"They attacked and have taken over the grey rock fort killing everyone there. They then sent a vanguard force of 30,000 men to invade inland.
"So far we're lost six towns and twenty villages viscount Tim and viscount Drew were killed and their territories taken over by the enemy.Count Grey to was killed on the filled of battle, his family massacred and all 3,000 of his soldiers dead many barons and knighthood families too have been destroyed.
The enemy continues to invade more of our territories the have divided their forces in two.
10,000 men led by the Tier 3 middle stage general Imari and the other force of 20,000 men continue to head for us led by the Tier 3 mid stage general Tom Harrison along with some Tier 3 early stage vice generals but we believe their forces would soon be reinforced with more men,since we know that they have more than 70,000 men in fort grey rock, that would be all".
After saying his piece the commander sat down. The room was now incredibly moody as the various nobles and military officers thought about what they've just heard.
They knew there would be war but this invasion was really too fast for them to react to.Most of the noble families had soldiers just that it took time to mobilize them the attack
caught them off guard rendering them helpless to react.
"As you all can see the enemy planned this attack really well. We have to stop their attacks and fight back before they isolate us and reach our doorstep you all have to
send over your soldiers" the duke's general, general Ignatius said to the nobles assembled.
"General I get what you are trying to say but will only leave our territories defenseless and vulnerable before the enemy"another noble a viscount refuted the general.
"How about we request help from the capital or the other dukes" another baron asked.
"We cannot wait for the capital to send reinforcements,we've received word that the Brightstone kingdom is invading from the east. They've received support support from the Red wolf empire and have more than 120,000 soldiers including more than 20,000 light horse calvary soldiers. I heard they received a lot of weapons from the empire.
The kingdom has been mobilized to deal with them and all the dukes have sent their armies there" the general refuted the baron.
"What kind of lineup is this!! how is this kingdom supposed to survive"
"I tell you we are doomed!! doomed!!"
"How about we ask a neighboring kingdom for help?"
"Should hire foreign mercenaries? if we pay a lot those Barbarian mercenaries will sail here to fight for us"
"What mercenaries, don't forget that the Lucian navy has blocked our harbor no one can sail out"
The room was filled with chatter as they heard this shocking piece of news.
Fact was most of these nobles were thinking about defecting towards the enemy or gathering their wealth and escaping,no one wanted to be a casualty.
"Alright that's enough" at this point duke Mildred spoke making them cease their chatter.
His voice had a charm to it and while he spoke quietly all of them heard what he said.
He took a look at all the nobles and knew that these people were already considering escape.
"Do not despair all is not lost, the king has dispatched lord Gregory to aid as with the Demon slaying army they are making preparations and will aid us. It's just that due to the wait for supplies they can't get here early".
"What!! Lord Gregory? if it's him then we have a fighting chance"
"Lord Gregory is a late stage Tier 3 grand general, and with the demon slaying army of 20,000 men we stand a chance against the enemy".
"Yeah who doesn't know that the demon slaying army is one of the four best armies in the kingdom"
"Hahaha the Lucians are making a big mistake if they think we are helpless "
The same nobles who were thinking about escape now had hope and were willing to fight.
This was the reaction the duke was expecting from them.He wanted them to stay and fight so he decided to add more fire
"besides do you think that the Lucian will just let you go if you surrender? look at the fate of the other territories that were invaded.
They were not given a chance to surrender the enemy killed them all before they knew it. And the harbor as been blocked, there only way is through the endless wilderness and going through there with your riches and family is no different from walking into the jaws of death besides his majesty has promised that whoever helps to defend against the invasion will be rewarded with rewards of gold,earth rank techniques and land".
The other nobles also realized this and knew that the only option left was to fight for their lives and wait for the capital's reinforcement.
"Who though about escaping!!? come here and let this count behead you"
"Yeah if anyone dares to run this daddy will hunt you for life"
"My lord duke Mildred the house of Asha stands with you"
"My lord the 1,000 troops of house Gad with fight alongside you"
"My lord this knight pledges his sword to you, your with my command"
Their fighting spirit roused all the nobles were eager for a fight especially when for the rewards.
Earth rank techniques!!! who didn't want that?.
Only the dukes had these and even most of them had early and mid rank techniques.
So the opportunity to obtain these techniques excited the rest of the nobles no one wanted to give up the chance of getting one.
Alright we'll all assemble our forces and divide ourselves to confront the two enemy forces. We must hold the enemy back as much as we can. The reinforcement will take at least 2 months to get here".
"Alright now let's talk about logistics general tell us how prepared we are"
The general of the dukes army general Ignatius cleared his throat and addressed the assembly gathered
"Well we lost 800 men due to the swift attack on fort grey rock and 1,200 due to the attacks on the various garrisons in the southern territory. Now the house Mildred has 11,000 soldiers but if we try hard enough we can add our trainees making it 15,000 soldiers. And adding the soldiers from your various territories we should be able to barely assemble 25,000 men.
In terms of supplies we can only provide food for 3 weeks, anymore than that and our men will starve. Most of the men under the lords assembled here lack proper equipment including swords and spears this war will be a losing one if we don't get proper equipment."
Hearing the issue about equipment the duke rubbed his head. He was truly helpless in this regard because they only had a few steel mines and because of crude mining methods the steel obtained was not enough to meet the demand.
Besides the blacksmiths were not making enough.
"Duke Mildred may I make a suggestion" count Tiberius who had been sitting quietly amongst the nobles remembered his earlier humiliation and started cooking up another vicious plan.
"Oh by all means count Tiberius you may speak" the duke had a look of interest and was interested in what the count had to stay.
"Right now we don't have much choices left and we also cannot afford to waste all our wealth at this stage so why don't we 'borrow' some from the civilian stores in the city" count Tiberius recommended with an innocent smile on his face.
Count Rose the only female noble amongst the lot had a bad feeling when she heard what count Tiberius said so she tried to stop him.
"Count Tiberius am afraid this in not appropriate we cannot do this or we'll lose our credibility in the eyes of the public"
"Baah desperate times call for desperate measures if we don't do this we'll stand no chance against the enemy with an unequipped army" the count to refuted her.
"Count Tiberius if we do that we'll make an enemy out of all the merchants in the city" duke Mildred thought for a while before calmly dismissing the suggestion too.
"No no we'll only 'borrow' from those without any proper backing and strength"the count still didn't want to give up.
"Fine we have no option,do you have any targets in mind "the duke definitely knew what the count was about to say.
Any one one who listened to what happened around in the city would know the count was after a certain business establishment and now he wanted to take them out with a borrowed knife.
Count Rose who wanted to speak up again backed down when the duke accepted the proposal.
She might have wanted to help max out but she was not ready to fall out with the duke over a civilian business and just an early stage Tier 2 warrior.