Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 511: Choice of War and War

“... I think we should abandon the Royal City of Polyvisia and retire immediately. This time, our autonomous military region launched two regiments, not to help the kingdom conquer the entire eastern region, but to reinforce the kingdom's homeland to lift the invasion of the kingdom by the Association of Eastern Nations. To date, we have done our utmost to destroy the two principalities, rehabilitate the new occupied territories and force the Allied forces to withdraw completely from the Kingdom itself.

We have exceeded our mandate in terms of the purpose of troop contributions from our autonomous territories. We have left the Kingdom of Hicks no place in the eastern part of the country, wiped out the King's fleet and left the Kingdom of Hicks no longer capable of meddling in the affairs of the eastern part of the country. Moreover, we surprised the occupation of the Royal City of Polyvisia, believing that the blow to the Kingdom of Nasseri would prevent it from regaining its vitality in the coming decades. So I think we've taken advantage of it, and it's time to take it. ”

This was General Berklin's statement at the Thunder Corps decision-making meeting, and his views represented those of a number of generals. Today, the Legion of Thunder occupies the Royal City of Polyvisia and faces a crisis in which the Allied armies are overwhelmed by more than 700,000 troops in five counties in the northeast and seven counties in the southwest of the Kingdom of Nasseri. The first thing Berklin wanted to do with his legs was run fast. At the very least, bring back all the loot he had seized. It was a huge fortune of astronomical numbers, and he couldn't stay here and cheapen the enemy...

General Diaved, however, categorically opposed such a no-war escape, representing the other part of the Legion of Thunder, an officer and soldier who were extremely superstitious about their power. So what? Ten times more than the Thunder Corps. So what? Isn't that a problem that can be solved by shooting ten more shots each? There's no need to run, it's embarrassing to say it...

Claude couldn't help but laugh and got a headache when his two little brothers argued. Berklin is not a cowardly warrior, nor will he be alone in a deep surprise attack on the Royal City of Polyvinia. He just always likes to fight with certainty and to win the biggest at the smallest price. So it seems to him that the kingdom of Nasserli has been tortured by the Legion of Thunder and cannot be turned upside down. The Legion of Thunder should succeed in retreating and returning to the new occupied territories with a generous seizure.

And Diavid is another extreme, too superstitious a thunderous army, and thinks it's invincible. This can be seen from the fact that more than 10,000 men led two light riders in the main field would dare to strike the 100,000 armies of their enemies, regardless of the 3721 wave. The result was a big victory, his own casualties and his minor injuries. Who makes sense? So when you hear the enemy's army overwhelm, the part of the officer headed by him sees that this is a battle merit sent to the door, how can there be any reason not to fight first?

Enemy 10, if you win this great battle, you can make a history book and glorify the future. The main warrior faction, headed by General Diaved, was a frivolous wrestler, afraid that the enemy would not come, and they believed that there were no indestructible enemies in front of the Legion of Thunder. It can be concluded from their quote that one hundred thousand more shots per person would solve all the problems, that they did not see this 700,000 enemy army...

Claude himself is actually very paradoxical, that war is two thoughts that go round and round in his head all the time. He stood taller, farther, and more thoughtfully considered than Diavid, who was a major fighter, and Berklin, who wanted to leave.

If, as Berklin argues, the good will prevail, it means that the Legion of Thunder will abandon the Royal City of Polyvisia and the surrounding area, which is already in initial possession, and will abandon its former achievements. At the same time, the best time to destroy the kingdom of Nasserley, the death enemy of the kingdom of Ovilas, was almost abandoned, something that Claude did not want to see.

The real source of instability and fighting in the eastern part of the Farea continent lies in the dominance of the eastern part of the country contested by the kingdoms of Ovieras and Nasseri, and only one can bring lasting peace to the eastern part. Otherwise, every twenty or thirty years, there will inevitably be war between the two countries. Five wars have broken out between the two countries over the past hundred years, the last two of which have involved all the countries of the entire eastern region, and as a result they have become deadly enemies.

