Splitting the army in two

The day after the war, James led his troops away from the main force, accompanied by a Cavalry battalion from Great Oak Territory, which was an elite force drawn from Yellen's command.

Their next task was to maintain the suppression and expulsion of the remnants of the First Legion, prevent them from joining up with the fleeing Eastern nobles, and eliminate them if the opportunity arose, or drive them out of the Eastern Region if the opportunity did not arise.

Although they set off a day late, the reconnaissance troops of the Southern Marching Legion had already located the remnants of the First Legion. Given the marching speed of the Cavalry, it would not be difficult for them to catch up and pursue them.

Victor continued to handle the aftermath at the camp. They had a lot of work to do. Just the captured nobles alone, Victor had to meet with each of them in person, since many of them were old acquaintances and elders of his.

However, since they were each serving their own masters, Victor couldn't let them go, as his future territories and those of his subordinates would all depend on them.

The size of the prisoner-of-war camps in the camp expanded exponentially, and the total number of prisoners increased to many. In order to ensure that no riots broke out in the prisoner-of-war camps, many lightly wounded soldiers were mobilized and sent to guard the prisoner-of-war camps, and the original prisoner-of-war camp guards were also given more importance.

In particular, Old Buck, based on his performance in suppressing prisoners during the war, was promoted by Victor to become the guard Detachment Commander of the prisoner camp, with the same treatment as the Company Commander of the Two Rivers Territory. The number of guards under his command was expanded to more than 500. With the addition of guards from other prisoner camps, the total number of guards in the prisoner camp reached nearly 1,000. Together with 4,000 Logistics Department Auxiliary Troops, they were responsible for suppressing the entire prisoner camp.

Fortunately, the camp of the Coalition of Nobles was not destroyed; otherwise, Victor would not have been able to find enough tents to meet the needs of these prisoners. The Allied Army camp also had a lot of food stored up, enough to support the army and prisoners for a period of time.

However, the number of prisoners was too large. Even with all the food and supplies, and even with the most frugal measures, it would only last for a month at most. But Victor couldn't just release these prisoners directly; otherwise, the war would have been fought for nothing.

Therefore, Victor had to send troops to the territories of various nobles in the Eastern Region, partly to clear out the remaining Coalition of Nobles, and partly to collect grain.

However, directly dispatching such troops was not easy for Victor's Southern Marching Legion, given the heavy losses. Even with the Medical Department's efforts, most of the wounded had a chance to recover, but it would still take time for them to recover. In addition, Victor did not want his troops to participate in such counterinsurgency operations.

Victor's plan was to use the army of the Great Oak Territory and the allied nobles who had supported Victor in this war, including two branches of the Golden Sunflower Family, as well as several other noble families such as the Blue Rose Family and the Black Oil Pine family, to form multiple forces to suppress and requisition grain in Cambridge County and Boler County.

By the way, Victor also gave them autonomy, allowing them to easily handle all kinds of problems. It is estimated that they will not be very polite to the loyal nobles, and may even cause a bloodbath in the two counties, but Victor does not care.

He had established absolute authority based on the prestige of this great victory. He laid down three rules for these troops: first, to avoid affecting Freemen and serfs as much as possible and to ensure normal production order; second, to target only loyal nobles, those who surrendered voluntarily would not be punished as long as they handed over their troops, food, and a certain amount of wealth; and third, to reduce killings, and not to harm the relatives of loyal nobles who died in battle or were still resisting, except for their direct relatives. Victor planned to send these people to the Northlands to help him clear land.

Victor believed that no one would outwardly comply with his demands at this stage. In addition, these allied nobles had already paid a heavy price for this victory, and entrusting them with the tasks of suppression and grain requisition was a kind of compensation. As fellow Eastern nobles, they could obtain enough benefits from those loyal nobles to make up for their losses.

As for the suppression in Suffolk County, it was mainly carried out by the southward-bound army and the Great Oak Territory coastal defense fleet, since most of the noble territories here are located by the sea.

