Chapter 437 Chaotic Situation

At the beginning of the war, the three dukes requested reinforcements at the noble council. Because they were on the front line, they described the situation on the front line as very serious.

Although there were many contradictions among the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom, after all, they all rose and fell together. If the three dukes Edward, Fox, and Guise were severely damaged and occupied by the Kingdom of Delong, the war would spread to the three dukes of Duran, Loran, and York. The six dukes could not stand it, and the Grant royal family could not support it.

Under the coordination of King Roger, York, Loran, and Duran almost did their best to recruit 100,000 regular troops to participate in the war.

The three main corps of the royal family in the southern territory were also dispatched, plus the recruited noble coalition. The Grant royal family mobilized 300,000 regular troops to withstand the attack of the Kingdom of Delong.

In this war, although the main force of the Kingdom of Delong was reduced to 400,000, its combat effectiveness was far stronger than a few years ago. The Kingdom of Delong alone had the strength to suppress the 300,000 regular troops of the Kingdom of Grant.

In previous battles, the troops used by the Kingdom of Grant to deal with the Kingdom of Delong were basically only 150,000.

When the Kingdom of Delong and the Kingdom of Grant broke out in war, the nearby countries naturally acted according to the situation.

First, the East Coast United Kingdom quickly formed three fronts. The first was the Marine Front, which was still 150,000 troops, including six legions and 30,000 naval forces.

However, because the Kingdom of Grant issued an order to move to the sea, this army could not attack coastal towns and replenish fresh water supplies. It could only go north from the estuary of the Oram River and was intercepted by the private army of the four marquises in the east of the Kingdom of Grant and the three legions of the Royal Guards in Guevara and the Marquis of Clien.

After losing the naval mobility, this front posed no serious threat to the Kingdom of Grant.

The second was the Andorra Front. The East Coast United Kingdom assembled six legions and 120,000 troops in the southern part of the Andorra Mountains, preparing to cross the Andorra Mountains and reclaim the lost territory.

The five earls in the south of the Kingdom of Grant formed a coalition of 90,000 nobles. Relying on the natural barrier of the Andorra Mountains, they easily contained this enemy.

The third front is the main force of the East Coast United Kingdom, with a total of 200,000 people. This huge force is the Western Front.

The troops that resist this front are the four legions of the North, Grizzly, Mad Lion, and Iron Lion, plus the three earls of William, Steven, and Zachley.

The earldom of Steven was completely wiped out in the last war, and now there are only more than 10,000 new recruits. Zachley has just been knighted and has only 8,000 soldiers. William has the support of the Dukedom of Harland and supplemented by smuggling income, and has trained 16,000 soldiers. The three earls joined forces, and only 34,000 people.

Although the combat effectiveness of the noble coalition in this direction is average, the four legions directly under the royal family are the best soldiers and generals of the Grant Kingdom. Even if the troops are at a disadvantage, they still hold the enemy and maintain the stability of the situation.

The East Coast United Kingdom has a total of 28 legions, plus 600,000 naval forces. However, in the war three years ago, the East Coast United Kingdom suffered heavy losses and actually hurt its foundation.

In the last war, the East Coast United Kingdom not only lost the legendary knight Mark Dean, but also had more than 100,000 troops annihilated by Harland. In addition, the casualties in other battlefields were about 200,000 at one time.

Although the captives have been redeemed and the casualties have been replenished in the past three years, the combat effectiveness of the six newly established legions has not yet been formed.

This time, the East Coast United Kingdom mobilized 22 legions with a total of 470,000 troops. In fact, it has tried its best and is determined to die if it fails.

The regular army of Grant, which fought against the East Coast United Kingdom, also has a total of about 350,000 people.

As various troops gradually joined the war, the power of the Grant royal family has been fully mobilized. There are only two newly formed legions near Nolan Castle.

In recent years, with the expansion of the directly affiliated territories, the military power directly controlled by the Grant royal family has also been expanded and improved.

The royal family originally had seven central directly-administered legions, three of which were stationed in the three provinces of the northern border, which were the frontier troops defending against the orcs, and four were stationed in Nolan, which were the imperial troops suppressing the whole country.

The personnel of the Imperial Guards and the Border Army usually move on a large scale, and many meritorious Border Army officers will be transferred to the Imperial Guards. Members of the Grant royal family in the Imperial Guards will also be transferred to the Border Army.

Although the country has been established for many years, the combat effectiveness of the Grant royal family's central army has been maintained very well because there are powerful foreign enemies orcs in the north. In recent years, as the territory controlled by the royal family has become larger and larger, and the finances have increased, the central army has expanded to eleven, but the strongest combat effectiveness is still the border army that has experienced the war in the northern border. The war has continued to this day. Except for the Harland Territory, the power of the Grant royal family and the great nobles is about to be exhausted.

