I will be crowned king

With the hurried help of the messenger, who used the remaining half bottle of rum to disinfect the wound, and then randomly bandaged the wound with sheets and clothes, the confident Bernard immediately sent out the remaining cavalry around him to blow the whistle. number, gathering an army to fight the combined forces of Clovis and the colonial traitors.

Yes, Bernard had been waiting for this moment for a long time - everything was within his prediction.

The reason for decisively abandoning Gray Pigeon Castle is, on the one hand, to restrain the marching speed of the Clovis people, so that they can besiege the Sailing City without any scruples; on the other hand, it is to show the enemy's weakness and seduce the opponent to take the initiative. Go on the attack.

The two purposes that may sound contradictory are actually serving the same goal; that is, to allow the enemy to follow the steps you designed and reappear at the time you want them to appear!

First delay the enemy's possible attack speed, then lure the opponent to leave the safe fortress, enter the battlefield you have scheduled to fight with yourself while your own side is waiting for work, and fight a battle of annihilation through the total number of troops and home field advantage - this is Bernard's idea plan!

However, the opponent's speed of action was still slightly beyond his expectation. Originally, Bernard hoped that the battle of Sailing City would be a foregone conclusion. When Louis and Sado, who deserved death, begged for forgiveness, they followed him. They negotiated for time while turning to fight.

In that case, this battle will be much safer; but it doesn't really matter if it is done earlier. On the contrary, we can take the opportunity of annihilating the colonial traitors to cut off Sail City's expectations for reinforcements and capture it in one go!

As for the certainty of a head-on confrontation, Bernard is absolutely confident.

As the Minister of Colonial Affairs, he knew exactly how many colonies there were in the New World Empire. Excluding Pigeon Castle, the remaining colonies could not muster more than 8,000 troops for long-distance operations. Counting the cold along the way, Neutralizing factors such as disease, malnutrition, and lack of arms, 7,000 people were basically on the line.

And the Clovis garrison? Combining the intelligence from all parties - mainly various newspapers, such as "The Good People of Beluga Harbor" - the strength of the troops is about 5,000; in total, it is almost 10,000 to 13,000 to 13,400, which is almost different from my own.

The number of people is the same, and the actual strength of the two sides' troops determines the combat effectiveness. Although the imperial army has experienced various accidents, it can still gather 8,000 core elites, and it also includes a still considerable number of cavalry and sufficient artillery. In a relatively open area , enough to form absolute suppression against an equal number of Clovis troops.

This is why he has the confidence to say "annihilate more than half of the enemy in one day."

But compared to the smooth sailing that can be seen, what the new world lacks most is actually a variety of unexpected "surprises"; especially for an army that has just lost its base camp and is in chaos, all kinds of superpowers have emerged. It's almost as normal as you can imagine.

So Bernard soon discovered that although he could assemble 8,000 elite troops, without the necessary baggage for the siege troops, if the remaining weapons and ammunition were evenly distributed, they could only support two or three battles.

And those equipment that disappeared from the world were actually sold by the soldiers to the rebellious settlements and natives of the Gray Pigeon Castle colony? !

"...In the past, I thought that colluding with the bandits and robbers like the southern army and joining forces to defraud the government of money was corrupt, incompetent and depraved. Now it seems that the army of the New World is so superior that it is all about money. Damn it!"

After resisting the strong dizziness after drinking, Bernard, who had been stunned for a long time, couldn't help but said hysterically: "Don't they understand, which is more important, life or money?!"

"Of course they understand." The officer in charge of logistics looked calm and explained to Bernard seriously:

"In fact, they did this because they cherished their lives."

"What's the meaning?"

"To put it simply, it is because we were too hasty during the retreat. The materials we collected from Gray Pigeon Castle were not enough to support the army's consumption for more than two months; plus we have to provide the minimum supplies to the cannon fodder recruits, we can only It was cut from other soldiers." The logistics officer said:

"Those soldiers knew this very well, so when they retreated, they looted the surrounding countryside and small settlements, and exchanged weapons for those people's food reserves."

"Change? Why not grab it?!" Bernard found it difficult to understand:

"Don't they have guns in their hands?!"

