"… I think we should abandon Polyvicia's capital and retreat immediately.
This time, our autonomous military district has sent out two legions, not to help the kingdom conquer the entire eastern region, but to reinforce the kingdom and stop the invasion of the eastern region's countries.
"We've already done our best in the war. We've destroyed two duchies, reclaimed the newly conquered lands and forced the alliance to withdraw from the kingdom.
"From the point of view of our goal, we've already accomplished our mission.
"We've made sure that Shiks no longer has a foothold in the east and destroyed Seaking's fleet. Shiks will no longer be able to interfere in the affairs of the east.
We've also taken over Polyvicia's capital. I'm sure the blow to Nasri will be so severe that they won't be able to recover for the next few decades.
That's why I believe we've gained enough. We should quit while we're ahead. "
That was Berklin's speech during Thundercrash's meeting. His opinion represented the opinions of many of his soldiers.
Now that Thundercrash had taken over the capital, they were faced with the threat of 700,000 allied troops from the five northeastern prefectures and seven southwestern prefectures of Nasri.
The quick-footed Berklin's first thought was to run away. At the very least, he had to bring back all the spoils of war. It was an astronomical amount of wealth, he couldn't leave it here and let the enemy take advantage of it …
However, Dyavid was adamantly against running away before the battle even started. He represented another group of Thundercrash soldiers who were extremely superstitious about their own combat prowess.
So what if the enemy outnumbered them?
So what if they outnumbered Thundercrash by tenfold?
Wasn't it just a problem that could be solved with ten more shots each?
There was no need to run at all. It was embarrassing to say it out loud.
Claude didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The quarrel between his two lackeys gave him a headache.
Berklin wasn't a coward. Otherwise, he wouldn't have launched a surprise attack on the capital of Polyvicia.
He just liked to fight battles he was confident in and use the smallest price to achieve the greatest victory.
That was why he believed that Nasri wouldn't be able to make a comeback after being tormented by Thundercrash. Thundercrash should just retreat and return to the newly conquered lands with their bountiful spoils.
Dyavid, on the other hand, was on the other end of the spectrum. He had too much faith in Thundercrash's power and believed himself to be invincible.
This could be seen from the fact that he dared to attack the enemy's army of a hundred thousand with just two light cavalry main force field combat regiments of just over ten thousand people.
In the end, they won a complete victory, and their own casualties were extremely light. Who could they find to reason with?
Therefore, when they heard that the enemy's army was pressing down on their borders, the officers led by him felt that this was a gift of military merits. How could they run away before the battle had even begun?
It was one against ten. If he won this battle, he could leave his name in the annals of history and bring glory to future generations.
The pro-war faction led by Dyavid rubbed their palms together, afraid that the enemy wouldn't come. They believed that there was no enemy that Thundercrash couldn't destroy.
This could be concluded from their famous statement that every one of them could solve all the problems by firing ten more shots. They did not take the 700,000 strong enemy army seriously …
Claude was actually feeling rather conflicted as well. Should he fight or should he leave? The two ideas kept swirling in his mind.
Compared to Dyavid who wanted to fight and Berklin who wanted to leave, he stood at a higher position. He could see further and consider things more carefully.
If Berklin decided to stop while they were ahead and leave first, it would mean that Thundercrash would have to give up on the capital city and the surrounding areas that they already had control over. All their previous efforts would be for naught.
At the same time, they would be giving up on the best opportunity to wipe out Aueras' mortal enemy, Nasri. That was something Claude didn't want to see.
The true source of the unrest and war in the eastern part of Freia lay in the struggle between Aueras and Nasri for dominance. Only when one of them fell would the eastern region be at peace.
Otherwise, war would break out between the two countries every twenty to thirty years.
The two countries had fought five times in the past century, the last two involving all the countries in the eastern region. As a result, the two countries became mortal enemies.
Claude wasn't willing to give up on this opportunity. He knew very well that as long as Nasri was wiped out, he would gain unparalleled prestige in Aueras.
Putting aside the fact that the old noble families didn't have the right to order him around, even Fredrey the First had to give him face. The benefits he would gain were self-evident.
Furthermore, it wouldn't be easy to just leave as Berklin suggested. Treasures worth more than 50 million crowns couldn't be taken away just like that.
Unless all of Thundercrash's soldiers dismounted and became infantrymen, they wouldn't be able to take away all the spoils of war.
Naturally, they could also distribute the spoils of war to the soldiers first, but that would go against the rules of the region.
The biggest problem was, how much combat power could the soldiers maintain if they were to carry all the spoils of war with them?
Claude wouldn't make such a foolish decision to cripple his own martial arts. Not to mention, it would have a negative impact on his soldiers' ability to maintain strict discipline and fine conduct.
