Lord Harland.

After receiving the military order from Duke Jonathan, Richard once again summoned the officers to discuss matters in the big tent.

When everyone arrived at the main tent of the Chinese Army, Richard went straight to the point and said: "Duke Jonathan has issued an order, asking us to deal with the coalition forces of nobles in central Stanik as soon as possible, and then join the main force led by Duke Jonathan to attack Kleiners City together. The order has been issued It has been issued, let's discuss how to complete it?"

After everyone had seen the Duke's warrant, Burton was the first to stand up and asked, "My lord, has Duke Jonathan set a specific deadline?"

Burton is the cousin of Viscount Raphael. He is already a seventh-level silver knight and the commander of the coalition of nobles in Lach Province.

The aristocratic coalition commanded by Richard had a total of 16,000 soldiers when it set off. Among them, the Harland territory sent 4,000 troops, the nobles of the Gedda province sent 4,000 troops, the nobles of the Lach province sent 5,000 troops, and the nobles of the Gascoyne province sent 3,000 troops.

In the previous battles, the tri-provincial coalition suffered close to casualties, and most of the losses came from the Gascoigne province.

After capturing Bursen Castle, Richard asked Kalani to lead the coalition of Gascoigne nobles to guard the grain road, while Lost led the second group to escort the serfs. Now there are only 12,000 troops left on the front line.

Among the coalition forces today, Lahe province has the largest number of troops and the heaviest weight.Burton is the representative of the coalition of nobles in the province of Lahe, and Richard must pay attention to Burton's opinion.

"The Duke did not set a specific time limit, but the wording in the order is quite strict. We are required to deal with the enemy as soon as possible and cooperate with the main army in combat."

"In this situation, storming is very difficult. Duke Jonathan asked us to resolve the battle as soon as possible. It is really difficult for others. My opinion is still based on me, so as not to disrupt my rhythm. Continue to siege the city for a while, wait until early August, if If the food in the city is exhausted, we will naturally have a decisive battle with us. If there is still food left in the city, we should plan to retreat."

Burton's remarks are in line with the interests of the Central Route Army.

The nobles of the three provinces are not directly under Duke Jonathan's army. After participating in the war this year, they have successfully completed the task and successfully contained the coalition forces of the nobles in central Stanik, preventing them from going north for reinforcements.

Duke Jonathan's order obviously put a heavier burden on the Central Route Army. Burton's words implied that he was unwilling to take on this responsibility.

After participating in the war, the Central Route Army won two battles and gained a lot of spoils. The population alone reached nearly .

The Central Route Army has already been plundered, and many nobles in the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces are now satisfied and do not want to fight hard with the enemy.

Burton's remarks represent the opinions of a large number of people, and even the military spirit is on his side.Even if Li Cha wanted to continue to make meritorious service, he had to take care of the morale of the soldiers, and his orders could not deviate too far from the thoughts of the soldiers.

Richard turned to Sharp and asked, "Sir Sharp, what do you think?"

Sharp commanded the coalition of nobles in Gedda Province and had four thousand soldiers under his command. Compared with the nobles of Lach Province, the nobles of Geda Province have a closer relationship with Richard. In particular, the noble soldiers in Heihe County admired Richard very much. Like the soldiers in the Harland territory, they were the backbone of Richard's control of the army.

"Can you write a letter to Duke Jonathan to recruit the nobles in Nero Castle?"

"The nobles in Central Stanik are all members of the distant branches of the Linus family. Leaving aside the blood feud between the Linus family and the Jonathan family, it is impossible to recruit them under the current situation. These people hold resentment and have no trust with us. If Rebelling before the battle will bring us even more trouble."

Baron Sharp also opposed a forced attack. He said calmly: "After two months of siege, the morale of the city has dropped a lot. If we can barely drive the soldiers to attack the city, it will be easier for the enemy to seize the opportunity and win a victory.

In the past two months, the defenders of Fort Nero have been blocked from the outside world. If there is no news from the outside for a long time, the morale of the defenders must be unstable. I think it is better to drive the sheep under Nero's castle and let the defenders see that we still have enough food and grass to stimulate the enemy. If we can attract the enemy to leave the city, we will take advantage of the situation to surround and annihilate the enemy who came out to attack. If the enemy remains stationary, it will also damage the morale of the defenders. "

Since none of his subordinates are willing to attack by force, Li Cha will not let the soldiers in Harland's territory be used as cannon fodder to fill the city.

Simply following Baron Sharp's plan, Richard let the sheep graze around the castle the next day, deliberately letting the defenders see it, to show that the coalition forces of the three provinces had plenty of food and grass.

