I will be crowned king

Before Claude Francois's messengers arrived, the moment he noticed the golden iris flag approaching quickly behind him, he decisively gave up the siege of the summit tower and turned around to fight.

What is different from other nobles - or the complete opposite - in his attitude towards the empire, Grand Duke Aiden has always been cautious, even to the point of being overly nervous.

Because he knows very well how powerful the empire is!

It intersects with Thun, which is "across the mountains" from Clovis, and is dealing with the Elf Kingdom of Ysel, which is constantly trying to penetrate and colonize the vast land. Aiden, which is located in the west of the vast land and borders the empire, faces the empire's "threats" all the time. Amiable”.

If it weren't for the support of the Kingdom of Clovis, if Thun hadn't made such a big concession (Mist was divided into three, and the entire Carindia belonged to the Emmanuel family), if it weren't for the empire's attitude being too bad , there is absolutely no sign of wanting to recruit surrender, then...

Of course, there are no ifs in this world.

Wearing a three-cornered hat, a gilt black breastplate and a fiery red open-fronted military coat, Archduke Aydin, Victor Emmanuel rode his beloved white horse, standing under the flag of the thorn flower army fluttering in the wind. Top of the hills.

This small unknown mountain post is located on the northeast side of the summit tower, with a large forest to the south... It lies diagonally in front of the only road leading to the fortress. To the east, you can overlook the entire hilly wilderness, and at the same time, your back is facing When climbing to the top of the tower, you don't have to worry about the invading enemies behind you.

This is the position that Archduke Ayden chose to face the Imperial Expeditionary Force’s return reinforcements.

He held up a brass telescope and looked at the distant horizon without saying a word, "waiting" for the distinguished guests who were about to visit.

Soon, facing the east, the extremely smooth lenses reflected billowing smoke and countless figures of all shapes and sizes, driving quickly along the road towards his location.

"It's the cavalry..." Archduke Ayden murmured to himself, with a hint of joy in his cold expression.

According to the scout's report, the enemy was marching along the road in the direction of the Summit Tower Fortress...and at an extremely fast speed.

This means that the 20,000-strong Imperial Expeditionary Force, the vanguard force—especially the cavalry—is very likely to be disconnected from the main army.

For the Hantu Legion, whose combat effectiveness is "slightly inferior" and can only defend in order to attack, this is nothing short of a good thing... Grand Duke Aiden suppressed the raised corners of his mouth, put down the telescope with his right hand and pressed down on his waist. hilt.

“Ayden people—prepare for war!”

"God bless the earth——!!!"

Following Victor Emmanuel's roar, the 20,000 border regiments lined up on the hillside erupted into deafening shouts of killing; the thorn flower military flags were raised amidst the rapid drumbeats, showing off their power in the strong wind.

"The 1st, 2nd...8th Infantry Regiment, form a firing square in battalion units at the front of the hillside, and spread out the line!"

"All artillery pieces enter the preset artillery positions, line up in a straight line, and the gunner is in position!"

"The cavalry mounts and prepares to face the first round of raids!"

Under the careful preparations of Grand Duke Ayden, the border regiments on the hill quickly moved from alert to position; the solemn-looking Hantu knights held their reins tightly, and the frightened infantrymen shivered amidst the curses of their officers. I pulled out the bayonet, but it couldn't fit into the card slot...

In comparison, the Imperial Expeditionary Force, which was far away from the Border Legion, seemed unusually quiet.

what happened?

Looking at the enemy troops on the opposite side who suddenly stopped advancing because they discovered him, Grand Duke Ayden frowned slightly.

He originally thought that with the character of the Imperial people, after encountering the defenders, he would definitely ignore everything and send the cavalry to conduct a round of strong fire reconnaissance to test his own defense strength.

This is also a consistent "feature" of the Empire... If the enemy is prepared, the highly mobile cavalry can retreat calmly under the cover of artillery.

