I will be crowned king

The moment he finished speaking, Anson, whose expression changed slightly, stuffed the letter into his jacket, calmly took the wine glass and left the feasting hall of the Lighthouse Palace, and came to a balcony in the corner facing the sea.

Fabian, who understood the situation, immediately followed, and at the same time, he did not forget to close the glass door of the balcony with his backhand.

"How many people know this news now?"

Anson took a bottle of wine that had been opened, poured a glass and handed it to the commander of his Grenadier Regiment, with a smile on his face as he was chatting in a relaxed manner.

"The information was sent urgently by Chief of Staff Carl Bain."

Fabian's answer was unclear, but Anson understood what he meant - Karl was sent by Anson to support Claude Francois, and he knew it, which meant that at least the "three hundred thousand troops" on the Western Front must have known it too. .

"His Majesty Claude Francois is urgently sending messengers to the rear, preparing to take advantage of the opportunity when the Imperial Expeditionary Force has just captured the fortress and is in urgent need of rest and recuperation, and is on an unstable footing; tonight at the latest, Iron Bell Castle will be The same letter will be received, Thun will be tomorrow, and Carindia Port will not be until about three days later."

In other words, within three days, the news of the empire's invasion of Aiden will spread throughout the land... Anson took a sip of rum and pretended to enjoy the sunset: "Is there a more detailed report?"

"In the letter I gave you, there is all the information collected by Major Carl Bain on the entire battle. He summarized a large amount of data in categories, including the confessions of the defeated soldiers, and the comparison between various information. and summary, and also appended a rough timeline of the entire battle.”

"I have to say that this is really the most detailed post-war summary and report I have ever seen. Even just based on the content of the report, we can judge all the deployment and logistics status of the empire in this battle - I dare to say that just based on this one Paper, Major Carl Bain deserves a place on the Army Staff!"

The former Guards officer praised his colleagues without hesitation.

Well, that's mainly because the shadow left by Thunder Castle on this guy is too strong... Anson couldn't help but curled up his lips: "Let's talk about it in summary first."

"yes!"

With his right hand behind his back, Fabian looked at the sun that was gradually sinking into the horizon, but his expression was extremely solemn:

"As you know, the border fortress of the Principality of Ayden, the 'Climbing Tower', is very similar to the Eagle Point City we encountered before. It is a masterpiece of fortress architecture in the previous era. It has been improved by modern technology and was replaced by Han Tu. People regard it as the 'Western Gate'; it has extremely strong city walls, complete city fortifications, 3,000 defenders and 2,000 reserve troops scattered in the rear, and relatively sufficient artillery."

"Normally, if you want to capture her, you need at least 30,000 soldiers, three times the artillery of the fortress, and you have to be mentally prepared to pay heavy casualties - but the Imperial Expeditionary Force only has 20,000 soldiers, and the types of artillery are also based on field battles. Cannons are the main focus.”

Having said this, Fabian held the wine glass and paused for a few seconds before continuing: "The battle starts at two-thirty in the morning."

"The Imperial Expeditionary Force assembled what must have been all their artillery, and carried out comprehensive fire coverage on the front of the summit tower fortress; the defenders who were awakened by the bombardment fell into temporary chaos, but soon took advantage of the opportunity between the expeditionary force's shelling. Fight back."

"To their surprise, the expeditionary force did not take this opportunity to send infantry to attack; but they did not think so much at the time, and the battle became a very simple artillery battle."

"There was no moon that night, and the sky was pitch black. The artillerymen could only barely confirm the enemy's position by relying on the light of the explosion points; and the Imperial Expeditionary Force had obviously collected and compiled a large amount of intelligence before the war, and had a clear picture of every artillery and weak location in the fortress. Chu; despite the fire coverage, each round of shelling is very targeted."

"This battle lasted for most of the night, and the artillery of the expeditionary force always maintained absolute suppression of the fortress and never stopped shelling; sensing that the enemy had no desire to attack, the Aydin defenders relaxed their vigilance at this point. "

"But I guess the expeditionary force still attacked?" Anson raised his eyebrows.

