Chapter 269 Everyone has their own difficulties.
After receiving the military order from Duke Jonathan, Richard once again summoned the officers to the big tent for discussion.
When everyone arrived at the Chinese army's tent, Richard got straight to the point: "Duke Jonathan has issued an order, requiring us to deal with the coalition of nobles in central Stanik as soon as possible, and then join the main force led by Duke Jonathan to attack Kleinas City. The order has been It has been issued. Let's discuss how to complete it."
After everyone read the Duke's order, Burton was the first to stand up and asked: "Your Majesty, has Duke Jonathan set a specific time limit?"
Burton is Viscount Raphael's My cousin 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 coalition forces from the three provinces suffered close to 1,000 casualties, with most of the losses coming from the Gascoyne 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 current coalition forces, the Lach Province has the largest number of troops and the heaviest weight. Burton is the representative of the coalition of nobles in Lach Province, and Richard must pay attention to Burton's opinions.
"The Duke did not set a specific time limit, but the wording in the order is quite strict, requiring us to deal with the enemy as soon as possible and cooperate with the main army in combat." "Under the current situation, it is very difficult to attack by force. Duke Jonathan requires us to resolve the battle as soon as possible. It is
really It's a bit overwhelming. My opinion is still based on myself and not to disrupt my own rhythm. Continue to besiege the city for a while. By early August, if the food in the city is exhausted, they will naturally fight us. If there is still food left in the city, we should We are planning to retreat."
Burton's words were in line with the interests of the Central Army.
The nobles of the three provinces are not directly under Duke Jonathan's army. They have completed the task brilliantly after joining the war this year, successfully containing the coalition of nobles in central Stanik and preventing them from going north for reinforcements.
Duke Jonathan's order obviously increased the burden on the center army. Burton's words implicitly meant that he was unwilling to bear this responsibility.
After participating in the war, the Central Army won two battles and obtained a large amount of loot. The population alone was close to 100,000.
The middle route army has been plundered, and many nobles of the three-province coalition are now satisfied and do not want to fight hard with the enemy.
Burton's words represent the opinions of a large number of people, and even military morale is on his side. Even if Richard wanted to continue to perform meritorious service, he must take care of the morale of the soldiers. His orders could not deviate too far from the soldiers' ideas.
Richard turned his head and asked Sharp, "Old Sir Sharp, what do you think?"
Sharp commanded the coalition of nobles in Geda 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's castle?" "
The nobles in the middle Stanik are all members of the distant branch of the Linus family. Let's not talk about the blood feud between the Linus family and the Jonathan family. Now this In such a situation, it is impossible to recruit them to surrender. These people are resentful and have no trust with us. If they rebel in front of the battle, it will bring us more trouble." Baron Sharp
also opposed the storm. He said calmly: "Besieging the city for two In March, morale dropped a lot, and they could barely drive the soldiers to attack the city, but it was easy 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. There has been 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 out of the city, we will take advantage of the situation to encircle and annihilate this group. If the enemy comes out to attack and remains stationary, it can also damage the morale of the defenders."
Since none of his right and left men were willing to attack by force, Richard would not let the soldiers from Harland's territory be used as cannon fodder to fill the city.
Richard simply followed Baron Sharp's plan and let the sheep graze around the castle the next day, deliberately letting the defenders see it to show that the coalition forces in the three provinces had plenty of food and grass.
Baron Sharp had rich experience and accurately estimated 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.
There are tens of thousands more mouths, and food is suddenly not enough.
If everything goes well, Fort Nero can still hold on for four or five months, until Richard runs out of food and retreats.
But unexpected things happened one after another during 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.
Food reserves were getting less and less, and the nobles guarding the city were becoming 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 it reaches this point, Fort Nero will turn into a hell-like scene.
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 that the crowd was furious, Viscount Nero summoned everyone to the mansion to discuss countermeasures.
The coalition of nobles commanded by Richard cannot be united as one. There are also people with ulterior motives under Viscount Nero.
