The wooden palisades that had been planted in the trenches as barricades had already been pulled up before the water arrived and laid across the trenches to form sturdy wooden bridges. If the defending generals of the Fulunduo Duchy had known that the idea of using wooden palisades as trench barricades was nothing more than a sudden inspiration from a heavy infantryman, who knew if they would have coughed up blood in rage. The
A battalion commander from the White Lion Corps who had been ordered to garrison the area stared at the interconnected web of trenches with a headache. The situation was that daytime belonged to the attackers and nighttime to the defenders. The commander believed that even if they set up temporary camps with the palisades, as long as the trenches weren't filled in, they still wouldn't be able to avoid raids by those duchy field rats at night — a few buckets of fire oil and a volley of flaming arrows, and they would spend a sleepless night amid roaring flames. But the Second Prince's orders were crystal clear: under no circumstances were they to block any of the trenches.
Although this battalion commander didn't know about the Second Prince's plan to flood the trenches with water, he was still unwilling to lose his soldiers' lives to nighttime raids. In his distress, he called together his company and platoon leaders to brainstorm ways to deal with the duchy field rats' night raids and sneak attacks. Just as the whole group was scratching their heads in frustration with no good solution, a sentry standing nearby chimed in — the width of these palisades was nearly the same as the width of the trenches, so why not just stick the palisades into the trenches as barricades?
The battalion commander was overjoyed, generously rewarded the soldier, and asked how he had come up with the idea. The soldier sheepishly admitted that while hauling the palisades, he had spooked the packhorses, causing all the palisades to drop right into the trenches, and it had taken him half a day to haul them back up. That was why the platoon leader had punished him by assigning him to sentry duty. Just now, seeing the battalion commander arrive with so many company and platoon leaders to inspect the position and discuss how to counter the duchy field rats' night raids, he remembered how difficult it had been to pull the palisades out of the trenches — some of them had gotten stuck — so he had blurted out that suggestion.
This was the palisade tactic that had given the defending generals of the Fulunduo Duchy such headaches and such immense pressure, to the point that they had overlooked the water assault — the greatest threat to their trench defense positions. If they hadn't been misled, all they needed to do was strengthen their scouting patrols and they would have discovered what the Second Prince was really up to. After all, whether it was
Dawn had fully broken. Along the trenches now flooded with water, the soldiers of the White Lion Corps had successfully reached the spot where the Fulunduo Duchy's Second Garrison Corps had been preparing to launch a counterattack the night before. There, they captured over ten thousand dazed, drenched soldiers of the Second Garrison Corps who had barely survived. Nearly every one of them was bare-handed, and even those who still carried weapons had lost all will to resist — they had been terrified by the sudden floodwaters at dawn. The corpses of their comrades who had drowned in the trenches were right before their eyes; the boundary between life and death was merely above versus below, a mere half-meter apart...
Upon receiving the report, the Second Prince, Lorist, and Grand Duke Fissabrun had all rushed to the scene. The sight of the great trench filled with corpses shocked everyone. Even with the plan to flood the trenches, they had only expected to force the defending duchy field rats up to the surface — but drowning nearly ten thousand soldiers was something no one had anticipated.
However, upon hearing the report that the Fulunduo Duchy's Second Garrison Corps had been preparing to launch a massive counterattack at dawn, everyone suddenly understood. This was truly an extraordinary stroke of ill fortune for the enemy — they had happened to release the water at precisely the wrong moment. Of the eight trench plazas that had now become ponds, nearly twenty thousand garrison soldiers had been stationed there. In one trench plaza that sat on slightly higher ground, everyone had escaped, but roughly half of the soldiers across all the plazas had drowned. The worst was the trench plaza where Viscount Sanscoro, the corps commander, had been stationed — of three thousand soldiers, only five hundred and twenty-four had survived.
Viscount Sanscoro's body — he had taken his own life before falling into the water — had already been recovered. To show mourning and respect, the Second Prince ordered that a fine coffin be prepared for this enemy commander, to be sent back to his family in the future. Meanwhile, soldiers of the White Lion Corps were still searching along the edges of those trench plazas for survivors and preparing to organize the captured garrison soldiers to recover the bodies of those who had drowned.
Back at the main camp, wagon after wagon loaded with wooden rafts struggled along a road constructed from parallel rows of rafts laid side by side. Soldiers nearby carried planks to repair gaps in the raft road, preventing the wheels of the heavily laden wagons from sinking in. These rafts would be sent forward to continue extending this timber road into the distance...
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..." A chiliarch of the White Lion Corps hurried over and rendered a knight's salute. "The water up ahead has stopped..."
"Hm? What happened?" the Second Prince asked.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, the trenches up ahead have come to an end. The water no longer flows forward, and in some low-lying areas it has already begun to overflow. According to the scouts' reconnaissance, in front of this trench zone lies an open plain more than three li wide, but beyond it stretches another large trench defensive position," the chiliarch replied.
