CH 244

Warning: More graphic images of warfare. Sun Tzu sanctioned fire attacks for their effectiveness and it is never a pretty business, as all war is not.

A noble of the Kingdom of Polsky, Mikalojus Lazicki was looking at the troops in front of him with satisfaction. Despite its name, the Kingdom of Polsky was an aristocratic republic. It was a political system in which a parliament open to the aristocrats governed their national affairs, and is otherwise the same as a republic on earth.

Originally, all Members of Parliament are held as equals in the Diet, but in reality that is not the case. As the territory and economy develops, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, widening the gap. Under such circumstances, those who held large territories and wealth and rose to become great nobles, magnates who gathered votes from other lawmakers and manipulated national affairs as they pleased.

Mikalojus Lazicki was also one magnate and held great influence in the parliament. He has used his treasury to lend money to his opponents to get them to enact what he wants, to buy votes from them, and to form a faction with him and gain their support for his policies, in exchange for favors. And Mikcaroyus Lazicki finally decided to make a massive move this time.

He will bring justice to the Kingdom of Ploiss, which until now had dominated the western powers, and liberate the free cities on the coast of the Hulk Sea.

Though that’s only on the face of it and he simply wants to take these prosperous and lord-less cities from Ploiss.

The land was originally pioneered by the people of the Kingdom of Ploiss, and from the beginning, the Kingdom of Polsky had no right to the Hulk Sea coast. However, while the Kingdom of Ploiss was busy with its confrontation with the Kingdom of Frasia and the Demon Country to the west, Polsky has taken advantage of the gaps in their abilities and stole several of Ploiss’s eastward pioneering colonies.

And next, Mikalojus always aimed to take Koenigsvelg and its large seaport, and if possible, even Danzij. However, the Kingdom of Polsky would be silent about this theft. There hasn’t been any conflict with the Kingdom of Frasia or the Demon Country recently, so if they invade the Kingdom of Ploiss too flashily, Polsky would be destroyed, instead.

As for the other towns and cities it has seized so far, the rights are still up in the air. The Kingdom of Polsky has already treated it as if they own the land, but the Kingdom of Ploiss has not abandoned its rights. A tense situation continued, as the Kingdom of Ploiss might come out to counterattack by claiming the rights to the territories that had been stolen.

Even so, some nobles of the Polsky Parliament were worried about whether it would be safe to cause more sparks of conflict at a time like this. However, Mikalojus laughed at such people and announced that he would personally join the battlefield.

Although they are magnates who can only count their money while staying in their territory, their influence is high. However, no matter how much influence they have and whether they have an organizational vote, other factions won’t approve of overly unreasonable bills, so they can’t pass them. Originally, there was no way that a proposal to wage war against Ploiss would pass with the current climate.

However, Mikalojus carefully laid the groundwork and passed the plan to invade Koenigsvelg on the condition that he would assume full responsibility. Other aristocrats in Parliament passed the plan to invade Koenigsvelg, laughing in the shadows that Mikalojus would fail and fall from power.

But Mikalojus had absolute confidence. Although he has not revealed anything to the other MPs, Mikalojus has strong connections to the Principality of Aust and the Kingdom of Ploiss.

Originally, the Kingdom of Polsky was on bad terms with Ploiss and Aust. Looking back on the history of the earth, neighboring countries all over the world can’t be on good terms with each other. Neighboring countries encounter various problems along their shared borders and generally are on bad terms if not enemies.

However, Polsky is on bad terms with the Ploiss and Aust because Polsky had been stealing territory from both, all behind their backs. Although the bad blood was completely self-inflicted, due to such circumstances, Polsky joined hands with the Principality of Moscove further east and confronted the Ploiss-Aust Coalition.

In the midst of this, Mikalojus approached the Principality of Aust. Even if the countries were in hostilities, not all the people who belonged to them hated and killed each other. Especially in the Kingdom of Polsky, where aristocratic MPs do whatever they want, it is common for the larger nobles to bypass Polsky’s governing bodies and conduct diplomacy without permission.

