I will be crowned king

"Can anyone tell me straightforwardly and clearly about the current real situation in Hongyue Town?"

In the western border base camp, Ludwig Franz, who had his back to the map, his eyes wandered across the officers' faces like sharp knives, watching the cold sweat slipping down their cheeks like drops.

Silence... Everyone lowered their heads, staring at the thick stacks of information piled on the long table, their mouths seemed to be sewn shut with invisible threads.

This mountain of intelligence is the "work product" of these professional staff officers, but the result is not as proud as they hoped - because if the above content is true, the imperial army has already crossed the border with 60,000 people at this time The border was heading towards the hinterland of Clovis, and the Ranger Legion that was supposed to stand in front of them...

Evaporated.

It sounds ridiculous, but intelligence shows that this is indeed the case... When they were about to enter the Red Moon Province, the Ranger Corps suddenly lost contact. Not only could they not find their headquarters, but the army also disappeared. The Hantu Army is still there and marching towards Hongyue Town in an orderly manner.

Obviously the commander-in-chief of the Hantu Army, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, must know something, or there is a high probability that he has some private agreement with Anson Bach; but it is certainly impossible for them, the intelligence staff of the "National Protector Army" Even if they know it, the other party will not take the initiative to tell them enthusiastically.

What's more, a Clovis man asked the Hantu people where a Clovis army had gone. This...how do you think and feel that there are some logical problems in this, and it is very likely to be met with something like "Your Clovis army" , don’t you yourselves know?” or “Why don’t you take the initiative to ask the Rangers? Do they not want to tell you?” and other questions that make people feel shameless.

Anyway, Ludwig would definitely not be able to pull off this face.

At the same time, they did collect a large amount of information about "Clovis troops quickly crossing the Red Moon Province and moving towards the border." However, these troops ranged from two to three thousand at most, and even only a few hundred at least, and their weapons and equipment were also very low. They are mainly lightly armed, which is completely different from the Rangers who are armed to the teeth.

The most disgusting thing is that these armies have all kinds of strange banners, such as the "First Mountain Corps", "Southern Fortress Grenadier Regiment", "Clovis City Advance Army", "Northport Expeditionary Force"... I just want to use them. Use the names of all the Clovis places you visited!

Obviously, the other party did it deliberately. The chaotic organization could not deceive the Clovis people, because the army numbers were all registered, and the staff could tell at a glance that the other party was deliberately trying to confuse the public; but the Imperial people definitely did not know this. ; For people who don’t understand the Clovis military system, when they see these messy names, the first thing they think of is most likely, "The Clovis people are in a hurry, and they are mobilizing reinforcements without any idea."

The most troublesome thing is that they not only confuse the enemy, but also the friendly forces: an army of less than 2,000 people was the "Beigang Expeditionary Force" in the morning, became the "Eagle Point City Skirmishers" in the afternoon, and will be the "Eagle Point City Skirmishers" tomorrow. Probably the "First Division of Hongyue Town"...

God knows whether the First Division of Red Moon Town is real or fake. Anyway, the staff of Cerebral Hemorrhage are completely confused. What are Anson Bach and his Ranger Corps doing, and where is his headquarters?

"A bunch of idiots who only look at the surface and don't use their brains at all!"

Ludwig mercilessly scolded this group of "experienced" staff officers that he had spent a lot of money to recruit from various border fortresses: "You guys can't see such a simple trick. Anson Bach...he doesn't know how to do it now." There is no 'command' in the strict sense. In other words, any 'fake establishment' combat unit may be commanded by him himself. It is completely meaningless for you to use the old-fashioned methods in the past to determine his location. !”

"The real place to pay attention to is where these 'fake formations' appear! From south to north, you can see that the Rangers are trying to encircle Red Moon Town, trying to attack from multiple directions to achieve the premise of approaching the force. The goal is to successfully suppress the enemy; at the same time, dividing the troops into multiple operations can also confuse the enemy and prevent him from confirming the correct direction of the main attack."