After the armies of the Kingdom of Delong and the East Coast United Kingdom entered the battle, the Kingdom of Ryan soon declared war on the Kingdom of Grant.

The first to attack was the army of the Linus family. This army took the lead and rushed into the Grand Duchy of Stannik. There were about 40,000 people along the way, launching an attack along the southern part of the Silver Wolf Mountains.

Then came the second army, which had four corps with a total of 80,000 soldiers, advancing along the Oram River to attack the central town of the Grand Duchy of Stannic.

The third army had the largest number of soldiers, with eight corps and 160,000 soldiers, and wanted to join forces with the Kingdom of Delon, advance along the Mara River, and fight a decisive battle to defeat the Kingdom of Grant in one fell swoop and achieve a complete victory.

The troops of the Linus family posed a serious threat to the Grand Duchy of Stannic.

After all, the Linus family was once the master of the Grand Duchy of Stannic and ruled for more than a hundred years.

Many hereditary nobles in Stannic were vassals of the Linus family. They were promoted to the hereditary noble class by the canonization of King Linus.

Although this route had the least troops, Grand Duke Jonathan decided to go out in person. He led a legion from St. Jonathan Castle to the north and joined the 20,000 noble coalition forces to meet the enemy.

As the commander of the middle route, Grand Duke Jonathan appointed his eldest son Macmillan. Macmillan brought two legion soldiers and joined the two dukes Marshall and Watson, a total of 80,000 troops to deal with the enemy.

The army of the Kingdom of Lane in the south was too strong, so Grand Duke Jonathan could only order the two dukes Hughes and Sardin to form a noble coalition to serve as the first wave of reinforcements.

Before the Kingdom of Lane joined the war, the Kingdom of Roger had already found that the army was not enough. Immediately sent the Lion Duck Knight to communicate with Richard, hoping to transfer troops from the Duke of Harland.

At this time, Richard had led his elite troops deep into the north of Prilan and began to clear out the undead. When he received King Roger's letter for help in May, he was shocked.

He never expected that the Kingdom of Grant would be in danger surrounded by enemies.

Richard and King Roger are both smart people and veterans who have experienced decades of war. This year, the Kingdom of Delong took the initiative to provoke a war, and there must be people supporting it behind the scenes.

Judging from the situation in the surrounding countries, the Kingdom of Ryan immediately fell into Richard's sight.

The area of ​​the Duke of Harland's territory has expanded to the size of a kingdom. Although the number of troops is small, the combat effectiveness can also compete with a kingdom.

However, without the support of the Kingdom of Grant, it will also fall into a very passive situation.

After more than 20 years of running-in, Richard has already had basic mutual trust with King Roger. The two sides have dealt with each other many times, and the two families have also married. The Duke of Harland and the Kingdom of Grant are back to back, and the situation is actually a win-win situation.

Once the situation in the Kingdom of Grant collapsed, Richard would certainly be worried if it were someone else. A large army would have to be stationed in the southern part of the Dukedom of Harland. The two sides would be in a standoff, and it would be difficult to expand the territory in the north.

In addition, once the Kingdom of Grant collapsed, it would be necessary to block the goods produced in the Dukedom of Harland. The external market would be greatly reduced, which would also affect the finances of the Dukedom of Harland.

The transportation channels for materials and population would also be cut off, which would also be a very troublesome thing.

Maintaining the stability of the Kingdom of Grant is actually maintaining the Dukedom of Harland.

Moreover, from a moral point of view, Richard is still a vassal of King Roger. According to the moral standards of the nobles of the Dawn Plane, he should send soldiers to fight and be loyal to his lord.

After analyzing the situation in a very short time, although he was still clearing the undead, Richard immediately decided to withdraw his troops and issued a pre-war mobilization order to the main force.

This time, in addition to several elite troops, Richard mobilized the first and fourth legions to march south, with about 20,000 auxiliary soldiers accompanying the army.

The Harland army assembled very quickly, and did not camp along the way in the country. They entered the Dukedom of Fox in late May and joined the reinforcements of the Dukes Hughes and Sardin.

Although the two sides have the same title, the strength of the two sides is not comparable at all.

The Dukes Hughes and Sardin are dukes in the Grand Duchy, and their territories are only 40,000 to 50,000 square kilometers. They are not only inferior to the dukes of the Kingdom of Grant, but also incomparable to the Dukedom of Harland.

The combined strength of the two dukedoms of Hughes and Sardin is equal to that of the weaker dukedoms of the Kingdom of Grant, such as Edward and Guise, and their strength is roughly similar to that of the four marquises in the east of the Kingdom of Grant.

The combat effectiveness and industrial capacity of the Dukedom of Harland's army may be able to compete with the East Coast United Kingdom. Although it may not be as good as the Kingdom of Grant, it is a few points stronger than the power held by the royal family.

