I will be crowned king

What does it mean for a levy to be a standing army?

In the army system of the Kingdom of Clovis, there are a total of four fully-equipped regiments; they are responsible for external operations, invading enemy countries and territorial expansion, suppressing internal rebellions, and responding to most emergencies. They are an absolute elite force.

They are directly under the royal family, have their own garrison at many strategic points across the country, and even have their own courts and administrative departments; except for orders issued by the army and the edict of King Clovis himself, no one from the local governor to the Privy Council has the right to interfere with them every move.

In addition to the four major legion establishments, there are also so-called "supernumerary legions"; the size of the troops is usually small, ranging from infantry regiments to legions that are not fully staffed, and basically have their own independent designations.

These so-called "supernumerary legions" are generally responsible for tasks such as fortress garrison, border patrol, and maintaining urban security. Their total strength is about two to three times that of the four major legions, but they are scattered in various strongholds across the country and even overseas colonies.

The four major legions and the supernumerary legions together formed the Kingdom of Clovis's "Standing Army", also known as the "Royal Army".

This means that they have an absolutely independent establishment, a budget allocated by the Privy Council, their own garrison, all-round support provided by the army's logistics and administrative departments, and they will not be disbanded after the war.

But for the officers of the Storm Division, these are not the most critical - the real most critical thing is the future!

As the second most senior organization in the Kingdom of Clovis, and with only so many standing armies, the Royal Army has always faced the problem of insufficient employment.

A graduate of a military academy who has just completed his studies, he is not far away from unemployment the moment he steps out of school - an officer with only a military rank and no position, and nothing except a stipend.

If during the war, these "unemployed officers" can still join the levy corps; but unless they can meet a boss like the archbishop's own son, even if they have military exploits, they will still be the highest officers, and it is basically impossible to be promoted.

Not to mention that as soon as the war is over, these levy corps will be immediately disbanded and they will be unemployed again.

Even if you are lucky enough to join the standing army, unless you have a strong background, you will probably only be among the middle and lower-level officers. For the vast majority of officers in the standing army, major is basically the limit for most of them. If you want to climb up, You can only hope that your immediate boss and your competitors will die as soon as possible.

It is precisely for this reason that officers of the general standing army have a higher status than other officers who are "out of work" or conscripted corps, and are divided into three, six or nine grades according to the location and importance of the troops.

The officers of any conscripted regiment dreamed that the standing army would be expanded, and that their troops would be the lucky ones selected and "regularized" smoothly.

All in all, the officers of the standing army are on-the-job personnel, and their salary and future are guaranteed; the officers of the unemployed and conscripted corps are non-staff groups, and they are substitutes and tools used occasionally to respond to emergencies.

In fact, Anson's original wishful thinking was to completely "convert" the Storm Regiment after the Hantu War; but he never expected that the "reward" offered by the Army this time was an infantry division.

An entire infantry division, a levy corps that was disbanded after the war, became a standing army!

Under such a huge temptation, the Storm Division completed the assembly work at a speed comparable to that of an elite, passed the withdrawal plan at the speed of light at the military meeting, abandoned all baggage, and arrived at White Tower City within ten days.

In the past, the Stormtroopers, who could only be united in times of crisis, for the first time truly burst out with huge subjective initiative from top to bottom.

"The plan is very simple and has only one purpose - that is to capture the royal court of the Ysel Elf before the Southern Legion!"

With an imaginative bounty and exciting slogans, the Storm Division embarked on a journey eastwards.

Arrive at White Tower City within ten days, complete rest and change of clothes within one day, and then pass through Eagle Point Eagle Point Pass within twenty days, attack Kelujiao Fortress from the east, and besiege the royal court of the Elf King Yser.

Code name - Great Turn on the Western Front.

………………

At the same time, in the Yser Elf Kingdom, Akiye City, the Southern Legion and the Yser Royal Family are still engaged in an endless confrontation.

