On the eighteenth of February, 1768 by the Galentean Common Calendar, the vanguard of the northbound caravan — led by Tiger Ross and the scout light cavalry commander
Al also arrived at Cobel City on this same day to report to
The second piece of news was that the Second Prince was constructing a fortress at a strategically commanding mountain pass roughly ten-odd li from Vanades, on the main road leading to Lichidana Fortress, employing some forty to fifty thousand laborers.
Lorist studied the map, feeling something was off.
However, why the Second Prince would build an entirely new fortress ten-odd li from Vanades was the part nobody could make sense of. By all conventional logic, he should have been pouring everything into reinforcing Vanades itself, converting it into a proper fortress city. As long as he held Vanades — that critical transportation hub — he could command the initiative on the battlefield. On the offensive, he could strike out; on the defensive, he could hold firm. There would be no worries about his rear.
In the end, it was Bodenfinger's analysis that proved most convincing. He argued that the Second Prince's new fortress was meant to secure his supply lines and provide mutual support during a defense — making it impossible for the enemy to commit their full strength to besieging Vanades. Furthermore, even if Vanades itself fell, the garrison could simply retreat to the fortress behind it, thereby preventing the newly annexed Yungeshandela Province from falling to enemy raids.
Lorist found this reasoning sound enough. But the caravan and refugees would soon be departing Cobel City to return to the
Two days later, the ten thousand Royal Imperial Guard soldiers dispatched by the Second Prince arrived at Cobel City. Fatty handed over the city's defenses along with twenty million pounds of grain.
To the surprise of Lorist and the others, the Royal Imperial Guard troops did not reinforce the city's defenses as expected. Instead, they began tearing down the walls. Over the course of about ten days, they completely dismantled all six wall sections on three sides, then went on to destroy over a dozen watchtowers before finally loading up the grain and departing…
"Damn it…" Fatty cursed furiously. "What a vicious scheme — he's turned our caravan into bait…"
Lorist's face was grim. "We need to speed up the transport. It's a good thing we left a few days early — if we'd waited until now to set out, it would already be too late. Order the scout cavalry to expand their patrol range and keep tabs on the movements of the landed nobles in Dramek Province, especially along the southern border with the Iberian Kingdom. All remaining supplies and personnel are to be moved to the downstream crossing immediately…"
No one had expected the Second Prince to send troops to demolish Cobel City's walls — he had effectively abandoned this fortress city. From Cobel City to the downstream crossing on the Mitoburo River was still over three hundred li away. Given the enormous scale of the northbound caravan and the burden of a hundred thousand refugees, it would take at least two to three months. And with the Mitoburo River blocking their path, ferrying so many people, horses, and wagons across would take even longer…
It was now the end of February. Even if the rival prince invaded Dramek Province in little more than a month, it would take at most fifteen days to march from the border to Cobel City. When he discovered that Cobel City had been abandoned, he would have two choices: march on Vanades, or chase down the northbound caravan and pin it against the banks of the Mitoburo River…
Considering the vast quantity of supplies and the sheer scale of the northbound caravan, combined with the rival prince's greedy nature, it was easy to predict which choice he would make…
Lorist seethed with frustration. His original intention in handing Cobel City over to the Second Prince — and providing twenty million pounds of grain on top of that — had been to hope the Second Prince would garrison the city, block the rival prince's advance, and buy enough time for the northbound caravan and the refugees to cross the river safely and reach Northland. But he never expected the Second Prince to be this ruthless. With one clean stroke, the Second Prince had abandoned Cobel City and left the caravan in mortal peril.
"Damn it all!" Lorist sighed toward the heavens. He wasn't afraid of the rival prince's army — given the current scale and military strength of the caravan's armed forces, repelling their assault or even crushing them entirely was far from impossible. But killing three thousand of the enemy meant losing eight hundred of his own — why should he let his family's forces sacrifice themselves for nothing to further the Second Prince's ambitions? Even if they defeated the rival prince, what would he gain? Nothing at all. If anything, he'd only end up making an enemy of the rival prince's father-in-law, the powerful Duke Fissabrun…
All to let the Second Prince reap the spoils.
A schemer would always be a schemer — never easy to deal with. Lorist had to admit he'd miscalculated. He shouldn't have placed his hopes on the Second Prince to hold Cobel City. Now the Second Prince had pulled the rug out from under him, and once again, he was left hanging over the fire.
"Men, relay my orders..." Lorist pondered for a moment before issuing a string of commands.
"Order Bodfing to lead the Heavy Armored Corps to the river crossing as quickly as possible, take over all matters concerning the camp, and organize personnel for timber-cutting and construction of defensive fortifications..."