Apart from that, there were over a hundred thousand captives in the camp and the two hundred thousand family members of the captives that were quarantined in the capital.
That was what Claude was going to use to fill up the manpower in Loki Mountains. The temporary court and Fredrey the First had refused the region's request for more immigrants.
Not a single person who wasn't related to the region was allowed to migrate. Since Monolith's arrival in Whitestag, less than a thousand people had migrated to the region.
If Thundercrash were to abandon the capital, they wouldn't be able to take away all of the captives and their family members. At most, they would be able to take away a small number of high-ranking captives, such as Nasri royalty and nobles.
If they were to take away all of the captives, how much combat power could an army that was escorting three hundred thousand captives and their family members, as well as a huge amount of treasure?
Not to mention being intercepted by the enemy, even if there was internal chaos or a battle on the way, it would bring great losses to the Thundercrash Corps …
So, it was impossible to take away all of the captives and their family members, but Claude wasn't willing to let them go either.
These captives and their families were all loyal to Nasri. Don't expect them to be grateful just because Thundercrash gave them their freedom. After all, their properties had already been confiscated by Thundercrash.
Their freedom was equivalent to providing the enemy with even more troops and basic officers with battlefield and military experience. This meant that Thunderclap would once again be surrounded by enemies from all sides. King City and the surrounding towns and regions would once again lose control.
Claude believed that if he were to ask the high-ranking officers how to deal with the captives and their family members, the only answer he would get would be to kill them.
Since he couldn't release them, he would just have to kill them all. That way, Thundercrash would be able to go into battle easily.
But Claude didn't want to be the scapegoat. If he really did that, he would be recorded in history as the bloody butcher.
Even though the two raids on the capital and the surrounding towns only wiped out armed resistance fighters, the deaths of more than a hundred thousand civilians and resistance fighters made Claude the butcher of Polyvicia.
Even though he didn't personally kill any of the civilians, he was the one who gave the order to do so. So, the title of butcher was attached to his head.
But that was understandable. Claude didn't care about the title anyway.
Thundercrash's soldiers only wiped out the resistance fighters. They couldn't just stand there and let them do whatever they wanted just because they were the elderly, children or women, right?
As long as it was an enemy, they would be wiped out regardless of whether they were old, weak, women or children.
As for the townspeople who didn't resist, Thundercrash's soldiers didn't violate them, didn't plunder their property, and didn't molest their wives and daughters. This kind of military discipline was already unique in this era, extremely strict and just.
Killing enemies on the battlefield could be justified, but killing defenseless captives would make Claude's name known throughout the continent. His reputation would be tarnished, and his descendants would be the ones to blame for it.
The wars on Freia had their own unspoken rules regarding captives. The good ones were to be exchanged or bought after the war.
The bad ones were to be sold as slaves or sentenced to hard labor, but not a single country would openly slaughter captives.
Claude planned to send the captives and their families to the Loki Mountains region and have them mine for a living. That was a normal thing to do and no one would say anything about it.
However, if he were to kill all 300,000 captives and their families just because of that, he would be condemned by the nations of Freia and cursed by the people of justice.
Claude's reputation in the region would plummet as well. Nobody would like a bloody butcher who ordered the slaughter of innocent captives and their families.
Claude didn't want to be on the cusp of something like that. The high-ranking officers under him only said they would kill the captives because they were in a different position.
They only had to consider Thundercrash's current situation and what was best for them. They didn't have to consider the opinions of others or the consequences of killing the captives and their families.
Since Claude was the one who gave the order, he would naturally be the scapegoat.
Since he couldn't kill them or release them, the best solution was for Thundercrash to defeat the 700,000-strong enemy army and wipe out Nasri once and for all.
This way, everyone would be happy, and the Thundercrash Army would have enough time to transport the large amount of wealth and captives to the Ocean Sea Autonomous Region.
It was just a beautiful dream, but Claude wasn't sure if it could be realized.
Dyavid's strategy was to charge in first no matter how many enemies there were.
Claude couldn't be as reckless as him. Not all of the enemy's 700,000-strong army was as useless as the 18th Nasrian Corps that could be crushed with a single charge.
At the very least, the 400,000-strong army from the seven southwestern prefectures had retreated from Aueras and had plenty of combat experience. The way Claude saw it, the 400,000-strong army was the real threat. They were on par with the royal guard of Aueras.
While the 400,000-strong army was defeated by Monolith in Ambrize, that was on Aueran soil. They were exhausted from a long journey and didn't have much fighting spirit.
Coupled with the fact that the motley crew from the two duchies held them back and Monolith's new cannons and rockets caught them off guard, they suffered a huge defeat.
