In the eighth month of the Galentea Continental Calendar year 1781, the Northern Alliance's four-family forces and the Fisablen family forces from the three northeastern steppe provinces of the Andinak Kingdom launched a surprise attack on the Sabaji Duchy, marking the opening of the Andinak Kingdom's invasion of the Four Central Duchies.
On the seventeenth of August, the Grand Duke of Sabaji abandoned Meishan Castle and fled to the Fakel Duchy. The cavalry of the Northern Alliance and the Fisablen family advanced all the way to Pedro City, the capital of the Forlundo Duchy. Both the Samora Province of the Fakel Duchy and the Forivod Province of the Forlundo Duchy suffered cavalry raids and pillaging, flames rising everywhere.
On the seventh of September, King Oggsero of the Andinak Kingdom led the White Lion Legion to Chikexes Province, where he joined forces with the Northern Alliance and the Fisablen family, bringing their combined strength to three hundred thousand.
The Grand Duke of Forlundo conscripted the entire population and spent over two months digging four hundred and thirty-one trenches and erecting over a thousand earthen walls along the eighty-three-li stretch from Forivod Province to Pedro City, the capital. This defensive position was used to repel the invading Andinak Kingdom forces, marking the first trench-centric defensive battle in the military history of the Galentea Continent.
On the night of November third, after more than a month of stalemate, the Andinak Kingdom forces diverted water from the Nibalaku River to flood the trenches. The Forlundo Duchy's Second Garrison Legion, caught completely off guard, suffered nearly half its number in casualties, and all survivors were taken prisoner. The legion commander, Viscount Sanskoro, committed suicide by slitting his throat and throwing himself into the water. The entire army was annihilated.
Even as the Andinak Kingdom forces continued diverting water to flood the trenches, the garrison legions of the Forlundo Duchy refused to surrender. They relied on the low earthen walls to stubbornly resist the enemy's steady advance, but ultimately fell due to catastrophic losses.
On November twenty-fourth, the Grand Duke of Forlundo announced the abandonment of Pedro City. He led the duchy's First and Third Garrison Legions out of Perolina Province and headed for the Handra Duchy, intending to continue the resistance there. However, the Forlundo Duchy's Mountain Legion, at the insistence of its
Before leaving Pedro City, the Grand Duke of Forlundo did not burn the grain and supplies that had been stockpiled in the city's warehouses for years. Instead, he left them for the invading Andinak Kingdom forces. This act moved King Oggsero deeply. Because of the Grand Duke of Forlundo's benevolence, the kingdom forces that occupied Pedro City maintained excellent discipline, leaving the city's residents completely unharmed.
Because the Forlundo Duchy's trench defensive line was breached, the neighboring Fakel Duchy lost the shield on its flank, leaving its vulnerable rear easily exposed to encirclement by Andinak Kingdom cavalry. The Grand Duke of Fakel was forced to abandon his duchy's territory and led four duchy legions to the Handra Duchy.
Before departing, the Grand Duke of Fakel, to demonstrate his unwavering resolve to fight the Andinak Kingdom to the end, swore never to let the enemy set foot in his cities or family castle. As winter approached, he drove the residents from their homes, then set fire to his own family castle and the duchy capital of Falemehi City, reducing it to flat ground. Nearly a hundred thousand residents of Falemehi City were left homeless, reduced to refugees.
This reckless act of tyranny by the Grand Duke of Fakel turned the entire duchy's populace against the Fakel family. And the first to abandon the Grand Duke of Fakel were precisely the soldiers of the four legions he intended to bring to the Handra Duchy to continue fighting. Along the way, mass desertions occurred repeatedly, forcing the Grand Duke of Fakel to treat his soldiers as prisoners, keeping them under strict guard to finally put a stop to the frequent escapes.
It was only after arriving in the Handra Duchy that the Grand Duke of Fakel discovered that nearly half of the original four legions' soldiers had deserted, and many knights and junior officials loyal to the Fakel family had departed without notice. The remaining soldiers could not even fill two legions to full strength. Only then did the Grand Duke of Fakel begin to bitterly regret his decisions...