Claude's unwillingness to give up this opportunity is his selfishness, because he is well aware that, as long as the kingdom of Nasserley is destroyed, he will gain a noble prestige in the kingdom of Ovilas. Let's not say that the old-fashioned aristocratic power is still qualified to finger him, Frederick I, but also to speak in his face, of which the benefits he can derive are self-evident.

Besides, it is not easy to say that we will leave, as Berkelin has advocated, but that we will take all our belongings up to more than 50 million gold kroner. Unless all the generals of the Thunder Legion disembark as infantry soldiers and the rides are freed up to pull the trophy, they will not be able to take away all the seizures.

Of course, the trophies can be awarded first, which is contrary to the military rules of the Autonomous Territory. The biggest question is, if each soldier carries with him the trophies of those pot tanks, how much fighting power can they maintain? Claude would not have made such a foolish decision about self-destructive martial arts, and such a precedent would have a terrible impact on maintaining strict discipline and good manoeuvre among legion soldiers...

Beyond that, the camps of more than 100,000 prisoners, as well as the families of more than 200,000 prisoners held in isolation in the Imperial City, are also an insurmountable challenge. These are the human resources that Claude intends to use to enrich the Overseas Autonomous Territory of the Rocky Mountains, since the Interim King and Frederie I rejected the request of the Overseas Autonomous Territories to continue to recruit immigrants from the mainland of the Kingdom. And strictly guarded against death, no one without any kinship to the Overseas Autonomous Territories would be allowed to become an immigrant, so much so that the Rock Corps landed in White Deer City that fewer than a thousand immigrants to the Overseas Autonomous Territories have arrived.

If the Legion of Thunder were to abandon the Royal City of Polyvisia and move in, it would not be possible to take all the prisoners and their families, but at most a small number of higher-ranking prisoners, such as some members of the Royal House of Nasserley and the nobility of the kingdom. If you want to take away all the prisoners, how much more could an army with more than 300,000 prisoners and their families, while escorting huge amounts of money, retain? Not to speak of being blocked by the enemy, but a chaos inside and a battle along the way can cause a lot of damage to the Legion of Thunder...

So it was impossible to take all the prisoners and their families, but Claude was very unhappy when he was released. These prisoners and their families are loyal to the kingdom of Nasserli. Don't expect the Legion of Thunder to give them freedom so that they can be thankful for the Legion of Thunder. You know that their homes have been raided by the Legion of Thunder. Their freedom is tantamount to financing more enemy troops and grass-roots officers with battlefield and military experience, which means that the Legion of Thunder will once again find itself in a predicament of enemies on all sides, losing control over Wang Cheng and surrounding towns and areas.

Claude believed that if he were to ask those senior officers of the regiment what to do with the prisoners and their families, he would surely get only one answer. If you can't release them, kill them all and clean them up. The Thunder Corps can also get into formation lightly or easily. But Claude didn't want to carry such a black pot, because if he did, he would also be recorded in history as a true bloody butcher.

Although both the Royal City of Polyvisia and the surrounding towns were eliminated by armed resistance militants, the casualties of more than 100,000 people and rebels have made Claude the Polyvisian butcher. Though Claude did not kill any of the townspeople himself, the butcher's title was worn on his head because of his orders.

But it's understandable, and Claude doesn't care about the title. The Thunder Legion's officers and soldiers were all exterminated by those who resisted the armed forces. They could not be cut off because the other party was an elderly man and a child, or because women stood up and did not return their hands. As long as they are enemies, women and children, old and weak, are in the ranks of extermination. Without the disobedient inhabitants of the towns, the soldiers of the Legion of Thunder did not invade them, they did not plunder their homes, they did not molest their wives and daughters, and this military discipline is already very strict in this era.

