I will be crowned king

Thick black smoke swept across the sky, revealing only a sliver of blood-red sunset, reflecting the dilapidated and flaming Straw Town.

When the last ray of the setting sun receded and night fell, the battle in Strawtown that lasted for a day finally ushered in a pause button that neither side was particularly satisfied with, but had no choice but to press.

As the cavalry troops failed to successfully break through the battlefield on the west side and deter the artillery positions of the Storm Legion, although the artillery fire in Strawtown was not as intensive as it was at the beginning, it never stopped; and in the process of forcibly breaking through, they encountered the risk of the Fifth Infantry Regiment. They intercepted them to death and suffered heavy casualties.

A thousand elite cavalry, more than half of which were casualties... Made up his mind, Julien, who personally stood in the front row of the line to participate in the battle, almost reduced the battle losses to one to one, and defeated the organization of the Jihad Army Cavalry Regiment with his passion. , broke up and fled, unable to regain their combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

Of course, in the eyes of Borre Levent, the most serious loss was definitely the dead cavalry commander... His regiment was almost entirely supported by this group of powerful and experienced relatives. Any one, especially those with higher positions, Any loss will greatly reduce command efficiency and combat effectiveness, and it is impossible to replenish it.

What was even more serious was the series of chain reactions caused by the cavalry regiment's defeat: the Jihadist Army, which was attacking across the board, was blocked at the east gate of Strawtown and was unable to move forward.

But this was not because of how fierce the enemy's artillery fire was. It was simply that after the main force of the Jihadist Army, who had been exposed to stress reactions, successfully escaped, they were never willing to return to that nightmarish place; regardless of whether Borre Lewin After repeated orders, threats and inducements, these elites all tacitly stopped outside the ditch in front of the city gate, refusing to take another step.

With such a group of excellent role models, the remaining "reserve troops" who were not usually taken seriously by the legion commander naturally followed suit decisively. Even if the legion commander raised the reward as high as the sky and said all the good and bad things, this gang The military leaders and their soldiers still refused to advance, insisting that their attack sequence should be behind the main force.

It has been nearly four months since they set off from the Old Continent. They know the Legion Commander too well, and they are extremely partial to their relatives. The 20,000 people are said to be the Jihadist Army, but in fact they are the Levent family and several others. The private soldiers of peripheral relatives, no matter how hard others try, can only get some scraps that the Levent family does not want.

In this case, members of Levent's family are not willing to work hard, why are they so active?

The reserve forces figured it out and opened up, but Borre Lewent was dumbfounded - I didn't even give up my position and attacked across the front, but the soldiers and officers went on strike collectively on the front line. What's going on? !

An hour later, in despair, he received the heartbreaking news: the New World Army had defeated the defenders and captured the entire siege including the headquarters, artillery positions, and supply camps. Now their backs were full of people. The eleven-star ring flag.

At this time, the jihadi army, which had just wanted to be fooled, immediately panicked and encouraged Borre Levent to quickly organize a breakout. Even the reserve army, which had not always been very active, took the lead and expressed its willingness to charge forward.

But Borre Levent just sneered... His siege position was originally designed to block the exit of Strawtown and prevent the enemy from breaking out and defensive counterattack. It was not a Strawtown with no bunkers and fortifications and wide open doors; A planned and prepared frontal attack, isn't this looking for death?

So the result of this hasty retreat was completely within his expectation.

Although the Borre Corps is very familiar with the structure of the siege position, this only means that they can gain a slight advantage in intelligence. At most, plus the artillery positions destroyed by themselves, they do not have to worry about the situation like when they attacked Straw Town. It was just blown up to the sky.

leftover? Gone.

Although the Borre Corps still has tens of thousands of troops, about three times the number of the third and fourth infantry regiments who captured the siege position, plus the remaining members of the shooting corps, this is far from enough to smooth out the position fortifications, plus the previous The impact on morale caused by successive defeats in battles; coupled with the fact that most soldiers had no intention of fighting at all and were preoccupied with thinking about how to break out, further led to a decline in combat effectiveness.

