Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 409 Price
"Your Highness, the scouts we recently sent out have returned. As you expected, we have discovered signs of large-scale enemy troop movements in the northwest and southwest of our army."

At the temporary military meeting, Leville, who was temporarily serving as the chief of staff of the Southern Expedition Army, reported the latest military situation.

"The situation inside the Giant Cemetery is currently unknown, but a large number of wandering scouts have appeared outside the cemetery. According to the proportion, there are at least 100,000 enemy troops gathered in the cemetery. If nothing unexpected happens, the distinguished guest has indeed arrived."

Lucia nodded slightly. The General Staff had already made an estimate of the total strength of the Giant New King's Court based on the intelligence gathered from interrogating prisoners and conducting various investigations since the Northern Expedition.

The enemy's Central Corps and the Holy Land Corps were the first batch of giants to complete their evolution. They have the largest number of soldiers, the strongest strength, and the best equipment. The former is the main force under the Royal Court, led by the seventh ancestor Rexxar, with a full strength of 126,000 people. The latter is nominally the garrison of the Giant Cemetery and the top of the Giant Mountain, but in fact it is basically the personal guard of the Giant King Calerius, managed by the first generation first man Leoponius, with a full strength of 74,000 people.

These 200,000 fire giants are the foundation on which the new royal court relies to pacify the northern border, guard Lord, and fight against the three major dynasties.

In terms of combat power, closely following is the Western Regiment of the third ancestor Mocero, with a full strength of 120,000 people. Most of its members are followers who were guided to evolve by Mocero himself. It is said that under the influence of his forbidden spell ability, their individual combat power is extremely strong and they are fearless of death. They are undoubtedly the main force of the royal court.

The next tier is the Northern Regiment of the fourth ancestor Hilber and the Southern Regiment of the fifth ancestor Vikia. They currently have 90,000 troops each. In principle, they still belong to the main combat sequence, but because they were established not long ago, the weapons and equipment produced in the rear of the royal court were also supplied to the top three war regiments first. Therefore, their strength is slightly inferior. In the eyes of the royal court high-level officials, they are temporarily just second-line troops to compete with the private armies of the nobles of the three dynasties.

The last one in the list is naturally the one with the shortest establishment time and the lowest strategic position. At the same time, the supreme commander Rodnias is only a mid-level first-generation Eastern War Corps. The full establishment should have 100,000 people, but that is a fictitious establishment for the vast area of ​​the Far East. In fact, the royal court has never considered the possibility of focusing on defense in the east, so this establishment has always remained in the planning stage, and at its peak it only reached half of the strength.

After conquering Guntherfred, Rodnias was ordered to prepare and deploy defenses on the spot and transform the newly born giants as needed to replenish his own forces. However, not long after this work began, the Eastern Regiment ran into the Northern Expedition's first surprise attack.

Rodnias was killed in battle by Lucia, and the main force was almost wiped out. The rest suffered countless casualties during the escape. Only a tenth of the remaining stragglers were gathered by the brother and sister Amodia and Adonis who took over the eastern war situation. Now they are in name only.

In this way, without considering the giants relying on that kind of "evolutionary means" to create new forces, the full strength of the royal court is exactly 600,000. Excluding the 100,000 of the Eastern War Group, and the casualties caused by the battlefields of Sol, Frozen Lake, Otina, and Lucia since they went south, the actual military strength of Karelia should be around 400,000.

This is a more realistic speculation. It seems to ignore the possibility of the giants continuing to expand indefinitely, but in fact, the hundreds of thousands of giants that suddenly appeared out of nowhere were the result of the transformation of creatures of various races plundered by the royal court. Otherwise, relying solely on the ice goblins that are considered to be the giants' own race, they cannot even fill the establishment of the Central War Corps and the Holy Land War Corps.

In other words, with most of the North having fallen and the remaining battlefields also caught in a protracted tug-of-war, it would be difficult for the royal court to find new targets for conversion in the short term. The 120,000 soldiers and civilians gathered by Guntherfred could have been considered reserves, but they were intercepted by Lucia.

In this case, unless the giant army marches south to conquer the Golden Dynasty's Roghal defense line and spreads the war to Asia, these more than 400,000 giants will be the main force of the entire enemy that Lucia will have to deal with.

Lucia was not worried at all about the loss of Asia Altar. It was one thing for the top leaders in Rodel to have exchanges of views with the Giant King's Court, but it was another thing entirely to give up resistance and surrender completely.

Although it is Radagon who is in charge of Rodel now, in a sense, Radagon's defense of the Golden Rule is far more extreme than Marika's - how could the man who felt that even his red hair was a curse imposed by the giants and suffered for it all his life allow the giants to truly get involved in the "pure" gold system?

Therefore, creating obstacles in the rear and trying every possible means to bury himself and the 30,000 Northern Expedition Army in the northern border is the limit of what the capital can do. Selling out one's country is impossible according to Radagon's bottom line.

