I will be crowned king

"Do you think they will accept our terms and surrender?"

At night, Anson stood in front of the map of the Elf Kingdom of Yser in the military tent while sketching on it and without raising his head, he asked Carl Bain, who had just finished inspecting the camp and was so tired that he slumped down on the chair.

Lisa, who happened to be on guard duty, saw this and put down her weapon with rare enthusiasm. She took the initiative to run over and rub the shoulders of the tired and paralyzed Chief of Staff. Such a solicitous attitude made Carl panic, and he didn't even hear Anson's question clearly. .

"Voluntarily surrender?" Feeling his shoulders being beaten repeatedly like a piece of steak by the girl's hands, Karl braced himself: "It must be very difficult. Even if we move out of Israel Moses Field, he is no longer The legitimate Elf King of Yser, plus he lost to us before... How much appeal can a king who has lost his power and humiliated his country and abdicated the throne have?"

"Well, even if we take 10,000 steps back, Her Majesty Freya's father still has appeal to these powerful factions, but we can't provide any evidence; do we need to invite His Majesty Igor here in person? To be honest, we are now I don’t even know where he is.”

"It's just such an empty talk. If I were the elf opposite, I would never believe it unless I was crazy."

After thinking seriously for a moment, Karl gave his answer: "Of course, it is not ruled out that there are some elves or human officers who are really fanatical and loyal to His Majesty Igor, but the number will definitely not be too many... Alas, you What do you think?"

"I?"

Anson took over the topic and still drew lines on the map without looking back: "I think it's completely impossible."

"...Then why are you still asking me questions like this?!"

Carl, who was so angry that he rolled his eyes, complained subconsciously, and it was completely different from his first time: "And you know that the other party is unlikely to agree, so what is the purpose of going through such a toss? You should know very well that as long as you use a little more force, Is it really possible for us to capture the Cliff Fortress in the evening, or at least completely destroy his ability to fight back?!"

"Of course... Although the 30,000 people on our side are all new recruits, if we organize the veterans in the legion and gather four or five line regiments to attack, there is still a good chance that we can capture the Cliff Fortress in a short time."

Anson finally put down the pencil at hand, nodded and spoke calmly as if he was commenting on something that had nothing to do with him: "Of course, we can also choose to encircle but not attack, and then continue to weaken the defenders in the fortress and annihilate the former The troops who come to rescue will eventually choose to surrender, and it won’t take too long.”

"Then are you really just..."

"It's just a show. In fact, there is no intention to win over or join forces with the Elf King Igor to swallow up the entire Kingdom of Yser, is it?"

Anson had already guessed the question in Karl's mind: "Of course not. Young Leon should have said that if this war wants to end easily, Igor's presence is indispensable."

"It is precisely because he is so important that we cannot show too much reliance on His Majesty the Elf King, otherwise it will run counter to our goal."

"Our... goal?" Karl was stunned for a moment:

"What is our goal? Isn't it to assist Hantu in defeating Iser and get out of the battlefield here as soon as possible?"

"Yes, but the question is to what extent is it necessary to 'defeat' Israel, and how to withdraw from the battlefield?" Anson asked: "The interest of Hantu is to expand its territory and have more new territories. Enfeoffed to the powerful in the country, which not only improved the reputation of the François family but also completed the centralization of power in the country - exchanging the newly occupied fertile territory for the barren territories of the nobles in the country. This routine was also used by Clovis back then. , in a sense, it has many similarities with pioneer colonies.”

"But this is the interest of Hantu. Where are Clovis's interests? Logistics base, new economic growth point? No, no, no... Clovis does not lack wealth at the moment. What it lacks is a new system to carry out wealth. Brand-new division and integration, the benefits of doing this are ten times, or even a hundred times greater than expanding territory.”

"In a fundamental sense, it should be to ensure an environment that is absolutely stable enough to prevent the entire process from being disrupted by external forces; this force can be a threat from Iser or a request for help from Han Tu." Anson began to persuade. : "So, what is the real purpose of our coming to Hantu?"