As he analyzed and explained bit by bit, Ludwig himself couldn't help but frown: "But this kind of tactical risk is also very high...not to mention the test of command ability and army organization. If there are any remaining If the 50,000 imperial troops below also cross the border and join the 10,000 defenders of the fortress, the strength gap between the two sides will be quickly smoothed out."

"And the scattered Ranger legions...are at risk of being annihilated one by one." Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his head:

"who?!"

"Report!"

The messenger who was called out just as he was about to enter the door was startled and stood at attention and saluted: "The latest military information, the commander-in-chief of the Ranger Corps, Anson Bach's ruling headquarters, has been found!"

oh? Ludwig's expression showed a flash of surprise: "Where?"

"Eastern foothills of the Military Flag Mountain!" the ordering soldier quickly replied:

"A reporter from "Kingdom Loyal News" accidentally found a temporary fortress camp with a Unicorn flag hanging. It was confirmed that it should be the Ranger Corps headquarters."

"...Why is he so sure?"

"Because..." the messenger paused for a moment:

"There was gunfire coming from the camp, and..."

"...and it's a very dense cannon fire!"

……………………

"Boom-boom-boom-!!!"

The loud sound of the shells landing echoed in the mountains, and black shadows streaked across the sky like meteors, hitting the imperial army with golden fleur-de-lis flags at the foot of the mountain, tearing apart dark red marks in the dense formation.

The solid bullets that landed smashed away the plumes of smoke that rose into the air, and the soil mixed with the fragments of comrades fell from the sky. They were run over by the expressionless Imperial line infantry, which did not stop them from continuing to move toward the bulging mountains shrouded in gunpowder smoke. Advance up the hill.

Yes, even though the casualties have begun to appear gradually, and there is still an obvious gap between flat ground and hillside, the strength gap between the two sides is enough to completely smooth out all problems - the imperial army of nearly ten thousand people has attacked the hillside from both sides at the same time. The small fort was surrounded, and the garrison visible to the naked eye was less than three thousand.

This was a battle with extremely wide disparity. If Clovis's army had not seized the high ground in advance by relying on the "home battle", and seemed to have a considerable number of cannons and built forts in advance, the battle might have ended long ago.

But it was these cannons that greatly attracted the imperial army at the foot of the mountain...Obviously, a short-formed infantry division with only 3,000 men cannot have more than 20 cannons - Ludwig's kind It is a special situation - the only possibility is that this is an artillery unit directly under the corps, operating together with important command agencies.

Important... command organ!

It is no exaggeration to say that from top to bottom, the imperial army can basically conclude that there is a certain important person in the camp they are besieging. It is most likely a certain general of the Clovis people, and it is also the red moon at the moment. The commander-in-chief of the battle to recapture and return the town.

At the foot of the hillside, a relaxed Fernando sat leisurely in front of the sand table in the headquarters, watching the knights in front of him busy while enjoying his lunch - stewed bacon and rusks, which are very common military foods, but this time At that time, he was quite happy eating.

As for the frontal battlefield... He actually doesn't care much about it now. The field of vision is poor when fighting on flat ground and on high ground. Coupled with the smoke caused by repeated firing from both sides, the field of view of the battlefield is completely blocked. Even if he is on the front line, he can't see clearly what the battle situation is like. , it’s better to just let go and leave it to the subordinates, so that they can use it to their fullest.

The victory or defeat actually didn't matter. The narrow mountain road and the fortifications built by the opponent in advance did not allow him to invest too many troops... The key was to suppress the opponent while making as much noise as possible to attract the scattered Clovis troops around him. , and then defeat them one by one, this is Fernando's purpose.

There are too many small Clovis troops. If they are destroyed separately, there will be no time... Now that we have captured the command post on the opposite side, of course we cannot let go of such an excellent bait so easily. We must drain him completely. The value is good.

"Reporting to your lord, enemy reinforcements have been spotted on the road south of Junqishan Mountain!"

"Oh, are you here already?" Fernando enjoyed the salty broth without raising his head: "How many people are there?"

"Our scout cavalry does not dare to stray too far from the army, so we cannot confirm the exact number." The knight replied truthfully: "Roughly estimated, there are about two thousand people."

