I will be crowned king

On August 14, the hundredth year of the Saint's Calendar, a heavy rain hit the port of Carindia.

The rolling and boiling dark clouds dyed the dome gray-black, and endless rain poured down the sky, washing away the messy port. The overflowing rain penetrated into the city full of ruins, and rushed freely in the deserted streets.

The heavy rain stirred up the sea water, and the ink-like waves violently hit the coast over and over again; the dazzling pale white lighted up on the distant horizon, and only tens of seconds later did the low roar of a ferocious beast sound, as if it was deliberately frightening. This city is dead in the rain.

Every summer, the Port of Carindia is shrouded in heavy rain from time to time. The bad weather often lasts for several days. At its worst, the storm blocks shipping, rainwater floods the roads, and even the entire city is "soaked" in rainwater and backwash. of sea water.

At this time every year, the entire city will be submerged bit by bit by rain, from the outermost slums, to ordinary residential areas, to the bustling commercial streets and the residences of various guilds... In the end, only churches, noble areas and parliament buildings The highlands were spared and became "archipelagos in the sea."

This year's rainstorm seems to be particularly violent.

A gloomy-looking middle-aged man stood in front of a window with his hands behind his back. His thin brown hair not only failed to cover the swollen bags under his eyes, but also failed to completely cover the top of his head, making him look like an old lion shedding its hair; and the too-long hair With his aquiline nose, his face looked like some kind of scavenger.

The middle-aged man did not wear the slim-fitting military uniform that is more popular today. Instead, he wore a dark blue woolen windbreaker over a cavalry breastplate. Under the loose cuffs, you can still see slightly reflective metal arm guards and an obstructive three-cornered hat. It was buckled on the belt on the right shoulder.

Even in the face of increasingly advanced guns and artillery, armor has become a useless inconvenience; but for many elderly Imperial knights, the steel worn on their bodies is no longer just a simple protective gear.

The extravagant stained glass windows whined under the strong wind, and combined with countless rainwater shattering on the glass, damp moisture seeped into the room, driving the flickering kerosene lamps, exuding bursts of chill.

After looking out the window for a while, the middle-aged man slowly retracted his gaze, turned to look at the anxious figures in the room behind him, and calmly picked up the wine glass on the table.

"Who starts first?"

The middle-aged man pointed at the battle map of Carindia Port on the table with his wine glass: "I guess... you have a lot of bad news to tell me."

In the disturbing atmosphere, the knights and counselors gathered around the table looked at each other.

"Uh... the forward position sent intelligence, and it was discovered that Hantu troops were rapidly gathering on the outer position. It may be that they are planning to take advantage of the cover of the heavy rain to launch a new round of attack."

In the dead silence, a young staff officer stood up and took out the soaked report in his arms:

"According to reports from our scouts, the enemy has gathered at least 3,000 people at the city gate to the north, about the strength of five infantry regiments. Therefore, there is a high probability that they are planning to launch a feint attack from both wings to cover their main force... …”

"It's a bunch of stinky fish and rotten shrimps, don't think about it." The middle-aged man interrupted the report directly and took a sip of the dark red liquid in the cup:

"They have no heavy firepower, no twelve-pound cannons, and they can't even make up a company of six-pound infantry cannons! What do they have, ten thousand new soldiers equipped with Leiden rifles? I can do it with a few thousand men in Red Moon Town. Do you need to be afraid of them when Clovis is hung up and beaten?!"

"Can……"

"Unless the heavy rain clears up, fog begins, or at least one battery of artillery appears on their position, there is no need to report anymore!"

The middle-aged man looked quite impatient and took another sip of wine: "Has the person in charge of the cathedral come back?"

"exist!"

A sweaty head emerged from the crowd in a panic: "The work with the cathedral is not going well. We have tried to lower our profile as much as possible, but..."

"But?!" The middle-aged man looked sharply.

"But Archbishop Hantu still refused to cooperate!" His sweat-soaked head lowered his head desperately, as if he planned to hide it with his non-existent neck:

"He said that in accordance with the resolution of the Second Ordinary Council, the Church could not interfere in secular affairs, so he refused to hand over the accounts of the Clovis and François families, refused to provide us with an unsecured loan, refused to assist us in expressing our position, and rebuked Claude Francois is the illegitimate king of Hantu, and also..."

