I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 356 The Standoff Between Two Wolves and a Dog

The next day, at noon, when the sun was at its fiercest, on the rocky high ground surrounded by the Bagnian army camp.

Chris stood on the makeshift watchtower, a monocular brass telescope held steadily in front of him.

Through the lens, on the distant horizon, a torrent of steel is rushing in at an astonishing speed.

Those were the iron cavalry of Leteria. The dust kicked up by twenty thousand warhorses was like a low-hanging dark cloud, obscuring the afternoon sun. Even at such a distance, the dull and continuous sound of hooves could faintly shake the solid ground of the highlands.

Sunlight shone on their gleaming breastplates and spear tips, reflecting large swaths of blinding cold light, like a restless silver river flowing across the earth.

"finally come."

Chris lowered the binoculars, his face showing no surprise or tension, only a calm as if the boot had finally landed.

His clerk had already spread out his notebook, awaiting orders.

"Pass the order."

Chris's voice was clear and steady, and even the howling wind of the highlands could not drown it out.

"The entire army has entered a state of first-level combat readiness. Artillery positions have completed final adjustments, all 16-pound cannons have been loaded with solid shot, and the sights have been preset to the edge of maximum range."

The Second Army Group assembled at its designated positions and awaited orders, while the Han-Tang Warriors Battle Group was deployed as a reserve force in the center of the high ground.

All long-range firepower units, including gunners and musketeers, shall take up pre-designated cover and shall not be exposed without orders.

"Yes, Your Highness."

The clerk quickly recorded the information, and after confirming that it was accurate, he turned and strode away to carry it out.

Chris raised his binoculars again, carefully observing this new force that had come from afar.

They were indeed aggressive, their fatigue from the long march masked by a fervent desire to prove themselves.

The Retalians had clearly also spotted the Bagnian camp on the high ground. The vanguard cavalry began to slow down, and the massive army began to deploy about five kilometers southwest of Golden Harvest City, facing the Rocky Heights.

Instead of setting up camp immediately, they adopted an offensive formation, seemingly declaring their presence and strength to both the city's defenders and the enemy on the high ground.

Chris only looked for a while before he realized one thing... Of the 20,000 Reteria Banner Army, 10,000 were elite soldiers, even if they weren't regular soldiers, they were seasoned veterans who had fought many battles. The remaining 10,000 were auxiliary soldiers, cavalry, and infantry.

Even so, these 20,000 bannermen still gave Chris a headache. He knew that these 20,000 Retalian cavalrymen were only part of the main army, and there would be many more Retalians coming later.

……

the other side.

The tower on Jinshui City.

Upon hearing the muffled, dense, and faint sound of horses' hooves, Charles practically lunged to the southwest-facing window.

When the sky-covering smoke and dust and the gleaming torrent of steel came into view, an indescribable ecstasy instantly overwhelmed the heaviness, anxiety and despair that had been weighing on his heart the day before.

"They're here! They've really come!"

Charles's voice trembled slightly with excitement. He slammed his fist on the cold stone windowsill, the pain in his knuckles feeling like the most beautiful music.

The feigned composure, the precarious performance at the banquet, the silent deaths in the wounded soldiers' camp, every piece of bad news brought by the quartermaster... all the gloom seemed to be swept away at this moment by the dust raised by the 20,000 iron cavalry.

He saw it, saw the dazzling silver light reflecting in the sunlight, it was the heavy cavalry breastplate that Leteria was so proud of.

I saw the spears standing tall like a dense forest, and the massive formation that represented vitality, counterattack, and the hope of victory!
"Thanks to the sea god, Seba did not lie to me, the iron cavalry of Leteria has arrived as scheduled!"

Charles turned around, his face filled with undisguised, almost fanatical excitement; his smile was no longer a mask, but a genuine, radiant one.

He even grabbed the shoulder of the chief eunuch beside him and shook him vigorously.

"Did you see that? Commander, did you see that? That's our reinforcements, a full twenty thousand iron cavalry! The Bagnians' doom has come!"

