CH 159 The Whole Nation Fights

The King's order, which was half a speech and half an order, was arranged to be circulated throughout Legrand as quickly as possible.

The boiling public dissatisfaction was finally suppressed. Everyone knew that General Sheehan was originally the most important general trusted by the King. He once planned an assassination against the King, but the King forgave him and appointed him as the general of his first personal army, the Iron Rose Cavalry. Since then, the value the King placed on General Sheehan had been quite eye-catching. Not only did he appoint him as the commander-in-chief of the central army during the Northland Rebellion, but also handed over the decision-making power of the southeastern defense line to him at the beginning of the current campaign.

Some people even joked in private that if not for the fact that General Sheehan did not have the iconic silver hair and blue eyes of the Rose family, then people would really wonder whether General Sheehan was also another brother of the King. Otherwise, how could the King favor him so much?

Now, General Sheehan's cowardice had resulted in the southeastern coast being occupied by the Holy Legion, which undoubtedly made the King furious.

The stripping of positions, titles and territories, these punishments conveyed the King's rage and determination——in the face of the lives of Legrand's people, he would not be biased even with the generals he valued most.

The King punished even his most valued general with such a harsh punishment that could be called nailing him forever to the pillar of shame. General Sheehan, who caused the fall of the southeastern coast, had died at the hands of the Bubas people. The public was outraged but it finally calmed down.

In the public writ, the King said, "In the name of the monarch of Legrand, I ask all the people of Legrand, no matter where you are, to fight to the end against the enemies who have invaded your homeland. The future of Legrand is in the hands of all of us." 

In the face of the national crisis, it played an unprecedented role in rallying power.

All over the country, they were inspired by "Legrand's future is in the hands of all of us", and even half-grown children took up crude weapons.

General Sheehan ordered the Iron Rose Cavalry to evacuate Bubas, which let the Holy Legion of the Sea to invade the southeastern coast. One of the important reasons why it triggered such widespread and intense anger was that it made the Legrand people see clearly what would be the consequences as never before. If they lost the war, what would be their fate?

They would be massacred, plundered, and enslaved. From then on, they had no fixed place to live and their dignity would be lost.

The advance of the Holy Legion of the Sea was blocked by the Kriya Mountains and the Kriya State fortresses and castles. And when they dispersed their troops to the towns and countryside to plunder supplies to supply themselves as before, they discovered that everyone in the country had gone crazy.

In the Holy Legion of the Sea, Verduin, the head of the Abyss Alliance countries, recorded the changes during this period in his private diary. At the end of summer, they were still basking in their victory, but when autumn came, they could already feel the chill on this country's blade.

"...We were dragged down in the southeast area, and our soldiers had almost no way to disperse our movements when gathering rations and supplies. Because once a soldier strayed… the mob would attack us. Although those people's weapons were crude and clumsy, and they have no fighting skills to speak of, they don’t care about giving up their lives.”

"Some of our soldiers have begun to panic. Do we really believe that the soldiers are really devout believers fighting to uphold the glory of the Holy Lord? Oh, Holy Lord! Don't we ourselves really know who they are? The ranks of the Holy Legion are made up of a rabble of the poor, the bankrupt, thieves and robbers..."

"They didn't come here to bring God to this land. They came here across the Abyss Strait just to make a fortune. If you can't even guarantee your life, then what's the use of more money?"

"We have to find a way to solve this matter."

A few days after writing this diary entry, Verduin encountered an attack by a team of armed townspeople when he was leading soldiers to harvest local grain and grass.

The most disturbing thing was that among their attackers, a boy who did not even reach the chest of an adult was holding the hilt of a broken sword tightly in his hand when he was caught. And the look in his eyes no longer looked normal at all.

"My father died, my brother died, so I took up their swords."

The boy said this before he died.

War should have been a stage for adults, but now children have also picked up swords and weapons.

As King Pureland of Legrand said in his open letter:

Traitors must die and the whole nation will fight.

This was a true nationwide battle.

On the southeast coast, compared to the entire Legrand territory, this section was like a sealed territory, and every piece of land was filled with blood.

"There is no doubt."

When he captured the port of Koszoya, he ordered the soldiers to slaughter the city and then raised his goblet and shouted "cheers". That night, with trembling hands, Verduin wrote this line in his diary:

"This country has gone mad."

………………

As summer passed and autumn arrived, it was supposed to be the harvest season, but the wind blew across the empty fields.

The Holy Legion of the Holy Land had landed, and Legrand's main army had also arrived at the predetermined front in the middle. The two armies were about to confront each other, and a frontal battle was imminent.

