I will be crowned king

Regarding the Commander-in-Chief's complaint that "the enemy is too weak to be motivated," all the knights of the expeditionary force from the deputy commander Bernard on down chose to ignore it and even secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

No one expected that this grumpy old man was so crazy that he threw the strategic plan of the entire staff into the wastebasket and adopted a suggestion that was outrageous at first glance from a little-known staff officer. .

Well, the dignified heir to the Principality of Adlan and the direct descendant of the "Sea Knight" is definitely not a "little person"... But for a young man who has just joined the army and climbed to a high position by relying on his status and nepotism, all his war experiences have been disastrous failures. The closing guy, how much value can his advice have?

Even the troubles the expeditionary force is encountering now are all thanks to him - if he hadn't lost the most elite legions of the Yser elves in Eagle Point City, conquering Hantu would never have been as troublesome as it is now.

Fortunately, the enemy is really incredibly weak. Otherwise, if they attack on all fronts without leaving any behind, if an enemy force sneaks up on the summit tower fortress, or suffers a slight setback in the encounter, the expeditionary force will be cut off from the supply line at any time, or even completely cut off from the rear. Contact risk!

With a silent sigh, Deputy Commander Bernard, who had his right hand behind his back, looked at the battle that was almost over. He calmly turned his eyes to Casper, who was still holding the monocular at his side and said with great interest:

"Now the enemy's front has been completely defeated. The Rodrun and Pasir infantry divisions are quickly clearing the battlefield. The entire battle will be over by 16 o'clock at the latest. What are your next plans..."

"Call back all the cavalry who are chasing the enemy, and tell the infantry not to continue collecting junk - except for part of the ammunition, the rest can be thrown away!" The grumpy old man interrupted directly:

"Also... order the troops on the front line to complete their assembly as soon as possible, and at the same time, ask the reserve regiments on the back line not to prepare to set up camps, pack their luggage, and complete preparations for departure as soon as possible."

"Set off?!"

The deputy commander's face changed: "We just won a battle and defeated less than one-fifth of the Hantu Army. We were so hasty that we didn't even establish a stable logistics supply line... We are setting off so soon?"

"It's so fast, and it won't be delayed for a minute!" The excited Casper was extremely sure, and the raised corners of his mouth forced a ferocious smile on his wrinkled old face:

"My good Bernard, it seems you have not realized the true essence of this plan."

"Sorry, I really can't see any essence from it with my limited wisdom."

The deputy commander's eyes twitched, and he couldn't help but taunted: "What I saw was just a crazy plan to commit suicide - if this Hantu Army did not collapse at the first touch, but blocked our first round of offensive, it could last until reinforcements and If the main army reaches the royal capital, we...will be surrounded by the vast army in the wild!"

"But the fact is that they don't! They have no fighting spirit and are vulnerable!" Casper smiled happily:

"And this is the key to a good plan. You have to understand your enemy, rather than using unchanging 'common sense' methods to solve all problems!"

"So, what's the essence of this plan?"

"You really want to know?"

"I'm all ears." Bernard rolled his eyes inwardly.

"It's simple, speed."

Casper revealed the answer: "This boy from the Bernard family discovered a key point very keenly - the expeditionary force's disadvantage lies in its numbers, and its advantage lies in our speed that far exceeds the enemy's."

"We have elite cavalry, top artillery and hard-working infantry. This kind of army is not used to defend the fortress, but to take the initiative!"

"One battle after another, use the fastest speed to launch the battle before the enemy can react, use the most violent offensive to defeat the fragile front line that caught them off guard, concentrate all the strength to defeat them without interruption, and crush them Them, kill them all!”

"Kill them all?!"

"Kill them all!" Casper's eyes exuded a strange light:

"My good Bernard, do you still remember what little Bernard said? This is not a tactic prepared to capture cities and territories, but to annihilate the enemy as its core goal."

"The expeditionary force only has more than 20,000 people, and it is impossible to truly occupy the entire Hantu anyway; so the only way to conquer her is to make her unable to resist us anymore."