"Of course not! Although we have eight thousand people, they are scattered throughout the colony in various settlements. Each area only has two or three soldiers at most - we want to retreat, not specifically to plunder." Logistics The officer sighed:

"In fact, almost all of those settlements have been robbed. If they take action again, the other side will definitely have to fight hard. If there are casualties, the lone food collection team will definitely suffer in the end - the soldiers don't have much cash on them, and they don't want the other side. The only thing on both sides is It is recognized that hard currency is a weapon!”

Bernard's face was stiff, he wanted to complain but didn't know where to start.

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter... This battle won't last too long anyway. In the worst case, we can just find a way to capture it later."

After an awkward silence, the Minister in Charge comforted him. He didn't know whether he was comforting others or himself: "How is the arrangement of the logistics materials? Can it be ensured to be foolproof?"

"Absolutely no problem. We divided the supplies into two parts exactly according to your previous arrangement. Two-thirds are in the military camp warehouse, and one-third is placed in the rear. A small colonial settlement along the way called Huangcaolin has set up an outpost. .”

In order to avoid the evil hands of some corrupt elements, Bernard, who learned from the lessons of the siege of Black Reef Port, replaced the logistics department and separated the management of materials to prevent another accident of logistics interruption in the middle of the battle.

But in the Wild Grass Forest, isn't it a bit close to Gray Pigeon Castle... Bernard suddenly noticed something and subconsciously asked: "By the way, where was the enemy's reconnaissance cavalry captured?"

"Huang Cao Lin, we have several outposts there." The logistics officer subconsciously said:

"Didn't I just tell you?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he seemed to have discovered something, and there was an expression on his face that showed a bad premonition.

The two people who looked at each other turned their heads and looked into the distance at the same time, and couldn't help but take a breath of cold air.

Half an hour later, the herald breathlessly sent information again - on June 10th, Clovis's army suddenly appeared in the grassland area around 7:30 in the morning. After destroying multiple outposts in succession, they headed towards the settlement. The garrison stationed inside launched an attack.

………………

The northern suburbs of Yangfan City are filled with grass and forests.

"Run quickly, Clovis is coming in——!!!"

The shrill screams echoed for a long time over the messy trench positions. Hundreds of defeated imperial soldiers threw down their weapons and dragged their flags behind them. Amidst the roaring of the mountains and the tsunami of killing cries, they walked along the road towards the forests on both sides. Escape.

Behind them, the three hussars companies in the vanguard had torn apart the hastily organized outer defense line and began to move straight south along the road, trying to outflank the settlement from the flanks and rear, while using inaccurate carbines and revolvers. Open fire on the settlement defenders.

If it's the Imperial Cavalry, cavalry shooting alone can destroy the enemy's scattered defense lines; if it's Clovis... fire suppression is a euphemism.

But it doesn't matter, because behind them, the main force of the Storm Division has fully pressed forward, and is advancing rapidly in column array; patches of bayonets cast a breathtaking cold light in the forest, in the middle of the road and in the middle of the river.

The attack had just begun, but the entire defense force on the empire's side had collapsed; apart from the initial harassment by my sister-in-law, the vanguard troops responsible for the raid and attack did not encounter any effective resistance.

When the forced-swimming troops were the first to rush into the fortress, they were surprised to find that except for the golden iris flags above their heads and the ragtag group of people who were obviously militiamen, there was no garrison in the stronghold.

Even the extremely limited resistance forces were actually all troops withdrawn from the previous outposts. The stronghold itself had very few defense forces, and they were all destroyed in the first round of the offensive.

"How is this going?"

Looking at the fleeing deserters in the distance, Karl put down his telescope and frowned in confusion: "Did the prisoner caught before lie? The Wild Grass Forest was not Bernard's base camp at all?"

"No, he probably didn't lie." Fabian next to him shook his head and shook the document he had just obtained towards the chief of staff: "This is the accounts manual of the Imperial Army. It records in detail that this stronghold stores nearly One-third of the logistics supplies.”

"Secretary Alan Dawn and Lieutenant Colonel Norton Crosell have gone to the warehouse and cellar to take inventory - the exact number has to wait, but judging from the scale of the storage, there should be no false problems."

