"Your Highness, is our army of a million just going to camp here doing nothing?" Tiger Ross grumbled impatiently.
"What's the matter? Can't sit still?"
This was the main camp of the
It hadn't even been half a month before a thoroughly bored Tiger Ross had shown up at Lorist command tent to air his grievances. He considered the Second Prince's so-called strategy of pressuring the Commercial Union into returning Armenia and Malivea Provinces with a million troops to be utterly absurd — they might as well just march straight to Mana Hill Plains and force a treaty at the gates. This was plainly the period of the Commercial Union's greatest military weakness; several of the main armies the Big Six were recalling from the southern reaches of the continent still needed considerable time to reach the front. For the Second Prince to pass up this opportunity to advance into Mana Hill Plains instead of seizing the moment — in Tiger Ross's view, this was nothing short of a man who'd had his head caught in a door.
"Heh," Lorist explained with a smile. "You ought to know this was the plan from the very beginning. It isn't that His Majesty doesn't know he should advance into Mana Hill Plains — the purpose of stationing troops here is to pressure the Commercial Union into conceding to his demands, while also avoiding an outright rupture with them. The Kingdom needs a prolonged period of peace and recovery going forward, and another war with the Commercial Union would be inadvisable. So don't let the imposing sight of a million soldiers fool you — we're all here just for show. Think of this time as a holiday for everyone."
"Even if it's just for show, His Majesty shouldn't have forbidden our scout patrols and cross-border raids — that's how you'd really put pressure on the Commercial Union. A million soldiers sitting here and not daring to cross the border by a single step? The Commercial Union will laugh at us and call us cowards," Ross pressed, unwilling to let the matter drop.
"That is His Majesty sending a signal to the Commercial Union, making clear that we have no intention of going to war with them. I believe that before long, the Commercial Union will send emissaries to negotiate the terms of a peace agreement."
Lorist waved his hand dismissively. "Enough, Ross. Drop the brainless brute act — I know exactly what's on your mind. The lords of Malivea Province are wealthy, and you want to make a killing, don't you?"
"Heh, heh..." Tiger Ross scratched his head in embarrassment. "Your Highness, well — I'm thinking of the family too, you know. Bodenfenger took the Rock Legion and swept through the entirety of Campona Province, and the spoils were practically nothing. If they hadn't captured a hundred thousand young male prisoners, the whole campaign would have been a massive loss. But what can you expect when every lord in Campona Province is penniless?"
Malivea Province was a different story entirely. Our Flying Tiger Corps just happened to stumble into Malivea while chasing down the enemy after winning the field battle, trying to round up more prisoners. We casually found a few lords to requisition military supplies from, and every single one of them turned out to be rolling in money. Thirty-eight landed nobles yielded a cash haul of two million gold Fenders — that's practically half the gold reserves of the Vesia Commerce Union!"
Well, a little over a month ago, the three regiments of the Flying Tiger Corps under Tiger Ross headed to Campona Province to link up with the Rock Legion led by Bodenfenger. No sooner had they entered the province than they ran straight into a hundred thousand reinforcements the Commercial Union had sent over — something neither side had anticipated. They deployed formations on the spot and fought a pitched battle, and the Commercial Union's reinforcements were crushed by the Flying Tiger Corps. Three Sword Saints were even killed by war chariots and steel crossbows. To chase down the fleeing enemy, Tiger Ross pressed his advantage and led his forces into Malivea Province.
Tiger Ross had just finished clearing out the landed nobles in Portoorg Province, and after the battle, he habitually went ahead and swept through the landed nobles in the Malivea Province territory the Flying Tiger Corps had occupied. The result left him both stunned and delighted. Compared to the landed nobles of Portoorg Province, and the haul from the Campona Province nobles that Bodenfenger had reported, the landed nobles of Malivea Province were absolutely rolling in wealth.
See, the landed nobles of Portoorg Province had all come from the Vesia Commerce Union. They'd served long and earned their merits, and to make room for newcomers in the union, they were ennobled as landed lords. Whatever else, they had some savings — not exactly wealthy, but a good ten thousand gold Fenders apiece. Tiger Ross still walked away with several hundred thousand from his sweep through Portoorg Province.
But when Bodenfenger swept through the lords of Campona Province, he found them pathetically poor. The entire province — nearly a hundred landed nobles — yielded less than two hundred thousand gold Fenders after being cleared out. Generally speaking, a baron's estate yielding five thousand gold coins would be considered quite wealthy. Yet the Flying Tiger Corps had occupied less than a third of Malivea Province's territory, and these thirty-eight cleared nobles had accumulated over two million gold Fenders. How could Tiger Ross not be green with envy?
