Chapter 878 Deceived

Boragon is now one of the nobles with the highest status in the current combat force. In order to prevent himself from being encircled by the opponent, he wrote to Charles II at the same time, asking the nobles south of the Bordeaux River to quickly gather all their troops and firmly defend Bordeaux. Layena city in the south, and quickly dispatched troops to meet the soldiers he gathered...and provide enough food at the same time.

Because of the hasty retreat, the food he currently brings is only enough to march for three days. If there is no follow-up food supplement, then wait for defeat without fighting!

However, when Boragon led the team to the north bank of the Bordeaux, the situation was worse than he expected.

Boragon discovered that he was not the first batch of "defeated troops" to arrive here... In this town by the river, more than 6,000 aristocratic troops who had returned from various places had gathered. Those who were directly defeated and regrouped, some were notified to retreat, anyway, everyone can meet at this moment, it is entirely because the city of Dunkel was captured without warning, and the other nobles are naturally not fools. I heard that the leading noble was killed Or after being defeated, they chose to retreat without saying a word...

This place called Lannis Town was suddenly overcrowded. Boragon didn't think it was a good thing to gather so many people here, because there was no unified leadership, conflicts would often break out when his subordinates got together, and because there was not enough luggage, some Aristocratic soldiers were starving, and some were able to distribute two pieces of bread a day, which led to uneven distribution of resources and hidden dangers of civil strife.

In order not to die in internal strife before the enemy arrived, he immediately convened a meeting of all the leading nobles, and quickly discussed a reasonable plan: everyone is autonomous, separated from each other, and evacuated in an orderly manner within the next time, everyone Let's get through this difficulty first!

Because he gathered more than a thousand soldiers and more than 800 farmers, he was the largest number, and he had a high title, so he quickly became the leader of this group of temporarily gathered troops. But before he arranged a plan to evacuate the troops to the south of the Bordeaux River, the news from the east made him realize that things were really troublesome...

After Earl Harrison's city was captured, the Efta Infantry Division, which had attacked the eastern nobles head-on, showed no mercy, and directly defeated and dispersed the army of more than 10,000 people.

Therefore, after Boragon calculated, he found that these people, together with the defeated remnant soldiers who retreated to the north bank of the Bordeaux River in the east, estimated that the total number of people had reached more than 16,000, which was half of the total number of people expected to gather!

In other words, before their attack even started, half of them were lost or fell on the battlefield...

Now the 20,000 people have started to cross the Bordeaux River one after another, trying to head for the city of Laena, 40 kilometers away. Regardless of whether there is enough food there, the towering city walls have become the only hope for the soldiers to fight back.

"Damn...why did this battle end like this before it even started!"

Looking at the troops slowly crossing the bridge,

Viscount Boragon's face was extremely gloomy.

****

May 14.

The news from the front line finally reached the imperial city one after another.

But until now, the nobles who originally thought about attacking the temple were completely dumbfounded, and the atmosphere in the meeting hall was almost frozen.

Charles II's hands were trembling all the time. Ever since he received the first definite battle report last night, he hadn't been able to calm down. As one letter after another was placed on his copy at ten o'clock in the morning, he It felt like a suffocating nightmare.

All the nobles in the meeting hall lowered their heads, and no one dared to speak out. And Charles II didn't make a sound after everyone arrived. Everyone was silent as if mourning in a cemetery, and even the sound of breathing could be heard clearly.

"Who can tell me what is going on?"

Charles II asked a little tiredly. Because he didn't sleep all night, his dark circles were unusually obvious, and when he sat on the throne, he didn't have the appearance he had before. Instead, he leaned against the back of the chair, propped his chin with his left hand, and his face was much older.

For his questions, no one could answer them. After all, this question was on everyone's mind: Why did the enemy advance more than 200 kilometers in just three days, directly breaking up the noble army that had not yet assembled?

"According to intelligence, Efta's army split into two groups from the temple, and advanced at the same time. One went directly to the south and the other to the southeast. In three days, all the territories were planted with the flag of Efta. The gathered troops have pushed to the north bank of the Bordeaux River." Charles II has already firmly imprinted this information in his mind this night, but the more he repeats these things, the more his anger becomes uncontrollable...

"So who can tell me that every one of Efta's army is a giant dragon?! Why can they appear in front of us without a sound, and until the war broke out, no one revealed the slightest news?!"

Not to mention the intelligence system within the kingdom, there was no sign of even the news from Efta. He secretly had contact with Earl Les, the Efta cabinet, and the information exchange between the two has not been broken since the beginning of the year. But just last night, the news sent by the other party still said that "Efta has no sign of conscription, and the cabinet only decided to transport the food to Parland in advance"...