Destroying enemies on the battlefield can be justified, but if one strikes unarmed prisoners, Claude will soon honor the entire continent, or notoriety, leaving the family with a legacy. The wars of the Farea continent, with regard to the rules of prisoners' own submarine, are good for replacing each other or buying for ransom after the end of the war. The bad news is that some countries trade prisoners as slaves or impose hard labour, but no country openly slaughters prisoners.

Claude was prepared to transport both the prisoners and their families to the Overseas Autonomous Territory of Rocky Hills for a living, which was a normal operation, and no one could say. But if there is a hundred for transferring to the killing of more than 300,000 prisoners and their families, it will be condemned by the nations of the Farea continent and verbally abused by the righteous. Even in the Overseas Autonomous Territories, Claude's reputation would fall, and no one would like a bloody butcher who ordered the killing of prisoners and innocent families...

Claude didn't want himself to be on the tip of the tide, and his senior officers said they were going to kill because they were in different positions. They need only consider the current situation of the Legion of Thunder, what is best for the Legion of Thunder, the views of others and the consequences of the massacre of prisoners and their families. As for Claude, who gave the order, the black pot was naturally carried by Claude.

Killing cannot be done, letting go, the best solution is for the Legion of Thunder to defeat the 700,000 or more enemy armies approaching the Royal City of Polyvisia and completely destroy the Kingdom of Nasri. All so rejoiced that the Legion of Thunder had ample time to transport huge sums of wealth and prisoners to the overseas autonomous territories and put them in sacks. I was just wondering if Claude was going to make it...

Diavid's strategy is to recklessly say no matter how many enemies there are. Claude can't be as reckless as he is, knowing that the enemy's more than 700,000 armies are not all as useless as the Eighteenth Standing Army of the kingdom of Nasserley, which collapsed in one stroke. At least the more than 400,000 people in the seven southwestern counties, Marco, had withdrawn from the mainland of the Kingdom of Orvillas and had extensive combat experience. In Claude's view, the more than 400,000 enemy forces were the real enemies, and their power was similar to that of the Guardian Corps of the Kingdom of Orvillas.

Although these more than 400,000 enemy troops were defeated by the Rock Regiment in Ambrizeshire, it was on the mainland of the kingdom, and their laborers were on expedition and were not very wary. Together with the two principalities, the Rock Regiment beat them with new artillery and long-barreled rockets, which caused them a huge defeat. But then, during their evacuation from the kingdom itself, they performed very well and even let the Red Dragon Regiment suffer a small loss in the Battle of the Ibnister Plains, forcing the three major regiments of the rear kingdom to leave the country only in silence.

While the Rock Regiment won the Ambrizeshire Grand Prix, they also consumed half of their ammunition stockpile. If the Allied forces could find this, they would simply continue to attack, entangle the Rock Regiment, exploit its strength, and pay the price of more than 200,000 casualties, which would put the Rock Regiment in an empty ordnance depletion dilemma and not even protect Ambrizer County.

Fortunately, the Allied forces do not know this, and they are frightened by the powerful power of the Rock Corps and the power of new weapons. Combined with the passing of the two principalities, the recovery of the enclaves of the Kingdom of Hicks and the news that the Royal Town of Polyvisia in the Kingdom of Nasri was surprisingly occupied by the Legion of Thunder, the Allied forces had to withdraw back to the Kingdom of Nasri in order to avoid the truncation of the rear road, which was finally besieged by more than 400,000 troops.

If the kingdom's guard corps, the Red Dragon Corps and the Lizard Corps could keep up behind the more than 400,000 Alliance troops and give the more than 400,000 horses some dispersed strength, then Claude wouldn't blaspheme at the old noblemen of the Temporary King's House of Lords and the senior officers of the Royal Army to the point of shame.

Who would have thought that the three major regiments in the kingdom would give gifts to the Alliance Army after leaving the country to the revolving Wang Du, leaving the Red Dragon Army and the Lion Vulture Army to build a defensive front in Frontier County, saying it was in case the Alliance Army came back...

