that it would have been better to kill him. And in this case, it would have been better to just kill him.”
Then, even if I heard about the mad emperor who killed an innocent count for about a month, seeing that he escaped with 30 knights, he must have been a traitor.
But now, if you kill the count who complains like that, the emperor will be evaluated as an unreliable monarch who forgives, accepts, and kills later. And the value of the emperor has already plummeted, what if this kind of bad news in the war explodes?
There will be people who would rather kneel down and beg me to preserve the estate and family, so I won’t be able to do that either.
To think that the emperor would suffer like this makes me feel like I’m going to die with so much happiness.
A bastard like Schwein, I hope he dies of a heart attack from a tantrum.
“Okay. So let’s continue to gather information. And did you mobilize fewer cannons?”
“After the Duke of Brussels developed the cannon last year, he distributed the recipe to the Emperor of the Elain Empire and all nobles. Perhaps because of that, it is estimated that the enemy has about 60 cannons made of copper.”
The number of cannons our allies possess is about 80, so the number of cannons is slightly smaller than ours.
However, our soldiers’ main weapons are spears and matchlocks, so they have no choice but to fight in close formation.
So the damage from their cannons won’t be small, so how should we deal with it in the future…