"I had been racking my brains trying to figure out how to deal with Grand Duke Fisablen's Border Defense Mobile Legion stationed in the Wendbury Royal Capital. If they held the city, that would actually be just fine for us — at worst, we'd reduce the royal capital to rubble. No one can withstand our family's siege capabilities; even Grand Duke Fisablen would be powerless. We'd bury him along with his entire Border Defense Mobile Legion in Wendbury, making the royal capital the site of their total annihilation.
Unfortunately, this is only the most ideal scenario we could hope for. Grand Duke Fisablen is a veteran of countless campaigns and a crafty old fox with an extraordinarily keen sense for the battlefield. The moment anything seems off, he'll flee a thousand miles away. We'd have a very hard time tracking him down. I estimate that once Grand Duke Fisablen learns we've dispatched troops into Winston Province, he won't hesitate for a second to abandon Wendbury — he'll strip it of all its wealth and grain supplies, conscript the young and able-bodied, and retreat, leaving behind only the old, the sick, and the weak. Even if we take the royal capital, all we'd get is a mess.
Grand Duke Fisablen will continue his massive retreat, taking everything he deems worth taking — supplies and personnel alike. By the time we occupy Winston Province and push into Southern Province, he'll have plenty of room on the battlefield to maneuver against us. He'll use the mobility of his Border Defense Mobile Legion to strike at our logistics convoys from every direction, sever connections and mutual support between all the strategic points we've seized, and besiege us to bleed our supplies and morale dry — dragging this war on until we're utterly exhausted and can no longer bear the day-by-day drain of attrition and casualties."
This was a vast conference room. After three consecutive days of New Year celebration banquets, all relevant personnel — the family's senior knights and commanding officers — had gathered here to listen to
Today was the third day of January, 1778 by the Galentea Common Calendar. Lorist officially set the
"Based on a compilation of all available intelligence, we estimate the Fisablen family's total military strength to be around two hundred and forty thousand. Naturally, Grand Duke Fisablen can't commit every last soldier to war against us. His Dajinchuan and Xiaojinchuan regions require garrison forces, Eastern Wasteland Province is his family's ancestral seat and can't be abandoned either, and he still needs troops to defend Muyeyuan Province. All told, we estimate the forces Grand Duke Fisablen will commit to Winston Province and Southern Province at roughly one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty thousand. On top of that, he'll likely conscript from the Grass Barbarian tribes on the plains, and several tens of thousands more Grass Barbarian cavalry will serve the Fisablen family…
We don't particularly care how many enemies we face, but this time the enemy we're dealing with is different from anything we've encountered before. The most important factor is that the enemy's mobility surpasses our family's armed forces. When we attack Southern Province, Winston Province becomes our rear, and we'll need to defend it at every point to protect our logistics supply routes. This is the key to whether we can successfully occupy Southern Province and cut the Fisablen family off from support by the Four Central Duchies.
When a lion hunts a rabbit, it still uses its full strength. In the campaign plan we originally drafted, the plan was to concentrate the Rock Garrison Legion and the Flying Tiger Legion, and add the Pegasus Legion of the
The Flying Tiger Legion's mission would be to clear out the large cavalry raiding parties harassing Winston Province, protect the rear as supplies and provisions are shipped to Southern Province, and seek an opportunity to seize the critical fortress city of Piedro at the border between Winston and Muyeyuan Provinces, severing transportation links between the two provinces. As for the Hunting Cavalry Legion stationed in the eastern reaches of Northland, their role is to raid Muyeyuan Province. I don't expect the newly formed Hunting Cavalry Legion to suppress the forces the Fisablen family has deployed in Muyeyuan Province, but spreading the flames of war onto the Fisablen family's own territory — making Muyeyuan Province a battlefield as well and tying down their troop movements — is an outcome I'm happy to see.
The upside of this attack plan is that it's solid and steady — we have ample confidence in achieving our objectives. But the drawback is equally obvious: with our superior numbers and overwhelming combat power, Grand Duke Fisablen would have to be out of his mind to seek a pitched field battle or a siege battle against us. That means it will be very difficult for us to annihilate the enemy or inflict heavy casualties. We anticipate that the most likely move for that old fox Grand Duke Fisablen is to cede Winston Province outright, preserve his forces, and trade space for the initiative on the battlefield.