Among them were no shortage of second-rate commerce union presidents, industrial and mining magnates, and the like — a far cry from that last batch of hapless mercenary captains and garrison commanders who'd been ennobled in Campona Province for battlefield merits. Naturally, their wealth was on a completely different level.
"That's enough. For the time being, you're going to stay put in camp and behave yourself. Don't forget that your little incursion into Malivea Province caused me a world of trouble. His Majesty's face turned livid when he heard you'd attacked Malivea Province and seized a good half of its territory — he was terrified your reckless move would provoke the Commercial Union into an extreme response. He has absolutely no desire for a real war with the Commercial Union..." Lorist rejected Tiger Ross's proposal without even looking up.
Lorist knew exactly what Tiger Ross was thinking — wasn't he just itching to take a force out and sweep through the landed nobles of Malivea Province? The issue wasn't that the Second Prince had issued a strict prohibition against pillaging the landed nobles of Armenia Province and Malivea Province. It was that Lorist worried Tiger Ross might come to harm. Back during the old Glass War between the Commercial Union and the Trinbor Kingdom, that stubborn fool Trinbor VII had offered exorbitant bounties and launched a war targeting high-level combatants. Quite a few of the Commercial Union's Golden Mercenaries and Golden Swordsmen who ventured into Trinbor Kingdom to pillage noble estates, manors, and castles had ended up dead.
A lesson from the past for those who follow. Lorist had no intention of letting the Commercial Union take a page from Trinbor VII's playbook. Tiger Ross had always been his most trusted favorite — and the family's Golden Knight most likely to advance to Sword Saint. To risk his life pillaging the Commercial Union's landed nobles over a few gold coins, only to get himself killed — that would be a devastating loss for the family. Until the peace negotiations were settled, this fellow would just have to stay put in camp.
"Sigh..." Tiger Ross sighed, about to say something more, when the tent flap was thrown open and Genorio walked in.
"Your Highness, His Majesty just sent a messenger inviting you to attend a banquet he's hosting tonight," Genorio reported.
"Sigh..." This time it was Lorist who sighed. The million-strong army had been assembling for over ten days now, and during those ten days the Second Prince had been hosting banquets every night in the military camp, inviting all the nobles to attend. The feasts weren't exactly exotic delicacies, but they were certainly quite lavish—clearly the Second Prince had reaped considerable spoils during the campaign against the northwestern territories and was willing to spend freely.
The Second Prince invited all the nobles to his banquets under the pretense of building goodwill and strengthening relationships, but in reality he spent the entire time grandly pontificating about how he would govern the Krisen Empire after signing a peace agreement with the Commercial Union to reunify the empire, and how he would make the Krisen Empire the most powerful nation on the Galentea Continent. He seemed utterly confident that the Commercial Union would accept his terms and return Armenia Province and Malivea Province.
It seemed the Second Prince had fallen into his old habits again. After he'd launched a surprise attack and captured the royal city of Fedliga, he'd behaved the same way. The First Prince had disappeared, the seventy-thousand-strong garrison of Camporna Province had surrendered, and the territorial nobles of the former Redlis Kingdom had all submitted their letters of surrender to him. The Second Prince had immediately become swollen with arrogance, believing the unification of the empire was within his grasp and that no one would dare defy his orders. At the time, he'd also been bedridden with a severe cold, and in his muddled state had begun issuing all manner of absurd decrees. First the territorial nobles of Andevolfe Province rebelled, then he managed to turn the four central duchies—originally his allies—against him, utterly destroying an excellent strategic position and nearly losing his throne in the process.
Now, with a million-strong army at his disposal, he believed the Commercial Union would be forced by his military might to accept his terms, so he was once again strutting around with an inflated ego. However, toward Lorist the Second Prince continued to display the same intimate warmth as always. Though beneath his eyes lay deep wariness, on the surface he was extraordinarily enthusiastic—even frequently linking arms to drink at the same table, never failing to call him "my brother..."
