I will be crowned king

Kingdom of Clovis, Southern Fortress.

The golden sunlight tore through the gloomy dome, splitting the majestic and angular giant castle into two with a silhouette of alternating light and dark. One half was bathed in the biting north wind, and the other half was already sunny and full of flowers. .

Ludwig Franz, wearing a white shirt and breeches and boots, stood by the window, bathing in the cold wind coming from the north, while his slightly frowning eyes stared at the icy peaks bathed in the morning light at the end of the field of vision.

On the desk behind him, there is a letter just sent from the south. Although the notes are a bit sloppy, the high-quality kraft paper and the heraldic seal on it clearly show the identity of the owner and the authenticity of the letter. Attention:

"Your Honor Major General Ludwig Franz:

After the last letter came, I immediately brought your idea to the Royal Council and the Supreme Staff of Hantu. It was unanimously praised by Grand Duke Ayden, Victor Emmanuel, and all the knowledgeable people of Hantu. They all believe that the only way to win the empire's recognition is to fight the war to the end...

Unfortunately, my father didn’t think so.

Although my father repeatedly emphasized the friendship between Clovis and Hantu, I can still feel that he is very opposed to any other Clovis, or any foreign army, entering our country under the pretext of "helping Hantu become independent", and the other party's The leader will definitely try to seize control of the Hantu army to achieve his personal ambitions.

I respect my father, but the situation faced by Hantu is getting worse day by day; the 'Clovis faction' and the 'Imperial faction' are quarreling fiercely, and the old heroes of the Principality of Thun believe that reconciliation with the Yser elves should be restored …Everyone was dissatisfied with the bad status quo and channeled it into dissatisfaction with the François family.

The Francois family needs to show that they have the strength and determination to rule the land, but if they follow the advice of those people, the only result will be the destruction or division of the land - I even suspected that this was their purpose.

Forgive me for pouring out these grumbles and complaints to you, but Hantu and the François family are indeed in urgent need of Clovis' help.

I have no doubts about your plan, but if I want to convince my father, I must give him some evidence - that Clovis has no ambitions for Hantu and is willing to help us get rid of interference from the Empire.

If Clovis can launch a successful attack on the northern front of the empire in the spring of the 102nd year of the Saint Calendar, even if it is a tentative attack, it will greatly encourage Hantu's confidence in victory.

This is just my personal extravagant hope. I wish you smooth sailing and success in your next battle.

Your friend and comrade, Léon François. "

Counting from the time he arrived at the southern fortress, this was already the fifteenth letter sent by Leon. Even without reading the content, Ludwig could feel the impact of the other party in the country at such a high frequency. The pressure and the urgency to turn the situation around.

But even if Ludwig wants to respond, he can't do anything now - including himself, the entire southern army has been transferred from the front line to be responsible for the garrison and logistics of the southern fortress.

Not only that, because Ludwig had many experiences of "disobedience" and "acting without authorization" during his time on the front line, although the Royal Army did not dare to easily deprive him of his command authority over the army, it also restricted the authority of this "fortress commander" Restricted to a very small range.

To put it simply, unless authorized by the Army Staff and the Privy Council, not to mention himself, even the commander of the Standing Army above him cannot mobilize more than one battalion of the Southern Army; even if there is no enemy situation or conflict, the Southern Army must mobilize every day. Zhou reported once to Clovis City the location, personnel situation and all action plans to be implemented next week.

To put it bluntly, the Army is already using a defensive attitude to guard against the archbishop's own son who "always wants to cause trouble." However, it is not willing to offend the Franz family in name, so it can only use this complicated method to He went to extreme lengths to restrict his behavior and put his every move under his control.

Even the communication with Leon is the same...The Army even provided a special postal channel for the two of them, which is separated from all other information from Hantu to ensure that both parties can get each other's letters as soon as possible - because this helps Maintain the friendship with Hantu.

