I will be crowned king

The heavy rain dissipated and the sun rose in the east.

When the first ray of sunshine in the 100th year of the Saint's Calendar shone on the top of the tower of Thunder Castle, the Clovis unicorn flag fluttering on the broken city wall in the cold wind was thrown into the muddy puddles strewn with corpses. The Imperial Irises and Flags jointly announced the end of the siege of Thunder Castle.

The fact is that when Anson Bach rushed out of the main castle, holding the tearing sword and announcing "Krog Bernard is dead!", the battle was already over.

The shortcomings of the Imperial Army were fully exposed at this moment - the morale of the Imperial Army was stable one moment, and they were fighting vigorously against the levy force; but once it was discovered that the commander was killed in action, morale instantly fell off a cliff.

Except for a handful of knights who were unafraid of death and resisted, and were subsequently shot to death, the vast majority of officers and soldiers chose to throw down their weapons and flags.

Ten minutes later, Ludwig Franz, who rushed to the battlefield, accepted their surrender and promised them as commander of the levy army that he would ensure the life and death of every officer before receiving the ransom. Property security.

This promise of "the Archbishop's biological son" made all the knights breathe a sigh of relief, but they were also glad that they did not choose to die like their colleagues.

As for the remaining few hundred surviving Imperial soldiers... their end was not so easy and pleasant.

"...The empire will definitely ransom people, and hundreds of soldiers and their weapons are also a huge amount of wealth; but diplomats on both sides will definitely make a fuss over the ransom price, and the process will not be easy."

Walking on the muddy land of Thunder Castle, Ludwig looked tired but his tone was particularly brisk: "Until then, these people will be supervised by our levy force."

"So Lieutenant Colonel Anson Bach, now I need a proper post-war plan again!"

Even without looking, you can feel that Ludwig is desperately restraining the urge to get excited.

"Uh... how about letting them take charge of the siege positions outside the city?" Anson said absently, who was too sleepy.

The battle is over, and the entire levy army is busy taking over Thunder Castle, or in other words, busy dividing the hard-won fruits of victory.

Weapons, ammunition, baggage, and even cash - a heavily guarded fortress must have a treasury storing large amounts of military pay - when Thunder Castle fell and was recaptured, the mountains of supplies stored in the fortress were all It has become a trophy for the levy army!

Although most of the captured materials must be sealed until the person in charge of the rear army arrives for acceptance; the biggest advantage of the "conscripted army" as a miscellaneous army compared with the regular army is the extremely high standard of spoils.

So Anson didn't understand that Ludwig, as the supreme commander and the largest "shareholder" of the conscripted army, didn't hurry to receive the fruits of his victory and insisted on taking himself out to talk about the prisoners.

What does he want to do?

"Siege position?"

"The battle is over. The siege positions outside the city must be filled in; it was a project that took thousands of people more than ten days to complete. It is not easy to completely fill it in." Ansen, who was following suit, said truthfully:

"So... it's better to let the prisoners do it."

"Well..." Ludwig murmured in a low voice, feeling excited but also a little worried at the same time:

"But wouldn't this be too inefficient? The Army won't let us stay here for too long. New orders will come in a month at most. What should we do if we haven't filled them out by then?"

"Uh... Then use the performance method." The sleepy Ansen continued perfunctorily.

"Performance?"

"Yes, it's the method of supervising the farmers on the farm and supervising the workers in the factory." After thinking for a while, after confirming that "former Anson" had this word in his memory, Anson said without hesitation:

"Promise the prisoners to let them go after the war is over, but before that they have to work hard to get supplies; then set a few targets, such as how much work is done in a day to receive more supplies, or allow them to rest for a day Category."

"Of course, there must be surveillance and supervision; those who are particularly lazy or unable to do heavy work can be arrested and used as examples, and they can be beaten while doing heavy work in the most conspicuous place; it does not need to be beaten too hard, just let everyone hear and see it. .”

"If it's too late in the end, then find a few more honest models to help them redeem themselves, and then tell the prisoners that we will hand them over to other armies after we evacuate. This will probably stimulate some enthusiasm."

