"Duke, the Ostorian Army is not an army under our command. ”

"Yes, Duke, I know. ”

The Crown of Ostoria and San István was the territory of the Habsburgs, but was not nominally an independent state, but a dependency of Charlemagne, whose armies were subject to Charlemagne's command in time of war.

In response, the Pope and Ostoria's Castilian cousins acquiesced.

"Duke, we all know that the command of the coalition forces is with Charlemagne. We can use the 'Marines' as an excuse to avoid Charlemagne's blind command, but Ostoria can't. ”

"Yes, Duke, I know. ”

Command of the Land Forces.

The Duke of Wellington recalled the word that had upset him, and according to the agreement of the countries, the commander of the allied army was to be provided by the country that contributed the most. Albion would have had a chance to compete for this title, but they had already earned the title of Commander of the Navy, and one more Albiang-born Army Commander...... Not only will the proud Charlemagne Rooster be unhappy with this, but the Pope, who has already distrusted the growth of the Church of Albion, will also strongly oppose it, and other countries will also be uneasy about Albiang taking command of the coalition forces.

For the sake of the unity of the coalition forces, and more importantly, to prevent himself from falling into strict isolation, Albion must accept a coalition army commander who meets the needs of the government.

One...... Crown Prince Charlemagne.

Louis Dieudonnay de Bourbon, Dauphin of Bourbon, was a man of some talent. But he was born at an untimely time, the commander of the allied army.

This candidate was not proposed by Albion, but was the result of communication and coordination between the Pope and other countries, and the reasons given are reasonable.

Since Seres and Castile, limited by their national strength, sent only two symbolic companies, it was obvious that it was impossible to appoint a lieutenant to be the commander of the coalition army, and that Lapland, a long-term recipient of aid, would seem inappropriate to have a general from a country receiving handouts as commander of the sponsors. Albion was already a naval commander, so the army commander had nothing to do with them; Albion sent veterans such as the Duke of Marlborough and the Duke of Wellington to serve as front-line commanders. If the status of the army commander is lower than these two, I am afraid that it will affect the chain of command, and a person with a noble enough status must balance the two dukes.

Therefore, the commander of the coalition army could only be Crown Prince Charlemagne.

Although a little younger. Military literacy and experience were also far inferior to those of the two dukes. But the crown prince was also a general who had been trained on the northern front. If you are more familiar with the combat environment, even if you can't win, you can still bring the army back in its entirety. There is really going to be a difference of opinion in the strict zhòng. The status of the crown prince can also restrain the dukes.

The Duke of Wellington did not like this arrangement at all, firstly because it was a stumbling block, and then he felt that it was an insult to accept the command of a Prince Charlemagne, or to be on his own footing.

It would be a stern insult to the great Albion, to have the crown prince of a failed country who had never gained the upper hand in centuries of fighting each other, and who had often relied on dwarfs and foreigners to save the day, at the victors, the glorious army of Albion, was a stern insult to the great Albion, to Her Majesty, to all the nobles, and even to the Duke personally.

At least the Duke himself thought it was a very strict insult, an offense, a blasphemy, and did not hide his feelings about it at all.

"That His Highness gives the impression of an uneducated evil boy, of course it has nothing to do with us, if he were my son, I would beat him every day from morning till night. Whips, wands, every day non-stop 'snapping'. ”

"'Papapa'?"

"'Papapa' is 'Papapa'. ”

"Well, you have the final say. But for now, you have to take command of the vanguard from the evil youth. ”

The Duke of Marlborough sighed and asked:

"Do you know what that means?"

The Duke of Wellington was silent, his eyes fixed on the other. Neither in tone nor in expression, the Duke of Marlborough showed nothing other than calm, as if he was really just asking a question rather than some kind of warning.

In fact, he didn't have to do this, everyone knew that it meant that Albion would have to make some concessions, even heavy concessions, in order for Charlemagne to hand over the command of the forward force to Albiang. This is normal, whether it is the "evil young" crown prince or the cunning cardinal, they are not fools, let alone good people who respond to their needs, and want them to make concessions? Yes, but they must give a price that is enough to make them tempted. But for Albiang, even if he doesn't care about face, Charlemagne's offer is likely to exceed the bottom line of affordability.

"But we have to do it, or we have a general mobilization!

Wellington shook his fist into the air and roared loudly, the anger that had been building up lately was vented with the roar.

"I promoted 30 non-commissioned officers, 16 lieutenants, to replace their killed officers! And then I signed a death warrant for 150 people, all deserters, defeatists, and cowards who used self-harm to escape the battlefield! And that's just the number of days, count the dead officers, sergeants, heralds, and go and see the unmoraled donkey dung eggs, the cowards who refuse to fight the long-haired mongrel...... We have to do this, or else we will carry out a general mobilization and drown every inch of that fortress with shells!"