What is this? Can't we go after the enemy across the border? The enemy trampled the territory of most of the kingdom of Ovilas and now withdrew from the three major regiments of the kingdom without daring to pursue the crossing of the border, revealing the siege of the Legion of Thunder in sight of the enemy army.

Claude knew very well that the battle, then, as those bastards in the King's Court wished, they would fight alone in the Battle of Thunder Legion, and whether they win or lose, they would suffer heavy casualties. Not only did it diminish the strength of the Overseas Autonomous Territories, but it also diminished the voice of the Overseas Autonomous Territories in the King's Court.

But if the battle doesn't turn in, Claude believes that after the Legion of Thunder retreats, the bastards of the King's Court will have a big basin of sewage thrown over them. What cowardice and fright, the charge of fleeing at the sight of the enemy will fall on himself and the officers and soldiers of the Legion of Thunder. There is even a good chance that if the Thunder Legion can stand by and help, the three major regiments of the kingdom will follow suit, blossom on all sides, counter-surround the enemy and destroy all Allied armies to destroy the Nasserli kingdom to the lie of a final victory...

Without the enemies behind them, the Allied forces of more than 400,000 horses are treading toward the Royal City of Polyviria. According to their itinerary, it will only take more than half a month to reach the territory under the jurisdiction of the Royal City. It can be said that Claude is running out of time to think, that war or walking must be decided within a few days.

Just to make Claude curious, the more than 400,000 Alliance troops from the seven south-western counties approached the king, while the more than 300,000 people in the five north-eastern counties remained static. They remained stationed, neither continuing to build defensive installations and positions, nor opening their doors to join the Allied forces coming from the south-west. Claude had to order a prisoner hunt to find out what was going on with the white enemy.

The good news is that the ocean cruise fleet has once again escorted a large number of convoys to the Florida seaport and six local guard regiments from the Overseas Autonomous Territories have disembarked, who will be stationed in strategic towns and cities in the two extinct Principality to maintain local order and security.

At the same time, a large quantity of ammunition was being transported from the convoy, and General Albert was assembling troops directly from the headquarters of the Legion of Thunder to escort the ammunition to the Royal City of Polyvisia, which would only take more than twenty days to arrive.

The direct force strength of the headquarters of the Legion of Thunder is also more than 15,000 personnel, including a reinforced independent field corps and four logistics guard battalions, as well as auxiliary personnel such as logistics civilian administrative officers, medical services, etc. However, the large quantities of ammunition they brought in finally gave Claude some certainty as to their adherence to the Royal City. But before waiting for General Albert to arrive, Claude needs to consider whether to launch an initiative to delay the journey of the more than 400,000 Allied forces...

Another good news is that the Rock Regiment has left Wang Du and is ready to cross the Odin Mountains for reinforcements. But they are infantry, not light riders like the Legion of Thunder, and it is expected to take a month and a half to reach the Royal City of Polyvisia. General Bolognick and General Bitchcline sent a message from Eagle hoping Claude would hold on until they arrived...

Needless to say, Claude decided to let the first division in Berlin take the initiative to delay the Alliance's journey, at least until General Albert's men and horses were transporting ammunition to the Imperial City. It's just that the first division hasn't launched yet, and Claude actually got an unexpected message.

“What, three regiments of the Allied forces of the Kingdom of Nasserli raised the flag of Prince Vedario and the enemy did not march on the Royal City of Polyvicia, but stopped in Giovirvo County, stationed camps and began building defensive installations? ”

Claude and Berklin, Diavid's two little brothers face each other, and no one can figure out what went wrong with the 400,000 Allied forces and suddenly stopped halfway. But it was not surprising that Prince Vedario, who had fled last time, appeared in the Allied armies. It was surprising that he would gain the support of those three Nasserli Kingdom Standing Regiments so quickly...