I will be crowned king

"Boom!!!! Boom!!!! Boom!!!!"

Accompanied by the rumbling sound of cannons, the flames of the naval guns continued to penetrate the sea level shrouded in thick fog, turning the sleeping port into a sea of ​​​​fire.

The once prosperous Carindia Port burned in billowing black smoke and fire, collapsed in the screams that tore the air, screamed when it was awakened from sleep, and wailed in the midst of scorched earth and ruins.

The bloody unicorn battle flag, lit by the firelight, fell from the top of the collapsed watchtower to the sea along with the ashes flying in the sky, and slowly sank.

The battleship flying the iris battle flag began to approach the burning port.

And just as the imperial fleet was approaching, a tragic massacre was quietly taking place in Carindia Port.

Between the squares and streets shrouded in morning fog, the sound of gunshots and the collision of sharp knives were played one after another; the running footsteps, shrill bugles and bloodthirsty howls were intertwined, and insults and screams came and went. Penetrating the fog... dragging the entire city into the abyss of chaos.

Poor people and small townsfolk in Carindia Port who were in rags and even naked, and nobles who were luxuriously dressed and even wearing old-fashioned helmets and breastplates, they poured out from every corner of the city like a colony of ants without any warning. Waving a mess of weapons ranging from farm tools to decorations, shouting bloodthirsty slogans, they flowed through the streets and alleys, besieging military stations and soldiers wearing red and black military uniforms and flying Clovis flags.

When marching towards Mist, Anson had already pulled away all the troops, including the coalition forces, leaving not a single soldier in the entire Carindia Port; he was left with the troops responsible for maintaining security in the Carindia Port. It is the "Carindia Group" organized by Fabian.

As an excellent former Guards officer, the security force formed by Fabian is basically a "miniature Guards": bullying good people is its routine, threats and intimidation are the only language it can speak, and it imposes arbitrary taxes and extortion. is its measure of performance.

In order to recruit as many people as possible, Fabian must also lower the recruitment standards-tramps, beggars, unemployed sailors and workers, bankrupt farmers, prisoners in prisons, gangsters on the streets...all are within the scope of recruitment.

At the same time, due to cost control, Anson does not even plan to pay this army, so they can only "generate income independently". The only benefit of joining the army is to provide "production tools" - four days of military training, plus a bayonet unit. , a rifle that has ammunition but may not be very useful.

When training the "Carindia Regiment", the young secretary who was also responsible for this also summed up a set of experiences in training foreign security forces based on Fabian's methods:

The first step is to find a group of local people who don't have much affection for the local area, or are even dissatisfied, and organize them.

The second step is to give them guns;

The third step is to throw them on the street and let them "maintain law and order" and "tax taxes."

And then...you have an army of "loyal" locals.

One can imagine what kind of hatred will break out between the security forces trained in this model and the locals; when the imperial fleet appears in the port, the entire city is like a ignited powder keg...

Explode instantly!

Thousands of poor people and nobles united in unprecedented unity, sweeping through military stations, outposts, camps and arsenals one after another like a frenzy.

Although the number of security forces stationed at Kalindia Port was in the thousands, they were scattered in every corner of the city, like rocks and isolated islands in the huge waves. Any wave that rolled up could tear them into pieces.

Amidst the shouts of killing all over the city, the people with scarlet eyes brandished crude weapons, risking their lives to attack the solidly defended military stations and arsenals, and were surrounded by the messy gunfire of the "Carindia Regiment". of falling.

Despite their large numbers, the poor people of Carindia did not have many weapons in their hands - the city's original security team was disarmed on the first day the Storm Division entered the city, and all arsenals were destroyed by the Storm Division and the Storm Division. The coalition forces confiscated and looted not even a single lead bullet.

Therefore, facing the "Carindia Regiment" who was defending their stronghold, they could only attack and charge with crude cold weapons, let the corpses cover the streets, let the plasma overflow from the sewers... Let the flesh and blood fight Gunpowder and steel.