After all, the more territory we occupy, the more our forces are spread thin across garrison duties — and the Border Defense Mobile Legion's mobility far exceeds that of our family's armed forces. This will leave us stuck on the defensive. Meanwhile, Grand Duke Fisablen can use their mobility to mass troops at will and outnumber us locally, at certain points putting our garrison troops at a numerical disadvantage. If Grand Duke Fisablen splits his Border Defense Mobile Legion into smaller units and has regiments roaming throughout Winston Province, not only will our forces guarding key positions be pinned down, but even our logistics supply convoys will be in constant danger."
"...the safety of our supply routes. However, thanks to Viscount Ediths and the others pledging their allegiance, I see an opportunity to annihilate the Border Defense Mobile Legion that Grand Duke Fisablen has deployed in Winston Province.
If we can destroy this Border Defense Mobile Legion at the Wendbury Royal Capital and then capture Piedro City, Winston Province will no longer have to worry about large-scale cavalry raids. Looking at the map, we can see that apart from Piedro City — the key transportation nexus connecting Winston Province to Muyeyuan Province — the border between the two provinces consists of the steep Pisbell Mountains, stretching all the way down to Southern Province. The Pisbell Mountains are impassable for a large army. As long as we can annihilate this Border Defense Mobile Legion, we'll not only sever one of Grand Duke Fisablen's arms, but Winston Province itself will become our safe rear base.
According to intelligence from the Volibear Intelligence Bureau's spies planted in the Wendbury Royal Capital, and the information Viscount Ediths brought us, we can confirm that Grand Duke Fisablen has also been making deliberate preparations to meet our attack. At present, Grand Duke Fisablen has already purged the nobility within the royal capital, and has turned his sights on the traditional landed nobles of Winston Province as well — twenty-three landed noble families have already been destroyed by the Border Defense Mobile Legion."
Lorist pointed at Viscount Ediths sitting to one side, gesturing for him to stand and continue.
Viscount Ediths was somewhat emotional. He hadn't expected that the four of them would be allowed to attend such a classified strategic planning meeting of the Norton Family — it was an extraordinary show of trust. He also realized that the Four Great Families had long since turned their eyes toward the Iblia Kingdom, and he silently congratulated himself that the four of them had pledged their allegiance early enough.
"Your Highness and esteemed lords, from what I have learned, Grand Duke Fisablen issued orders to every traditional landed noble in Winston Province more than two months ago, demanding their loyalty, and ordered the transfer of all their family estates. Using the excuse that civil wars among the lords had plunged the Iblia Kingdom into turmoil and disorder, he reduced the titles and territories of most of the landed nobles. This move provoked the dissatisfaction and resistance of the majority of the lords. But none of them expected that Grand Duke Fisablen was already prepared — his Border Defense Mobile Legion struck swiftly, destroying twenty-three noble families who defied him within two months.
For the four of us, who lacked the strength to resist and could only endure, the transfer order came five months ago — meaning we were to harvest the winter wheat, then take our families and no more than one thousand settlers and garrison troops each to new family territories in Southern Province, surrendering everything in our original territories to the envoys dispatched by Grand Duke Fisablen. This was driving us four families to a dead end, and it was the real reason we came to pledge allegiance to the Norton Family.
I once hosted one of Grand Duke Fisablen's envoys. Under my hospitality, that envoy let slip that Grand Duke Fisablen had begun preparing to abandon Winston Province after learning the Four Great Families of the Northland had destroyed the Madras Duchy. He was treating this region as a battlefield on which to engage the Four Great Families. The ideal scenario was to seal off the two iron-chain bridges connecting Northland to Winston Province and Muyeyuan Province — he was even willing to destroy them entirely. That way, he would only need to deploy forces to defend against enemies coming from the Hinderson Small Mountain Range. Given the formidable strength of the Norton Family's armed forces, Grand Duke Fisablen decided to conduct a scorched-earth campaign across all of Winston Province, using the vast terrain and his family's Border Defense Mobile Legion's exceptional mobility to wage guerrilla warfare against the invading Four Great Families of the Northland.
That envoy also said Grand Duke Fisablen intends to relocate all the young and able-bodied people from Winston Province to Eastern Wasteland Province and Jinchuan Province to fill the manpower shortages in his family's own territories. The remainder will be concentrated in the Wendbury Royal Capital and several fortified towns, turning them into logistical bases from which the Border Defense Mobile Legion can launch operations and receive supplies. That envoy therefore advised me to obey the Grand Duke's orders and transfer to Southern Province. After Grand Duke Fisablen completes his arrangements for Winston Province, he will carry out bandit suppression in Southern Province and vigorously strengthen commercial trade with the Four Central Duchies…"
After finishing his report, Viscount Ediths nodded to everyone before sitting back down.
