Chapter 234: Things That Happened Last Year, Alonzo Bloodflame Polyalong

In a special room of the Red House, 【Dahan Linli】, Jier took a small sip of wine and then pointed and commented on the hand-drawn map spread out on the small wine table in front of him.

"So, you mean that the Kendall Army is currently stationed near this town? Just in a place no more than two hundred kilometers away from us in a straight line on the map?"

Jier had an expression of surprise; he could never have imagined that, having always assumed the Kendall Army had marched south to support the Southern Province Noble Coalition, they should have been stationed somewhere near the Province Capital.

As it turned out, the answer provided by 【Wealth's Ear】 was completely different.

"Heh heh, Knight Jier, you may have misjudged some things. That's fair; even we did not expect that those big shots above would be so, er, cautious and cowardly? Or to put it another way, after accumulating such a large number of troops in their hands, those people actually weren't in a hurry to start the war. You know, for such a large army, the daily maintenance cost is an extremely huge figure. I estimate that the daily food expenses, if converted into Gold Coins, could pile up and crush this small wine table in front of us."

Lady Flower leaned elegantly against the back of her chair, her legs crossed, her left hand resting on her right arm, while her right hand held a small wine glass, swaying it slightly: "Those big shots gathered tens of thousands of troops from all over by every possible means, and conscripted all male civilian laborers within the entire area south of Jun'gu Bao to serve as the army's support labor. Today, a massive military force of at least over one hundred thousand people has gathered near the Province Capital, Jun'gu Bao!"

A mocking smile appeared on her face: "It seems that the disastrous defeat of the coalition on the front lines last year made some people's guts shrink quite a bit. Perhaps they still haven't found a way to deal with the Re-gan Kingdom's Arson Unit, so they can only gather a large army and use their massive numbers to counter potential small-to-medium-scale military disasters on the front lines?"

Upon hearing these words, Jier also wore a smile and asked curiously: "Coming south all the way here, I heard many reports in the Southern Province about the unfavorable war situation last year, all sorts of them. I am very curious, what was the situation actually like at the time? I imagine the quite capable 【Wealth's Ear】 organization must also be very interested in this intelligence, right? Could you tell me?"

Lady Flower smiled and extended her left hand toward Jier, palm open: "This question cannot be free; it doesn't count as idle chatter. Please pay, three Gold Coins."

The expression on Jier's face froze for a moment, and after calculating, he said: "Yes, it should be paid, but the money I brought on this trip is limited, so I must ask clearly first."

He pointed at the hand-drawn map on the small wine table: "How is the price for this calculated? If the price is right, I would also like to hear about the coalition's disastrous defeat last year."

Lady Flower opened her left hand and waved it: "The price for intelligence on the real-time location of the Kendall Army is five Gold Coins."

Upon hearing this, Jier took out the money bag containing Gold Coins, shook it, and placed eight Gold Coins on the table: "Eight Gold Coins, I'll pay for everything now."

Lady Flower did not stand on ceremony; she swept her palm across the table, collected the Gold Coins, and sent them to a mechanism opened on the wall to the side, handing the coins directly to a companion who had been waiting behind the wall to assist.

That masked organization member, who had not spoken a word, skillfully took a small bag from the side, put the eight Gold Coins inside, tossed it aside, and seemingly used some mechanism behind the wall to send the money bag to another location.

It seemed to be a kind of wooden slide; Jier heard the sound of the money bag sliding against the wood, sending it directly to other rooms beneath this Red House.

Jier estimated that this place was likely similar to the small Jiedian of the Thieves Guild he encountered in Grass Rat Town—both looked ordinary on the surface, but the actual building had multiple secret spaces underground as complex as a labyrinth.

After all, it sounded like the 【Wealth's Ear】 organization claimed they had no direct connection to the Thieves Guild, yet their methods were quite similar. Jier even suspected whether the two were the same team, just hanging two different signs for the outside world.

After the money was paid by Jier, Lady Flower signaled for Jier to roll up the hand-drawn map on the table and take it away, and then she said in a distant tone: "Regarding the disastrous defeat on the front lines last year, the information passed outward at the beginning was chaotic and numerous. If you only heard it from the mouths of various people in different places, you would mostly get answers that were contradictory. But fortunately, our organization was also very concerned about this issue at the time. Hehe, after the efforts of many organization members, we finally figured out what actually happened."

She crooked her finger at the companion guarding behind the wall, and the companion immediately sent over two rolls of maps that had just been delivered. It turned out that at the same time Jier took out the money, this organization member behind the wall had already been notified and started retrieving the maps related to the answer.

Perhaps the answer to this question was a popular one in the Southern Province, and every guest who was capable and knew of the 【Wealth's Ear】 organization was curious about the answer to this question, so the 【Wealth's Ear】 organization had made neat preparations for this popular question in advance.

