Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0011 Suffering
"These demons! These damn demons!" A woman holding a child cried helplessly in the panicked crowd. The entire eastern Mayne was in chaos. Wherever the soldiers from Ferry City passed, there was a tragedy.
Although their numbers are small, the cavalry of Ferry City still have great lethality when facing civilians.
These dozens of cavalrymen rode their war horses past the edge of the crowd, shouting strangely and whipping the civilians who wanted to escape with their whips.
"Please be kind! We have lived here for decades! You can't force us to leave our homes!" An old man knelt down on the side of the road, crying and kowtowed, hoping that those indifferent soldiers from Ferry City would let his family go.
Unfortunately, these soldiers who were eager to go back and divide the spoils had no mercy on the old man. They just kicked him to the ground and let him roll down the roadbed unconscious.
"Over there! There's a beautiful girl over there!" At the intersection of the village, several soldiers from the Ferry City called out to their companions loudly as if they had discovered a new continent.
Inside the village, in a yard, a girl was desperately trying to stuff her son under the bed: "Don't come out! Don't come out! Don't move! Don't make any noise!"
The child looked at his mother with big curious eyes, and then his view was blocked by the lowered bed sheet.
A few seconds later, there was a loud noise of the courtyard door being kicked down, followed by a woman's hysterical cry: "Don't come over here! Don't come over here!"
"Ah!" A soldier seemed to be in a hurry to commit a crime and was ambushed and suffered a great loss. He let out a scream, and then there was a sound of something breaking.
The little boy waited until there was no more noise outside before he dared to lift the sheets and crawl out from under the bed. Then he saw his mother lying on the ground in dishevelled clothes, staring at him with wide eyes.
He crawled over and pushed his mother hard, but she didn't move. He reached out and played with her hair, then sat down beside her, letting the blood stain his pants.
The tragedy continued to spread to every corner of the eastern part of Maine. Countless refugees who escaped the disaster flocked to Maine Castle, only to find that the black iron flag of the Elanhill family of Seris City had been hung there.
…
Chris won a great victory in the battle of the Eastern Forest. He gathered more than 200 soldiers who came one after another, escorted more than 1,000 prisoners, and returned to Seris in a mighty manner. The 2,000 troops of Mayne City were defeated on the front battlefield, giving Chris a great advantage.
With about 1,200 adult men, he could step up the development of his mines and increase his steel production. Similarly, because of these prisoners, the troops of Seris City did not encounter any resistance when they rushed into Mayne.
That afternoon, Chris led 50 cavalrymen across the eastern forest and recaptured a large area of border area occupied by Maine.
Three days later, the messenger returning from Maine brought Chris good news: Wageron had occupied Maine, and Chris now owned two castles.
Because of the huge disparity in strength, the battle in the Eastern Forest came and went quickly. Maine, as the first force to attack Chris, was wiped out in the blink of an eye.
Although he didn't know the attitude of the Alante Empire, in fact, Chris had already become the master of the two cities. Leading the guards, Chris rode as fast as he could and soon arrived at Mayne, where he met Wagron who had been waiting for a long time.
"The situation is very bad! Berman, the lord of Ferry City, took advantage of the situation and swept away the eastern part of Maine!" As soon as they met, Wagron reported the bad news.
He had too few soldiers to risk abandoning Main Castle to stop the sacking of Ferrytown.
Hearing this news, Chris, who was walking, suddenly stopped and looked at Wagron: "What's going on?"
"The Ferry City took advantage of the situation and attacked the Maine Castle... but I got there first, so they retreated." Wageron explained, "But they took away the civilians in the east and took away everything they could."
"They have to pay back tenfold for everything they destroyed!" Chris cursed angrily, "I didn't bother him, but he came to me! He's looking for death!"
But he quickly suppressed his anger. Even if he wanted to raise an army to attack Ferry City, he needed to be adequately prepared.
Now he can mobilize very few troops, and it is too risky to attack Ferry City with only two or three hundred people.
Chris continued to walk to the study room used by Ensel, the Lord of Mayne City, and sat behind Ensel's luxurious desk. Then he gave another order: "Steady the civilians of Mayne first!"
