I will be crowned king

Red Moon Province, Junqi Mountain, clear.

The billowing gun smoke turned into an airtight thick fog that spread around the foot of the mountain and enveloped the sun hanging high in the dome.

When the gunfire and shouts of death gradually faded away, and the "thick fog" dissipated, a messy battlefield was finally exposed to the sun. Several military flags swaying slightly in the warm wind wrapped around mountains of broken bones piled on the ground. The civil engineering works, which are still burning and exude the smell of coke, silently tell the story that has come to an end.

Imperial soldiers wearing blue and white military uniforms and carrying golden fleur-de-lis flags huddled in the trenches tiredly, eating dry and hard bread feebly, and moistening their dry throats with water that was not known to be clean.

A bloody battle had just come to an end. They were yawning as they watched the Clovis people "fleeing". No matter how hard the knight walking around in the trench cheered, telling them that "the dawn of victory is near." "In front of our eyes", "the Clovis people will be defeated soon", and there is no joy on the faces of these soldiers, only endless exhaustion.

In fact, in the past few days, the legion led by Fernando has been winning consecutive battles. Not only has Carl Bain been blocked in the Banner Mountain camp, he can't get out at all, but also from the four directions of Red Moon Trunk Road, Shanbei Avenue, Shannan Avenue, and Central Avenue. The successive offensives launched by the Clovis army were all resolved by him, defeated one by one, and forced the four armies to switch to passive defense from the state of being surrounded.

But here’s the problem. Although the four armies plus Carl Bain’s Flag Mountain camp could not defeat Fernando’s army, Fernando was still unable to break through. There was Carl Bain who was condescending and could see him clearly. Well, whatever Fernando plans to do will be exposed and unilaterally transparent to the Rangers.

Realizing that he had fallen into a trap, Fernando also tried several times to use night attacks and feint attacks, sneaking in when the moonlight was dim, or sending a small number of troops to contain Clovis' army to organize a breakout.

But unfortunately, all failed.

If Carl himself describes his merits, it would probably be that he is cautious enough; he is not the type who is good at breaking situations, but how to try not to make mistakes when facing a strong enemy, how to retreat when it is really impossible to fight, these In this regard, he can be said to be the absolute "expert" of the Storm Legion.

After several trials, Fernando had to give up completely and had to stay in place, waiting for the rest of the legions to come and join him. At the same time, he continued to launch offensives against Clovis's army, trying to save the morale of the legions with one victory after another.

This plan was somewhat useful at first, but it soon stopped working - as long as they were not fools, the knights and soldiers in the legion could clearly realize that they were surrounded by the Clovis people, and even the only one The retreat route is also blocked, and there is little hope of breaking out, or there is no hope at all.

Among the four roads, the closest to Fernando is the Garland Army. This Sir Garland is responsible for guarding the army's retreat route and the Red Moon Town Fortress. He is the most likely to come for reinforcements among all the reinforcements. Fernando's Army, which has been surrounded on all sides, Almost all hope has been pinned on them.

It's just that Fernando obviously doesn't dare to do this, or even if he really wants to do this, he must mobilize the subjective initiative of the soldiers and make them firmly believe that they are moving from one victory to another.

"Hmph, what a bullshit victory, it's obviously going from one defeat to another!" A veteran in the trench, biting his pipe, complained and muttered: "We organized so many breakouts and sacrificed so many soldiers, but in the end we still stayed here. What’s the point of this crappy place?!”

"That's right. It seems that we have to admit that we have indeed fallen into the trap of the Clovis people. We should not have attacked the Military Flag Mountain camp in the first place."

The young knight wearing shabby military uniforms and wiping his sword constantly nodded in agreement: "Lord Fernando should bypass this tiny mountain camp to pursue and annihilate the moving Clovis army. Those people are the easiest to be annihilated. .”

"It's easy to be eliminated, huh..." The veteran biting his pipe sneered: "I think he shouldn't be here!"

