Warhammer

In the temporary camp of the Imperial Chivalrous Expeditionary Force.

Celestine sat cross-legged, flipping through the history books provided by the dwarves.

Although they like to tell stories in a long-winded way and insert a lot of subjective personal perceptions, and cover up things that are not favorable to them by downplaying or strongly accusing them, which is similar to the so-called "Spring and Autumn style" in the East, the dwarves are indeed one of the few ethnic groups in the Old World who pay special attention to inheritance when it comes to recording history.

Rhine stood aside with a solemn look on his face. He looked at the messenger who brought two letters at the same time. The latter bowed his head respectfully to the two commanders of the expeditionary force, so that people could not see what he was thinking.

"Is this the intention of the Ecumenical Council, the Senate, or the Privy Council?" he questioned the other party.

Because the orders brought by the latter were indeed a little difficult for him to describe.

The messenger replied very respectfully: "This is the decree of the Holy Trinity, blessed by the Ecumenical Council, voted by the Senate, and sealed by the Emperor."

179: Expeditionary Force

"The mission of the expeditionary force is to support the dwarves in regaining their lost territory. Sending troops to Mirmidon now goes against our original mission."

The messenger said directly: "It is important to fulfill our obligations to our allies, but it is more important to protect the territory of the empire."

Rhine's pupils shrank.

"Imperial territory?"

"Yes." The envoy nodded and said, "The Matoka people have presented the Prince's Sword and the declaration document when the principality was established to His Majesty the Emperor at the Imperial Conference. The Senate has voted to approve this proposal. Since half a month ago, Matoka has been officially incorporated into the territory of the Empire and has become a special 'extraterritorial autonomous region'. The Senate will appoint a governor and form a ten-member affairs officer to rule it."

After that, he held up a golden document and said, "The Grand Council has authorized the appointment of [Chosen One] Celestine Julius to establish a religious order in Matoka, eliminate heresy, and ensure that the locals only believe in the orthodox state religion in matters of faith."

Rhine couldn't make a decision and could only look at Celestine.

His cousin, Sigmar's Chosen One, was the commander of this expedition's vanguard.

Celestine closed the document she was reading, stood up and walked forward, took the golden book from the messenger with both hands and examined it carefully.

After finally confirming that everything was correct, he nodded to Rhine and said nothing more. He only asked the messenger:

“When will the follow-up reinforcements arrive?”

“If we send troops to Matoka and the greenskins head north, the vanguard army now has only 7,000 people, and it is difficult to guarantee the safety of the imperial territory.” Celestine emphasized the word “imperial territory” in her words.

When the expeditionary force was resting at Haimen Pass, for some reasons, the brother and sister proposed to send some elite troops to the Black Rock Castle front to support the dwarves.

After all, their purpose of entering the badlands is for this. A war may break out at Black Rock Castle at any time. If a decisive battle breaks out while the expeditionary force is stationed at Haimen Pass, and they lose, or the battle is over, and no imperial army joins the front battlefield from beginning to end, it will undoubtedly be a great damage to the prestige of the empire and the relationship with the dwarves.

This reason makes sense.

So the expeditionary force selected 4,000 soldiers under the selection of Rhine, and set off for Black Rock Castle in advance under the leadership of a highly respected and trustworthy bishop of the Return Party who volunteered to participate in this holy war expedition.

Bishop Frank von Stuka is a church bishop from Wiesenland, now in his prime. As the most developed region in the empire, or in the western part of the Old World, it is also the territory with the fastest development of industry and capital. The materialism, corruption and exploitation that exist here are also the worst in the entire empire.

As a priest, Frank, who was considered upper-middle class in the empire, had seen too much: the extravagance of the rich, the corruption of the bureaucrats, the suffering of the lower classes... He was not corrupted by the prosperity and progress of Wissen Territory. Instead, he began to actively work for the majority of people. In opposition to the mainstream, he spoke up for the lower classes and fought for the position of bishop in Wissen Territory.

In the process, he naturally devoted himself to the line of the Returnists, the largest "opposition party" within the state religion, and became an important regional leader among the Returnists priests.