"What else?!"

"They also said that the Ysel elves have betrayed their faith, and warned us not to try to interfere in the war between Clovis and the Ysel elves. The church's top leaders are communicating with Clovis under the coordination of Archbishop Luther Franz to restore Ysel. The faith of the Elf Kingdom.”

"For example, if the empire still tries to protect the Ysel old god sect that betrayed the Ring of Order, then the church can only think, think, uh... think..."

"What do you think? Do you think that His Majesty, who was crowned by the Archbishop himself... is also an old god?"

The middle-aged man snorted coldly, which made his fat head tremble with fear, and cold sweat flowed on the trembling fat.

He turned back, raised his wine glass and waved to the messenger in the corner; the clever young man immediately stepped forward, took the wine glass and presented the lit briar pipe.

"Don't pay too much attention to the church's lack of cooperation. Without them, we can still win this war - why? Because our emperor is the emperor appointed by the Ring of Order, and is the true and only legitimate master of the world of order. !”

After taking a strong puff, the middle-aged man holding the pipe became relaxed and natural: "Xiao Xiao is rampant, and the division and separatism are only temporary situations; the empire... is eternal!"

After the words fell, the knights and staff present, no matter how much they disapproved of this "antique-level" propaganda slogan, all nodded and loudly expressed their agreement, and each voice was louder than the last.

"Go on, any other bad news?"

"The Council of Carindia, they hope that we can provide some necessary assistance."

Wearing a monocle, the stern-looking staff officer said in a deep voice: "They 'claimed' that because the advance army controlled all the food reserves in the city and refused to provide them with daily needs, the entire Carindia Port is currently in chaos. Facing a horrific famine.”

"That's nonsense, what does this have to do with us?!" The middle-aged man biting his pipe said angrily:

"It's obviously because they were too cowardly and surrendered without resistance, allowing Clovis's scum to steal most of the supplies in Carindia Port; they are obviously vassals of the empire, but I still don't dislike them for not even having a decent servant. You can’t even send out the army, but now you dare to stand up and accuse us?!”

"That's right." The staff officer gently held the eyes on his face, with a sneer on his lips:

"When they came to complain, their subordinates told them the same thing - Carindia Port is the city of the Carindia people, and the empire has no responsibility, let alone the right to maintain security and provide daily needs for them. It should be the responsibility of the Carinthians themselves.”

"In addition, the subordinates also asked them to hand over their excess weapons, and recruited citizens in the city to organize an auxiliary corps of about two thousand people to maintain the deteriorating public security in the city; at the same time, arrests and executions He recruited a group of nobles previously associated with the Clovis people and used their property to fund military supplies."

"Well done, as it should be!"

The middle-aged man nodded slightly and looked at the staff officer with eyes full of approval: "We must not be too merciful to our allies and vassals. Always remember that it is they who need the empire, not the empire that needs them; we must beat them all the time to make them They pay enough for the protection they receive from the Empire that they will always need its protection."

"I know that there are many young people now who claim that allies and vassals should be treated fairly...Fairness, what is fairness? Is it possible to be fair between the emperor and his ministers? Should it also be fair between the strong and the weak? ? Their ridiculous remarks are as if being weak and incompetent is also a privilege!"

"I don't care about others, but in my army, such remarks must not exist - do you understand, Staff Officer Luther Eagle?"

"My subordinates will always remember General Lawrence Igor." The staff officer said respectfully.

The surrounding knight officers applauded one after another, praising the commander's admonishment and the staff officer's humility and courtesy.

As for the extorted Carindia nobles, the tens of thousands of citizens who were left without a roof in the storm, impoverished and hungry... no one cared, and it was impossible for anyone to care.

For a port enclave destined to be besieged from three sides and impossible to defend, the port of Carindia really meant nothing more to the empire than a bridgehead.

Especially Carindia, which surrendered voluntarily, the entire Imperial Expeditionary Force has great distrust of this country that is like a grassroots. There is no guarantee that they will not betray the Empire again and return to the embrace of "their own people".

After all, rebellion and surrender only happen once and countless times.