The battle lasted from 4 o'clock in the afternoon to 6:30. The nearly 5,000-strong Storm Legion and the Shooting Army held back the Borei Legion who was trying to break through. The gradually darkening sky and the exhaustion of physical strength made the already unstoppable Borre Levent, who had little hope, chose to temporarily withdraw his troops and rest.

The entire legion was trapped in the middle of the empty battlefield between Strawtown and the siege position. There was no logistical supplies, no camp to shelter from the wind and rain, and a safe place to rest. They could only lie in the mud that had been ravaged by warhorse boots, artillery shells, and wildfire. Holding the weapon, he shivered at the smell of gunpowder smoke and corpses.

This is not the most desperate... When the casualties were counted, Borei was surprised to find that out of the 20,000-strong army, there were only less than 13,000 left... Putting aside the dead, there were a large number of soldiers who took advantage of the enemy to attack the siege positions and break out of the siege. When he failed, he ran away secretly!

What made him most angry was that the deserters not only included those cowardly and incompetent reserve troops, but also included several of his relatives... Although their positions were not high, the impact was really bad.

In order not to affect morale, Borre Levent could only pinch his nose and include these people on the list of "missing persons" in the attack on Straw Town. In addition, in order to prevent the news from leaking, he could only temporarily pretend that he had nothing to do with the deserters. As far as I know, I can hide it for a while... although it probably doesn't mean much.

Under the dark night, looking at the eleven-star ring flag that surrounded him, Borre Levent's heart was filled with desolation; wealth, honor, prestige, connections... The jihad that he risked everything on might be necessary. It's over here.

He just really didn't understand what he had done wrong, allowing an army of 20,000 to be "counter-surrounded" by Anson Bach's army of more than 10,000... Obviously, regardless of the number of people, firepower or the quality of the officers and soldiers, he should be better One step ahead; which link caused the problem, and how did the other party complete such an impossible operation?

Beaure Levent racked his brains, but he couldn't figure it out.

What he didn't know was that the guy opposite him was actually in the same mood as him.

The battle that was originally planned to completely annihilate the opponent turned into an incomplete encirclement... Anson, who was full of self-confidence, suddenly felt confused; every link was obviously executed perfectly, why was the result so different from the original plan?

With this inexplicable confusion, Anson, who had "successfully surrounded" the enemy, did not continue to launch an attack. Instead, he led the guard company and the 5th Infantry Regiment with heavy casualties to temporarily stationed in Straw Town, preparing to continue the siege first. Look at the situation and decide your next move.

The bloody battle in Straw Town, which lasted all day, quietly began the intermission.

………………………………

"Snapped--"

A crisp slapping sound sounded in the camp among the ruins. Anson, who was sitting at the map table, interrupted Julien's report with some helplessness and sighed helplessly.

Looking up at the infantry commander standing in front of him with a sad and remorseful expression, Anson, who had been silent for almost five minutes, took out a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and subconsciously wanted to use [Concentrate Flame] but quickly stopped. , and after groping for a long time, he took out the box of barely used matches, lit one and handed it over.

"I have already understood the situation. The defeat in the battle was not your fault. The Fifth Infantry Regiment fought bravely. Without your restraint, the guard company alone was not enough to defeat the cavalry of the Borre Corps. Norton and Leo captured the The siege of the position is unlikely to go smoothly, and as for casualties...this kind of thing is inevitable in many cases."

"The infantry blocks the cavalry, and they are elite imperial cavalry. If they are replaced by a real standing army, they may not be able to achieve a one-to-one battle loss... Thank you for your hard work."

"Anson is right."

The girl on the side walked up and patted Julien on the shoulder. She stood on tiptoes because she was not tall enough: "Lisa also saw it. Julien was obviously so seriously injured and he still fought with the soldiers—— He is braver than Anson who often hides behind the army and babbling at the map!"

After the words fell, Anson's expression suddenly froze with a cigarette still in his hand.

The excited commander of the Fifth Corps didn't notice anything strange. He paused for a moment, then suddenly bowed at 90 degrees, like a child who had done something wrong and came to apologize: "I'm sorry!"