"Uh, you're saying we shouldn't cross..."

"Yes, yes, we should not cross the border and start a war for the Osterian royal family!"

The veteran said with a stern face: "This is a family matter for the Clovis people, do you understand? Originally, they should have killed each other, and we just wanted to watch the show, but our Majesty...he did it for his sister. I and my nephew didn't hesitate to sell iron to form an army. Now, the Clovis people finally don't have to fight among themselves and can point their angry guns directly at us!"

"But this is His Majesty's mission, the Empire's mission." The young knight still wanted to argue:

"Your Majesty is the guardian of the ordered world. As His Majesty's army, our mission is to maintain the stability of the ordered world. Since the Clovis have destroyed this order, we must step forward."

"Come on, don't talk nonsense there. The fact is that the empire can't defeat the Clovis people at all, and even the Hantu people can't suppress it. They can only watch the Hantu people unify, the Ysel elves be annihilated, and the new The world's colonies also..."

"boom--!"

Before he could finish his words, the flag officer who walked silently next to him hit the veteran heavily on the head with his scabbard.

"You..." The veteran, whose pipe had been smashed, was about to get up angrily when the flag officer clamped down on his mouth. The other person's stern eyes blocked all the trash he wanted to say.

"Be careful!" The flag officer stared at the two men: "Here you are slandering your majesty, slandering the empire, and questioning the foundation of the ordered world. Who are you, spies sent by the Clovis people?"

The two people stopped talking for a moment.

"Very good, it seems you are not that stupid, although you are not that smart either."

The flag officer raised his eyebrows, and suddenly lowered his voice and approached the two of them: "Are you fools... Those officers who patrolled the position and preached victory were all close followers of Lord Fernando; they heard that you were You are talking nonsense here, have you ever thought about what the consequences will be?”

"Uh...thank you for reminding me!"

The veteran and young knight, who were still angry just now, nodded repeatedly like rabbits, looked at the experienced Zhang Organ with grateful eyes, and immediately lowered their heads when the patrolling officer passed by, pretending to be tired.

What they don't know is that Fernando no longer cares about this at all.

"According to the intelligence sent back by the sentry, Count Dmitry's army entered the North Mountain Avenue around July 2nd and was blocked by four Clovis infantry regiments. They are trying hard to break through the blockade."

Pointing to the unrecognizable map that had been drawn, the knight who served as a staff member methodically introduced the currently known information to Fernando:

"The enemy army occupied the traffic pass before Count Demetrius. The Clovis army in the north of the mountain we encountered should also be part of them. After confirming that they had successfully intercepted the count, they chose to go south towards us. The army launched an attack."

"As for the 4,000 Clovis troops on the Red Moon Trunk Road, it is speculated that they must have crossed the entire province before our army moved and ambushed behind our army. Sir Gloria has received your request for help and is preparing to organize an army. Rush for help, but..."

"But, but?" Fernando smelled something unusual.

"Sir Gloria reported that Clovis troops were discovered around the Red Moon Town Fortress." The knight said solemnly: "Sir thinks this is probably a Clovis conspiracy, deliberately luring him to abandon the fortress, so that Clovis They can regain their lost territory and directly cut off the retreat of our 60,000-strong army."

"I understand, so he plans to completely wipe out the Clovis army around the fortress and then come to rescue us, right?"

Fernando's tone suddenly became much colder: "We must make sure that there are no Clovis troops around the fortress before our Sir Gloria can leave?"

"Uh, yes." The knight twitched his throat: "Sir, I think Sir Gloria is doing this out of caution..."

"Caution? This is cowardice, cowardice!"

Fernando stood up suddenly, his anger like a blazing fire: "Those Clovis people were deliberately put as bait. Thousands of people didn't even have cannons, so why should they retake the fortress? He was just making excuses, no?" Willing to bring his legion to reinforce me!"