The steward staggered slightly as he was shaken. Looking at the massive army outside the city, exuding a chilling killing intent, and then at the king who was so excited he was almost out of control, he forced a smile of agreement on his pale face, but a deeper worry flashed in the depths of his eyes.

This iron cavalry... has arrived with such fanfare, will they really immediately throw themselves into battle and shed blood for the Minisians?
Or... is there another motive?
To the steward, the king's excitement was more like grasping a seemingly resilient but potentially thorny vine at the edge of a cliff.

But Charles was completely immersed in great hope at that moment.

He strode towards the tower's terrace, where the view was even more expansive.

He needed to make sure everyone in the city saw it, and that his soldiers saw it too.

Charles took a deep breath and shouted with all his might at the streets that were faintly visible in the city, at the crumbling city walls in the distance, and at his crumbling kingdom. His voice was unusually loud and even a little hoarse because of his excitement.

"Warriors of Minicia, lift your heads and look!"

He pointed sharply to the dazzling torrent of steel in the southwest.

"Our reinforcements, the iron cavalry of Leteria, have arrived, bearing the will of the sea god and the fury of vengeance!"

His voice echoed in the empty tower and carried into the city.

Some soldiers walking wearily in the street, officers wandering desperately at the entrance of the wounded soldiers' camp, and even defeated soldiers licking their wounds in dark corners, all subconsciously looked up and followed the sound to see the somewhat deranged king on the tower above.

They were a little confused.

"The Bagnians' arrogance has come to an end!"

Charles continued shouting, his voice full of inflammatory rhetoric.

"They thought they could starve us, they thought they could crush us, but they forgot that Minicia is never alone... Victory will surely be ours, may the sea god protect Minicia! Prepare for the counterattack, prepare to reclaim our land and glory!"

On the city wall, some of the soldiers who had been numb with despair looked at the massive fresh force outside the city with puzzled expressions in their lifeless eyes.

When did the Leterians become our reinforcements?
Shouldn't our reinforcements be the noble coalition in the port of Omdur from the rear?
Charles stood on the terrace, his chest heaving, his face flushed with excitement.

He didn't notice the soldiers' confusion below; he seemed to already see the iron cavalry sweeping through Bagnia's defenses like a tumbleweed, trampling that arrogant kid Chris under their hooves.

He seemed to see himself standing once again on the intact walls of Jinshui City, receiving the cheers of the people. The immense pressure caused by the huge casualties of yesterday's fierce battle seemed to be completely released at this moment, and he felt a long-lost, almost dizzying, sense of exhilaration.

However, just as Charles was basking in this ecstasy, his gaze inadvertently swept over Rocky Heights.

The Baghnia military camp, constructed of barbed wire, chevaux-de-frise, deep trenches, and faintly visible, cold cannon muzzles, appeared unusually silent and solid under the glaring afternoon sun, like a black boulder embedded in the earth, unmoving and immovable.

There was no sign of chaos on the high ground, and the appearance of the Leterian cavalry did not cause the slightest disturbance. On the contrary, a cold, imminent, and murderous aura seemed to emanate from the distance.

Charles's excited smile froze almost imperceptibly as a chilling doubt, like a venomous snake, crept into his heart, which had just been filled with hope.

Chris... why are he and his army so calm?
Can't they see those 20,000 iron cavalrymen who are enough to change the course of the battlefield?

Or perhaps... they were prepared all along? Or maybe... they were waiting for something?
Outside the city, the iron cavalry of Leteria had been fully deployed, like a silver ocean poised to pounce, their spears like a forest, gleaming with cold light.

Their massive army, the silent fortress on the rocky highlands, and the scarred city of Jinsui sandwiched in between, form a triangular composition full of tension and undercurrents.

Charles stood on the tower, and as he looked around, the smile on his lips disappeared... He was a little uneasy.

Charles was unaware of a problem: among the three forces present, the Kingdom of Minicia was the weakest. Although his intuition warned him of danger, the king was oblivious to where the danger lay.

……

Seba rode his white horse, ticking along to a slightly higher mound, then took out binoculars from the saddlebag and looked toward the Bagnya military camp two kilometers away.