Mikalojus used his abundant financial power to bribe various parts of the Principality of Aust, and through them, he expanded his connections even to the people of the Kingdom of Ploiss, his home country’s longtime enemy. This event was planned by making full use of those connections.

By collaborating behind the scenes with the Principality of Aust, he redeployed the military forces that were originally attached to the border of Aust and made various secret maneuvers to prevent the people of Ploiss from immediately sending reinforcements to Koenigsvelg. And with this success, Mikalojus was granted a surprise attack on Koenigsvelg and a grace period of half a year.

It is a promise to have the insiders of Ploiss stop all attempts at reinforcement for Koenigsvelg for 6 months. Furthermore, by lowering the soldiers of Ploiss who should have been on guard, they were unable to detect this surprise attack.

The soldiers that have been mobilized by Polsky are a main force of 3,000 strong, led by the great hero Janzicka, Pride of Polsky. And 9 state-of-the-art Navy ships. With this much military strength, a successful surprise attack was guaranteed, and there was no way they would fail to take down a city deprived of assistance for the next 6 months.

However, if you attack with full force and suffer damage to your soldiers, it could hinder the capture of Danzij. So Mikalojus decided to besiege Koenigsvelg and start raiding food from the area. At that point, all the surprise attacks were ruined, but Mikalojus, one of the incompetent magnates, could not have noticed that.

The military staff and generals had repeatedly advised that Koenigsvelg should be taken by surprise and that they should rush into Danzij next. However, since Mikalojus, who did not want to harm his men, did not listen, they ended up besieging the defenseless Koenigsvelg before them.

“Your Excellency! I have a report!” a messenger said. “Our fleet has completely controlled the estuary of Lake Vistra. Furthermore, in the event of an emergency, we are prepared to sink our ships and block the waterway.”

“Hmm!” Mikalojus went, nodding arrogantly.

He was furious when he heard that ships moored in Koenigsvelg had attacked and it turned into a naval battle, but now it’s convenient that the enemy’s naval forces are gone.

This invasion is to be entirely commanded by Mikalojus. In other words, if he loses his soldiers, Mikalojus must make all the compensation and guarantees for the bereaved families. This time Mikalojus is extremely reluctant to put his men in harm’s way, for he must pay with his money. It was never out of concern for the soldiers or to avoid needless sacrifices.

In the first naval battle, the naval forces suffered a few casualties, and Mikalojus carried out the naval battle on his own accord. To begin with, it was a surprise attack, so the damage to the Royal Navy of Polsky was minor. If this had happened after the war had begun in earnest, the enemy would have been more cautious and they would have suffered a great deal of damage.

If you think about it, Koenigsberg itself should have been captured with minor damage if they hadn’t minded a few casualties and charged at the start of the battle, but Mikalojus couldn’t think about that.

For the Kingdom of Polsky, which has a poor navy, the enemy’s naval invasion and landing from Lake Vistra is the most terrifying prospect. If they’re going by land, they’ll be able to notice the approach of the enemy, and it should take time to send a large army from the Kingdom of Ploiss to Koenigsberg. Compared to that, if they were transported by sea, it would be difficult to notice the approach, and a large army would soon arrive.

Therefore, in the worst case, they were planning to sink their ships at the mouth of Lake Vistra to block them. Certainly, if the ships were scuttled, Mikalojus would have to compensate for it, but that’s no problem. He should offer an old-fashioned ship he owns instead. It’s a wrecked ship that has no choice but to be scrapped, but he won’t let anyone complain. It doesn’t matter as long as it’s passed through parliament.

“Our navy is moving to the 2nd phase of operations.”

“Hmm…”

Even if it was said to be the 2nd phase, I wondered what it was and his answer was short. Mikalojus’s attendant whispered in his ear, as he guessed that his master would have turned to him for answers soon enough.

“After holding the mouth of Lake Vistra, the fleet will be divided into 2, and 1 will be dispatched to check Danzij.”

“Hmm…”

There is a 6-month grace period before the Kingdom of Ploiss dispatches a rescue army. However, on the flip side of that, it’s only 6 months. During those 6 months, Mikalojus intended to take Danzij in addition to Koenigsvelg. If you think so, it’s not bad to attack Danjihi from here on out.