"That's right - but not from the front, but from behind." Fabian nodded slightly:

"A fully-equipped imperial infantry division crossed the Dawn Mountains and attacked the fortress reserve army camp from the flank!"

"Because the empire's bombardment was so violent and the enemy moved very quickly, the Ayden defenders in the fortress were completely unaware of the battle behind them; by the time they realized it, the two thousand reserve troops had been completely wiped out."

"And the Imperial Infantry Division relied on a few prisoners and a uniform of an Ayden soldier to deceive the city gate into opening during the interval between shellings; the Imperial Expeditionary Force took advantage of the chaos and launched a general attack, almost without paying many casualties. Captured this extremely strong fortress.”

"After that, they ... organized a massacre."

……………………

In the Principality of Ayden, climb the tower fortress.

Standing under the city gate that was reduced to coke by howitzers, Louis Bernard, with a heavy heart, looked at the castle wrapped in billowing black smoke and burning everywhere, like a pile of embers in the fireplace.

The solidified dark red blood was like a dirty carpet, spread under his feet. Everywhere he looked, he could see piles of incomplete corpses piled up haphazardly; the walls on both sides looked like Like some kind of decoration, they were hung with hanging Aydin soldiers, with bulging eyes and tongues sticking out of their mouths, which were enough to prove the torture they experienced before they died.

Around more walls, groups of shackled Aiden soldiers were being pushed against the walls by Imperial line soldiers; gunshots rang out, and the person in charge didn't wait for the smoke to clear before dragging the bodies that had fallen to the ground. Go to the side, and then drag a group of prisoners over...

Similar "efficient executions" are being performed in many corners of the entire Summit Tower Fortress, with each other's gunshots setting off each other, forming a strange "rhythm."

And in more places, the soldiers of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, who were red-eyed with blood, stepped on the "red carpet" composed of broken corpses and blood under their feet, carrying rusty bayonets in search of their prey; desolate wailing accompanied the executioners. Excited laughter echoed in his ears.

Louis' expression was extremely ugly.

As a knight and a soldier, it has become a habit to look at killing and death indifferently; on the battlefield of Eagle Point City, he also used artillery fire to blast entire rows of Clovis soldiers into the sky, or ordered Yisel to The elven soldiers braved the hail of bullets and stepped on the bones of Pao Ze to attack.

He understands that in a sense, he actually longs for such a death - death on the battlefield has no distinction between friend and foe, no hierarchy, everyone is fighting for their own beliefs; defeating or even killing the enemy is Proving oneself is also maintaining the minimum respect for the enemy's beliefs.

But outside the battlefield, massacre... or even torture of defenseless prisoners and innocent civilians who can only be slaughtered is another matter.

Louis had heard a little bit about Commander-in-Chief Caspar Herred, whom he served for. This royal nobleman started his career by suppressing rebellions within the empire. He was often assigned various unsatisfactory and troublesome tasks. tasks and is known for being "efficient" in doing things.

Rebellious nobles, rebellious peasants, bandits occupying the roads, Clovis's levies swarming into the territory... and to deal with these troublesome enemies, Casper's method is simple and efficient - kill them all, kill them all.

Trouble is trouble because behind the appearance there are often complex problems and intertwined interests; Casper cannot solve these problems, but he can solve the people who ask them.

As for himself... Although Casper claimed to be "not a murderous lunatic", he often killed prisoners just to solve the immediate problem and the reason why he had to do so; but his "glorious achievements" made it difficult for people around him to believe it at this point.

And this time, he also had a "very convincing" reason...

"Why do we have to kill all the prisoners? It's simple, because we have no time to care about them!"

Standing at the top of the summit tower, the grumpy old man shouted to his deputy commander in a very impatient tone: "We only have 20,000 soldiers, and the logistics the emperor gave me can only support 20,000 soldiers in combat; each day If there are two more prisoners, we will have to consume the supplies that can feed one soldier and send one more soldier to guard them.”

"And what about our enemies? They claim to have an army of 300,000... 300,000! The gap is not one to ten, but one to fifteen; and they also have a vast territory and are supported by Clovis - we We need 20,000 people to defeat an army of 300,000 people and occupy the entire land, so we don’t have any manpower to waste!”

"Even so, this is not a reason for you to slaughter prisoners of war at will."

