I Will Be The Crowned King Chapter 169

Compared with the aggressive attack that lasted for more than ten days, the retreat of the Imperial Expeditionary Force can only be described by the word "abrupt".

There was no surprise attack, no strong resistance, and even the "impregnable" barren stone fortress was already crumbling and could collapse with a few kicks.

But in this case, they withdrew.

And the retreat was quite decisive, even swift - so much so that Leon and his 3,000 militiamen were so shocked that they almost didn't react, thinking they were exposed.

But when they realized that something was wrong, and after they turned back, they found that the Imperial Expeditionary Force had already run away... In less than an hour, nearly 20,000 people disappeared without a trace on the horizon at the end of the road.

There is only a battlefield full of bomb craters, fires and corpses, and the dilapidated desert stone fortress still shrouded in gunpowder smoke.

However, Leon has not forgotten the purpose of his trip - after confirming that the enemy has retreated, he immediately took his troops into the fortress of the deserted stone castle.

For this famous western fortress, Leon has heard many legends about how magnificent it is, how magnificent it is, and how invincible it is. Corner City Comparison.

Of course, no matter how brilliant she was, after more than ten days of bombardment, she was just a pile of rubble and ruins; the main fort and surrounding buildings were still intact, as if using iron. Prove to the world that even though she was brutally ravaged, she still kept the minimum bottom line and did not fall into the prestige of "hard to attack and not fall".

What really surprised Leon was the people in the fortress.

In the middle of the castle clearing surrounded by embers and gunpowder, soldiers who had just survived a siege were resting around their positions and artillery.

They were in ragged clothes, unkempt, with dull and numb expressions, more or less wounds from head to toe, and neither the happiness of surviving nor the joy after victory in their eyes... I don't care if I feel alive or dead.

The surrounding forts seemed to have been transformed into makeshift hospitals, and even through the smoke of gunpowder, one could smell the strong stench of blood and hear the mournful wailing of the wounded soldiers.

But they are still alive.

The entire Barren Stone Fortress with 20,000 reserve corps, plus the rout of the Wanwang Family Corps and the Central Garrison Corps, after experiencing the siege of the Imperial Expeditionary Force for more than ten days and the almost uninterrupted siege battle... Most of them were able to survive.

The moment he stepped into the fortress, Leon had even prepared for the worst. He thought that what he saw would be a group of dead soldiers who were desperate to resist; it was a pile of corpses that were so tragic that it was impossible to do so. describe the battlefield.

As a result... as if the situation was not as "tragic" as he had imagined.

They were even reorganized during these long ten days. Nearly 30,000 people removed part of the sappers, artillery and logistics, and were organized into 22 infantry regiments; each regiment had two battalions, each Battalion of four infantry companies.

Mist, Aiden, Thun, Carindian, as well as noble private soldiers from all over the land, city-state guards, farmers, boatmen, wandering knights... all were scattered and reorganized, becoming almost "Hantu Line Infantry" who couldn't find any difference.

Although the specific combat power is not very good to judge, but at least on the surface, they already "look very much like" a modern army.

"So what are we going to do next?"

In the main castle of the Desert Rock Castle, the excited little Leon clenched his fists in both hands and looked at Carl Bain, who was covered with "tired" written on the opposite side of the table.

"Next?"

Carl frowned, and pulled out a bottle of rum and two glasses from behind like a conjuration in his hand: "To be honest, I really haven't thought about it... What are your plans?"

"I...I can't tell..." Leon was stunned, scratching his head shyly, his eyes fixed on the wine bottle on the table:

"... Counterattack?"

"Counterattack?" Carl thought for a second:

"Counterattack... who?"

Leon: "..."

"Ah—I see!"

Carl suddenly "suddenly realized": "You mean that we are going to launch a counterattack and pursue the Imperial Expeditionary Force, right?!"