Now it seems that Charles II feels that he has been deeply deceived!

The army is almost at my door, who are you still fooling around here? !

If it weren't for the city mansion that he worked so hard to raise over the years, Charles II almost had a nervous breakdown last night. After all, the current situation is far from what he expected. The situation on the sand table in the study was obviously so optimistic, as if he would be able to conquer the temple and attack the entire Efta, but overnight, the temple was not destroyed, and the territory he currently controlled was directly reduced by two-fifths !

This is like a duel between two boxers. One side is ready to punch with all its strength, but finds that the other side suddenly takes out a sledgehammer and hits his head three times on the spot...

Efta's blitzkrieg was completely beyond Charles II's cognition, and it was like a "foul". So he was really confused, and now his thinking mode has become chaotic.

"Our army is now retreating from the Bordeaux River. Can any of you come up with an effective solution to this dilemma? Huh?"

No matter how irritated, the war is not completely lost after all. It's okay to be beaten, whether you can beat back after the beating is the main consideration for the monarch. Seeing that no one said anything below, he directly called the names: "Du Weideng, don't you usually have a lot of ideas?"

"Your Majesty... I, I really don't know what to say. The food prepared in advance is basically collected from the territories north of Bordeaux. Now that the territories on the south bank of the river are ready, it may take three or four days before the transportation can start. I don't know when it will be shipped to Laena City..."

Du Weiden is also telling the truth, because the road conditions in these southern areas are very bad, and the rain has not stopped for days. Now that the food is collected and transported there, whether it can be eaten or not is another matter, because a large part of it is estimated to be moldy and rotted due to the rain.

"And most importantly...it will cost a lot of gold coins."

After Du Weiden said this, he didn't dare to say anything. Charles II's face was gloomy, and he ordered another viscount to continue. The latter analyzed the reason why the enemy appeared here in a regular manner. But obviously, everyone here would never think of the use of "trucks" and "roads". Although the royal family and nobles have a large number of magicians, they still don't realize that the "communication circle" and ordinary people What does it mean to be able to operate the "spar cannon".

Even the thesis written by Earl Harrison, the whole content is only about how to use the magician as a leader.

After Du Weiden, some people began to discuss the importance of intelligence as an afterthought, and some people said that Earl Harrison was very responsible for the operation.

Charles II didn't say a word about this, and what he heard was even more annoying: Harrison must have surrendered, so what's the point of rushing to blame him now?

In the end, an earl said: "Your Majesty, the most urgent task now is to preserve the combat power. It is not easy to gather nearly 20,000 soldiers. If they are scattered due to logistical problems, the morale that has been gathered so hard may fall short!"

Charles II finally nodded, because it was the same as he thought, so he immediately got up and said: "Yes, now is to save people! Save people at all costs! The army coming from the north bank of the Bordeaux River is heading for the city of Laena Hurry up, this place must be defended, and all the soldiers must be settled!"

He already had a plan in mind, so now he speaks forcefully: "The frontline army was defeated because they encountered a surprise attack before they were assembled. Once we gain a firm foothold, the enemy will never have any chance to take advantage of it!"

"Our counterattack will start from the city of Laena, and there must be no retreat!"

After such a strategy is settled, the aides and ministers will be busy afterwards. Charles II continued to add several plans, including immediately dispatching a large number of magicians to join the battle group, going to the front to support operations, etc. In order to make everything work immediately, Charles II even directly started to use the last ones in the royal treasury family property…

Because he understands that this is a battle of the royal family's life and death, and he cannot be careless!

When the meeting was over, Charles II, who returned to the study, slumped directly on the chair. Seeing this scene, Princess Rowling couldn't help but her heart skipped a beat. She didn't know exactly what happened, but it was obviously not a good thing to see her father like this.

She came to salute her father, and then asked, "Father, what do I need to do?"

In fact, Charles II has been thinking in his heart whether to seek help from the Dragon Clan. Efta suddenly attacked with such a fierce momentum. If he asks for help now, will the royal family appear vulnerable?

But seeing his daughter asking this question, he understood that the current situation is very critical, and what he needs to pay attention to is not the face of the royal family anymore...

"Iskar still unwilling to see you recently?"

He tried to calm himself down and asked softly.

"Well...every time I go, he's not there."

Rowling replied in a low voice, she actually hoped that the other party would never be around, but her father obviously didn't think so, "Well... I'll send someone to post an invitation, and if possible, I'll visit him in person tomorrow."

"Okay, okay, father."

Rowling lowered her head, she knew that she had no room to refute...

and qualifications.