The deputy commander of the expeditionary force, Bernard Morweis, who had his hands behind his back, said coldly in an admonishing tone: "They are just civilians. There are also many nobles from the land among the prisoners, and some families have blood origins." It can even be traced back five hundred years!”

"If you hang them all, it will not alleviate our logistical pressure much. It will also make the whole incident ferment and make the empire and the emperor bear the infamy of killing prisoners of war."

"Infamy?" Casper was stunned for a moment, then sneered disdainfully:

"Tell me, what is our emperor doing now?"

"Well... His Majesty is working to rebuild the order of the world of order, maintain the past stability of Hantu, and protect our allies from some barbaric countries..."

"He is invading Clovis, invading Hantu! By the way, he can help his henchman Yser elves to help them fight against the Church of Order!"

Kasper directly interrupted Bernard's cliché: "What he needs at this time is to get rid of the infamy and win a good name for himself? No, that is the last thing he needs right now!"

"What does he need? He needs victory, a victory that can be seen and touched! What he needs is for the enemy to surrender under the might of the empire's mighty army, and to surrender their territory and their wealth with both hands... This is what Your Majesty wants. Something you need!”

"If we cannot conquer Hantu as quickly as possible and defeat their scum-like army, the enemies inside and outside the empire will remember the dilemma of being unable to advance at the border starting from the ninety-ninth year of the Saint's Calendar; remembering that the Kingdom of Clovis was only You can challenge the empire on your own!"

"To put it bluntly, the current empire is almost the same as the Kingdom of Clovis in the ninety-fifth year of the Saint's Calendar. It is almost the enemy of the entire world!" the old man said sternly.

"Because of this, shouldn't we avoid angering Hantu and making them completely turn to Clovis?" Bernard's expression was very puzzled.

"If it were before, I would probably accept your suggestion - but not now, we are too late." Casper sneered again:

"My great Bernard, you still don't understand what the unification of Hantu means... That old bastard Claude Francois basically came to power with the help of Clovis, and now the entire Hantu has been He is tied to the station car; as long as he still wears that bullshit crown on his head, the entire land will not surrender to the empire!"

"To deal with your enemies, you must first be cruel enough. Beat them to pieces, break their bones and tendons, and make them unable to stand up or climb up. They can only kneel at your feet and wail bitterly."

"If you give him a cane at this time, not only will he not pick it up and beat you with hatred, but he will also be grateful to you... Do you know why?"

"Because he knows very well that even if he doesn't need crutches, he is not your opponent." Bernard nodded slightly:

"This is the consciousness of the weak."

"That's right! So now we must use the utmost cruelty to inspire the nature of the scum in this regard." Casper nodded with satisfaction:

"So put away your pity, we must let them understand that the Clovis people's bribes are because they need them; and the empire's cruelty is because the empire does not need anyone; for the empire, the ant-like earth is worth a penny. Not worth it; Clovis... is just a bigger bug."

"Only in this way, when the empire decides to reward them, they will burst into tears of gratitude! Then they will remember the consequences of resisting the empire, and they will not dare to say such cruel words as 'declaring war on the empire' for thirty years!"

With disdain on his face, Casper kicked the head of a corpse at his feet and flew it away from the top of the tower.

Looking at the mess of blood and flesh on the ground, Bernard, who was nauseated, shook his head: "I have no doubt that you can do it, but Claude Francois's army of 300,000 is approaching. , they will soon learn of the fall of the fortress.”

"Very good, then let them come... We have just experienced a big battle, and our soldiers just need a rest. He took the initiative to come to die and let us sleep well for a few more days!" The old man showed an arrogant smile:

"When the war starts, you, me, and the boys below will not have any normal rest for several days."

Bernard shrugged.

"Okay, the matter is over now, you don't need to persuade anymore." Casper changed the subject:

"Tell me, is there any good news from the fleet, and what is the situation at Carindia Port?"

"I was about to tell you about this matter." Bernard suddenly said seriously:

"Since the last splashdown, your loyal fleet commander-in-chief, General Tasien, has not sent any messenger to report intelligence for a week."

"oh?"

Casper was stunned and suddenly had a bad feeling.