As long as Hantu's high-level officials remain hostile to the empire, they can contain part of the empire's forces in the south and severely crack down on some of its agricultural products trade to weaken the empire's logistics.

For the same reason, the top army officials would occasionally listen to Ludwig's strategic advice on Hantu, so that the major general would not be too embarrassed and unable to come up with any "dry information" when replying to the letter.

However, no matter how "sincere" the Army showed, it would not allow Ludwig to leave the southern fortress, let alone follow his idea of ​​a large army to "concentrate mobile forces and seek strategic decisive battles" to undermine Clovis's power in the Imperial Army. The defensive line under the front was finally stabilized.

Whenever he thought of this, Ludwig felt his whole body twitching unconsciously, and the anger in his heart was like an undersea volcano erupting, spreading to his limbs and bones after a brief excitement, bringing a cold and biting despair.

The top brass of the Army simply closed their eyes and covered their ears on purpose, pretending to be crazy... What a heavy price did Clovis pay to maintain this insignificant advantage?

Food, steel, gunpowder, transportation, coal... billions of dollars are consumed every day. In human terms, it is almost equivalent to cutting one's wrists and bleeding; after paying such a high price, the result is just "maintaining the status quo" and "passive defense".

For a small country like Clovis, even if it has advantages in technology and infrastructure, it will never be able to defeat the empire through consumption; concentrating resources efficiently for strategic decisive battles and destroying the empire's war confidence in one battle is the best way to win. Best way.

Of course, the cost of this kind of life-threatening behavior is very high, and if it fails, the consequences will be unbearable - but is it better than the current chronic suicide?

Are these people really so stupid that they can't see it, or do they simply not want to take the responsibility for defeat? !

Ludwig, who was no longer excited, sighed... Only at this time would he envy Anson Bach who was far away in the colony; although he was regarded as an abandoned son, he finally got rid of the shackles of the army and had the power to change the situation. possible.

Although he was slightly dissatisfied with Anson for allowing and even leading the independence of the Free Confederacy without permission, and almost strangling Clovis' expansion in the colonies, he certainly didn't understand the situation because he was not there, and he must have been forced by reality. Reasons for stress.

And thinking about it on the other hand, isn't this also the responsibility of the top brass of the Army?

If they didn't give any support and let Anson Bach deal with the six major colonies of the empire alone, why would he need to mobilize local resistance forces?

Maybe if the support is sufficient, the one that spans the new world now will not be the Free Confederacy, but the brand-new Clovis Dominion!

The more deeply Ludwig thought about it, the more desperate he felt for the secrecy and news from the top brass of the army... Yes, despair. He no longer had any anger at all, only deep helplessness and despair.

In addition to shirking responsibility, nepotism, corruption, greed, cowardice and incompetence, it is more reliable to hope that this group of fools can defeat the empire. It is more reliable to place their hopes on Emperor Hred to die suddenly or suddenly change his mind.

And Ludwig suspected that the army's top brass also hoped so.

After a brief sigh of emotion, Ludwig sat back at his desk and began to struggle with how to reply to Leon - at least in terms of winning over Hantu, he and the army had the same idea.

Picking up the pen, he read the contents of the other party's letter again, and couldn't help but frown again... Leon hoped that Clovis could organize a feint attack in the north, otherwise he would not be able to persuade Hantu to gather troops and attack from the summit tower. Southern part of the empire.

If it was just a feint attack, Ludwig would be sure to convince the army's top brass, but the courage of those idiots would really end there; if Hantu believed it, they would probably suffer heavy losses in the end.

For this ally that Ansem had finally "robbed" from the Empire, Ludwig did not want their power to be wasted on a meaningless battlefield; but if he could not meet even this requirement, he would 100% Hantu's trust in Clovis was completely lost.

Maybe this trust has been lost a long time ago... Ludwig lamented in his heart.

Just when he was struggling with how to write, the adjutant and chief of staff of the Southern Army, Colonel Roman, opened the door and walked into the room calmly.

"Dispatch order?"