As soon as Jier asked and took out the money, 【Wealth's Ear】 brought out the pre-prepared maps related to the answer.

Many things are not easy to explain clearly to guests with varying levels of understanding just by talking; it must be accompanied by prepared maps to be easily explained.

Lady Flower first spread out a larger rolled-up map on the table. Jier understood from the text on the edge of the map that this was a map of a Baron's territory in the south of the Southern Province, marked with red and blue to indicate the scale and positions of the two opposing armies.

"This is the military situation map of the pro-war Noble Allied Forces of the province and the invading southern Re-gan Kingdom—the Ophirine Kingdom's army—before the battle that was lost last year. At that time, after a series of small-scale engagements, the two sides fought from the border area all the way into this Baron's territory in the middle of the Southern Mountains. Overall, both sides had their victories and defeats, but because the invading neighboring country's army was pre-conscripted and prepared for the invasion, they held the upper hand most of the time from the start of the invasion." Lady Flower pointed to the army marked in red on the map; this was the Ophirine Kingdom's army.

"On the other side, although the Noble Lords of the Southern Province had not yet been conscripted by the Provincial Noble Council, and their private willingness to support was not strong, only the local Noble Lords directly related to the Southern Mountains had successively conscripted at least twenty thousand local troops, and they had been fighting since the beginning of the invasion. Although there were many defeats, they also effectively delayed the advance of the invading army, allowing the relevant Noble Lords of the Southern Mountains to raise troops, and a large number of troops from friendly lords in the rear to gather together. Ultimately, before this decisive battle, our Southern Province Noble Coalition had a total of over fifteen thousand combat troops."

Lady Flower added: "Because it was a local war, and the civilian resistance was high at the time, the coalition's logistics were all supplied locally, so they didn't need many logistics support personnel. The local civilian forces willing to stand up joined the Noble Coalition. These fifteen thousand-plus people were all troops capable of fighting."

Jier watched the map in front of him without blinking, his ears listening to Lady Flower's introduction and her relevant pointing on the map.

Because the invading Ophirine Kingdom army needed to occupy the towns and villages along the way, after subtracting the troops left behind for occupation and stability, the scale of the army they could bring to the front line for direct combat was only a little over ten thousand. In terms of numbers, the Noble Coalition raised by the Southern Province at that time actually had a slight advantage in the scale of troops capable of fighting on the front line.

This was also the main reason why the coalition side was willing to engage in a decisive battle before the decisive battle last year.

After all, as long as they could wipe out the enemy's main force in a decisive battle favorable to their side, even if they suffered heavy losses, it would be acceptable. After all, as long as it was a victory, even a pyrrhic victory, for the Southern Province Noble Coalition fighting on their home turf, their manpower was almost infinite.

Once the conscripted soldiers were used up, they could send people to the occupied rural areas to conscript an even larger scale of farmers or Militia. As for the Ophirine Kingdom's invading army, their soldiers had to be conscripted from their home country, which was further away, and it took time to move them to the front lines.

Considering that the Ophirine Kingdom's territory was not even as large as the Southern Province of the Saint Hors Kingdom, one could understand the huge gap in the overall strength of the two sides.

For example, right now, what Jier did not know was that compared to last year, the Ophirine Kingdom's front-line army scale had only increased slightly, while the now-serious Provincial Noble Council could conscript tens of thousands of troops, as well as twice as many logistics laborers as the army.

And this was not even the entire military strength of the Southern Province; although the Noble Lords everywhere obeyed the conscription orders with their troops, they all left behind many troops in their own territories to maintain rule, and there had been no large-scale conscription of the civilian population in various places.

Specifically, how much military force the entire Southern Province could muster if fully militarized, even the Provincial Noble Council itself probably did not know.

It must be a very terrifying number.

After telling Jier about the situation of the main front-line forces of both sides before the decisive battle began, Lady Flower opened another slightly smaller map and spread it directly over the former.

"Please look, this is the map of the disastrous decisive battle last year. Our organization spent quite a bit of effort to find out the positions of the front-line troops of both sides before the battle took place. Here, here, and here, are the positions of the Noble Coalition last year, as well as their movements during the decisive battle."

Subsequently, Lady Flower pointed to the deployment of the red army and specifically pointed to two specially marked military units: "The troops marked with this Torch are the key to the collapse of the entire decisive battle. The Re-gan Kingdom's Arson Unit, their entire bodies are equipped with fireproof gear made of special Magic Material, allowing them to operate and fight in flames for a short time, and at the same time."