"Continue to send an order to Sir Gloria, telling him that if he is really worried about being cut off, he can leave a garrison of 3,000 people in the Red Moon Fortress, and then bring all the remaining troops to reinforce me; as long as he takes the flag mountain , we can unite with the other scattered legions, annihilate all these scattered enemies, and leave Clovis in a big way!"

"Tell him..." Fernando took a deep breath, calming down and organizing his thoughts: "As long as he comes immediately with his army and launches an attack on the back of Clovis's army on the Red Moon Road before July 6th, I won’t blame him for not executing my orders decisively; as long as the army can successfully withdraw from the empire, no matter what the outcome is, he will be considered the first contributor to this battle of Red Moon Town!”

"The first...is this the first meritorious service, sir?"

"What problem do you have?!" Fernando's tone was quite impatient.

"I, no, not at all!"

The frightened knight shook his head repeatedly and quickly denied: "I just want to remind you that you have already made the same promise to Count Demetrius once."

Um?

The furious Fernando was stunned for a moment: "Have you ever?"

"Uh... it did happen." The knight nodded tremblingly: "Not only that, you also made similar promises to the other three legion commanders, so..."

Fernando understood what he meant.

"Don't worry, you don't need to pay too much attention to this kind of thing. I have my own solution." He waved his hand: "This battle will not end so easily; the enemy is very cunning, and his purpose is far more than just a Red Moon Town fortress. It’s so simple, there must be enough merit for distribution.”

With these words, the knight certainly couldn't say anything more and nodded slightly: "Yes, I will send someone to deliver the order."

Fernando nodded silently, but his heart was very complicated.

He can now basically conclude that the enemy's core goal is to annihilate himself and the 60,000-strong imperial army led by him. Although the number of troops is not large, these 60,000 troops are all absolutely loyal to His Majesty the Emperor. If the losses are heavy or even If the entire army is annihilated, His Majesty's voice will inevitably decline significantly in the imperial army that will be organized later.

Even going a step further, they may even have to appoint a certain grand duke as the supreme commander of the legion in exchange for the armies of several grand duchies.

Once this happens, it will almost be equivalent to announcing the division within the empire; at that time, either the Hred royal family will step down, or the major principalities will be able to go their own way and choose their own in this war between the empire, the land and the church of order. position, the entire world of order will once again return to sectarian schism wars, or even the chaos of the Dark Ages.

The problem is that although I have figured out the enemy's purpose, I still don't understand how he did it and what his next plan is. From the situation, it seems that he is blocking the imperial army from all directions and trying to clear the flag. He wanted to annihilate himself as the commander-in-chief of the empire around the mountain; but he failed to gather enough troops, and at most he could only trap himself.

Could it be that he planned to just keep going and wait until Hantu's 40,000 troops came to make a final decision?

Fernando felt that this idea was a bit nonsense. This was the land of the Clovis people. Let a group of Hantu people decide the key winner of an important battle. Can the commander on the opposite side really withstand such great pressure from public opinion? His How could my subordinates easily give up such important military exploits to the Hantu people?

How can this be? !

Therefore, Fernando can only insist on believing that the other party is going to fight with him; even if he is not, as long as the Garland Legion comes to join him, he has assembled 20,000 legions and can still advance, attack, retreat and defend, which is common among swarms of bees. Surrounded by Clovis's army of only two to three thousand men, they could come and go freely, and they could retreat whenever they wanted.

Of course, the disobedience of the cowardly traitor Sir Gloria is also a problem. Even the arrogant Count Demetri will not disobey his orders. The villain who climbed up on his own dares to disobey him. Sufficient punishment must be imposed. Punishment, especially not allowing him to lead the army again.

After finalizing his attention, he took a long breath and looked outside the camp where the smoke had dispersed, with a thoughtful expression on his face: "How is the situation in the army?"

"We are having dinner, the reserve army will need about twenty minutes." The knight took out his pocket watch: "The rest will be over at 7:50, and you can go into battle at any time."

"Very good, tell them to launch another raid on the Junqishan camp at eight o'clock sharp."

"As you command!"