"Your Highness the Grand Duke, although I serve as the Great Swordmaster of the Forlondo Duchy, I'm not actually familiar with the details of that campaign. I only took part in the final phase, when we assisted the young prince in laying siege to the Fideliga royal city. Count Churchwick of the Handela Duchy was involved in the planning of the entire campaign from start to finish. He should be the one who knows the most about this war. Perhaps we should invite him to give everyone an overview," said Great Swordmaster Limard.
Grand Duke Fesabran nodded and turned his gaze to Count Churchwick. "Could the Count tell us about how the campaign unfolded? As a military man, I'm truly curious about how the war produced such an unexpected outcome. When I first heard that the
Count Churchwick had not expected to suddenly become the center of attention at the banquet. Seeing every eye in the hall fixed upon him, he silently cursed Great Swordmaster Limard under his breath but had no choice but to rise to his feet. He stole a glance at
No one had expected Count Churchwick to say such a thing, and a murmur of astonishment swept through the great hall. Those with no stake in the matter were merely curious, but young Prince Docke of the Forlondo Duchy let out a cold "Hmph," clearly displeased that Count Churchwick would utter such self-defeating words. Great Swordmaster Limard and the
Count Churchwick drew a deep breath. "As everyone knows, the four central duchies have always been the backbone of the former Krisen Empire. The Empire had twenty-nine provinces, and the eight central provinces alone accounted for forty-five percent of the former Empire's tax revenue. During the Imperial era, whether it was fighting wars abroad or suppressing rebellions domestically, the eight central provinces under the leadership of the four Grand Dukes never fell behind — they contributed manpower and resources, making outstanding contributions to the Empire. Even during the hundred and seventy years of warfare with the Commercial Alliance, the sacrifices made by the eight central provinces were the greatest of all.
During the Empire's civil war, when three princes fought for the throne, the four central Grand Dukes had to form an alliance to protect the Empire's heartland. Even under those circumstances, they still provided the Third Prince with enormously valuable aid, because he represented the legitimate line of the Krisen imperial family. But later, Grand Duke Madras's rebellion caused irreparable changes — the Empire splintered into three kingdoms and seven duchies.
Although the four central Grand Dukes established their own duchies, they immediately faced an invasion by the Eldest Prince. We resisted him for two years, fighting to the point of total exhaustion and suffering devastating losses, but in the end we prevailed and won a precious peace. We had only just begun to recover over a few years of rest and rebuilding, barely regaining some of our strength, when the Second Prince appeared at our gates once more and presented the four Grand Dukes with intolerable terms, forcing the four central duchies to assemble a coalition army yet again for self-defense..."
"Oh? What sort of terms did the Second Prince offer to your four central duchies?" Grand Duke Fesabran stroked the beard on his chin, his curiosity clearly piqued.
"Relocation of our fiefs, and for the four Grand Dukes to lead their family forces to attack the Madras Duchy..." Count Churchwick replied.
Grand Duke Fesabran froze, and with a sudden yank he accidentally tore out several strands of his beard: "Has the Second Prince gone mad? How could he propose such terms — isn't this forcing friends to become enemies?"
Count Churchwick spread his hands and gave a bitter smile: "I have no idea why the Second Prince would present such terms to the four Grand Dukes. Everyone knows this is utterly impossible. The eight central provinces have been the family territories and spheres of influence of the four Grand Dukes for two to three hundred years — they are deep-rooted. Just as Grand Duke Fakel declared, his family's bloodline has long since fused with this land, and no one can force them apart."
"A few years ago, when the Second Prince rose to power in the Andinak Kingdom, the nobles of our four duchies were quite delighted. Some even placed their hopes for the revival of the Krisen Empire on him. For us, being nobles of the Krisen Empire was a source of pride. Our Grand Duke once said that whether or not he held the title of duchy lord made no difference — if the Empire needed it, he would gladly relinquish the duchy's title at any time and return to the Empire's embrace."
"But none of us anticipated that when the Second Prince arrived, having defeated the Eldest Prince and marched with two hundred thousand troops to the borders of the eight central provinces, he would present such terms to the four Grand Dukes: relocation of fiefs, turning the eight central provinces into direct royal demesne of the Andinak royal family, and demanding that the four Grand Dukes serve the Empire by mobilizing their private armed forces to lead us nobles in attacking the Madras Duchy — and only then would our noble ranks and territories be determined based on the merits we accumulated..."
"It was only then that everyone finally understood — in the Second Prince's eyes, we nobles were all traitors to the Empire. We were deeply hurt, seething with fury, and dispatched representatives to lodge a formal protest with the Second Prince. But no one was able to see him; word was that he was gravely ill. At the time, we all assumed he was deliberately avoiding us, and we returned home in a state of righteous indignation, unanimously demanding that the four Grand Dukes assemble a coalition army to resist, while also increasing support for the former Redlist Kingdom nobles to use them as a check on the Second Prince's forces."