The "Carindia Regiment" that was blocked in the stronghold was surrounded from all sides, but it was still resisting stubbornly, without any sign of intending to surrender - not because of loyalty or high morale, but because of such a long time. The accumulated hatred made them well aware that the only outcome of surrender would be to be cut to pieces by a thousand knives.

Instead of falling into the hands of "fellows" and being tortured to the point where life would be worse than death, it is better to carry on until the end and try to find a way out!

Around the simple fortifications left by the Storm Division, the two sides launched the most brutal fight; the anger and pain accumulated in their hearts caused the Carindia people to risk their lives and attack the solid walls, which were full of barbs. The fences and trenches were one person deep, standing upright to face the hail of bullets fired from the narrow shooting openings, scrambling to rush towards the passages and gates that could only be entered by two or three people, but were held by four or five soldiers...

In the sea of ​​​​blood boiling fire, military depots and arsenals one after another gradually collapsed as time went by in the despair of being helpless on all sides.

After all, despair may give these "quasi-Guards" the courage to fight, but it cannot turn them into real Guards in a minute; what's more, no matter how desperate the situation is, there is no shortage of traitors who use black guns. , treating the weapons and the lives of companions as a pledge of survival.

The destruction of the "Carindia Regiment" did not bring the riot to an end; to a certain extent, it was more like a beginning - when the common enemy was eliminated, the civilians, nobles, and wealthy people who were red-eyed were killed. Conflicts between people immediately broke out.

The Carinthians remembered who had no will to fight in the face of the Clovis and Aiden invaders, who was ready to surrender before the enemy showed up, who left their troops to die in the Green Valley, who...ordered They allowed themselves to be exploited and oppressed by outsiders.

And what’s different from before is that this time they have guns!

The nobles and wealthy businessmen who were mixed in the crowd were the first to suffer - they did not dare to provoke the Carindia group, but they still had the courage to hide behind the rioting group and loudly "encourage" others to die.

So the rioters immediately discovered the guys with the loudest voices and the loudest shouts among the crowd. They were surprised to find that their faces were flushed, they were wearing clean and neat clothes, and they were unscathed.

Then before they could react, he quietly pointed the gun at the back of their heads.

"boom!"

Luxury houses were set on fire, warehouses were rushed open, and shops were smashed... The rioting people, who were encouraged by the Carindia nobles and wealthy businessmen to overthrow the rule of the Stormtroopers and regain control of the city, targeted them. Target them.

The nobles tried to resist, and then discovered that their situation... was actually no different from that of the Carindia group that they destroyed. They were both an absolute minority in the city.

What's even more tragic is that after being plundered by the Storm Division, they were no longer armed in any sense; the family guards who were originally so arrogant did not even have the courage to fight to the death of the Carindia regiment when faced with the rebellious thugs throughout the city. ——They would rather become thugs than fight to the death with thousands of thugs.

And as the chaos further spread, the entire riot became more and more uncontrollable. The order of the entire city ushered in with the destruction of the "Carindia Regiment" and the almost slaughtered nobles and wealthy businessmen. A substantial collapse.

There is killing and looting everywhere; gangsters who fish in troubled waters, and avengers who take advantage of the opportunity to vent their anger... The honest people in the past are now transformed into the most ferocious bloodthirsty beasts; the weak and thin little beggar holds a butcher knife and is soaked red with blood. of gold to slit someone's throat...

So when the imperial army easily swept away the Carindia regiment at the port and prepared to take the entire city into their hands, they found that the entire Carindia port had been completely enveloped in a sea of ​​rioting flames.

The only places that can still maintain order are the Hantu Cathedral, which is the representative of the Church of Order, and the Parliament of Carindia - the former has a transcendent political status and can escape by relying on the last vestiges of reverence of ordinary people for their faith. One calamity.

Because the latter was located at the highest point in the city, and the remaining Carindia nobles fought tooth and nail to defend it, they finally withstood the wave-like onslaught of the thugs.

The nobles huddled in the castle looked desperately at the smoky city outside, with blood dripping from the bottom of their hearts.

