After rejecting the marshal's proposal, Easter quickly gave his reasons.
"There are 50,000 cavalry troops stationed in Upper Soden, and several divisions of them are heavy cavalry." East pointed in the direction of Upper Soden. "With our forces and those of the Eastern Front, it is impossible to completely surround and kill them."
"I've heard of Nilfgaard's Marshal Menno, who has made great achievements in battle. Someone who can hold such a high position is definitely not a stubborn person. If he decides to avoid the northern army and decides to charge to the east or west, his troops can easily tear through our 'defense line'."
"Compared to the West, where the Yaruga River lies, our Cintra will be their first choice for a breakout. By then, with tens of thousands of cavalrymen, Cintra will be at risk of falling again."
After the King of Skellige's analysis, it seems that the strategy proposed by Vissegid does indeed involve a gamble on the fate of the country.
"So Your Majesty...uh, Your Majesty Easter, what do you mean?" The marshal showed an inquiring look.
Easter thought for a moment and pointed to several places on the sand table.
"We can indeed establish a defense line in the direction of Lower Soden and Rivia, but we must leave a route in Cintra that we can control and allow the Nilfgaardians to retreat."
“The whole southern part of Sintra would be a good option.”
"Once we defeat the Western Army, it will be equivalent to cutting off the retreat of their Central Army. Menno will definitely drive his troops back like crazy. At this time, we will attract them to the south of Cintra, and then join forces with the other armies to defeat the Nilfgaardians and drive them out completely."
"Remember, it's just a 'crush'. The proposal to 'annihilate' the Nilfgaardians is very tempting, and I also hope to give the Empire a hard blow and let them feel the pain. But our current strength is still weak. We can only barely fight with a lot of 'tactics' and 'unique troops', so... 'crushing' them is enough."
Easter, whose hatred for Nilfgaard was no less than that of the people of Cintra, or even more so, took a deep breath and proposed the most prudent plan: "Everything should be prioritized to recover Cintra, preserve Cintra, and create a good reconstruction environment for Cintra after the war."
Marshal Visage was silent. As a military commander, he did get carried away from the battles he fought. But this proposal was made by Easter, so he had to take it seriously.
"But if we get to Sintra, it's mostly plains..."
The marshal frowned and raised an objection. Lann suddenly waved his hand at this time.
"There are many fortresses east of Cintra. If we send heavy troops to guard them, the Nilfgaardians, who have no logistics and whose troops are mostly cavalry, will not choose to attack the city rashly. They can only go around the border. We can stop them here—"
Everyone looked in the direction of Lan's finger, and Easter's eyes suddenly became sad.
That place is the Manada Valley, where the lioness died. Nilfgaard ambushed Cintra there.
"This is also a good place for us to ambush their cavalry corps."
With the plan supported by both the Duke of Lannister and the King of Easter, even Marshal Visekyd could not express any opposition, let alone others.
So the brown-haired officer began to paint the finalized marching route on the map, writing it down and preparing to go back and deploy his troops.
…
After a while, the battle plan was basically finalized.
Lane glanced at the still confused Duke Darcy and was about to wave his hand to signal the servants to take him away.
But Easter suddenly pressed Lan's shoulder.
"There's something that's really concerning me, Lan. I want you to ask this guy if he knows anything about it."
Lann looked puzzled.
Easter frowned. "When we were fighting the Nilfgaardians on the front line, I felt that their troops seemed very passive and had little desire to attack. This is a world of difference compared to the Nilfgaardians in the past."
"Either the commander of their Western Army, Joachim de Witt, is a fool, or they have another conspiracy," East analyzed. "I never pin my hopes of victory on the enemy's incompetence, so I would rather believe in conspiracy theories. I need to know accurate intelligence."
Lan nodded to show that he understood, turned around and immediately released his magic power to ask Duke Darcy.
They soon had a surprise.
Under the influence of the French seal, Duke Darcy can be said to know everything without reservation.
"According to tradition, after you ascend the throne, Your Majesty should select a young girl of marriageable age from the imperial noble family as your queen to ensure the superiority of the imperial royal bloodline."
"But some time ago, we received intelligence from spies in the palace. It seems that His Majesty has been issuing secret missions to his spies and sorcerers, asking them to find Cirilla - the purpose is to marry Cirilla as queen."
"Joachim and I are both veterans of three dynasties. We cannot tolerate the emperor's arbitrary decision-making on such matters...so we hope to teach the emperor a lesson on the front line in exchange for his compromise."
…
What a brave group of court nobles.
Everyone first expressed admiration in their hearts. As enemies, they sincerely expressed "admiration" for this old noble who brought political conflicts to the front line of the battlefield.
If they really encounter any obstacles, the damage caused to Nilfgaard by a hundred thousand troops may not be as great as that caused by themselves.
