"Your Highness, we need to stop the offensive. The casualties are too heavy," Malek said.
The great fire in the northern district had burned for three days and two nights before finally being extinguished when a heavy snowstorm rolled in. The
Fedeliga's royal city was enormous. It had originally been a key southwestern stronghold of the Krisen Empire, with a population that once exceeded three hundred thousand, and had undergone multiple rounds of expansion and renovation. After the Vesia Trading Company took control, they had carried out a massive reconstruction of the city, greatly enhancing the defensive durability and structural resilience of most buildings within its walls. This measure proved remarkably effective in resisting the Norton Family's assault.
The western district housed the camps of the Vesia Trading Company's legion, but this sprawling area was far more than just barracks. It also contained family housing for the legion's soldiers and a wide array of entertainment venues serving them—no fewer than eleven taverns, along with brothels, laundries, public bathhouses, and apothecary clinics. The Vesia Trading Company's attentive care and generous treatment of its legion soldiers was itself a major reason they continued to resist so fiercely; without explicit orders from the company's leadership, they would never lay down their arms and surrender.
The eastern district was the residential quarter for miners and technicians employed by the Vesia Trading Company. As the largest weapons supplier in the Commercial Alliance, the company presided over vast mining, smelting, and forging operations. What the Vesia Trading Company was most praised for was its benevolent treatment of these workers. Even for the most menial labor like mining—work anyone with strength could do—the company consistently adopted the latest mining techniques and equipment to assist its miners, boosting production efficiency.
In a certain sense, the Vesia Trading Company resembled the kind of Japanese enterprises
The western district had been transformed by the company's legion into a series of small fortresses. In the eastern district, miners piled debris into barricades across the streets and engaged the attacking Norton soldiers in fierce urban combat. Under these conditions, even the long-range support of steel crossbows could not help the attackers advance; they were bogged down, and casualties soared.
War wagon steel crossbows proved ill-suited to the complex, winding streets and alleys. Many firing lanes were blocked by buildings, and the crews were frequently ambushed by enemies springing from behind or objects hurled from rooftops. In the end, Malek, commanding at the front, had no choice but to order his soldiers to halt the assault on both the eastern and western districts.
"Your Highness, we cannot continue attacking like this. In just these two days, the Flying Tiger Legion has suffered over forty-six hundred casualties, and the Bedrock Legion has lost more than two thousand. And we still haven't achieved our objectives—we've only taken one and a half blocks in the eastern district, and by the time those blocks fell into our hands they were practically ruins. Worse, last night around midnight the Vesia Trading Company's forces actually infiltrated through the sewers and attacked our soldiers' camps in the rear. Given the terrain, we are completely exposed to enemies who know every street and alley of this city..."
What Malek said was the plain truth. The Vesia Trading Company's forces included many soldiers with backgrounds as mercenaries, and they excelled at small-scale infiltration raids and ambush tactics. In the complex urban terrain, they moved like fish in water—a capability the Norton Family forces simply could not match. The Norton forces had never encountered a situation where every civilian was a soldier and every face an enemy. In the past, once they breached the city gates and cleared the defenders, the entire town fell into the family's grasp, and all residents meekly awaited their fate. That was nothing like now, where even women and old people seized every opportunity to launch sneak attacks…
Lorist stared at the crude floor plan of Fedeliga's royal city spread across the table, his brow furrowed in silence. This map had been pieced together from prisoner interrogations and the reports of the family's scouts. The southern district was模糊不清, the inner city was only a rough outline, and the eastern and western districts had long since been reshaped by the street fighting. If Fedeliga's royal city were divided into three sections, the Norton Family forces currently occupied only the narrowest portion—the northern district—and even most of that was still contested territory.
In terms of manpower, the Norton forces currently inside the city consisted of three battalions of the Flying Tiger Legion, one battalion of the Bedrock Legion, and nearly two thousand of Lorist's personal guards—roughly sixty thousand in total. But after accounting for the past two days' casualties, and subtracting the troops maintaining order at the refugee camps evacuated from the northern district and those responsible for logistics outside the city, the actual combat personnel available for urban assault numbered fewer than forty thousand.
The Vesia Trading Company's heavy-armored pike battalion, though badly mauled, still fielded over thirty thousand troops. Add to that the garrison defense force, the newly formed miner militia in the eastern district, and the numbers were no fewer than eighty thousand. Moreover, as a weapons supplier and manufacturer, the Vesia Trading Company had no shortage of equipment. With just a modicum of training, those brawny miners could be turned into an elite defensive force.
As Malek had said, if the offensive continued, both sides would be devastated, and the Norton Family could not afford such catastrophic losses.