"Order Ross, Termon, and Pitte to each lead the Iron-armored Lancers, the Knights, and the Mounted Archers to requisition carriages, sheepskin rafts, and small fishing boats from the nobles of the Dreimuk province. As many as possible. If anyone resists..." Lorist paused, then spoke four cold words: "Kill without mercy!"
"Order Falea Malek to lead the Garrison Corps as rearguard, maintain order and security for the caravan and refugees on the march. Anyone who deliberately delays progress or causes trouble — execute without pardon!"
"Order the Artisan Camp: by whatever means necessary, they must build at least four pontoon bridges across the river as fast as possible. Any missing materials and tools are to be procured by Ross and the others."
Redy stood behind Lorist, carefully copying each order onto sheets of animal parchment, then handing them to Lorist for his signature. Pat melted red sealing wax and dripped it onto the signatures. Lorist flipped his ring and pressed his seal into the wax. Finally, Pat rolled up the signed parchment orders, placed them inside a small silver cylinder, and dripped sealing wax over the joints at each end. After stamping them with the angry bear crest, he handed the cylinder to the guards to deliver.
"We need to move faster too. Before the end of this month, we must finish transporting all the grain from Cobel City and leave this place, no matter what." Lorist turned to Fatty Shi and said.
Fatty Shi nodded.
…
By the time Lorist reached the river crossing at Baron Shiulas's territory, it was already the sixth of March. Aside from nearly a thousand people who had been expelled from the caravan and refugee columns in Cobel City, every last caravan member and refugee was streaming toward the camp at the crossing in an endless procession.
Three pontoon bridges had already been constructed across the Midoro River, with a fourth more than half finished. A wagon camp had also been set up on the far bank, and the advance party of convoy personnel and vehicles was crossing on two of the bridges. A larger pontoon bridge was being used for wagons to unload their supplies on the far side before returning; the drivers leading their pack horses queued up and walked back across it carefully and slowly.
"My Lord. Perhaps you should rest at the manor castle first," said
Lorist noticed that Bodfinger was pointing toward Baron Shiulas's manor castle and asked casually, "Where is Baron Shiulas?"
"Who?" Bodfinger looked thoroughly confused.
"The local lord," said Lorist.
Bodfinger suddenly understood and pointed toward the ferry dock. "Over there…"
Lorist turned to look. Hanging from several tall wooden frames on the dock, four or five corpses swayed back and forth in the wind…
"Who did this?"
"Yuri and Rhodes," Bodfinger replied.
"Why?" asked Lorist.
"This lord won't let us build the pontoon bridge. Says the entire hundred-li riverbank is his territory, and anyone wanting to cross has to pay a crossing fee. Yuri and Rhodes lost their temper and strung him up, then seized his manor castle in the process."
Lorist was speechless. Another fool courting death — did the man have no eyes? Couldn't he see the overwhelming military force bearing down on them? Did he think this was still the peaceful era of the old empire? No one dared offend nobles these days. Instead of holing up in his manor castle and defending it to the last, he had the audacity to demand a crossing fee. Truly someone who valued gold over his own life — well, he deserved to hang.
Yuri and Rhodes were not men to be trifled with. One had been among the earliest core members to follow Lorist at
"Forget it. Take them down and bury them. They're old acquaintances after all, and leaving them strung up like that isn't a pretty sight."
"Yes, my lord."
Ten days later, Rhodes,
Lorist found that the goat-hide rafts, fishing boats, and the small Locke boats they had built over this period were already sufficient to construct six pontoon bridges. He halted Rhodes's group, who were eagerly itching to head out on yet another foraging run. Instead, he arranged for those carts to be sent to Fatty Shi to accelerate the civilian evacuation, while ordering the soldiers to rest for two days. All that remained was to chop more lumber and build rafts to speed up the pontoon bridge construction.
On the eighteenth of March, a road-weary Yuri arrived at the river crossing. He brought news for Lorist.
On the twelfth of March in the year 1768 of the Galentean Universal Calendar, King Christen Iberia of the Iberian Kingdom — known as the Second Prince — led an army of seventy thousand, claiming he was marching to support Grand Duke Madras against the Kingdom of Andinaq's invasion. He requested passage through the Ducal Province of Draleimk within the Madras Grand Duchy to launch an attack on the Kingdom of Andinaq.
The private armies of the provincial lords mustered a combined force of over seventy thousand. They entered the Draleimk Province.
"Holy hell, where did he get his military provisions? Wasn't he just starting to harvest the winter wheat?" Lorist said, surprised. Then he immediately understood. "Damn it, each one is a sharper schemer than the last. The Second Prince is targeting the winter wheat about to be harvested in the Draleimk Province. Borrowing grain to fight the enemy — he's planning to seize the winter wheat harvest to feed his army!"
