When Fatty Shi, Bofinger, Terman, Yuri, and Ross arrived together, they saw Redi leading a few soldiers who had surrendered out of the tent. Entering the tent, they saw maps of various sizes everywhere. There was an animal skin map that took up half of the table, and Lollister had drawn all sorts of symbols on it. The side was filled with annotations.
"What are you doing?" Fatty Shi curiously went over to take a look, but he still could not understand what Lollister was doing.
Bofinger, on the other hand, took a closer look and finally figured it out. "This looks like a military deployment map and a marching route map?"
Hearing Bofinger's words, Fatty Shi looked at the annotations on the side and came to a realization. "You're after Count Corbili?"
Lollister nodded, took a small map, and drew a circle on it. "Look, this is Count Corbili's territory."
Then, following the circle he had drawn, he drew an arc outside the circle. "This is the route we originally planned to take to the north. It just so happens to bypass his sphere of influence. Based on a journey of sixty to seventy miles a day, it will take twelve to fourteen days. However, we will either be passing through the wilderness or territories that have lost their lords after being swept by Count Corbili's army. Our caravan will not be able to find a place to resupply, and accidents will easily happen. "
"But if we change our route …" Lollister drew a straight line on the circle that represented Count Corbili's territory on the map. "It will only take seven days, and the road will be flat and easy to resupply. However, we need to defeat Count Corbili first. "
"Have you thought of anything?" Fatty Shi asked.
"Not yet. I only asked the surrendered soldiers to understand the basic situation. I have some ideas, but I don't know what Count Corbili will do, so I'm not sure how to defeat him. "Lollister shook his head, then took out a book and placed it on the table.
"You guys help me think too. I might not be able to think it through alone. Redi, bring me the Kirov's War Chess, "Lollister said.
Kirov's War Chess was a chess game invented by Marshal Bryn Kirov of the Romon Empire a hundred years ago. Laurist felt that it was similar to chess in his previous world, except that the board was similar to the map in Monopoly instead of black and white squares.
"This is Gerdos City, the new city that Earl Corbili is building to imitate the capital." Pointing at the book on his desk, Loriste put two pieces in the shape of soldiers on horseback and four pieces in the shape of soldiers with swords on the book. "Right now, there are two platoons of lancers and one battalion of garrison stationed in Gerdos City. It's worth noting that one of the platoons of lancers and the two platoons of garrison are newly established and not very strong. According to the soldiers who surrendered, Count Corbili still has a team of heavily armored Shield Guards with the strength of Iron-rank and above to protect him. "
Laurist placed another plate on the desk. On the plate, he placed a knight and an infantryman chess piece. "This is William Mills Castle. There's a lancer squadron and a garrison squadron stationed here, numbering close to a thousand people. Confronting them was the so-called allied noble army of more than 4,000 people. The current situation of the battle was that the allied noble army was being beaten back step by step and was in a defensive position. What a bunch of losers. "
After disdainfully commenting on the allied forces of the nobles, Laurist placed another cup on the table and placed a chess piece in the shape of an infantryman in the cup, "This is the manor castle of Count Corbili's original family, Castle Burdock. There is a squadron of guards stationed here. You see, Gerdos City, William Mills Castle and Burdock Manor Castle form a triangle. No matter where you attack, you will be attacked from the other two places. Unless you have a strong military force that is several times stronger than the army of Earl Corbili's family, you can't take down William Mills Castle and Burdock Manor Castle on the periphery and march to Gerdos City. "
"Fortunately, the squadron of lancers and the garrison that were originally stationed at the castle of Burdock Manor have been completely wiped out by us. William Mills Castle has sent a garrison squadron to guard the current Burdock Manor Castle. The other squadron of lancers has also been wiped out by us. Their military force has been reduced by half. There's nothing to worry about. My idea was to send troops to Count Corbili's family territory to carry out sabotage activities under the guise of a rebel force when there was only one squadron of guards in Bodock's manor castle. In this way, Count Corbili would be lured to dispatch troops from Gerdos City and then take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack on Gerdos City. As long as we control Gerdos City and Burdock Manor Castle, Earl Corbili's power will be gone. "
"My lord, your idea is very feasible. Why are you hesitating?" Bofinger asked.
"We don't have enough troops. Also, we're worried that our family's armed forces in the northbound convoy will suffer great casualties if we fight against Earl Corbili's army head-on. In that case, we will not only lose control of the situation, but also cause other people to have bad ideas about the convoy. Therefore, I've been thinking about ways to reduce the losses of our family's armed forces. It would be great if we could wipe out another squadron of Earl Corbili's lancers. "Laurist shook his head with a bitter smile.
"My lord, I think our family's armed forces are obviously stronger than Earl Corbili's army. Why do you say that we don't have enough troops?" Ross was confused.
"We have to consider the protection of the convoy. We can't send out all our troops. According to my calculations, I can only mobilize three companies of pikemen, one company of heavy cavalry, as well as a squadron of knights and ballistae. I need to leave one company of heavy cavalry and two companies of pikemen here to guard the camp. Only then can I be at ease. The law enforcement squad has to maintain order in the barracks, and the guard squadron has to watch over the captives. Even if we can spare some of them, we can only have about two thousand soldiers at most. Yuri's light cavalry will leave a squad to guard the barracks. One of the three squads will serve as a scout for the main force, and the other two will attack the main force in Gerdos City. "
"We can only imagine what Earl Corbili's response will be. If he hears that a resistance force of more than two thousand soldiers has appeared in his family's territory, he will most likely send out his entire army. This means that the two squadrons of lancers and the garrison in Gerdos City will all be mobilized. That way, his army will have more than three thousand soldiers. Also, he can order the nobles who have pledged allegiance to him to send out their troops as well. That will easily increase his total army to about five thousand soldiers. That's why I said that if we face his army head-on, we will suffer heavy casualties. Even if we win, we will suffer great losses, "Laurist explained patiently to Ross.
