Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 450: Centrists

Outside the city of Thor, the Giant Central War Group’s camp.

The seventh ancestor, Rexar, put down the telescope in his hand, frowned deeply and said: "Neo and Borelius, these two old guys are really crazy!"

"We can't do anything. These two are both experienced and wise. His Majesty's army has been withdrawn for so long. Even if we block all intelligence channels between the north and the south, they can guess the movements of the two armies almost accurately by looking at the sand table. What's more, the high priest and his men have been making so much trouble during this period. Even a fool knows that the siege of Lucia Shanks has reached its final moment." Augustus, the first generation giant beside him, sighed.

"What the high priest said may not be entirely wrong. Your Majesty has withdrawn the Northern and Holy Land Regiments, and the Central Regiment has also sent out most of its elite troops. It's already a result of our lives that we can keep an eye on them," Rexar said meaningfully. "If we continue to fight like this, we don't know if we can kill Lucia Sanx, but the Central Regiment will be completely destroyed."

Augustus seemed not to understand Rexar's hidden meaning, and just said, "There is no other way. His Majesty wants us to defend the Sol battlefield to the death and not let Neo and Boileus go further. We have to do it even if it means that our personal guards will be wiped out."

There was a flash of anger in Rexar's eyes. At this point, the other party was still pretending to be stupid, which was too disrespectful to him.

He gritted his teeth and decided to make his point clear.

"The high priest contacted the Holy Land Elders Council yesterday, and the Holy Son issued an edict ordering the Holy Land Regiment to return to the Frozen Lake for support. The Central Regiment should take action to ensure the safety of the return route. Doesn't the deputy commander think so?"

Augustus's expression froze, and he said helplessly: "Marshal, you are the ancestor, the one who is in charge of the central battle group. According to the dynasty law, when the chief marshal and the deputy marshal have different opinions, the chief marshal shall prevail. Except for the Council of Elders, those below the ancestor must unconditionally obey the orders of the ancestor. If you have any decision, just ask me to follow it. Why do you have to make it difficult for me to give you an opinion?"

However, after these words were spoken, Rexar's expression did not waver, and it was obvious that he was determined to force him to take sides.

"All right."

Augustus sighed deeply, "Since you are so humble as to ask, I will tell you my opinion from a purely strategic perspective."

"First, although Leoponis was appointed as the acting Marshal of the Holy Land Regiment and was temporarily serving as His Majesty's personal army, in principle it was still a garrison directly under the Holy Land. In detail, it should be under the jurisdiction of the Son of God and the Council of Elders. It was only because Marshal Leoponis himself came from a noble family of the old royal court and was trusted by His Majesty that both sides could accept it, so the Holy Land Regiment was handed over to him for interim management, forming the current delicate balance. Therefore, the Council of Elders is now determined to withdraw the Holy Land Regiment, and there is no problem in legal terms."

"Yeah." Rexar seemed satisfied with this analysis and raised his chin slightly to signal him to continue.

"Secondly, the seven legions in the southwest of the ice field used to encircle Lucia are temporary organizations. In essence, they are still the troops of the four major war groups in the west, north, center, and holy land, among which the two major war groups in the west and north are the main ones. In order to prevent the ancestors from preserving their own strength and not wanting to fight to the death, your majesty has dispersed and mixed the troops of the four major war groups to a certain extent, but the mixing can only be extended to the level of a hundred-man team at most. Otherwise, the soldiers will not know the generals, and the generals will not know the soldiers, which will greatly drag down the combat effectiveness of the entire army."

"With just this kind of mixing, these centurions and thousand-man commanders from the western and northern armies will inevitably still have a phenomenon of being superficially united but actually disunited, and working but not working hard. Therefore, Your Majesty uses the Central Regiment and the Holy Land Regiment as the backbone of the legion, and encourages all the troops to fight together to the death. In addition, with the cooperation of all the ancestors from top to bottom, we have the situation today where Lucia is forced to death." Augustus changed the subject and looked directly into Rexar's eyes and said, "But at this time, the Elders Council forcibly withdrew the Holy Land Regiment, which is tantamount to breaking the backbone of the seven legions. This is clearly intended to make Your Majesty unhappy and force him to give up the siege on Lucia."

"Most of the centurions of the Holy Land Regiment are descendants of aristocratic families. Most of them only recognize the orders of the Council of Elders and not the orders of the Marshal. The high priest is using an open conspiracy. If the messenger of the Council of Elders reaches the army, and the Holy Son's edict is in line with the will of the entire Council of Elders, even Your Majesty will be helpless."

"You are retreating at this time. The so-called 'ensuring the safety of the return route' is just a false excuse. The real purpose is to open a gap in the northern battlefield and let the enemy troops from Sol City and the Frozen Lake rush to Lucia to support her and destroy the encirclement plan."

"In this way, you, who have opened the door to the resolution of the Council of Elders, will certainly gain the friendship of the High Priest and the Son of God, but you will also break with His Majesty because of this. You are interrogating me here, just because you are interested in my position as deputy commander and the family power behind me, and want me to prove to you that the Central Battle Group is short of troops, the Sol battlefield is no longer defensible, and retreat is only a precautionary measure. If His Majesty investigates in the future, he will not find any mistakes in the procedure, and he will be afraid of the strength of you and me tied together. With the High Priest, the Son of God and the Council of Elders in the front, His Majesty will at best tolerate centrists like us, right?"

Rexar was silent.

Augustus did not care about this ridiculous silence. He shook his head and smiled, "If we withdraw our troops now, the Holy Land will regard us as friends, and His Majesty will not regard us as enemies. He may even continue to rely on us to overwhelm the other side. Your Excellency the Marshal really has far-sighted plans."

"I admit that I have my own little calculations in this, but if you are not blind you can see clearly what the fighting is like on the battlefield outside--" Rexar suddenly said.

He pointed to the meat-grinder-like hell outside the camp and said coldly: "Rather than mocking me, I would like to advise you to face reality."

"The Central Corps has a full complement of 126,000 men. In name, they are the direct descendants of the royal court and the leader of all the armies. Since the beginning of the war, our army has always been at the forefront of every battle, no matter how big or small. After fighting bloody battles in Sicily, Kuerlos, and Guntherfred, our casualties are enough to overwhelm the sum of the rest of the armies."

"Many of them are my old brothers who have followed me since the Duoris era and the Unification War era. They are not the 'nobles' like you who hide in the Holy Land and make others fight for them just by relying on their bloodline. They are also not the inferior species transformed from humans, hybrids, subhumans, and orcs. They are the swords and knives left by the previous royal court to the new dynasty. They are the last group of giants who retain their glory!"

"If you want us to fight to the death for the establishment of a new dynasty, we can do that."

"In order to prevent the ice dragon's counterattack, I want my people to hand over their lives to the siblings of Amodia Adonis and die on the frozen lake battlefield. Okay."

"For the sake of your majesty's 'big picture' of besieging and killing Lucia Sanx, you can move all the elite troops south and let me take the last of the old, weak, and sick to defend Sol and hold back Neo and Borelius. That's fine!"

"But there must be a deadline for all this, right?"

(End of this chapter)