Masked Knight

Prelude to the war!

The Radiant Empire had finished their preparations for war. One cloudy morning, the Duke of the Tulip Family led fifty thousand fully equipped Lightning God’s Whip soldiers together with twenty thousand garrison soldiers, who were escorting supplies, to the North.

The North had already been classified as a war zone. A Northern Command Center had been established. Two veteran generals from the Command Center were sent to the front while the Duke of the Tulip Family was appointed as the Supreme Commander of the war zone. At the northern war zone, even the Northern Legion was subject to the command of the Duke of the Tulip Family.

And so, the war began.

As everybody was waiting for the news to arrive from the North, the North was surprisingly quiet.

Although the coalition forces of the dozen kingdoms on the Northern Continent had prepared to cross the ocean, they had not moved.

While everybody thought that the Duke of the Tulip Family would become the first hero of the war, the real first hero of this war emerged elsewhere.

That hero was not from the North but the Northwest, at Watt Fortress. While everybody was paying attention to the North, in the course of a month, there was a tremendous change in the Northwest. A shining star rose.

The Regiment Commander of the Northwest Region, General Elliot, was a forty-two years old noble. Coming from a traditional military aristocrat family, he was a graduate of the one hundred and sixty-ninth class of the Imperial Academy. He was a Grade 4 swordsman with excellent military school records. He once served as a small commander of a garrison of the Empire. He earned merits for his deeds of exterminating bandits during some chaos and was promoted. For the promotion, because of his family background as well, he was transferred back to the Imperial Army Command Center as Deputy Chief Advisor. After working in the Command Center for several years, he had accumulated enough experience to be transferred to the Central Cavalry as a Deputy Regimental Commander. After the war in the Northwest, he was then transferred to the Northwest as Northwest Army Regimental Commander to manage the military there.

After reading this report, the opinion that Andy had was: Everything is as expected. There is nothing special about it.

In fact, from the information available, there was nothing special about that General Elliot. He was born in an aristocrat family and entered the military at the age of twenty. After twenty-two years service, he held the top commanding position in one of the Regiments. From all points of view, there was nothing outstanding and he also did not have any dazzling military achievement.

The only credit was that he had ‘exterminated bandits’ when he was young. However, this was often the tactic used by soldiers from large noble families to get promoted. Although a noble could not secure a high post immediately after joining the army, he would usually take a shortcut. He would first work as a low-level officer. He would accumulate some experience and when it was almost time for promotion, he would randomly add some merits, like ‘exterminating bandits’ in his resume. However, how could the Empire have so many bandits to exterminate?

He would then gradually climb the ranks in the army unnoticed. After twenty -two years of climbing, he finally became a Regiment Commander and was in charge of some military affairs. He persevered through time and eventually held the highest post in the Northwest

Most of the high-level officers climbed the ranks that way.

However, Andy then saw something unusual with the information he obtained. That General Elliot passed the assessment for title succession at twenty-two years old and inherited the title of an Earl.

That was an amazing thing! The fact was, in the Empire, the noble’s succession assessments were very strict. It was not easy to pass the assessment at the age of twenty-two. In fact, General Elliot was not the eldest son of the family but his older brother had failed an earlier assessment to inherit the title. After that, Elliot took the assessment and even passed on his first attempt!

Andy checked the records for that year and found out that General Elliot sat for the Grade 3 swordsman examination to qualify for the succession of title! Although to reach a Grade 3 swordsman qualification at 22 years old was not particularly difficult, it was very rare amongst the spoilt nobles. To be awarded the title, most of these nobles deliberately sat for a Grade below their actual capabilities to maximize their chances of passing. For example, during the time when Rody participated in the assessment, there was only a single grade assessed, Grade 1 swordsman. No registration for other grades was received. During General Elliot's time only a few, out of about two hundred nobles, signed up for the Grade 3 swordsman assessment.

Elliot did not conceal his strength and took a Grade 3 succession assessment. Was he not afraid that the assessment for Grade 3 swordsman would be harder? If he was not afraid, then it could only mean that he was very confident of his strength.

There was a reason why Andy earnestly studied information about Elliot.