"Sigh …" Laurist sighed. "Actually, when Knight Josk said that he would return to the west mountain area to gather the resistance forces to attack the enemy's camp, I was still hoping that we could use this opportunity to incite the resistance forces to go deep into Earl Corbili's family territory and carry out all kinds of sabotage. That way, Earl Corbili will be forced to divide his forces to eliminate the resistance forces. Then, we can gather our forces and annihilate the divided forces one by one. Then, we can use the resistance forces as cannon fodder to reduce the losses and casualties of our family's armed forces.
"But I didn't expect the resistance forces to be so cowardly. Not a single one of them was willing to take the risk. As a result, Knight Josk was so disheartened that he brought his men to join us."
Laurist told everyone about Knight Josk's experience and his hatred for Earl Corbili's family. "I really admire Knight Josk, and I hope that he will join us. That's why I want to eliminate Earl Corbili. This is not only to avenge the Norton caravan, but also to fulfill Knight Josk's wish and add a Gold-ranker to our family. That's why I'm looking for a suitable place to lure one of Earl Corbili's lancer squadrons into our trap. As long as we can eliminate another lancer squadron, we won't suffer too many losses even if we face them head-on. "
"Knight Josk is quite a loyal man! It's a good thing that he came to join us. We have to help him. " Fatty Shi felt sad after hearing Josk's story. "But Mister Locke, you seem to have overlooked a very important piece of information."
"What is it?" Laurist asked.
"The night before yesterday, when El was interrogating the soldiers who surrendered, I heard from one of the soldiers that when they received the news that their barracks had been occupied in the western mountains, the bastard who led the troops first sent a few lancers back to report to Count Cobiley. Then, he ordered the troops to clean up the barracks, and the young men who were captured rushed back to attack the barracks. It takes four days to travel from the western mountains to Gerdos City on horseback. This means that Earl Corbili only received the news today, and he also knew that the sweeping troops were going to attack the camp again. Mister Locke, what you've overlooked is how Earl Corbili would react after receiving the news, and how he would respond, "Fatty Shi said.
"Huh?" Laurist's eyes lit up. "If I were Earl Corbili, I would be worried about the sweeping troops after receiving the news, and the weather has been bad for the past two days. I will immediately send out reinforcements, and the fastest one to arrive would be my squadron of lancers. It takes three to four days to travel from Gerdos City on horseback, which means that Earl Corbili's reinforcements will arrive in three to five days at most. We still have a good chance. "
"Right. Also, aren't the families of Knight Josk's men still in the western mountains? We should bring them back with great fanfare, and announce to the resistance forces that we've defeated the sweeping troops. Even if the resistance forces don't believe it, they will still send people to investigate. Then, we can invite them to watch us destroy Earl Corbili's reinforcements. After we destroy the reinforcements, we can say that Earl Corbili doesn't have many soldiers left, and we can take this opportunity to rob his family's territory. I believe that the resistance forces will be unwilling to be left behind, and they will go crazy. When the resistance forces turn Earl Corbili's family's territory into a mess, we can take advantage of the chaos and occupy the castle of Burdock Manor first. If Earl Corbili gathers his army, we can gather the resistance forces to confront him, and then secretly send elites to attack Gerdos City. "Fatty Shi added fuel to the fire.
"Alright, let's do that." Laurist clenched his fists excitedly. "Time is of the essence. Redi, go and invite Knight Josk here."
After giving the order to Redi, Laurist looked at Fatty Shi, Yuri, Terman, Bodefinger, and Ross. He suddenly felt strange. "Right, why are you all here? What's the matter?"
Everyone finally remembered why they came to find Laurist. Fatty Shi said to Laurist with a bitter smile, "My lord, the new unit you've set up is very good. The only mistake is that we don't have enough warhorses. These people are about to fight over the warhorses."
Fatty Shi said that there were originally only about seven hundred warhorses in the caravan. They got a few dozen from Viscount Maester's castle, and more than two thousand from wiping out the mopping-up troops. They didn't even have three thousand in total. According to Laurist's special unit, they needed at least four thousand warhorses, and this didn't include the mounts for the guards and the law enforcement team. Terman, Yuri, Bodefinger, and Ross were all arguing over the distribution of the mounts. Laurist had no choice but to ask Laurist to make a decision.
Laurist laughed. "What are you arguing about? Just bear with it for a while. Won't there be horses coming to us in four or five days? Useless. When we defeat Earl Corbili, there will be horses and spoils of war. "
Laurist was referring to the fact that there would be a batch of warhorses after defeating Earl Corbili's reinforcements. This was because the lancers had two horses and one man, and they had great mobility.
"My lord, if you are willing to trade your weapons and equipment with the rebels in the Western Mountains, you will be able to get quite a few warhorses. I estimate that there will be five to six hundred of them."
Laurist nodded. "That's fine, but I'll have to trouble you."
He then explained the plan that he had decided on to Joske.
"My lord, are you prepared to deal with Earl Corbili?" Joske was pleasantly surprised.
"Yes." Laurist said. "Since we have already wiped out so many of his troops, we might as well uproot him. That way, he won't come looking for trouble in the future."
"My lord, I am at your service … …" Joske bowed deeply.
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