With these estimates, combined with the military intelligence reported by the scouts, Lucia could roughly estimate how many enemy troops were surrounding her.

The reason why they were able to successfully "command" the Giant King's Court this time was fundamentally due to the other party's sensitivity to their so-called holy land. Unlike the Far East where no one loved them, any disturbance in the holy land was enough to touch the fragile nerves of the Giant Dynasty. Just like Lucia had done before, fighting all the way to a position 600 miles away from the center of the cemetery was tantamount to a heavy kick in the opponent's vital point.

Even if their lives are not in danger, the severe pain, rage, and fear that they are unwilling to express but penetrates deep into their bones will force them to bite themselves like crazy.

Accordingly, even at this time, rather than hunting down the 10,000 troops on the southern expedition, strengthening the defense of the Holy Land was the first priority of the Giant King's Court. Therefore, Adonis's unit in Beishankou, which was the closest and most familiar with the Holy Land, was naturally the most suitable choice. More than half of the 70,000 people were from the Holy Land regiment that had been transferred to the direction of the frozen lake. Adonis himself was the most loyal supporter of the high priest Gulag, and his emphasis on tradition was far greater than that of other ancestors. So it was the only choice to let him go south to guard the Giant Cemetery.

In the north, the situation in the direction of Otina is unclear, but according to the feedback from the prisoners, the Northern Legion under Ossarion had already been wiped out. Now the former Northern Guardian is just leading a guerrilla force composed of a group of defeated soldiers and local private armies, wandering around the border between the Erunga River and the Sacred Tree Forest, causing some trouble for the Giant King's Court behind enemy lines.

Such a friendly force does have a role, but it is almost negligible. Its deterrent power is far inferior to that of the Watcher Fortress before the accident. We should be thankful if it can help to contain the enemy force of tens of thousands of people. Lucia will not pin her hopes on them at all.

The only two battlefields that can truly play a restraining role on the enemy are Thor City and Frozen Lake. Although they have never met before, Neo and Pollux are undoubtedly the most trustworthy allies in this war as they have been able to withstand the fierce offensive of the Giant King's Court for a whole winter.

Lucia believed that even if the royal court went crazy and wanted to kill her, it would not openly withdraw the siege in these two directions, and would even maintain the basic offensive.

The principle of making a great effort at the beginning, then declining and finally exhausting it applies to humans and giants as well. It is even more true for the new dynasty of giants whose country is not yet stable.

To casually lift the siege of Thor and the Ice Lake would be tantamount to helping the Northern Expedition achieve its strategic goals in advance. By then, the giant army would be weakened and their own morale would soar. Not to mention whether another siege could be successful, it would be a problem whether the royal court could continue to maintain comprehensive suppression and seize the initiative in the attack.

Therefore, the main force of the Central Corps will not move. It is estimated that part of the Central Corps and the main force of the Northern Corps can be locked down in the direction of the Frozen Lake. Then, apart from the troops of the Southern Corps that are firmly on guard against a counterattack in the direction of Asia on the Lord's defense line, the only main enemy force that needs to be faced in the short term is the Western Corps of Mocero.

At least 100,000 main forces of the royal court, plus the blockade and encirclement of tens of thousands of other troops in the surrounding areas, was the killing situation that Kalelius had prepared for him.

As for the so-called distinguished guest, Lucia was completely sure that at this moment, the Giant King and his ancestors were already chasing after him in the Giant Cemetery, which was at most three days away from him.

Just as I said when discussing Duoris' Iron Wall strategy with Latan, the North now does not have the human and material support of the entire Golden Dynasty, and the power of the Royal Court cannot sustain a second Iron Wall encirclement. Compared with the Duoris era, their strength lies in a large number of mobile forces and an outrageous abundance of high-end combat power.

Therefore, using mobile forces as an "iron wall" to encircle and blockade Lucia, constantly restricting his space for movement, forcing him to have a head-on decisive battle on the battlefield set up by the royal court, and finally dispatching the Giant King and several ancestors to launch a decapitation operation, was the only strategy the royal court could choose.

At this point, the two parties at both ends of the table are like starting a showdown. There are only so many cards they can play, and they are all clearly laid out on the table.

Calelius was not afraid that Lucia would see through his thoughts. In his and even the entire Giant King's Court's view, by revealing all their cards, they had already given Lucia the greatest respect - respect for the dead.

Coincidentally, Lucia thought so too.

After so much preparation, there is no problem in fighting a battle in the southern part of the ice field, but where, when and how to fight is up to him.

And who will die in this fatal fight? Lucia raised the corner of her mouth and revealed a faint smile.

Karelius felt that he had paid a heavy enough price, but in his opinion, it was far from enough.

How can a price that is affordable be called heavy?

(End of this chapter)