Looking at the documents placed directly on his desk, Ludwig raised his head in surprise: "When?"

"In three days."

Colonel Roman, with his hands behind his back, said expressionlessly: "You only have three days to prepare. Then you must leave for Clovis City immediately and report to the army within ten days. You cannot delay even a day."

"So urgent?" Ludwig picked up the dispatch order: "Three days... The Southern Army will be ready to leave within three days, but can the replacement troops arrive in time?"

"No, because there are no troops responsible for taking over."

Roman shook his head: "You are the only one who has received the order. According to regulations, there can only be no more than one platoon of soldiers as accompanying guards."

"In addition, this is not to deprive you of your command authority. It is just an ordinary 'debriefing and dispatching', with at most some temporarily assigned tasks."

As an adjutant and confidant for many years, Roman certainly knew what Ludwig was most worried about, and he immediately dispelled his concerns: "Your current identity is still the Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Army and the Commander-in-Chief of the Fortress."

"Temporary assignment..."

Ludwig breathed a sigh of relief, but then he fell into deep thought... He was now the commander of the legion and fortress, and his status was comparable to that of the general commander-in-chief of the standing legion. Who could have such great power to temporarily assign tasks to him?

Usually this is done when the king, or if there is an emergency situation that the top army officials and the Privy Council need to know about, they will temporarily recall the generals close to the front line to understand the actual situation as much as possible; but now is the New Year, and the Privy Council will not do this at this time Cause trouble for yourself.

If you are not the king, not the Privy Council, and most likely not the top brass of the army, then the only people who still have the right to mobilize yourself are probably...

"There is something I want to confirm in advance." Ludwig's face turned slightly dark:

"Is the person who issued this transfer order related to the church?"

"Exactly!"

A powerful voice came from outside the house, and walked directly into the room unceremoniously: "Major General Ludwig Franz, you are a big shot. We dare not give orders to you without using the name of the church."

Looking at this guy who suddenly appeared with a hint of ridicule in his tone, Ludwig narrowed his eyes slightly: "You are..."

"Clovis Trial House, Chief Judge of the Truth Seeking Order, Cole Dorian." The smiling guy proudly hugged his shoulders and looked at Ludwig very proudly:

"Major General Ludwig, from now on, please obey the army's orders and cooperate with our work."

"Your job?"

"Yes."

The frosty-faced Sera Vergil quietly appeared behind Cole Dorian, lifted up her skirt like a lady, and saluted the two people in the room:

"Please also put your guard down. We are not conducting a 'belief review' on the Southern Fortress and you, let alone making any requests that would embarrass you."

"That's right, because our demands are a hundred times more extreme than that!" The chief judge directly took over the topic:

"We will explain the details to you on the way, but now we ask you to follow us immediately. The destination is Clovis City!"

"Now, this is different than what we were ordered to do."

Roman on the side finally spoke and glanced at Cole Dorian without any emotion: "The army's order is clearly written. The major general still has three days to prepare. If he reports within ten days, it will not be a violation of the order." .”

"Yes, but before that we need to go to another place. It will take five days at the fastest. After that, we will leave for Clovis City. The total time spent is exactly thirteen days."

Cole Dorian said unceremoniously: "I emphasize once again that we are not making a request to the Kingdom of Clovis in the name of the Tribunal, but the Church of the Ring of Order, and we have received the latter's consent - even if you are The eldest son of the Archbishop has no right to refuse."

"Or...just because you are the eldest son of the Archbishop, you must not stay out of this matter."

Ludwig's expression was slightly gloomy.

Facing the two uninvited guests, he stood up calmly and faced Cole's aggressive eyes: "I understand, then do I have the right to know what this matter is related to?"

"Of course, and it's not a secret - it's related to the Old Gods." Cole Dorian nodded, and the smile on his face was gradually replaced by solemnity: "For the sake of your identity, I will give you another one. The key words are ready.”

"Have you heard of the surname 'Run' anywhere?"