Lord Harland.

Chapter 269
After receiving the military order from Duke Jonathan, Richard once again summoned the officers to discuss matters in the big tent.

When everyone arrived at the main tent of the Chinese Army, Richard went straight to the point and said: "Duke Jonathan has issued an order, asking us to deal with the coalition forces of nobles in central Stanik as soon as possible, and then join the main force led by Duke Jonathan to attack Kleiners City together. The order has been issued It has been issued, let's discuss how to complete it?"

After everyone had seen the Duke's warrant, Burton was the first to stand up and asked, "My lord, has Duke Jonathan set a specific deadline?"

Burton is the cousin of Viscount Raphael, already a seventh-rank silver knight, and the commander of the coalition forces of nobles in the province of Lahe.

The aristocratic coalition army commanded by Li Cha had [-] soldiers when they set off.Among them, the territory of Harland sent [-] troops, the nobles of the Gedda province sent [-] troops, the nobles of the Rah province sent [-] troops, and the nobles of the Gascoigne province sent [-] troops.

In the previous battles, the tri-provincial coalition suffered close to [-] casualties, and most of the losses came from the Gascoigne province.

After conquering Bulsen Castle, Richard asked Kalani to lead the coalition of Gascoigne nobles to guard the grain road, and Lost led the second brigade to escort the serfs. Now there are 1 troops left on the front line.

Among the coalition forces today, Lahe province has the largest number of troops and the heaviest weight.Burton is the representative of the coalition of nobles in the province of Lahe, and Richard must pay attention to Burton's opinion.

"The Duke didn't specify a specific time limit, but the wording in the order is quite strict, requiring us to deal with the enemy as soon as possible and cooperate with the main force to fight."

"In this situation, storming is very difficult. Duke Jonathan asked us to resolve the battle as soon as possible. It is really difficult for others. My opinion is still based on me, so as not to disrupt my rhythm. Continue to siege the city for a while, wait until early August, if If the food in the city is exhausted, we will naturally have a decisive battle with us. If there is still food left in the city, we should plan to retreat."

Burton's remarks are in line with the interests of the Central Route Army.

The nobles of the three provinces are not directly under Duke Jonathan's army. After participating in the war this year, they have successfully completed the task and successfully contained the coalition forces of the nobles in central Stanik, preventing them from going north for reinforcements.

Duke Jonathan's order obviously put a heavier burden on the Central Route Army. Burton's words implied that he was unwilling to take on this responsibility.

After participating in the war, the Central Route Army won two battles and gained a lot of spoils. The population alone reached nearly [-].

The Central Route Army has already been plundered, and many nobles in the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces are now satisfied and do not want to fight hard with the enemy.

Burton's remarks represent the opinions of a large number of people, and even the military spirit is on his side.Even if Li Cha wanted to continue to make meritorious service, he had to take care of the morale of the soldiers, and his orders could not deviate too far from the thoughts of the soldiers.

Li Cha turned his head and asked Sharp, "Old Sir Sharp, what's your opinion?"

Sharp commanded the Allied Forces of Nobles in Gerda Province, with [-] soldiers under his command.Compared with the nobles of the Lahe province, the nobles of the Gerda province have a closer relationship with Richard.Especially the aristocratic soldiers in Heihe County admired Li Cha very much. Like the soldiers in the Harland Territory, they were the backbone of Li Cha's control of this army.

"Can you write a letter to Duke Jonathan to recruit the nobles in Nero Castle?"

"The nobles in Central Stanik are all members of the distant branches of the Linus family. Leaving aside the blood feud between the Linus family and the Jonathan family, it is impossible to recruit them under the current situation. These people hold resentment and have no trust with us. If Rebelling before the battle will bring us even more trouble."

Baron Sharp also opposed the storming, he said frankly: "After two months of siege, the morale has dropped a lot, barely driving the soldiers to attack the city, on the contrary, it is easy for the enemy to seize the opportunity and win a victory.

In the past two months, the defenders of Fort Nero have had no communication with the outside world.If there is no outside news for a long time, the morale of the defenders will inevitably be unstable. I think it is better to drive the flocks to Nero Castle, let the defenders see that our food and grass are still very sufficient, and stimulate the enemy.If we can lure the enemy out of the city, we will take advantage of the situation to encircle and annihilate the enemy who comes out to attack. If the enemy stays still, we can also hit the morale of the defenders. "

Since none of his subordinates are willing to attack by force, Li Cha will not let the soldiers in Harland's territory be used as cannon fodder to fill the city.