"You've all heard it — Grand Duke Fisablen is no easy mark. While we scheme against him, he schemes against us. Winston Province was originally a major population center of the former Krisen Empire, with a population that once exceeded one and a half million. Unfortunately, years of civil war within the empire, followed by the
At this point, some of the people in the room who understood the context chuckled. The methods the Northland had used to draw refugees from Winston Province over those years were hardly aboveboard.
Lorist smiled as well and continued: "We estimate Winston Province's current population is still around four hundred thousand or so. Excluding the sixty to seventy thousand in the Wendbury Royal Capital, the rest are basically the settlers of those traditional landed noble families. Take Viscount Ediths, for example — he vigorously developed commerce and production on his family estate, and currently has nearly thirty thousand settlers. Viscount Shindler, Baron Klaus, and Baron Wade together have close to forty thousand settlers across their three territories. This is partly thanks to the booming commerce of Walker Town on Viscount Ediths's lands, and partly because they took in quite a few refugees during the turmoil to clear land and farm. Noble families like them in Winston Province are far from rare…
…family would feel any goodwill toward the Fisablen family.
Grand Duke Fisablen wants to relocate the young and able-bodied of Winston Province to fill the manpower shortages in his family's territories — we absolutely cannot let him succeed. Baron Bortfing, Baron Malek…"
The two newly ennobled lords named by Lorist stood up.
"You two will lead the Rock Garrison Legion and depart in three days for Viscount Ediths's original territory of Walker Town. I'll have Viscount Ediths, Viscount Shindler, Baron Klaus, and Baron Wade assist you. It's currently winter, with heavy snow blocking the roads — Grand Duke Fisablen and his Border Defense Mobile Legion garrisoned in the royal capital will never expect us to act at a time like this. Your mission is to relocate all the settlers from the original territories of Viscount Ediths and the others back to the Northland, then impersonate their settlers and, after the March rainy season ends and the winter wheat has been harvested, raise the banner of rebellion against Grand Duke Fisablen.
Viscount Ediths and the other three families can muster five to six thousand regular troops, and by conscripting able-bodied settlers they could assemble a force of twenty thousand. To crush this rebellious lord's army, Grand Duke Fisablen's Border Defense Mobile Legion garrisoned in the royal capital will certainly mobilize in full force. The moment they leave the royal capital, we can encircle and annihilate them at Walker Town. After that, the Wendbury Royal Capital will be ours for the taking — easy as anything."
"Understood, Your Highness." Bortfing and Malek saluted and sat back down.
"The most critical element of this operation is avoiding detection and suspicion from the Border Defense Mobile Legion's scouts. This will require the cooperation of Viscount Ediths and the others."
"Your Highness, rest assured — I guarantee there will be no slip-ups," said Viscount Ediths.
Lorist nodded. "If there hadn't been a March rainy season after winter, I would have considered directly besieging Wendbury Royal Capital and trapping Grand Duke Fisablen and his Border Defense Mobile Legion inside the city. Unfortunately, our family soldiers would be hard-pressed to conduct siege warfare in this weather, and there's no way to transport the siege engines there either. During the rainy season, being outside the walls would be even more disadvantageous for us — it could trigger a large-scale epidemic…
So I want to lure this Border Defense Mobile Legion out and draw them into a heavy encirclement for a field battle. Count Filim, both your Pegasus Legion and my Flying Tiger Legion must prepare to move out after the rainy season ends, advancing stealthily to positions near Walker Town. When the moment for encirclement arrives, you'll strike. Understood?"
Count Filim stood up. "Rest assured, Your Highness."
"After we destroy this Border Defense Mobile Legion, you'll advance directly into Southern Province alongside the Rock Garrison Legion and immediately close the key transportation routes between the Fisablen family and the Four Central Duchies. If the Four Central Duchies and the Fisablen family's forces join hands to attack, Count Shahin's family legion and the Flying Tiger Legion will move up in succession to provide support. We absolutely must keep Southern Province firmly in our hands — this is the critical key to either destroying the Fisablen family or forcing them to submit to us." Lorist spoke with a vicious edge to his voice.
…(To be continued.)