The Vesia Trading Company was clearly prepared to trade lives for time in a war of attrition—not only inside the city but on the walls as well. They had deployed large numbers of longbowmen along the eastern and western walls, using the towers as strongpoints to hold firm and prevent the Norton forces from advancing along the northern wall to seize the entire outer perimeter and trap them inside.
Lorist had originally planned to take the eastern and western districts first, then seize the walls, capture the southern district, and finally besiege the inner city to force the Vesia Trading Company's surrender. It was only after securing the northern district that he discovered the company had turned the inner city into a fortress within a fortress. The inner walls alone stood a full meter higher than the outer walls—ten meters in total. Moreover, giant crossbows of special design had been mounted on the walls, with a range of a full three hundred meters. The street facing the inner city gate had become a death zone for the Norton forces. Fortunately, these giant crossbows took extremely long to reload and were few in number; after firing just over a dozen bolts—each longer than a spear—toward the northern district, they fell silent.
"Your Highness, since they've sworn to fight us to the death, let us grant them their wish. Let's learn from their example and burn the eastern and western districts to the ground." This suggestion came from Ross the Tiger, who had been enraged by the Vesia Trading Company's resistance. If the districts would end up as ruins anyway, they might as well be burned first and then occupied—this way the family's casualties could be minimized.
Lorist shook his head. Ross the Tiger's idea was impractical. The Vesia Trading Company had been able to burn the northern district mainly because it was a slum where most structures were shacks of wood and mud stone—douse them with fire oil and entire blocks went up in flames, the fire spreading with the wind. The buildings in the eastern and western districts, however, were mostly stone and brick. Setting aside whether they could even acquire enough fire oil, any blaze would be quickly extinguished. It would be a futile effort.
"Your Highness, the Bedrock Legion's three battalions are deployed outside the east, west, and south gates, awaiting orders. Since the situation inside the city has reached a stalemate, couldn't we bring those three battalions back to handle the assault? In terms of offensive efficiency, they are better suited than the Flying Tiger Legion for this kind of close-quarters urban combat," Josk offered another suggestion.
"No," Lorist replied. "The three gates of Fedeliga's royal city are still under the Vesia Trading Company's control. Our goal this time is to wipe out the Vesia Trading Company root and branch. So those three battalions stay where they are, waiting to catch any stragglers when the city falls. We have no way of knowing whether the company's leadership will attempt a breakout at the last moment, or which direction they might choose. Those three battalions cannot be moved.
The key to breaking the current stalemate lies with the Vesia Trading Company's leadership. From prisoner testimony we've learned that aside from one vice president and one Great Swordmaster who remained at the company's
"But Your Highness, attacking the inner city right now would be unwise. If we rush to concentrate our forces on the inner city before taking the eastern and western districts, we'll only expose ourselves to a three-pronged assault from the Vesia Trading Company's forces. Besides, the inner city walls are lined with those giant crossbows. Perched on the walls, they outrange even our war wagon steel crossbows and pose a severe threat of heavy casualties to our soldiers…" Malek said.
"No. We will not attack the inner city or the eastern and western districts for now. Order our forces to pull back and consolidate defenses in the territory we've already taken. In another five or six days, Bodfeng will arrive here with the Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion. When that happens, we'll smash straight through the inner city walls and storm in. The moment we capture the Vesia Trading Company's presidents and senior executives, this war is over." Lorist delivered his final decision.
Over the following two days, the Norton Family forces launched no further attacks. Instead, they began fortifying their defensive lines, adopting the posture of a long campaign. The Vesia Trading Company found this puzzling and sent an envoy to visit Lorist.
The envoy was a senior deacon of the Vesia Trading Company—eloquent, with impeccable bearing and manners. He told Lorist that the Vesia Trading Company's leadership and rank and file were of one mind, resolved to resist to the very end. The current battlefield situation, he argued, clearly showed that the Norton Family forces could never swallow Fedeliga's royal city. Even if the Norton Family committed every last soldier in a full-scale assault, the Vesia Trading Company would still ensure that the Norton forces paid an astronomically heavy price for any victory.
It was already February, the thaw season. In another thirty-odd days the rainy season would arrive, during which neither side could fight. The Norton Family forces had marched a great distance, and their plan to capture Fedeliga's royal city by surprise had already been thwarted. Without the supplies they had planned to seize from the city, with the long roads back to the Northland, and with their logistical train likely unable to sustain them, they could only sit and eat through their dwindling reserves. The Vesia Trading Company hoped the Norton Family would recognize that their defeat was inevitable and withdraw their troops from the city. In exchange, if the Norton forces withdrew, the Vesia Trading Company would guarantee that no追究 would be pursued regarding the surprise attack on Fedeliga's royal city.
Lorist laughed heartily. Was the envoy here to tell jokes? The war was far from over. It remained unclear who would ultimately hold Fedeliga's royal city, and on what grounds did the Vesia Trading Company have confidence that they would win?
