I will be crowned king

The sun rises in the east and the sky is clear.

As the night gradually disappeared in the cold wind, the faint morning light pierced the eastern horizon; the golden sunshine spread on the vast expanse of land under the ice peaks, awakening the majestic White Tower City from the darkness.

But what woke her up was not only the rising sun, but also a bloody declaration of war.

"Warriors of Thun, we are gathered here today; behind us is the ancient Dawn Mountains; in front of us is the beautiful and rich White Tower City.

Yes! I can see confusion and confusion in your eyes; why didn't your Archduke lead you to Eagle Point Pass in the Morning Mountains to resist Clovis' invasion, but instead besieged our own castle?

Decades ago, we fought side by side with the glorious and ancient elves of Yser; many of you have also been brothers with the elven knights of White Tower City; even our Francois family has fought with us more than once. The Brand family of White Tower City enters into marriage.

The Thun people and the Yser elves are friends, comrades-in-arms, and close relatives. The noble and respectable Yser elves have been guarding Eagle Point City for decades, preventing the invaders from setting foot in the territory of Thun and the Seven Cities Alliance. Territory, guarding the prosperity and stability south of the Dawn Mountains.

Great and ancient Iser, how great and how glorious.

But I'm telling you now, it's all a lie!

It's a complete lie!

We, the Seven Cities Alliance, and all the people living on the vast land have all been deceived by this lie!

Out of trust in their friends, the sincere Thun people gave up Eagle Point City to Yser; we thought we were getting asylum, but what about the reality?

Every business traveler passing through Eagle Point City will be forced to pay a tax equivalent to three or even ten times the value of the goods; the coffee and grapes in your hometown sell for one silver coin, but after passing through Eagle Point City, it will become eleven; The Clovis cotton cloth bought for one silver coin may only be worth two or three copper coins locally!

What is this, this is unabashed blackmail!

Clovis invaded Yser, and we warmly entertained the envoys of the Elven King in Golden Stone City; but they tried to kill your Grand Duke; after their failure, they colluded with the White Tower City and planned to file a complaint first!

Not only that, they also want to spread the word that the Thun people betrayed the Yser elves and took the initiative to join the Kingdom of Clovis.

This is simply ridiculous, this is an extremely ridiculous lie!

Why? Because I don’t want to give up Thun to the elves of Yser, because I don’t want to watch the glorious Seven Cities Alliance, the simple and hard-working Hantu people, become vassals of the elves of Yser!

Therefore, they want to overthrow me and let the Brand family of White Tower City, Yser's most loyal people in the land, become the rulers of Thun.

Once they take control of Thun, the next step must be the other countries of the Seven Cities Alliance; the entire land will be cannibalized step by step by the Iser Elf Kingdom, and eventually they will be completely eaten.

The proud Thun people, the simple Hantu people... will become the Ysel elves - our best friends, the closest slaves!

Tell me, my warriors, will you become slaves?

Are you willing to watch your relatives and all the Han natives become slaves? ! "

……………………

Accompanied by the roar of mountains and tsunamis, 12,000 Thun soldiers walked out of the camps and trenches, formed an attack formation on three sides of the White Tower City, and slowly advanced amidst the rhythmic drumbeats.

Opposite them, four thousand White Tower City elven infantry held rifles and carefully maintained their formation on the city wall; the knights wearing breastplates and cloaks also acted as commanders and war supervisors, using their skills with bloodless expressions. Powerless shouts to boost morale.

Archduke Claude François rode a red horse and stood under a huge and eye-catching blood-red thorn flag decorated with golden tassels; his eldest son Léon François, Aisne Reis and a group of personal knights followed far behind, with only Anson Bach beside him.

Looking at the towering central tower of White Tower City, Grand Duke Thun, who was personally commanding the battle, had a solemn expression, making it impossible to distinguish his emotions; only his brows remained completely relaxed, and no trace of tension could be seen.

Looking at the forward military formation that was constantly approaching the castle, Claude Francois slowly raised the saber in his hand, and the bright tip of the saber gently swung down.

At that moment, the artillery positions on three sides of Thun let out a roar that shook the earth. The black afterimage rushed out of the gun barrel, followed by a screaming tail, and hit the wall of the White Tower City heavily.