Later, the Empire issued a call for a holy war, which was unanimously hostile to the clergy and dignitaries in the region. Frank had defended the nuns who tried the cruel dignitaries in the name of the Emperor and helped the rioting workers to hang the factory owners. He also expressed the hope that these nuns who regarded themselves as Sigmar's most loyal daughters could stay in Wiesenland, a place where "evil is rampant and morality is absent". Fortunately, Archbishop Nuln issued a severe rebuke and asked the nuns to return to Mordheim headquarters immediately to accept "punishment", and criticized Bishop Frank. Otherwise, if the nuns stayed any longer, they would either be killed or burn Nuln to death...

So Frank simply volunteered to join the team as a regional religious representative, but was sent away like a plague god. In order to show his "attention" to the latter, Archbishop Nunn specially promoted his status as a bishop of the church to a higher level, making him a Holy Sacrifice Bishop who no longer needed to perform his duties in the church and was specifically responsible for prayer liturgy and mass ceremonies. This was a promotion in name only and a demotion in reality. In this way, even after Frank returned, he could no longer use the convenience of his profession to strengthen the influence of the returnists in a fixed area.

As a priest, Frank was very knowledgeable but not blindly fanatical. His faith was devout and ardent, but the light he exuded did not make people feel ardent or burning. Rhine and Celestine invited him into their tent, and the three of them communicated privately and told him some obscure concerns, which made the bishop very shocked and disappointed with the Council. However, he also thanked the two Julius, who had acted in such a way of defying the core of the empire not for any power or status, but only out of personal inclination and love for loyal people, and promised that he would ensure that the army handed over to him was as intact as possible. At least, even if they died, they should fall on the battlefield for the implementation of the will of the God-Emperor and for justice in the world, rather than under the conspiracy of their own people.

There are only 7,000 imperial troops still left at Haimen Pass. It is not difficult to "recapture" Matoka with such a small number of people, but the difficulty lies in dealing with subsequent situations.

Seven thousand people, even if they are seven thousand fully armed Reik Guards, when the situation in Mirmiden is still unknown, if Gao Maoliang turns around and launches a fierce counterattack, Matoka's city defense force will be greatly weakened. It will be easy to take it down, but it will be really difficult to hold it.

As for finding reinforcements nearby...

The dwarves certainly can't help. They have already done their best by providing a large amount of supplies to the Myrmidons even when the front line is tense. As an ally that came with great fanfare to support the dwarves, the expeditionary force turned around and asked the dwarves to help them protect the newly annexed territory of the border princes before they could help much. This would definitely cause great dissatisfaction among the dwarves, and the purpose of this expedition would be declared bankrupt.

Celestine was already annoyed by the delay in the arrival of follow-up reinforcements from the country. While it was important to uncover the nationwide scandal of embezzlement of military supplies, one had to also consider the current time. If the troops were delayed at this time, no matter whether the bigwigs in the country really wanted to kill the elites of the return faction with a borrowed knife or they were really tied up because the matter was too big, the war could not be delayed.

Their daily food and drink at Haimen Pass are all provided by the dwarves. They had originally requested to rush to the front line of Black Rock Castle for support, but the dwarves were concerned about the greenskins' comeback. Also, these tens of thousands of people are indeed of little use in a large battlefield with hundreds of thousands of people in the mountains. A vanguard army mainly composed of cavalry will not be of much use... So they temporarily persuaded the expeditionary force to stay at Haimen Pass for preparation, and send troops to support after they joined up with the follow-up troops.

Ai'er went to Black Rock Castle, and went west to attack Mao Liang to attack the border princes. With one increase and one decrease, the dwarves now feel very stable, and they are not short of the vanguard army of tens of thousands of people.

But there is inevitably a sense of delaying the dispatch of troops and keeping the dwarves hanging.

This made the 10,000 people who had already arrived very embarrassed.

The propaganda sounded good, calling on the nation to go on a chivalrous expedition to support the mountains, but it took so long and only tens of thousands of people showed up.