"That's not necessarily true, but unless the warehouse is opened, it's hard to tell how many things are inside."

Karl snorted. He, as a veteran who had been taking the blame for many years, was very aware of the tricks played by the logistics department; a bag of wheat that was recorded in the warehouse would most likely end up on the dining table of a certain aristocratic master.

"And even if the stronghold is real and the supplies are real, why would Bernard specifically set it up in a stronghold close to the road?" The chief of staff looked puzzled:

"Even if we don't get the information, if we fight all the way down the road, we will still hit the stronghold of Huangcao Forest. Who gave him the courage to do this?"

"No one gave him the courage, he had to do it!"

Anson Bach's words came towards the two of them step by step: "Because Bernard's army, like us, must march along the road and maintain logistics, otherwise it will not be able to sustain a battle for more than three days!"

"So as long as you follow the road south, you will definitely hit Bernard's supply line, but this time he placed his base camp too close to Gray Pigeon Castle."

"As for why, they probably plan to use this place as a base in the future to facilitate the push back to Gray Pigeon Castle?" Anson could only guess:

"It's just that our advancement speed exceeded the enemy's expectations, so we can progress so smoothly - this once again proves that my plan is correct!"

"Yes, your plan has always been perfect." Karl sighed tiredly:

"Then what's next - the original plan was to knock out the enemy's base camp first, and then take the opportunity to continuously assemble follow-up troops to attract the enemy to come for a decisive battle; now only half of the troops have been assembled, and more than 5,000 Confederate troops are still on the way. , do you want to wait for them?"

The reason for formulating this tactic is also because the terrain around Yangfan City is mostly open, but it is divided left and right by several connected or interrupted hilly areas; coupled with large areas of woodland and slopes, the battlefield can truly accommodate tens of thousands of people facing each other head-on. not much.

On the other hand, if either side is defeated, the retreating side will have no chance of defending and will have no choice but to retreat along the center of the slope and then be annihilated. It will be difficult to quickly build a new line of defense for a decisive counterattack.

The strength of Clovis and the Confederate Army is slightly lower than that of the Empire, and the average level of individual soldiers is quite different. Therefore, they must find a way to make the enemy take the initiative to leave their entrenched positions, accept provocations, and enter a field that is just right for our own side, but can also limit the enemy's frontal width. battlefield.

But now that the enemy base has fallen, Bernard will definitely go north immediately. There are still more than half of his troops on the way. It is difficult to say whether the rendezvous can be completed before the war begins; even if it can, the planned decisive battle will definitely be out of the question. .

Speaking of this, it’s really hard to describe... Even though I had lowered my expectations for this group of "freedom fighters" to the maximum extent, their performance still gave Anson a big surprise: a force of 6,000 people struggled for three days. The distance traveled was not as long as a storm division's day.

It’s not that they are really so slow that they can be compared to a certain dark green, semi-aquatic, semi-dwelling, semi-terrestrial reptile species. What really matters is the cooperation... The vanguard has arrived at the destination, but the subsequent farce has not started yet or simply got lost. It's been happening over and over again over the past few days.

If this were not the case, Anson would not have simply marched in a hurry to attack the imperial army's base camp in a surprise attack; otherwise, with the marching speed of this group of people, he would probably have no choice but to collect Louis' body by the time they reached Sailing City.

"No, there's no time to wait for them anymore."

After hesitating for a minute, Anson rejected the original plan: "Since the war situation has changed, the tactics must also be adjusted accordingly - no matter if we wait or not, we can't prepare the troops to start a decisive battle with the enemy. Degree."

"Leave an infantry regiment and artillery on standby, build fortifications, and gather the troops arriving later to prepare for Bernard's counterattack; the enemy must be heading north along the road, so we will defend along the road and fight them in a positional battle!"

"Only one group left?"

Fabian looked stunned: "Then what are the remaining troops going to do? Keep moving forward?"

"Keep going!" Anson nodded heavily:

"Avoid the front road and advance quickly towards Yangfan City. We want to raid the empire's siege position and rush to the aid of Yangfan City!"