Accompanied by large expanses of bursting rubble, the walls of White Tower City immediately began to shake.

This old-fashioned city wall was not designed for artillery defense from the beginning. The wall was not only thin but also completely vertical in shape; once it was hit by concentrated fire, the entire wall would begin to tremble, and many soldiers even lost their footing from the wall during the vibration. fall.

In the thick smoke, Thun's army was still advancing in an orderly manner; and the defenders of White Tower City also began their own counterattack. The cannons on the city wall exploded one after another in the smoke, golden-red sparks.

Still limited by the thin thickness of the city wall, there are only six-pound infantry cannons placed on it. The powerful twenty-four-pound, forty-eight or even sixty-eight-pound fortress cannons, their recoil is not what the walls of this old-fashioned castle can achieve. bearable.

Before the defenders could fire a few cannons, the outer city walls had completely collapsed under the continuous bombardment. The defenders who fled in panic watched the towering towers and city walls collapse, exposing a huge gap in front of the enemy.

Not long after, Archduke Claude Francois, under the banner of the bloody thorn flower, received the good news from three attacking directions at the same time that "the city wall has collapsed and the enemy army has been defeated" amid cheers.

So Grand Duke Thun immediately responded to everyone's expectations and issued an order to attack across the board.

The loud horn sounded, and thousands of Thun soldiers raised the bright bayonets on their rifles, shouting and rushing towards the gap in the city wall in the smoke.

The artillery positions at the rear also "smartly" stopped firing, and the trembling city wall defenders did not make any unnecessary resistance. They only fired a few rounds of volleys, and then raised the white flag and surrendered in front of the bayonets of the attacking army.

So a large number of troops immediately poured into the castle through the gap, capturing prisoners and tapping the spoils, while launching an attack deeper into the inner castle.

Amidst the loud shouts of killing, golden-red fire ignited the ruined White Tower City, and thick smoke rose into the sky.

"it's over."

Looking at the White Tower City shrouded in black smoke and the troops shouting and fighting in the distance, cheering and pouring into the castle from the gap, Claude Francois, who had no sorrow or joy on his face, said as if talking to himself:

"In three hours, Baita City should declare its surrender."

Anson Bach, who was behind him, had a smile that said "everything is going according to plan".

Because this was originally designed.

According to yesterday's agreement, Earl Brand and the elven garrison of White Tower City will "symbolically" hold on for four hours after the siege begins. In fact, no real battle will break out at all, they will just make "efforts to resist." Just a look.

The attacker's Thun seemed to be menacing, but the artillery fire coverage only opened a gap in the city wall, without even firing a single shot. Although the city wall defenders also fired back with artillery, it seemed that they did not load the shells at all.

The line confrontation between the two sides was even more of a mystery. A total of three or four rounds of gunfire were fired from the beginning to the end, and it seemed that no one was killed. After "breaking through" the city wall, only fire and gunpowder smoke could be seen, and even the sound of gunfire could not be heard. .

From the Grand Duke to every soldier below, it was clear that the two sides had never discussed "how to attack and defend" in depth, but everyone showed an amazing tacit understanding of how to fight and to what extent. Anson and Stormtrooper were a kind of outsiders looking in awe.

Well, it’s actually not difficult to understand if you think about it carefully - with the natural barrier of the Dawn Mountains and the Ysel elves guarding Eagle Point City, the Seven Cities Alliance has been completely isolated from the Old World since the forty-seventh year of the Saints Calendar. Beyond the strife of the world.

What's left is a bunch of disputes between small states. They neither have the strength to annex each other, nor dare to completely collapse, allowing the empire or Clovis' forces to take advantage of it... So like this pretense, "armed" They have probably experienced many "parade-style" battles and are already familiar with them.

After thinking about this, Anson looked at the battlefield in the distance with a little more clarity in his eyes, and he had a deeper understanding of why Thun's army "broke into pieces at the touch of a touch."

He was even a little panicked now - what if on the battlefield of Eagle Point City, these Thun people also held an "armed parade" like they did now...

"I have a question." Grand Duke Thun suddenly looked back, staring at Anson's eyes with a deep gaze, and said calmly:

"If I had not chosen Clovis, but Israel...what would you have done?"

