Bomari Castle, which was now the stronghold of the rebels.

When the news of Prince Will’s death came back to the base camp, the King of Newcastle, the leader of the rebellious alliance of the three states, dropped the wine goblet in his hand.

“How could it be?”

Regardless of the existence of other people around him, the King of Newcastle Lantoft exclaimed. He pressed down on the armrest, leaned forward, and asked hurriedly.

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“The Duke of Buckingham is not dead?”

“He’s dead.”

“The Gulundi heavy cavalry didn’t arrive?”

“They arrived.”

“Then who commanded that battle? Who defeated Will?” Lantoft asked anxiously, full of disbelief.

“It’s…..the King.”

The messenger replied with a pale face.

“The army led by the King himself has taken back the castle, and is now advancing towards Bomari, and it is estimated to arrive in five days.”

“The King?”

Lantoft turned to look at his counselors, and saw the same look of surprise on their faces. There was silence in the hall, and all the rebel nobles who were waiting for the good news looked panicked and lost in their own thoughts. After a moment of silence, several people in the hall suddenly got up to say goodbye one after another.

They were envoys sent by the other four states in the Northland.

“These fence sitting bastards!”

Lantoft forced a smile to persuade them to remain but to no avail. After the messengers left in a hurry, the smile on his face disappeared instantly, and he cursed in a low voice.

Lantoft, the King of Newcastle, was a red-haired middle-aged man with a mustache. He had a bright forehead and chubby cheeks, which were quite incompatible with the barrenness and poverty of the Northland. Normally he was always smiling and appeared very amiable. But those who were familiar with him know that Lantoft was a ruthless fellow, and the only standard he upheld was profit.

There were also his allies in the hall, the generals of Balboa State and Chavos State. Lantoft turned his head and looked at the people in the hall, and the haze of anger disappeared from his face in an instant, his smiling and amiable face restored again: “My friends, I always knew that guy Will was too arrogant and cowardly, and now it can be said that he did not fail our expectations——this is not the first time he has been defeated by a barely grown boy!”

As he said that, Lantoft sighed bitterly: “Although he is my younger brother, considering the loss he has caused us this time, even if he came back alive, I would’ve hung him on the flagpole to show the public!”

Everyone exchanged glances tacitly, and no one acted rashly and came forward to be the first to speak.

The phrase sweet words hiding blades was almost synonymous with Lantoft. Whoever really believed what he said would truly be the biggest fool in the world.

“Pass my order——” Lantoft took everyone’s expressions into his eyes, and he couldn’t help but curse in his heart, “Because Will’s arrogance has brought great losses to the great Liberty Alliance, because of his unforgivable fault, I formally strip him of his title and territory.”

As soon as this order came out, many people in the hall felt a slight chill.

Lantoft’s heart was cold and vicious, far beyond people’s imagination. His younger brother had just died fighting for him, and his first reaction was how to weaken the impact of defeat on morale as much as possible…..There was no doubt that when his order was issued, people would take it for granted that the defeat was attributed to Prince Will’s arrogance. Whereas Lantoft, who personally stripped his dead brother of title and territory, would be able to gain a good reputation of being “fair and just” at this juncture.

In this way, he could also stabilize the morale of the army shaken by the defeat to a certain extent.

Now that Newcastle had set such an example, Balboa and Chavos of the alliance had no reason to retreat.

After giving the order, Lantoft looked at the nobles in the hall.

“Now, what do you say we discuss how to send that respected majesty away?” He said briskly, in a friendly tone, “If he really leads the troops to Bomari himself, if we don’t let him remain here forever, wouldn’t that be such a shame to his kindness?”

The nobles in the hall looked at each other for a while, and began to express their opinions one after another.

Some people advocated an early attack, and defeat the King’s central army before the King’s two-wing reinforcements had completed their left and right flank attacks on the rebel area. Someone advocated guarding Bomari and then mobilizing support troops…..The hall became filled with sounds of arguing, and Prince Will’s fiasco was temporarily suppressed.

The final decision was to guard Bomari Castle.

Legrand’s conscription period was only forty days. After forty days passed, Legrand’s knights no longer had the obligation to obey the King. It was not so easy to capture a strong castle, and it often took several months or even a whole year.

Bomari Castle was definitely one of Legrand’s most difficult castles to capture.

At the end of the meeting, Lantoft made the sign of the cross over his chest:

“In the name of the Holy Lord, this is a battle blessed by God.”

After the rest of the people dispersed one after another, Lantoft hurried to a gorgeously furnished room in the castle. The room was even more decorated than Lantoft’s own room.

He straightened his clothes outside the room before knocking on the door respectfully.

After getting permission, Lantoft walked in and knelt down humbly.

“The merciful Holy Lord protects Newcastle, who longs for freedom. My lord, Bomari is in danger. May I please ask you to make an exception and kill Legrand’s monarch?”

Lantoft prostrated and pressed his forehead to the cold rocky ground.

His attitude was as humble as a begging dog.

The fire in the room’s fireplace was burning fiercely. While most of the people in the Northland were suffering from hunger and cold, this room was as warm as midsummer. A figure sat quietly by the fireplace.

A large part of Lantoft’s confidence in daring to start this rebellion came from that very figure.

…………

January had passed, and the wheels of February slowly rotated.

The King was examining the layout of Bomari Castle in his tent.

In the era when the development of gunpowder had not reached the level enough to blast through thick city walls, siege warfare was a matter that would take a lot of energy and a long time. Bomari Castle, which was chosen by the rebel army as their base camp, was definitely not a simple fortress——in fact, it originally belonged to the Rose family.

The construction time of Bomari Castle could be pushed back to a thousand years ago.