Now they have to turn back to Matoka. In this war of allies, after the Empire officially entered the battlefield, they didn't help much. Instead, they took the opportunity to expand their territory next to others, which was a bit ugly.

Chapter 180: Conquering the Chief and Sending Troops

"Please don't worry. In Sol Territory, the acting Elector has received the order of the Imperial Council. The city of Nuln will provide supplies to form a 'Border Province Army' to lead the war in the Border Territory. All you and your troops need to do is to recapture Matoka. What the Border Army needs is to gain a foothold in this land ravaged by greenskins before arriving." The messenger answered the question raised by Celestine.

"Who is the commander?" Rhine then threw out the next one.

"The Empire's chief general in battle, your mentor, Augustin Usnov."

Hearing this familiar name, Rhine was slightly startled, and then he looked at his cousin with joy in his eyes.

Originally, the empire did not have the position of "Chief General". The highest achievement of a commander was marshal. However, during the reign of the previous emperor, in order to strengthen control over the army and fight against political enemies, the emperor turned the marshal into an honorary position and created a variety of new positions to deprive and divide the power of the enemies.

Although most of them were eventually merged or abolished, the position of "Chief General" was retained. Generally speaking, there were three permanent positions, namely "Chief of Expedition", "Chief of Imperial Guards" and "Chief of Garrison".

When Rhine officially "debuted" and entered the military world through the influence of the Julius family, his official guide, or promoter, who in the East would be known as the "master" or "chief", was Augustine, who had Kislev ancestry and was the "chief of war" who symbolized the highest trinity of military power in the empire.

In the division of power and duties, the Chief of War is responsible for matters related to external military operations. However, because the empire rarely used foreign troops in the past, this position is actually relatively low in status. The most noble position is naturally the Chief of the Royal Guards, who can command the Reik Guard on behalf of the emperor. As for the Chief of the Garrison, he is mainly responsible for local garrisons and logistics, and is a position with rich benefits...

It is worth mentioning that Augustin Usnov, the less famous chief of expedition in the past, had a good relationship with the Julius family, a famous military family.

If this chief warrior who is both Rhine's mentor and the family's "ally" is in charge of border army affairs, then Rhine will not have to worry about being cheated by the other party.

Celestine seemed to know what Rhine was thinking, so after asking some more questions about the domestic situation and whether he had any other orders, she politely asked the envoy to leave.

Now that there were no outsiders around, the two men did not bother the dwarves to prepare a secret room for them to discuss the matter privately. The process of such matters might be secretive, but the matter itself was difficult to be completely airtight. It was hard not to arouse suspicion when the two supreme commanders of the two armies went to hold a private meeting right after meeting with the imperial envoy.

So the two of them simply went directly to Celestine's bedroom to communicate.

It might be normal to spy and observe under normal circumstances, but to monitor a God-Emperor's Chosen One in a private room, even the Ecumenical Council would not dare to make such a humiliating resolution. If something were to happen, unless the God-Emperor deprived Celestine of her favor, I'm afraid even the Patriarch "Holy See" would have to repent and atone for his sins.

"I believe in my mentor, Jillia. You may not have come into contact with these things before and you don't know clearly, but I understand, I know he..." Rhine said to Celestine seriously, "For my mentor, as the chief of the expedition, he no longer has any way to be promoted. His reputation, prestige, and status have reached their current upper limit. He once confided in me that as a general whose duty is to 'command the army and conquer the enemies of the country', he lives in an era of continuous peace. This is the luck of the country and the people, and his misfortune."

"The only way for him to advance, gain prestige and fame is through war."

"The situation at the border is a long-awaited opportunity for the mentor. He will definitely do his best and use every possible means to win this war. We don't need to worry about him like we worry about others. As long as he has the ability, he will definitely come."

"If he sits back and watches the vanguard army being surrounded and destroyed, he will never let go of such a serious mistake!" Rhine said excitedly. He said: "I will write a letter to the commander now to explain our strategic intentions. As long as we can unite our troops before the battle of Mirmiden is decided, we can at least form a confrontation with the enemy in the south on the Zorak line!" As he spoke, he even blurted out the military titles that he was used to.