Facing his pointed gaze, the chief of staff fell into deep thought for a brief moment, and then... took a breath of air.

"You... plan to eradicate them completely, right?"

"As expected of my excellent chief of staff, he really knows everything." Anson smiled and nodded: "Yes, I guess Igor must think that I will find ways to use his name to accept surrender and recruit powerful elf officers from the sect. and soldiers, because this is the best way to end this war quickly while also reducing casualties.”

"But he made a slight error in judgment. I do want to end the war as soon as possible, but definitely not in the way he hopes; on the contrary, I want to strangle the 'powerful factions' in Yser as much as possible, at most Let them retain one-tenth or one-twentieth, and the rest should be done to make them lose their combat effectiveness as much as possible, and to cause heavy casualties to the maximum extent."

Because this is not only weakening Israel, but also weakening Hantu to prevent them from increasing their strength too much by occupying this land; in the final analysis, it is to prevent an overly powerful force from being established in the southeast of Clovis aspect appears.

Igor Moses Field may have really thought that as long as he stood on the same side as Clovis, he could preserve the foundation of the Yser elves to the greatest extent; but he misjudged the fact that the foundation of the land of Yser was Prosperity and rise, whether it belongs to the earth or to the elves, is a threat in Clovis's eyes.

Surrounded by hills and almost a semi-enclosed basin, it is very difficult and costly for outsiders to intervene; even within the territory, the difficult transportation environment can easily lead to the rise of another semi-independent force; therefore Weakening it, making it fragmented, turbulent, and difficult to integrate again is the best result for Clovis.

Therefore, the banner of Elf King Igor is just an excuse, a cover; winning over Hantu is just a suitable reason to send troops; the real purpose is actually to completely destroy the only armed force on this land and ensure its success in the next ten years. , difficult to recover within twenty years.

As for what to do in ten or twenty years... that is a problem that will be solved by then. Being able to maintain stability for twenty years with one move is already a profit.

Facing Anson's carefully laid out plan, Carl Bain even felt a sudden chill behind his back: Although they had experienced various wars in the past, this was the first time such an unabashed and high-profile "murderous act" had been carried out.

Swallowing gently, he turned his attention to the map Anson had just sketched. He saw a large number of horizontal and vertical lines on it, each with a different color. Starting from their respective points, they converged into a map. A huge grid covering the entire territory of Iser.

With his relatively complacent military experience, he could basically conclude that this was a marching route map, but there was a slight problem with this picture: Alexey Dukasky's 2nd Infantry Division after crossing the Lookout Trail , did not launch an attack on the vast northwest plain, but directly bypassed key towns and fortresses and went straight into the Royal Court of Yser.

The same goes for the 1st Infantry Division. It crossed the Soldier Pass but did not struggle with the weak defenders. It also assumed the posture of attacking the Royal Court. On the contrary, the light infantry division with the smallest number of troops and almost no heavy weapons took the responsibility. The task of breaking off the rear and fighting the enemy's outer defense line.

This is simply unbelievable. You must know that Anson himself is an officer in the skirmisher department. At the same time, he always likes to organize a large number of elite skirmishers to engage in sharp knives. A large number of troops pretend to attack to attract the enemy, and a small number of elites move to the flanks to open up the situation. This is almost his classic operation.

But now this guy is doing the exact opposite, which is really hard to understand.

What's even stranger is yet to come: the army surrounding the cliff fortress is divided into seven or eight parts like exploding shotshells. While maintaining the siege, they attack from all directions, besieging the villages and towns in the surrounding areas and the small castles of the nobles. It seems that they are preparing to use the cliff to attack. The fortress serves as a base to clear out all resistance forces in the surrounding areas.

Yes, if it were the original, Karl would probably still be confused and not understand what Anson Bach was planning to do at all; but after figuring out someone's true purpose, the answer has already surfaced:

First, two elite legions quickly interspersed and attacked the Royal Court of Yser to put pressure on the elves, but deliberately avoided the enemies who were blocking the front; this was a smoke bomb that caused the "powerful faction" in the northwest region to give up rescuing the Royal Court and concentrate on fighting with the Royal Court. The elusive light infantry divisions fought to contain and consume their attention.

