I Will Be The Crowned King

Clovis Kingdom, southern fortress.

The golden sunlight tore open the gloomy dome, and used a silhouette of alternating light and dark to divide the towering and angular giant castle in two, half bathed in the biting north wind, and the other half was already sunny and beautiful .

Ludwig Franz, wearing a white shirt and breeches and boots, stood by the window, bathed in the cold wind from the north, and his slightly frowning eyes stared at the ice peak bathing in the morning light at the end of his field of vision.

On the desk behind him was a letter that had just been sent from the south; although the notes were a little scribbled, the high-quality kraft paper and the heraldic stamps on it showed the owner's identity and his support for the letter. of attention:

"To the Honorable Major General Ludwig Franz:

Immediately after the last letter, I took your thoughts out at the Imperial Council and the Supreme Staff of the Great Soils, and it was well received by Victor Emmanuel, the Archduke of Aiden; all the wise men of Great Soil They all think that the only way to win the approval of the empire is to fight the war to the end...

Sadly, my father didn't think so.

Despite my father's repeated emphasis on Clovis's friendship with Hantu, I can still feel that he is very opposed to any other Clovis, or any foreign army, entering our country under the pretext of 'helping Hantu's independence', and the other side's The leader will surely try to seize control of the Hantu army in order to achieve his personal ambitions.

I respect my father, but the situation in Hantu is getting worse by the day; the 'Clovis' and the 'Imperial' are quarreling, and the old lords of the Duchy of Thun think that it should be reconciled with the Iser elves …Everyone is dissatisfied with the bad status quo, and it translates into dissatisfaction with the Francois family.

The Francois family needs to show the strength and determination to rule the land, but if they follow the advice of those people, the end will only be the destruction or division of the land - I even suspected that this is their purpose.

Forgive me for pouring out these grievances and complaints to you, but Han Soil and the François family really need Clovis's help urgently.

I have no doubts about your plans, but if I want to convince my father I must give him some proof—that Clovis has no ambitions for Han Soil and is happy to help us get rid of Imperial interference.

If Clovis could launch a successful attack, even a tentative one, on the Empire's northern front in the spring of Saint 102, it would greatly inspire Hantu's confidence in victory.

This is just my personal extravagance. I wish you a smooth sailing and victory in the next battle.

Your friend and comrade, Leon Francois. "

If you count from the arrival at the southern fortress, this is already the fifteenth letter sent by Leon - even if you don't read the content, Ludwig can feel that the other party is being received by the other party in Hantu at such a high frequency. pressure, and the urgency to turn things around.

But even if Ludwig wanted to respond, he couldn't do anything now - including himself, the entire southern army had been transferred from the front line to be responsible for the garrison and logistics of the southern fortress.

Not only that, because Ludwig had many "disobedience" and "unauthorized actions" during the front line, although the Royal Army did not dare to easily deprive him of the command of the army, but also the authority of the "fortress commander". limited to a very small extent.

To put it simply, unless authorized by the Army Staff and the Privy Council, let alone him, even his superior standing regiment commander will fully mobilize more than one battalion of the Southern Army; even if there is no enemy situation or conflict, the Southern Army must Weekly report to Clovis City on location, personnel situation and all action plans to be implemented next week.

To put it bluntly, the Army is already using the attitude of guarding against the enemy to guard against the son of the archbishop who "always wants to do things", but nominally he is not willing to offend the Franz family. The ultimate means to limit his behavior, and put his every move under his own monitoring.

Even the correspondence with Leon is the same... The Army even provides a dedicated postal channel for the two, separate from all the rest of the information from Han soil to ensure that both sides can get each other's letters as soon as possible - because it helps Maintain friendship with Hantu.

As long as the top management of Hantu still maintains a hostile attitude towards the empire, they can contain part of the empire's forces in the south, and heavily trade part of its agricultural products to weaken the empire's logistics.