There was a fire burning in Rhine's eyes. This outstanding young general, who used to believe that he could "focus on military affairs and ignore other things" but was depressed by the cruel and ugly political struggle, finally saw the "long-awaited opportunity" that belonged to him and Celestine.

In Rhine's opinion, soldiers are simple people. It is enough for them to concentrate on winning the war and fulfilling their bloody duties.

The rest was really not within his consideration.

If Augustine was the commander of the Thor expeditionary force, and the enemy did not delay in heading south, then the vanguard army could have joined forces with the enemy and fought a fair war with the greenskins! In that case, whether it was life or death, victory or defeat, Rhine would have no other complaints except regret.

It's not like now, where every order and message coming from the country always seems to have some bad and malicious meaning. For a young general who is determined to be a "famous general", what could be more tormenting than knowing that the country behind him may be his enemy and wants to drag him and his army to death?

If there had not been the original order urging Rhine to march south...if the emperor had not implicitly opposed Rhine's participation in this expedition, which theoretically should have been the most glorious, perhaps Rhine would not have thought so much.

After the exchange, Celestine agreed with Rhine's view. The country now uses the name of "defending the imperial territory" to ask them to go and rescue Matoka, so naturally, they can no longer delay the reinforcement with other reasons. After all, it is okay to fail when helping the allies, after all, it is not their own business. But now this is already a "patriotic war of the empire", a battle to defend the imperial territory.

If Matoka, which had just annexed the Empire, had no external support, not only would the vanguard of the God-chosen commander be wiped out, but the principality would even be directly subjected to a retaliatory massacre by the greenskins. This would be a huge blow to the Empire's prestige.

Emperor Justinian personally led an expedition against the Blackfyre and destroyed the Great Waaaaagh of Gogo Mago, the [last chosen greenskin], but he did not formally incorporate the border princes into the empire's territory.

Now that such a gap has been opened, it was lost in the end, with the elite troops destroyed and the people massacred. This is definitely not something the emperor on the throne wants to see.

"Let's go together and talk to the dwarf."

Celestine took a deep breath and made a decision, but there was still a slightly tricky matter to deal with.

This time the vanguard is about to set out, but not to the dwarf front, but to the new territory of the empire's expansion.

This is really not a pleasant thing to say, I just hope that it won't make both sides unhappy...

181: Matoka Rebellion and the Fall of Mirmidon

After negotiations between Rhine and others and Haimen Pass, the expeditionary force passed smoothly.

Although it was a bit embarrassing to say they were helping and then stand down before they could do anything, knowing that Celestine, Rhine and others, as commanders, had no decision-making power, the dwarves of Haimen Pass still respected and blessed them on their new journey.

After all, the Empire's reinforcement of troops to the Border Princes can also share the pressure that the dwarves have faced in the past with the greenskins, as well as curb the army of Gao Maoliang that is besieging Mirmiden.

The battle of Black Rock Castle was no longer urgent after Al led his troops there, as the vanguard army now had 7,000 people.

And out of responsibility to its allies, Haimenguan also mobilized the Blackwater Bay Fleet to cooperate with the Imperials' operation, transporting the vanguard directly to Matoka, and taking advantage of the greenskins' weakness in sea power to catch the enemy off guard.

......

The Matoka people, who were unwilling to submit to Mao Liang, had been making various preparations in private. In the end, they chose to "cry to the Qin court" directly, and asking for imperial reinforcements was a helpless move.

After all, the dwarves would definitely not come to help the border princes’ principalities before settling their own affairs.

However, wanting to rely on the Matoka people's own strength to complete a series of plans such as "the clouds are cleared and the sun appears" - "how can one be depressed and suppressed for long" - "fight the enemy in accordance with justice" is more or less a bit too stubborn. After all, with the generally lax military equipment on the border, there is a certain gap in combat effectiveness between them and the greenskins in the south.

Without relying on external support, if Mao Liang really conquers Mirmiden and implements his idea of ​​a barbaric kingdom, when the Empire's expeditionary force comes in the future and starts a massacre of greenskins on the territory of the border princes, it will be this land that suffers. Matoka, as one of the quasi-front lines and the first border principality to take the lead in surrendering, will inevitably be liquidated.

