When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 573: Post-War Settlement and Meliati

The moonlight illuminates the sky.

The sharp calls of the whistling thrush echoed repeatedly in the shaking campfire, but such sharp calls did not cause any response in the entire camp.

The sentries on the wooden fence whispered to each other, and regretted not bringing bows and arrows as they watched the wild deer passing by.

Military police and sentries wearing leather boots patrolled in groups of four, carrying axes and guns, but they also deliberately made their steps light.

The camp was so quiet in the deep sleep, but the occasional groans of the wounded soldiers did not make the moonlight lose any of its tranquility.

The soldiers were too tired. After several days of continuous fighting and today's extremely tense battle, everyone was exhausted.

After forcing themselves to finish dinner, they could no longer bear it and grabbed their blankets and crawled into the narrow tent.

However, although Horn was extremely tired, he did not have time to sleep for the time being.

The cold wind, wrapped in the smell of grass and metal, licked the window panels, making the leaky house rattle.

Inside the residence, Horn sat behind a makeshift rotten wooden table picked up from nearby, listening to the reports and summaries of several legion clerks.

The wood in the stove still had moisture on it, and from time to time it made crackling sounds and emitted a pungent green smoke.

Horn subconsciously rubbed the quill with two fingers: "Then let me summarize. In this battle, the enemy knights captured a total of 323 people, including 118 Imperial Knights. The knights suffered a total of 271 casualties, including 98 Imperial Knights. As for the infantry, due to the large number and chaotic management, they have not been counted yet?"

The casualties Horn mentioned were serious injuries and deaths, the kind that would prevent them from returning to the battlefield for at least a year and a half.

After Prince Kongdai entered the Thousand River Valley, his nine imperial knights and the local imperial knights of the Thousand River Valley Church together numbered no more than 1000.

In the Battle of Pavia, the Battle of Black Mountain, the Battle of Little Pond, the Battle of Rapid City, and the Battle of Laper River, nearly four hundred Knights of the Imperial Order were killed or captured.

Meliati also killed more than 200 Imperial Order Knights on the battlefield in Upper River County.

In the second half of 1445, when Prince Condé withdrew his troops from Upper Rivoli, he had only 380 knights of the Order left. He had to spend a large sum of money to transfer more than 130 knights of the Order from the Kingdom of Leia.

By the spring of 1446, the Prince of Condé had about 550 Knights of the Order.

However, after the Battle of Raphael's Village and the casualties in the attack on the High Castle, Prince Condé only had 450 knights of the Order.

In the Battle of Cheese Bay, Horn cleared out 216 Order Knights at one time, killing nearly half of the remaining Order Knights.

Currently, Meliati is still pursuing the remaining Imperial Order Company, but the outcome of the battle is set, and they probably don't have much ability to resist.

Of course, if the Edict Knight wants to escape, it is actually very difficult to kill him.

Horn and Melia had killed more than 1000 Knights of the Order, and probably only about half of them were unable to fight again.

The rest were either dead or "missing", meaning they felt that fighting in the Thousand River Valley had no future and so they returned to their hometowns.

But no matter what, the church's main military force in the Thousand River Valley was completely emptied out, and it became a shaved lamb, waiting to be slaughtered.

"Yes, we will probably have the data tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." Pettier, who was sitting at another narrow copying table, handed over the copied form. "Your Majesty, please take a look. This is our casualties."

The smile on his face froze, and the happy smile turned into a bitter smile.

Horn lowered his head and began to read the form.

At Horn's request, this two-dimensional form has gradually been promoted within the Salvation Army government.

Without looking at the details, he scanned the entire article to the end: "Our army suffered a total of 1492 casualties, and the statistics of the lightly wounded have not yet been completed... The commanders of the th and th Black Crown Corps were killed in battle, and the commanders of the rd, th, and th Guard Corps were killed in battle..."

Seeing the casualties, although he knew it was still inevitable, he still couldn't help but sigh.

There were 1492 casualties, not mentioning the specific number of serious injuries and deaths, simply because they could not judge whether some of the seriously injured could survive the night.

One of the results of the previous rescue of Kasha County was the addition of a large number of monks to Horn's army.

If lightly injured people drink allicin, the possibility of infection can be greatly reduced.

