The
The southern province had already transformed into a massive military camp. The
For this campaign against the four central duchies,
Grand Duke Fasablen had been behaving himself during this period. Even when he saw that the released soldiers of the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps had been equipped with tattered leather armor and weapons that amounted to scrap metal, he merely took a few deep breaths, swallowed his anger, and filed no protest with
Duke Kenmaes was once again dispatching two Heavy Armor Battalions, though they would rendezvous with the Second Prince's White Lion Legion before making their way to the southern province. As for
Beyond the Northland Four Families Alliance and the Fasablen Family forces, most of the landed nobles of the Dramek and Winston provinces had also come to the southern province with private retinues of three to five hundred men each. The farthest came from noble households in the provinces surrounding the imperial capital, though they brought fewer men — the smallest contingent numbered around a dozen attendants, while the largest had brought roughly a hundred peasant levies. Dragging their carts all the way, they amounted to nearly ten thousand troops once assembled. But the more Lorist looked at them, the less they resembled soldiers heading to war and the more they looked like a band of looters setting out for the four central duchies.
To Lorist's surprise, his mistress, Lady Aridoli of the Dinah Baron family, had also arrived with over a hundred peasant levies — and had promptly gotten into a confrontation with someone shortly after entering the camp. As a rare female knight, being groped upon entering a camp full of old veterans was hardly unusual, but this young lady of the Dinah family was far too fierce. She had resorted to violence directly, resulting in one dead and three wounded. The entire camp had erupted in commotion, and Lorist had to send Tiger Ross to restore order before discovering that it was all this young lady's doing.
A headache indeed. Lorist had no choice but to send Fatty Shi to compensate the casualties and suppress the matter, but the Dinah young lady refused to let it go, demanding that Lorist send troops to retaliate, since seven of her one hundred and twenty-three peasant levies had been killed or wounded in the scuffle. Lorist could only arrange for her people to be stationed in the Guardian Battalion's quarters, then shut himself in his study and punished her soundly with family discipline before she finally calmed down.
The flurry of miscellaneous affairs ground on until the twentieth of June, when the Fasablen Family's second legion arrived. One report from the Bastion Legion stationed at the border, and Lorist knew immediately that both the Second Prince and he had been deceived. The legion that had come was not the Border Patrol Cavalry Corps he had expected, but a newly reconstituted Reserve Legion of the Fasablen Family — thirty-five thousand Grassland barbarian cavalry forming this new reserve force. They had also brought fifty thousand war horses and large quantities of leather armor and weapons. The Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps was refitted with horses and equipment, once again restoring their luster as light cavalry.
Old fox! Lorist cursed silently in his mind. He glanced at Grand Duke Fasablen, who was also looking his way and even offered a slight smile. Annoyed, Lorist turned and ordered Tiger Ross to raise the combat alert level by one grade and to be on high guard. He had originally thought the Fasablen Family would deploy two Border Patrol Cavalry Corps, and Lorist had even been considering setting a trap for Grand Duke Fasablen during the campaign against the Four Central Duchies, to deplete his forces and deal a severe blow to the Fasablen Family's military strength. Now, that calculation was no longer necessary.
Even if the entire Reserve Legion were wiped out, it wouldn't harm the Fasablen Family one bit. After all, Grassland barbarian cavalry were plentiful; as long as you had money, they could be recruited and formed again. Grand Duke Fasablen was clearly intent on preserving the Third Border Patrol Cavalry Corps, sending the Reserve Legion to the front lines to charge and fight instead. The shabby equipment Lorist had provided had ironically given the Grand Duke the perfect excuse to keep his veteran corps off the battlefield. It was a significant miscalculation on his part.
The Sabaj Duchy's forces were advancing, expected to reach Limad Province around the end of July. They would organize a defensive line based on the local terrain, attempting to halt the Andinak Kingdom's attack at Limad Province and turn the conflict into a grinding seesaw battle, using attrition and long-term standoff to fend off this offensive.