However, Lorist didn't care about the Second Prince's army at all right now. They had already built five floating bridges of various sizes, with a sixth under construction. The convoys and refugees arriving behind didn't need to wait at the riverside camp; they could cross directly to the encampment on the opposite bank to settle in.
The only thing worrying Lorist was the 120 million catties of grain reserves. If a four-wheeled carriage could carry two thousand catties, then ten thousand carts would only move twenty million catties in one trip. To transport everything would require six round trips.
Lorist summoned Bodfenger. He ordered him to take the heavy infantry regiment across the river first to oversee the defenses at the opposite bank's encampment. With more supplies and personnel crossing over daily, Terman's knight company and a single scout light cavalry squadron stationed there could no longer adequately secure the camp.
Bodfenger was worried that with his heavy infantry regiment across, this side wouldn't be able to defend against an attack from the Second Prince's forces.
Lorist laughed. There was no need to worry about the Second Prince's army now. To gather provisions, the Second Prince couldn't possibly send fast-moving cavalry to pursue the northbound convoy. Even if he did, it would be a small unit. With Ross's three companies of iron-armored lance cavalry holding the position here, any small raiding party would just be delivering themselves on a platter.
"Ah, once you cross, capture that town on the other side. Hang that Viscount — what's his name, eh? Probably some Viscount Da-something — at the city gate for me," Lorist instructed.
"Why, my lord? It's just a rundown town," Bodfenger asked, curious. Since the convoy had been using the floating bridges to transport supplies and establish the encampment, the dilapidated town had been very well-behaved, keeping its gates shut and not even sending anyone over to question or investigate. It was so quiet that even Terman, after leading his knight company across, couldn't be bothered to deal with it.
"The messengers your convoy sent across previously stopped at that rundown town, only to be falsely accused of being bandits and massacred by the garrison. Only five escaped. Last time I crossed, I already had the garrison troops that the Viscount sent to collect tolls at the crossing hanged. Today, you can just go and destroy that den of thieves," Lorist explained.
"Yes, my lord. At once."
Bodfenger led the heavy infantry across the river and immediately launched a charge on the rundown town by the riverbank, capturing it with zero casualties. Half an hour later, Bodfenger commandeered a war horse and rushed back in a frantic hurry.
"My lord, there aren't many people in that rundown town. It's said that the lord, Viscount Dawoff, took the garrison and able-bodied men to answer the call of Northland's Grand Duke Lugins to attack the Norton Family. They've been gone for over a month..."
"What did you say?" Lorist nearly jumped up upon hearing the news Bodfenger brought. Grand Duke Lugins still hadn't given up his schemes against the Norton Family?
"Order Yuri to dispatch light cavalry scouts immediately to gather intelligence on the Northland situation. Have
Lorist knew the defensive walls of Bedrock Castle well — easy to defend, hard to attack. Besides, with God-Arrow Josk holding the fort, he could rest easy. The other passage leading into the Family's interior territory had already been cut off by the burning of the suspension bridge. Grand Duke Lugins had called upon the Northland lords to bring their armies to attack Norton Family territory, and there was no way in other than breaking through Bedrock Castle. With those Northland lords' peasant soldiers, did they think they could take Bedrock Castle? Ha — that was practically a joke.
Lorist felt he should first get a clear picture of the situation, and wait until all supplies and personnel had crossed the river before making any plans. This time, he would make sure to slap that so-called Grand Duke's face hard. Provoked again and again — did they really think he could only passively defend and take hits?
Fatty Shi continued the relay method of one camp every hundred li, and finally, before the end of March, transported the remaining supplies, convoy personnel, and refugees to the crossing point, immediately beginning the river crossing.
On April 3rd, the last wave of light cavalry scouts sent to probe the Second Prince's army also returned. The news they brought back was that the Second Prince's forces were busy harvesting winter wheat and suppressing the resistance of nobles in Dremk Province. Currently, in the southern regions of Dremk Province, less than one in ten territorial nobles remained. All the unfortunate nobles who ended up on the Second Prince's gallows faced the same charge: colluding with the Andinak Kingdom and resisting the friendly forces sent to rescue Grand Duke Madras — the Iberian royal army led by the Second Prince.
On the 5th of April, 1768 of the Galentea Common Calendar, Lorist, as the last person to cross the river, stepped onto the ferry and ordered the destruction of the six floating bridges. Thus, the northbound convoy and refugees had finally all arrived on the Northland Plateau.
…(To be continued.)