I will be crowned king

East of Sailing City, from Black Reef Port to Gray Pigeon Castle.

From the tidal flat port surrounded by hills to the wild valleys covered with forests, thousands of figures are forming a long and narrow queue along the road: fully armed soldiers, cavalry with heads held high, overwhelmed baggage vehicles, shoulder-carrying The people pushing by hand... are like a river formed by the accumulation of mud, moving forward slowly but surely.

After receiving the news of Louis Bernard's disastrous defeat and the annihilation of 20,000 troops, Anson without any delay, immediately issued an order to the troops to speed up their march and advance towards Fort Gray Pigeon.

He directly requested the Black Reef Port and Red Hand Bay area to directly intercept the materials and manpower originally sent to Gray Pigeon Castle and organize them all into the baggage train to reduce the burden on the soldiers.

Thousands of young people gathered under the call of Louis Bernard, and the young man who was eager to fight a bloody battle with the Old World on the battlefield was directly disarmed and turned into a glorious civilian husband carrying a big bag.

The reason why he did not drop all the baggage and march without stopping like he did when he rescued Carindia this time was not because of his confidence in Louis or Ludwig's military ability - in every sense - but because it was true. Can't.

Compared with when I was in Hantu, due to poor infrastructure and harsh geographical environment, the intelligence that could be obtained immediately was significantly reduced, and the cost of transmitting internal information, personnel and materials was also ridiculously high.

As of now, the only information that can be completely confirmed is that Louis suffered a tragic defeat, Alexei entered the city of Sails, Louis was actively contacting the liberal forces in the surrounding colonies, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, and Ludwig, who had won a great victory, had probably begun to besiege the city of Sails. city.

As for the situation in Sailing City, how much power the liberals around Sailing City can muster, and whether Gray Pigeon Castle has fallen or is under siege...the rest is just a bunch of contradictory gossip that cannot be distinguished from the truth.

Due to the overlapping fog of war, and the fact that there are less than 3,000 Storm Legions under his command, the main force of which is the newly formed shooting army, Anson certainly does not dare to act rashly, discarding his baggage and rushing to the battlefield - that is no different from actively committing suicide. .

"The more critical thing is that Major General Ludwig seems to be surprisingly decisive this time; in the past, he would never dare to take risks when his retreat was cut off, and devoted all his strength to the unknown battle strength, which was almost as strong as Provocation by an enemy equal to oneself.”

Holding a map provided by the newspaper, Anson, who was marching on foot, said to Karl beside him: "There are two possibilities...either he has obtained the intelligence on our side from some source, or the Holy War Legion has appeared. An accident."

"Accident?" Karl wiped the sweat from his forehead, frowned from exhaustion, and kept breathing heavily: "You mean our old boss didn't take the initiative, but was forced to do this?"

He is not a gifted person who can already chop bullets with a knife, nor is he a blasphemy mage who has successfully advanced. He is just a mortal body, and he is forced to walk... on foot because of the psychological shadow of a certain boss about riding a horse. Chief of Staff, this is probably the only one in the entire Clovis Royal Army.

"Just saying it's a possibility."

Anson shook his head, with a slightly helpless expression: "About the Holy War Army, we still have too little information, except for the basic composition... Of course, fortunately, the opposite is also true; if Roman and Karin Jacques fake The priest’s intelligence is correct, and the locals’ understanding of us is still at the time when the rebellion just ended.”

That said, Anson was still a little surprised that Major General Ludwig, who was more stable than himself, could really make up his mind; although this small change was not enough to break his perfect plan. , but some details have to be adjusted slightly.

Sure enough, people will make progress, just like Louis will not always be so honest, Karl will become more and more tacit with himself, and Major General Ludwig will naturally step out of his comfort zone sooner or later and become a decisive leader... …

Well, Miss Sophia Franz is an exception. She is so kind from beginning to end... kind-hearted and unswervingly trusting in her loyalty!

