Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio Lollister led two thousand soldiers on the road to Qixess Province. Ten days had passed since the fall of Meishan Castle, and Lollister had been tied up by trivial matters. The main reason was that it had taken him so long to arrange for nearly a hundred thousand residents of Meishan Castle to move to the north. These residents, who had been chased out of their homes, had been reduced to the poorest of the poor. When they looked at the Norton Family's armed forces, their eyes were filled with hatred.
Lollister was helpless. This was war. He had protected these residents from harm, but he could not appease their pain and anger after losing everything. At the same time, he had to arrange for food and lodging for them on the way to the north. He also had to arrange for carriages for the old, weak, women, and children. He was so busy that he was dizzy. Only when Baron Camorra hurried over did he manage to extricate himself.
On the road, there were soldiers of the nobles carrying crude weapons and their spoils of war passing by. When they saw the Norton Family's flag, they all cheered and respectfully moved to the side of the road to make way for the nobles. Lollister's face was gloomy. He did not want to bother with these mobs. In his eyes, these so-called allies were actually more hateful than enemies.
He had protected the lives of the hundred thousand residents of Meishan Castle, but he had watched as these people ransacked the entire castle. In order to find the hidden belongings of the residents, they did not hesitate to dig three feet into the ground and demolish entire houses. They were unscrupulous and even prepared to set fire to the houses after they were done looting. If Lollister had not stopped them in time, perhaps the entire Meishan Castle would have been burned to ashes. Furthermore, they even argued that this was the area they had drawn, so it was up to them how they wanted to deal with it.
Bastards! In a fit of anger, Lollister hanged more than ten veterans who thought that they were being reasonable. Only then did he stop this evil trend. It was very simple. You set fire to your own area, and the fire spread everywhere. There were so many people in the city who had not come out. Were these bastards trying to set fire to their own people? In reality, many of these soldiers were veterans who had experienced the empire's civil war. They were already used to doing this. Some wanted to vent their anger because the area they had drawn did not have much loot, while others were just doing it out of convenience.
Just as Lollister was busy moving the residents of Meishan Castle, the nobles' allied forces were already making a scene in Meishan Province. Although Meishan Castle had fallen, there were still many Sabagi Duchy nobles' territories, towns, and villages in Meishan Province. The allied forces were not satisfied with Meishan Castle's loot, and began to set their sights on the entire Meishan Province. Thus, Meishan Province's calamity began.
Compared to the disciplined Norton Family's army, these nobles were practically bandits. They committed murder, arson, robbery, and rape. Because the Norton Family wanted people, they even captured the villagers and wanted to sell them to Lollister. Laurist had wanted to buy these villagers, but he was stopped by Baron Camorra who had just arrived.
Baron Camelot told Lollister sternly, "We can't buy them. If we buy them, it will become an excuse for the noble alliance to plunder people. With the trade of captives, our family will become the same as those slave masters." This goes against our family's promise not to engage in human trafficking. If the allied forces know that we don't engage in human trafficking, they will only rob us of our property and women. We can take in the villagers whose homes have been destroyed. This way, they will be grateful to the Norton Family.
Lollister knew that Baron Camorra was right. Even though he sympathized with the villagers, he could only harden his heart and not pay attention to them. Even if the Norton Family's armed forces were strong enough to wipe out the entire allied forces, Lollister could do nothing to stop what was happening. He could not give this order. This was war, a war on the Galinthia Continent. The actions of the allied forces were common and normal to them. On the contrary, the disciplined Norton Family's armed forces were very different.
Out of sight, out of mind. Lollister could only comfort himself this way. No matter what, the allied forces were his allies. Only a moron would turn against an enemy's people for the sake of an ally's atrocities. Lollister could only pretend that he did not see anything and hurried to Chicxess Province.
Two days ago, Ross the Ferocious Tiger sent a messenger to report that Grand Duke Sabaji had successfully escaped to the Falkner Duchy with his family. However, as Grand Duke Sabaji always resorted to cutting off his tail to survive, only four to five thousand men of the duchy's first legion survived the disaster. The rest of the troops had been wiped out trying to stop the Flying Tiger Legion and the two light cavalry legions led by Count Shahin.
It could be said that the entire Sabaji Principality had already fallen into enemy hands. Other than a few castles, fortresses, and towns in the Qirkseth Province that had sufficient defenses, there was nothing else that could withstand the assault of the Northern Four Family Alliance and the Fisablon Family's armed forces. Even Grand Duke Sabaji had fled to the Falkner Duchy. The Sabaji Duchy only existed in name now. When the Flying Tiger Legion arrived, the castles and towns could only choose to surrender or perish.