In their original wishful thinking, they should have encouraged the people to destroy the Carindia regiment left by the Storm Division, and then rely on their "high reputation and credibility" to replace these bandits and rebuild the prosperity and stability of Carindia Port.

In this way, on the one hand, they can regain the control of the city, and at the same time, they can avoid reinforcements - that is, the imperial army enters the city and breaks out street fighting, avoiding many meaningless sacrifices and losses, and both themselves and the civilians can benefit from it.

However, what I never expected was that due to the previous series of disastrous defeats and "compromises", they had no credibility among the people, let alone any reputation - they only had infamy.

Moreover, these gang-like Carindians not only showed no sympathy for their sacrifices and responsibilities, but even directed their anger at them, the real "noble Carindians", reducing the city to ruins and wasting their efforts!

Now the only hope of these Carindia nobles and wealthy businessmen is that the imperial army can enter the city as soon as possible to suppress the riots and rebellions in the city and maintain order for themselves.

As long as peace can continue and these "noble Carinthians" do not have to face threats to their lives, then... they have already sold Clovis once, so it doesn't matter if they sell it to the empire again.

But what they don't know is that the empire's army has no intention of dedicating itself to them for free, let alone devoting its limited army to meaningless urban security battles and wasting the lives of soldiers.

For the Carindia Port that refused to surrender easily and the thousands of murderous rioters, they had a more "modern" and faster way to end it all.

So under the order of a certain officer, the imperial warship anchored in the port opened the gun doors on both sides of the ship again and aimed the guns at the city.

Seas of fire and thunder enveloped the entire Carindia Port.

……………………

"...According to the cavalry report, the empire used the entire fleet to cover the Carindia Port with firepower, and then organized troops to encircle and suppress the rioters street by street. The efficiency was very high."

In the conference room, Fabian, the commander of the Grenadier Corps with the intelligence, reported very calmly to Anson and all the officers present:

"By 17:35 that day, before the reconnaissance cavalry retreated, the riots in Carindia Port had been basically quelled. The imperial army had completely controlled all urban areas, garrison fortresses, warehouse supplies and everything else in the city. .”

"Of course, the price is that the entire city has basically been reduced to ruins." Fabian added: "Except for the outermost city wall, four-fifths of the city has been completely destroyed. The population loss cannot be counted, but it should not be less. At twenty thousand.”

"Why?" an officer couldn't help but ask.

"Because Carindia Port has a permanent population of less than 80,000."

Fabian glanced at him: "This riot lasted all day, and the entire Carindia Port was almost emptied of supplies by us. It is unlikely that the Imperials who came by ship would distribute their supplies to the locals. , coupled with the riots, four-fifths of the city was burned down, so..."

"Within a week, the death toll from disease, starvation, and Carindians who tried to resist... was at least 20,000."

"The premise is that the army of the empire and the nobles of Carindia can quickly restore local order and recruit the countryside near Carindia to provide them with sufficient food, otherwise..."

Fabian did not continue to speak, and others did not need him to continue.

"How many people did the empire send in total?"

Anson interrupted the topic.

"About nine thousand...but this number may not be accurate." Fabian's expression was slightly unsightly:

"We didn't expect the empire to log in at Carindia Port at the beginning. The scout cavalry accidentally wanted to see the situation at Carindia Port when escorting the baggage convoy. It was not part of the plan - according to him In return, I only saw two infantry division flags near the port, and I came up with this number based on the size of the army."

Anson nodded slightly and expressed his understanding - the empire would launch an invasion from Carindia Port as soon as possible, which was indeed a little unexpected; he originally thought that the empire would launch an invasion from the Principality of Aiden first, and then waited until he was left to his own devices. When the time comes, they will capture Kalindia and completely cut off their retreat.

Now it seems that the invasion from Carindia was probably their plan from the beginning.

"Two infantry divisions, almost half a legion." Anson nodded thoughtfully, and suddenly looked at Fabian alertly:

“Then who is their commander—it’s not Louis Bernard again, is it?!”