When the reinforcement army gathered, they had numbered around 12000 strong, with an additional 4000 non-combatant civilians that tagged along as part of the Army's logistics.
These 4000 included the merchants and caravaneers responsible for carrying food and supplies back and forth to the Army.
They comprised of many different professions, ranging from accountants, entertainers, cooks, and blacksmiths, to maybe even some brothel whores that sold their services on said caravans. These people however were mostly un-armed and disorganized.
And so, only the original 12000 men were considered viable combatants within the Army.
Still, 12000 was considerably small in number when compared to the past Brunic armies that were raised by previous Emperors.
This was mainly due to the lack of Noble support behind the current Emperor, Varhys, and the hasty assemblage needed in order to quell the barbaric Northmen menace as fast as possible.
That and maybe even the grievous mistake of the Brunic upper class in underestimating their Northmen adversaries.
Even though the current Reinforcement Army was small, it was still quite an apt depiction of what an Army raised by the Knight's Empire of Brune was normally composed of... Except of course for the other fact that this army also lacked any Magicians the Empire usually employed from the Elder Magi Council. In no small part due to Britannica's current state due to the Northman Incursion.
The 12000 strong Reinforcement Army contained:
- 2000 Mercenaries from different Mercenary Groups paid for by the different Nobles Houses within the Army.
- 5000 troops stationed in the Middle, led by the younger and less experienced Nobles, coming from the smaller territories. With each house bringing 200 men each. A total of 25 Noble Houses.
These 25 Houses included the troops of Darius, Deacon, and Duke's, all hailing from the South.
- 3000 Knights and Veteran Soldiers, stationed on the vanguard, coming from the different Knights Orders, funded and owned by the much larger households, led by the Nobles who were considered Veterans of War. These 3000 troops were harder and tougher than the common grunts and each of these Veteran Houses brought 300 of them. A total of 10 large Noble Households.
Some noteworthy households here are:
The house of Vazquez, an Imperial Loyalist house faithful to the current Emperor, Varhys.
The houses of Rochard and Broderick, representatives coming from the Western Region, leading their Knights Crusaders under the order of the Church, as decreed by the Pope who was also decreed or more like begged for by the Emperor.
Basically the Western Households, due to their more religious nature, follow the Pope more than the Emperor, hence calling themselves Knight's Crusaders instead of the plain old simple Knight.
And finally, another noteworthy household was the House of Laplace, Philippe's household. The same old Philippe that supported Vivian in the Consulate.
- 500 Holy Knights, straight from the Holy Church directly under the Pope... Though of course due to the friction between the Church and Imperial Family, just these 500 Holy Knights from the lowest ranks were sent to fill in the quota begged for by the Emperor's Imperial Decree.
These 500 Holy Knights are not to be confused with the Knights Crusaders, who, although also follow the Pope, are more loyal to their Noble Household than the Church's Influence. The Holy Knights, on the other hand, follow and are directly under the Church.
- 500 Mercenary Knights from the Golden Denari of the Great House of Medici... Though the Medici's loyalty is also questionable, as much like the Holy Church, they too had only sent what was minimally required of them.
- And finally, a 1000 of the finest Winged Hussars from the House of Blauschild. Directly under the Last Standing Wall of Brune, Alexei Alastor Blauschild - The Fallen Sword Emperor.
A testament to Alexei's loyalty to his student and Emperor, Varhys, even though his house wasn't large nor rich, he had still given a majority of his private Knight's Order, the Winged Hussars, as reinforcement for his other student William, the current Patriarch of the Bizmachs. Who was right now, defending Konigsberg from the Northmen.
Minus the Magicians, these are the forces that normally made up an average Brunic Army.
20% Mercenary, 40% average Soldiers gathered from the smaller houses, 20% Veterans gathered from higher households, and finally 20% Elites from the major superpowers that led and formed the Great Empire of Brune.
But as the Barbarian force ambushed the Middle Lines that fateful night, 40% of the Army, mostly coming from the ordinary Soldiers of the smaller Houses, were greatly decimated.
A total of 5000 soldiers were lost to last night's enemy ambush, leaving only 7000 left. A pyrrhic escape that although saved the Army as a whole, demoralized them greatly.
And so, with that escape, on the night of the 26th of Craving, the Reinforcement Army was finally able to rest and make plans for their next move.
