Archduke Carl Johann Lorenz Habsburg pressed the middle of his nose, and after the soreness of his eyes had temporarily subsided, the best commander of Ostoria issued a new order in the dim light. It was about the schedules of peddlers, military dependents, and prostitutes who accompanied the army -- all civilians accompanying the army were not allowed to walk around with a noise after the lights were blown and were punished with 30 lashes; the roosters carried by the women of the army were not allowed to crow before 9 a.m., so as not to expose the troops' station, and the roosters who disobeyed the military orders would not be killed.

This order may sound a bit nonsensical, but the Grand Duke is not joking in the slightest.

A commotion broke through the tent curtain, and when the curtain was lifted, an old-fashioned crowned leather helmet, a fashionable tall military hat, a big-brimmed hat, and a pointed bearskin hat at the front swayed like flies, and the lascivious laughter and panting of men and women, the cries of hawkers, and the cacophony of fights and brawls......

The discipline and order that should be expected of a barracks are not found here at all, not so much a barracks as a country market and a red-light district or bazaar. People with a little military common sense will shake their heads when they see this situation, and then wonder how much combat strength this army can have, and whether it can assume the heavy responsibility of the vanguard of the expeditionary force.

The Grand Duke was well aware of the ills of the troops, and it was best to drive them out of the army altogether, as they had a negative effect on the discipline of the march and the battle. But the Grand Duke finally gave up this tempting idea, you know, without the comfort of the girls, the angry Qiu Ba will definitely mutiny. Defend their "sexual bliss" with bayonets and muskets. What's even worse is that there are two foreign field hunting battalions in the army, many of which are camel orc mercenaries, these mercenaries are not afraid of death when they fight, as long as the money is enough, no matter who the target of the battle is, they will rush to fight to the death. But these GIs also have a head-scratching problem: they are highly consistent with Castilian fagws in their sexual orientation, preferring boys or teenagers to busty women. The commanders, including Archduke Karl, had no choice but to let it go - "after all, it was a hobby handed down from their ancestors, and they were proud of it, believing that the bond of 'naked true love' between men was something necessary on the battlefield." Nothing reassures them more than their comrades-in-arms + 'comrades'. It is very difficult to change this custom. Nearly impossible. ”

If the order is given that the young lovers of these guys are not allowed to go near the barracks, there will be a large-scale mutiny, and before the troops can reach the city of Riga, tens of thousands of human corpses will be scattered on the land of the principality......

No way. All the Grand Duke could do was compromise. He didn't have a strong force like Titans. Enough to deal with the mutiny, and more importantly, the sister of the Grand Duke before the departure - hated the Charlemagne. Maria Theresa Habsburg, who was also hated by Charlemagne, repeatedly admonished: "Be sure to preserve your strength and don't let the blood of the Ostorian warriors be shed for Charlemagne's ambitions!"

The Crown Prince's calculations are obvious, and he himself has no intention of explaining them. Any qualified politician will not turn a blind eye to potential threats from within, and will set out to eliminate or weaken them whenever they have the opportunity. Let the disobedient military force charge into battle as cannon fodder, and the descendants of the troops follow behind to pick up cheap and pick peaches, which is undoubtedly a concrete expression of this idea, efficient, safe, and highly profitable, so wonderful that Charlemagne's politicians are satisfied.

Maria Theresa and Archduke Karl were naturally aware of these little tricks, but unfortunately they did not have the means or courage to refuse.

Cowering in the holy war with the heathen, collaborating with the enemy, turning away from the faith...... These charges were severe, and the Habsburg bigwigs could not ignore them, and were worried about the terrible sight of the Habsburgs being "cleared" by the entire human camp. In order to prevent the vision of the end from coming true, they had to bow their heads and accept their fate.

A tragedy, not only led by the crown of Ostoria and St. Istvan, but also by all small and medium-sized countries. Since ancient times, the way of survival and development of small and medium-sized countries has never been independent, but to see the wind to make the rudder, and it is much easier to develop with the wind of a big country than against the wind, and the consequences of doing it against a big country are often self-inflicted, and the weak country can only obey the will of the big country before finding a thicker thigh, which is the law of nature, and the rotation of a celestial body with a small mass around a celestial body with a large mass is a truth.

Although the last heretical nonsense may be offensive to the Catholic, who is a devout believer, the truth is that there is never fairness, impartiality and justice, there is only law, only truth.

Following the basic principles of international relations, Karl the Great led his troops to become the vanguard of the expeditionary force, making a difficult march in a strange land.

It is no exaggeration to use "difficult" to describe this march, every step of their progress is full of hardships and helplessness, and it can be said that trouble follows them all the time.