Of course, if the enemy is helping the rotten fish and shrimps, the "fire reconnaissance" will become a full-scale attack, penetrating directly from the front, and leaving the work of finishing and cleaning up the remaining enemies to the infantry behind - the proud Imperial Knight will not do that Don't care what the mud-legged people think.

Victor Emmanuel can be said to be quite clear about this; he had completely annihilated the Mist Army's ambush with just one attack before, and he also used this "routine".

But this time, the "Master Knight" on the other side seemed a little abnormal.

After discovering the defenders on the hill, they not only stopped advancing, but even deployed a defensive formation, dismounted, and began to build a position on the spot outside the artillery range of the border corps...

It seemed that they were planning to wait to rendezvous with the larger army, and showed no signs of attacking immediately.

Looking at this group of extremely cautious knights, Archduke Aiden's frown showed some confusion.

……………………

"I said, is this really okay?"

Arthur Herred, who was riding on his mount, held up his binoculars and looked uneasily at the 20,000-strong army of soldiers on the opposite hill: "Why do I feel a little dangerous?!"

"Oh...it turns out that the famous 'Dragon Roar' also knows what danger is?" Behind him, the deputy commander of the expeditionary force, Bernard, clasped his right hand behind his back, leisurely took out a pipe from his arms and bit it in his mouth:

"My dear Arthur, I thought this word had no connection with you."

"I knew you wanted to teach me a lesson..."

The muttering Arthur curled his lips and threw the telescope into the bag on the saddle: "My sister can't control you now anyway. If she were here, you would definitely... Hey! That one over there, use a little more strength, you can dig it It’s a trench, not a toilet!”

The "knight" was shocked when he was found to be lazy. He quickly dug two shovels without looking back, causing dust to fly around him.

Around him, there were almost five to six hundred imperial infantrymen wearing cavalry uniforms and wearing completely ill-fitting breastplates who were also vigorously waving their shovels to build bunkers and trenches on the rugged, cold and hard mountainous terrain.

Such terrain is naturally not suitable for building fortifications, and their location is still a traffic artery; even if a perfect defensive position can be built, the effect will be quite limited.

So the reason for them to do this is very simple - except for the less than 600 "knights" on the position, the "Pioneer of the Imperial Expeditionary Force" in front of them has no other troops, let alone so-called reinforcements.

In order to make the Hantu Army completely believe that they were all out, the Imperial Expeditionary Force completely annihilated the Mist Army in charge of the outpost at the forward position. Then, by breaking them into pieces, they bypassed the rear and raided the unsuspecting Wild Stone Castle Fortress. .

According to Casper's next plan, he should take advantage of the opportunity of the surprise attack to cut off the supply line of Hantu's "three hundred thousand troops", and then send a small force to attack the Tiezhong Fort and disrupt Hantu's rear.

However, the enemy's "cautiousness" exceeded his expectations. A large number of fortresses were deployed along the main traffic roads and heavily guarded.

After a fierce argument, the expeditionary force, worried that it would cause excessive casualties, did not attack the seemingly very strong eastern fortress group stationed by Carl Bain with the reserve army.

Caspar Hered, who settled for the next best thing, had no choice but to lead the expeditionary force in a "hurried retreat" after being "frustrated" in his attack on the Wild Stone Castle. He even left behind a large amount of unnecessary baggage in order to speed up the march.

The purpose was to lure the Hantu army out of the city and conduct a decisive battle at the location "selected" by the expeditionary force.

However, because they failed to capture the Wild Stone Castle, before completely annihilating the main force of the Hantu Legion, the Imperial Expeditionary Force had to solve a small problem - besieging the 20,000 Hantu Border Legion that climbed to the top of the tower.

Otherwise, the "invincible" Imperial Expeditionary Force would run the risk of being cut off from its rear and flanked by two flanks.

Caspar Hered had two options.

First of all, the safest thing is, as Claude Francois speculated, to return at full speed to the top of the tower and defeat Archduke Aydin and his border army.