"Then it depends on whether the Ring of Order protects me." Anson smiled lightly and didn't care much:

"But I was lucky. I captured Eagle Point City in just ten days."

Claude Francois snorted.

Of course he knew what Anson meant - with the fall of Eagle Point City, Thun would no longer be able to remain neutral no matter how much he tried to do so, and the charge of "colluding" with Clovis would make Thun completely lose his choice.

"But what if I still insist on siding with the Ysel elves?"

"You won't." Anson shook his head:

"No matter how loyal Thun is, the Yser elves can't give you more - unless they hand over Eagle Point City to you, but that is the most unacceptable result to Yser, because it is tantamount to destroying the national border defense line. The most important fortress in the world was handed over to others."

"But Clovis can, because we have no power at all south of the Dawn Mountains, and we are in urgent need of a strong ally, so Clovis is happy to see the growth of Thun; if necessary, we are even willing to take the initiative to help You provide all the help you need.”

"Like this?" Picking up the speech he had given before, Claude Francois smiled sarcastically:

"With such a declaration of war, Israel and Thun are completely determined to fight to the death and forced to stand with you Clovis?"

"No, this is a statement!"

Anson's expression instantly became serious, and he spoke righteously to Thun:

"Only in this way can Thun become an innocent victim in this war, and all the responsibility lies with Israel."

More importantly, only in this way can Thun head north to Eagle Point City with all his heart, prove his "innocence" with blood and fire, completely separate from Israel, and surrender to Clovis with facts.

Without this "letter of surrender", how could Clovis safely support such a Francois family that had the ambition to unify the vast land and whose blood history might be older than that of the Osteria royal family?

Of course Claude Francois knew this, and because he knew it, he couldn't help but complain to Anson - after all, if it weren't for this "dear nephew" who was half forcing and half winning, he wouldn't have gone to bed so quickly. Clovis' pirate ship.

"How are the supplies prepared?" Grand Duke Thun, who was feeling a little depressed, changed the topic:

"The next step will be a head-on battle with Yser, which may even include the troops of the Seven Cities Alliance. Thun's own reserves alone are not enough to deal with so many enemies."

"Please rest assured, everything is ready." Anson chuckled and nodded:

"When we captured Eagle Point City, I immediately sent a letter to Lunde Manor in the capital of Clovis. In a few days, the Luen family will receive the news and prepare at least two legions of eight for you. All equipment for ten thousand people!”

"For the sake of the ancient friendship between Bach and the Francois family, the first batch of 40,000 people will be packed and shipped soon, and will arrive in Eagle Point City in two months at the latest; you just need to be ready A payment equivalent to the cost price alone can arm Thun’s army to the teeth!”

Of course, it is definitely the "cost price" in the minds of the Thun people... After learning a little bit from Carl Bain and the little secretary, Anson also roughly knew what a hugely profitable industry the arms were.

Especially in the face of countries like the Seven Cities Alliance that cannot be self-sufficient in wartime arms, if you can open a military factory in Clovis and have access to the railway transportation line, making money will be easier than digging for gold!

Claude Francois, who was not clear about this, just nodded slightly, or in other words, as long as he could get a stable source of weapons, he actually didn't care how much the Clovis people could earn from it.

While the two were still talking, the shouts of killing in the distance had gradually faded away, and more and more white flags were raised in the White Tower City, leaving only the last inner fortress still "remitting a stubborn resistance."

In this way, the battle of White Tower City is over... The two of them breathed a little relieved in their hearts at the same time.

at this time……

"boom--!!!!"

A deafening roar suddenly exploded under the dome.

For a moment, the stunned Grand Duke Thun and Ansen looked up at the direction of the explosion at the same time; they saw the top of the tallest tower in White Tower City exploded into pieces in the raging fire!

Looking at the fire burning in the billowing black smoke, Anson and Grand Duke Thun looked at each other.

A few minutes later, a cavalryman covered with smoke and fire marks rushed back from the battlefield and conveyed the latest news to Claude Francois's ears in a low voice.

The frowning Archduke Thun looked back at Anson behind him with an extremely complicated expression:

"Count Than Brand... He handed his family to Ambassador Mattias, watched them leave the castle, climbed to the top of the tower alone, and used a powder keg hidden in advance... to commit suicide!"