"In short, as long as we set the standard of reward and punishment and make sure that every prisoner can see it with his own eyes, even the most reluctant prisoner can... huh?!"

Anson, who was so tired that he relaxed his vigilance, kept talking. It wasn't until Ludwig stopped that he realized that the brigadier general had turned his head at some point and looked at him with a strange expression:

"What, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Ludwig shook his head and looked him up and down as if he was getting acquainted with him again:

"I just suddenly felt that if you had not joined the army, you would probably be a very handicapped... practical entrepreneur or foreman."

"..." Anson.

"But I didn't call you here specifically just to talk about my life ideals with you."

The brigadier general, who had restrained his gaze, quickly regained his former aloofness, and turned his calm eyes in front of him: "We are here."

arrive?

Anson, who woke up, raised his eyebrows slightly and followed the other person's gaze: "This is..."

"The reserve warehouse of Thunder Castle is also the largest of the six warehouses outside the fortress - more importantly, it is also the only one of the six warehouses that has not been touched by the imperial defenders!"

Ludwig didn't turn his head and replied, his sharp eyes intentionally or unintentionally looking at Anson's expression from the corner of his eye: "If the accounts are correct, all weapons and ammunition sufficient to equip ten infantry regiments are stored here."

"Including but not limited to 20,000 rifles, 10,000 boxes of lead bullets and propellants, 40,000 pieces of military uniforms and traveling bags, emergency reserves...Roughly estimated, the value is around 150,000..."

"...Of course, it's gold coins." With a smile on his face, Ludwig took out a key from his pocket and handed it to Anson:

"Now, it's yours."

……Um?

Um--? !

Anson's pupils shrank and he looked at the brigadier in disbelief: "Wait a minute! What do you mean..."

"Of course, according to the laws of the kingdom, you can only take fifty percent, and the rest must be sealed!"

Putting the key into the stunned Anson's hand, Ludwig's mouth curved a little deeper: "Consider it my New Year's gift to you, Lieutenant Colonel Anson Bach."

"Although it's a little regretful that I couldn't capture Brother Bernard alive, as the winner of the siege of Thunder Castle, you deserve this spoil!"

"I, Ludwig Franz, know better than anyone else... without your help, without your plan, the capture of Thunder Castle in nineteen days... would be nothing but an empty talk!"

"The most important thing is, if you hadn't been so strong in forcing me to make up my mind, at the moment when the rainstorm started... I don't think I would have had the courage to go against the wishes of my father, the Archbishop of the Kingdom."

At this moment, Ludwig's cold face showed a little self-mockery, and he breathed a sigh of relief:

"So don't have any worries. There is no favors here - even if there is, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to you."

"Like I said, accept it as a New Year's gift."

Looking at Ludwig with sincere eyes, Anson nodded after recovering from the shock, accepting this unique gift.

With a faint smile, the brigadier's expression returned to his usual appearance, turning back and raising his right hand towards the guards on both sides of the warehouse door.

A low friction sound sounded, and the closed warehouse door opened in front of the two of them like the legendary elves' treasure house.

At this moment, the two people standing outside the door held their breaths in unison - the equipment of ten infantry regiments were piled up in a warehouse, what a spectacular sight it would be?

"Boom——!!!"

The heavy door opened, and golden sunlight poured into the towering and majestic warehouse.

Tall, majestic, wide, and then...

Uh...empty.

Nothing at all.

It doesn’t look empty, but there is really nothing, not even dust!

In the extremely empty warehouse, there were only two small figures of them.

The smooth and new floor reflects the early morning sunlight, which is even a bit dazzling.

Anson, who squinted his eyes slightly and looked confused, turned around. Ludwig's eyes remained motionless beside him. His expression was completely frozen, as if he couldn't accept reality, as if he was in a dream.

Anson, who was hesitant to speak, opened his mouth, remained silent for a full minute, and then said in a particularly relaxed and happy tone:

"……Happy New Year!"