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 Jonathan family's appeal in Stanik has declined a lot, they are the former masters of this country after all, and they can influence a large part of the middle forces to prevent them from participating in the war. The war has continued until now, and the future of the Linus family is not good, and many nobles are not willing to sit in a dangerous city. There were many people who wanted to break out of the encirclement, including members of Viscount Nero's clan.
The nobles in the city have breathing techniques, professional tribesmen, and soldiers who follow them. As long as you escape from danger. Entering the Kingdom of Lane, Kingdom of Delong and other countries, you still have the opportunity to strive to become a hereditary noble and restore your identity. Those who were willing to follow Viscount Nero to defend the castle were actually a minority. However, because Viscount Nero was a powerful epic knight and had a high prestige among the coalition forces, there was no open internal strife.
"The enemy is driving the sheep and deliberately letting us see them in order to stimulate us. We must not be fooled. As long as we stick to it, everything will be solved." Seeing that everyone had arrived, Viscount Nero got straight to the point and expressed his opinion. .
"We only have enough food for a month, and there are no reinforcements outside. The enemy has tens of thousands of sheep. Even if we drink goat milk and eat mutton, we can survive until late August. Moreover, the enemy can still get reinforcements from the rear. We When we run out of food next month, what should we do then? Do we really want to eat people? Most of the population in the city are the families of soldiers. Can we order the soldiers to eat their families?" The first person to object
was Viscount Casaro, who had 1,500 soldiers under his command and was second only to Viscount Nero in strength in the city, raised objections and was supported by 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 have made plans in advance and must not be trapped in this place. Seven thousand soldiers have no food to eat. The most likely thing is to surrender to the enemy. By then, all of us will be dead." Casaro said. As soon as it fell, 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 were so many objections to defending the city, Viscount Nero knew that his opinion was no longer popular.
The noble coalition soldiers under Viscount Nero are all locals. In order to stabilize people's hearts, he gathered the soldiers' families in Nero's Castle. Now these soldiers' families have become a burden.
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 they do not have to carry out any orders given by their superiors.
If the troops led by Viscount Nero were guest soldiers, this situation would be easier to handle. Whether it is hunting down the young and old in the city, relying on cannibalism to defend the city, or organizing soldiers to break out, it is very easy as long as the strength is dominant.
But Viscount Nero was leading soldiers from his own hometown. If he wanted the soldiers to eat his own wife, children, and children, no matter who gave this order, he would definitely be counterattacked 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.
The opinions cannot be unified, and if the quarrel continues, there will be internal strife.
Viscount Nero slammed the table and shouted: "Let me think about it carefully, but tonight the enemy must have laid a trap 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 relaxed and expressed his willingness to organize soldiers and launch a breakout campaign.
"You guys 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 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 main reason why soldiers are willing to defend the city is 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.
"There are only three hundred people, how can we protect our families? The reason why I oppose the breakout is that I am afraid of disturbing the morale of the army, and I know that it is difficult to succeed in the breakout." There are only six or seven hundred cavalry in the 7,000 noble coalition forces in the city
. There are ten hereditary barons and three hereditary viscounts among the members of the nobility. Counting distant nobles, the total number exceeds thousands. Most of these people are old, weak, women and children, and there are only a few hard-hearted people who 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 will have to wait for death. If you break out, you still have a chance to escape. In this situation, you are our leader. You cannot 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 enter the Kingdom of Lane to the west?"
Viscount Nero shook his head and said: "After the enemy captures Nero Castle, it will inevitably We need to join up with the main force in the Linus area. There are enemy troops everywhere near Linus Castle. We went in this direction and there was no way to avoid the enemy's pursuit. My opinion is to move
southwest and cross over from Sola Castle to Da Long Mountain Range, through the territory of the Allen family, we enter the Kingdom of Delon."
"Duke Allen is willing to let us pass? The dukes in the south are unwilling 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.
(End of chapter)