Wellington's love affair was a little out of control, but it was by no means for the sake of not avenging his brother-in-law, and if it weren't for Major General Parkinson's timely death, the Duke would probably have strangled this foolish brother-in-law who had discredited him with his own hands.

The Duke of Marlborough knew why, and his love had also turned bad.

A qiē all started with the organized shooting of the Albiang officers by the hairy bears on the opposite side.

When the port of Kaliningrad was restored to function and Albiang's vengeful army landed in Riga, the principality quickly felt the pressure. Despite the fact that the fortified fortifications of Riga were strong. But the fortress was also precarious in front of the frenzied artillery fire.

Instead of covering the line with artillery fire, the Albians flooded it with shells, and in addition to more field artillery, Congreve rockets, and the guns of floating warships, they also spared no expense in arranging 32-pounder guns to bombard the same kind of artillery on the fortress, and even moved out the heavy mortars that were still in a state of testing, and used them specifically to bombard the trenches.

The shelling continued for a whole day, and did not stop until dusk, when a regiment of flintlock muskets began to attack the fortress in the light of illumination.

At first, a qiē is very smooth. With the accompaniment of the "March of the Grenadiers". The infantry phalanx cautiously moved forward. The mines, the nails, and the horses had been cleared by artillery fire, and the furry bears crouching in the trenches seemed to be finished, and there was no return fire. As they got closer to a trench, their mood slowly relaxed. And that's when tragedy struck.

When the queue approached to a distance of only 70 meters from the first trench. A shrill whistle broke the silence. Countless new principality army hats rose from the trenches, and there were many dazzling blue hats among them.

Unbelievable.

This was the unanimous sentiment of the Albiang soldiers, who could not believe that the woolly bears could survive the heavy shelling. Before they could think further about what to do, the vigorous firing began.

The red uniforms stood out in the light of the illumination, and the distance between the two sides was only 70 meters, plus the dense formation of the other side. With little aim, the Principality soldiers were sure to hit a target if they didn't point their guns in the sky, while the Albians had a hard time shooting their opponents in the trenches, the woolly bears could be protected by a bow of their heads, and the Redshirts were unsuspectingly exposed to the nets of fire.

It's really unfair.

The Albion soldiers grumbled as they continued to charge, but soon the soldiers found that there was no one to give them orders.

It's unbelievable, officers, sergeants, heralds, there are at least hundreds or more people in an infantry regiment who give orders or deliver orders, but at this moment these guys have actually evaporated from the world?

Before the soldiers could get out of their confusion, a guy who looked like an officer suddenly jumped out of the position of the Principality Army, and I saw him raise his pistol and roar angrily: "For the Motherland Rus! Advance!" The whole position immediately boiled, and in the tsunami-like sound of "Ula", the woolly bears charged.

The ensuing battle was unencompassing, and the human soldiers were inferior to the newly drugged Duchy soldiers, even the bayonets - the Albion Army was armed with the same sleeve-type single-edged bayonets as Charlemagne's army, while the Duchy Army had a four-edged spur with a cross-shaped tip. As long as the former does not hurt the vital point, he can always think of suturing the wound to heal, while the wound caused by the latter is difficult to suture, even if he pokes a hole in his arm or thigh, he can make the other person bleed to death. In addition, in order to prevent rust, the manufacturer added arsenic to the thorns during processing, which further increased the mortality rate of the victims......

In less than half an hour, most of the infantry regiment was lying on the ground, and in retaliation, the Albiang artillery began shelling again, but because the cunning woolly bear had already retreated into the trench, except for a few unlucky people who patronized the scalping, they did little damage to the other side worthy of mention.

In the aftermath, the two dukes organized an investigation to try to set an example by punishing the officers and soldiers who had failed to fight. But they searched all the wounded soldiers, and found not a single officer worthy of the officer, and the soldiers claimed that in the final stages of the battle, the troops were completely without command, and therefore were overwhelmed by the superior woolly bears in numbers and momentum. But it was not enough to attract the attention of the Duke at that time, and after executing the soldiers who had retreated without permission, two larger offensives were again organized, only to suffer the same crushing defeat, and each time almost no officers returned to their positions. It was only then that the two dukes realized that something was wrong and sent someone to snatch the body back from the battlefield for examination, and only then did they find out what was going on.