He only watched for a short while before he started cursing, and the curses he hurled were very offensive.

What did Seba see?
Three military camps, and a hill about a hundred meters high, topped with heavy artillery positions.

Then came layers upon layers of barbed wire, a dense array of jagged barricades, and behind that, deep and steep trenches, forming three visible barriers of death, protecting the general's camp impeccably.

These three fortifications were constructed with extreme professionalism and ingenious angles, leaving almost no gaps for large-scale cavalry charges.

The only opening was on the east side of that hill, where there was no obstruction and it seemed to welcome guests to come this way... But when Seba's gaze swept over the gun positions that were faintly visible behind the fortifications, he knew very well that the east side of this flat hill was a trap.

A death trap deliberately designed to guide the enemy's attack.

"Where did these Bagnya mountain barbarians get their money?"

Seba wasn't surprised by the tight security of the Bagnian camp; his only question was where these supposedly penniless guys had gotten their hands on those ten-kilometer-long barbed wire fences.

After watching for a while, Seba put down his binoculars, turned the reins, and rode off in another direction.

He continued to observe, but nothing much changed. He had looked at all the places he needed to. The remaining enemy defensive points and details would require close-range reconnaissance or several probing attacks to figure them out.

Seba's destination now is more important than seeing the Bagnian military camp... the battlefield ruins left by the Minisians and Bagnians last night.

The ruins weren't far away. Seba rode his horse a few hundred meters to the edge of the battlefield ruins. Without even taking out his binoculars, he glanced at them from afar and confirmed one thing.

First, the Bagnians attacked yesterday and gained the upper hand, overwhelming the Minieses. The cannon craters in front of the city gate of Golden Harvest City and the large areas of bloodstains that are difficult to remove are the best proof of this.

Judging from the traces on the battlefield and the clothes buried in the ground with half of the arms or thighs exposed, the Minisians were almost defeated by the Bagnians in yesterday's battle.

The Minesians were so disorganized that when they were cleaning up the battlefield after the battle, their scavenging teams couldn't even take all of their own corpses with them. The Bagnians clearly didn't stop the enemy from working, and the reason they couldn't take everything was obviously just one thing... the morale of the Minesians was about to collapse.

Having suffered a crushing defeat in a single day, Seba lowered his opinion of the Minisians.

"These sea barbarians are very good at naval warfare, but in land warfare..."

Seba muttered to himself with a contemptuous smile, but it quickly vanished.

The Minieses may not be as strong as imagined, but that also means the Bagnians are more ferocious than they anticipated.

We need to change our plans.

Seba's original strategy of attacking whoever was easier to fight had to be changed to helping the weak and punishing the strong... The Bagnians were too strong.

He glanced at Golden Harvest City. To this day, the city gates remained closed, and no army had emerged from within.

Seba's lips were pressed into a cold, straight line.

Perhaps Charles's situation is ten times worse than he anticipated; the backbone of the Minisian royal army may very well have been broken in yesterday's foolish war.

They are now nothing more than a flock of frightened birds, trapped in the ruined city, barely managing to stay afloat thanks to the illusory protection of the sea god and the faint flame of hope that has just been ignited for reinforcements from Leteria.

Relying on them as an effective counter-attack force is perhaps not very reliable.

If that's the case, then Seba will have to lead the Retelians to tackle tough challenges. He's certain he'll achieve final victory, but what price will he have to pay for it?
The Kingdom of Minicia is now a fat sheep, and at the same time, two wolves are eyeing it: the Retelia Empire and the Kingdom of Bagnia.

Seba had initially looked down on Bagnia, thinking it was just a thin, crippled wolf, but now it seemed that although Bagnia was weak, its teeth were very sharp.

The Minisian sheepdog, which was originally protecting the fat sheep, had its spine injured by a rival and was now hiding in the sheepfold, barking wildly. This made Seba realize that he should now side with the sheepdog and kill the rival first.

In this way, he could finally kill the sheepdog at his leisure and enjoy the Miniese sheep all to himself.

"Someone, I need a messenger to meet with Charles and discuss tomorrow's attack on the Bagnians."

(End of this chapter)