Lorist countered by urging the envoy to advise the Vesia Trading Company to surrender quickly, lest they lose everything. The fact that the company was one of the Commercial Alliance's seven great powers meant nothing to him. In the eyes of the Norton Family forces, any enemy was a target for elimination—they had never feared how vast an enemy's influence was or how formidable its strength.
Seeing that threats had no effect, the envoy switched to inducements. If the Norton Family would withdraw and return the captured northern district, the Vesia Trading Company was willing to offer two million gold Fordes as ransom for the Norton Family's campaign, along with a shipment of grain and supplies for the withdrawal.
Lorist laughed again. He told the envoy that once the Norton Family forces took Fedeliga's royal city, whether it was two million gold Fordes or even more in wealth, along with all those supplies, it would all be his spoils of war. He advised the Vesia Trading Company that their best course was to lay down their arms and surrender. Victory and defeat were common affairs. The Vesia Trading Company had chosen the wrong territory this time, seizing the Krisen Empire's Portoorg Province, and that was why the Norton Family had attacked.
Lorist told the envoy he hoped the Vesia Trading Company's leaders would learn from this lesson. If they needed company territory, they could well target the nations in the south and center of the continent rather than set their sights on the former empire's lands. If the Vesia Trading Company agreed to surrender, Lorist could guarantee their personal safety, and they could choose new territory elsewhere to rebuild.
The envoy grew furious. He declared that the Vesia Trading Company was prepared to perish together with their enemies. Jars filled with fire oil had been placed in every supply depot and vital location throughout the royal city. If an assault succeeded and resistance failed, they would set fire to the entire city—rather reduce Fedeliga's royal city to ashes than let it fall into Norton hands!
Lorist slammed his palm on the table and rose to his feet, swearing before everyone that if the Vesia Trading Company dared do such a thing, he would not spare a single one of its executives. The company could expect to be erased from the ranks of the Commercial Alliance's seven great powers…
With words reaching this point, it was clear that no agreement between the two sides was possible. The Vesia Trading Company's envoy departed in bitterness.
On February seventh, Bodfeng arrived at the northern district with the Bedrock Legion's Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion.
On February ninth, the Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion simultaneously launched stone bombardments against the inner city, eastern district, and western district. The Vesia Trading Company's legion forces in the western district and the miner militia in the eastern district could not withstand the devastating rain of catapult stones. Suffering catastrophic casualties, they were driven back block by block.
Around four in the afternoon, Lorist led his personal guard battalion to become the first to scale the inner city's battered and crumbling walls. To repel the Norton Family's assault on the inner city, the Vesia Trading Company's remaining second-rank Great Swordmaster took up his blade and charged into battle—only to be cut down on the spot by Lorist. The company's senior executives, accompanied by their families, fled through the southern gate, simultaneously dispatching men to set fire to the supply depots and commercial district in the southern district.
On February eleventh, the Norton Family forces extinguished the great fire in the southern district and salvaged one-third of the grain and supplies.
On February twelfth, the miner militia in the eastern district laid down their weapons and surrendered. On the same day, nearly ten thousand soldiers from the Vesia Trading Company's legion in the western district, who had been isolated and encircled, surrendered their arms and preserved their lives. However, more than ten thousand additional soldiers from the company's legion held fast inside the barracks fortress, swearing to die rather than surrender.
On February thirteenth, the fleeing Vesia Trading Company executives and their families walked into the trap laid by the Bedrock Legion's battalion stationed outside the southern gate and were all captured.
On February fourteenth, after the last surrender demand issued by Lorist was rejected, the Norton Family forces, with the support of the Thunderbolt Catapult Battalion, launched a final assault on the barracks fortress in the western district. The more than ten thousand soldiers of the Vesia Trading Company's legion and over three thousand of their family members trapped inside were all put to the sword without exception. Upon receiving word of the victory, Lorist ordered the execution of all two thousand captured Vesia Trading Company executives and their relatives—men, women, the old, and the young—fulfilling the oath he had sworn.
On February fourteenth, Year 1787 of the Galentea Continent's Common Calendar, Lorist, Grand Duke of the Northland in the Andinak Kingdom, led the Norton Family forces to conquer Fedeliga, the capital of the Vesia Trading Company's territory, killing more than thirty thousand in total, including company executives, their families, and company soldiers. Their severed heads were used to construct a tower of skulls on the southern outskirts of the royal city, named the Jingguan.
The Vesia Trading Company was struck from the ranks of the Commercial Alliance's seven great powers as a result of this battle. When news spread in May, the Commercial Alliance was stunned, and the remaining six great powers were consumed with fury. The entire continent was shaken by this news.
…