I will be crowned king

After deciding to move on, the rest of the plan fell into place - since there was no need to turn back, the road ahead had been surveyed by guides and scouts, and there was no need to consider cutting back on daily supplies.

According to Carl Bain's calculations, the entire army will be able to leave the mountainous area and enter the plain area in at most two days, which is the territory of Jinshi City in the Grand Duchy of Thun.

Everything is so beautiful.

The only question to consider is what to do if they encounter the army of the Grand Duchy of Thun.

Although in the inherent impression of the Clovis people, the army of the Southern Seven Cities Alliance has never had anything to do with the word "capable of fighting". In previous wars, they have always acted as supporting roles and jokes; but after all, the opponent has 20,000 people, and there is still an army. The Grand Duke's Guards who are "supposedly capable of fighting".

And the total strength of Anson's side is only just over 2,000. Considering that they have just crossed the snow-capped mountains, the soldiers are all slovenly, and look like they have just recovered from a serious illness from head to toe. They are definitely not "combatant". force.

Under this situation, Anson could only hope not to run into the enemy's main force, and even if he had to fight, he would try to avoid causing disputes; and at the moment, Clovis had just declared war on the Ysel elves, and so The reaction speed of the Seven Cities Alliance should not be enough to prepare for battle so quickly.

If it doesn't work, he will lead his army to plunder the territory of the Grand Duchy of Thun, plundering all the way, and forcefully march to Eagle Point City to join Ludwig; anyway, with more than two thousand people, he can attack the Grand Duchy of Thun as much as possible. The economy caused turmoil, which can be regarded as completing the task assigned to him by the Army.

On the other side, the soldiers who didn't know that they had just escaped and almost turned back the same way continued to pack up their luggage and camp under the urging of the officers as usual, and continued to march through the winding and rugged foothills.

As they continued to advance, the exhausted soldiers gradually began to find that the ice and snow on both sides of the road continued to melt, and the snowstorms that roared all day were gradually shortened and became rare.

Traces of green are gradually appearing on the rocks under your feet and the cliffs beside you, and there are even more and more sunny weather. Walking on the mountain road, many people begin to have traces of sweat on their foreheads.

These very obvious changes made the soldiers cheer for them. Even the slowest responders understood that they were already heading down the mountain, and the Hantu Plain, known for its fertility and fertility, was already in front of them!

Only one person in the whole army, Carl Bain, had a bad expression:

It is certainly a good thing that the army has left the snow mountain area, but it also means that it must send a special team to find clean water sources. At the same time, without the cover of wind and snow, the probability of the two thousand people being discovered will also greatly increase. Every day, light It took him a lot of time to send scouts to explore the terrain, and he was very busy.

In addition, executing the march route, formulating the deployment and tasks of each company in the event of an encounter, determining the location of the camp, and arranging night sentries... Except for the logistics that can be left to the little clerk, he, a captain, is responsible for all the rest. .

Although he was an adjutant with the salary of the chief of staff, his actual work was almost the sum of two positions, and even part of Anson's own work was thrown to him.

After being mistakenly called "Chief of Staff" by the orderer for an unknown number of times, Carl Bain now felt more and more that he might have been deceived.

As for a certain deputy commander who left his job to him, in addition to performing his duties during the march every day and leading the troops on foot by example, he spent most of his time huddled in his tent and immersed himself in writing, writing non-stop.

At first, Karl thought this guy was because of the current situation, racking his brains to think of how to explain it to Ludwig; but the real situation made him almost breathless - this guy actually had time to write a diary? !

"April 12th, this is an important day. Maybe I inadvertently changed the fate of two thousand people, although it is not clear whether this is good or bad..."

"On April 13, from the cliff, one could already see the endless plains in the distance, dotted with villages and towns, and chessboard-like fields; the soldiers were proud and vowed to leave their own traces on this foreign territory... …”

"On April 14, the Hantu Plain was already in front of me. I seemed to see a great mission waving to me..."

With a long sigh, Anson closed the diary in his hand with a tired look and rubbed his temples with his left hand.

Obviously, a certain adjutant who complained all day long had no idea how important these "diaries" were to Anson and more than two thousand people.

As a commander of a conscripted army, Anson not only has to complete the orders issued by the army and his superiors and ensure the morale and combat effectiveness of the entire army, but he also has a job that the regular army would never consider.

