Chapter 256: The Noble Assembly

As the nobles basically all arrived at Wushan Fortress, a grand mobilization meeting was officially convened.

Although Lulansi made an appearance, he only greeted everyone briefly before sitting at the top, leaving the remaining matters to Weijinsi in his wheelchair.

Weijinsi seemed to be well-versed in this kind of mobilization meeting.

He first spoke some stirring words, portraying the danger of the border, the unfortunate death of Haen in battle, and the misfortune of many Knights, playing up the sins of the enemy, and finally discussed the goals of this war.

Simply put, although this battle would split forces into two, they had to retake Chishan Town in the Southwest and crush this troop buildup of the Black Gold Brotherhood in the Southeast.

He no longer said anything about retaking Kaxier Town or even annihilating the Bolante Bandit Group, lowering expectations.

Of the two forces, the Black Gold Brotherhood had stronger combat power and greater ambition; if they were slightly lax and did not stop them in time, they would keep invading into the interior of Wushan Ridge.

It is easy to invite a god but hard to send one away; once they entered, making them leave would require more energy and suffering more losses.

Therefore, for this battle, the most troops were committed to the Southeast direction.

After some debate, the coalition army to crusade against the Black Gold Brotherhood would have Kabier, Regiment Commander of the Second Knight Order, as commander, and Balindun as deputy commander.

But clearly, the Haide Family was not satisfied with this arrangement; they felt that Balindun should be the commander of the Southeast campaign, after all, the Count stationed at the border contributed the most.

For this reason, the attending Yalan and Nigen argued with Weijinsi and the others for Along time, and finally decided to let Yalan and Kabier have a Duel, with the winner taking the role of commander.

Luoning really did not expect that assigning a commander would actually involve a Duel; wouldn't this be equivalent to fighting among themselves before even fighting the enemy?

If one were careless during the Duel and both were injured and unable to participate in the war, wouldn't that be suffering eight hundred losses before even hurting the enemy?

In any case, Luoning did not understand it, but it seemed others felt such an arrangement was quite reasonable.

And so, halfway through the meeting, everyone ran out of the fortress to watch a Duel.

Fortunately, the final result was good.

Kabier defeated Yalan and took the commander's seat, and neither was much injured in the Duel, not affecting the subsequent war.

However, clearly, Yalan and Nigen were still unconvinced by this result, and it was unknown if they would cause any trouble later.

Compared to the Southeast campaign, things in the Southwest were much easier to handle.

According to custom, when someone from the Wushan Family went on an expedition, they would carry the title of commander; this time Luoning led the team on the expedition, so the commander was naturally him.

The key lay in the choice of deputy commander.

Lulansi had previously had a plan to have Tolu, Kabier, and Mawen assist Luoning, which was more or less the meaning of deputy commander, but now Kabier and Sanduoluo had both gone to the East line, leaving only Tolu and Mawen.

Fortunately, of these two, one was the Regiment Commander of the First Knight Order, a Golden Knight, with sufficient strength; the other was one of the few Viscounts in Wushan Territory, with sufficient seniority, and his strength was not bad either.

No one had any objections to letting them serve as deputy commanders.

After the commander issue was determined, the next step was the detailed splitting of troops, which was also a controversial task.

The nobles could all see that the Southeast side facing the Black Gold Brotherhood was a tough battle, and there was the storm over the struggle for command, with a very high degree of complexity.

As for the West line, although in their eyes Luoning had no battlefield command experience and was like a greenhorn, fortunately, he had Tolu and Mawen to assist him, and thinking back to Luoning's recent performance, he should not be worse than Weijinsi.

So after a comprehensive comparison, they were all willing to come to the West line to face the Bolante Bandit Group.

After all, the soldiers sent to the battlefield, regardless of their quality, were the property of the nobles; who wouldn't want to lose a little less?

If they were lucky enough to win a battle, maybe there would even be some benefits.

The issue of team distribution was argued from morning until afternoon, until the evening glow covered the horizon before it was barely finalized.

On the East and West lines, the troop distribution was roughly seventy-thirty, and the powerful Knights were basically all on the East line.

On Luoning's side, apart from Tolu, there was no second Golden Knight.

If it weren't for Keruien saying there was a Golden Knight on the other side, Tolu probably wouldn't have been arranged to come over.

Such an arrangement clearly did not take into account the variables of the war situation; if the Bolante Bandit Group suddenly had two more Golden Knights, how would they respond?

At the meeting, Luoning raised this possibility.

But the Golden Knights Weijinsi could mobilize were few; of the five Regiment Commanders, the truly Golden Grade ones were only Tolu and Meilongnika, and there was also Kabier who could go one-on-one with a Golden Knight.

Kabier was the commander of the East line, and Meilongnika was responsible for Lulansi's safety; neither of these two could be transferred to the West line.

Helpless, Weijinsi could only arrange two more Silver Knights to the West line.

In any case, Golden Grade was not invincible; several Silver Knights joining forces also had a high possibility of dealing with a Golden Knight, and even if they couldn't win, a draw was enough.

"Mawen, Feilipu, Suersitain, Keruien, Weituolinuo..."

Luoning counted, and he had five Silver Knights on the surface on his side, plus these nobles might also have Silver Grade vassals under their command; if they were also brought to the battlefield, the number would still be quite considerable.

Plus the three of Ruidar, Aierlong, and Maiken under Luoning's command, even if the Bolante Bandit Group popped out two more Golden Knights, it would be enough to cope.

With strong high-end combat power and the number of Professional Knights exceeding one hundred, plus cavalry, Infantry, and Archers, if all these were counted, it was estimated to be on the scale of two thousand.

In addition to the main force, there were the accompanying Grooms, craftsmen, transport, camp construction, and other logistics personnel; adding them all up, it was feared to be on the scale of ten thousand.

Luoning had transformed into the commander of a combat force of ten thousand people.

"Luoning, don't forget our agreement!"

In the evening, Weijinsi found Luoning and exhorted him face-to-face: "Although there were accidents in this plan, the people I have arranged for you are enough; taking Chishan Town should not be a problem!"

What he was thinking about was still the iron mine in Chishan Town.

"Rest assured, Father, I will do my best to retake Chishan Town."

Luoning appeared full of confidence, "However, Father, in order to win this war, I have even brought out my only Knight Squad. But although I have gathered the participants, I am lacking quite a bit in supplies such as food and fodder for the horses; you must help me."

"That is all easy to say!"

Weijinsi readily agreed: "Leave the logistics to Jialier; I will notify him. The food, fodder, and logistics required by the Wubei Territory for this expedition will all be borne by Wushan Castle!"

Generally speaking, vassals going on an expedition with their liege lord have to bear the consumption of supplies themselves; although there are cases where the liege lord provides support, such situations are relatively rare.

And for Weijinsi, he was still counting on his son to develop the Chishan Town iron mine later to bring him huge profits, so he naturally wouldn't care about these material consumptions.

This happened to be in line with Luoning's wishes.

If he were left to be responsible for the logistics of the Wubei Territory Knight Squad himself, he would have to conscript Serfs, and in addition, he would need to purchase a batch of food from outside; after all, the food in Wubei Territory was not abundant.

Now letting Wushan Castle be responsible for the logistics of his team saved a lot of trouble and energy.

Just like that, the lively noble meeting ended smoothly.

The nobles left Wushan Castle in a hurry the next day, returning to their respective territories to begin their final adjustments.

As the time neared the end of June, the teams dispatched by the nobles set off one after another, marching in a grand procession toward their respective battlefields. (End of chapter)