Two days later, Perunt finally found out why Aueras declared war on the five anti-Aueras alliance.
It turned out that the envoy sent by Aueras wasn't only given the cold shoulder when he visited Nasri, he was also humiliated by the Shiksan envoy in the royal court.
The Shiksan envoy was there to sign a civil trade agreement with Nasri and ran into the Aueran envoy in the royal court. Due to their disrespectful words, they got into a conflict and started a duel.
Unfortunately, the Aueran envoy was a civil official. Furious at losing the duel and being ridiculed by the Nasri nobles, he couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide in the royal court.
As the host, Nasri was supposed to stop the two envoys from clashing. Yet, not only did they not stop the Shiksan envoy from challenging the Aueran envoy to a duel, they even added fuel to the fire and forced the envoy to accept the duel in order not to tarnish Aueras' reputation.
Not only that, but the Nasri nobles who were sober enough to realize that things weren't looking good. As expected, the envoy's entourage collected the envoy's corpse and sent it back to the kingdom. News of it spread like wildfire.
Stellin X gave a speech in the assembly and called the envoy's incident a complete humiliation to Aueras. He announced that the peace agreement with the five anti-Aueras nations would be terminated and Aueras would declare war on them.
Stellin X gave a speech in the assembly and called the envoy's incident a complete humiliation to Aueras. He announced that the peace agreement with the five anti-Aueras nations would be terminated and Aueras would declare war on them.
That was four to five days ago. The world wasn't a place where one could immediately send troops to attack an enemy nation with a declaration of war. Of course, it was also possible for the other side to launch an attack right after the declaration of war was made.
But generally speaking, a declaration of war meant that the entire nation could be mobilized to expand their corps and send troops to attack the enemy nation. However, all of that required time.
It wasn't a deliberate declaration of war by Aueras. The sudden incident with the envoy had angered the kingdom, so Stellin X went to the assembly to make a speech and declare war.
It took two days for news of Aueras' declaration of war to spread throughout the eastern part of Freia. The five nations that had formed an alliance against Aueras quickly announced their acceptance of Aueras' declaration of war and mobilized their entire nation. They began recruiting soldiers to expand their armies and declared war on Aueras.
This meant that the war between Aueras and the five anti-Aueras nations had begun. It would be a war that would engulf the entire eastern part of the continent.
Claude felt that the way the world fought wars was rather laughable at times. A declaration of war wasn't an immediate attack. Instead, it was a reminder to the other party that they were about to fight. It was a way to let the other party have time to prepare for war and prepare their defenses.
Claude had thought that Bluefeather would immediately join the attack after the news of the declaration of war spread. He didn't think that after two days, most of Bluefeather's troops would still be busy in their camps, preparing for battle.
The officers of the corps, on the other hand, would be in meetings and discussing something.
Claude and the garrison platoon had been helping out in the canteen for the past two days. They were busy making military rations and black bread.
The orders from above were to prepare 15 days' worth of rations for the entire camp. Based on a soldier's elbow length of black bread every three days, they would need five loaves of black bread for half a month. That meant that the entire camp would need around 6,000 loaves of black bread.
Apart from that, there were also other nutritious food such as salt, cheese, dried meat powder, a small piece of butter, and some dried fruits.
A small portion of the rations were carried by the soldiers themselves, but most of them were transported by the logistics department. They were basically given food once every three days.
However, they were only meant to be eaten while marching or in battle. If they were to be stationed for a long period of time or prepare for battle, they would have to prepare hot food for the soldiers so that they would have the strength to fight on the battlefield.
Claude's horizons were truly broadened. He never thought that they would only start making rations when war broke out.
By then, the training of his garrison platoon and stretcher squad had been stopped. Orders came from above for the logistics department to tally up the various supplies and replenish them as soon as possible.
So, even a broken basin couldn't be reclaimed for now, let alone gunpowder and other training consumables. They had to wait for the logistics department to tally up the supplies they had in stock and send it to their superiors.
The 11th Field Battalion stationed at Fukby Hill was one of the more experienced battalions of Bluefeather and belonged to the 3rd Line of 1st Field Division.
Strangely, however, Bluefeather's 2nd Line, 3rd Line, and 4th Line were sent to the frontlines in the next half a month. However, 1st Line, which was widely acknowledged to be the strongest in Bluefeather, didn't make a move.
Many officers who were in a rush to go to the battlefield asked around, only to be told to stay put and not ask around for no reason. There would be plenty of opportunities for them to go to the battlefield.
Perunt, on the other hand, was resourceful and managed to gather quite a bit of information.
For example, the army decided to attack from two fronts. Reddragon and Gryphon would attack Nasri from the northwest and attack from Botarnia.
In the northeast, Bluefeather would attack Sidins from Kafreizit alone. Their goal was to annex Sidins before deciding which country to attack.
From the map, Sidins was only about the size of seven prefectures in Aueras. However, the border between the two dukedoms was Odin Mountain Range. It was a treacherous terrain with lofty mountains and steep cliffs.
Sidins built two defensive lines there, believing that they were well-guarded and didn't need to worry about Aueras' attack.