Afterwards, everyone reacted differently to the information revealed by Duke Darcy that "the emperor wanted to marry Ciri."
There are four main types.
The first type was like the adjutants brought by Marshal Vissegerd, and the generals on the dwarf side who had unclear information. After thinking about it, they felt that they knew the truth - through marriage, Emperor Emhyr could obtain the legal right to rule Cintra. Cintra, as the gateway to the North, has an important strategic position, and Princess Cirilla deserves a throne as the empress of the empire.
The second group is people like Ester, Mossak, and Kratz who knew Emhyr's true identity through Lann. They knew that Emhyr was Cintra's former consort "Prince Doni" and Ciri's father. Therefore, they thought this was nonsense and believed that Duke Darcy's intelligence personnel within the empire were extremely incompetent.
The third is Ciri. Lann hasn't told her the truth yet, but as the protagonist of this intelligence, she feels disgusted.
The fourth type is Lan.
The lion rubbed his brow, he knew that Emhyr was serious.
During this period, Enhyr really wanted to be a weird father!
When it comes to the matter of the Ancient Blood, Emhyr can be said to have been fooled by Viggofortz.
At this stage, he is unwilling to admit that Ciri is his daughter, and let people know that he once used the alias "Donnie", and he feels that the experience is very shameful; but at the same time, he wants to integrate the ancient blood into the Nilfgaard royal family in order to gain the power to "conquer the world."
Driven by this motivation, he created one of his most well-known memes - the kind that would get the book banned if it was said.
…
"Lane."
Lan felt his sleeve being pulled by the little princess. He lowered his head and saw her watery eyes.
Considering the presence of so many ministers, Lan En refrained from touching Princess Wei's head for the purpose of protecting her.
"Wait a minute, I want to tell you something, Ciri. You have to be mentally prepared..."
Lann whispered, then slapped his face to bring himself back to reality.
The information revealed by Duke Darcy is more valuable than imagined.
"Regardless of Emperor Emhyr's true intention, the reactions of the two commanders on the front line are worth our attention. They will be of great help to our attack on the Western Army Group."
"Originally, I was planning to extract all the information from Darcy and then use him as a sacrifice, but since this is the case, we can make his death more 'worthwhile'."
He thought for a moment, then turned around and gave a new order: "Ens, write a letter to Emperor Emhyr. The content is that we have captured his commander of the Eastern Front, the hero who helped him regain the throne. If Duke Darcy is to be safe, he must pay a ransom according to the rules of the North and then withdraw his troops from Cintra. You can consider the specific wording."
"The process of sending the letter should be done with great fanfare. Make sure that all the intelligence personnel planted by these old nobles in the palace are informed."
"After writing the letter to Emhyr, send one to Foltestai in Temeria as well. Write down all the intelligence Darcy just provided. The enemy has already identified them as a strategic target. I don't believe he can remain indifferent this time."
Although he didn't have a good relationship with Foltestai, Lann also believed in the military accomplishments of the orthopedic king. If he was lucky, he could still get some reinforcements.
Then he turned back to look at Reso: "I need the guerrillas on the front line to spread a message to the Western Army Group: After capturing Duke Darcy, the people of Cintra followed the war rules of the North and wanted to negotiate with Emperor Emhyr. But the emperor, who was explosive and unwilling to compromise, refused and personally sent assassins to infiltrate Cintra."
Lan pointed at Duke Darcy, who was still under the effect of the seal and had not yet woken up.
"Duke Darcy was a tough guy. After being captured, he showed amazing willpower and did not reveal any information to the people of Cintra. However, he was killed by his own people. The Nilfgaardians would never compromise. The lion of Cintra was furious because of the loss of an important prisoner... This is roughly what I meant. You can polish it up at the end."
Leisuo narrowed his amber snake pupils slightly and nodded in agreement. Kolgrim behind him could not hide the corners of his mouth that began to rise.
Upon hearing this, everyone turned their attention to Duke Darcy.
Looking at the still dazed commander of the Eastern Army Group, the hatred in their eyes faded unconsciously.
"In a sense, we have fulfilled Duke Darcy's last wish. After all, they wanted to create some 'trouble' for the emperor." Kolgrim said, shaking his head.
Now it wasn't just Kolgrim, everyone couldn't help but smile.
…
Just when everyone in Cintra decided on the final course of action.
On the other side of the town of Brokilon and even Brokilon Forest, a "beautiful" hoof crushed a small piece of dry soil.
Few people would describe a hoof as "beautiful," but this one deserves it.
Looking upwards, the black hair on the hooves gradually disappears, revealing the fair skin underneath, with interesting magic patterns painted on the skin; further up is a pair of small goat horns and a face that has both charm and naivety.