So he thought about it and thought that the soldiers and generals of the Northern Empire might march south at any time. If they turned against him at that time, not to mention whether the warlord who was not as smart as the greenskins would be prepared, it was another matter whether he could avoid punishment.

The Matoka people simply decided to take a gamble. In the beginning, they were forced to take a gamble under the threat of Gao Maoliang, and believed in the promise of the warlord, so they were lucky enough to be preserved. Now it was nothing more than another gamble, betting that the greenskins who were in decline and backwardness and were no different from hundreds or thousands of years ago were no match for Big Brother.

This can be considered as rebelling at a critical moment. Seeing that the Matoka people had brought in the imperial reinforcements, all the previous actions could be attributed to "bearing humiliation" and "protecting the people". Not only were they not wrong, but they were meritorious!

So they decided to take a chance.

In order to shake the empire, they simply gritted their teeth and sent the city's founding declaration and the prince's sword, the two things that best symbolized the ruling power of the border "prince" state of Matoka, to the envoy to the Altdorf Palace and presented them to the current Majesty Otto Franz.

If this large piece of fertile land on the border, which is not inferior to the Southern Kingdom from east to west, can be brought under the control of the Empire through this opportunity, even if it is only in the form of an "extraordinary autonomous territory" with a high degree of autonomy, it will be a huge enhancement to the prestige of the throne. You must know that in the past, because the main population of this land was humans, and it had a close relationship with the dwarves, and it had a blood relationship with the Southern Kingdom, it was the kind that could please all three heads and benefit all. Even someone as powerful as the Great Justinian, with his great victory, only forced many princes, big and small, to "give up their titles" and did not say that he would directly annex this place.

If Emperor Otto could accomplish this, it would undoubtedly be a great achievement that would be passed down through the ages.

The Matoka people were right in their bet, the Imperial Council was indeed very tempted.

The vast but still undeveloped land of the Border Princes can greatly alleviate the current population pressure in the Empire. The vast plains can be used to cultivate countless fertile fields. The Black Mountains in the north and the Southern Mountains in the west are rich in minerals. Moreover, the southernmost Argaris can directly sail to Araby and Lustria. If the eastern and western border territories can be incorporated into the territory of the Empire, the Emperor's previous plan to establish a colonial outpost in Estalia to strengthen his influence in the New World will immediately achieve a belated great success. How can an outpost be as efficient and useful as an entire port land that can enter the Vast Ocean at any time through Blackwater Bay and the Sea of ​​Pirates?

Merchants will support it, because with the border princes' territory, the distance from the heartland of the empire to places such as Cathay, the Southern Kingdom (Alliance), and the dwarves of the New World of Araby will be shortened a lot; the army and nobles will naturally support all causes of expanding territory, as long as they fight, they will have military merits and opportunities for promotion; the state religion will also support the "legitimate" expansion of the faith of the God-Emperor, allowing the border princes, whose faith has been "confused" for thousands of years, to be brought under the rule of the empire and convert to the true faith of Sigmar, which will undoubtedly strengthen the authority of the Grand Council and bridge the increasingly serious divisions at present;

Even the workers and farmers who suffer the most oppression will support the expansion of national interests, so that they may have the opportunity to go to this fertile land that is said to be vast but has a much smaller population than in China and become self-employed farmers with enough food and clothing...

Therefore, under the inducement of Matoka's "land donation", the empire or the emperor himself had long planned to expand to this land. The current Majesty Otto Franz is not willing to be a conservative and mediocre king. He has been working hard since he ascended the throne. Perhaps some things have had negative effects due to his lack of skills and abilities, but from this point we can see that he is unwilling to be mediocre, accepts mistakes, and cannot do nothing.

This is also the reason why the Empire would rather face negative accusations of secretly developing itself while its allies are at war, and ask the Vanguard Army to turn to "recapture and protect Matoka".

After Aldolf received a satisfactory reply that expressed his gratitude, the Matoka people immediately began to step up preparations to "welcome the royal army."