"It's all because of my negligence and inexperience that my subordinates paid such heavy losses. I failed to stop the enemy's cavalry in time and wasted time, which led to the failure of the plan to encircle and annihilate the Borei Army... It's all my fault. , please ask the Commander-in-Chief to handle it according to military law!"

"I told you, it's not your responsibility..."

Anson, still holding a cigarette in his hand, sighed and said in a helpless tone: "Okay, if you insist on accepting the punishment, you can - the Fifth Infantry Regiment will be stationed outside the east gate of Straw Town to guard against the Borei Legion. trends and be ready to attack anytime and anywhere.”

"As for you... you will personally stand guard on the first shift for me tonight. You will not be allowed to rest until you receive an order. Do you understand me clearly?!"

"yes!"

Excited, Julien immediately perked up after hearing this, saluted Anson solemnly, turned decisively and walked out of the camp without looking back.

Anson, who specially lit a cigarette for him, was still frozen in place, watching as more and more cigarette ashes almost fell on his hand.

This is really... Looking at the other person's leaving figure in a daze, Anson suddenly felt that he wanted to say ten thousand words, but all of them were blocked in his mouth.

Lisa, who had been watching the whole process, seemed to have misunderstood something. She was stunned for a moment and suddenly ran up worriedly, staring at him with her big emerald eyes.

"What, what's wrong, Lisa?"

"Nothing, Anson, you don't really want to punish Julien, do you?" the girl asked directly without any concealment.

"punish?"

Anson was stunned for a moment, and suddenly felt a little funny: "It's too late to cherish such an excellent officer, why does Lisa think I will punish him?"

"No, Lisa knows that Anson is a good person, and he will not bully others easily...well, easily." The girl seemed to emphasize it very rigorously, with a very serious expression:

"But if it's for a certain plan, that's not necessarily the case; except for the guys he particularly cares about and the guys he can't beat, Anson will only consider whether the plan can succeed, and won't care what others will think."

She raised her head and recalled it seriously: "Yes, Carl Bain and the young clerk Alan Dawn were bullied many times by Anson. Well, so was Louis... But they We all like Anson, so we don’t take him particularly to heart.”

Uh, this... Anson, who had just been blocked for a while, was once again in a situation where he couldn't find anything to say.

"But Julien is different. He is a good boy who loves to cry. Even if Anson doesn't take the initiative to bully, Julien will be particularly sad... Carl, on the other hand, doesn't care. It doesn't matter how he is bullied."

The girl tilted her little head and began to analyze logically and logically: "So if Anson treats Julien the same way he treats Carl, it will definitely make him particularly sad...especially since he also likes Anson as much as Carl. Although It’s just different preferences…”

"Well, what Lisa said makes sense."

Seeing that the girl seemed to be showing signs of continuing, Anson quickly interrupted: "So don't worry, I will never bully uh... bully Julien, let alone treat him like I treated Karl, you You can rest assured.”

"By the way, who told you all this, and...do you already know all the officers of the Storm Corps?"

At this moment, he who was calm on the surface was shocked to the extreme... In his impression, the girl didn't care much about a few people except himself and Karl; why did he suddenly become so social and even think about other people?

"I know...Lisa has been with everyone for so long, so of course she has known her for a long time."

In response to Anson's question, the girl with an incomprehensible expression rubbed her head: "As for who told me... who else needs to be told about this kind of thing?"

"Oh, Sister Thalia did say that Lisa can't be too free and loose in the future and must learn to grow up."

grow up? !

Anson's pupils suddenly shrank. This should be the first time... no, it shouldn't be. This is the first time he heard the word "grow up" from Lisa.

Lisa is the last blood of August, a direct descendant of the apostle, and is likely to have some relationship with the cause of August's final death... Could it be that Thalia knows something else, but has never told her secrets? ?

Anson instinctively suspected that he and the Luen family were already allies on the same chariot, and there was no need to deliberately hide it from him; but if not, he would feel suspicious when he thought about it.

His consciousness began to spin rapidly, and the girl was stunned for a moment by the increasingly trance-like look in his eyes. She frowned and subconsciously tried to put out the unpleasant-smelling cigarette butt.

The moment Lisa stretched out her hand, gunshots suddenly rang out in the quiet tent!