Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios Rows of wooden houses in the distance were burning fiercely. The white snow was covered with blood and stains, and the wind carried stifled cries and screams …
The heavy snow that had been falling for three consecutive days had finally stopped. The gloomy clouds revealed a few rare gaps. The clouds at the edge of the gaps were dyed golden by the sunlight, as if they were pieces of iron armor with golden edges.
Lorist's face was gloomy, and the faces of the family's higher-ups beside him were also ashen. In the snow in front of them were the corpses of 173 Flying Tiger Legion soldiers. The corpses were neatly arranged in three rows, with broken limbs and bloody wounds. It was a ghastly sight under the white snow.
"Who can tell me what's going on? Why did such a rundown manor cause so many of our family's soldiers to die? " Lorist's cold words were squeezed out from between his teeth. Everyone knew that the anger in his heart was burning.
"It's my fault, Your Highness." Doris took a few steps forward. "None of us expected that this rundown manor without even a castle was Baron Abbott's territory. It was the Baron Abbott that Lord Tagger mentioned on the list that we needed to be on guard against. He was the vice captain of the Grey Eagle Mercenary Group, which was ranked 21st in the Trade Alliance, and the gold mercenary nicknamed Golden Eagle.
A platoon of soldiers in charge of scouting discovered this rundown manor. No one associated it with Baron Abbott's territory, and they boldly rushed in to land the people in the manor. In the end, they were met with resistance from Baron Abbott and his knights, and the platoon of soldiers in charge of scouting died on the spot.
Baron Abbott then prepared to gather his garrison to resist, but he didn't expect our reinforcements to arrive in such a large group, and a chaotic battle ensued. Our family's soldiers suffered a total of 421 casualties, of which 173 soldiers died in battle. Baron Abbott, his knights, and his garrison were all killed … "
The Norton Family's military was organized in teams of ten, and the team leader was a decurion. The ten teams formed a platoon, and the team leader was a centurion. According to the Norton Family's winter combat regulations, the first squadron to act as scouts was to surround the target when they discovered it. This was to prevent the target from breaking out of the encirclement and wait for the reinforcements to arrive before launching an attack. This was to effectively wipe out all the enemies without letting a single person escape.
The Walebell Intelligence and Investigation Bureau had already conducted a detailed investigation of the nobles in the Andorf province. Spies disguised as various identities had investigated almost all the nobles in the province. Basically, the private forces and family knights of the nobles were clearly marked on the intelligence report. As long as the Flying Tiger Legion followed the list submitted by Tagger, they could guarantee that the plan to occupy the Andorf province would proceed smoothly, and they would be able to capture all the nobles conferred by the Trade Alliance in one fell swoop.
The only mistake was that although Baron Abbott was listed as a key target on the intelligence list submitted by Tagger, indicating that the combat power of his garrison was not bad, and the approximate location of Baron Abbott's territory was also marked on the map. However, it was snowing heavily in winter, and three days and three nights of snowstorms turned the land into a boundless snowfield. This changed the perception of geographical location based on topography. Therefore, the location on the map could not be clearly determined in reality. Often, the location could only be found out from the mouths of the captives after the victory of the attack.
This time, the first platoon of scouts also made the same mistake. The vast snow covered a small river that served as the geographical identification. When the platoon of scouts found many wooden houses built with logs in front of them, the platoon leader did not realize that it was Baron Abbott's territory. He only thought that it was the territory of some poor noble.
Everyone knew that most of the nobles in the territory lived in castles made of stone, which were safe and sheltered from the wind. There was also a roaring fire burning in the fireplace, so the rooms were very warm. Therefore, the platoon leader of the scout platoon thought that it was just a material warehouse of a territory noble or a place where their servants stayed for the winter, so he assigned his soldiers to attack the wooden houses in small teams. In his opinion, it should be easy to occupy these wooden houses, and then get information from the captives. In the end … he hit an iron plate.
No one knew that Baron Abbott, whose name was outlined in red on the intelligence list, lived in such a shabby log house, and the spies did not mention it in the intelligence report. When a small team of soldiers from the Flying Tiger Legion rushed into the larger log house and ordered the enemy to surrender, Baron Abbott and his knights did not surrender like other territory nobles, but resisted at the first opportunity.