That is to ensure that the army does not lose money and occasionally meets certain additional requirements of investors and sponsors.

For the general conscripted army, these are nothing more than profit sharing from the spoils of war, insisting on ordering military supplies from investors' factories and shops; allowing soldiers to use high-priced and low-quality weapons, eat food that is about to expire, and wear moldy military uniforms. Committed to solving warehouse backlog problems for customers.

Occasionally, they transform into "armed caravans" carrying goods, selling their country's "local specialties" to the defeated soldiers and ordinary people in the invaded areas; the situation where two levied armies compete to sell goods to the enemy and finally fight, in Cloro It's not even a "special case" in the Uyghur Army.

Especially for some armies with multiple or even double-digit investors, this problem is even more obvious. In order to fulfill the needs of investors and make profits, they often do things that are completely contrary to the army's orders, and end up relying on reselling arms and empty pay. Make up for the loss.

As the commander of the cannon fodder army with only one investor, Anson certainly does not have to worry about the worst-case scenario; but in addition to ensuring the profit of the army, he also has to meet certain "special needs" of Sophia Franz.

"...I remember your secretary said before that you have the habit of writing a diary, right? Then starting from arriving at Dawn Ice Peak, whenever you have the opportunity, send your diary back; the more substantial and detailed the content, the better. "

"Be warned in advance, I have also placed people in brother Ludwig's army. If I know that someone deliberately 'lost contact' or just wrote a bunch of stuff to fool me, I will withdraw my funding!"

"But if the content is exciting enough - I mean detailed, things like additional investment and helping you win over other sponsors are not impossible to consider..."

All in all, in order to avoid the tragic end of the army's bankruptcy and collapse, Anson decided to become an amateur travel novelist.

"I don't know if you can become a novelist, but your ability to lie seriously is getting better and better."

Walking on the increasingly muddy mountain road, Carl Bain, who was covered in sweat, turned his head as he spoke and looked at the dusty soldiers behind him, who were so tired that they wanted to stick out their tongues and looked haggard. The diary in his hand happened to be open to " …The soldiers were in high spirits…” That page.

"This is called artistic processing."

Anson snatched the diary from Karl's hand angrily, glanced at him and glared: "Do you think anyone would like to read a battle report like a running account? Who would read it without any embellishments?"

"No, I think she should like whatever you write."

Karl, with the corners of his mouth raised, deliberately said in a very playful tone.

Anson walked in front without looking back, pretending not to understand what he was talking about.

This small interlude was quickly declared over after a few scouts rushed back. The adjutant and chief of staff, who was so busy that he never touched the ground, did not have much time to be curious about the gossip of the deputy commander himself - although he really very curious.

"The news sent back by the second skirmisher company of the Storm Regiment is that there is an open slope ahead that can be temporarily stationed, and there is a stream not far away that can provide drinking water."

Karl walked up to Anson while wiping his sweat and said in a hoarse voice: "It is said that it was originally a transit station and camp for smugglers. After it was discovered and cleared by Thun's army last year, only a piece of slope land was left. "

"Then there will be local troops patrolling around here?" Anson casually handed him the water bottle:

"On the contrary, it is precisely because it has been wiped out that there will be no patrolling troops."

Karl took a few sips of the water bottle and licked his chapped lips: "I asked the guide specifically. Although the Grand Duchy of Thun has been cracking down on smuggling, it is only on the surface, or it is only the Grand Duke himself. Will do it."

"Why?"

"Because of interests." Karl showed his usual veteran smile:

"The reason why the Southern Seven Cities Alliance is an alliance is not only to resist the threat from the north of Dawn Ice Peak militarily, but more importantly, to reach an agreement on trade profits."

"It is rich in coffee, olives, wine, truffles, silk fabrics and all kinds of valuable goodies, but almost every country is the same; for the sake of alliance, we must share the benefits in terms of tariffs and prices."

"The Grand Duchy of Thun holds the trade route to the north, so it naturally has an advantage, so it is the party that wants to make profits within the alliance; its own merchants also have to pay high taxes when exporting goods, and they have to share profits equally with other countries. .”

"So except for the Grand Duke himself who can receive taxes, other merchants and lords in the duchy actually encourage and acquiesce in smuggling?" Anson roughly understood what he meant:

"Only when the scale is too large to be concealed will a wave of suppression be carried out. After the suppression is carried out, everything will be business as usual?"