The difference in strength between the two sides is more than ten times. The Dukes Hughes and Sardin are not fools, and of course they have to obey Richard's military orders.

After the two armies joined forces at the Duke of Fox, Richard immediately led his troops westward and decisively attacked the Kingdom of Ryan.

Now Richard has 100,000 troops under his command, and the food and fodder required by the 100,000 troops is at least 300 tons per day.

Now it is a life-and-death war, and the Duke of Fox almost risked his life to provide logistics for Richard's army.

In this war, the Kingdom of Grant and the Grand Duchy of Stannic mobilized more than 800,000 troops on a battlefield of more than 2 million square kilometers. The number of civilians and auxiliary soldiers who provided logistics for the 800,000 troops added up to more than one million.

Mobilizing 2 million people to participate in the war put an extremely heavy pressure on the two countries.

Although both countries are feudal classical militarist countries with very strong mobilization capabilities, the combined population of the two countries is less than 60 million, and there are only 16 million young men. Fighting this war has mobilized one-eighth of the young men.

Just as Richard was about to lead his troops to attack the Kingdom of Ryan, the magic fleet of the Kingdom of Sith poured into the vicinity of the Black River estuary.

Harland built a castle after the Black River entered the sea, and now has hundreds of soldiers stationed there. However, facing the enemy's elite soldiers and powerful magic ships, the castle's defense force was not enough and was soon submerged in the attack of the Kingdom of Sith.

The Sea Slave Catchers of the Kingdom of Sith went upstream along the Black River and quickly attacked the capital of Duke Jonathan, East City.

Although most of the soldiers were mobilized to the Grand Duchy of Stannic, East Castle still had 16,000 defenders.

The combat effectiveness of the soldiers of Duke Jonathan was very good, and they withstood the attack of the Cloud Sea Slave Catchers.

Seeing that they could not capture the city of East, the Yunhai Slave-Catching Group continued to advance along the Black River and actually attacked Harland.

The Yunhai Slave-Catching Group originally planned to follow the river bend ferry, conquer the Eagle Castle, Tongshan Town, and Graveson, and capture the Black River Castle in one fell swoop, severely damaging Harland.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they arrived at the river bend ferry, they were attacked by the soldiers of Harland.

Although the defense focus of Harland is heavy in the north and light in the south, heavy troops are stationed in the north of the Eagle Mountains. The second, third, and fifth corps are all stationed in the north of the Eagle Mountains to defend against orcs. There are only city defense troops and security troops in the south.

However, Harland has a large number of flying arms and other gradually eliminated magic hot air balloon troops. Except for the artillery, they are basically deployed in the southern Black River Province.

Moreover, because of guarding the plane channel, Harland has stockpiled 6,000 relatively elite troops in the Dragon Canyon. Together with the second-line troops such as the Security Army, the troops left in the south by Harland also numbered 46,000.

With such a large force, Harland's troops soon blocked the Yunhai Slave Catchers near the Hewan Ferry.

After the Yunhai Slave Catchers fought several outpost battles with Harland's troops, they immediately felt the seriousness of the situation.

Most of the castles in the southern region of Harland, except for a few important cities such as Black River Fort, did not have time to equip magic crystal cannons, but the fortifications of the castles were very complete, and the auxiliary troops and the city defense troops were equipped with heavy catapults and alchemical bombs.

The Yunhai Slave Catchers made a tentative attack on the Hewan Ferry. Although the losses of the city defense troops stationed were not light, they actually lost 70 to 80 people. They bypassed the Hewan Ferry to attack Feiying Fort, but still failed. They were hit by the alchemical bombs thrown by the defenders on the city head, causing heavy casualties. This time the casualties were as high as 150 people.

Although the Yunhai Slave Catchers are all professional soldiers, they also have a Lion Duck Cavalry of more than 100 people, and their combat effectiveness is far stronger than that of the defenders. In two battles, they killed and injured 1,300 auxiliary soldiers of Harland. The casualty ratio reached 1:6, which is much better than Harland.

However, the Yunhai Slave Catchers only have a dozen magic ships and less than 4,000 people. They are not as large as the large-scale Harland army. Before they can get angry and capture a castle, the Harland navy also appeared nearby.

After more than a year of construction, although only one magic ship was built, with several steam engines, Harland's Black River Fleet has expanded to more than 2,000 people.

Harland's magic ship was equipped with magic crystal cannons with extremely amazing power. Twelve magic crystal cannons fired at the same time, and the Yunhai Slave-Catching Corps' navy was forced to flee in a panic. Even one magic ship was sunk. In this battle, Harland's army won a great victory, sinking one magic ship and annihilating more than 300 people from the Yunhai Slave-Catching Corps.