The 2-star Gold-ranked Baron Abbott, the 3-star Silver-ranked Knight Aradeline, and the 1-star Iron-ranked Majordomo Grigail were like chopping melons and vegetables against this scouting team that was only at Bronze-ranked and Iron-ranked. At this moment, the scout platoon was divided into small teams to attack each wooden house separately. By the time they realized that something was wrong, it was already too late. Baron Abbott and Aradeline rushed out, then began to gather the garrison, and soon killed the scout platoon.
Fortunately, the follow-up troops came quickly. Baron Abbott had just wiped out the 100-man scout platoon, and before he could figure out where the enemy came from, the follow-up troops had arrived. As soon as they saw their comrades dead and wounded, they immediately launched an attack. Baron Abbott, Aradeline, and the garrison were once again involved in a chaotic battle.
The Flying Tiger Legion soldiers in a small team of 10 could not stop the surprise attack of Baron Abbott, a gold mercenary, and suffered a lot at the beginning of the battle. However, more and more troops followed, and a 100-man formation blocked the fierce charge of Baron Abbott and Aradeline. When a few 100-man formations surrounded them, the Flying Tiger Legion had the upper hand on the battlefield.
The arrival of Dollos, the commander of the army, was the last straw that tipped the scales. Dollos, who was also a Gold-ranker, had killed Baron Abbott before he could even drop his sword and beg for mercy because of the casualties of his men, even ignoring Baron Abbott's last moments of surrender. Aradeline, on the other hand, was shot by a steel crossbow on a sleigh when he tried to break out of the encirclement and escape. As for Grigail, he was injured in the chaotic battle and became a prisoner.
"Golden Eagle Abbott …" Laurist looked at the corpse of Baron Abbott that was sent to him. From the bloody face, he could vaguely tell that it was indeed the high-spirited deputy leader of the Grey Eagle Mercenary Group in the Mercenary Guild in Moront City.
This should be an old acquaintance of Laurist's. He remembered that the first gold coins Laurist earned in the Mercenary Guild were related to this Baron Abbott. At that time, Laurist, Fatty Shi, and a few friends pooled money to make a batch of backpacks and sold them in the Mercenary Guild. A few arrogant mercenaries wanted to buy these backpacks for a small amount of money, and it was this Golden Eagle Abbott who came out to help Laurist and the others. He bought all the backpacks at a high price, and then specially made a batch.
At that time, Laurist had just lost contact with his family, and in order to pay for the next semester's tuition and living expenses, he became a bronze mercenary of the lowest rank. He made the backpacks to earn a few gold coins, but he didn't expect to be bullied by a few silver mercenaries. If not for Abbott, the deputy leader of the Grey Eagle Mercenary Group, who came out to help, Laurist and Fatty Shi might have been beaten up.
In the blink of an eye, more than 20 years had passed. Golden Eagle Abbott, who was indebted to Laurist, had become a hostile lord, and died in the hands of the Norton Family. Laurist sighed, but couldn't say anything. He just waved his hand and had Dolus bury him properly, then turned and left.
On the 27th of December 1786 in the Galinthia Continent's calendar, the Norton Family's armed Flying Tiger Legion attacked and occupied the Andwerf Province under the cover of a blizzard. However, the neighboring Porto Province, the territory of the Visia Merchant Group, one of the seven giants of the Trade Alliance, was completely unaware. Its capital, Felix City, was decorated with lanterns and banners, preparing to celebrate the new year.
Due to the unexpected resistance in Baron Abbott's territory, which resulted in hundreds of casualties, Laurist deliberately slowed down the pace of his attack to ensure that the plan to clean up the entire Andwerf Province went smoothly. It wasn't until the 21st of January that they arrived at Felix City.
"Your Highness, you're here." Bofinger and Malek hurried over to welcome him.
This was a very large igloo, built from huge blocks of snow. When water was poured over it, it would freeze into a solid whole. When the snow fell, it looked like a very ordinary snowy hill from afar. There wasn't just one igloo like this, but rows of them. If one didn't get close, they wouldn't even realize that there was a huge military camp hidden in this snowy hill.
Walking into the igloo, there was a large tent inside. There were eight braziers placed around the tent, and the smokeless charcoal in the braziers was burning red. The curved ventilation pipes sent in gusts of cool air, making the tent as warm as spring without making people feel suffocated.