Simply following Baron Sharp's plan, Richard let the sheep graze around the castle the next day, deliberately letting the defenders see it, to show that the coalition forces of the three provinces had plenty of food and grass.

Baron Sharp had rich experience and was able to accurately estimate the mood of the defenders. Seeing tens of thousands of sheep, the defenders immediately knew that it was impossible to expect the enemy to retreat in a short time.

Although there is a lot of food in Nero Castle, it is enough to last for nine months in normal times, but when the wall was cleared, more than 4000 soldiers poured into the castle, plus the soldiers' families, nobles' followers, grassroots bureaucrats and other messy personnel. Tens of thousands of people have been added.

With tens of thousands more mouths, there was suddenly not enough food.

If everything is normal, Fort Nero can hold out for another four or five months until Richard runs out of food and retreats.

But accidents happened one after another in the war.

Li Cha had aerial scouts. Through aerial reconnaissance in early May, they discovered a large granary of the defenders, and then concentratedly used kerosene bombs thrown by trebuchets to burn down the granary. More than 2000 tons of grain in the city were lost.

After this battle, the defenders learned a lesson and adopted methods of storing grain in separate warehouses and digging cellars to store grain. Up to now, there is only one month left in grain storage, which can only last until late June.

The grain reserves are getting less and less, and the nobles guarding the city are getting more and more worried.They knew in their hearts that once the food was exhausted, if the defenders did not surrender, they would have to eat people in order to survive.If this step is reached, Fort Nero will turn into a scene like hell.

Stimulated during the day, the nobles in Fort Nero pleaded for orders, asking Viscount Nero to let go of the city gate, organize an army to raid the enemy, and rob the sheep.

Seeing the anger of the crowd, Viscount Nero summoned everyone to the mansion to discuss countermeasures.

The coalition of nobles commanded by Li Cha cannot be united as one.Under the command of Viscount Nero, there are also people with ulterior motives.

Fort Nero was besieged for two months, and no reinforcements have been received until now. The nobles in the city knew that the situation had become extremely dangerous.They knew in their hearts that the Kingdom of Grant was much stronger than the Grand Duchy of Stanik in terms of national strength.Moreover, this year there was chaos within the Grand Duchy of Stanik, members of the Linus royal family killed each other, and lost [-] to [-] regular troops.

These 10 to [-] regular troops are all direct descendants of the Linus family, and the total force controlled by the Linus family is only [-].

Although the Grand Duchy of Stanik is not weak, the dukes in the south and the border nobles in the north may not be willing to work hard for the Linus family?
Although the appeal of the Jonathan family in Stanik has declined a lot, after all, they are the former masters of this country, and can influence a large part of the middle power to prevent them from participating in the war.

The war has continued until now, and the future of the Linus family is no longer good, and many nobles are unwilling to sit in a dangerous city.There are many people who want to break through, including Viscount Nero's clan.

The nobles in the city have breathing methods, professional clansmen, and soldiers who follow.Just get out of danger.Entering the Kingdom of Ryan, the Kingdom of Delong and other countries, you still have the opportunity to struggle to become a hereditary noble and restore your identity.Those who are willing to follow Viscount Nero to defend the castle are actually a minority.It's just that Viscount Nero is a powerful epic knight and has a high prestige in the coalition army, so he didn't openly engage in internal strife.

"The enemy drove the flocks and let us see them on purpose to stimulate us. We must not be fooled, as long as we persevere, everything will work out." Seeing that everyone had arrived, Viscount Nero got straight to the point and expressed his opinion .

"Our food is only enough for one month, and there are no reinforcements outside, and the enemy has tens of thousands of sheep. Even if they drink goat milk and eat mutton, they can last until late August. Moreover, the enemy can still get supplements from the rear. We The food will run out next month, what should we do then, is it really necessary to eat people? Most of the population in the city is the family members of the soldiers, can we give orders for the soldiers to eat their families?"

The first person to speak out was Viscount Casaro, who had [-] soldiers under his command, and his strength in the city was second only to Viscount Nero. He raised objections and got the approval of many people.

"Viscount Casaro is right. I think the best way is to organize the elite to go out of the city, launch a night raid, burn the enemy's food, and rob the enemy's sheep. As long as the battle is successful, the enemy will retreat because of the lack of food. .

If the night attack is unsuccessful, we should also make early plans, and we must not be trapped to death in this place.The [-] soldiers have no food to eat. The most likely thing is to surrender to the enemy, and all of us will die by then. As soon as Casaro finished speaking, Viscount York spoke in agreement.