That was the Rose family, as well Legrand’s most powerful period. The entire western continent was unified, and the royal family built strong fortresses and castles in various places to guard the four directions and protect the people. Among these castles built, the Rose royal family also left such a great building in the Northland.

That was the Bomari Castle.

After the “Battle of God’s Punishment”, Legrand was divided into hundreds of countries, large and small. During that chaotic time, Bomari Castle had always been the place where all the states in the Northland tried their best to seize for themselves. Like a series of other Rose royal castles at that time, it could be regarded as the pinnacle of castle building technology of that era.

In the long period of time that followed, Bomari Castle changed many different owners one after another.

Sadly, after the “Battle of God’s Punishment”, no other with the bloodline of the Rose family set foot in Bomari Castle again.

Back then, William III once attacked all the way to a place less than 20 miles away from Bomari Castle, but due to domestic rebellion, after accepting the surrender letter from the King of Newcastle, he had to immediately transfer the army to quell the civil strife.

Now, what the King was going to take back was such a castle engraved with the shame of the Rose family for so many years.

It was a dusty jewel in the crown of the Rose family.

“It will be difficult to attack the city directly.”

General Sheehan was also looking at the map of Bomari Castle, frowning.

The King also surveyed the castle.

As a jewel in the Rose crown, Bomari Castle had an exquisite design, and had been meticulously maintained and repaired by later owners over the years.

There were a series of impenetrable fortifications on the outskirts of Bomari Castle——a black stone fortress stood on the wetland formed between the two tributaries of the Lacey River, and opposite to the wetland fortress in the center of the river was another isolated island in the main branch of the Lacey River. And on that island was another fortress, and the two fortresses were connected by a pontoon bridge.

Behind these outer barriers was the main city of Bomari Castle. The main city was divided into two parts within the circle of the huge external moat. One part was a triangular outer base, and the other part was composed of two sections: the inner defense and the middle defense. On the left and right sides of the castle were rolling hills.

If the King wanted to take the castle, he must first break through the series of external defenses.

Siege warfare was bound to take a lot of time.

In a war, it was not uncommon for a castle to be besieged for a year. But the King couldn’t afford that amount of time.

The arrival of February not only meant that this long winter was coming to an end, but also meant another more serious matter——more than half of the forty days of compulsory military service have passed.

Obviously, it was impossible for the King to spend the precious time of conscription duty on a long siege and blockade.

One must know that after the conscription period was over, if he wanted the knights to continue to fight for him, the King would have to pay other costs at this time. Giving the nobles new privileges was definitely not what the King was willing to do.

He must skillfully capture this strong castle with the shortest possible speed.

And even, he had to ensure that the loss of the army was as small as possible.

This was a difficult feat.

“Waterways…..castle, inner and outer cities…..” The King slowly sketched on the map. He looked up at General Sheehan, “Who is in charge of the military defense of Bomari Castle?”

“There are three.” General Sheehan replied, “In order to consolidate the rebel alliance, Lantoft backed down a step on the control of Bomari Castle. Today, the castle is jointly under the charge of the representative generals of the three states. The external military defense is controlled by the Balboa State, the outer rampart by the Chavos State, and the center and interior defenses are in the hands of Lantoft’s own cronies.”

“Shared responsibility?”

The King was thoughtful, and he suddenly smiled.

“Lantoft finally did a good deed.”

The King had an idea.

“Contact General Edmund and have him march at full speed.” The King ordered, and he began to write a letter.

From the beginning of the war to the present, there was an army that had never been used by the King——the army of the Ingres State.

Once they left Ingres and lost the protection of the terrain, it would be difficult for the Ingres army, which only had simple leather armor, to gain much of an advantage in such a siege battle. Therefore, the King had never sent this important reinforcement to the battlefield, but had them follow the marching Earl Henry. On the one hand to stabilize the victory for Earl Henry, and on the other hand to wait for an opportunity.

Now, the opportunity the King had been waiting for had arrived.

It was time for Ingres’ army to join the battle and become an important pawn for the King to attack Bomari Castle.

While the King was writing, a messenger hurried in.

He brought a letter from the Rose Palace, written by General Johan.

Hearing that the letter was from his cousin, the King’s hand that was writing the letter paused. He put down his pen, and turned his head to look at General Sheehan.

General Sheehan understood and got up to leave.

Only the King remained in the tent.

The King looked at the letter on the table for a moment, before finally reaching for and unfolding it.

The letter was long, but mentioned nothing about the death of the Duke of Buckingham. General Johan only said two things in the letter.

“I have prepared the iron gauntlet, and when you triumph, please allow me to be your defender.” When General Johan wrote this line, his handwriting was originally stable, but before the word “be”, there was another word. He had crossed out the word “replace”.

The other thing was that General Johan mentioned that he had received a letter from Ferri III.

The situation in Bressi’s territory was more complicated than they expected, and it was very difficult for Legrand to receive any news. But Ferri III’s letter conveyed some crucial information.

However, the fact that Ferri III was not dead was in itself good news.

“I hope he lives longer.”

It wasn’t until he saw this that the King spoke out lightly.

 He wrote back.

“…..You are already my defender.”

………………

The King’s letter to Ingres’s army arrived quickly.

This time, it was Legrand’s old acquaintance, General Edmund, who led the army.

When he led the army along the way, he felt that he and his cousin were like gamblers, a big gamble with Ingres’ future on the line——his cousin burned the secret letter from the Holy Court and chose Legrand. None of them knew what the outcome of this gamble would be.

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However, when he heard that the Duke of Buckingham had died in battle only for the King to turn the tide and win the Battle of Benz City, General Edmund’s uneasy heart suddenly settled down.

He had premonition:

Once again they had gambled right.

After reading the King’s letter, General Edmund raised his head and ordered:

“Go forward at full speed and attack Balboa Royal City.”

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