Lorist saw through it all. The main reason was that the Norton Family's armed forces had performed so spectacularly in this campaign. Without any coordination from the other three families of the Northland Alliance, the Norton Family's forces had launched surprise attacks on Andevolfe Province, Bordoorg Province, and Camporna Province, even seizing a third of Malivea Province's territory. They had reclaimed three provinces, captured the royal city of Fedliga, wiped the Vesia Trading Company off the map, and defeated the hundred-thousand-strong reinforcement army sent by the Commercial Union. The Norton Family's forces had earned a reputation as an unstoppable force that intimidated every nation on the Galentea Continent.
Compared to the Norton Family's forces, the family armies of the other noble grand dukes were all just along for the ride—or more precisely, they were there to consume the military provisions the Second Prince had stockpiled. Grand Duke Handra, Grand Duke Sabagi, and Grand Duke Fulendo, these three former central grand dukes, had truly been drained of their vitality by the Second Prince. Not only had they been transferred to barren territories, but the only forces they had left were garrison corps of forty-five thousand men each. They naturally treasured their sole remaining corps more than their own lives, so it was entirely understandable that they were unwilling to execute the Second Prince's plan to attack Camporna Province.
The Kemos Family's forces, the
"Sending them to their deaths? Be careful the steppe barbarian cavalry of the reserve corps don't start a mutiny over that!"
All seven grand dukes refused to deploy their troops and began passing the buck. Finally, Grand Duke Sabagi had a bright idea—weren't there others? This time, the territorial nobles had also joined the fray, forming an allied army of over a hundred thousand strong. Let them take the vanguard. The seven grand dukes unanimously agreed on this brilliant proposal and summoned all the territorial nobles who had brought troops to discuss the matter.
Nobody was a fool — the moment they heard that the task of attacking Castorna Province's castles and fortresses had fallen on their heads, all the territorial nobles united in protest. Was this some kind of joke? You are the Grand Dukes of the Kingdom, commanding tens of thousands of family legion troops, yet instead of attacking yourselves, you want us petty nobles with only two or three thousand private soldiers each to serve as cannon fodder? This is absolutely outrageous! We will go before His Majesty to report you...
This was the truth that
Of course, the collapse of the Second Prince's plan — a three-pronged assault on Castorna Province followed by a convergence at the Trade Alliance's border — had its own causes as well. Overestimating the combat power of his Blizzard Assault Corps was one factor, while underestimating the mobility of catapults in the mountainous and hilly terrain was another. The last point was that he had failed to take Grand Duke Zitulam of the northwest seriously, underestimating his enemy and suffering a severe defeat at Grand Duke Zitulam's hands. Still, he had more or less accomplished the mission of reclaiming the northwest.
After the forces merged, Lorist naturally looked down on the abysmal combat effectiveness of the seven grand dukes and the noble allied army, and naturally had a few mocking words for the Second Prince as well — the plan had been laid out flawlessly, yet not a single part of it had been completed as intended. Fortunately, they all had thick skins and didn't take it to heart. Just as the Second Prince proclaimed, managing to converge as planned was the greatest victory of all, and they began throwing a banquet to celebrate.
Lorist had too many matters on his hands and couldn't be bothered with them. He plunged into the main command tent and worked himself to a standstill. The Flying Tiger Corps had captured over sixty thousand prisoners from the Trade Alliance's hundred-thousand-strong relief army. The sweep of thirty-eight noble fiefs in Malivya Province had yielded rich spoils and over a hundred thousand forcibly relocated commoners. On top of that, Bodfinger had rounded up a hundred thousand young men and their families from Castorna Province. All of these needed troops assigned to escort them back to the Northland. Rest and resupply stations along the route had to be properly arranged, and long-haul wagons needed to be purchased to assist with the transport. All of this was the Norton Family's war spoils — even the Second Prince couldn't cook up any scheme to lay his hands on them...
"Forget it. Tell His Majesty that I still have matters to attend to and won't be attending the evening banquet," Lorist said.
After a while, Genolino returned.
"Your Highness, His Majesty says he has selected a captured Trade Alliance Count to carry a letter to the six magnates of the Trade Alliance, proposing our Kingdom's terms and demanding they send representatives to negotiate peace between the two nations. That Count will depart tomorrow morning after attending tonight's banquet. His Majesty asks whether you would like to attend the banquet to meet the Count?"
Lorist waved his hand impatiently. "No need to meet him. Tell His Majesty that everything is at his discretion. What is there to see in a Count? He's just delivering a letter. His Majesty merely wants to drag me there to use the Norton Family's fearsome reputation to intimidate that poor Count. Just tell him I'm feeling unwell and won't be attending the banquet."
"Very well, Your Highness. I will report this to His Majesty at once."
...