The Falkner Duchy received the help of three legions that were going to reinforce Sabaji. They finally stabilized the situation at the border of Samora Province and built a relatively complete defense line. They stopped the attacks of the three light cavalry legions, the Pegasus Legion, the Reserve Legion, and the Third Frontier Ranger Legion. However, the Falkner Duchy was in a more difficult situation. Not only had the Fulward Province become a smooth road, even the Perorina Province, where the capital Pedero City was located, was covered in flames. It was frequently attacked by light cavalry.
Fortunately, the Handra Duchy had sent two new legions to the Falkner Duchy. Grand Duke Falkner had also desperately recruited two more legions. One was sent to Samora Province to replace the reinforcement from the Falkner Duchy, and the other was sent to Perorina City as reinforcements. This could be considered a shot in the arm for the Falkner Duchy. Together with the two new legions that the Falkner Duchy had recruited, the five legions, which numbered about two hundred thousand, set up a defense line in the Fulward Province. They finally stopped the light cavalry from approaching the capital city. The two sides began to face each other.
Laurist was very satisfied with this situation. Now, the initiative of the war was in his hands. The four central duchies, oh, they could only be called the three central duchies now, suffered losses because they did not have a powerful cavalry unit. They were unable to defend against the attacks and harassment of highly mobile light cavalry, which was why they suffered losses time and time again. Although the duchy of Falkner and the duchy of Fulondor had already set up a defensive line and invested nearly 300,000 soldiers, the Falkner and Fulondor duchies were still far from enough. However, they were divided into two directions to defend. On the other hand, the Northern Four Families Alliance and the Fisablon Family's armed forces occupied Chikseth Province. They could gather their forces and attack in one direction at any time. The Falkner Duchy and the Fulondo Duchy could only defend and counterattack passively.
Loriste decided to take a breather. There was no need to let the light cavalry attack a well-defended position in such a favorable situation. He could now wait for the Second Prince to lead the White Lion Legion to the front lines. According to the report from the rear, the second prince had already sped up his march and entered the southern province after hearing the news that the Sabaji Principality had been conquered. However, it would take at least thirty days for him to reach the Chixess province. During this time, everyone could take a break and settle the problem of their spoils of war.
To be honest, the Northern Four Families Alliance and the Fisablon Family did not gain much in terms of wealth after conquering the Sabaji Principality. Count Shahin was considered to have done well. He had seized about 300,000 gold fords worth of wealth. The Norton Family, on the other hand, had taken over a few towns and castles by themselves. They had also gained 100,000 to 200,000 gold fords. Count Filim and Duke Fisablon had gained about the same, with less than 100,000 gold fords worth of wealth. On the other hand, the allied forces formed by more than a hundred nobles had plundered everywhere. Each family had gained 10,000 or even thousands of gold fords.
After conquering the Sabaji Principality, the biggest gains were manpower and food. Other than the Norton Family, who needed manpower to fill the Northern Lands, the Filim Family also needed manpower to develop the southern province. Even Count Shahin had gathered more than 3,000 families of three or four people to bring back to his family's territory. They had all been influenced by Laurist. When migrating these residents, they paid special attention to the migration of the entire family. Only in this way, these new immigrants would be able to adapt to the new environment faster and become loyal subjects under the rule of each family.
What made Laurist feel conflicted was that Duke Fisablon had the same idea. However, his method was crueler. He only wanted the young men and women, and abandoned all the old and weak. As a result, the periphery of his captive camp was filled with white-haired old people, begging for their families to be reunited. Their cries and pleas were endless.
When Duke Fisablon found Laurist and requested him to order the Monolith Corps guarding the southern province's border to open up a path so that the Fisablon Family could bring back these spoils of war, Laurist sighed deeply. He told Duke Fisablon that he was very unwilling to let them bring these young captives back to his family's territory. This was because it would strengthen his family's strength. However, because he had sworn to treat everyone fairly, he would still order the Monolith Corps to open up the border. However, he only had one request, and that was to let the families of the young captives reunite. Even if they had to migrate, they should not separate their families.
Duke Fisablon nodded and left. Laurist then saw the gates of the Fisablon Family's captive camp open. The old people gathered outside swarmed in, and their cries were replaced by words of gratitude. So Laurist wrote a writ for Genolio to send to Duke Fisablen. When he sat down, he suddenly slapped his forehead and came to a realization. He had been tricked by that old fox Fisablon again.