"So you think that the Imperial Expeditionary Force is being... er, to be precise, it should be frightened by a group of cannon fodder with zero combat power, who can't even fight back, and can only hold their heads and be beaten to death, as well as the rout soldiers. Running?!"

Leon: "...Isn't it?"

"Nonsense--talking--" Carl, whose eyes widened, pulled out the cork with a bang: "Of course not!"

"It's been more than ten days, you think the imperial people don't know what kind of stuff we are - let alone pulling out to the field, if the expeditionary army returns immediately, I can't say whether it can survive another one. Attack the city!"

"Then why did they retreat?" Little Leon's face was full of confusion.

Carl replied simply: "I don't know."

"Don't know?!" Leon was shocked.

"Yeah, what's so strange about this? I'm not theirs, how do I know why they retreat?"

Pushing the wine glass in front of little Leon, Carl's face was taken for granted: "But there is a saying that is very good, the important thing is not the process but the result; we held it, they retreated, so the winner is us."

"It's that simple?"

"It's as simple as that—war is sometimes complicated and sometimes simple." Carl shrugged:

"As for the troops in the fortress... As long as they don't object, you can take them away at any time, but my suggestion is to keep two-thirds, or at least one-half, after all, the materials in the fortress are not very good anymore. It can support the long-distance march of the big army."

"Thank you, I will pay attention." Leon took the wine glass with both hands and looked at the most loyal "right-hand man" of the deputy commander of the legion very respectfully:

"What about you?"

"Me?" Carl was startled.

"Yes, what are you going to do next?" Leon looked forward with anticipation:

"The Battle of the Barren Stone Castle is over, but this war has not really ended - the battle that truly decides the fate of the vast land has just begun!"

"So if you don't mind, I hope you can join my army temporarily, and then we will go to join the army of cousin Anson Bach, and the fleeing imperial expedition force will be completely..."

"No." Carl refused very decisively:

"I'm staying in the deserted stone castle, and I'm not going anywhere."

"Not going anywhere?"

"Yes, the battle that belongs to me is over, and the mission has been successfully completed-the next thing has nothing to do with me, I will leave it to you and that bastard... I mean Anson Bach, you can do whatever you want."

Carl waved his hand and slumped on the chair with a glass of wine:

"tired."

Facing the already dim sunset, the Imperial Expeditionary Force on the way back seemed unusually quiet.

The arrogance and arrogance that used to be arrogant and arrogant have been rubbed clean in the continuous battle for more than ten days, and everyone's faces are only left with undisguised fatigue and indescribable depression.

This had little to do with the failure of the fortress of Barrenstone Castle—to put it more bluntly, the expedition did not even want to conquer the fortress immediately; it was just a bait, a magnet to attract all the armies of the whole vast land.

The real purpose of besieging the Barren Stone Castle is to wipe out all the living power of the vast land in one fell swoop, and to capture the missing king of the vast land, Claude Francois.

Only in this way can the expedition army hope to conquer the entire vast land with the smallest price!

But the result completely exceeded all expectations. For more than ten days, no army came to rescue the precarious barren stone castle.

In order to spread the news throughout the vast land as soon as possible, they also specially released a large number of deserters and disguised light cavalry to spread the information; but in the end, not only did there not have any good news, but instead received a bad news.

The port of Carindia fell, and the advance army stationed there was annihilated.

With the loss of the only foreign aid and the fact that the supplies were on the verge of running out, although Casper insisted on conquering the Barren Stone Fort, the morale of the entire expeditionary force had been demoralized, and he did not want to fight any longer at the risk of disobeying the military order.

To be more precise, they had had enough of this crazy expedition commander.

That's right, this fierce old man has never been defeated since the beginning of the war. Under his command, Hantu's army is like a piece of paper, and when he raises his hand, it will be torn to shreds; It's invincible...just beyond everyone's imagination.

But the price paid is also beyond everyone's imagination.