According to the original plan, Charlemagne's army, as the main force of the expeditionary force, should take a train to the northern front to assemble, and then break through the defense line of the principality army and advance towards the fortress of Riga. However, the railway system was paralyzed, because the V.E Company, which was skilled in the railway business, handed over the railway to the officials nominated by the crown prince in order to ensure the safety of the wartime transportation of the railway, and then gave all the railway employees home to take a rare paid leave.

For this reason, the company also specially paid to organize employees to go to the seaside vacation with their families. As a result, the bureaucrats who accepted the railroad found themselves in possession of an empty shell, empty facilities, a few tables and chairs, railway timetables, financial statements, railway route maps, and train condition sheets...... Everything that can be called a wen jiàn is gone, the safe and the vault are empty, not even a piece of paper is left, and after protesting to the V.E company, the answer received is that the company has carried out a big cleaning before the holiday, and all the funds related to the railway, Wen jiàn are all gathered and ready to be sorted out. As for when it will be finished, it will not be known until the end of the vacation of the relevant department personnel, before that, in order to avoid the loss and damage of the text, the company has sealed all the documents and locked them in the vault of the consortium headquarters building together with the cash, and no one is allowed to approach the ......

This was obviously the revenge of the consortium against the crown prince for putting his hand in his pocket, because all the employees of the railway department were sent to other places or even the southern colonies on vacation by the company's chartered ships, and the crown prince could not use a bayonet to get them back to work, so he could only curse the "profiteers who are mercenary" and let the cadres sent to take over the railway grope and try to dispatch the trains.

One can imagine what Charlemagne's transportation system would become if such a group of guys who knew nothing about railroad operations would dispatch the railway. In just three days, the country's stations were cramped with locomotives and wagons, empty trains were running on the railroads, troops and ordinary passengers were stranded, angry crowds nearly destroyed the station building, and finally the Titans had to be sent in with bayonets and rifle butts to persuade people to regain their senses......

In a short time the railway transport could not be counted on, and the only way to the north was to rely on the traditional means of foot and mule and horse transportation, although it was a little troublesome, and at least it was possible to get rid of the elbows of the consortium, but the speed was already greatly behind, and the Archduke Karl could only take the first step to join the army of Albion. I never thought that after this vanguard entered the territory of Lapland, new problems arose.

The speed of the march, too slow.

The roads in Lapland have always been in poor condition, and with the advent of the railway, people have paid less attention to the roads that have not been repaired for many years. At this moment this careless consequence began to punish humanity, with a sudden cold rain, the roads suddenly became muddy, a large number of baggage and artillery jammed the roads, due to the lack of rear transportation, and the fear of causing diplomatic problems, the expeditionary force did not dare to "eat on the spot" like the army of the principality or Charlemagne, and the troops had to march with clumsy and large field bread stoves, further increasing the burden. In addition, the troops led by the Crown of Ostoria and San István received the military reform later than Charlemagne's army, and the upper and lower levels were not familiar with the new military ranks, and the organizational work was chaotic. Under the influence of various factors, they had to stop for a whole day every two days to rest their ranks and wait for the baggage.

For these problems, the Grand Duke was already very busy, and what made him even more worried was that there was already a large amount of information that the Principality had formed a group of light cavalry based on the wolf clan to be responsible for reconnaissance and harassment. For this group of elusive and cunning creatures like hungry wolves, the heavy and sluggish baggage troops are the best prey. How to arrange for the hussars to escort the baggage troops, while ensuring that the march did not become slower, became a problem that the Grand Duke had to face.

Compared with all kinds of problems that threaten the life and death of the troops, the families of military personnel are nothing more than trivial matters worth mentioning.

As if he could no longer endure the situation, the Grand Duke walked around the tent with a frown, going around in circles, until at last he stopped in front of the map, took a half-smoked cigar from his bosom and stuffed it into his mouth, and then stopped for a qiē move, neither lighting nor spitting it out, or sitting back in his place. It just stopped in place, motionless like a statue.

He was in a terrible mood, but he didn't know what to do, and if anyone was unfortunate enough to run into the muzzle of his gun at this time, he would become an outlet for the Grand Duke to vent his anger.

"Your Excellency. ”

An unfortunate man entered, General John Shearer, the Archduke's aide-de-camp, an old-fashioned soldier of great ability, but not inferior, and he was the only one in the expeditionary force who never looked at the Archduke's face, but saw him striding towards Archduke Karl with a straight face and a piece of communication paper under his arm, regardless of etiquette and manners.

Standing upright, leaning on the legs, saluting, and after doing the formal etiquette, General Shearer reported in a slightly bitter tone:

"The Duke of Wellington of Albion asked us again when we would be able to reach the city of Riga. ”

Looking at the angular face of the adjutant, the Grand Duke's lips moved, and he let out a long breath, reluctant to put away his cigar. (To be continued......)