Under the gloomy dome, the vast and magnificent Yser Mountain Forest has turned into a purgatory on earth; the choking smoke and rotting atmosphere are spreading and raging, and dots of fires dot the earth, stretching out black smoke pillars into the sky. .

The endless wilderness was divided into three by two completely different flags, trenches, fortresses, fences, bomb craters... countless trenches were intertwined like spider webs, like torn wounds and cracks, twisted and ferocious.

And in the center of these "cracks", countless corpses were spread out in layers, both elves and humans; dried blood splashed and solidified on the scorched earth, forming a strange formation with the torn limbs, craters and residual fire. picture of.

The livid-faced Ludwig Franz stood in the trench, looking at the pattern without saying a word.

Since receiving the assistance from the Thun Army, the war has been going quite smoothly.

After completely defeating the remnants of the Guards Corps, not only the "coalition" composed of the elven lords dispersed, but also the Elf Kingdom of Iser, which was originally relatively united in the face of the invaders, also formally formed the Thirteenth Council. Rise and break up.

Ludwig Franz, who was keenly aware of this, immediately led his army northward and began to eliminate one by one those legions that were still loyal to the Elf King Yser.

The turbulent situation coupled with the disintegration of the command system, facing powerful enemies and various contradictory and contradictory orders from behind, the Ysel Elf Legion that hastily responded to the battle was defeated one after another like a snowball, and was driven by the Southern Legion to retreat to the rear. .

After an almost one-sided "collapse retreat", the Yser Elf Legion, totaling 60,000 troops, finally established a firm foothold in front of Akiye Castle, the northern fortress of the Yser Royal Court.

Faced with the desperate situation of no retreat, the Yser Elf Legion, which had the advantage of geographical advantages and military strength, launched counterattacks again and again; but they repeatedly failed, and even many completely desperate armies surrendered one after another, leaving less than two people. The Southern Legion of ten thousand people stood firm.

But for the Southern Army, it is not as simple as it seems to completely eliminate this group of remaining enemies.

No matter how vulnerable the enemy's combat effectiveness is, the number of people is always an advantage that cannot be ignored in offensive and defensive battles; coupled with the lack of rest in long-term operations, soldiers will inevitably become tired, and the originally stable supply line will gradually become unstable due to the excessive advancement speed. It started to become less stable.

Although the objective conditions began to become unfavorable, they did not dispel Ludwig Franz's determination to completely wipe out the remaining enemies.

If at first he only hoped to force the Elf Kingdom of Yser to surrender, then as the civil war broke out, Ludwig had more and bolder ideas.

He wanted to completely defeat, or rather completely crush, all of Yser's military power.

As a non-human kingdom lying on the southeast side of the Kingdom of Clovis, no matter whether the relationship between the Elves of Ysel and the Empire is good or bad, she will be and will always be an obstacle to Clovis' expansion.

From race to culture and even trade, there are too many irreconcilable conflicts and interest disputes between the two sides.

In this case, instead of just forcing the other party to surrender, it is better to completely disintegrate her military power and ensure that it cannot pose any threat to Clovis in the next five to ten years!

As long as the Iser Elf Kingdom is completely defeated, no matter what the final outcome of the Hantu War is, Clovis will be able to free up a large number of troops from the east to resist the empire's full-line attack.

If successful, this is likely to be a turning point regarding the hegemony of the Order world!

But at such a critical moment, Luther Franz... Archbishop Clovis... his beloved father, actually asked him to withdraw his troops as soon as possible to besiege the royal court of the Yser Elf?

Are you kidding me? !

What benefits does it bring to Clovis to intervene in the civil war in the Elf Kingdom of Yser? Could it be that the Elf King who believes in the Ring of Order has a weaker external attitude than an Elf King of the Old Gods? !

After experiencing the Battle of Thunderburg and the Clovis Rebellion, Ludwig, who originally believed in his father, became increasingly confused about what his "all-knowing" father was fighting for. abacus?