“Neutralize Danzij’s naval forces as soon as possible!” Mikalojus cried.

“Haha! We will surely meet your expectations!”

The line of generals that had heard the report with him bowed to Mikalojus.

The Polsky navy that held the mouth of Lake Vistra divided its fleet into 2. The 1st Fleet leaves the estuary to the Hulk Sea and heads for Danzij, while the 2nd Fleet blocks the estuary. The 1st Fleet heads west to keep Danzij in check and discovered 2 ships bypassing their north.

“Whose ship is that?”

“Whose indeed? It doesn’t matter. There’s no way they’re going to mess with us with just 2 ships.”

“Right, right. Even if they bypass us anyway, the 2nd Fleet is still blocking the mouth of Lake Vistra. We’ll just sink Danzij’s trading and fishing boats, as ordered.”

With that said, they were optimistic and saw off the unknown ships making a detour to the north. However…….

“Hey… but aren’t those ships really big?”

“You think so? Because it’s so fast, it’s a small ship, isn’t it? Medium size at most?”

On the sea where there is nothing to compare with, it becomes difficult to understand the distance and size of anything. However, judging from the common sense of sailors, judging from the speed of the boat that was bypassing them, it was not a large ship.

“It doesn’t matter so long as the other ships don’t come close, whether they’re large or not.”

“That’s right. We can’t do anything at this distance, anyway.”

The visible enemies are clearly avoiding them. It doesn’t matter if they don’t attack. An air of relaxation flowed over the 1st Fleet. But things change.

“-! Enemy attack! Enemy attack—–!”

The sailors who were completely relaxed jumped into alert at the shouting. But it was all too late.

“Gyaa~~~!”

“Fire! We’re on fire! We’re on fire—!”

“Uwaaah! So-Someone help meee…!”

A small Fireball shot out from far away… but when it came right before them, it was ridiculously powerful enough to turn almost the entire upper part of the ship into a sea of fire with a single explosion. Those who were on the deck were engulfed in flames as soon as the ball landed, and suffered severe burns all over their bodies before falling fell into the sea from the blast. Those who were in the hold and cabins were unable to escape due to the flames burning above them, they found themselves trapped in flames and prolonged suffering.

The 2nd Fleet was watching the calm sea. Their job is to block the river mouth. In the worst case, they were ordered to scuttle themselves just to do it. It’s a waste to throw away such a fleet of ships, but they must avoid being captured by the enemy, stealing their ship, and being moved out of position.

However, Koenigsvelg’s naval forces have already been destroyed, and the 1st Fleet is now heading to Danzij, to check it for the other enemy ships. It’s unlikely the 2nd Fleet will fight. All the crew members of thought so. But…….

“Wha-What’s going on!?”

“I don’t know! The tide’s rushing out all of a sudden!”

“We’ve dropped anchor, but we’re drifting away!”

The sudden shaking roused them out onto the deck, they found that their anchored ships were being swept out of the lake towards the sea. They can’t think of anything that could do something like this, they all thought it was impossible it was even happening.

“Woah!”

“What is it this time!?”

The 2nd Fleet had already been drifting and now they were being rocked and shaken even harder. They had no idea what is going on.

“Oh! By the heavens!”

“This… this should be impossible…”

“The ship… is floating!?”

All 4 ships of the fleet visibly and plainly floated above the river’s shore. It’s impossible. They had no idea what was going on. And as they are lifted they seemed to be carried out to sea.

“Hey! Look at that!”

“What is that giant ship!?”

“Who owns that?”

Two super-huge ships approached as they were brought out to sea. Flying on that ship is a tricolor flag and an eagle. It was a symbol they had never seen before.

“Uwah!”

There was a sudden impact like their floating ship suddenly crashed into the sea. No, all the ships had dropped back down to sea level.

“What in the hell, ah…”

That was the extent of what the 2nd Fleet’s crew could think. At that moment, when they thought that everything had suddenly gone black, their thoughts ended… as did all their lives. All that was left behind was a huge column of water and a loud noise that made one think the sea had exploded.