After thinking for a while, he continued to order: "Distribute the gold coins we brought! Let the civilians of Mayne accept the fact that they are ruled by us! Exempt them from some of their extra taxes."
It was not easy to occupy a place. He had to take care of every detail: "Post a notice and tell everyone that we have captured more than 1,000 Mayne soldiers. They will serve in the mines for one year and will be released safely after that!"
Only when the civilians of Mayne accept his rule can he truly win the war: "The Mayne soldiers who died in the battle will be compensated with the money and silk seized from Mayne City!"
After arranging the occupation of Mayne, he instructed Wageron: "Send someone back to Seris and ask Deans to immediately put the facts in front of everyone and share the fruits of victory with all the surrounding forces."
Chris raised his first finger and began to explain his plan in detail: "On the one hand, we must immediately lower tariffs after the war ends and pass on the benefits to the other three forces. We will start selling woodworking machinery at a low price, and even give it away for free if the situation is urgent!"
After he finished speaking, he raised his second finger and said, "Distribute the gold coins we have accumulated these days to all civilians! Treat Seris and Mayne equally!"
Then he stretched out his third finger and continued, "Exempt Seris from agricultural taxes for one year, and provide agricultural subsidies! Stabilize the emotions of the civilians and tell everyone that the war is over!..."
At this point, he remembered another thing and looked at Wageron and said, "Reward all the soldiers in this battle with one gold coin each! If you don't have enough money, wait for Des to come back with the money to give it out!"
"Yes, sir!" Wageron's face was filled with the joy of victory. He clenched his right fist and pressed it against his chest, nodding and saying, "I'll do it right away!"
In fact, there are still many things that Chris needs to deal with later, such as the important issue of conscription: he now has two castles, and the territory has almost doubled, so of course more troops are needed to garrison.
Now he is still in a passive state of being surrounded by enemies on all sides: so the required military force cannot be reduced at all: the previous expansion of the army to 2,000 people was not enough, and now he needs at least 3,000 people to defend all his land.
"It's really a headache." Chris sighed worriedly while looking at Ensel's luxurious study.
He has already revealed his trump card. If he delays for another month, the surrounding forces will almost all focus on him. At that time, it will be difficult to expand...
Therefore, he must deal with the Ferry City as soon as possible! As long as he can quickly resolve the Ferry City, he can reduce the pressure on one side and gather more troops to deal with the threats from the other three directions.
An hour later, Chris formulated a new battle plan. He wanted to gather all the soldiers that could be mobilized from Seris and Maine and immediately launch an attack on the Ferry City.
"The first thing we have to do is to gather our forces as quickly as possible, and then send the troops to Ferry City as quickly as possible." Chris referred to the blitzkrieg tactics of World War II and formulated a basic combat strategy.
Seris has 500 cavalrymen. These elite cavalry fighters are very powerful and the speed of advancement should be sufficient.
Wageron also felt that using cavalry for a rapid advance was a very appropriate tactic, so that they could save a large amount of food and in disguise make the limited reserves of war supplies sufficient.
"There are basically no decent cavalry in Ferry City. The population of a hundred or so poses no threat to us at all." After finding a detailed map of Ferry City in Maine's castle, Wageron began to introduce the other side's situation in detail.
Although there was no detailed battle plan, as the original commander of the army of Seris City, Wageron still diligently understood the military deployment of the surrounding forces.
This gave Chris a more intuitive reference: the armaments of Ferry City were seriously unbalanced, with even fewer cavalry than Maine, but they had about 1,200 infantry and 700 navy.
Of course, there is no need to go by sea to attack the ferry from Maine, so the 700-man navy is basically not a threat. The only thing left to deal with is the 1,200-man infantry.
After hearing these introductions, Chris formulated a plan that seemed more feasible. He ordered Wageron to lead 300 cavalrymen to quickly assemble on the border and then sweep away the scattered border troops of the ferry city.
As long as Wagron can destroy about 200 infantrymen of the Ferry City, or annihilate those insignificant Ferry City cavalry, he can almost force the enemy to give up the field battle and retreat to the Ferry City.
"Once the enemy gives up the field battle!" Chris pointed to a small water cup he had placed at the back, symbolizing his own cannon: "I will personally lead the main force, carrying all 20 cannons, to the ferry city!"