As for intelligence on the Sabaj Kingdom itself: since annexing the Melaine Duchy, the Sabaj Grand Duke had moved the ducal capital to Meishan Castle in Meishan Province. After the failed reinforcement of the Fasablen Family a few years ago, he had formed two new legions to prevent the Four Families Alliance of the Northland from pressing its advantage. The duchy's Second Legion, stationed in Limad Province, had a strength of thirty-five thousand men. The duchy's First Legion, based at Meishan Castle, comprised forty-five thousand. Additionally, there was a force of twelve thousand in the White Heron Lake Marsh, guarding against a potential attack from the Second Prince's army through that route.
Despite the Sabaj Duchy having a population of over eight hundred thousand, maintaining a standing army of nearly one hundred thousand was unsustainable. Therefore, the Second Legion and the force in White Heron Lake Marsh relied primarily on support and sponsorship from the other three duchies. Upon receiving news of the impending Andinak attack, the Sabaj Grand Duke had simultaneously appealed to the other three duchies for aid and rallied his own populace to defend the duchy and their homes, organizing the young and able-bodied into various garrison defense forces.
Meishan Province was the ancestral territory of the former Grand Duke Melaine's family for over a century. After its fall to the Four Central Duchies, every member of the Melaine family except for a seven-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl left in the Imperial Capital had perished violently. Although the Sabaj Grand Duke had relocated the capital there, he had not fully won over the hearts and minds of Meishan Province's people. Consequently, the entire war preparations were dragging along at a painfully slow pace. The only force the Sabaj Grand Duke could truly rely on now was the duchy's First Legion, the core of the Sabaj family's own military power. He planned to march for Limad Province only once reinforcements from the other three duchies arrived.
Lorist studied the map of the Four Central Duchies in deep thought for a long while, then immediately dispatched men to summon Grand Duke Fasablen, Count Phelim, and Count Shahin for an urgent military council. At the meeting, Lorist repeated the intelligence he had gathered about the Four Central Duchies, pointing to the map. "Currently, the reinforcement legions from the Handra, Follendo, and Fakele Duchies have not yet entered Sabaj territory. While His Majesty's White Lion Legion also hasn't reached the Southern Province, the situation is urgent. I don't wish to wait until all the central duchies' legions reach Limad Province to fight a drawn-out positional battle. Therefore, I propose a preemptive strike—march immediately into the Sabaj Duchy and block those three duchies' reinforcements at its borders. What are your views?"
The Sabaj Duchy consisted of three provinces. Limad and Meishan were both former territories of the Melaine Duchy. The third was Chisexes Province, the ancestral land of the Sabaj family. Originally, the neighboring Zamosra Province had also been part of the Sabaj Duchy. However, years ago, when the Second Prince had been besieged in the Fredegard royal capital, the former Grand Duke Melaine had marched his army into Zamosra Province to rescue him, engaging in a massive battle with the armies of the Four Central Duchies that left Zamosra in ruins. After the Melaine Duchy was destroyed, the Sabaj Duchy claimed Limad and Meishan Provinces for itself and ceded its former territory, Zamosra Province, to the Fakele Duchy.
Thus, the Sabaj Duchy's current geography was a long, narrow strip, with three provinces strung together. If Lorist's forces could drive straight through to Chisexes Province, they would seize the initiative for the entire campaign. They could then advance south to attack the Follendo Duchy or west to campaign against the Fakele Duchy. The Four Central Duchies would be placed in an extremely passive position. The Sabaj Duchy would be forced to cower in defense, and reinforcements from the other three duchies would be unable to come to its aid, as they would first need to protect their own borders.