And in this emergency meeting, a fat Duke was currently getting berated by a group of insufferable young men. Taking out their current frustrations on the innocent fat Count.
"You want us to go straight into the heart of enemy territory?! Are fucking you stupid?! Where in the world did your last night's o so intelligent brain go to?!" Darius, one of Duke's bullies shouted loudly.
The ambush and the subsequent tiresome escape that came afterward were already demoralizing and burdensome for many of the people here. Some of the people present lost friends, comrades, even and even fathers, brothers, and sons to the ambush. And now Duke had suggested for them to march stupidly into the middle of enemy territory, which made the already impatient and tired Deacon to suddenly burst out, loudly berating Duke. Releasing much of his failure in managing his troops and stress on to their innocent savior.
"I guess last night was a fluke after all! First, you hurled a disaster of nature (the Tarasque) straight into our vanguard, and now you want us to march directly to our deaths?! Ha! If you weren't so obviously stupid, I might mistake your actions as trying to kill us! Running to our deaths... Maybe that's why you were so successful yesterday! Cause that's the only thing your good at! Running away!" Darius added in a more intense throw of humiliation towards Duke.
Many of the less tolerant nobles there sighed a sigh of relief that someone was "brave" enough to talk back against Duke's newly found influence.
To be honest, many of the people there were undeniably grateful towards Duke and saw him as a somewhat newly born respectable figure.
But that didn't mean their trust in him was fully formed. And after hearing Duke suggest something so absurd, they sweated in fear that no one could berate him in his suggestion. He was after all the one who acted and saved all of them in their dire hour of need...
But now that Duke seemed to lose his last night's genius, now that he seemed to be back to the bumbling fool everybody thought of him as they all suddenly betrayed their trust in Duke. Probing Alexei's reaction, fearing that Duke might suggest something dangerous, and the old man actually agreeing to his absurd suggestions.
The crowd began murmuring about Duke's capabilities and tried to shoo off his absurd proposition, some fearing it might actually get chosen by the equally absurd Alexei and their time of service be lengthened, while some were genuinely worried Duke might make a fool of himself even more.
But in that sea of noise and fearfully berating voices, a voice of reason propped up:
"Hey calm down! Calm down, everyone! I know everyone's tired, and although Duke's suggestion might seem foolish at first, he WAS still the one who saved us last night, right?... Which one of you was not ridden away by his horsemen to safety, huh?! Which one of you could've thought to use the enemy's tactics (Tarasque) against them in that hour of confusion... The least we could do is hear him out, isn't that right?"
Noticing the fearful unrest within the group, and Alexei's eerie silence amidst the unrest, Hernando Vazquez tried to calm everybody down, giving Duke the chance to speak for himself.
*Cough cough* "As I was saying! Before 'someone' interrupted me" Duke intensely looked into the eyes of Darius and Deacon as if saying he wasn't backing down! Which made Alexei grin a little at the fat Count's stubbornness.
Duke continued:
"If we retreat now, just like what Lord Broderick said, we'd probably get ambushed again!
The enemy already expects us to retreat south. So none of their scouts have been seen since the ambush, with this, we can conclude they're probably no longer chasing us...
Instead, they've decided to cut us off from our escape routes! And with their undeniably advantageous position, even if we anticipate their ambush, we'd still be 'escaping' right into the enemy's jaws!
On the other hand, if we do manage to fortify ourselves here, with this terrain there's no way we'd be able to counter them from all sides. We'd all be killed by their agile beast riders if we do!
If we stay here, the only thing we can do is wait for reinforcements to arrive... And that is of course if they do arrive! Since the enemy is already cutting off our escape routes, by the time we've fortified ourselves if even our 7000 strong Army can't cut through their position, what makes you think individual scouts or messengers can?! They'd be killed or slaughtered before reaching the Capital..."
Duke stopped for a while as he breathed:
"If we retreat we'll get ambushed, but if we stay here we'd be waiting for our deaths...
Damned if we do, damned if we don't!
Hence I suggest we go North instead!" Duke grinned as he explained even further!
"From their numbers last night, we can conclude that they'd initially sent 15000 to ambush us last night. And so the ones heading south to cut us off are in the 9 to 12 thousand depending on how much the Tarasque from last night had killed...
