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"Gis, that bastard! Who does he think he is?" A middle-aged general crumpled the letter in his hand into a ball and threw it fiercely to the ground as he cursed loudly.
His blue military uniform was quite attractive, with white buttons and a white belt, making him look imposing.
Unlike the Leite Kingdom, the military uniforms of the Suthers Kingdom were blue, and so were their flags, symbolizing freedom and boldness.
"Then... General... we..." An officer, looking at his furious superior, nervously asked.
"The King's orders are probably already on the way. I can ignore the damn demands of the Shireck Consortium, but I cannot refuse the orders from His Majesty! Gather the troops! Have Viscount Romel cross the border as planned and advance towards the Northern Ridge!"
"Order the Cavalry to expand eastwards! Force the main forces of the Leite Kingdom onto the predetermined battlefield. Tell the people from the Shireck Consortium that I await their good news." The general stood up and looked at all the officers in the tent, "Gentlemen! The war... has begun!"
"Long live the Kingdom!" All the officers drew their swords and jubilantly pointed them towards the sky.
They had been preparing for this war for over a year, and they had the backing of Shireck! Their provisions were plentiful, and their army was more than four times the size of the enemy's!
Even on the script, they were marked as the victors! Whoever wrote the script was on their side.
So it was as if they had come to collect military exploits; they would all become the direct beneficiaries of this victory, shining new stars among the younger generation in the Suthers Kingdom.
"What's the matter, General?" The aide stood by his general, sensing something unusual in his superior.
As the commander-in-chief of the war, General Tucci was a well-known commander of the Suthers Kingdom. He had drafted the entire battle plan himself; he was the spirit of the Suthers military.
"It's nothing... I just always feel that the war won't go as smoothly as we expect," Tucci retracted his gaze and squeezed out a slight smile, "However, I welcome a change, so that Fisallo persists longer, waiting for me to personally defeat him!"
In October 113 of the Leite Kingdom, the long-brewing battle on the northern border between the Suthers Kingdom and the Leite Kingdom officially began.
Three hours after the outbreak of the war, an envoy of the Suthers Kingdom finally met with the King of the Leite Kingdom and delivered the declaration of war.
Unexpectedly, the Leite Kingdom didn't give the envoy of the Suthers Kingdom a hard time but simply scolded him and ordered him to "roll back to the Suthers Kingdom."
Such tepid punishment was essentially ineffective. What really mattered was the outcome on the border battlefield.
The Suthers Kingdom had prepared for a year, and of course, the Leite Kingdom had also prepared for a year. In fact, almost as soon as the Suthers Kingdom amassed troops at the border, the Leite Kingdom had devised a counterattack plan.
However, comparatively, the Leite Kingdom's counterattack plan seemed hastily put together—it had parts for counterattacking on the eastern and central fronts but no plan for the Northern Ridge.
According to this plan, the Leite Kingdom would hold off enemy attacks in the Central Region and the east, but there would be a collapse on the Northern Ridge front.
Then, by ceding the Northern Ridge and obtaining certain benefits in exchange for the Shireck Consortium's promise, the war would naturally come to an end.
If the Suthers Kingdom didn't follow protocol, the Shireck Consortium would intervene, punishing the Suthers side, and in the end, the Leite Kingdom could even recapture the Northern Ridge and possibly gain the southern part of Suthers as compensation.
The entire plan was deemed perfect, at least for the Leite Kingdom. It eliminated the troublesome Count Fisallo and secured benefits from the Shireck Consortium.
However, subsequent developments caught everyone off guard—General Tucci, the mastermind of the entire Suthers Kingdom's southern campaign plan, lived up to his reputation as the soul of the Suthers army, leading his troops to crush the main forces of the Leite Kingdom in the Central Region.
The situation changed drastically at the battle that day, which was supposed to be just a show. Tucci personally commanded the artillery to weaken the main left flank of the Leite forces, and to everyone's surprise, the Leite Kingdom's cavalry on the left flank suddenly launched a counterattack.
It was later discovered that the commander of this cavalry unit was timid and hid himself in a relatively safe location, far from his troops.
Then, after the bombardment, this cavalry unit, unable to find their commander, ended up following the orders of some middle and lower-ranking officers, taking a risk to launch a counterattack on Tucci's troops.
This unexpected turn of events, not accounted for in the script, directly led to the collapse of the Leite Kingdom's central army units. Tucci seized the opportunity, leading his central forces to press forward and completely defeat the main forces of the Leite Kingdom.
The Leite Kingdom's lines crumbled, and the eastern flank forces retreated reluctantly, adopting a defensive posture.
But the main forces in the Central Region, which had collapsed entirely, suffered disastrously, retreating all the way to near the King City where they barely managed to stop.
What was supposed to be merely a performance turned into a real fight due to an accident.
