It was nearing the end of February, and the weather was still bitterly cold—around seven or eight degrees below freezing, by his estimate. Because of this, the Third Royal Guard Battalion's insistence on training twice a day truly impressed the people from the Peterson Trading Company who had come to observe. They remarked that despite the two armies facing off on the Trinb Kingdom's front lines, everyone was essentially hunkering down for winter, and that was the real reason behind the stalemate.
Aside from the Commercial Alliance's late-joining participants who roamed about trying to loot any windfall they could find, very few were willing to venture out of camp. Even those assigned to patrol, scout, and stand guard would complain endlessly and curse without pause. The only exceptions were the assassins lured by the Trinb Kingdom's Seventh King's astronomical bounty and the Commercial Alliance's newly formed anti-assassination unit, which were still somewhat active—but that was a contest of elite forces, and had nothing to do with the rank-and-file troops below.
It wasn't until early March that winter finally gave way, followed by a rainy season lasting a full month. In Galentea, wars were rare between December and the end of March. It was usually after the winter wheat was harvested in April or May—once armies had provisions and time on their hands—that they would look around for someone who rubbed them the wrong way and march off to fight.
The Glass War between the Commercial Alliance and the Trinb Kingdom was already an exception to the rule, brought about mainly because the stubborn, single-minded Seventh King of Trinb had acted recklessly enough to truly enrage the Commercial Alliance. Otherwise, no one was willing to fight in winter.
The
"Impossible! How did the Second Prince get through Canbona Province's defensive line in weather like this? The Eldest Prince has fortified it as tight as an iron barrel—how did he reach the Redlis Kingdom's royal capital?" Fatty Shi spat and roared.
The poor messenger nearly got strangled by Fatty Shi. He barely managed to break free and stammered an answer: "T-the Second Prince d-didn't go through Canbona Province. He... he took a wide detour, crossing directly through the Great Snow Mountain of the Cloumbreak Mountains into Portoorg Province, then marched straight to Fedeliga Royal Capital. He caught the garrison off guard and stormed the city. The Eldest Prince fled in panic..."
The messenger hesitated for a moment, then continued: "R-reports say the Second Prince set out with over thirty thousand men, but by the time he reached Fedeliga Royal Capital, he had fewer than eight thousand troops left..."
Good Lord, what a ruthless resolve! A chill ran down Norton Lorist's spine. Over thirty thousand men set out, and fewer than eight thousand made it to their destination. The attrition along the march was staggering—one could only imagine how perilous the route the Second Prince had chosen for this surprise attack must have been.
"Go back inside and bring me the map..." Norton Lorist ordered.
Five years ago, the Third Prince had annihilated the Eldest Prince's thirty thousand elite soldiers at Liushuichuan, then led his army in a counter-invasion of the Redlis Kingdom, besieging Fedeliga Royal Capital and forcing the Eldest Prince to sign a coerced treaty ceding the two southwestern provinces. Since then, the two provinces where the Redlis Kingdom bordered the Andinak Kingdom were the Northwest Province and Canbona Province.
The Northwest Province was the coastal hill country that Norton Lorist had passed through years ago when leading his caravan northward. Neither the Second Prince nor the Eldest Prince paid it much attention, because reaching the Redlis capital from the Northwest Province required crossing the wide Morisan River and then passing through Canbona Province. The optimal route for attacking the Redlis Kingdom was therefore through Canbona Province, straight to Fedeliga Royal Capital—which was exactly the route the Second Prince had taken on his previous campaign.
But this time, there was no way the Second Prince would be allowed to pass through Canbona Province as easily as before. While he was mustering his three hundred thousand strong army, the Redlis Kingdom's king—the former eldest prince of the Krisen Empire—had not been idle either. He had scraped together vast sums of money and resources from every source, turning the entirety of Canbona Province into a bristling hedgehog of fortified castles and strongholds, each bristling with heavy defenses and deep moats. If the Second Prince wanted to reach the royal capital of Fedeliga, he would have to gnaw through them one by one.