Climbing over the Dawn Bingfeng, crossing the Aidan area, feigning the barren stone fort, blocking the Hantu Army... If it took two or three months, the expedition force would of course have no complaints - but all of these together only cost less than twenty sky!

Exhausted and stressed, Kasper Hered lost control of the army.

He could shoot one, ten, a hundred, or even a thousand officers who disobeyed his orders; but as long as he had to rely on these men to command the army for him, he could not completely ignore the collective will of the entire corps of expeditionary officers.

Even the deputy commander Bernard was driven by Casper to the Dengtou Tower to contain the Aiden Legion because he liked "complaining" too much; he lost the only subordinate who could suppress the officers' corps for him, and the result was The entire expedition had completely abandoned him.

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Looking at the knights around him who deliberately kept a distance from him, and their eyes full of vigilance and tension, Casper didn't care.

Similar "plots" have happened countless times in his military career in the past few decades.

The mediocre's jealousy and hatred of geniuses is never only manifested in yin and yang eccentricity and incompetence and rage -- shirk responsibility, self-righteousness, cheating and cheating... This is the norm.

They regard completing work as diligence, laziness as a professional standard, and inaction as conscientiousness... After something happens, the person who contributes the most will always take the responsibility-because everything is done by him, and the decision is made by him.

Before the change, I would probably arrest all the rebels one by one, carry out the 11th kill order in public, let the whole army watch them be beheaded one by one, and then stick the heads of the rebels on the flagpole to "run the whole army". .

But this time he was "soft-hearted" - he just blew the head of a hapless man.

The reason is that although Casper was nominally the commander-in-chief of the expedition, the entire officer corps was organized by Deputy Commander Bernard Morwes, and all of them were the so-called "Morweiss".

Relying on the trade of the northern colonies, the Morwes family has a lot of weight in the imperial court; as a retired soldier who does not want to be unsafe, or bear some inexplicable black cauldron, Casper still dare not do too much.

What's more, the main army of Hantu has now been completely defeated by himself. The short time is one or two years, and the long is four or five years. Hantu can no longer organize an army of the same size.

Next, as long as they take advantage of the situation to defeat Duke Aiden's half-formed army, unless the Kingdom of Clovis comes down in person, it is only a matter of time before Hantu bows its head to the empire.

So even taking a step back from the officers, as long as he retains his command, it doesn't matter to Casper.

The only problem~www.mtlnovel.com~ is probably the "Clovis mercenaries".

To be honest, Kasper originally had high expectations for this army, and a small part of the reason for setting up a siege net in Barren Stone Fort was to ambush this group of guys called "Grey Shirts".

After all, even if the result is a win, of course, it is more interesting for a more valuable opponent to win; bullying and bullying like a stinky fish and rotten shrimp like Hantu is quite enjoyable at first, but it will get tired after a long time.

But the problem is... this Clovis army has not appeared for a long time, not even a little bit of news, as if the world has evaporated.

Where have they gone?

This question has plagued Kasper for a long time.

Finally, in a dimly lit sunset, somewhere very familiar...the answer was revealed.

The mount under him paused for a moment and stopped in place; Kaspar Hered, who took a deep breath, looked at the end of the road with a somewhat complicated expression, the one that was sandwiched between the two hills. "pass".

The position of the Imperial Expeditionary Force that once stood there has disappeared without a trace, and even a little trace of the previous one cannot be found.

Instead, there is a huge multi-faceted fort, as well as trench fortifications spread over the entire position, spreading to the hills on both sides, a winding parapet, a triangular fortress on the protruding part, scattered gun forts, and enough trenches, fences, Reject the horse...

An extremely complex and large-scale defensive position lay in front of the Imperial Expeditionary Force - just before they defeated the Han Tu Legion!

Looking at this abrupt position that seemed to collapse in the blink of an eye, Kasper, who was briefly shocked, sighed:

"So that's what it is... so that's what happened..."

Looking at the Clovis flag flying on the ground, Kasper murmured.

Chapter end