Anson, who was thinking divergently, couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth, causing Karl next to him to frown even more - what kind of deceptive idea is this bastard thinking?

"In short, we cannot give up our luggage easily now, let alone enter the Sailing City colony to confront Major General Ludwig without obtaining all the information - not only will it be impossible to relieve the siege of Sailing City, but it will also make us I also lost the initiative." Putting away the map, Anson patted his chief of staff on the shoulder:

"Since he won't be able to capture Sailing City for a while, and Louis Bernard has gathered all the liberal forces around the colony, Ludwig and his Crusaders are already confined to a very small area. , we have no choice but to continue to bite the hard nut of Yangfan City."

And this is also the choice that Ludwig, or many officers, would make.

Starting from the Battle of Thunder Castle and the "decisive battle" outside Sail City during the colonial rebellion period, Anson roughly summarized a common characteristic of the enemies he encountered and all his allies, which was the obsession with decisive battles.

Their brain circuits when dealing with war probably have the same logic: first find an area on the battlefield that is beneficial to themselves or very important to the enemy, and then plan the fastest march route to get here, and devote all their main forces to this area. In the end, either take the initiative or force the enemy to use all their strength and have a vigorous showdown with themselves.

This is the case in at least four-fifths of the wars we encounter either passively or actively.

Anson has also summarized the reasons for this situation to some extent, which can basically be explained in two words: organizational ability and logistics level.

Because a top-down command system is too expensive—mainly because it is too expensive to train qualified off-duty officers—the army must reach the division level to have the possibility of independent operations; instead, it relies on animal power and rough infrastructure. The logistics that have been set up cannot support the army's months of experience and consumption on the front line.

Therefore, the most efficient and cost-effective war mode for a force or a country is to gather all the troops and rush to the enemy's doorstep to engage in a vigorous decisive battle with the opponent. The winner will be determined by one battle.

The pinnacle of this concept is probably the "big corps model" that Major General Ludwig Franz had in mind: several legions form a super legion of hundreds of thousands of people, and with explosive concentration of power, they can surge towards the enemy like a mountain. On the face, it was completely annihilated.

"And this time it won't be any different from before."

Facing Karl's question, Anson said in a very convincing tone: "What Ludwig longs for is a decisive battle, or a decisive battle that conforms to his ideas and is at least beneficial to him; as long as we Give him the bait and he will come to you.”

"I just have one question." The chief of staff couldn't help but interrupt:

"Not to mention what kind of bait you have to use to get our old boss to take the bait, how can you be sure that Yangfan City has not fallen yet - if he has already captured the city, isn't it all over?!"

"Capture it? Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Anson categorically rejected: "With Alexei guarding the city, Yangfan City will never fall. I have confidence in him!"

"Furthermore, we received the news of the rout at Huangcaolin four days ago... Including the time it took for the news to be transmitted, Ludwig still had to lead his troops back to build siege positions, design tactical plans, and then officially enter the battle... No He will definitely not be able to take down Yangfan City in ten to fifteen days."

"You must know that it is the Sailing City. The Sailing City has a fairly complete defense system. If it can be captured so easily, it means that the army sent by the Clovis Royal Army this time is not an ordinary luxury; with the army and Fran With the relationship between the Ci family and their war-fearing character, do you think this is possible?"

"That's true." Karl nodded in agreement.

"Right." The corner of Anson's mouth raised confidently: "I have already said that Alexei is very trustworthy. If you entrust an important mission to him, nothing will go wrong."

"No, no, no, you misunderstood. What I mean is that the cowards in the Wang Family Army will definitely not send elites to the new world." Karl shook his head:

"As for Alexei...the Ring of Order is up there, I can assure you that there is one in the entire legion. What everyone fears most is never that the enemy is too strong, but the 'trust' of your commander-in-chief!"

Anson: "..."

……………………

"Did he really say that?"

In the Wild Grass Forest stronghold, Louis Bernard looked at Jason Fruhauf who came in a hurry from Gray Pigeon Castle, and frowned slightly.