"You can say that." Karl nodded:

"So when we really can't hide, we can also ask the guide to help us communicate with the locals and convince them that we are just a group of businessmen unwilling to pay high tolls."

"I have sent a few scouts and guides to visit nearby manors and villages. They should be back soon after we set up camp."

Anson didn't have any expectations for his adjutant's wonderful idea - after all, how did the guide who was forcibly detained by him explain it to the villagers in the countryside of the Grand Duchy of Thun to believe that more than two thousand people were fully armed and loaded with ammunition? Are people just a group of businessmen who are harmless to humans and animals?

But no matter what, it is always a good thing to find a camp that is stationed and repaired, especially after experiencing the blinding snowstorm and the steep and rugged foothills, a flat and open camp that can provide clean water is the best place for the entire army. In the eyes of all the soldiers above and below, it was no less than a high-end hotel in the inner city of the royal capital.

There was no need for extra orders at all. After receiving the order to camp and repair on the spot, the soldiers who didn't even have the energy to cheer immediately threw away their equipment, unloaded the materials from the packhorses that were foaming at the mouth, and weakly began to build. Campsite.

Sitting on the cold sand exhausted, Anson took out his diary from his arms and started the most important work of the day:

"...On April 15th, we finally left the steep Chenxi Mountains. Everyone's face showed their deep hatred for that natural miracle - this paragraph was crossed out - and they grabbed a handful of Ice and snow as a souvenir.”

"Everyone is extremely tired, but no matter how tired they are, they can't hide the excitement in their eyes; because they know that a great mission is about to fall on their shoulders, not for wealth, not for fame, but for victory, for belonging The glory of the Kingdom of Clovis..."

Anson kept writing while Lisa, who was panting and sitting down behind her, accidentally knocked over the flagpole, and the Unicorn King flag, which was almost crumpled into a ball of rags, fell into the mud pit.

"No one complains, no one grumbles, everyone is working together to contribute their last bit of strength for the glory of Clovis and this legendary expedition..."

Plop!

Several exhausted soldiers collapsed to the ground, refusing to move a step even though the officers were beating and scolding them. In the end, even the officers themselves sat down panting, tearing off their shirts without grace, and dropped their guns to the ground. Not even aware of it.

"Just as I am writing this paragraph, our elite scouts are rushing back, preparing to report to us the news ahead; the honest and hospitable Hantu people are all delighted with our arrival..."

Looking at the scouts not far away who were waving signal flags, running wildly and shouting something towards the camp, Anson's tired face showed a hint of surprise.

Could it be that, as Karl said, the villagers nearby regarded them as a smuggling caravan?

He turned around and saw that the camp that had not heard any movement was still busy in an orderly manner; the exhausted soldiers used shovels and tools to support themselves to stand up, while the officers scolded and encouraged them as they walked through the messy camp, trying to maintain order; The busy baggage soldiers were busy unloading the goods and setting up tents with others.

Looking at everything in front of him, Anson's eyes couldn't help but glance at the diary in his hand.

Yes, even if they are not like what they wrote in their "diary" to Sophia, they can still hold their heads high in the face of difficulties and obstacles, they can still smile in the face of many difficulties, and they are full of morale no matter where they are. …But they got through it.

They were exhausted and slovenly. Everyone had a tired look on their face, their eyes were empty and their expressions were dull. They wished they could lie on the ground and never get up again... But they survived.

These troops, composed of homeless people and tenant farmers living in the outer cities and countryside, took only a dozen days to climb over dangerous peaks that even the regular army did not dare to face, and crossed the impregnable barrier of the Seven Cities Alliance...

Isn't this exciting and legendary enough?

"soldiers!"

Thinking of this, Anson suddenly stood up, stood on a pile of glove boxes and shouted to everyone:

"I know that you have been exhausted by exhaustion; I know that you have been tortured by hunger, thirst, cold and sweat; we - with our scarred and exhausted bodies, rely on the Seven Cities Alliance to protect them The barrier is trampled underfoot!"

"Now please hold on a little longer, and hold on for the last part of the journey - because in front of us is the Seven Cities Alliance, which is the rich land flowing with gold and silver, milk and honey! Her simple and hospitable people are enthusiastic Get ready for our arrival..."

"Boom——!!!"

Before he could finish his words, a deafening loud noise was already echoing in the forest.

The simple and hospitable Thun people warmly welcomed the arrival of the Clovis people with a six-pound solid bullet.