A month ago, Reuenthal had launched a surprise attack on Trier Fortress. (Trier Fortress was captured by Reuenthal previously but had been redeemed with five hundred thousand gold coins during the postwar negotiations.) However, General Elliot ambushed Reuenthal’s vanguard troops and defeated the enemy in one swoop. About ten thousand of the Great Moon Kingdom’s men were killed.

After that, Reuenthal’s main force arrived and fought directly against the Northwest Legion. The Northwest Legion was no match for the armored cavalry of the grasslands and they retreated. However, before Trier Fortress was besieged by the army of the Great Moon Kingdom, Elliot gave up Trier Fortress and charged out of its gates.

That was undoubtedly a surprising move as the Northwest only had two remaining defensive military fortresses: the Trier Fortress and the Watt Fortress. These two were strategic military points. As long as he controlled these military strongholds, dividing the troops into two groups to guard the mutual corners and help each other to defend, then he would be able to protect the Northwest region.

However, his following action surprised Andy.

Before Reuenthal’s two hundred thousand soldiers could gain a proper foothold at Trier Fortress, Elliot had immediately counterattacked.

The Northwest Legion had immediately surrounded Trier Fortress. This action was a very clever trap.

Before withdrawing from Trier Fortress, Elliot had poisoned the wells in the city. After that, following the terrain of the city gate of the Trier Fortress, he laid numerous cheval-de-frise outside the gate. The strong and sharp cheval-de-frise initially gave Reuenthal a headache when he attacked Trier Fortress. He was worried about suffering a big loss during the siege. But when Elliot suddenly abandoned Trier Fortress, Reuenthal was able to capture it without losing a single soldier.

However, before Reuenthal had time to remove the cheval-de-frise, the Northwest Legion launched their counterattack.

Trier Fortress was surrounded and Reuenthal faced a difficult situation.

The cheval-de-frise that were packed close to each other outside the city gate prevented Reuenthal's cavalry from rushing out of the city and breaking out of encirclement. Although the infantries of the Northwest Legion were also similarly affected, for Reuenthal's grassland cavalry which depends on a large-scale charge as a strategy, that was a death trap. Every move he made would be lethal for his troops in this death trap.

Elliot was like a madman. He disregarded potential losses and dispatched heavily armored infantries to block the gates. He was simply using those wearing heavy armor as human shields. As there were tens of thousands of human shields and many cheval-de-frise, Reuenthal's cavalry could not rush out and create an advantage. Elliot had already found the grassland army's Achilles' heels. That was, Reuenthal had no proper infantry. They did not have any good infantry at all. The grassland had strong cavalrymen but the moment they dismounted from their horses, they seemed like they did not know how to fight at all. When faced with the Radiant Empire's well-trained infantry and tight infantry array, Reuenthal's grassland cavalry, without their horses, were at a dead end.

The bloody battles continued for several days. The Northwest Legion lost nearly twenty thousand excellent infantry soldiers, while Reuenthal’s cavalry had also lost a lot of men in the death trap.

Fortunately, Elliot did not have enough military strength and therefore only resorted to lay siege to the fortress. He placed all of his men at the gate to block the enemy from escaping. The Northwest Legion had expanded and the number of soldiers had reached two hundred thousand, like that of the previous Northwest war. However, Elliot had to leave behind fifty thousand soldiers to guard the Watt Fortress. That meant that he only had one hundred and fifty thousand men with him for the siege.

However, that subtle trap allowed the Northwest Legion of one hundred and fifty thousand men to trap Reuenthal’s two hundred thousand cavalrymen inside the Trier Fortress.

All the water in the city was poisoned and as a result, Reuenthal’s army did not have any supply of water. Although they had enough food, they did not have water.

The first day they unknowingly drank the poisoned water. Thousands of soldiers died and tens of thousands were sick. As the days passed, due to the lack of water, even more of Reuenthal’s soldiers were incapacitated.

Finally, after being besieged for five days, Reuenthal desperately ordered the soldiers to break out of the encirclement at all costs.

Elliot knew that his lack of soldiers would not be able to stop Reuenthal. He wisely decided not to face the opponent head-on. He ordered his soldiers to open the blockade and let the enemy break out of encirclement. After that, he led his troops to chase the enemy for over a hundred miles and killed as many as he could.

