Chapter191

Elara, Ge's mansion.

Lord Gregory finally received the news three days later that all three of his armies had been ambushed and badly defeated. They had abandoned the battlefield with only scattered remnants left.

At that moment, he was deep inside the mansion, casually discussing with the heads of the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families how to divide the southern counties of the Edelweiss Kingdom as their future territories.

Suddenly, the unexpected and terrible news arrived. The whole mansion instantly fell silent.

After several minutes, Lord Gregory's usually arrogant and untouchable posture cracked.

The heads of the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families, who had been secretly competing for the southern territories, were stunned. They stared in disbelief at the battle report hurriedly delivered by the scout, their faces full of shock.

"How, how is this possible? Those three armies together had more than four hundred thousand soldiers!"

Lord Gregory took the scout's report with a very grim face.

A few minutes later, he suddenly grabbed the jade plate on the table and slammed it hard at the heads of the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families, his face full of rage.

"Look at the useless trash you've raised who fail at everything!"

The Zhu, Yan, and Lin family heads had not seen Lord Gregory this angry for many years.

They did not dare to speak after being hit. When they looked at the report, their hands suddenly clenched tightly, their faces changing colors with shock, anger, and indescribable feelings.

Lord Gregory was no good person, and his followers—the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families—were even worse. Their children were even more spoiled and arrogant. They lived luxuriously and only cared about pleasure. They knew nothing about serious matters.

Because the Edelweiss Kingdom had long been in decline, many capable ministers had either left disappointed or been forced out by Lord Gregory's schemes. So the worthless, spoiled descendants of these families trampled on the common people to enjoy a comfortable life.

But once on the battlefield, their arrogant posture was instantly pierced like paper.

What could these useless people do in battle?

Besides holding others back, they could only make things worse.

Lord Gregory knew these useless heirs were unreliable. Still, since the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families were his top ministers, he let them send their heirs to the battlefield to win glory and later compete for rewards. He sent real generals to support them.

Yet, he underestimated how much these useless heirs would drag down the army.

No, it was not just dragging down but, by their own stupidity, they destroyed the whole army.

The three armies, forty thousand strong, ended in a ridiculous and humiliating defeat before even gaining any victory.

Lord Gregory's punishment was self-inflicted. Evil nurtured would eventually devour its master.

Moreover, the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families had served him for many years and held countless secrets and power over him. So even though their heirs caused this crushing defeat, Lord Gregory could not punish them harshly at this critical time.

He had to swallow this bitter pill to avoid shaking the army's morale and causing internal conflict.

But since it had already happened, Lord Gregory, who had long dominated the Edelweiss Kingdom's power, was not someone who only clung to failure.

He suppressed his anger deep inside and, when the Zhu, Yan, and Lin family heads sat silently with suppressed rage, he called for a scout.

"Go! Tell the Edelweiss Emperor at once! I need his help! Order him to send troops to attack Marigold City in the Plumera Kingdom immediately!"

The scout hesitated and said, "Lord Gregory, the news of the three armies' defeat was deliberately concealed for days by General Qi and others. Edelweiss must have received the news by now. Will the Emperor still send troops?"

Lord Gregory snorted coldly. Although he did not expect these useless heirs to cause such harm, weakening him greatly, these past months, despite showing a force of forty thousand troops, he had secretly hidden many reserve forces in hidden training camps.

This was his habit for years. He kept several backup plans like a cunning rabbit with three burrows. He was used to having a fallback.

Gregory gritted his teeth. He never planned to give up Belladonna, but now he had no choice but to sacrifice territory to survive.

"Tell the Edelweiss Emperor that if he immediately sends troops to attack Belladonna, I naturally have enough forces to send again and help him capture Belladonna! From now on..."

"Belladonna and all the surrounding counties belong to Edelweiss!"

The scout paused, then bowed and left to deliver the order.

After deciding to give up territory, Gregory finally felt more stable inside.

Belladonna and its surrounding area were large, with many special products from the southern part of Pulmera. The resources were very rich. The Edelweiss Emperor would not refuse.