With the combat effectiveness and mobility of the expeditionary force, it is not difficult to achieve this; of course, in such a hasty battle, a certain degree of casualties is inevitable, and time is also a race against time. The expeditionary force, which has been marching continuously for a long distance, has to defeat Archduke Ayden. Immediately turned around to face the main force of the Hantu army.

This is Claude Francois's wishful thinking - since the combat effectiveness of the Hantu Army is very poor, then the combat effectiveness of the expeditionary force should be weakened to the limit as much as possible.

To put it bluntly, even if we still can't win...the expeditionary force, which suffered heavy casualties, is no longer able to fight anymore. Hantu, who is still energetic, can win a little bit of "symbolism" with the support of the Kingdom of Clovis. victory.

And Caspar Hered made a slightly risky decision.

A small-scale army was sent to the summit tower, pretending to return reinforcements to intimidate Archduke Ayden who was attacking the city, and temporarily restrain the opponent's actions; the main force turned around and faced the "three hundred thousand vast army".

"...And we are the army responsible for attracting firepower and intimidating Duke Ayden on the opposite side. We are responsible for buying time for Commander-in-Chief Casper Herred to annihilate the main force of the Hantu Army."

Bernard lit his pipe and chuckled at Arthur who was still a little nervous with his hands behind his back: "To be specific, we must not let him realize that we are just an army without reinforcements and even extremely short of supplies and ammunition. Alone."

"How to do it?!" Arthur pointed to the densely packed thorn flower flags on the opposite hill:

"The cavalry can be easily dealt with... but as long as they leave that damn place and let the infantry come up, we will have to retreat!"

"That is the most critical part of this mission." Bernard said solemnly: "We have to create an illusion for the enemy, so that they feel that we are dangerous and dare not leave their 'safe' position."

"So we are just betting to see if the other side has the courage to rush forward." Arthur took a breath:

"As long as we can temporarily frighten them, we will win?"

"Amazing! You really surprised me by discovering it so quickly." Bernard nodded approvingly:

"It seems that it was the right decision to bring you here to practice. You have made more progress in more than a month than in the previous twenty years. Juliana would be very happy if she knew it - although she has always been against me doing this. .”

"You're just showing off your power in front of me." Arthur rolled his eyes:

"Let's try it when my sister is here, my amazing brother-in-law Bernard!"

"I wouldn't, because I love her and respect her, and that would be unchivalrous."

Bernard blew out a smoke ring nonchalantly: "And this is the army. Pay attention to your title, Captain Arthur Herred."

"Yes, Deputy Commander Bernard!" Arthur curled his lips again: "Louis, what do you think?"

Almost at the same time as he finished speaking, the indifferent Bernard looked through the drifting smoke and looked at the young knight with a solemn expression from the corner of his eye, who was always staring at the southeast.

This plan was more the whim of Louis Bernard than that old bastard Casper.

Avoiding the main traffic roads, taking full advantage of the Empire's high mobility and high organization over Hantu, turning the entire Ayden into a battlefield, this...

Is he really just a rookie who has been in the army for less than a year and was beaten to a pulp in Thunder Castle and Eagle Point City?

"Something's not right."

Louis, who squinted his eyes, looked at the hills in the distance and whispered to himself, but Arthur, who had sharp ears, heard him:

"What?"

"It's been almost half an hour, Scouts... they haven't come back yet."

"Scout?" Arthur was stunned for a moment, trying hard to think about the key to his best friend's words:

"Is this a long time?"

"You mean they might have discovered something?" Bernard immediately understood what he meant and subconsciously clenched the handle of the knife at his waist:

"The frontal defense line is a cover. Duke Eden has discovered our true and false intentions?!"

Louis thought for a while, then slowly shook his head: "I don't know, but in that case he should have..."

Before he finished speaking, a scout rushed over and knelt down on one knee in front of Bernard. The deputy commander who was about to speak had no choice but to turn around and take the note handed to him.

When he turned around, his expression was extremely dull.

Looking at the deputy commander and brother-in-law who suddenly looked downcast, the curious Arthur couldn't help but ask:

"What's wrong?"