The Eldest Prince had once boasted smugly to his ministers that Ogsero—the Second Prince—would need to lose at least two hundred thousand of his three hundred thousand troops just to fight his way through Canbona Province. The remaining hundred thousand, exhausted and spent, would be dreaming if they thought they could take the royal capital. After this battle, he guaranteed that the greenhorn Ogsero wouldn't dream of attacking their Redlis Kingdom again for twenty years.
The Eldest Prince also understood full well how critical Canbona Province was to resisting the Second Prince's three hundred thousand troops. To that end, he had gathered all the families of officers above the squad leader level responsible for defending the castles and strongholds and placed them under guard in Fedeliga Royal Capital—ostensibly for their own protection. But everyone knew that if any castle or strongpoint put up a feeble defense against the Second Prince's assault, it would be their relatives who lost their heads.
This was a brutal gambit to force the nearly seventy thousand garrison soldiers deployed in Canbona Province to fight to the death. The Eldest Prince's stratagem was viciously effective: he believed that only through this method could the defenders leverage their terrain advantage and fortified positions to achieve a three-to-one kill ratio. In other words, the Eldest Prince had already written off these seventy thousand soldiers. Their sole purpose was to die as expendable消耗品, killing as many of the Second Prince's three hundred thousand troops as possible along the way.
What truly infuriated the Eldest Prince was that the Second Prince had personally led his troops over the Cloumbreak Mountains and across the Great Snow Mountain, and after losing nearly three-quarters of his men, miraculously appeared before Fedeliga Royal Capital—storming and capturing the very royal capital he had failed to take last time, forcing the Eldest Prince to flee in panic.
Norton Lorist studied the map with admiration. Keep in mind that just a month ago, the Second Prince had been delivering an impassioned speech in the royal capital's plaza of the Andinak Kingdom, vowing to unify and restore the former Krisen Empire. It was said that he was next supposed to oversee the Third Prince's funeral, inspect the front-line camps, and prepare for war. That was why everyone had assumed he would attack the Redlis Kingdom in April or May. No one had expected that within a single month, the Second Prince would already have seized the Redlis Kingdom's royal capital. It was breathtakingly swift—utterly unforeseen and genuinely shocking.
Fatty Shi pointed at the map and clicked his tongue in disbelief. "Good heavens! The Second Prince actually crossed the Cloumbreak Mountains and climbed over the Great Snow Mountain? He was practically courting death—it's far too reckless..."
To the northeast of Portoorg Province, where Fedeliga Royal Capital was located, and Canbona Province of the Redlis Kingdom, there lay a natural barrier—the Cloumbreak Mountains. The mountains were tall and the rivers deep, with sheer cliffs rising everywhere. In their center stood the Great Snow Mountain, where dozens of peaks soared into the clouds, their snow refusing to melt, their ravines crisscrossing in every direction. The terrain was utterly impassable. This had been Portoorg Province's ultimate natural defense, yet the Second Prince had led his army right over it—like a blade driven straight into a snake's vital point.
Norton Lorist pointed at the map and chuckled. "The Second Prince actually got clever about it. This is the only time of year the Cloumbreak Mountains can be crossed."
"How so?" Everyone looked surprised.
"Look here. Below the Cloumbreak Mountains lies the Cloudmist Swamp, stretching for a hundred miles. It's said to have formed from the melting snow of the Great Snow Mountain collecting in this low-lying area. In spring, summer, or autumn, anyone wanting to cross the Cloumbreak Mountains would first have to traverse the Cloudmist Swamp—it would take two or three months at minimum. But right now, the entire swamp is frozen solid, allowing large armies to pass through unimpeded to the depths of the mountains. Once they cross the Great Snow Mountain, they're in Portoorg Province." Norton Lorist pointed out the crucial detail.
"So that's it! No wonder the Second Prince is hailed as the new generation's greatest military strategist—he seized such a fleeting tactical opportunity. His reputation is truly well-deserved!" The vice president of the Peterson Trading Company exclaimed in admiration.
