Chapter 3 Reports and Preparations

Albert and Ivon where arrested and Taken to prison Now that is done "I want reports regarding our border issue particularly about Duke Elmsworth ."

Louis stood up and Said" my Lord After You fathers death and The health of king is getting worse."

"Duke Elmsworth has Suddenly started buying huge amount of Supplies the reports we are receiving from our spies also inform us that. He is mobilizing the army As well. "

"Last time when he invaded how many soldiers did he have "Louis said "My Lord from what I remember he brought atleast 40 thousand infantry which included light infantry as well and 10 thousand Cavalry. "

I sucked the cold air damn man and how many soldiers do we have.

Louis replied we have 20 thousand Infantry 5 light infantry those are mainly archers we also have 5000 professional Cavalry and another 5 thousand cavalry which we can Raise but they are only useful in Mountain warfare ambush and hit and run tactic.

"As for in battlefield it will be hard for them to face the cavalry of Duke "

"I want new forts to be built in our territory right away as we all know Our territory has many hills So I want you all to start building as many forts you can On these hills ".

I want the duke bogged Down besieging these forts And We will also use hit and run tactics on The army of Duke In case he invades. And I want you to start training new soldiers and remember these the new soldiers you will be training. "

"Should know about the terrain of our territory like the back of there hand.... Atleast raise more 5 thousand cavalry and another 5 thousand infantry train them rigorously also start Building whatchtowers. "

On our every borders so we can get intelligence about the enemy movements."

I turned towards Jon "I hope we have enough money in treasury. "

Jon replied" it might be little problematic but I assure my Lord that our treasury is sufficient...

We have 18 thousand Gold Coins 28 thousand Silver coins and 42 thousand Bronze Coins.

And With all the Diamonds and Jewelry we have they can amount upto 50 thousand gold coins."

'Woahh that's huge amount'

"But my Lord what about the king if he knows that we have started to Build forts He Will protest against it. "Degmon questioned

"As we know the king is Not healthy and The factions in The capital has started to form they are busy among themselves bickering."

"And even if king Warns us About building the fortification we can just say that It was To protect the territory from The duke and if he can send us Reinforcements to us Us We will dismantle the Forts.

And I know for sure that king won't want the Richest territory in his domain to fall in one of the Dukes hands after all these dukes Are already starting to become unruly towrads Royal Family. "

"So just start building the forts. Am I clear

Yes My Lord"I continued

"And we also have huge advantage over the duke that is his overconfidence. He will invade thinking it will be easy to conquer the land which does not have a mature leader

And we will use that against him. And Also Make The defences of City Zefo, Twinip and Nalthis more stronger and and Once we get to know from which route the duke is going to invade"

"I want some of our Soldiers disguised as Villagers to spread in those villages which might Face potential harrasement for supplies from enemies.

"there job is to burn the supplies after the army of duke takes it away from villagers and"

"constantly attack the huge army of duke when they seiging any particular fort close to those villages tell them to use hit and run tactic in night."

"For today these is enough immediately start following the orders And Remember these we will be fighting defensive war for most part when th ebemy soldiers are completely drained than we will strike ferociously.

Lord Degmon cavalry should be trained relentlessly they will be important for the upcoming war .

"Yes my Lord" Degmon replied.

"All of you can leave."

As all of three men left They started talking in corridor first one to open mouth was obviously Degmon.

"WHAT was that how can our Lord who has not participated in any campaign can issue such efficient orders"

"not only the orders Efficient they were logical as well.he knows fighting a pitched battle would be like inviting death so he has decided drain the Duke. And strike as he said when time is right."

"Hmmm whatever it is its good thing our Lord is thinking maturely after all the reports we are receiving indicate one thing that duke is definitely going to Invade".Jon said

In his office room Victor was Studying the terrain of his territory it's Extremely favourably these kind of Terrain can easily stop invading forces the only thing I lack is forts.

That will be solved soon but i won't be only on defense I am going to attack as well and offer the battle to duke when he is most desperate and will be loosing his patience because that's when he will make mistake

I looked at the painting on the wall of which had Victor father depicted in it even though my father was not Startegist Or tactician he was good politician for sure.

He was only 52 years old when he died due bad health. Hmmmm

Then I looked at the sword and Armour of my father just below the Painting. Well looks Iike i need protect our lands old man.

I could still hear the bustling noise of Market and people soon These city will be gloomy because of upcoming war.

But I have money that's huge advantage looks Like Diamond mines Are really profitable.

And I also need to reform the army to my liking I need to also make administration more efficient by adding new Ministry of agriculture, Ministry of education and Also Ministry of trade and Commerce .

I was tired already there was so much to do my father was only good politician in scheming and other things other than that he was not much good but aleast he created a strong standing army.

Compared to other Marquis they might have same number of soldiers as us But the problem with them is that they are not all professional even the Infantry of those Marquis is Weak compared to ours

But if we compare our soldiers to duke the duke can easily win Pitched battle using his numbers.