Most of the soldiers of the Viscount York were lost in the Ferraman Mountains. Although he is not a bare-bones commander, he only has 300 direct descendants around him, and his voice is far inferior to the other two Viscounts, and he can only be equal to the Baron.

The two viscounts took the lead, and the barons below spoke in agreement.Seeing that there are so many opinions against defending the city, Viscount Nero knew in his heart that his opinions were already unpopular.

The noble coalition soldiers under Viscount Nero are all locals.At the beginning, in order to stabilize people's hearts, he gathered the soldiers' families in Nero Castle, but now these soldiers' families have all become burdens.

If you want to break out, you can't escape with the old and the weak.But abandoning the soldier's family, it is difficult for the commander to issue this order.

Soldiers are not robots, and it does not mean that any order given by the commander must be carried out.

If the army led by Viscount Nero were guest soldiers, this situation would be easy to handle.Whether it's hunting old and young in the city, relying on cannibalism to defend the city, or organizing soldiers to break through, as long as the strength is dominant, it is very easy.

But Viscount Nero led soldiers from his hometown, and he wanted the soldiers to eat his wives, children, and children. No matter who gave this order, he would definitely be backlashed by the soldiers.

Viscount Nero knew that the enemy had set up traps, and the sneak attack outside the city would not be successful, but the officers under his command were very enthusiastic, and most of them were unwilling to continue defending the city.

If the opinions cannot be unified, there will be internal strife if the quarrel continues.

Viscount Nero knocked on the table and shouted loudly: "You guys let me think carefully, but the enemy must have set up a trap tonight and launched a night attack. I will never agree."

After everyone left, Viscount Nero weighed carefully. Now that the conflict had become public, the nobles did not want to defend the city, and Viscount Nero was powerless to disobey the opinions of the majority.They can only organize a breakout according to their wishes.

Early the next morning, Viscount Nero held a meeting with the noble lords.At this meeting, he let go and expressed his willingness to organize soldiers and launch a breakout war.

"Go back and count and see how many soldiers are alone and willing to follow us?"

The nobles returned to the barracks, counted the soldiers' situation clearly, and reported to Viscount Nero.

After reading the statistics, Viscount Nero found that there were only more than 300 soldiers without family members.The remaining soldiers have relatives, and most of these soldiers with families are unwilling to break out with them and flee to neighboring countries.

The reason why soldiers are willing to defend the city is mainly to protect their families.

Viscount Nero has been publicizing the brutality of the enemy to the soldiers for the past two months, declaring that after the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces break through the city, they will definitely massacre the city.Fearing that their families would be slaughtered, the defenders fought bravely.

"There are only 300 people, how can we protect everyone's family. The reason why I oppose the breakout is that I am afraid of disturbing the morale of the army. I know that it is difficult to succeed in breaking through."

There are only [-] or [-] cavalry in the [-] noble coalition forces in the city.There are ten hereditary barons and three hereditary viscounts among the members of the aristocracy. Counting the distant nobles, the total number exceeds a thousand.Most of these people are old and weak, women and children, and only a small number of hard-hearted people can cruelly abandon their families.

Relying on hundreds of cavalry, it is impossible to break through with this batch of burdens.

Seeing that Viscount Nero was still hesitating, Viscount York persuaded: "If you don't break out, you can only wait for death. If you break out, you still have a chance to escape. In this situation, you are our leader. You can't hesitate, you should make up your mind."

"Tomorrow, I will order the soldiers to go out of the city to counterattack and contain the main force of the enemy. You and the backbone of Casaro's organization will lead all the cavalry in the castle to break through. If we can break through the encirclement, we will meet up at Sola Castle in the southern Dalong Mountains."

Hearing the breakout route planned by Viscount Nero, Viscount York asked in shock: "Aren't we going to Linus Castle and going west into the Kingdom of Lanes?"

Viscount Nero shook his head and said: "After the enemy captures Nero Castle, they must join the main force in the Linus area. Enemy troops are everywhere near Linus Castle. We went in this direction, and we couldn't escape the enemy's pursuit.

My opinion is to move to the southwest, cross the Dron Mountains from Sola Castle, and enter the Dron Kingdom through the territory of the Allen family. "

"Duke Allen is willing to let us pass? The dukes in the south are at both ends, and they are not willing to take responsibility at all. If they try their best, they can mobilize a hundred thousand troops. With a hundred thousand troops, we can easily drive out the enemy."

After hearing Viscount York's words, Viscount Nero also hated the dukes at both ends of the Southern Rat.But resentment can't solve any problems, he can only hope that the Allen family will turn a blind eye and let them enter the Dron Kingdom for political asylum.

(End of this chapter)