"Sigh..." Norton Lorist sighed softly. "The losses were too heavy, though. Thirty thousand men crossing the Great Snow Mountain, with only eight thousand left to storm Fedeliga Royal Capital. They simply weren't adequately prepared..."
Norton Lorist could tell that the Second Prince had only mustered his so-called elite troops without truly understanding the hardships of crossing the Great Snow Mountain in winter. Had he been better prepared, he wouldn't have been left with so few men to assault the city.
As it turned out, Norton Lorist's guess was correct. The Second Prince's actual deaths from crossing the Cloumbreak Mountains and the Great Snow Mountain numbered only around three to four thousand, but frostbite and injuries from falls affected over twenty thousand. Fewer than eight thousand made it through unscathed, sustained by
"That's not quite right," one of the Peterson Trading Company's military advisers countered. "Even with these losses, it's still far better than sending three hundred thousand men to assault Canbona Province's fortresses one by one—that would have cost no fewer than a hundred thousand. When you look at it that way, this surprise attack was very much worth it..."
Norton Lorist shook his head faintly. If wars could be reduced to simple exchange ratios, things would be easy. But he couldn't be bothered to argue.
"Then, Count, how do you think the war will develop from here? Can the Eldest Prince still turn things around and snatch victory from defeat?" The vice president wisely changed the subject.
"The tide has turned. Unless a miracle occurs, the Eldest Prince cannot escape defeat and ruin." Norton Lorist declared flatly.
"That's hard to say. The Second Prince only seized Fedeliga Royal Capital through a surprise attack. He currently has just eight thousand men—far too few. If the Eldest Prince quickly rallies and assembles tens of thousands to counter-attack the city, the one who ends up losing might be the Second Prince." The same military adviser was still arguing against Norton Lorist.
"Heh heh..." Norton Lorist burst out laughing. "If only things were that simple. The Eldest Prince has lost his royal capital—who would still rally to his banner? Who would bother with a king who has reached a dead end, with no soldiers and no generals? Who would risk their lives to assault a city for him?"
"But he's the King of Redlis! He has the righteous mandate..." The military adviser remained unconvinced.
Fatty Shi chimed in: "Righteous mandate, my foot! That Eldest Prince was a traitor to begin with—he was the one who raised the banner of rebellion and tore a mighty empire to shreds. People feared him when he had soldiers and generals, but now he's lost his royal capital and with it every last coin he might have used to raise an army. Who's going to bother with that pauper? Not cutting off his head and bringing it to the Second Prince for a reward would already be considered merciful."
"No one will kill him, though. No noble wants the stigma of having killed a king—regardless of whether he was a traitor of the former empire, he is still currently the King of Redlis. But even being a king won't help him. The nobles will only give him lip service. Even if he gathers some troops, they won't be able to retake Fedeliga Royal Capital. He's got only himself to blame—he shouldn't have fortified the royal capital so well and stockpiled all his hoarded wealth, provisions, and military supplies inside it. There are tens of thousands of defenders standing ready."
At this point, Norton Lorist paused to think, then smiled faintly. "If the Eldest Prince is wise, he should immediately gather every last soldier and resource he can find and pull back entirely to Majik Province, where he can fortify defensible positions and hold out. That way, he might prolong the war and wait for circumstances to change."
"Will the Second Prince give him that time?" Fatty Shi asked.