————Excerpted from *The Rise of the Furious Bear Dynasty*. Written by Professor Gaishausen, knight of the empire, director of the Academy of Literature and History at
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On November twenty-seventh of the Galentea Continental Calendar year 1781, the Andinak Kingdom forces occupied the undefended capital of the Forlundo Duchy—Pedro City.
"So this is the famous Summer Palace, ranked fifth among the empire's ten great palaces?"
"Yes." Standing beside him, the
Lorist scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment. He hadn't expected that a casual question of his would plunge the Second Prince into nostalgic memories of childhood. The crowd walking toward the palace had all stopped and could go no further. The Second Prince's eyes grew distant, his expression betraying his reminiscence of a vanished childhood.
Fortunately, the Second Prince recovered quickly and laughed self-deprecatingly. "My apologies—I was moved by familiar sights. The impression left from summering here as a child was truly deep."
This world-renowned Summer Palace. To tell the truth, it's my first time here as well, and I'm quite overwhelmed. The Summer Palace's elegance and grandeur truly live up to its reputation."
...
On the thirty-third of November, news from the Fakel Duchy reached the Second Prince. He was consumed with fury, swearing never to forgive the Grand Duke of Fakel and his family for burning Falemehi City and setting fire to all the grain stockpiles in the various towns of the Fakel Duchy that could not be carried away. The reports indicated that the three provinces of the Fakel Duchy had descended into chaos, producing a massive number of refugees. If immediate measures were not taken, there would be significant loss of life once winter arrived. The situation was extremely grave.
The Second Prince immediately summoned Lorist, the Fisablen Grand Duke, Count
Privately, the Second Prince did not want Lorist and the others to get involved in the Fakel Duchy. Before he had arrived with the White Lion Legion, the destruction that the Northern Alliance's forces, the Fisablen family's two legions, and the coalition of nobles had wrought upon the occupied Sabaji Duchy was right before his eyes—what he saw had been horrifying.
Therefore, as soon as the armies converged, the Second Prince began strict military discipline, forbidding unauthorized pillaging and population displacement. He even apprehended two nobles who had defied orders and secretly dispatched troops to raid noble estates in the Forlundo Duchy, making an example of them. Not only were their titles and lands stripped away, but they and nearly a hundred armed retainers who had joined in the raids were hanged outside the army camp's main gate, giving all the nobles a stern lesson.
When the Second Prince had heard a few days earlier that the Grand Duke of Fakel had also fled to the Handra Duchy with his four legions, he hadn't been concerned. He had secretly rejoiced that all four Grand Dukes had gathered together—it meant he wouldn't need to split his forces to attack them separately. After defeating them next year, the Four Central Duchies would fall in a single campaign, saving a great deal of trouble. Even if the Handra Duchy, combined with the three Grand Dukes' legions, fielded over three hundred thousand troops, how could they withstand his own unstoppable military might?
At the time, the Second Prince had assumed the Grand Duke of Fakel, like the Grand Duke of Forlundo, had sealed the warehouses and departed with his army. He believed sending just one division of the White Lion Legion would be sufficient to gradually occupy the Fakel Duchy's towns and fortress castles along the way. He had never imagined the Grand Duke of Fakel would take such extreme and despicable measures, turning all three provinces of the Fakel Duchy into a complete mess for him to clean up.
At this moment, the Second Prince cursed the Grand Duke of Fakel through gritted teeth. Regardless of anything else, he was the king of the Andinak Kingdom—he could hardly stand by and watch over a hundred thousand refugees freeze and starve to death. But dispatching troops to aid them seemed truly difficult. This was not merely a matter of feeding over a hundred thousand mouths; it also required enormous quantities of supplies sufficient for those refugees to survive the winter. Winter was fast approaching—where could such resources be procured on short notice?
The grain and supplies the Grand Duke of Forlundo had left in Pedro City, combined with the logistical shipments from the rear, were more than sufficient for the current three-hundred-thousand-strong army to comfortably weather the winter. But with the addition of over a hundred thousand refugees in the Fakel Duchy, even redirecting the army's reduced rations would not be enough to sustain them through the long winter.