The other three men present were all veteran commanders who clearly understood that Lorist's decision was the optimal choice at this moment. Count Phelim and Count Shahin were indifferent to the specifics—the family forces of the Four Families Alliance of the Northland would naturally support each other in any combined operation. Therefore, they all turned their gazes to Grand Duke Fasablen, waiting to see what choice he would make. If the Grand Duke insisted on waiting for the Second Prince and the White Lion Legion to reach the Southern Province before launching an attack... well, then Lorist's proposal would be as if it had never been spoken. Everyone would just wait until the central duchies' reinforcement legions reached Limad Province and engage in a long, protracted war of attrition and standoff.
Grand Duke Fasablen stared at the map in silence. It was a long while before he finally raised his head and asked Lorist, "How do you intend to attack?"
"Simple enough," Lorist pointed at Chisexes Province on the map of the Sabaj Duchy. "Your Fasablen family's Reserve Legion and Third Border Mounted Rangers Legion, along with Count Phelim's Pegasus Legion, are all light cavalry units. They can drive straight through, bypass the castles and fortresses, and reach Chisexes Province directly. Cut off the border roads between it and both the Follendo Duchy and the Fakele Duchy, and also launch small-scale raiding campaigns against those two duchies, forcing them to send reinforcements — which will pin down the three Sabaj legions stationed along the border."
"Count Shahin's family forces, along with the private troops of the landed nobles who've come to join the campaign, will march into Meishan Province and lay siege to Meishan Castle. The goal is to create the impression of a massive, overwhelming force. There's no need to actually assault Meishan Castle — just trap the Sabaj Duchy's First Legion inside. I'm confident this sudden offensive will catch the Sabaj Grand Duke completely off guard. The intelligence they've received says we'll launch our attack in mid-August, but we're moving a full month early, hitting him before he can react. Under these circumstances, the Sabaj Grand Duke will hole up inside Meishan Castle rather than come out to fight us in the field."
"We absolutely must tie down the reinforcement legions of the other three duchies and prevent them from coming to relieve Meishan Castle."
Count Phelim and Count Shahin both nodded, indicating their compliance with the plan. Grand Duke Fasablen, however, continued to stare at Lorist. After a long pause, he said, "I have two demands. First, you must not scheme against these two legions of our family forces. Second, you must guarantee that our family legions receive the same fair and impartial supply of provisions, equipment, and materiel as their family forces. You must swear to these two points in the name of the War God and your Norton ancestors — only then will we trust you and follow your command..."
Lorist broke into a cold sweat, his face flushing red. All this time he had been carefully guarding against the Fasablen family, only to discover they had been watching him like a thief just as warily. The two sides had been staring each other down like needles meeting awl tips — neither one had any right to accuse the other.
"Fine, I can swear to that." Lorist wasn't about to come out the loser. "But you also have to swear that your submission to the Andinak Kingdom and your participation in the campaign against the Four Central Duchies are genuine — that you won't go easy on them or turn on us in battle simply because they were once your family's allies. Only after you swear publicly will I guarantee fair treatment for your family forces and cease to guard against or suspect you."
"And after I swear, will you withdraw the Rockstone Legion currently stationed along the border of our family's territories?" Grand Duke Fasablen countered.
"No. That's an entirely separate matter. The Rockstone Legion is just a regional garrison force — it has nothing to do with the campaign against the Four Central Duchies. What does your oath have to do with them?" Lorist objected to dragging the Rockstone Legion into this.
Grand Duke Fasablen and Lorist glared at each other and argued back and forth for quite some time before ultimately reaching a mutual compromise. Together, they swore publicly to cooperate wholeheartedly in the campaign against the Four Central Duchies, refrain from scheming against each other, and avoid disputes. Lorist was satisfied that the Rockstone Legion hadn't been dragged into the matter. And Grand Duke Fasablen could finally set his mind at ease, no longer worrying about being secretly undermined by Lorist.
"There's one more question — how will we divide the spoils?" Grand Duke Fasablen asked.
Lorist thought for a moment before replying, "Whoever claims them keeps them. To avoid conflicts, we can divide the zones for pillaging beforehand. No one is to cross into another's territory."
"Very well, let's seal it with a handshake." Grand Duke Fasablen extended his hand.
...