"Two thousand... very good." Fernando's lips slightly raised: "Inform the reserve team to immediately withdraw from the front line battlefield, prepare to organize defense, and then order the cavalry troops to prepare to see if they can attack the opposite side from behind."

"If not, then organize harassment and delay as much as possible the enemy's reinforcements entering the main battlefield...ah!" The smile on his face suddenly became a little more ferocious:

"Tell them not to scare the enemy. What I want is total annihilation, not defeat."

"As you command!"

The knight did not dare to neglect at all and turned around and left as quickly as possible.

Wiping off the last mouthful of broth in the bowl with bread, Fernando, who was satisfied with his meal, turned his attention to the map in front of him again. Junqi Mountain is the largest mountain range in the southeast of Hongyue Town. The originally complex and changeable roads were directly divided into There are four trunk roads, namely Shannan, Shanbei, Hongyue Trunk Road and Central Avenue.

Among them, the Red Moon Trunk Road is in the direction from which he came, and the Central Avenue extends to the northeast of Clovis, connecting to the base camp and Clovis City; in other words, no matter how the army coming from the southeast is divided, he must There are two roads passing through the south of the mountain and the north of the mountain.

Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that the enemy will further divide its troops, or that Ludwig's 80,000-strong army will directly move south from the base camp; but at least at this moment, as long as we block the two roads to the south and north of the mountain, we can directly block almost all the roads on the opposite side. The army suppressed them in the Junqishan area.

Frankly speaking, Fernando does not expect to win. His purpose is to delay as much time as possible so that he can have enough time to destroy the Red Moon Town Fortress, an important springboard for Clovis to counterattack the Empire, before retreating, and prepare for the Empire's subsequent battles. When you have sufficient initiative, your task is completed.

As for what to do next... To be honest, although Fernando pretended to be prepared in front of the knights, in fact he had no idea at all.

Regardless of what the empire can gain from this war, part of the reason is indeed for the benefit of the church—more accurately, the Holy See of the Church of Order. However, so far the church has not made their attitude clear, and It was to officially declare whether the Clovis Kingdom's act of expelling the king was illegal.

In the eyes of the empire or the emperor, there is simply no doubt that the serious behavior that undermines the basic laws of the ordered world is irrefutable, and it is not an exaggeration to replace it with the destruction of a small city-state... But the attitude of the Holy See is surprisingly ambiguous. He did not refute the emperor's actions, and even provided a lot of financial support, but he also did not make public accusations or accusations, making Clovis a being that everyone in the world of order wanted to beat.

This is... a little more subtle.

If the final result is that the Holy See recognizes this as an ordinary war between countries in the ordered world, at least half of the empire's excuses for declaring war will immediately cease to exist; it is certainly reasonable to regain the throne for your relatives, but you have to use this It would be too much to think about using this excuse to mobilize the entire empire, especially the other eight Grand Dukes and theoretically all the Circle of Order believers.

And if the attitude of the Holy See is to support the emperor, then the problem of their refusal to take a stand until now is even greater: the Holy See is probably seeking the right to interfere in ordering the secular affairs of the world.

To be more precise, they were looking forward to a disastrous defeat for the empire so that they could use the emperor as a puppet empire!

This guess made Fernando shudder, but the guess was just a guess. At least now he could convince himself that there was no conclusive evidence. The Holy See's current attitude towards the empire was respectful enough, and there were not many violations; although now everyone is It can be seen that the church seems to be really planning to personally intervene in the disputes between believers, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The Iserl elves are lonely, the land is reunified, the colonies are independent, and Clovis rises... The empire's suppression of the world of order is indeed not as strong as it used to be. If it can get help from the church, maybe it can be found again. Return to the glory of the past.

Thinking of this, Fernando took a deep breath, threw away the tableware on hand, stood up and strode out of the tent, got on his horse and rushed towards the artillery position at the other end of the camp.

Fifteen minutes later, six mortars fired at the fortress camp on the hillside at the same time. Half-arc shells streaked across the sky and landed sporadically on the head of the Unicorn Flag.

An hour later, the imperial line infantry finally broke through the outermost earthen wall of the camp and began to advance inward.

The Ranger Corps headquarters seems to be on the verge of collapse and may fall at any time.