For the same reason, the army executives occasionally listen to Ludwig's strategic advice on Han soil, so that the Major General will not be too embarrassed when replying to the letter, and he will not be able to come up with any "dry goods".

However, no matter how "sincere" the Army shows, it will not allow Ludwig to leave the southern fortress for half a step, and it is even less likely that he will follow his idea of ​​"concentrating mobile forces and seeking a strategic decisive battle" to destroy Clovis in the Imperial Army. The defense line that was finally stabilized under the front.

Whenever he thought of this, Ludwig felt his whole body twitching unconsciously. The anger in his heart was like the eruption of an underwater volcano. After a short period of excitement, it spread to his limbs and bones, bringing icy and biting despair.

The top officials of the army simply closed their eyes on purpose, covered their ears, and pretended to be crazy... In order to maintain this insignificant advantage at the moment, what a heavy price did Clovis pay?

Food, steel, gunpowder, transportation, coal... consume hundreds of millions of dollars every day, and it is almost equivalent to cutting wrists and bloodletting in human terms; paying such a huge price, the result is just "maintaining the status quo" and "passive defense".

For a small country like Clovis, even if it has advantages in technology and infrastructure, it is absolutely impossible to fight against the empire. Efficiently concentrating resources on strategic decisive battles, and defeating the confidence of the empire in World War I is the best way to win. best way.

Of course, the price of this near-life gamble is very high, and the consequences of failure are bound to be unbearable - but that's better than the current chronic suicide, right?

Are these people really stupid enough to not see it, or are they simply not wanting to take responsibility for the defeat? !

Ludwig, who was no longer excited, sighed... Only at this time would he envy Ansen Bach who was far away in the colony; although he was regarded as an abandoned son, he finally got rid of the shackles of the army and had the power to change the situation. possible.

Although he was a little dissatisfied with Anson's unauthorized permission and even led the independence of the Free Confederation, which almost strangled Clovis's expansion path in the colony, but of course he didn't understand the situation without being there. Presumably he was also forced by reality. reasons for stress.

And think about it in reverse, isn't this also the responsibility of the army's top management?

If they didn't give any support and let Ansen Bach deal with the six colonies of the Empire alone, why would he need to mobilize the local resistance?

Maybe if there is sufficient support, now it is not the Free Confederation that is crossing the New World, but the brand-new Clovis Dominion!

The more he thought about it, the more desperate Ludwig felt at the conservative and news of the army's top management... Yes, despair, he no longer had a trace of anger, only deep helplessness and despair.

It is more reliable to hope that in addition to shirk responsibility, cronyism, corruption, greed, cowardly and incompetent idiots to defeat the empire, it is still more reliable to pin their hopes on Emperor Herid's immediate death or sudden change of heart.

And Ludwig suspects that the army executives also hope so.

After a brief sigh of relief, Ludwig sat back at the desk and began to struggle with how to reply to Leon—at least on the point of winning over Han Tu, he and the Army had exactly the same idea.

Picking up the pen, he read the contents of the other party's letter again, and couldn't help frowning again... Leon hopes that Clovis can organize a feint in the north, otherwise he can't persuade Hantu to gather troops and attack from the top of the tower. Southern Empire.

If it was just a feint, Ludwig would be sure to convince the army's top leaders, but the courage of those idiots really stopped there; if Hantu believed it, I am afraid that he would lose a lot in the end.

As for this ally that Anson "snatched" from the empire with great difficulty, Ludwig did not want their power to be wasted on a meaningless battlefield; but if he could not even meet this requirement, he would 100% Complete loss of Han Soil's trust in Clovis.

Perhaps this trust has long been lost... Ludwig lamented in his heart.

Just when he was struggling with how to write, the adjutant and chief of staff of the Southern Army, Colonel Roman pushed open the door and walked into the room calmly.

"Dispatch order?"

Looking at the document that the other party placed directly on his desk, Ludwig raised his head slightly in astonishment: "When?"

"Three days later."