"The nobles became enemies of the Second Prince. But the coalition army of our four duchies merely stood its ground against the Second Prince's forces in a standoff — we had no intention of provoking or launching an attack. Yet no one expected that the Second Prince really was gravely ill. Without him personally overseeing operations, the Andinak Kingdom's armies kept losing battles against the former Redlist Kingdom nobles. They were even lured into a trap and swept away by a flood that drowned seventy thousand men. The situation turned on a dime, and it was said that the Second Prince rushed to the front lines in the midst of his illness to stabilize the entire situation."
"To tell the truth, our four duchies had assembled a coalition army of two hundred thousand to face off against the Second Prince's forces. Though there were no major engagements, the cost was enormous. A full five or six years of peace had allowed the four central duchies to recover some of their vitality, but the Second Prince's two hundred thousand troops bearing down on us plunged the four duchies into their greatest crisis and heaviest pressure. Although the Second Prince had detached tens of thousands of troops to scourge the former Redlist Kingdom's noble coalitions, the hundred-thousand-plus troops stationed along the borders of the Fakel and Handra Duchies hung like an executioner's axe over the eight central provinces — and no one knew when it might fall."
"In the pre-Empire era, at their most prosperous, the eight central provinces had a population of nearly three and a half million. They were the jewel of the Empire, surpassed by no province save the vast Antareo Plains surrounding the Imperial Capital. After the Empire's civil war, the population fell to two point eight million. Then came the Eldest Prince, leading the barbarian armies of the Redlist Kingdom to ravage the four central duchies. War, natural disasters, man-made calamities, famine, plague — in just two short years, the surviving population of the eight central provinces dwindled to under two million, nearly half of it gone..."
At this point, Count Churchwick's expression grew visibly agitated: "The four central duchies do not want war. What we yearn for is peace. But what the Second Prince brings is not peace — he forces us to obey his commands, orders us to climb aboard his war chariot, and anyone who disobeys is branded a traitor. The four central duchies had no choice but to assemble a coalition army once again to guard against the Second Prince's forces. But a year-long standoff forced us to consume vast stockpiles of grain and fodder. Every able-bodied man was sent to the front lines, and the farmland back home lay fallow in enormous swaths with no one to work it. I can see that in the next two years, the eight central provinces are going to face famine all over again..."
"Forgive me, Lord Count Churchwick, but may I ask — if the four central duchies find it so difficult to bear the logistical burden of sustaining two hundred thousand troops, do you happen to know where the provisions for the Second Prince's two hundred thousand-plus troops deployed in the Redlist Kingdom came from?" Lorist suddenly cut in, interrupting his words.
"Oh, from what I understand, the Second Prince's grand army in the Redlist Kingdom numbers close to two hundred and seventy thousand in total. Of those, one hundred and fifty thousand are the First and Third Royal Guards Divisions transferred from the Andinaq Kingdom. The remaining one hundred and twenty thousand are former troops of the Redlist Kingdom itself, mostly stationed in the Campo Province. After the Second Prince's surprise assault captured the royal capital of Fedriga, they surrendered to him. Originally, the Second Prince had only brought over the First Royal Guards Division, and he organized these surrendered troops into offensives against the noble houses of the Redlist Kingdom — but the results were dismal. These surrendered forces suffered defeat after defeat, dragging the war out indefinitely.
After the great floods swept away seventy thousand of his troops, the Second Prince finally lost all confidence in those surrendered armies. He called in the Third Royal Guards Division from the Andinaq Kingdom to take full charge of sweeping up and eliminating the coalition of rebel nobles in the Redlist Kingdom. The First Royal Guards Division, together with the remaining surrendered forces, maintained pressure on the four central duchies. All told, one hundred and thirty thousand men faced off against our allied army of the four duchies.
Thanks to the Second Prince's earlier surprise attack on the Fedriga royal capital, he had seized intact all the military supplies and grain stockpiles that the Eldest Prince had been preparing and hoarding there. Our estimates suggested those provisions could sustain his two hundred thousand-plus troops for eight months. At the time, everyone assumed the war would end quickly and the Second Prince would emerge victorious. But no one had anticipated that those rebelling former nobles of the Redlist Kingdom would hold out for so long, striking at the Second Prince again and again. Even though he lost nearly a hundred thousand men, once winter passed, the sheer volume of consumed supplies became more than he could bear.
At that point, the Second Prince employed three measures to cope with the dwindling provisions and boost the morale of his frontline troops. The first was a grain requisition decree — he confiscated the reserve stores of every commoner in the former Redlist Kingdom, then ladled out a portion as thin gruel for those whose grain had been seized, all to guarantee food for the frontline forces. Once this decree was issued, the Second Prince had placed himself squarely against the entire common population of the former Redlist Kingdom, and rebellions flared up one after another...