Baron Sharp had rich experience and was able to accurately estimate the mood of the defenders. Seeing tens of thousands of sheep, the defenders immediately knew that it was impossible to expect the enemy to retreat in a short time.

Although there was a lot of food in Nero's castle, it was enough to last for nine months under normal circumstances. However, when the castle was fortified and cleared, more than 4,000 soldiers poured into the castle, plus the soldiers' families, nobles' entourage, grassroots bureaucrats and other chaotic personnel. Tens of thousands more people were added to the castle.

With tens of thousands more mouths, there was suddenly not enough food.

If everything goes well, Fort Nero can still hold on for four or five months, until Richard runs out of food and retreats.

But accidents happened one after another in the war.

Richard had aerial reconnaissance troops. Through aerial reconnaissance in early May, he discovered a large granary of the defenders. He then concentrated on using kerosene bombs thrown by trebuchets to burn down the granary. More than 2,000 tons of food in the city were lost.

After this battle, the defenders learned their lesson and adopted the method of storing grain in separate warehouses and digging cellars. Now there is only one month left in the grain storage, and they can only hold on until late June.

The grain reserves are getting less and less, and the nobles guarding the city are getting more and more worried.They knew in their hearts that once the food was exhausted, if the defenders did not surrender, they would have to eat people in order to survive.If this step is reached, Fort Nero will turn into a scene like hell.

Stimulated during the day, the nobles in Nero's Castle requested orders, asking Viscount Nero to open the city gate, organize an army to raid the enemy, and rob the sheep.

Seeing the anger of the crowd, Viscount Nero summoned everyone to the mansion to discuss countermeasures.

The coalition of nobles commanded by Li Cha cannot be united as one.Under the command of Viscount Nero, there are also people with ulterior motives.

Fort Nero has been besieged for two months, and no reinforcements have been received yet. The nobles in the city also know that the situation has become extremely dangerous. They knew in their hearts that the Grant Kingdom was much stronger than the Grand Duchy of Stanek. Moreover, there was chaos within the Grand Duchy of Stanik this year. Members of the Linus royal family killed each other and lost 30,000 to 40,000 regular troops.

These 30,000 to 40,000 regular troops are direct descendants of the Linus family. The total number of troops controlled by the Linus family is only 100,000.

Although the Grand Duchy of Stanik is not weak, the dukes in the south and the border nobles in the north may not be willing to fight for the Linus family?

Although the appeal of the Jonathan family in Stanik has declined a lot, after all, they are the former masters of this country, and can influence a large part of the middle power to prevent them from participating in the war.

The war has continued until now, and the future of the Linus family is no longer good, and many nobles are unwilling to sit in a dangerous city.There are many people who want to break through, including Viscount Nero's clan.

The nobles in the city have breathing methods, professional clansmen, and soldiers who follow.Just get out of danger.Entering the Kingdom of Ryan, the Kingdom of Delong and other countries, you still have the opportunity to struggle to become a hereditary noble and restore your identity.Those who are willing to follow Viscount Nero to defend the castle are actually a minority.It's just that Viscount Nero is a powerful epic knight and has a high prestige in the coalition army, so he didn't openly engage in internal strife.

"The enemy drove the flocks and let us see them on purpose to stimulate us. We must not be fooled, as long as we persevere, everything will work out." Seeing that everyone had arrived, Viscount Nero got straight to the point and expressed his opinion .

"Our food is only enough for one month, and there are no reinforcements outside, and the enemy has tens of thousands of sheep. Even if they drink goat milk and eat mutton, they can last until late August. Moreover, the enemy can still get supplements from the rear. We The food will run out next month, what should we do then, is it really necessary to eat people? Most of the population in the city is the family members of the soldiers, can we give orders for the soldiers to eat their families?"

The first person to speak out was Viscount Casaro, who had soldiers under his command, and his strength in the city was second only to Viscount Nero. He raised objections and got the approval of many people.

"Viscount Casaro is right. I think the best way is to organize elite troops to go out of the city and launch a night attack to burn the enemy's food and rob the enemy's sheep. As long as the battle is successful, the enemy will retreat because the food is exhausted. .

If the night attack fails, we should make plans in advance and never be trapped in this place. Seven thousand soldiers have no food to eat. The most likely possibility is to surrender to the enemy, and then all of us will die. "As soon as Casaro finished speaking, Viscount York spoke in agreement.