The seriously injured were first saved with magic or potions, and then the witch doctors performed rituals or surgeries to try to save them. If Horn had not had a medical system that was far ahead of its time, another 500 casualties in this battle would not have been too much.

Compared to the Pavia period, when one quarter of the troops were killed in one battle, one eighth of the casualties were already a lot less, but it still made Horn feel heartbroken.

In particular, he saw a number of old people who had followed Horn during the Gulag period on this list, who could almost be considered Horn's relatives.

Just as Horn said before the war, people will die in war. Although we will never see those familiar faces again, their sacrifice is not in vain.

"Prince Condai's charge at the end was too dangerous." Even now, Pettier is still afraid. "At least one-third of the casualties were caused by the last charge. If we didn't have monks who saved lives with blessings and witch doctors who treated injuries, I'm afraid the casualties would be even higher."

Although Horn looked fearless and confident in his final charge during Prince Condé's attack, it was extremely dangerous in the eyes of others.

When the prince charged, almost all the war monks tried their best and formed gun arrays to block him, but they were still defeated.

Prince Condai was no more than thirty meters away from His Majesty the Holy Grandson. That dog Charles was only a half-step great knight. If he pounced on him and injured His Majesty the Holy Grandson, what would happen?
Having had their three lines of defense penetrated, the morale of the war monks was at a critical point and even on the verge of despair. They were either going to soar into the sky or fall into the abyss.

If Horn was really beheaded by Prince Conde, many of the war monks' new recruits would probably have scattered and fled.

They were farmers a few months ago and did not have the strong will of the veterans. Even the veterans were not robots.

The remaining steadfast war monks might still be able to stabilize the situation, but they would probably find it difficult to resist Prince Condai's attack, and could only slowly retreat with the Holy Gun Cavalry.

Horn was so excited at the time that he didn't feel scared at all and was able to calmly command the gunners and the falcon cannons. But now when he thinks about it, he is secretly shocked by his performance at that time.

"Try to save the seriously injured. It doesn't matter if they are disabled. There is the Invalids Home. I will take care of them anyway." Horn put down the list in his hand and said, "Put away the badges and the bodies. They will be listed in the Hall of Heroes later."

"Yes, Your Majesty." Armand, who was sitting behind the writing desk on the other side, began to write a memorandum.

Horn put down his brush: "Anything else?"

"Yes, Mr. Cassani and Mr. Gigannon just made an appointment to visit you. They also brought a mysterious guest with them. They hope to visit you."

The Franks are so quick. We just won the battle in the afternoon and they came to visit us in the evening.

As for the mysterious guest, Horn knew it was Montejac even with his hemorrhoids.

"Let's find a house for them to live in first, and we'll talk about it when we get to Feiliu Castle. I have a lot of things to do right now, so I don't have time for the time being."

Trade with the Franks is actually an important part of Horn's future plan, but at present, at least half of the Thousand River Valley was conquered by Meliati.

Given his prestige among the people and the current situation, he cannot act on his own.

Although the war was won, as Prince Conde said, there are still a lot of troubles to come.

There is Putsilio's army in Kasha County, and there is the coalition of the Stonewrackfield nobles in North Mound County.

Internally, there are nobles, citizens and monasteries who are in two minds, and externally, there are the two countries of Norn and Fran who are eyeing them covetously.

In the near future, there is Grand Duke Meliati and his power division issue, and in the distant future, there is a possible invasion war from the Kingdom of Leia.

The most important issue at the moment is the issue of Meliati. At least within the next ten years, it would be best for both sides to avoid civil war or division.

Otherwise, with the power of either of them alone, they would not be able to compete with the Kingdom of Leia.

Thinking of this, Horn's eyes became slightly out of focus. He didn't know why, but the half of the Grand Duchess's face under the iron mask always made him feel very familiar.

Could it be that I have seen her before?
That's impossible. Although the Grand Duke would occasionally come to High Castle, he always wore a hood and an iron mask, and he had never seen the Grand Duchess's face.

Speaking of Melia, Melia mentioned.

Horn was still thinking about her when he heard the sentry standing guard at the door report: "Your Majesty, His Highness Meliati is here to visit."

Everyone in the room looked at each other, with some surprise and doubt in their eyes.

"Please ask her to come in." Horn stood up with the help of the wooden table and walked towards the door.

(End of this chapter)