Although the vanguard army has only 7,000 people, most of them have a church background and are professional warriors. Their average level can be considered "elite" compared to those led by the border princes. It is not a problem to defeat the 3,000 greenskins who stayed behind, but the key problem lies in the 3,000 women and children who are taken as hostages.

Before the warlord fought all the way to Mirmidon, in order to show that he was keeping his promise and to reward the Matoka people for their "obedience", the warlord instructed the Matoka garrison to release a thousand hostages to their families.

Regardless of what the behavior is, it is generally a manifestation of Mao Liang's keeping his promise.

However, the Matoka people, who had decided to rebel and become the first to surrender and the first to "revolt" among the surrender group, would naturally not be bought by some "small favors" from the big warlords.

After confirming the empire's doom and contacting the vanguard troops at Haimen Pass, they arranged everything.

Before Gao Maoliang reached the border prince's territory, there were not many non-greenskins who had voluntarily served him, only a few hundred people. This number of people was obviously not enough for the warlord to control the large "territory" he had conquered. He could only rely on the method of using big villains to manage small villains. For example, a senior human loyalist would manage ten local servants who voluntarily or forcedly served the greenskins, and these people would in turn manage some of them, and so on.

However, the main local power is still in the hands of the people of each city-state and principality, which is actually no different from independent autonomy.

In the past, perhaps some of them would have followed Gao Maoliang's orders because they had fallen into depravity or were simply afraid of the greenskins' revenge. But now that the imperial reinforcements would arrive soon, these people were not the running dogs who were determined to be slaves of the greenskins. Gao Maoliang did not have that much benefit to offer them. Because the greenskins attacked quickly, these people did not commit any unforgivable crimes while serving the greenskins, so they were easily instigated to "rebel."

Once they began to have second thoughts, the more reliable loyalists left behind by the greenskins to monitor the place would undoubtedly become deaf and blind.

Taking advantage of a night with extremely low visibility, the vanguard army quietly landed at a natural harbor in the wild with the help of the Matoka people and lay in ambush for the time being.

Before confirming the arrival time of the troops, the Matoka people secretly brought some weapons and tools when delivering supplies to the greenskins stationed outside the city and the women and children who were hostages, and also left some capable soldiers to hide among the women and children.

The greenskins don't care much about these things. As long as the mother shrimps with their baby shrimps don't leave, they don't care if there are only a few shrimps coming from the city. As for the commander in charge, they just think that they are relatives of the women and children who can't bear the longing and come to meet them.

After the Vanguard Army determined the time to launch the attack, the Matoka people disguised 500 elite local warriors as laborers on the pretext of transporting supplies, and hid 2,000 Vanguard Army soldiers in barrels and sacks, saying that they wanted to deliver enough supplies at one time. While they were carrying and unloading goods, in order to prevent conflicts, the greenskins generally would not approach the surrounding areas, so they seized the opportunity to remove their disguises and headed straight for the town where the hostages lived.

The women who had received the news immediately set fire to the agreed side of the passages and houses facing the greenskins to block the enemy's passage. They also took out the weapons that had been transported in advance and distributed them, arming the women as soldiers to resist the greenskins.

Celestine personally led the elite warriors to charge. No greenskin was her match. This surprise attack with internal and external support soon broke the morale of the greenskins. After seeing that the situation was hopeless, they followed the warlord's orders and did not want to fight. They planned to flee west directly. However, in order to delay the warlord's knowledge of the news as much as possible, the vanguard had already ambushed in the direction of the enemy's escape. The vanguard, half of which was cavalry, had very strong capabilities in both charging and chasing. They soon defeated the remaining greenskin garrison outside the city of Matoka. After counting the prisoners, there were more than 2,300 people, which means that almost only one in ten of the enemies were left.

With this ratio of casualties, the greenskins would easily be defeated and become disoriented, and start to run around and cause chaos.

The Matoka people cheered for the arrival of their liberators, but Celestine and Rhine would not be satisfied with this simple victory.

They know that more severe challenges are definitely yet to come.