Most of Viscount York's soldiers were lost in the Feiraman Mountains. Although he is not a mere commander now, he only has 300 direct descendants around him. His right to speak is far inferior to that of the other two viscounts, and he can only be equal to the baron.

The two viscounts took the lead, and the barons below spoke in agreement.Seeing that there are so many opinions against defending the city, Viscount Nero knew in his heart that his opinions were already unpopular.

The noble coalition soldiers under Viscount Nero are all locals.At the beginning, in order to stabilize people's hearts, he gathered the soldiers' families in Nero Castle, but now these soldiers' families have all become burdens.

If you want to break out, you can't escape with the old and the weak. But it is difficult for the commander to issue this order to abandon the soldiers' families.

Soldiers are not robots, and it does not mean that any order given by the commander must be carried out.

If the army led by Viscount Nero were guest soldiers, this situation would be easy to handle.Whether it's hunting old and young in the city, relying on cannibalism to defend the city, or organizing soldiers to break through, as long as the strength is dominant, it is very easy.

But Viscount Nero led soldiers from his hometown, and he wanted the soldiers to eat his wives, children, and children. No matter who gave this order, he would definitely be backlashed by the soldiers.

Viscount Nero knew that the enemy had laid a trap and that a sneak attack out of the city would be impossible to succeed. However, the officers under his command were in a great mood, and most of them were unwilling to continue to defend the city.

If the opinions cannot be unified, there will be internal strife if the quarrel continues.

Viscount Nero knocked on the table and shouted loudly: "You guys let me think carefully, but the enemy must have set up a trap tonight and launched a night attack. I will never agree."

After everyone left, Viscount Nero carefully weighed the situation. Since the conflict was open to the public and the nobles did not want to defend the city, Viscount Nero was unable to go against the opinions of the majority. We can only organize a breakout according to their wishes.

Early the next morning, Viscount Nero held a meeting with the noble lords.At this meeting, he let go and expressed his willingness to organize soldiers and launch a breakout war.

"You go back and do a count to see how many soldiers are alone and willing to follow us?"

The nobles returned to the military camp, counted the soldiers' situation clearly, and reported to Viscount Nero.

After looking at the statistics, Viscount Nero discovered that there were only over 300 soldiers without family ties. The remaining soldiers all had relatives. Most of these soldiers with families were unwilling to break out with them and fled to neighboring countries.

The reason why soldiers are willing to defend the city is mainly to protect their families.

Viscount Nero has been preaching to the soldiers about the enemy's brutality for the past two months, claiming that after the coalition forces of the three provinces break the city, they will definitely massacre the city. Fearing that their families would be slaughtered, the defenders fought bravely.

"With only 300 people, how can we protect everyone's families? The reason why I oppose the breakout is that I am afraid of disrupting the morale of the army. I know that it is difficult to succeed in a breakout."

There are only or cavalry in the noble coalition forces in the city.There are ten hereditary barons and three hereditary viscounts among the members of the aristocracy. Counting the distant nobles, the total number exceeds a thousand.Most of these people are old and weak, women and children, and only a small number of hard-hearted people can cruelly abandon their families.

Relying on hundreds of cavalry, it was impossible to break through with this group of burdens.

Seeing that Viscount Nero was still hesitating, Viscount York persuaded: "If you don't break out, you can only wait for death. If you break out, you still have a chance to escape. In this situation, you are our leader. You can't hesitate, you should make up your mind."

"Tomorrow I will order the soldiers to go out of the city to counterattack and contain the enemy's main force. You and Casaro organize the backbone to break out with all the cavalry in the castle. If we can break through the encirclement, we will meet at Sola Castle in the southern Dalon Mountains."

Upon hearing the breakout route planned by Viscount Nero, Viscount York asked with shock: "Why don't we go to Linus Castle and go west into the Kingdom of Lane?"

Viscount Nero shook his head and said: "After the enemy captures Nero Castle, they must join the main force in the Linus area. Enemy troops are everywhere near Linus Castle. We went in this direction, and we couldn't escape the enemy's pursuit.

My opinion is to move to the southwest, cross the Dron Mountains from Sola Castle, and enter the Dron Kingdom through the territory of the Allen family. "

"Duke Allen is willing to let us pass? The dukes in the south are at both ends and are not willing to take responsibility at all. If they try their best, they can mobilize a hundred thousand troops. With a hundred thousand troops joining us, we can easily expel the enemy."

After hearing what Viscount York said, Viscount Nero also hated the Dukes on both sides of the South. But hatred could not solve any problem. He could only hope that the Allen family would turn a blind eye and allow them to enter the Delon Kingdom for political asylum.

.