"How's the setup?" Laurist took off his outer leather jacket and handed it to Genolio, then invited everyone to sit.
Bofinger placed a plan of Felix City in front of Laurist, his expression solemn. "Your Highness, this is going to be a tough battle. Felix City isn't going to be easy."
"How so?" Laurist asked.
"Years ago, the Visia Chamber of Commerce joined forces with the four central duchies to defeat the second prince and occupy the capital city of Fedeliga. After seizing the province of Podorg as the chamber's territory, they carried out a large-scale expansion and renovation project on the capital city of Fedeliga. Therefore, the old city plans and defense facility blueprints are basically useless now.
"During this time, we've used binoculars to scout Felix City from all directions, and discovered that the city is roughly divided into five regions. "In the middle is the inner city, where the palace used to be. There's now a tall wall. "The east is the high-class residential area, the south is the commercial area, the west is where the military camp and armory are, and the north should be the slums.
There were close to two hundred thousand citizens in the capital, but after the second prince's surprise attack, as well as the joint attack by the Visia Merchant Guild and the four central duchies, there should be less than a hundred thousand citizens left in the city. After the expansion of the Visia Merchant Group, the old residents basically gathered in the north district, making a living as servants and laborers.
The Visia Chamber of Commerce seemed to have made the capital of Fedeliga its main focus. Apart from directly governing the mining areas of the Podorg province, they had also enfeoffed the farming areas of the Podorg province, conferring the nobles of thirty-seven territories. The guards of the various fiefs were nothing to worry about, but the troublesome thing was that the castles of the fiefs' nobles had set up warning towers.
"This might have been the result of the second prince's surprise attack on Felix City, and the Visia Merchant Group was already on guard. Every ten days, the warning towers in the castles of the fiefs and the mining and iron production bases would light up the beacons. I suspect that they might be sending some kind of message. In order to avoid alerting the enemy, after we set up the encirclement around Fedeliga's capital, we didn't attack the surrounding feudal lords, in order to avoid being noticed by the Visia Merchant Group in Fedeliga's capital.
Currently, Felix City had forty-five thousand soldiers from the Visia Merchant Group's army, as well as a city guard of eighteen thousand. Lord Tagger's intelligence said that the Visia Merchant Group had four great swordsmen, a level two great swordsmen in Morent City, a level one great swordsmen in the army, a level one great swordsmen guarding Felix City, and a level two great swordsmen guarding the president. However, apart from the great swordsmen by the president's side and the great swordsmen in the army, the other two great swordsmen were newly recruited by the Visia Merchant Group.
In the twenty days of scouting, we discovered that most of the residents in Felix City had the ability to go out in winter. Although the clothing they wore was very different from our family's, it didn't affect their outdoor activities. Furthermore, the defenses on the city walls were much tighter than the other castles. There would be patrols on the city walls every two hours. This meant that we would be easily discovered by the defending enemies during our attacks, causing our family's soldiers to suffer greater casualties.
That's why we're stationed close to ten miles away from Felix City to ensure that we won't be discovered by the enemy. The Monolith Corps has already sent out three divisions to circle around Felix City and block the east, south, and west gates, forming an encirclement. We'll wait for the Flying Tiger Corps to arrive before launching an attack on Felix City. "
Boddinger pointed at the map of Felix City on the table and explained the situation to Laurist, "Your Highness, apart from launching an attack, there's no other way to take down this city. I'm even worried that if the Visia Merchant Group senses that the situation isn't good during the attack, they'll gather close to fifty thousand miners to take up arms and resist our attack. That's like adding an army to their ranks. "
Laurist thought for a moment and asked, "Can we still use the secret passageway that the second prince used to break out of the city? Can we use that passageway to enter the city and launch a surprise attack? "
Boddinger shook his head, "Your Highness, I've sent people to look for it. The map that Miss Kriya gave us that shows the secret passageway in Felix City is authentic, but the passageway has already been discovered by the Visia Merchant Group and has been buried. We can't enter it anymore. "
Laurist shook his head helplessly, "Then let's leave it at that. When the Ferocious Tiger Ross arrives with the Flying Tiger Corps in two days, we'll discuss how to attack the city."
… …
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