The second measure was to confiscate the estates of the former Redlist Kingdom nobles and convert them into military assets. All seized property was used as rewards for soldiers who won battles. While this measure restored the frontline troops' morale and combat effectiveness, it drove every neutral noble squarely into the rebel camp. Those rebel nobles who had been cornered and on the verge of collapse under the Third Royal Guards Division suddenly received reinforcements and large numbers of fresh recruits. They resumed fighting the Third Royal Guards Division on equal footing, even winning several minor engagements.
The last measure was to ship grain overland from the Andinaq Kingdom as emergency relief. But the route was long, and between the wear and tear on manpower and raids by the rebel nobles, of every hundred catties of grain dispatched, fewer than twenty or thirty made it to the front. The result was that the garrison troops could only eat half their fill, with camp supplies lasting no more than three days.
Grand Duke Facker, the commander-in-chief of our allied army of the four central duchies, keenly seized this window of opportunity. When the Forde Commercial Alliance made a surprising sudden move to deploy troops and seize the Campo Province — cutting off the Andinaq Kingdom's grain corridor to the Redlist Kingdom — Grand Duke Facker ordered us to round up a herd of cattle and sheep, slaughter them, and throw them into great cooking pots. The more than one hundred and twenty thousand of the Second Prince's troops facing us simply collapsed of their own accord from starvation."
"The nobles of the Redlist Kingdom — the landed lords of the Andwulf Province — would resist the Second Prince that fiercely? As far as I know, the Andwulf Province lords have always been at odds with the Eldest Prince; they even formed a league to push back against his encroachments on their interests. As the prince campaigning against the Redlist Kingdom, the Second Prince should have been well aware of this. If he wanted to pacify the Redlist Kingdom, he would need these very nobles' help. What turned those landed lords into mortal enemies of the Second Prince? Do you know the reason, Count Churchwick?" Lorist looked at Count Churchwick and asked.
"Ah..." Count Churchwick paused to think before replying: "I suppose I do know something of the reason. I once met with several nobles from the Andwulf Province. According to them, the terms the Second Prince offered for their defection were reduced fiefs and reassignment to different territories, along with a demand that they pay a ransom in penance — as atonement for having once followed the Eldest Prince in rebellion. So negotiations fell apart. Those landed lords had originally intended to simply refuse to cooperate with the Second Prince, but no one expected his troops to unsheathe the butcher's blade directly. Several noble families were destroyed utterly, and in the end everyone had no choice but to raise the banner of revolt..."
Lorist gave a bitter smile. This was sheer madness. The Second Prince truly believed that with several hundred thousand men at his command, the world was his for the taking. He had already stumbled over the Andwulf Province lords once, and yet he turned around and tried the same approach on the four central duchies — turning potential allies into deadly enemies. He was truly courting his own downfall.
Reducing and reassigning fiefs was indeed the best way to weaken those territorial lords, but it all depended on the circumstances — such a strategy could only be implemented when one had absolute control over the situation. The Second Prince believed that with two hundred thousand men at his command, he already controlled the situation, and decided to carry out this policy. He was far too hasty; this was nothing short of courting his own destruction.
"By the way, Count Churchwick, after you captured the royal city of Fiedeliga, did you not find any trace of the Second Prince's whereabouts?" Count Kelmis asked.
"No. No one discovered where the Second Prince had gone — he vanished without a trace, just like the Eldest Prince. In fact, after we four central duchies routed the hundred-thousand-strong army on the border, we had intended to stand aside and avoid any further conflict with the Second Prince. But what happened next enraged every one of the four duchies: the Second Prince actually exploited the standoff between our allied forces and his army at the border to send Grand Duke Merlain's army raiding into the territory of the Sabbage Duchy from behind. They pillaged and committed every manner of atrocity. Caught completely off guard, vast stretches of territory fell, and nearly ten thousand of the old, the weak, women, and children were slaughtered.
It was at that point that the Forde Commercial Alliance sent a representative, and the four furious Grand Dukes finally decided to march on the royal city of Fiedeliga. Each duchy would contribute twenty thousand troops, with the remainder rerouted to the Sabbage Duchy to deal with Grand Duke Merlain's invading forces. On the twenty-first of July last year, our army besieged the royal city of Fiedeliga and demanded that the Second Prince surrender, guaranteeing his life would be spared. But this proposal was rejected by a golden female knight defending the city…"
"A golden female knight?" Lorist straightened in his seat.
"Yes. The Second Prince had among his subordinates the One Flower and Five Tigers — six elite warriors of gold-rank aura. They were the Second Prince's most trusted confidants. The One Flower was that golden female knight. Her name was — was — was Nor…k…krisya…" Count Churchwick's face suddenly changed drastically. He stole a furtive glance at Lorist, his body beginning to tremble.
……(To be continued.)