Is what he said, "Everything is for the benefit of the family and the Kingdom of Clovis" true, or is it just an excuse to deal with himself?

Ludwig frowned.

"I told you, this is impossible!"

Behind the Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant Colonel Roman with a gloomy face clasped his hands behind his back and said coldly to the eager-looking Draco Vertes: "It is impossible for the Southern Army to abandon the enemy in front of them and retreat immediately to besiege King Israel. Ting—how many times do you want me to repeat it?”

"Not even once!" The sweating novelist squeezed out a flattering smile with his eyes full of desire for survival:

"But this is really important - if the Thirteen Council really controls the Elf Kingdom of Yser, it will be really over, completely over!"

"Why?"

Roman said coldly, with a trace of ridicule in his eyes: "If I remember correctly, you were originally on their side before, weren't you?"

"Yes, I was wrong, really wrong!" Draco raised his hands to express "surrender":

"And now I have decided to make up for my mistakes. I must stop the Council of Thirteen, and I must let the Kingdom of Clovis stop them - only by doing this can I minimize the losses!"

"Why?" Roman, with a frosty face, repeated his question.

"Why?" the novelist asked sincerely:

"Why must the Council of Thirteen be stopped, or why must the Kingdom of Clovis do it?"

"I want them all!" Roman said decisively.

"No problem!" Draco shrugged: "The answer is the same anyway."

"Then why split into two?"

"Because I generally don't answer questions that others haven't asked - except for friends." A sincere smile appeared on the novelist's face:

"The answer is also very simple, because although the enemy we have to deal with is the old god sect of the Ysel elves, the real enemy is not them."

"It's not them...who is that?"

"It's the guys who are waiting for this day to come, waiting for them to go crazy." Draco smiled, but his voice became calmer and calmer:

"They... let's assume for the moment that there is such a group of people, assuming that 'they' control the entire world from the shadows; and they have tried to come to the surface several times, but all their efforts have failed."

"Suppose that in a certain country, a group of old forces are preparing to rebel against their king; suppose that the king happens to be a supporter of 'their', so there is a group of particularly kind and well-meaning foreigners who intend to support these old forces, despite some certain To a certain extent, it’s actually a hostile relationship. Do you think these foreigners did the right thing?”

The novelist chuckled, but his eyes were always looking at Ludwig's back not far away.

Suppose... Roman frowned slightly: "You mean..."

"No, no, no..." Draco interrupted him immediately:

"I am a novelist. I am just telling a 'hypothetical' fictional story without any reference or implication."

"Suppose...this group of old forces obviously overestimated their own strength and were completely ignorant of foreign affairs and internal affairs; suppose that not only did they fail to overthrow the king smoothly in the first place, but they even made the situation develop in a more dangerous direction."

"It is assumed that their apparent suicide has given 'them' an opportunity to step out of the shadows into the foreground again and truly control the entire world."

"Assuming that 'they' really start to do this, do you think those well-meaning foreigners in the past should continue to help these old forces?"

"Of course not!" Roman said without hesitation:

"Since the worst result is that 'they' control the world, then even if they cannot really stop it, they should not help them; not to mention that it sounds like the reason why these old forces can rise is also related to these foreigners; if this is the case, then they That’s all the more reason we should take action to stop it.”

"Well said, I think so too!" Draco, with a flattering smile on his face, his eyes became more and more meaningful:

"Since it was our fault, we should remedy it."

"Not for profit, nor for friendship, but for a purer and nobler reason - just like every story, there must be a particularly pure reason to set the tone of the entire story and become its center, becoming The real theme of this work.”

"Of course, darker and more profound settings seem to be popular recently, but I don't really like them. As a novelist, I'm still used to being more...well...positive."

"When we were in Clovis, I once told another story to our mutual friend Anson Bach. That one was a little more complicated; in comparison, this new story is actually simpler."

"And the theme of this simple, 'what if' story is..."

"save the world!"