The front-line commanders of the Suthers Kingdom saw an opportunity, and Tucci felt it was a chance to completely conquer the Leite Kingdom.
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His troops immediately seized upon the retreating Leite Kingdom army and captured several affluent towns.
At the same time, he held back part of the forces originally meant to outflank Northern Ridge from the side and charged toward the direction of the Leite Kingdom's King City.
In the Leite Kingdom, after a period of panicked chaos, the King personally executed the cavalry commander who had fled the battle and stepped forward to stabilize the already crumbling military morale.
At the same time, he urgently rerouted some artillery to Northern Ridge via a detour and sent a messenger on horseback, spurring the animal to its fastest, to deliver a handwritten letter to Ronin Fisallo, Lord Earl.
In the letter, he worked every angle to curry favor and then, at the end of the letter, he explained the purpose of his writing—he hoped that Ronin Fisallo could hold Northern Ridge at all costs and buy sufficient time for the Central front.
Because only if Northern Ridge and the Eastern front both existed would the Suthers Kingdom's troops feel the pressure on both flanks and continuously worry about their sides being breached.
It was also because of the existence of Northern Ridge and the Eastern front that Leite Kingdom's current U-shaped front barely resembled a pocket, preventing General Tucci from committing all his forces to attack the Leite Kingdom's King City.
Thus a farce evolved into a peculiar situation. The King, who had originally planned to betray Earl Fisheo, now became an old friend begging Fisheo to pull himself together.
And the Shireck Consortium, which originally supported the Suthers Kingdom, began to show an ambiguous relationship as the Suthers Kingdom rapidly approached victory.
The Shireck Consortium had now become the awkward party who rode the tiger and found it hard to dismount: on one hand, they didn't want Suthers to completely swallow up the Leite Kingdom, on the other hand, they didn't dare to suppress Suthers too much for fear of being settled with after a swift Suthers victory…
So when the Leite Kingdom sent people to seek assistance at Gis's residence, Gis was furiously hopping mad.
But the ultimate solution still depended on the situation on the battlefield: Gis assured the Leite Kingdom that he would no longer favor the Suthers Kingdom, but he could only maintain strict neutrality…
As a result, the situation continued to develop unfavorably for the Leite Kingdom: the field artillery sent to Northern Ridge was ambushed halfway by the swiftly advancing troops of the Suthers Kingdom.
The cannons were captured, and the troops were crushed. At this moment, the mess laid before the Leite King was truly a sight of despair.
On one hand, he knew that he had intentionally shortchanged Northern Ridge of a significant amount of weapons and equipment, which was an undeniable fact.
On the other hand, he had just received news that his artillery troops, urgently sent to reinforce Northern Ridge, had also been destroyed by the enemy.
Now, both he and Northern Ridge had become isolated lambs awaiting slaughter; it was just a matter of who would die first. No one knew whether he had any regrets, but it was known that his temper had been growing worse lately.
And as the war erupted and the situation deteriorated, the reinforcements from the Great Tang Group for Northern Ridge finally crossed the Vicious Forest and reached the territory of Northern Ridge.
Tang Mo led nearly all of his forces, in an imposing manner, through the continent within the territory of Northern Ridge, advancing toward the war zone.
This force included three infantry companies of 360 musketeers, 30-plus elite Rangers commanded by Luff, over 100 hastily-consolidated artillerymen, and the Cavalry pieced together by Tagg, consisting of more than 40 riders.
The entire force had six cannons, over 40 wagons, carried a large quantity of ammunition, and miscellaneous supplies for daily life, arriving at the highly perilous forefront.
"You follow the earlier arrangement, leading the troops to the designated stationing site! I'm off to see Lord Earl Fisheo. He still owes me something! As agreed before, he was to support me with 20 cannons and corresponding artillerymen…" Tang Mo said while riding his horse, feeling his back and waist aching.
His equestrian skills were not so great; according to Tagg's standards, they barely passed as knowing how to ride…
"Do you need me to accompany you?" asked Tagg, glancing at Alice, who was riding a tall horse beside Tang Mo, and suddenly realized his question was somewhat redundant.
Alice, as the guide for Tang Mo's troops, had been there for the better part of the day. Now, Tang Mo's forces were not far from Lord Earl's main forces, and even the enemy's troops weren't far off.
The atmosphere on the battlefield was actually already quite intense. Here, one could see civilians fleeing for safety everywhere, as well as scattered troops responsible for maintaining order.
"I'll be back soon." Tang Mo took the reins, letting Alice lead the way, and along with Wes and two guards, he broke away from the main force.
The direction in which he spurred his horse was not far off—a huge encampment where, atop a tall flagpole, a unique Northern Ridge wolf flag fluttered rapidly in the wind.
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Brothers, 10 chapters delivered!
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