After all, by relying on the fortresses and castles built on the two defensive lines of the dangerous mountain range, it was enough to make the enemy return without any success.
From the perspective of those in power in Sidins, even if Aueras were to attack the five anti-Aueras alliance, they should go through Nasri. After all, Aueras and Nasri had fought two wars and had even sent their troops to Cardri, the capital of Nasri. Both sides knew each other very well.
Furthermore, that route was much flatter than the one they were on. There were only hills at the border. Be it the defensive facilities or the terrain, they were far inferior to the one they were on.
That was why the people of Sidins thought that they had nothing to worry about because of the two defensive lines. Even though they had declared war against Aueras, they believed that the flames of war wouldn't reach their borders. They could just sit back and watch as the two sides fought to the death.
They even believed that the war that engulfed the eastern part of the continent was just a matter of delaying it for a little longer. When both sides were exhausted, they would naturally negotiate again and sign a peace treaty. That way, they would be able to enjoy decades of peace.
All they had to pay for the war was to provide Nasri with some reinforcements and supplies to fulfill their responsibilities as allies.
But Sidins never imagined that Bluefeather stationed in Kafreizit had been plotting against Sidins all along.
The main goal of the war was to take a few ports from the five anti-Aueras alliance's territory and completely eliminate the threat that the alliance posed to the kingdom.
The two excellent ports that Sidins had became Aueras' targets. Annexing Sidins and taking those two ports would expand the kingdom's eastern coast by 300 nautical miles. That would be the heaviest blow to the alliance's fleet. They would no longer be able to send their squadrons deep into the eastern coast and threaten the kingdom's coastal territories.
Although Bluefeather was one of the kingdom's trump cards, it was ranked behind the Imperial Guard and Crimson Dragon Legion. It had taken a lot of effort for them to be able to take the lead in the war.
The main deciding factor was that Bluefeather had taken advantage of the fact that they were stationed in Kafreizit, which was close to the Sidins Duchy. In recent years, they had been sending spies and scouts to delineate the terrain of the border. They had a clear understanding of the two defensive lines built by the Sidins Duchy in the Odin Mountains. At the same time, they had found a secret passage through which they could move their troops to the back of the two defensive lines.
For Bluefeather, getting to the back of the two defensive lines would be like peeling off the shell of Sidins' egg and revealing the delicious yolk inside.
They wouldn't have to suffer losses just to attack the two defensive lines.
At that time, as long as they cut off the supply lines of the Sidins Duchy, they would be able to force the Sidins Duchy's armed forces to surrender.
As for the remaining two-thirds of Sidins' plains, they wouldn't be able to stop Bluefeather from carrying out a purge.
Because Bluefeather had control of that secret passage, Gryphon, who was better at fighting in the mountains, was assigned to Reddragon as their assistant to attack Nasri.
The five anti-Aueran alliance also believed that Aueras' main force would be there, so they were mobilizing their forces to converge on Nasri.
Their strategy on land was to defend and counterattack. They built all sorts of defensive positions and facilities at the rear regardless of the cost. They were prepared to use them to hold off the Aueran army's advance and slowly bleed the enemy dry until they couldn't attack anymore.
The reason Perunt was able to find out about this was because Bluefeather's 2nd and 3rd Folk had used a secret passage to bypass Sidins' two defensive lines in Odin Mountain Range and occupied Vimes, a city on the main road leading to Odin Mountain Range.
Next, the 2nd Field Division would continue to sweep through the Sidins Duchy's territory and approach the Duchy's capital, Efenasburg.
The 3rd and 4th Field Divisions flanked the Odin Mountain Range from the front to the back, preventing Sidins Duchy's defense force, which accounted for half of Sidins Duchy's forces, from trying to break out of the encirclement.
"But why is 1st Folk staying here and not heading to the frontlines?" Claude couldn't figure it out.
Perunt didn't know the reason either. It was a question only the generals at the top of the corps would know the answer to. Clearly, it was kept a secret for some reason.
After another week or so, he finally received confirmation that Bluefeather's 1st Folk had been staying in Kafreizit to await the arrival of the second prince.
Stellin X sent the first prince, Hansbach Don Stellin, to Reddragon and the second prince, Wedrick Don Stellin, to Bluefeather. The two princes were tasked with supervising the frontlines as well as announcing the kingdom's new policies in the three border prefectures.
As the war approached, the kingdom decided to lift the ban on Kafreizit, Lasdonkellen and Botha Arnia, lifting the military rule that had been in place for more than two decades. At the same time, the taxes on the residents would be reduced and they would be implemented in the same manner as the rest of the kingdom.
The only request was to gather the youths from the three prefectures and form three second-line corps to serve the kingdom in the war that would engulf the eastern part of the continent.
It was only then that the 1st Folk realized that they had been staying in Kafreizit to protect the second prince on his way to the frontlines.
Claude followed the 11th battalion to the main camp. Prince Wedrick was going to hold a military parade at the main camp and inspect the soldiers of 1st Folk before heading to Odin Mountain Range to preside over the surrender ceremony of the two defensive lines of Sidinske.