Author: Panda’s Big Wooden House

Two-quarters of an hour later, Lan got dressed under Hardy's service and came to the study.

Mossack and the old butler Enns have been waiting inside for a long time.

Hardy poured wine for the two old men and Lann respectively, and then stepped aside.

"Tell me about it, Lann." Mossak did not go to drink, but just looked at Lann with a smile, "You must have gained a lot from this trip north. When you were in Novigrad

You have already told me part of it, and you also shared part of it with me in your letter about what happened later. So what are the gains from this Northern Conference? It is really the same as what you said outside, and other gains were made

The king’s support?”

The information that "half of Novigrad fell into Lann's control" was passed back when Triss came back with the Ophiel warlock. At that time, the two old people could not believe it for a while.

You must know that Novigrad is the first city in the north. The prosperity of this city even exceeds that of some small countries in the north and even some medium-sized countries. Not even Vizmir II can guarantee that he will be able to control Novigrad.

Rui's control, now Lan En says he can do it?

It can only be said that Chapelle, the alien species among the shapeshifters, is really crucial. After Mossack knew the truth, he had to lament Lann's luck; of course, it was Chapelle's luck to meet Lann, otherwise he would

Sooner or later he will be burned at the stake.

As for the old Druid's question about the talks in the North, Lan slightly shook his head.

"I did sign some agreements with them, but how many of them will be effective in the end and to what extent they will be effective remains to be considered."

"The opinions of the Northern Territory have indeed reached consensus, but we are still far from 'comprehensive cooperation'. In terms of troop support and resource tilt on paper, we may be able to drive Nilfgaard away.

, but this will inevitably cause Sintra, which is already depopulated, to suffer greater losses, so we need to take a long-term approach."

The main purpose of what Lan said to the people outside was to "encourage", but the real situation was still different. Lan then summarized the gains this time with the old druid and the old housekeeper:

The full support of the United Kingdom of Lyria and Rivia, the military support of Aedirn, the sea and water transportation support of Redania, the resource support of Temeria, and Kaedwin's promise not to cause trouble.

At the same time, these countries will also issue a statement to jointly boycott Nilfgaard, calling on the northern countries to boycott Nilfgaard at all levels including trade. As for how much this can be achieved in the end, I don’t know.

"As expected of Henselt." After hearing Kaedwen's promise, Mossack couldn't help but sneer.

Afterwards, everyone began to calculate Cintra's current strength and began to formulate the next strategic approach.

Queen Calanthe worked hard to manage Cintra into the "fifth kingdom" after the four northern kingdoms. At its peak, she was able to gather an army of 20,000. However, due to a trap set by the Nilfgaardians, they were all wiped out in one battle.

The main force was captured, and then the scattered troops were eliminated. Now there is really not much fighting power left.

"If the forces that Brochron has gathered now are combined with those of Marshal Visekid, plus the young men who are constantly gathering and joining the military camp, we can probably mobilize about 5,000 troops in a month.

.”

Mossack analyzed: "But these five thousand people can only support one battle. If we cannot drive away Nilfgaard in one fell swoop and fall into a protracted war, then it will be difficult for our logistics to support it. At least half of the five thousand people

People have to step down and take up support positions."

Lan pondered for a moment: "In other words, our current real 'standing army' level combat strength is only about 2,000?"

Mossak nodded.

The army of the Northern Kingdom is mainly divided into two types: standing army and levy army.

The standing army is a professional soldier who is completely off-duty. His mission throughout the year is to train and prepare for war. It is mainly composed of knights, kingdom guards, and city guards. Strong armies may also have specialized legions.

The conscripts are essentially farmers. They only have a few dozen days a year to fight for the king on an voluntary basis and do not have much combat effectiveness. They are basically used as logistical transportation or cannon fodder. Once this obligation period is over, if the battle is not over yet, then

The king would pay to hire levies to continue fighting for himself.

During the Calanthe period, Cintra was plentiful in military virtue, and it was quite a bit like all the people were soldiers. The quality of the levies was also the best in the north. Now that the country is ruined, the levies are naturally on standby and volunteer to join the army. But they are willing to fight.

, Sintra now does not have the capital to allow all these more than 3,000 people to leave their jobs and become soldiers. They still have to engage in production work on a daily basis, and even the standing army who is not fighting on the front line occasionally needs to help.

So as Mossack said, these 5,000 men are only "powerful for one battle." No matter what happens after the first battle, most of these soldiers will have to go back to production. Even if their battle loss rate is higher, Xin

The existing structure of Terra will have to be rewritten, and the entire structure will collapse.

In addition to the 5,000 people in Cintra, those who can clearly support the army include the United Kingdom of Lyria and Livia, as well as Aedirn.

The United Kingdom of Leiria and Livia, like Sintra, is fighting the Patriotic War. At full strength, it can muster almost 15,000 troops, which can be fully deployed in the battle.

Aedirn is a big country, and the standing army plus the levy army can probably make up 40,000. But they are only for support, so they are thankful to be able to send out 10,000 people to help. If there are any more, they themselves, and even other countries in the north, may have objections.

.

Lan pondered for a moment, then said to the old housekeeper and the druid: "Let all these five thousand people go out of work and strengthen their training."

Looking at the two elders who were hesitant to speak, Lan En smiled and said: "What I gained this time is not only the help from the northern countries, but also wealth, a huge amount of wealth. Not only is it enough to support our restoration,

Rebuilding the country will even be enough for us to hire a mercenary group to supplement our troops."

Enns reflexively opened the account book in front of him: "That requires a lot of money."

Lann laughed and said: "I do have a very 'big' amount of money."