"It's absolutely true." The cavalry company commander nodded, and then suddenly showed an expression that was very familiar to the young knight and must be sincere:

"With Alexei here, please don't worry too much about the safety of Sailing City. The most important thing now is to convince Ludwig that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like annihilating all the resistance forces of the Free Confederacy in one go will soon appear in front of him. His main force was lured away from Sailing City."

"In order to achieve this goal, Louis, you must immediately mobilize all the troops, immediately go south from the grass forest, assume a posture of rescuing Sail City, and then quickly turn around and head north under the premise of ensuring that the enemy gets the information. I will leave Gray Pigeon Castle as soon as possible. Head to the Huangcao Forest area to meet you."

"In the end, we will go south together and take the initiative to fight Ludwig; in order to avoid being flanked by Sailing City, Ludwig will definitely stop attacking the city and go to the place where Bernard and I fought before to 'greet' us ."

"Of course, it doesn't matter if he doesn't want to stop or tries to steal time. Then we can attack his jihadi army from both sides and build a counter-siege encirclement outside the siege position to confront them. This can also prevent his siege plan."

After saying that, the cavalry major, whose expression returned to normal at the speed of light, quickly performed a military salute, and did not forget to add in a low voice: "These are the exact words of Brigadier General Anson Bach. I... am just repeating them."

"Okay, I understand." The young knight nodded slightly: "I personally delivered the information all the way back and forth. It's really hard on you. Please go to the camp and have a good rest."

Jason didn't say anything more and decisively turned around and left.

Looking at the back of the cavalry major, Louis, with a gloomy expression, picked up another piece of information on the table. It was a letter asking for help from Sailing City. The person who wrote the letter was Alexey, who was forced to move into the city. Dukaski.

According to this Clovis officer, the situation in Sailing City is extremely critical... The enemy has already broken through the outer defense lines and city walls, and is encroaching on the entire city bit by bit along the streets and communities; the army is still following, causing Civilian casualties were severe.

Not only did this method of siege fail to unite the defenders and citizens, but the contradictions began to emerge. After all, one of the two sides was a traitor and the other was a deserter. They belonged to the same camp and despised each other. In addition, these "Clo"s "Wei rebels"... The ability of the three parties to face the crisis regardless of past grudges and unite sincerely is indeed a bit too much.

Of course, Louis knew this very well. In fact, his task as the governor of Sailing City most of the time was to eliminate the conflicts between the parties, strive to maintain at least a superficial balance, and avoid the civil war similar to the original split between loyalists and liberals. The bloody tragedy caused.

But now because of his departure and the outbreak of the war, the contradictions that were once barely concealed have completely exploded... If he had not rushed to Yangfan City in time to find a way to resolve the crisis, no one knew what would happen next.

So Anson Bach, did he know this?

Does he really care about the survival of Sail City, or at least the life and death of his subordinates?

Will he deliberately sacrifice some "dispensable" victims in his eyes in order to have a smooth line of sight for his plan?

One after another questions that he had never thought about emerged in Louis' mind. Now he is no longer alone, no longer just a dispensable existence; the lives and deaths of tens of thousands, even millions, all depend on it. Regarding one of your own decisions; if you make a mistake in one trip, there may be thousands of victims.

"Anson Bach, please let me believe in you again..."

The young knight who muttered to himself put down the two letters in his hands. He sighed softly, then picked up the saber that he had placed on the table and strode out of the tent.

On the position, thousands of militiamen gathered from various places around the Sailing City are waiting for their commander; a variety of muskets, wooden sticks with bayonets, and unidentifiable clothing...

It was this group of people who formed an orderly queue in a position as dense as a spider web, forming the last army in Sailing City, which was also formed by Louis Bernard himself.

Arriving under the only blue-backed eleven-star-ring flag in the entire army, the young knight facing the entire army was filled with countless heroic words and impassioned words.

But when it came time to say something, it just turned into a long cry with a sharp blade unsheathed, and a hoarse roar:

"Set off--!!!!"