Chapter 254: Noble Assembly
As most of the nobles arrived at Wushan Fortress, a grand mobilization meeting was officially held.
Although Lulans showed up, he only said hello to everyone briefly and sat upstairs, leaving the rest to Wiggins in a wheelchair.
For this kind of mobilization meeting, Wiggins seemed to be familiar with it.
He first gave a stimulating speech, portraying the dangers of the border, the misfortunes of Hahn who died in the battle, and many knights, exaggerating the sins of the enemy, and finally talked about the goal of this war.
In short, although this battle is divided into two places, it is necessary to recapture Chishan Town in the southwest and crush the Black Gold Brotherhood’s troops in the southeast.
He no longer said anything about retaking Kasir Town or even destroying the Polante Bandits, which lowered expectations.
Of the two forces, the Black Gold Brotherhood is more powerful and more ambitious. If it is a little lax and not stopped in time, it will continue to invade the interior of Wushan Ridge.
It is easy to invite gods but difficult to send them away. When they come in, it takes more energy and suffers more losses to let them go out.
Therefore, the southeastern direction invested the most troops in this battle.
After some debate, the coalition forces against the Black Gold Brotherhood will be led by Kabir, the leader of the Second Knights, as the commander, and Barrington as the deputy commander.
But obviously, the Hyde family was not satisfied with this arrangement. They felt that Barrington should be the commander of the southeastern war, after all, the earl on the border contributed the most.
For this reason, Alan and Nigan, who attended the meeting, argued with Wiggins and others for a long time, and finally decided to let Alan and Kabir have a duel, and whichever side won would serve as the commander.
Ronin really didn't expect that assigning a commander would be related to the duel. Isn't this equivalent to fighting before fighting the enemy?
If they were not careful in the duel, both of them would be injured and unable to participate in the battle. Wouldn't it be a loss of eight hundred before hurting the enemy?
Anyway, Ronin didn't understand it, but it seemed that others thought this arrangement was more reasonable.
So, halfway through the meeting, everyone ran out of the fortress and watched a duel.
Fortunately, the final result was good.
Kabir defeated Alan and took the commander's seat, and neither of them was seriously injured in the duel, which would not affect the subsequent war.
However, it is obvious that Alan and Nigan are still dissatisfied with such a result, and it is unknown whether there will be any trouble later.
Compared with the war in the southeast, things in the southwest are much easier to deal with.
According to convention, when someone from the Wushan family goes to war, they will be given the title of commander. This time, Ronin led the team to go to war, and the commander was naturally him.
The key lies in the selection of the deputy commander.
Lu Lans had previously planned to let Toru, Kabir and Marvin assist Ronin, which is almost the meaning of deputy commander, but now Kabir and Sandro have gone to the eastern front, leaving only Toru and Marvin.
Fortunately, one of these two people is the leader of the First Knights, the Golden Knight, and has sufficient strength; the other is one of the few viscounts in Wushan Territory, with sufficient qualifications and strength.
No one has any objection to letting them serve as deputy commanders.
After the commander's issue is determined, the next step is to divide the troops in detail, which is also a controversial job.
The nobles could see that it would be a tough battle against the Black Gold Brotherhood in the southeast, and there was also a dispute over command, which was very complicated.
As for the Western Front, although in their eyes Ronin had no battlefield command experience and was like a rookie, fortunately he had the assistance of Toru and Marvin. Considering Ronin's recent performance, he should not be worse than Wiggins.
So after a comprehensive comparison, they were all willing to come to the Western Front to face the Polante Bandits.
After all, the soldiers sent to the battlefield, no matter how good their quality was, were the property of the nobles. Who wouldn't want to lose less?
If you are lucky enough to win a battle, maybe there will be some benefits.
The issue of team allocation was argued from morning to afternoon, and it was not until the sky was covered with sunset that it was reluctantly finalized.
The distribution of troops on the East and West Fronts was about 70:30, and the strong knights were basically on the East Front.
There was no other golden knight on Ronin's side except Toru.
If it weren't for Corian saying that there was a golden knight on the opposite side, Toru probably wouldn't have arranged it.
Such an arrangement obviously did not take into account the variables of the war situation. If the Polish Thieves suddenly had two more gold knights, how should they deal with it?
At the meeting, Ronin raised this possibility.
But Wiggins could mobilize very few gold knights. Among the five knights, the real gold-level ones were Toru and Melonica, and there was also Kabir who could fight against the gold knights.
Kabir was the commander of the Eastern Front, and Melonica was responsible for the safety of Rulans. Neither of them could be transferred to the Western Front.
In desperation, Wiggins could only arrange two more silver knights to the Western Front.
Anyway, the gold level is not invincible. Several silver knights have a great chance of dealing with the gold knights together. Even if they can't win, a draw is enough.
"Marvin, Philip, Thorstein, Corian, Vitorino..."
Ronin counted, there were five silver knights on his side, plus these nobles might have silver-level vassals under their hands. If they were also brought to the battlefield, the number would still be considerable.
Together with the three men under Ronin, Redar, Elrond and McKen, even if two more golden knights appeared in the Port Thieves' Gang, it would be enough to deal with them.
The high-end combat force is strong, and the number of professional knights exceeds 100. In addition to the cavalry, infantry, and archers, it is estimated that there are 2,000 of them.
In addition to the main force, there are also horsemen, craftsmen, transportation, camp construction and other logistics personnel accompanying the army, which may add up to tens of thousands.
Roning has become the commander of a combat force of tens of thousands of people.
"Roning, don't forget our agreement!"
At night, Wiggins found Roning and told him in person: "Although there was an accident in this plan, the people I arranged for you are enough, and it should not be a problem to take over Chishan Town!"
He was still thinking about the iron mine in Chishan Town.
"Don't worry, father. I will do my best to take Chishan Town back."
Ronin showed full confidence, "But father, in order to win this war, I even pulled out the only knight squad. Although I have gathered all the participants, I am short of a lot of food, fodder for horses and other supplies. You have to help me."
"That's easy!"
Wiggins agreed happily: "Leave the logistics to Galil. I will inform him that the food, fodder and logistics needed by Wubei Territory in this expedition will all be borne by Wushan Castle!"
Generally speaking, vassals have to bear their own material consumption when they fight with their lords. Although there are also lords who provide support, this situation is relatively rare.
As for Wiggins, he still expects his son to develop the iron mine in Chishan Town to bring him huge profits in the future, so he naturally doesn't care about these material consumption.
This just meets Ronin's wishes.
If he is responsible for the logistics of Wubei Territory's knight squad, he will also have to recruit serfs. In addition, he needs to purchase a batch of food from outside. After all, Wubei Territory does not have a surplus of food.
Now that Wushanbao is responsible for the logistics of his team, it saves a lot of trouble and energy.
In this way, the lively noble meeting ended smoothly.
The nobles hurriedly left Wushanbao the next day and returned to their respective territories to start the final adjustment.
As time approached the end of June, the teams sent by the nobles set off one after another and marched towards their respective battlefields. (End of this chapter)