Black Iron's Glory

Chapter 207 - Arrival of the Prince

Two days later, Perunt managed to find out about the ins and outs about the reason for the declaration of war. Not only were the ambassadors at Nasri coldly treated, they were also humiliated by the ambassadors of Shiks, who was there to sign a trade deal with Nasri. The ambassador ran into Aueras’s and broke into conflict with him after a verbal duel.

It was a shame that Aueras’s ambassador was trained as a bureaucrat. Not only did he lose the brawl, he was also mocked by the nobles of Nasri. In a desperate fit, he drew his own sword and committed suicide. Nasri should’ve prevented the conflict from even happening as the host nation, but not only did they not stop the Shiks ambassador’s request to duel the one from Aueras, they even encouraged it from the sidelines and forced the Auerasian ambassador to duel for the honor of his kingdom. Even after the ambassador lost the duel, the Nasrian nobles mocked him for it and forced him to choose death over shame.

It was only then when the nobles of Nasri realized that it was a disaster. Following the ambassador’s death and the transport of the corpse back to the kingdom, the whole kingdom broke into a fury. Stellin X gave a speech before the Council of Dignitarians and announced the humiliating treatment the ambassador had been subjected to and announced that the peace treaty between them and the nations of the Alliance was henceforth annulled and that they would be going to war right away.

That happened around four or five days ago. In this world, troops couldn’t be immediately deployed to enemy territory following a declaration. It wasn’t that an attack couldn’t be mounted immediately following the declaration, but usually, a full-on war meant a complete mobilization of the nation’s forces and the expansion of the standing army before they would be deployed in hostile territory. All that required time, and that wasn’t something the kingdom prepared beforehand. The declaration of war was unexpectedly soon as a result of the king angered by what happened to his ambassador.

Aueras’s declaration only took two days to spread throughout Eastern Freia. The Alliance quickly made their own announcement that they would accept the declaration and mobilize all their troops while replying with their own declaration of war. That officially marked the start of the war between Aueras and the Alliance. It was a conflict that would submerge the whole east of the continent in the flames of war.

Claude felt that the warfare of this world was rather laughable. They didn’t act immediately following a declaration of war but instead used it as a means to alert the enemy. In essence, it was like the kingdom was phoning their enemies and saying, ‘hey, we’re going to come for ya, so you better be ready!’ Claude thought that they would immediately be sent to attack after receiving word of the decoration, yet two days after he heard about it, Bluefeather was still going about its own business. They had just begun to prepare to head to the battlefield and the officers were having meeting after meeting nonstop.

Claude and his keepers busied themselves at the mess hall, busy dealing with the black bread rations for the troops. The upper brass ordered all units in base to be given 15 days’ worth of rations. For each soldier, one piece of black bread the length of an arm should be enough for three days, so half a month amounted to five pieces of bread. The whole base required around six thousand pieces in total. Additionally, there were other nutritious additives for the rations such as a small box of salt, dried cheese, dried jerky, a piece of butter and some dried fruits.

The soldiers were expected to carry part of their rations with them, but most of the rest would be transported by the logistics unit. The rations were usually distributed once every three days. Though, those rations were only for consumption during marches. Should they set up camp and prepare for battle in the long term, the troops would be provided with warm meals so as to supply them with the energy necessary to fight.

Claude’s horizons were widened. Never would he imagine that rations would only be made following a declaration of war. The training for his keeper and stretcher troops was completely halted as the upper brass ordered for the logistics department to make an inventory of their supplies. During that time, gunpowder and pellets couldn’t be claimed, even broken wash basins couldn’t be replaced. They had to wait until the department had finished enumerating every item they possessed.

The 11th Tribe, which was based in Fokby Hill, was considered one of the more capable tribes of Bluefeather. it belonged to the 3rd Line of the 1st Folk. Oddly, in the following half month, only the 2nd, 3rd and 4th folks were sent to the frontlines in the following two weeks. The 1st Folk, officially acknowledged as the most powerful folk, wasn’t deployed. Many officers anxious to get merit on the battlefield asked around and were only ordered to sit tight by the upper brass and stop their inquiries. There would be many other chances for them to go into battle.

Perunt on the other hand shone with his wide information network. He had heard lots of things, such as how the army would be splitting and attacking on two fronts. The attack on the northwestern side where Nasri was would be mounted jointly by Reddragon and Griffon. They would attack from the prefecture of Botarnia. In the east, Bluefeather would cross Kafreizit and take on Sidins by themselves. Their aim was to completely occupy the duchy before deciding which nation they ought to attack next.