Colonel Roman, with his hands behind his back, said expressionlessly: "You only have three days to prepare, and then you must set off for Clovis City immediately, and report to the army within ten days, and you can't delay a day."

"It's so urgent?" Ludwig picked up the dispatch order: "Three days... within three days, the Southern Legion can be ready to move, but can the replacement troops arrive in time?"

"No, because there is no unit in charge of taking over."

Roman shook his head: "You are the only one who received the order. According to the regulations, there can only be no more than one platoon of soldiers as accompanying guards."

"In addition, this is not to deprive you of your command, it is just an ordinary 'debriefing and dispatch', and at most there are some temporarily assigned tasks."

As an adjutant and a close associate for many years, Roman certainly knew what Ludwig was most worried about, and immediately dispelled his concerns: "Your current identity is still the commander-in-chief and fortress commander of the Southern Legion."

"Temporary appointment..."

Ludwig heaved a sigh of relief, but then fell into deep thought... He is now the commander of the legion and the fortress, and his status is comparable to the commander-in-chief of the general standing legion. Who has such great power to temporarily delegate tasks to himself?

Usually this is done by the king, or if there is an emergency situation between the top army and the Privy Council, they will temporarily recall the generals who are close to the front line to understand the actual situation as much as possible; but now is the New Year, and the Privy Council will not be at this time. Trouble yourself.

Not the king, not the Privy Council, and most likely not the top of the army, so who can still have the right to mobilize himself, I am afraid only...

"There is something I want to confirm in advance." Ludwig's face turned slightly black:

"Is the person who issued this dispatch order related to the church?"

"Exactly!"

A powerful voice came from outside the room, and walked directly into the room unceremoniously: "Major General Ludwig Franz, you are a big man. We dare not issue orders to you without the name of the church."

Looking at this guy who suddenly appeared, with a bit of teasing in his tone, Ludwig narrowed his eyes slightly: "You are..."

"Clowe Inquisition, Chief Inquisitor of the Truth Seeking Order, Cole Dorian." The smiling guy hugged his shoulders proudly, and looked at Ludwig very proudly:

"Major General Ludwig, from now on, please obey the orders of the army and cooperate with our work."

"Your work?"

"Yes."

The frost-faced Sierra Virgil quietly appeared behind Cole Dorian, raised the corner of her skirt like a lady, and bowed to the two in the room:

"I also ask you to put your guard down. We are not trying to conduct a 'belief review' on the southern fortress and you, and we will not make any requests that make you feel embarrassed."

"That's right, because our request is a hundred times more than that!" The Chief Inquisitor directly grabbed the topic:

"We will explain the details to you on the way, but for now, please set off with us immediately, destination: Clovis City!"

"Now, it's different from what we were ordered to do."

Roman, who was on the side, finally opened his mouth and swept his eyes to Cole Dorian without any emotion: "The army's order is clearly written, the major general still has three days to prepare, and reporting within ten days does not count as a violation of the order. ."

"That's right~www.readwn.com~ But before that, we still need to go to another place, and it will take five days at the earliest, and then we will leave for Clovis City, and the total time spent is exactly thirteen days. "

Cole Dorian said unceremoniously: "I emphasize again, we are not in the name of the Tribunal, but the Church of the Ring of Order to make a request to the Kingdom of Clovis, and get the latter's consent - even if you are The eldest son of the archbishop has no right to refuse."

"Or... just because you are the eldest son of the Archbishop, you absolutely cannot stay out of this matter."

Ludwig's expression was a little gloomy.

Facing the two uninvited guests, he stood up calmly and met Cole's aggressive eyes: "I understand, so may I ask if I have the right to know what this matter is about?"

"Of course it can, and it's not a secret - it has something to do with the old gods." Cole Dorian nodded, and the smile on his face was gradually replaced by a dignified expression: "For the sake of your identity, I will give you another one. The key word is fine."

"Have you heard of the surname 'Rune' anywhere?"