But failing to help was not a question of whether his conscience could bear it—it was a matter of reputation. After all, it was the Second Prince who had led the invasion of the Four Central Duchies. Now the Grand Duke of Fakel had fled, and the Second Prince had become the victor; the territory was now his. Future generations would not blame the Grand Duke of Fakel for causing this disaster—they would blame the Second Prince for standing by and watching people die. In the historical records, he would be described as cruel and ruthless, and that was no reputation to have.
The Second Prince had already earned a reputation for cruelty when he purged the kingdom's nobility in the imperial capital years ago. But those nobles had been rebels, and his treatment of them could not be faulted—so long as he had the last laugh, it would even be described as a wise move. But if these hundred-thousand-plus refugees perished, the label of cruelty and tyranny would be affixed to him permanently and could never be removed.
The Second Prince was truly caught in a dilemma. He wanted to help but lacked the means; refusing to help would cost him his reputation. Even if he eventually unified the former Krisen Empire and became a restorative emperor, this unforeseen catastrophe would still leave a stain on his legendary career.
"Your Majesty, let me go. The Flying Tiger Legion is cavalry—fast-moving. We can rush to carry out the rescue." Lorist stood up and volunteered.
"What's your plan?" the Second Prince asked.
"Relocate the refugees," Lorist answered without hesitation. "Winter combined with the rainy season is simply too long. If we leave over a hundred thousand refugees to weather the open fields through winter, setting aside whether they could even endure it, we simply don't have the capacity to guarantee grain and cold-weather supplies for them all. Not to mention the difficulties of long-distance transport—the moment supplies are cut off by winter, the consequences would be unthinkable. When these refugees become desperate from hunger, all three provinces of the Fakel Duchy will be finished."
"Then where do you propose relocating them?" the Second Prince asked.
"Windbury Royal City," Lorist replied. "Everyone knows that Windbury Royal City was once the largest livestock trading center of the former empire and the largest city in the northeast. But since the outbreak of the civil war, it has been ravaged by prolonged conflict and suffered massive population loss. A city that could accommodate three hundred thousand residents now has only fifty to sixty thousand permanent inhabitants. Most of the houses and buildings stand empty.
The most important point is that these hundred-thousand-plus refugees are mostly artisans and tradespeople from the towns—they have no farmland to tend. They make a living through their crafts to support themselves and their families. So using them to fill the gaps in Windbury Royal City, relocating them there to continue their urban lifestyle, would be a very natural fit. And with support to establish craft workshops and shops, the city would flourish once again."
The Second Prince was somewhat reluctant. He knew Lorist was making perfect sense, but the problem was that Windbury Royal City fell under the
The Second Prince rubbed his forehead with his left hand, feeling a headache coming on. But he had no choice but to agree to Lorist's proposal. "What do you need?"
"Have Count Filim's Pegasus Legion join me in the relief effort to the Fakel Duchy. They're light cavalry—faster, and they can arrive sooner to maintain order. The sooner, the better," Lorist said. "Beyond that, we only need enough provisions prepared for two hundred thousand people for half a month."
That such little grain was required genuinely surprised the Second Prince, but he was still unwilling to go along with Lorist's plan entirely. "I can give you the provisions, but why do you need the Pegasus Legion? Wouldn't the Fisablen Grand Duke's Third Border Patrol Raider Legion work just as well?"
"Well—" Before Lorist could speak, the Fisablen Grand Duke had already risen to his feet.
"Your Majesty, that won't work. As you know, the Third Border Patrol Raider Legion was once captured by Norton Family forces, so they hold a grudge against the Norton Family's troops. Sending them would easily lead to conflict and undermine the relief effort. Moreover, without the Third Border Patrol Raider Legion to keep them in line, the reserve legion—composed entirely of steppe barbarian cavalry—would be impossible to control. They'd disobey orders, violate military directives, and easily go off causing trouble. For the sake of discipline and security, it would be better to send Count Filim's Pegasus Legion."
Hm? How strange—that old fox speaking up for me? Lorist was puzzled.
By now, the Second Prince had made his decision. "Very well. The Flying Tiger Legion and the Pegasus Legion will proceed to the three provinces of the Fakel Duchy to rescue those hundred-thousand-plus refugees. Lorist, Count Filim—you two must complete this mission. There must be no major loss of life during the relocation and rescue operations."
Lorist and Count Filim straightened their posture. "By your command, Your Majesty."
...