In the combat conference room in Yoringshire County, the staff officers were arguing fiercely. What was different from the past was that it was not just the senior generals standing in the combat conference room. In the words of a veteran, "the people involved in the war decision-making discussion seemed to come from all walks of life."

This remark was slightly exaggerated, but it was generally correct.

With the King's permission, those who could participate in the discussion included not only generals, but also the heads of spy organizations, the minister in charge of Legrand's transportation department previously established by the King, members of the local public sentiment committee commonly known as "Black Wings", slightly mad military weapon designers, Royal Academy mathematicians with a head full of numbers... This was a very strange thing for traditional generals.

But their King was a tyrant before, and his willful temper seemed not to have changed much now.

In this war, the King used high-pressure methods to force his officers to quickly accept a new model of military planning. There were too many impromptu ideas in previous war plans. This time the King was determined to ask his officers to theoretically formulate different combat plans for each battle they were about to face, and these combat plans also took into account many factors.

He would even ask the accompanying mathematicians from the Royal Academy who participated in the war to do their best to calculate the loss and distribution of their supplies and weapons...

In past wars, it could be said that most of the time, the army did not have the concept of a "logistics system", and this aspect was often left a muddled mess. But this time, the group of mathematicians and military officers were using their hairlines to try their best to sort out the mess.

May the heroic soul of Legrand bless these poor people, and hope that they would not be tortured to the point of going crazy and wanting to jump off the city wall.

However, although they were quite unaccustomed to this new mode, there were few complaints.

Because the King was always with them, spending sleepless nights next to the battle map.

Although these arrangements of the King have a sense of "tyrannical" arbitrariness, he did not seem to have the idea of ​​acting as an arbitrary tyrant from beginning to end during the march and war.

Except for some critical and unexpected moments when he would make the most decisive decision with an attitude that could not be refuted——a decision that was often proven to be correct after the fact, or at least the one that could obtain the greatest benefit. At other times, he played more of a role of listening to many ideas and then giving his own evaluation and opinions.

His military talent was particularly amazing, and he was often able to point out the biggest flaws in every seemingly "perfect" combat plan sharply and ruthlessly.

Under normal circumstances, monarchs who were too young often do not receive any preferential treatment from experienced veterans. Although they had to maintain a surface level of respect, this did not prevent the generals from harboring private suspicions and concerns. If a monarch who was too young wanted to establish his prestige, there was no better choice than leading the army to an exciting victory. But who could guarantee that every monarch was an outstanding military strategist?

However, the King was not among these usual monarchs.

The King was like the Mad King Henry, the Lion King Charles, William III... Like them, he possessed outstanding military talents from a young age. The counterattack outside Truu City, the final decisive duel of the Rose Crisis, the last-ditch battle outside Benz City, and the Northland Rebellion's perfect putdown… Aside from his status as a monarch, this series of dazzling achievements were enough to make any general respect him.

Sometimes, the generals couldn't help but wonder whether the heroic spirit of the entire Rose family was passed down from generation to generation. Throughout the Rose family's epics of kings, monarchs with outstanding military exploits from a young age often emerged. When generals from other countries had to deal with the monarchs of their own royal families who have inflated self-confidence and poor actual abilities, they were probably quite envious of Legrand's generals.

The veteran generals were keen to listen to the King's opinions, and they were also happy that their opinions could be seriously listened to by the King——although he might not necessarily adopt them.

"I believe the Knights Templar will take the Kava Plain. Their marching speed is faster than the Eternal Knights..."

"But Pope Theolde is here in person. The Knights Templar are the most elite troops. It is impossible for them to leave the vicinity of the Pope..."

There was chaos and noise in the combat conference room.

The King stood in front of the battle map, with his hands on the table, looking at the map in deep thought without saying a word.

After they successfully annihilated the main force of the Eternal Knights and destroyed the vanguard of the Holy Legion of the Holy Land, the King, with the support of several cities, regained several cities that were previously controlled by the Holy Legion. This was of great help to the initial stage of the frontal war. Without the geographically advantaged planned garrison point of Yoringshire County, even if Theolde had the heart to fight quickly, the marching speed of his army would still have to slow down.

The significance of Yoringshire County to the Holy Legion of the Holy Land was that it was the junction point between the Doma tributary and the main river. With Yoringshire County, the Holy Legion could transport supplies through waterways. In a situation like fighting on foreign lands like Legrand, this was the most reliable transportation line.

But now, this transportation line had been blocked by the King in advance.

Right now, the most important thing for them was to determine where Pope Theolde would make his first big move after landing in Legrand.