"I'm going to tear them apart bit by bit!"

The grinning Casper excitedly made a clenched fist gesture towards Bernard.

……………………

"Send the order! The whole army should stop advancing, dig trenches and build positions on the spot!"

After taking a minute to calm down, Archduke Aiden decisively issued an order to build a defensive position on the spot, throwing the idea of ​​"rescuing the Mist Army" thousands of miles away.

No reason, because he really understands the situation of the Mist Army - with the combat power of those rotten fish and shrimps, it is absolutely impossible to survive the ambush of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, and it seems that it is the main army. On arrival!

Of course, before issuing the order, he still comforted the messenger who had worked so hard to ask for reinforcements, saying that his reinforcements would definitely arrive soon, and he asked Grand Duke Ruco Vesenia and the Mist warriors to be sure to hold onto.

At the same time, Archduke Aiden also sincerely stated that when the Summit Tower Fortress is recaptured, he will definitely support Archduke Mist in winning the first victory in this battle.

Well, anyway, these scumbags are definitely doomed, and the Visenya family is definitely doomed, but in any case, they have to be allowed to exert their remaining value before they are done, and hold on for a while longer to build a position for the main force of the Hantu Army. , time to make adequate preparations for the battle.

After sending away the messengers of the Mist Army, Archduke Ayden also sent his own messengers to the other three legions without stopping, to receive the news that the enemy had been contacted on the front line, that the Imperial Expeditionary Force was out, and that he was preparing to do so. Determined to hold on and fight, he sent them out.

No matter how confident he was in himself, he was not so arrogant as to think that he could stop or even defeat the elite Imperial Expeditionary Force with just one legion on hand.

Soon, news from the front line proved how correct his judgment was.

Among the five legions of the Hantu Army, the Mist Legion and the Border Legion led by Archduke Aiden advanced the fastest and were the closest in distance. The difference between the two sides was probably less than half a day.

Therefore, in the battle that ended at four o'clock in the afternoon, that night he received the news that the Mist army was completely defeated - more than 20,000 people were defeated in less than an hour, and they fled to death. Even the Mist army was defeated. The Grand Duke himself also disappeared in the chaos, and there is still no news about him to this day.

There were only two or three thousand troops left, who had gone through all kinds of hardships and arrived at the military camp of the Border Legion. They were temporarily recruited by Archduke Ayden and served as a reserve force.

And along with the defeated troops, there was another bad news: the Imperial Expeditionary Force, which defeated the Mist Army, did not return to the Summit Tower Fortress, or stood still and prepared to face the Hantu Army... but continued to move towards them. Attack here, and the speed is very fast!

Such terrifying combat effectiveness and action efficiency made many Hantu knights who were originally quite confident feel a chill on their backs, and their originally high morale was directly reduced in half at this moment.

The low combat effectiveness of the Mist Army is a fact recognized by the entire Hantu, but no matter how low it is, the entire army will be annihilated after failing to hold on for even a day, right? !

While they were shocked by the strength of the empire and the vulnerability of the Mist Army, many knights were also glad that they did not get mad and disobey Archduke Aiden's order and attack privately - otherwise, Mist would not be the only one who would be unlucky now. People.

But they couldn't rejoice for long, as new "bad news" came one after another...

"What?!"

At three-thirty in the morning, Archduke Ayden, dressed in neat military uniform and staring at two bloodshot eyes, suddenly stood up from behind the map table and said in a tone as if he thought he heard wrongly: "Say it again!"

"This is His Majesty Claude's order!" The frightened messenger trembled all over, and his voice became much sharper:

"According to His Majesty's decree, in order to unify Hantu and eliminate the imperial invaders, the border army must not stop advancing; we should take this opportunity to quickly advance to the summit tower - use the shortest possible time to recapture the west gate of Hantu!"

"As for the Imperial Expeditionary Force, which is alone and deep, His Majesty Claude will personally lead three legions to block them in the Wild Stone Castle. Wait until Archduke Ayden regains the summit tower, then close the door and beat the dogs, and fight them decisively!"

