It was April 1673, four years after the Vela Nobles had dealt the Steppe Barbarians a crushing blow.
The reigning king of the Raine Kingdom had finally reached an agreement with the kingdom's various noble factions and formally launched his plan to invade from the Vela Region to the south.
The objective was clear: swallow the entire East Sea Alliance in one stroke.
The Raine Kingdom committed enormous resources to the campaign. Preparations had begun more than six months earlier, and seven full legions had landed in the Vela Region.
Together with the two Raine Kingdom legions already stationed in Vela, that made nine legions. Including auxiliaries and naval forces, the total exceeded 500,000 troops. It was the kingdom's largest military operation in a decade.
The Vela Nobles had also successfully consolidated their gains from the war against the Barbarians, greatly improving their finances.
At the same time, each noble house had rebuilt its private army to the Golden Sunflower Family's high standards for a standing force and equipped it with quality arms produced in Two Rivers County. The Vela Region's military strength had reached its peak.
At Alex's call, the Vela Nobles assembled a massive force of eight legions for the war. Together with the Raine Kingdom's troops, they claimed to command an army of a million.
The East Sea Alliance, for its part, had sensed that something was wrong when the Raine Kingdom began mobilizing the previous year.
Marquis Joyce, then Council Speaker of the East Sea Alliance Noble Council, had hoped to preserve peace through negotiations. So afraid was he of the Raine Kingdom that he even offered to pay tribute every year.
The Raine Kingdom entered talks with the East Sea Alliance but kept stalling without giving a clear answer. Under those circumstances, farsighted figures within