Sidins was only as large as seven Auerasian prefectures combined. However, the Audin Mountains formed a natural border between it and Aueras. The terrain was really challenging to cross. Sidins had two lines of defensive fortifications built at their border and believed that their defense was airtight and that there wouldn’t be need to worry about an attack from Aueras. After all, the defensive lines were guarded by additional citadels and strongholds that should be more than what the enemy was willing to take a chance at.

Those in power in Sidins believed that even if Aueras attacked the Alliance, they should be using the route through Nasri since those two nations had fought two wars before. Perhaps they might even send their troops all the way to the Nasrian royal capital, Cadrey. That belief was further bolstered by the fact that Nasri and Aueras’s border was only slightly hilly, unlike the full-fledged mountain range which protected Sidins, not to mention the weaker defensive fortifications there.

As such, the Sidins believed that they were in a position of comfort and safety. While Aueras had declared war to the Alliance, of which they were a part, they didn’t think that the flames of war would spread into their lands. They could afford to watch as Nasri and Aueras duked it out with each other. In fact, some believed that they could let the war draw out longer so that the two sides would wear themselves out before engaging in peace talks once more to usher in a few decades more of stability. All they had to do to offer Nasri as reparations for the war were some resources and reinforcements, the bare minimum required of them as allies.

Yet the nation never would’ve predicted that Bluefeather had set their sights for them from Kafreizit. The main goal of the war was also to take all five ports of the Alliance and completely eradicate all naval threats they posed to the Auerasian fleets.

As such, the two ports Sidins had became Aueras’s target. After swallowing the duchy whole, the kingdom could take the two ports and completely dominate the eastern coast of the continent. That would be the biggest blow on the Alliance’s fleet as they could no longer return to the east coast for resupplication. They would be completely neutralized.

Bluefeather was one of the open-field armies of Aueras, but they were ranked behind the royal guard and Reddragon. They were only able to become one of the main vanguards during this war due to extraneous effort on their part. On one hand, it would be more convenient for them to attack Sidins from Kafreizit. On the other, they had secretly been sending scouts to survey the land and mapping the terrain and the two defense lines of Sidins really clearly. They even found a hidden passage which could allow them to circumvent those two lines of defense.

All Bluefeather had to do was to pass through the defense lines and attack them from the back. It was as if they cracked the egg that was Sidins and exposed the white and yolk within. They didn’t have to grind their troops against the two fortified lines of defense. All they had to do was to cut off the supply route of the troops of Sidins to force them all to surrender. The remaining two-thirds of Sidins’s territory was nothing but flat plains and wouldn’t be enough to stop Bluefeather’s advance.

Bluefeather was only able to take charge of that route of attack because of the passageway they secured, forcing the more adept Reddragon to help Griffon on their attack on the Nasrian front. The Alliance also believed that the brunt of the battles would be fought there, so they were routing their troops to gather in Nasri. They were going to utilize a defensive approach in the war and construct all sorts of defensive fortifications behind the frontlines regardless of the costs to slow the march of the Auerasian troops and drain their blood drop by drop until they were unable to advance.

Perunt was able to hear about that in the first place because the 2nd and 3rd folks had already circled around the defense lines of Sidins and occupied a transport hub city there, Wemis. Following that, the 2nd Folk would continue sweeping through the territory of the duchy and approach the capital, Efenasburg. The 3rd and 4th folks on the other hand would sandwich Audin Mountain range to prevent any soldier at the defense lines from escaping.

“So why is our 1st Folk remaining here instead of heading to the frontlines?” Claude couldn’t figure out the answer to that question, and neither could Perunt be of any help. Only the top brass knew the reason and it was definitely classified information.

Another week or so passed and finally, there was some concrete information. The reason the 1st Folk stayed back in Kafreizit was to await the arrival of the second prince. Stellin X’s crown prince, Hansbach Tam Stellin was assigned to Reddragon, so the second prince, Wedrick Tam Stellin was assigned to Bluefeather. The two princes would be leading the battles at the frontlines as well as to announce the kingdom’s new policies in the three prefectures at the border.

During the even of the great war, the kingdom had decided that the prefectures of Kafreizit, Lasdonkrun and Botarnia were to be freed from martial rule that had spanned more than two decades. At the same time, the citizens would be able to enjoy a reduction in taxes. The taxes levied upon them would henceforth be the same as that of other prefectures with the only condition that the youths of these three prefectures form three irregular corps and serve the kingdom in the upcoming war.

That was when the 1st Folk came to understand that they would be tasked with protecting the second prince at the frontlines. Claude’s unit was also put under the umbrella of the 11th Tribe and sent to the main base. The second prince would be holding a parade to review the troops before they would march for Audin Mountain Range to organize the surrender of the defending troops of Sidins.