While announcing the order, the orderly even couldn't help but get excited, feeling unparalleled pride in the ambition of Claude Francois...the man he was loyal to.

But Archduke Aiden obviously didn't think so. He looked at the messenger with an even more astonished expression: "This, is this really what he said?!"

………………

"Yes, that's what I said!"

In the royal army camp, the excited Claude Francois almost hysterically shouted to the messenger: "Tell Archduke Aiden! Tell him not to hesitate for a moment, move forward at full speed, and attack the summit tower immediately!"

"Tell him this is an order from me...Claude François, his King!"

"His Majesty!"

Henares, who was standing nearby, finally could no longer remain silent and raised his hand to stop the messenger who wanted to leave. Although he did not know why the Imperial Expeditionary Force would risk leaving the Summit Tower Fortress and choose to take the initiative; but as a leader As a knight, he instinctively felt that there was definitely something wrong here.

"Right now, Justice Aiden is building a position. How about respecting his ideas for the time being, and figuring out the enemy's reality before considering whether we should take the initiative..."

"Henares!" Claude interrupted him directly, his cold eyes resting on Henares' face:

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

"I……"

Henares hesitated to speak.

The messenger looked at the two people's faces quickly for a while, then quietly left knowingly.

"You think Claude Francois is crazy. He is desperate for victory and his throne. He has been driven by his enemies into a madman who is so arrogant that he thinks he is invincible..." Claude He sneered self-deprecatingly:

"Let me tell you, I am very calm now and know exactly what decision I am making."

"His Majesty……"

"Why did the Empire decide to take the initiative?" Claude tapped the map behind him with his right hand, and the knuckle of his index finger and the wooden board made a crisp sound between the summit tower and the deserted stone castle:

"Can't they see that we have an army of 300,000 people? Don't they know that this is the territory of the Hantu people? Don't they think that we know the terrain here better than they do and can more easily obtain supplies from the surroundings... Of course they know!"

"Now that you know this, why do you dare to take the initiative instead of sticking to the fortress... huh?"

"This is because...because..."

"Because they also know very well that in that case, it is impossible for them to defeat the entire Hantu!"

Without waiting for Henares to answer, Claude directly revealed the answer: "What the Empire wants is not the Summit Tower, not Aiden, not the Port of Carindia... What they want is the entire land, and we want to surrender to them. !”

"If we just hold on to the fortress, we can build a solid encirclement network around it. No matter whether we can recapture the summit tower, the empire will not be able to force us to surrender to them within Duanqi; if Hantu does not surrender, they will not be able to support Yise If you, the elves, can't threaten Clovis from the south, it's that simple!"

"So no matter how much risk they take, they must take the initiative to attack, even if the consequence is that they are cut off by us; because the only way is to fight a vigorous decisive battle and completely defeat the army we have assembled with all our strength, the empire It is possible to conquer the entire land of Han with only 20,000 people."

"They have no choice, and this...is our opportunity."

In the dead of midnight, Claude Francois, whose pupils reflected the candlelight, pursed his lips slightly, but his extremely calm expression made Henares feel extremely crazy.

"So you asked Archduke Ayden to lead the border army to attack because..."

"In order to put the Imperial Expeditionary Force in a dilemma - either return to defend the fortress, or be cut off from the supply line." Claude said coldly:

"The Border Legion is a bait. Whether they take the bait or not, the Imperial people have no chance to continue to huddle in the stone shell of the summit tower... They have no choice but to fight decisively."

"Of course, we have no choice - if we don't defeat them, the François dynasty will only be short-lived and even become a joke, telling our descendants and the descendants of all Hantu people, forever, forever! Forever. Don’t even think about trying to unify the vast land, that is an unrealistic fantasy and no one can achieve it!”

With that said, Claude's eyes fell on Henares again: "We can't let that day come, right?"

"Of course." Henares paused slightly, took a deep breath, and knelt down on one knee to Claude Francois:

"That day will never come, never!"