It was obvious that Duke Fisablon had purposely made the scene of the separation of the flesh and bones for him to see. The old fox was worried that Laurist would not be willing to open up the border and let them pass through, so he had done this. Otherwise, he would have chased away the old people gathered outside the camp. Why would he allow them to make a ruckus outside? If he wanted to abandon these old people, then even if the young and strong were to be migrated to their family's territory, they would still hate the Fisablon Family. That old fox definitely knew such a simple logic. He had purposely separated the young and strong from the old to gain sympathy and make Laurist let them pass …
Laurist smiled bitterly. Forget it, there was no need to compete with that old fox. No matter how much he wanted to increase the strength of the Fisablon Family, it would not be able to keep up with the rapid development of the Norton Family. He had already occupied the right time, place, and people. If that old fox could still turn the tables around, he might as well find a flagpole and kill himself. Compared to his vigilance towards Duke Fisablon, it was obvious that the old fox was more afraid of him. This could be seen from the fact that he had made Laurist swear not to set up a trap for his family's armed forces before he sent out his troops.
Qikseth Province was originally the Sabaji Family's hereditary territory. It was also considered an agricultural province. The terrain was flat and vast, and it was the most suitable battlefield for cavalry. Following the news of the Flying Tiger Army conquering the few castles, fortresses, and towns, as well as the fact that Aire had led a Hunting Cavalry Legion to force the surrender of the 12,000 men from the Sabaji Duchy stationed at Egret Lake Swamp, it could be said that the Sabaji Duchy had been destroyed, except for the Grand Duke who had fled.
This war was too cruel for the Sabaji Principality. The destruction suffered by the three provinces of the principality was unparalleled. This was not only a loss of property, but the most terrible thing was that a large number of people were robbed and forced to migrate. Before the war, the Sabaji Duchy had about 800,000 people. But after the war, the survivors in the three provinces were less than 300,000. Other than those who died in the war, were killed, or fled to the Falkr Duchy, almost half of the residents were migrated to the territories of the four northern families alliance and the Fisablon Family. In the 20 years after the war, the economy and development of the three provinces stagnated.
On the 7th of September, the late second prince finally led the White Lion Army and the two heavy armor regiments of the Kenneth Family to the Qikseth Province and entered the encampment.
After resting for three days, the second prince called for a military conference to discuss how to attack the Falkr Duchy and Folonto Duchy. The situation on the battlefield was clear. The Falkr Duchy and Folonto Duchy were on the defensive, while the Andinac Kingdom was on the offensive. They had the initiative on the battlefield and could attack wherever they wanted. Whether it was the Falkr Duchy's border defense line in the Samora Province or the Folonto Duchy's defensive position in the Fleetwood Province, as long as one of them was breached, the other would fall as well.
If the eight garrison legions in the two defensive positions were destroyed, then not only the Falkr Duchy, Folonto Duchy, and even the Handa Duchy would fall. To the three central duchies, this crisis was even more dangerous than the invasion of the first prince Redelis ten years ago. Especially when the Sabaji Duchy was almost destroyed, and the Andinac Kingdom's armed forces had penetrated deep into the duchy's hinterland. In terms of terrain and combat power, the three duchies were at a disadvantage.
The second prince hoped to leave only one light cavalry legion to restrain the three garrison legions of the Falkr Duchy, then concentrate all their forces to break through the Folonto Duchy's defensive line in the Fleetwood Province. Although there were as many as five garrison legions in this defensive line, it was longer and the terrain was flatter, making it more suitable for cavalry to assault.
The second prince planned to use the White Lion Army and the two heavy armor regiments of the Kenneth Family to break through somewhere in this defensive line. Then, the Fisablun Family's reserve legion, the Third Border Ranger Legion, the Felim Family's Pegasus Legion, Count Shahin's two light cavalry regiments, and the Flying Tiger Legion led by Laurist would enter the Folonto Duchy through this opening, outflank the Falkr Duchy and Handa Duchy from the back, and decide the outcome in one battle.
The second prince said, "The three duchies are like eggs. The only hard shell is the two defensive lines in front of us. As long as we make a hole in it, we can eat the delicious yolk inside. I firmly believe that the offensive power of our troops and the armed forces of the various families is unparalleled and invincible. I believe that the four central duchies will soon become history. I wish everyone an invincible victory and outstanding contributions to the unification of the empire. "
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