"All officers, non-commissioned officers, heralds are shot in the head or chest, with few exceptions. ”

The Duke of Wellington shook his head, and said in a tone of disbelief:

"The first time I've heard of this kind of thing, the orc army has planned to shoot our officers, so that some of the troops have lost command as soon as they enter the battlefield, and they have cut off contact with the rear, and the battlefield commander has no way to control the troops. ”

The Duke of Marlborough sighed, this was not the first time. In the past, before the musket was invented, the principality often organized excellent marksmen who were responsible for shooting enemy commanders, and then the cavalry took advantage of the chaos to charge and tear the opponent to pieces.

"They are not like us, they have never had a scruple about belligerent morals and chivalry. ”

"Those guys weren't knights in the first place, just a bunch of brutes, a bunch of criminals!"

Wellington's love is out of control again, and anyone can understand it. The Duke had never lost so many good officers in a few days of fighting—hundreds, if not more. Even if the Duke had always disregarded the lives of his soldiers, he could not accept a noble officer as a consumable. And. Considering that this tactic has a clear target. Then it means that the Duke's head will be the highest priority target of the orc sharpshooters, and there is no one.

He does have reason to be angry about this.

"We also tried to have the Wizard Non-Commissioned Officer open a 'barrier' at the front of the queue to provide cover for the troops, but the results were not ideal. The front of a regiment alone requires dozens of triangular level magician non-commissioned officers. Or a dozen quadrilateral levels at the forefront. It's not just about shells and magical attacks from enemy priests. Also watch out for the special bullets of the opposing sharpshooter! I actually used the Celestial Crystal implanted with 'Honkai' to make bullets!"

The Duke of Wellington actually wronged the orc snipers, you must know that the Duchy did get a batch of special bullets, but the trajectory of those special bullets was quite unstable. It simply cannot be used to snipe at targets in motion. Those mage non-commissioned officers are all the results of the Wehrmacht's hunters.

The truth is known only to a very few, the Duke is not there, he doesn't care about the truth, what he needs is reinforcements.

At least 20,000 soldiers and thousands of cannons.

"If it's less than that, then we'll have to watch the proud rooster cut off the fort's supplies and take all the credit. ”

"It won't be like that. ”

The Duke of Marlborough had a stern face, and the calmness he had before was completely gone.

"Victory and glory belong to Albion alone, and no one should try to steal it from us. ”

After a pause, he emphasized again.

"Don't even think about it. ”

"Then the command of the forward troops ......"

"We will try our best to fight for it, but before that, we should try some new means of warfare. ”

"What do you mean......"

The Duke of Marlborough was about to explain carefully when the voice of the Duke's lieutenant suddenly came from outside the tent.

"Report, Your Highness the Duke, they are here. ”

"That's right, instead of using what I said, let's just go and see it. ”

Pulling the hem of his uniform hard, Duke Marlborough's tense face finally showed a smile.

When he first saw the group of people, the Duke of Wellington thought that he had been tricked, and no one would associate the group in front of him with the soldiers. The soldiers should be a group of people wearing bright military uniforms and moving neatly, and although the group of guys in front of them are wearing military uniforms, they are not buttoned up, wearing white cloaks, carrying skis on their backs, holding rifles and ski poles in their hands, and standing in a row crookedly.

This is like an army! It's clearly a hunter in the mountains!

Wellington clenched his fist and quickly released it again.

He was not looking at the soldiers of Albion, but the soldiers of Lapland, and everyone knew that Lapland was a poor country, and he could not expect this group of rustic countrymen to do as well as the soldiers of Albiang.

"Welcome to Riga, Lieutenant Haye. ”

The Duke of Marlborough nodded to the man leading the team, and the man in the Lapland military uniform and the mask owed his body and agreed.

"I won't say anything superfluous, I hope that the 'White Reaper' in Lapland will act quickly and fight a bloody path for the victory of the human camp. And before that—"

Following the duke's gaze, the adjutant stepped forward and handed the lieutenant a leaflet with the duchy script he was familiar with, which was also kindly translated in the language of the human nation.

-- Sergeant Vasily Zaitsev from the Ural Mountains, a sniper hero of the Principality's new army, killed 4 officers and 5 non-commissioned officers of the enemy army again today.

Probably so that the illiterate could read the contents, there is also a picture below the text, a military hat circled in a checkered box, marked with a large red cross, the same number as described in the text.

"Lately the hairy mongrels have been promoting this sharpshooter, Lieutenant Simon Haye, that he's your prey. ”

"I see, Duke. ”

The corners of the masked man's mouth curled, and a cold glow reflected in his blue eyes.

"I'll make some preparations for the young shepherd to come to me himself. (To be continued......)