After assigning the tasks, Victor let the troops leave.

On the night of April 25, the day after the war, a large ship docked at the temporary pier at Rotten Tree Beach. Victor personally went to the pier to wait for it, accompanied by Magnus, the steward of Great Oak Territory.

Soon a group of people disembarked from the ship, led by Viscount Sonanda, who had rushed over immediately after receiving the letter from Magnus.

Victor was taken aback when he saw Viscount Sonanda walking towards him. Viscount Sonanda looked sad, his clothes were wrinkled, and he looked very tired. He was completely different from the carefree seafarer he had met before.

Victor knew that Viscount Sonanda had become like this because of Count Black's death. "I didn't expect Sonanda to be so loyal to the Old Count."

By the light of the torches on the pier, Sonanda saw the faces of Victor and Magnus. He staggered a few steps, grabbed Magnus's hand, and asked, "Is Lord Black really gone?"

Magnus hesitated for a moment, then nodded heavily. He knew that Count Black was no ordinary man to Viscount Sonanda; to Viscount Sonanda, Count Black was both a mentor and a father.

Without Count Black, Sonanda might not have been able to inherit the title smoothly and might have died in a conspiracy long ago. Viscount Sonanda had followed Viscount Sonanda Count Black since he was young and later participated in all of Count Black's businesses. It can be said that the friendship between the two was even greater than that between him and the Earl, who had been by the Count's side for many years.

"Viscount Sonanda, the Count has indeed passed away. Please accept our deepest condolences!"

After receiving a positive answer from Magnus, Viscount Sonanda nearly collapsed to the ground, but Victor caught him in time.

Viscount Sonanda choked up as he said, "When I received your urgent letter at sea, I knew something big must have happened. I initially thought it was due to poor performance in the land battle, but after translating the code, I found out it was news of the Count's death."

I thought I had translated it wrong, and I kept hoping that the fleet would speed up and come over, but I never expected that Lord Black was really gone.

Magnus, tell me how Lord Black left. Didn't he already get the Life Grass?

Isn't that the legendary precious herb that can prolong life?

After listening, Magnus lowered his head. Victor was also puzzled. He had also heard of the Life Grass, but thought it was just a legendary thing. He didn't expect it to actually exist.

"Viscount Sonanda, the Life Grass is just a kind of herb. It may indeed remove toxins and promote wound healing, but it is not the magic of legend. It cannot really prolong life or even make people younger. The Count did rely on the Life Grass to get through a period of time, but his body is already failing and there is no other way."

After hearing this, Victor was curious about how miraculous the Life Grass was. After all, even if it couldn't prolong life, just removing toxins and accelerating healing was already quite remarkable. However, seeing the situation before him, he didn't want to ask too many questions and had to put it aside for the time being.

The three then rode swiftly to the military camp in Great Oak Territory. Viscount Sonanda saw Count Black, who was already fast asleep, and burst into tears right there in front of the Count's bed.

Seeing this, Victor had no choice but to leave the room and let Magnus appease Viscount Sonanda.

It wasn't until quite a while later that Sonanda and Magnus came out of the room.

Sonanda was pale and needed Magnus's help to walk. Seeing this, Victor decided to take his leave and wait for Sonanda to rest for the night.

But Sonanda stopped Victor: "I am willing to obey Lord Black's orders. Steward Magnus has already told me, Lord Victor, you have important business with me. Please do not hesitate to give me any instructions."

"Alright, I plan to borrow the Coastal Defense Fleet of Great Oak Territory to help send a portion of my troops back to Golden Sunflower Territory. Most of them are wounded. I wonder if that would be convenient?"

"No problem, Lord Victor, leave it to me."

Sonanda was very happy.

The following day, after dealing with some miscellaneous matters, the main force of the Southern Marching Legion and the remaining private army of Great Oak Territory began to head south along the coastline with the prisoners, while another part of the Southern Marching Legion boarded a boat at Rotten Tree Beach. The two forces split into two groups and began to head south.