But looking at the terrible defeat report in his hand, Gregory frowned tightly. After thinking for a while, he looked up at the still silent Zhu, Yan, and Lin families and shouted angrily:

"What are you waiting for? Look at what your useless people have done! Immediately notify all hidden troops! Then send Aragorn himself to lead the troops! Once the Edelweiss Emperor's reply comes, immediately march south to attack Belladonna from both sides!"

Aragorn, this battlefield general, was someone Gregory found by chance.

Because of his special background, he rarely obeyed orders, but as a battlefield commander, he was flawless. Gregory valued him and treated him well.

Besides the defeated 400,000 troops, Gregory still had about 160,000 reserve soldiers.

Although fewer than 400,000, if Edelweiss attacked, letting Aragorn lead and cooperate with forces from Pulmera inside was enough.

Gregory's eyes were fierce. Belladonna had slipped out of his control. This time he must destroy it completely.

The Zhu, Yan, and Lin families came out of their shock and quickly nodded, each rushing to their posts to dispatch troops.

Gregory gathered all his forces. The situation was urgent. He had to use everything to turn the tide.

But after several hours, having sacrificed territory and mobilized all his remaining forces, Gregory received shocking news again.

"Master Gregory! Something bad happened!"

The scout sent to Edelweiss returned first, looking disheveled and frightened.

"The Princess and General Qi, from the start of the war, hid our army's defeat. The southern battle reports were also tightly controlled. If I had not secretly sneaked to Edelweiss's border, I wouldn't have known that under the Princess's leadership, Belladonna successfully recaptured three large counties near Belladonna Kingdom just one day ago!"

The scout's voice trembled. "Those three counties together cover almost half of southern Pulmera. The Princess and Belladonna flags are flying there now. But on the Edelweiss side... after their 100,000 troops lost badly to the Princess's forces, there was almost no reaction. The reason is that the Prince of Dahlia is leading a large army to attack Edelweiss aggressively!"

"What?!"

Gregory jumped up angrily. Before he could ask more, more panicked voices came from outside.

He looked up to see the heads of the Zhu, Yan, and Lin families stumbling in with many guards.

"Master Gregory! It's bad!"

"Our hidden garrisons have been discovered!"

"What? Explain!"

The three heads were shaking and out of breath. "We just sent orders to deploy troops, but the southern garrisons sent news of desertion! General Qi personally led troops to find the southern hidden points last night and cleared them one by one!"

"They are moving closer to Pulmera's capital with precise routes!"

"Master Gregory! There is a traitor here!"

The three heads had not felt this desperate and angry in years. Their voices trembled with shock and rage.

"According to the latest news, General Qi has already cleared areas less than 200 miles from Pulmera's capital! The post we just visited is close to his current clearing operations. His scouts were there too!"

"Most of my personal guards were lost, barely escaping!"

"General Qi dared to rebel and is already near Pulmera's capital! What should we do?"

The three heads were sweating heavily. They were used to sneaky attacks and couldn't handle real combat.

"The southern garrisons were completely cleared. The tens of thousands of troops inside were killed or captured. The remaining garrisons have fewer than 100,000 soldiers. Master Gregory, what do we do?"

"Yes, Master Gregory! What do we do?"

The three heads were sweating profusely.

Gregory's expression changed with every report.

Even when he heard about the 400,000 army's defeat, he was not this shocked.

But hearing that the once useless Princess had captured three large counties from Edelweiss and wiped out most of his hidden troops, Gregory was devastated.

The Princess left Pulmera only three months ago.

Three months was enough to turn a princess obsessed with men into this?

Gregory did not believe it.

But the scout's report and the three heads' panic forced him to accept it.

"I was deceived."

Gregory suddenly recalled the Princess's strange behavior before leaving Pulmera.

She still loved men, even fighting his eldest son for a refugee.

But that matter ended without news of new male slaves or deaths in the mansion.

She was still extravagant and at odds with Captain Yang but managed to publicly punish Captain Yang in front of the citizens.

She still liked visiting brothels, but there was no longer any screaming inside.