Five thousand from Cintra, fifteen thousand from the United Kingdom, and ten thousand from Aedirn, all of which amounted to only thirty thousand.

And what about Nilfgaard?

During this period, through the intentional and unintentional intelligence support from intelligence organizations in various countries and the help from Novigrad, everyone now has a general understanding of Nilfgaard:

First, Nilfgaard unified the south, with a population between 30 million and 50 million. This data fluctuates because the local intelligence is not very detailed.

To compare horizontally, the population of the entire northern border is about 30 million. Temeria and Redania, the most populous among the four northern kingdoms, have a combined population of about 10 million.

What is really terrifying is Nilfgaard's military strength. The entire Black Sun Empire has a standing army of 350,000, plus civilians, logistics, levy troops, etc., it is no problem to falsely claim to have an army of one million.

This is an army of one million. The entire northern army combined does not have this many. Every intelligence agency in the northern border was stunned when they received this news. This is a number that makes people feel desperate just hearing it.

.

Fortunately, Nilfgaard did not go out in full force this time. Firstly, it was not yet fully integrated internally, and secondly, they still needed to leave people to guard the rear. This time, Nilfgaard sent out troops to attack the northern territory.

The first force is a vanguard force of 100,000 people. Only after the gap in Sintra is opened and a base is established, the army behind will be sent over.

This is also because Nilfgaard is fighting long distances and its logistics are very tight. Therefore, Nilfgaard is eager to capture Cintra in one battle and turn this gateway to the north into its own province. It becomes the basis for launching a general offensive towards the north.

springboard.

Of course, this strategic goal has not been achieved to this day. But according to intelligence, Nilfgaard has gathered in "Lower Soden" next to Cintra and across the river from Lyria in "Anglin"

, and established temporary military bases in these two places; they also established temporary war fortresses in several cities south of Sintra.

In other words, if Lan wants to drive away Nilfgaard, he must make progress as quickly as possible before Nilfgaard's follow-up troops come to establish a foothold. And Nilfgaard obviously also knows about the northern talks.

They will definitely be wary of the movements of Lan En and his party.

Mossack analyzed: "According to intelligence, Nilfgaard's army was defeated by the Northern Alliance in the Battle of Sodden Mountain. 20,000 of them were killed in one go. Our battle in Cintra,

And the subsequent battles also consumed more than 10,000 of their troops."

"Even so, there are still more than 60,000 people." Old Butler Enns frowned.

"The Nilfgaardians are also full of factions. I heard that their emperor Emhyr executed a group of older officers before, which enhanced the cohesion of the army. However, this also caused a lack of harmony between their officers and their soldiers.

In addition, their current base is occupied land, and a large number of indigenous people have been captured as slaves by them." Mossak said meaningfully, "They are not standing firmly now."

"Since they found that they could not capture the entire territory of Cintra, the main force marched eastward to attack Queen Meve's United Kingdom. According to what Lan said, Aedirn will provide support to the United Kingdom. Then we need to

What we are dealing with are the five thousand Nilfgaardians currently in Cintra and the ten thousand soldiers stationed in Lower Soden who may come to support them at any time."

Fifteen thousand men, three times as many as our own. Moreover, these five thousand soldiers under Lann are very valuable. They will be the seeds of the rise of Cintra in the future, so we can't really lose most of them here.

"We need to plan a surprise attack, a blitzkrieg, knock down the enemy's main force and morale in one battle, and drive them out of Cintra before the reinforcements can react." Lann mused, "We must

If we do this, Sintra will no longer be able to withstand the consumption."

If they want to achieve this goal, they need additional support.

Mossack affirmed: "Skellig can give us help. They can launch a surprise attack from the river and drag down the enemy troops in Lower Soden. But we don't know how many people they can support us."

The people of the archipelago, who are organized into families, have a total army of no more than ten thousand. But on the sea, they can defeat enemies several times or even dozens of times their size. The mobility of coming and going like the wind also allows them to be almost unharmed.

Land plunder the southern coastal areas, which are most suitable for harassment operations.

"I'll go talk to Skellige, just in time to visit Uncle East," Lan said.

Then Lann added: "Besides that, we also need other support. We need a large number of mercenaries. We are willing to accept mercenaries from the north, especially Kevir, who have a huge mercenary group.

.It just so happens that Redania promised us to open shipping, allowing them to transport soldiers to Cintra and fight for us."

Enns worried: "Keville's mercenary group is indeed brave and good at fighting. But the reward Keville gives them is sky-high. If we want to hire them temporarily, we need at least 1.5 to 2 times the premium. Plus long-distance transportation

And logistics, even with all the money Sintra spends now, it can’t afford it.”

The Kingdom of Kevir is located at the northernmost tip of the North. It is a strange and absolutely neutral kingdom. It is most famous for its mineral resources. Legend has it that Kevir produced 80% of the gold and 70% of the gold in the North.

Demonic gold. Therefore, even though Kevir has a sparse population, it has relied on mercenary groups to form one of the most powerful armies in the north, and even defeated the coalition forces of Redania and Kaedwen.

"Stealing business" with such a country, no wonder the old housekeeper looked worried.

"I'm very rich now." Lann chuckled, "Not only do I want to supplement our troops with mercenaries, I also want to upgrade the equipment of Cintra's existing soldiers. I heard that Nilfgaard's

Soldiers are all issued with standard equipment, and even the lowest-ranking soldiers have chainmail; but the conscripts in the north all provide their own weapons and don’t even have a cotton coat?”

Lann said seriously: "We in Cintra must be the same as the Nilfgaardians, or even stronger than them."

Enns sighed even more heavily: "This not only requires a lot of money, but also a lot of craftsmen and manpower. This is not something we can do now."
To be continued...