"He will. The Second Prince currently has only eight thousand men. Aside from holding Fedeliga Royal Capital, he can't spare any forces to pursue the Eldest Prince. Even after mustering reinforcements, his first priority will be dealing with Canbona Province's seventy thousand defenders. Fortunately, the Eldest Prince imprisoned the families of those seventy thousand garrison officers in the royal capital as hostages, and the Second Prince can use that to negotiate their surrender. The Eldest Prince can't escape anyway. Once those seventy thousand troops in Canbona Province defect to him, the Second Prince's hundred-odd thousand soldiers stationed in the two southwestern provinces will stream into Fedeliga Royal Capital in an unending wave. At that point, he can sweep through the entire Redlis Kingdom without breaking a sweat, and every noble who hasn't sworn loyalty to him will be swept clean away. That's why I said the Eldest Prince still has a little time to gather troops and supplies, retreat to Majik Province, find a position difficult for the Second Prince's forces to besiege in large numbers, and hold out for a while longer. Otherwise, once the Second Prince's hundred-odd thousand troops arrive in a month or two, there will be nothing left to discuss."
On the map, the Redlis Kingdom's Northwest Province was negligible—after his victory, the Second Prince need only send an envoy to secure it by proclamation. The seventy thousand garrison troops in Canbona Province were caught between the two southwestern provinces and Fedeliga Royal Capital. With the Second Prince's hundred-odd thousand troops before them and his surprise seizure of Fedeliga cutting off their supply lines and retreat, they had no path left but surrender.
The situations in Canbona Province and Portoorg Province, where Fedeliga Royal Capital was located, were essentially settled and unlikely to produce any further upheaval. Next came Andewulf Province and Majik Province. Andewulf was the stronghold of the Redlis Kingdom's territorial nobles—twenty to thirty nobles of varying ranks, each commanding forces that were far from insignificant, and together they could rival the Eldest Prince himself. They had always been at odds with the Eldest Prince, maintaining a facade of harmony while scheming against each other behind the scenes. With his misfortune, they would only mock him—none would willingly lift a finger to help.
If those territorial nobles in Andewulf Province thought the tactics they had used against the Eldest Prince would work equally well against the Second Prince, they were in for a rude awakening. The Second Prince's hundred-odd thousand troops would have no qualms about making an example of them to pad their military merits.
As for Majik Province, it bordered the Handla Duchy and Fakel Duchy that had split from the central regions of the former empire. It had served as the Eldest Prince's staging ground when he once attacked the four central duchies, only to have a coalition of those duchies counter-attack into his territory and reduce Majik to ruins. Five or six years had passed since then, but the province remained sparsely populated, its crumbling walls and broken ruins creating a desolate landscape wherever one looked.
"Count, where do you think the Second Prince will turn his army after he has destroyed the Redlis Kingdom?" The vice president asked.
"Well, there are many possibilities. The most likely scenario is that the Second Prince will use his massive army to force the four central duchies to revoke their titles and rejoin the empire's territory. Then, concentrating his forces through those four duchies into the Melain Duchy, he will march from Melain to sweep through the Iblia Kingdom and force the Fisablen Grand Duke's border defense corps to surrender. Once that objective is achieved, the Second Prince will attack the Madras Duchy from two directions, eliminating the Grand Duke of Madras—the very person responsible for triggering the former empire's fragmentation. After all these goals are accomplished, the Second Prince will press his army against the Rulm Duchy. If the Commercial Alliance is unwilling to let the Rulm Duchy return to the empire's territory, then the century-long war between the empire and the Commercial Alliance will erupt once more and continue on. Only this time, it would be the Second Prince's campaign to reclaim imperial territory. And once the Rulm Duchy has returned, I imagine the Second Prince will ascend the throne as emperor—becoming Ogsero the First, the legendary restorer of the Krisen Empire, his name immortalized in the annals of history..." Norton Lorist answered based on his own speculation.
The vice president's face drained of color. Norton Lorist's prediction was none too surprising to him—this was indeed the most likely outcome.
The vice president gave Norton Lorist a half-bow. "Count, thank you for your warm hospitality these past days. However, I believe it is time for us to depart. The agreement we reached with you will be carried out by our company—please rest assured."
Norton Lorist also stood and nodded in acknowledgment. "Then you are welcome to visit again. As friends, you will receive the Norton Family's most sincere welcome. Ah, this is a letter I've written to President Peterson—please pass it along to him on my behalf. I appreciate the trouble..."
(To be continued.)