Oh, everyone understood now. The trench defensive zone established by the Fulunduo Duchy wasn't connected front to back — or rather, they simply hadn't had the time and effort to dig communication trenches. It was also possible that stretch of open ground was intended for training or assembling troops.
Lashing their horses, the group galloped forward along the raft road. Lorist and Grand Duke Fissabrun and the others quickly followed.
"What should we do now?" the Second Prince asked after surveying the position.
"Heh heh, we'll dig connecting trenches as before, but first we need to dam up the small reservoir behind us so the positions we've captured don't turn into swamps. We'll keep pushing forward against the positions ahead — once the trenches are dug and the water is channeled through, those positions will effectively fall into our hands. It's just that the enemy is on guard now, so we won't see a repeat of last night's scene where nearly ten thousand drowned," Lorist replied with a smile.
"Hahaha..." Grand Duke Fissabrun grinned broadly. "Back then they dug trenches with such enthusiasm and even built all those earthen walls, and now they're busy tearing down those walls and filling in the trenches to guard against our flooding. If they'd known it would come to this, what was even the point? All that wasted effort — it's truly hilarious when you think about it! I'm sure they're endlessly regretting it now... hahaha..."
Everyone present laughed. How wonderfully the ways of the world could change — originally it was the attackers frantically filling in trenches while the defending Fulunduo Duchy dug them with abandon. Now everything was reversed: the attackers dug trenches to channel water through, while the defenders had to fill in trenches and erect water barriers. The complete reversal of offense and defense was truly comical.
The Second Prince nodded. "Good, we'll do it that way. Duke Kemais, have your family's two heavy armor regiments continue coordinating with the White Lion Legion in the assault on the forward trench defense positions this afternoon. Seize those dozen-plus rows of trenches first. Oh, and that wooden plank barrier tactic your soldiers came up with for cutting off the trenches is remarkably effective against those duchy ground rats scurrying around in them — they deserve a handsome reward..."
Duke Kemais's face bloomed into a broad smile. "Naturally. I've already given orders to have that soldier's merit recorded. The family will promote him and put him to important use."
The Second Prince nodded and turned to the guards beside him to continue issuing orders. "Order the logistics units to speed up the delivery of supplies and wooden planks. While the soldiers assault the forward trench defense zone, establish a temporary camp on this open ground so the White Lion Legion and the heavy armor regiments can rotate and rest. At the same time, strengthen our defenses against any desperate counterattack the enemy might mount in a final bid to turn the tide."
"By your command, Your Majesty."
...
Grand Duke of Fulunduo gazed for a long time at the palace-like castle before him, its walls bearing the marks of a hundred years of history, moss creeping over every corner. This was the family castle his ancestors had spent seventeen years building, named the Summer Palace. In the era of the former Krisen Empire, the Summer Palace had been one of the ten most celebrated palaces in the empire. He had lived here since childhood — every corner and hidden nook of the Summer Palace, its subsidiary castles, and its gardens bore the imprint of his footsteps and laughter...
"Your Highness, we should go..." the captain of his guard reminded him.
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo withdrew his reluctant gaze and let out a long sigh. "I must be the most disgraceful descendant in the history of the Fulunduo family — abandoning a family domain and glory spanning two or three hundred years to seek refuge in the Principality of Handera. If my ancestors knew, they would be cursing and screaming at me from the realm of the God of War."
"No, Your Highness, this isn't your fault. The blame lies entirely with the King of the Kingdom of Andinak for being so cunning as to divert water and flood the trench defense lines we established, rendering all the trenches our entire nation dug utterly useless for stopping the enemy..." The captain of the guard felt himself to be painfully clumsy of tongue — he had meant to comfort the Grand Duke, but somehow ended up drifting in entirely the wrong direction.
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo smiled bitterly. "Rickel, enough. Everyone already knows that the three months we spent conscripting every subject in the duchy to dig all those trenches for defense has become a grand joke. Why didn't we think back then that a simple water attack would render all our efforts worthless? What a pity about Sanskoro. He should have understood that I wouldn't blame him for the trench idea. He shouldn't have taken his own life."
"Your Highness..."
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo waved his hand, signaling his captain of the guard to stay silent. He turned to gaze at the summer palace — now empty and quiet, stripped of the bustling crowds that once filled it — and let out another long sigh. Then he pulled back his lingering gaze and said to his captain: "Let's go, Rickel. I don't know if I'll ever return to this summer palace built by our ancestors before my days are done..."