Bernard, with a gloomy expression, glanced around, and after double-checking that no one else was paying attention, he cautiously moved in between the three of them, and then "Bang!" grabbed Arthur's collar:

"Tell me, where did you meet the Clovis?"

"This...didn't I tell you everything before?!"

"tell me!"

"Uh, Salted Village!"

"Are you sure?!"

"Yes!" Arthur, who was a little frightened, nodded repeatedly:

"I was deceived once, and I didn't find out the name of the place until I came back!"

"They really weren't chasing you?"

"Really not! Otherwise it would be impossible for all of us to come back alive...well, almost everyone."

Louis stepped forward and held down Bernard's fist holding Arthur's collar: "What happened?"

"Clovis, mercenaries of Claude Francois..." Bernard gritted his teeth:

"They're coming!"

……………………

"We seem to have been exposed."

Looking at the imperial cavalry building a position down the mountain, Fabian said with an ugly expression: "It seems that there is no action at the moment, but it should be just a disguise."

"Probably we have to wait until reinforcements arrive, or when we are actively exposed, then use cavalry to overwhelm us on the road, right?"

"Then what should we do?!" an army captain next to him said with a horrified face:

"withdraw?"

"No, absolutely not - at least not now!" Fabian, with a serious expression, directly rejected his subordinate's idea:

"We only have one Storm Regiment, less than a thousand men, and it has probably been exposed. There are hundreds of cavalry in the outpost on the opposite side. It's hard to say whether there is the main force of the Imperial Expeditionary Force behind us."

"It's almost suicide to retreat before you figure it all out!"

Fabian said coldly.

He originally thought that following the map given by Lenore Emmanuel and "taking a shortcut" with light equipment would be fast enough. In any case, he would be able to reach the Summit Tower Fortress before the Imperial Expeditionary Force.

But he never expected that the enemy was faster than him.

And what a coincidence, I was just one step away and blocked his way!

Shouldn't the Imperial Expeditionary Force be besieging the Deserted Stone Castle? Why did they appear on the way to the Summit Tower? And why were the Border Legions not besieging the Summit Tower but confronting the enemy?

The heavy-hearted former Guards officer found himself in a dilemma.

If we want to continue to advance, a conflict will inevitably break out with the outposts of the Imperial Expeditionary Force. Although there is Archduke Ayden on the opposite side as a foreign aid, it is difficult to say whether the other party will be able to send reinforcements immediately, or whether it will be "cautious" and remain motionless. Hold your ground.

But if they retreat...it would be tantamount to actively showing cowardice, exposing the fact that they only have one infantry regiment and their strength is empty; in front of the imperial knights who come and go like the wind, the two-legged ones of their own will definitely not be able to outrun the four-legged ones.

If there is still the main force of the Imperial Expeditionary Force behind them, the Storm Regiment with less than a thousand people will be completely wiped out!

What to do...what to do?

Is there no way to make the opponent dare not act rashly, but also to let the opponent, Archduke Ayden, know of his existence without starting a war, and get in touch with him as soon as possible... huh? !

Fabian's pupils suddenly shrank.

He looked at the battlefield in front of him, at the enemies right in front of him, at the "friendly forces" facing each other in the distance, at the forests, hills, roads...

He... suddenly remembered the battle of Eagle Point City.

How did the storm master win that battle and open the city without any injuries?

"Lieutenant Colonel..." The army captain next to him looked at the sharp change in the commander's expression and thought that he was too nervous and had lost control of his emotions: "Would you like to go down and take a rest? I can..."

"No, I'm fine."

Raising his hand to interrupt his subordinate again, the commander of the Grenadier Regiment patted him lightly on the shoulder with his familiar smile: "Tell the soldiers to stay where you are and build a position."

"Formation, position?!"

"Yes, start right away; oh... help me ask the logistics people again, just ask if there are any leftovers from the batch of military flags that the deputy commander ordered to make?"

Five thousand words updated in advance, please forgive me for being empty~