Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 624 626. King

The huge plume of smoke that shot straight into the sky, with a diameter of one kilometer, would not stop attracting attention from the Nilfgaardians.

 In fact, there are still a large number of armies from the northern countries in the current Soden area.

The de jure ruler of Soden is King Foltest of Temeria, who has a claim to this land through his maternal lineage.

 During the formation of the Northern Alliance, he also actively connected the kings of various countries and was a major contributor to the eventual formation of the alliance.

In order to promote the Northern Alliance against the Nilfgaard Empire, Foltest even gave up on swallowing up the remaining power of Stytha in his own country and taking it as his own.

The men of Emperor Nilfgaard once planned to expose part of their forces in Temeria on the eve of the expedition, so that Foltest would be too full to move.

 It is equivalent to losing part of the espionage force to delay Temeria's dispatch of troops.

 But Foltest was not a mediocre king after all.

　　Although he showed the greed, ferocity, and monopoly that all kings have when he annexed the Stesa inheritance, he was like a wild boar.

But after all, he was a king who nearly doubled the land area of ​​Temeria during his reign.

Halfway through eating the 'bait' thrown to him by Nilfgaard, and then hearing the news of the war in Cintra, it almost took him less than a day to sort out the stakes.

And he spat out the 'bait' that he had eaten without any hesitation, giving up the royal family's monopoly and distributing it to many people in the country.

 In exchange for being a king, he has the right to speak in domestic military dispatch.

So Nilfgaard’s ‘bait’ not only failed to hold him back, but unexpectedly accelerated Foltest’s ability to consolidate his military strength.

 Indirectly contributed to the start of the First Battle of Sodden.

　　Yes, the first time.

The Sowden area is a long and narrow area running north to south. People usually divide it into 'Upper Sowden' and 'Lower Sowden'.

Lower Sodden in the south is close to the territory of Sintra, and it is also the place where the First Battle of Sodden began.

 “This time it’s no small matter, gentlemen.”

In the camp where the stewards and scribes were coming in and out, Foltest stood in front of the command table covered with maps, explaining to several other people wearing crowns.

“In the last battle, our two sides invested a total of nearly 20,000 troops, and our people.”

 “That wasn’t a battle at all, it was a massacre!”

  King Henselt of Kaedwen snorted coldly, his tone irritable.

“I traveled thousands of miles to bring my soldiers, but they were tricked to death by their comrades! There is no dignity!”

“Being tricked to death by comrades? That’s not necessarily the case. Most of my men died due to lack of ammunition due to mismatched crossbow models.”

Demavi, the king of Aedirn, was holding a gold wine goblet set with rubies in one hand, and he was talking angrily.

The four northern countries themselves also have their own conflicts. For example, Aedirn and Kaedwen have border disputes.

 Their respective weapon models and logistics specifications are different, and even the meanings of the whistle arrows and flags sent out on the battlefield are different.

In the short period of time since the formation of the coalition, several kings have beheaded no fewer than five logistics department directors.

They also know that unfavorable logistics management is an unavoidable situation. Even if you invite Professor Ossenfurt over, it will be like this.

But if something is wrong in the army, someone has to take responsibility. So whether they want it or not, the logistics manager has to hand over their head.

“We have all fought in many battles. We can all imagine how difficult it was when our coalition forces first started cooperating. Now it is meaningless to ask how many people died in the beginning.”

The oldest king here and the most venerable, Vizmir II of Redania.

 He spoke in a kindly manner typical of an elderly person. "Those people deserve to die. We have to sacrifice our lives to know how this unprecedented coalition should act and coordinate, to know the level of the enemy, and to make the enemy look down upon us, so as to gain advantages for the truly important subsequent war. "

 “Yes, the war we are going to launch next is an unprecedented war.”

Foltest continued.

“Our intelligence agency believes that by then our two sides will have invested a total of nearly 100,000 people! And the more than 20 warlocks united by Master Vilgefortz will also participate in the war with an unprecedented degree of participation.”

 Speaking of this, every king had a more or less surprised look on his face.

Although they had more or less heard the news before, after all, they all had their own intelligence agencies.

 But this number still makes them unbelievable.

 After all, even their capital has a total population of only ten or twenty thousand people.

 Now, they are going to hold a battle involving 100,000 warriors alone.

 Before truly uniting their forces, none of them thought that they could actually have so much military power.

 The communication between the kings will soon end, and the remaining more specific and cumbersome details will be completed by the people under their command.

 After everyone walked out of their tents, Foltest, who was habitually wearing a suit that could not tell whether it was a battle armor or a dress, waved his hand behind him.

So from the shadows in the corner of the tent behind him, Vernon Roche came out.

 He still wore a soft cloth hat on his head, but at least it was not shabby anymore.

“Has there been any result from the fire and the plume of smoke that shot up into the sky a few days ago?”

Foltest's sharp eyes kept scanning the map, and the chess pieces in his hand tapped on the table.

“I always feel that the cause and consequences of the fire are not that simple.”

 Foltest was well-known among many kings for his excellent strategic vision.

And next, Vernon Roche's reaction also confirmed this point.

This tough guy who was discovered and trained by the king from the smelly ditch held the information that had just been handed over to him, but the expression on his face was very strange.

It’s a sense of absurdity where ‘my reason tells me this is all bullshit, but at the same time, my logic tells me it’s true’.

"Your Majesty, according to intelligence, the wildfire a few days ago should have killed at least 3,000 Nilfgaardian soldiers, including at least a cavalry unit of 500 people. And there are There are nearly a thousand civilians.”

 Speaking of this, Roche was a little stuck.

Foltest had to remind without looking back: "The massacre of civilians. Anyone who has been in contact with the Nilfgaardian army for a long time will not be surprised, that is, those idle nobles who have been confused by the poems and stories of the south. Scholars will question this. Go on."

Roche pursed his lips and said, "But according to intelligence analysis, someone attacked the Nilfgaardians during the wildfire, which is why none of them escaped."

“Do it? Who did it? There shouldn’t be any troops still active in that area, right?”

“Yes, it’s gone. But it’s not just one person from the army who took action.”

The camp suddenly fell into an unspeakable silence.

 Subsequently, Foltest turned around amid the sound of leather rubbing against the wooden bench.

Looking at his loyal attendant with a look of "Are you okay with your mind?"

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 (End of this chapter)