Nanomi, a female night demon brought back from Skellige after Lann contracted [Follower]. She liked to stay away from people when she was in the archipelago, and she has been living in the Brokilon Forest since she came to Cintra.
She gets along well with the tree elves, and occasionally joins in the "festivals" of the tree elves and humans to satisfy the needs of her own race.
But at this moment, the female night demon crossed the mountains and passed through the forest.
Before my eyes was a valley shrouded in smoke. As far as the eye could see, there were thousands of graves with moss-covered tombstones.
Some of the tombstones are featureless, just a piece of shapeless rough rock; others are polished and carved into the shapes of obelisks and monuments; as for those that stand in the center of this rocky forest, they are built into stone sheds, stone cairns and circular stone formations, eliminating the possibility of natural formation.
This is Finn Kahn, the large elven cemetery in Soden.
Although the rule of the elves was overthrown by humans, this cemetery was preserved because of its "value in historical research and artistic appreciation" and can barely be considered a tourist attraction in Soden.
However, due to the subsequent Battle of Sodden Mountain, this place has been abandoned for a long time. Normal humans are unwilling to approach the elves' cemetery, but the refugees from the war do not mind staying here overnight. The stone sheds and circular stone formations in the middle are the masterpieces of the refugees.
Nanomi, who was probably older than the bodies buried in the tombs nearby combined, walked among the tombstones without any psychological pressure, talking to herself.
"Great, we found the Elf Cemetery. Now we need to look for any small houses nearby... Wait!"
Nanomi's nose snorted a few times, and the air was filled with a strong herbal scent: wormwood, basil, sage, star anise, and cinnamon.
"Ha." Nanomi smiled a smile that was enough to make everyone in Brokilon no longer miss the tree elf. "Come out, old friend. I found you!"
Suddenly, there was a sound of nails scraping against stone from behind a tombstone. In this environment, it could easily be mistaken for a zombie.
But soon an ordinary hand stretched out from behind the tombstone, holding a plant root shaped like a child.
Then, a thin man with gray hair, dark eyes and an aristocratic hooked nose appeared from behind the tombstone.
"Long time no see...Nanomi. Let me make it clear that I'm not avoiding you, but it's just that such a complete mandrake root is rare, and I can't resist..."
The smile on Nanomi's face became even more radiant. The middle-aged man in front of her looked at the female demon's naked body, which was enough to make everyone in Brokilon forget about the tree spirit and his wife, but his face was silent.
It seemed that the alluring beauty was not as attractive as the herbal roots in his hands.
Fortunately, he quickly regained his attention: "I didn't know you would come here today... There is a beautiful flower field nearby, do you want to go and see it?"
"Of course." Nanomi seemed very interested in the middle-aged man's suggestion. "But not now. I heard that you live in seclusion nearby. Are you working as a herbalist?"
"Strictly speaking, it's 'Barber Doctor'." The middle-aged man uttered a strange professional name, "The recent war has caused a lot of refugees. I will provide them with some necessary medicines to treat some of the more dangerous injuries."
"Ha, what are they going to pay you? Help you collect herbs, or just 'pay' you with blood?"
"No, it's free." The middle-aged man said slowly, "I told you a long time ago that our race does not need blood as a necessity for survival."
“Hahahahahaha…” The female Night Devil laughed so hard that she couldn’t straighten her waist. “You really should let those guys who call you a vampire see what you do. This is really interesting!”
"Vampire is a more polite term. Most people would call us 'blood-sucking freaks' or 'monsters.'" The middle-aged man said in a leisurely tone, "But I can understand that humans are always afraid of powerful and unknown things."
"It doesn't change my view on life. I firmly believe that there is brilliance in human nature."
"Okay, okay, great philosopher. I always like talking to you. You are much more interesting when you are serious than your fellow tribesmen." Nanomi patted her face. With her uncovered outfit, every movement she made would cause a wave of excitement.
"Then Nanomi, why did you suddenly think of looking for me? How long ago was the last time we met? Decades? Hundreds of years?" The middle-aged man carefully picked the dirt off the mandrake root in his hand. "I heard that you are living well in Skellige, and you should continue to stay. It's not peaceful here recently, and I even considered moving to another place..."
The female demon laughed: "You can hardly imagine my reasons."
"I found the Ancient Blood, and there are more than one. They haven't fully grown yet, but their strength is already incredibly strong."
"The celestial spheres are about to meet, and the footsteps of the white frost are approaching at any moment. We are all witnesses and know what a tragic situation it will be. So I joined the team of the Ancient Blood because it was the wisest choice."
"Then I thought of you, my old friend Regis. As a visitor from another world during the last celestial sphere intersection, I believe you will also be interested in the Ancient Blood."