Reuenthal’s soldiers had already been weakened from the water shortage. As a result, they suffered heavy casualties as they retreated to Redwood in defeat.

In that battle, the Northwest Legion lost nearly thirty thousand soldiers. More than twenty thousand of these people perished as human shields during the siege. On the other hand, Reuenthal’s Great Moon Kingdom had sent out two hundred thousand troops but only less than one hundred thousand returned. Thirty thousand soldiers were lost in the initial days of fighting and another thirty thousand soldiers were lost while they were being chased by the Northwest Legion. Over ten thousand soldiers were also captured by the Northwest Legion. Besides that, over thirty thousand soldiers who were still in the fortress could no longer fight or were sick from the poisoned water. These people were abandoned by Reuenthal.

After evaluating the result of the battle, Elliot made another shocking decision.

The thirty thousand sick and injured soldiers in the city along with the ten thousand captured soldiers were all ordered to be executed by Elliot. This ruthless decision caused an uproar in the Imperial Capital.

This action was immediately criticized by the scholars of the Empire. They claimed that the Empire was a strong and civilized country. Massacring prisoners and civilians were shameless and barbaric acts of the grassland. How could the brave warriors of the great Empire do such a thing? They claimed that massacring defenseless prisoners of war had tarnished the name of the great Empire.

Elliot was hard-headed. He ignored all the criticisms and attacks and simply sent the Emperor a report.

The report was very simple. There was a paragraph which Andy appreciated a lot.

"The Great Moon Kingdom is vast but sparsely populated, with less than a million people. Excluding the old, women, and children, the grasslands had several hundred thousand people in their prime. For each death, there would be one less! The more they lose such young and strong men, the weaker their national strength becomes. I did this to help the Empire remove the hundred years of threat in the Northwest!"

Andy immediately ordered the newspaper to write about Elliot’s victory in the Northwest and avoid writing about the slaughter of prisoners. They were asked to praise Elliot and his Northwest Legion for the victory. He relied on the power of the newspaper to control public opinion to think favorably of Elliot while preventing more malicious remarks of him. Andy then sent the Northwest Legion a commendation reward in the name of the Emperor.

Andy sighed when he looked at the Northwest war report and said, "Rody, this Elliot has something that you currently lack the most. Ruthlessness!"

At that moment, Rody was feeling depressed in the North.

Nearly four hundred thousand soldiers had gathered in the North. The Northern Legion’s two hundred thousand soldiers were already mobilized. In fact, during the incident at the palace, Milo had already made preparations. Unfortunately, Milo’s preparations were totally unnecessary thanks to Andy’s sudden appearance.

However, the sudden war that broke out did not put his efforts to waste.

One hundred thousand of the Flame Knights from the God’s religion also arrived in the North. The Regiment Commander of the Flame Knights was a cool and detached middle-aged man, named Guddu. He had the appearance of a devout monk1. He wore the leather armor of the Flame Knights under his gray robe. That made him look like a Bishop Elder of the God’s religion. The only thing he was missing was a staff.

If it were just Guddu, it would have been acceptable, as he was indifferent and did not speak much. However, the other person dispatched there, a Bishop Elder, made Rody sick.

Because of that incident in the court, the relationship between the Church and the Duke of the Tulip Family was strained. As a result, the Bishop Elder was not too friendly with the young commander.

However, the Bishop Elder was a religious fanatic. The battles had not started. Every day, he would take a bunch of missionaries and tour the barracks to spread their religious belief. To publicize their religious belief, they praised God's greatness and how the religion acted as God's spokesman in the world. He even strongly urged Rody to order the army to devote some of their daily training time to pray to God. That made Rody very uncomfortable, but the Bishop said, "This is a crusade. A crusade to fight the heathens. That was why they must spread the theology of God before the war. That could enhance the soldier's faith and devotion in God. Through devout faith for God, the soldier's morale and combat effectiveness will improve..."

If it were not because of his current identity and the pre-war unity, Rody would have already kicked him out of the barracks.

We cannot improve morale of the soldiers with empty theological arguments or by praising God. If it were not because of the hatred between the continents, Rody would think that this guy was sent by the Church to cause disturbance in the military.