However, they performed very well in the process of retreating from the kingdom's mainland. They even made the Red Dragon Legion suffer a small loss in the battle of the Ibnister Plains, forcing the kingdom's three major legions to maintain a tacit understanding and send them out of the country.
While Monolith won a great victory in Ambrize, they also used up half of their ammunition reserves.
If the Alliance army could discover this, they would only need to keep attacking and entangle the Monolith Army. With their advantage in numbers, they would only need to pay the price of 200,000 casualties to make the Monolith Army run out of ammunition, and they might not even be able to defend Ambrize County.
Fortunately, the alliance didn't know about that. They were shocked by Monolith's power and the power of their new weapons.
Coupled with the news that the two duchies were destroyed, Shiks' enclave was recovered and Nasri's Polivisia was taken by Thundercrash, the alliance had no choice but to retreat back to Nasri lest their path of retreat be cut off. In the end, the 400,000-strong army was trapped in Aueras.
If the royal guardsman, Crimsondragon, and Griffon could chase after the 400,000-strong army and distract them, Claude wouldn't have cursed the royal court and the high-ranking officers of the ministry of the army for being shameless.
Who would've thought that after the three corps sent the alliance off, the royal guardsman would return to the royal capital and leave Crimsondragon and Gryphon to set up a defensive line at the border, saying it was to prevent the alliance from returning.
What was that supposed to mean?
Couldn't they just cross the border to chase after the enemy?
The enemy had trampled over half of Aueras and now that the three corps were retreating, they didn't even dare to cross the border to chase after them. It was obvious that they were watching Thundercrash get surrounded by the enemy.
Claude knew that fighting would be the wish of those bastards in the royal court. They wanted nothing more than for Thundercrash to fight alone. Regardless of whether they won or lost, they would suffer heavy casualties.
Not only would they lose a powerful fighting force of the region, but they would also lose their right to speak in the royal court.
But if he were to advance without a fight, he believed that the bastards of the royal court would surely throw a huge pail of dirty water at him after Thundercrash retreated. He and Thundercrash would be accused of cowardice and running away at the sight of an enemy.
They might even come up with a lie that if Thundercrash could hold the fort and wait for reinforcements, the three major corps of the kingdom would rush over to surround the enemy and annihilate the Alliance. That would be the final victory for the Kingdom of Nasri.
Without the enemy on their tail, the 400,000-strong alliance army marched towards the capital of Polyvicia.
According to their itinerary, it would only take them another half a month to reach the area under the jurisdiction of King City.
There wasn't much time left for Claude to consider. He would have to make a decision in the next few days.
What piqued Claude's curiosity was that while the 400,000-strong army from the seven southwestern prefectures was approaching the capital, the 300,000-strong army from the five northeastern prefectures didn't make a move at all.
They simply stayed at their encampment and didn't continue to build defenses, nor did they have any intention of joining up with the alliance army from the southwest.
Claude had no choice but to order a captive operation to find out what was going on.
There was also good news. The ocean patrol fleet had once again escorted a large number of transport ships to the Florida port. Six local garrison troops from the overseas autonomous region had come ashore. They would be stationed in the major strategic towns of the two destroyed duchies to maintain order and safety.
At the same time, the transport ships also delivered a large amount of ammunition. Eiblont was currently assembling Thundercrash's main force to escort the ammunition to the capital. It would take around 20 days for them to arrive.
The Thunderclap Corps only had a reinforced field regiment and four logistical guard battalions. Adding on the administrative officers, medical staff, and other support personnel, the total was only fifteen thousand or so people.
However, the large amount of ammunition they delivered gave Claude some confidence in defending the capital.
But before Eiblont and the others arrived, Claude had to consider whether he should take the initiative to attack and delay the 400,000-strong army.
The other good news was that Monolith had already left the royal capital and was preparing to cross Odin Mountain Range to reinforce them.
However, they were infantrymen and not light cavalry like Thundercrash. It would take them a month and a half to reach the capital.
Bolonik and Birkin sent an eagle message, hoping that Claude would be able to hold the fort until they arrived.
Needless to say, they wouldn't be able to leave even if they wanted to. Claude decided to have Berklin's 1st Folk attack to delay the alliance's advance. At the very least, they had to delay them until Eiblont's men delivered the ammunition to the capital.
But before 1st Folk could attack, Claude received a surprising piece of news.
"What?
The three corps of Nasri have raised Prince Vedario's flag, and the enemy is no longer marching towards Polyvicia's capital. Instead, they're staying in Giovilvo and setting up camp there to build defensive facilities? "
Claude, Berklin and Dyavid looked at one another. None of them knew what was wrong with the 400,000-strong army for them to suddenly stop in their tracks.
But it wasn't surprising that Vedario would appear in the army. What was surprising was that he managed to gain the support of three Nasrian corps so quickly.