At the same time, the Cliff Fortress remained besieged and unattacked, but they continued to weaken it, and at the same time sent out troops to sweep the surrounding towns: all the garrison forces there had been concentrated in the fortress, and the defense was empty and not worth mentioning at all; It can be captured easily, and is very suitable for newly formed regiments to carry out missions.

The current real power of the Yser elves is in the hands of the "powerful faction", and these guys are essentially small forces entrenched in the local area; if their hometown is destroyed, the remaining weapons will completely become lonely ghosts, and there will be no more After the foundation, they are no longer qualified to negotiate - you are nothing, why should you talk to me as an equal?

At the same time, the powerful faction that has not suffered too many attacks from the Clovis and Hantu armies must have nothing to do with their own affairs and worry about it; after all, they really don’t need to provoke an army that they can’t compete with, so why bother? Others lose their own interests?

If the Hantu-Clovis coalition chooses to push forward, these powerful factions may be able to put aside their grudges and unite in a common trench - just like the Cliff Fortress this time - but if they defeat them one by one, they will Their true nature will be exposed immediately, because power is decentralized and each force has strong independence, so losing oneself in order to protect others is 100% stupid behavior that outweighs the gain.

So as long as you create an illusion that only targets some of them, the rest will give up the fight on their own; when those forces are eliminated one by one, it will naturally be their turn...

So this is indeed a net, a big net that strangles the entire Iser Elf Kingdom.

Anson tapped the table with his index finger proudly. For him, this Yser War was far more relaxed and comfortable than the New World Colonial Independence War or the subsequent battles with the Jihad Army; he had never been as complete as he is now. There is no need to worry about logistics, and at the same time, with more than six figures of soldiers at his disposal, he can realize plans that he had never even dared to think about.

Apart from time constraints, he couldn't even imagine how he would lose; no matter how heavy the casualties were, there was no need to worry. This time, with the support of Clovis's Ministry of War and the Kingdom of Hantu, he could bear no matter how big the losses were. rise.

"Major General Ludwig has always insisted that the most appropriate method is to concentrate the army; my view is exactly the opposite. Splitting the army is the real interesting part." Anson's lips raised: "Divided into ten teams A hundred people and a centurion that cannot be separated, the former can definitely accomplish more plans and goals."

"Okay, my lieutenant general, there is no need to brag with me here. The officers in the recruit corps prefer to hear this. Let's add this to the pre-battle speech." Karl shrugged:

"A word of caution, no matter how perfect a plan is, someone must execute it; Colonel Alexei Dukasky is certainly trustworthy, but others..."

"I believe them."

Anson spread his hands: "Just like I believe in my enemies."

"..." Karl found that he wanted to ignore this overconfident guy less and less.

But the fact is that the war is indeed developing as planned by Anson: Early the next morning, Cliff Fortress specially sent a messenger to express that they could not accept the result of immediate surrender, but they would not leave the fortress either. He will not take the initiative to attack Anson, but plans to reach some kind of compromise with Anson through a "sit-down" approach.

Anson's answer to this was very decisive, which was to organize the legion immediately, require the artillery positions to use up a base of ammunition within an hour, completely destroy the few forts, watchtowers and shooting platforms in the cliff fortress, and disarm the armed forces on the opposite side. .

The panicked elven nobles once again begged for negotiations and expressed their willingness to make concessions. As long as Anson could delay the surrender for three days, they were willing to lead all their soldiers to declare surrender and join the command of His Majesty Elf King Igor to fight against the enemy. The Royal Court of Yser launched a counterattack.

Anson's answer to this completely unclear request was simple: Impossible.

At twelve o'clock sharp, after rejecting the defenders' request for negotiation countless times, the artillery positions of the Hantu-Clovis coalition began a fierce shelling.