Coupled with the previous extortion by Anson Bach and his entourage at the Port of Carindia, as well as the citizen riots, by the time the expeditionary force landed, there was not much money to be made in this originally prosperous city, so the city that was originally prepared to take the opportunity to make a fortune The imperial knights who had made a fortune were greatly disappointed, and it was impossible for them to have any good impressions of these lowly people.

Even if they are able to survive until now, more than half of the reason is because the entire city has been surrounded by the Hantu army, and the strength of the expeditionary army cannot suppress the citizen riots while facing the attack of the Hantu army.

Lawrence was very anxious now... The reaction of the entire Hantu was faster than he imagined. In just a few days, 10,000 people were mobilized to surround the Port of Carindia, trapping him and thousands of soldiers in this ruins. The city was completely different from the fragmented and weak Seven Cities Alliance in his impression!

Not only that, the heavy rain also hindered the normal passage of the fleet and completely cut off supplies from the rear; of course, this was not the most troublesome thing. The most troublesome thing was that it completely lost contact with the expeditionary force headquarters. I don’t know anything about the next step of the plan, and I can’t feed back the current situation.

This put Lawrence in a dilemma... According to the original plan, he should set off immediately in a week at the latest. First, he would meet up with the second landing expeditionary force and capture one-third of the territory from Carindia to Eden, and then Deterrence Tiezhong Fort and cooperate with the main force of the expeditionary force to cut the entire land in half.

But now... the two principalities of Aiden and Thun, who have joined forces, immediately sent out their legions and besieged him in this ruin-like port.

Although it is just a group of low-level troops with no heavy firepower at all and can barely manage one rifle per person, it is certainly far from enough to compete for the Carindia Port, but if they just rely on the position to defend, they can still do it with the number of people.

Lawrence had a huge headache. Although he had two elite full-scale Imperial infantry divisions, these troops could not withstand the attrition. He sent them to fight Hantu's rotten fish and shrimps in a huge positional battle, even if the casualties were one to one. Third, you are also the one who loses blood.

He originally planned to use a quick attack to capture the crucial bridgehead of Green Valley, but obviously the commander on the opposite side was not a pure fool. He launched a comprehensive flanking attack on Green Valley, which was also almost only in ruins, and transformed it into His command and the entire core of the siege of the port of Carindia.

Moreover, the commander on the opposite side has an advantage that he does not have, that is, the entire Green Valley has been almost destroyed in the previous war, and all the residents in the city have been moved to Carindia Port; the entire city is heavily guarded. military fortress, and there is no need to consider unnecessary burdens.

At this moment, he didn't even know that Hantu had established a country, and Pascal, the commander of the expeditionary force, had also changed his original strategy.

But none of this actually matters, because as long as the heavy rain continues and reinforcements from the fleet cannot reach the port of Carindia, Lawrence can do nothing but continue to bully the nobles of Carindia.

"Can't you send out a few scouts and find a way to contact the headquarters or fleet first?"

"I'm very sorry. We have tried every possible way... but nothing works."

The first staff officer stood up again, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead and said cautiously: "The peripheral roads have been completely cut off by the armies of Thun and Aiden. Unless the Green Valley can be conquered, it will be impossible to open up the communication line with the rear. .”

"As for the sea... From before the storm to now, we have successively sent out nearly half an infantry company of scouts. But so far, except for the two who can be confirmed to have died in the shipwreck, the rest are still..."

"boom!"

Before the staff officer could finish speaking, there was a loud noise behind everyone - the soaked messenger rushed into the conference room under the disgusted eyes of the knights, and knelt on one knee in front of the map table in panic.

"Lord Laurence Igor, there is an enemy situation at the north gate of Carindia Port! There is a Hantu army with about 3,000 soldiers..."

"We already know this!" Staff Officer Luther Igor yelled dissatisfied: "The general has given an order, unless the heavy rain clears up, fog begins, or..."

"It's not maneuvering, it's already attacking the city!" the messenger said anxiously:

"The enemy's total force of about 10,000 people has reached the city wall under the cover of heavy rain and is fighting with the defenders at the forward position. About 3,000 of them have captured the northern city wall and are breaking through into the city!"

"What?!"