Lady Flower rubbed the bridge of her nose here and said helplessly: "At the same time, they have several methods of rapid arson, including methods for large-scale arson on battlefields without combustible materials. After the Noble Coalition's vanguard Refining Qi troops engaged with them, they released large-scale fire attacks and wide-area burning."

At this moment, she even sang softly:

"Flames rise, the enemy steps forth from the fire."

"They are covered in flames, wielding terrifying fire whips, driving the Fire Hounds."

"Wild laughter spreads wantonly across the battlefield with the flames, the Warriors are fearful and terrified."

"They swing their swords to meet the enemy, but are struck by attacks like fire whips, burning like torches."

"The enemy laughs and rushes to embrace, that is not friendliness, but boundless malice."

"Burning those Warriors with nowhere to flee into white-hot ashes."

"The cowardly turn and run, but are also pounced on and bitten by the Fire Hounds."

"The blood in their throats has not yet sprayed out, before it is vanished by the rising flames."

The singing stopped, and Jier applauded slightly and nodded in acknowledgment. Lady Flower explained that this was a poetic description of the battle by a famous Bard in the Southern Province after the fact, all of which was obtained by asking soldiers who participated in the battle.

At the same time, he asked his own question: "Then, facing this terrifying Arson Unit, what about our Knights? I think, at that time, it shouldn't have been impossible to find even ten or twenty Knights, right? Although the Knights were responsible for the direct command of the grassroots army, if they couldn't stop this army, the numerically superior army wouldn't be the enemy's match. After all, if the soldiers' morale completely collapsed, there would be no need to fight; it would be completely impossible."

Lady Flower took a sip of the clear water in her wine glass and gave Jier the answer: "At that time, naturally, the commanding Commander saw this point, so they immediately followed the contingency plan and gathered some of the Knights from the front line and reserve troops into two assault forces organized entirely by Knight Lords."

She shook her head: "But at that time, the Knights in the rear had not yet crossed the entire battlefield when the assault of the front-line Knights was defeated. It was this person."

Lady Flower pointed to another military unit with a special mark on the map: "A legendary hero invited by the Ophirine Kingdom specifically from the Southern Lianmeng Wangguo—the Destroyer of Flames, the Conqueror of Fire, the Flame Reborn, the Enemy of Ten Thousand, the legend of twenty consecutive victories at the Lianmeng Wangguo Knight Tournament, Alonzo Bloodflame Polyalong from Polyalong."

Jier raised his eyebrows: "So many people?"

Lady Flower didn't understand for a moment, and it wasn't until Jier smiled and said it was a joke that she shook her head with a wry smile: "It would be better if these titles belonged to different people; the terrifying thing is that these are all titles of one person. If such an existence can be called a Human."

"Before this legendary hero made his move, the Noble Coalition had no expectation at all that they would encounter such a formidable opponent on the battlefield. In fact, our Saint Hors Kingdom does not know much about the various kingdoms in the south, including the equally powerful Southern Lianmeng Wangguo. There was no intelligence beforehand indicating how much the Ophirine Kingdom had spent to hire this legendary hero."

She said in a bitter tone: "Therefore, along with the Arson Unit's slaughter of the front-line soldiers, this legendary hero also completely crushed the Knights gathered on the front line in the flames. If the Knights had been able to defeat this Arson Unit through a rapid assault after gathering, the war situation might have had a turning point, but..."

She didn't say the rest, but Jier knew.

"So, after the frontline soldiers were routed by the Arson Unit, and the Knights were defeated by this formidable hero, the entire battlefield collapsed?" Jier asked.

"No, that is the truth we only learned later. In fact, the Warriors on the front line were very heroic; even though they were no match for the enemy at all, perhaps the enemy gave them no possibility of surrender, so the resistance of the frontline soldiers was very tenacious. It was actually the reserve troops in the very back, who could see the full picture of the battlefield, that collapsed first because the Knights responsible for grassroots command were conscripted to form a group and intended to attack."

Lady Flower shook her head: "The first to collapse and flee were the reserve troops who had not fought at all. They routed and fled first, followed by the main force in the middle, including the Noble Lords, who then quickly led their troops to disengage from the battlefield. At this time, the enemy's Arson Unit withdrew and handed the fighting over to the regular army of the Ophirine Kingdom. The Warriors still fighting on the front line were surrounded by large numbers of enemy troops pushing in from the left and right flanks. After resisting for another half a day, the leaderless soldiers finally surrendered and were captured."

Finally, Lady Flower said: "Then, as the only unit still resisting on the battlefield gave up and surrendered, the entire Noble Allied Forces retreated in a rout, and the enemy pursued for several days, with the battlefield retreating all the way to the areas currently controlled by both sides. Basically, the majority of the entire Southern Mountains is now controlled by the Ophirine Kingdom."

"How miserable," Jier shook his head.