Walking out through the gates of the summer palace, he mounted the white stallion that had been waiting at the entrance, when the sound of rapid hoofbeats came rushing toward them. A guard galloped up, leaped from his horse, and dropped to one knee before the Grand Duke of Fulunduo: "Your Highness, Lord Neori refuses to withdraw the Mountain Legion to the Principality of Handera. He asks me to convey to Your Highness that in the Pedrona hill country, the forces of the Kingdom of Andinak cannot do anything to the Mountain Legion. He has resolved to continue resisting and waging guerrilla warfare in the Pedrona hills, so that every subject of the duchy will know that Your Highness has not abandoned them — that the duchy's legions are still fighting back against the enemy's invasion..."
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo waved his hand, seemingly not the least bit surprised, and motioned for the reporting guard to rise. "Neori having that kind of spirit is no surprise to me. Forget it — winter will be here in ten or so days. The Second Prince attacking the Mountain Legion holed up in the Pedrona hills will be impossible. Even next year, Neori will have plenty of room to maneuver. Besides, the Mountain Legion is well-supplied. If he won't accept an order to withdraw to the Principality of Handera without fighting a few battles first, then let him be."
"Rickel, has everyone else left?" The Grand Duke of Fulunduo turned to ask his captain of the guard.
"The Mountain Legion is waiting up ahead in Kude Town to rendezvous with Your Highness. Right now, all that remains in the city is our single battalion of guards."
"Good, let's set out. Oh — has there been any messenger from Belias?"
"No. Lord Belias sent one yesterday. He said he could hold out for two days at most. The Kingdom of Andinak's advance is unstoppable, and the Fifth Garrison Corps, cobbled together from various town garrisons, is completely incapable of withstanding the enemy's assault — casualties are devastating. Lord Belias has been using execution squads and harsh collective-punishment military law just to suppress the soldiers' desire to flee. That's why he hopes you'll leave Pedron City as quickly as possible and head for the Principality of Handera..."
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo shook his head with a bitter smile. "Enough, Rickel. We'll set out right now. I only hope Belias can make it back safely..."
Beyond the castle gates lay the central boulevard of Pedron City, the duchy's capital. As the echo of hoofbeats resounded, more and more city residents began gathering along both sides of the boulevard. By now, everyone knew the forces of the Kingdom of Andinak were at their doorstep — that the trench defense lines, which the subjects of the Fulunduo duchy had spent three months digging with such pride, had been utterly incapable of stopping the enemy's advance. For the past twenty days, nearly every day had brought urgent messengers bearing letters of dire appeal for reinforcement. To spare the people of Pedron City from harm, the Grand Duke of Fulunduo had decided to abandon the defense of the city and flee to the Principality of Handera.
Some of the residents gathered along the streets began wiping away tears. The atmosphere in the crowd was heavy and mournful. Most of the others simply watched in silence as the Grand Duke of Fulunduo and his guards rode away...
As they neared the southern gate of Pedron City, the Grand Duke of Fulunduo finally pulled on the reins, bringing his mount to a halt. A portly figure emerged from the crowd lining the right side of the street and approached the Grand Duke's horse.
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo smiled and nodded at the man, who was around fifty. "Marit, my friend, after I leave, this city is in your hands. I hope you can keep its residents safe, and I hope we can meet again before too long."
"Your Grace, I will do everything in my power." The man named Marit bowed and answered. He was a merchant who had done business with the Snow Salt Trading Company and had also met with Duke Kemais. The Grand Duke of Fulunduo had asked him to represent all the city's residents in surrendering to the army of the Kingdom of Andinak, hoping that discipline could be maintained and the people of Pedron City spared from harm.
"Marit, I've left two-thirds of the grain reserves in the storehouse district behind the Summer Palace. You can lead the Andinak forces there to collect them," the Grand Duke of Fulunduo said.
Marit was taken aback. "Your Grace, what is this...?"
The Grand Duke of Fulunduo smiled bitterly. "Marit, the Kingdom of Andinak has committed three hundred thousand troops to this campaign. If they don't find sufficient grain and fodder, they'll turn to pillaging the duchy's farmers. With these reserves, they won't need to cause too much harm to our people..."
Marit bowed once more. "Thank you, Your Grace."
...
At the same time, in the southern outskirts of Phalemochi, capital of the Phakel Duchy, the Grand Duke of Phakel's eyes were bloodshot red. "The people have been driven out — why haven't you acted yet?! Set fire to it! Burn this place to the ground! I will absolutely not allow that cursed Second Prince to set foot in my city, in my palace! Burn it! Set fire to it now!"
With the wind fanning the flames, the entire city of Phalemochi was soon engulfed in a sea of fire. Tens of thousands of residents who had been driven out of the city watched their burning homes, their wails reaching the heavens...
Yet the Grand Duke of Phakel remained unmoved. He turned his horse around and issued his orders: "Move out! We march for the Duchy of Handra. We still have a great army at our disposal. Once we reach Handra, we'll have plenty of time to contend with that wretched Second Prince. Think he can destroy the four duchies of the central region? It won't be so easy!"
...