And from the earlier reports we've received, the scouts said the enemy numbered at 40000 at least, and if we were to be cautious, we can conclude their numbers to be at 60000 at most!
So 60000 total enemies...
If they had sent 15000 to counter us then that would mean they only have 45000 troops left! And since Konigsberg requires 40000 men to surround it, most of the enemy is probably situated around Konigsberg! Leaving only 5000 to garrison the other Cities and Towns they recently took!" Duke somewhat confidently explained, leaving the more knowledgeable and intelligent commanders, who finally understood what Duke was talking about, very impressed.
"And so?! We'd still need to face 40000 at Konigsberg! Even if we attack them there, 7000 vs. 40000, we're but a drop in the bucket! We'd die before we even get to reinforce Konigsberg!" Darius rebutted, trying to bring Duke down.
"Yeah! If we follow your plan we'll still die! Don't listen to this idiot, he's gonna kill us all!" The slightly less intelligent Deacon backed Darius' words despite not understanding a thing...
Only Silvan who was part of the trio's: three idiots, was uncharacteristically silent this whole time, not saying a word from start to finish. Still sulking from the loss of his uncle.
[Maybe his uncle's death shook him a lot more than I thought...] Duke thought to himself as he noticed Silvan was silent the whole time.
"Do I really have to spell it out for you two idiots?!" Duke shook his head at the two bumbling fools who were desperately trying to rebut against him.
"The territories that the Northmen took from us are EMPTY!" Duke spoke in plain words.
"So... Even if we might not be able to reinforce Konigsberg, but if we head deeper north, in those territories stolen from us by the Barbarians, we might not meet as much resistance! The people there would most likely support us, the North is loyal to Brune after all!" An older veteran commander shouted to the person next to him, agreeing with Duke's suggestion.
"If we liberate some of the smaller cities and towns, we might be able to restock on supplies and maybe even recruits! And since the 15000 ambush army is heading south, as they think we're currently retreating, by the time we're discovered, the most they can do is portion some of their troops at Konigsberg in order to chase us! Giving the Bizmachs fewer enemies and more time in defending Konigsberg!
Four birds, with one stone! A 7000 strong stone that is!
This, I believe, is the best-case scenario we can make of right now!"
Duke finished his explanation in front of the bickering crowd that began agreeing with his words.
[Ha! GAHAHA! Cheeky brat! Took the words right out of my mouth, this damned boy!] Alexei gleefully grinned as he stared at Duke in total silence. Happy and extremely pleased to find Gwaine's grandson didn't just use the "CHARGE! till the enemy dies" tactic Gwaine commonly used as the idiot powerhouse he was...
In truth, Alexei had already decided that they would indeed be heading further North, to raid and attack enemy supply lines and make a loud enough distraction for the Bizmach's of Konigsberg to last a little bit longer.
But to see another person as deviously cunning as him in Gwaine's family of all places... Alexei had always thought of the Pendragons as extremely stubborn and righteous Knights much like Gwaine was. Never in Alexei's wildest dreams did he thought that it would be Duke who would suggest his plan first.
Unbeknownst to him of Wael's fate as the Shadow Dragon.
This was mostly due to the fact that Duke's parents, although greatly known in the criminal underworld for their pseudonyms as the Shadow and Snake Dragons (lleidraig and Neidraig), they were never truly exposed by anyone except for the past and current Emperors, Varhys and his Father.
And even then, their knowledge was fully based only on circumstantial speculation, with absolutely no evidence backing their claims.
This is why when the past Emperor suddenly embargoed Maine and the Pendragons, eventually leading to their quick decline, everybody labeled the past Emperor as irrational, unjust, and even tyrannical.
For if the Pendragon Family were truly the ones behind the Theif and the Snake, then they would have at least put up a fight! Everybody thought at the time.
But they didn't. And the Pendragons quickly fell in front of the Emperor's wrath. Forever hiding the Their and the Snake's real identities...
Hence, Wael's legacy was left as that of a sad useless bum. With 'The Bum', shamefully becoming his unofficial title.
And Duke's mother on the other hand, who was Wael's seemingly capable wife who even dominated Southern Trade during her time, was only seen as a financially capable woman, who although dominated the South's Grain Moguls in place of her pathetically useless husband, was nevertheless defeated in the end by the Emperor's overbearing embargo and Imperial family's tyrannical power...