The meeting's resolution

The atmosphere in the meeting room of the Northern Alliance Army was unusually tense and solemn.

Alex, his face contorted with rage, slammed his fist with all his might onto the heavy wooden desk in front of him, producing a dull thud.

Immediately afterward, he stood up, his eyes wide open, staring intently at Count Colt sitting opposite him, and roared in a deafening voice, "I vehemently oppose this, Father! Your decision and those of the other decision-makers have been far too hasty and reckless!"

Alex calmed his agitated emotions slightly, but his tone was still full of anger and resentment.

He continued, "Grand Duke Mora's decisive stripping of military power from those independent nobles must have been the result of long-term, in-depth consideration and careful planning."

Based on my understanding of the strength and intelligence of the Principality's military, they absolutely could not have failed to anticipate the enormous difficulties they would face in carrying out this mission.

Therefore, they must have already made full preparations to deal with this, and may even have set up numerous traps for us to fall into!

At this point, Alex recalled an incident that had occurred not long ago: the Duchy had unexpectedly mobilized the Silver Maple Secret Guard, destroying his intelligence network, which he had painstakingly built up over many years!

The thought of this made his heart ache as if it were bleeding.

Count Colt stared intently at Alex, each word he uttered heavy and forceful, as if struck by a hammer. "You are here right now, and everyone sitting here is your senior and elder."

Therefore, I hope you can show some respect and not act recklessly just because of your status!

You should know that when you are about to express any dissenting opinion, the first thing you should do is to treat this conference with reverence and only speak after obtaining my permission!

Furthermore, Viscount Alex, you must remember that this is not a private residence, but a military camp and a battlefield where life and death are fought!

Therefore, please refrain from using those casual ways of addressing me. You must address me by my title or rank, such as 'Your Count Earl,' which would be more appropriate!

Count Colt's words struck Alex like a thunderclap, instantly turning his face as pale as paper.

He knew perfectly well that Count Colt must be furious at this moment, and the wisest course of action would be to comply with Count Colt's decision.

However, Alex felt the decision was too hasty and refused to back down.

Alex gritted his teeth, his eyes fixed on Count Colt. He took a deep breath and said, "Count Excellency, please grant me a moment to state my opinion!"

Before he finished speaking, everyone's attention turned to Alex, eager to hear his insights.

Facing the scrutinizing gazes around him, Alex continued fearlessly, "As far as I know, all the Legion Commander of the Duchy's Direct Legion are seasoned veterans. Although they obey the orders of the tyrannical Grand Duke Mora, their abilities are not affected by it."

I believe that, thanks to them, effective integration within the military has been successfully achieved during this period.

Under these circumstances, if we rashly change our existing deployment or strategy, it could bring unpredictable changes to the entire battle situation...

However, at that moment, Count Colt suddenly interrupted Alex, asking in a stern, questioning tone, "Then tell me, what concrete information do you have to prove what you're saying?"

Alex was clearly caught off guard by this sudden question.

After all, the information he currently possesses is far too limited. The intelligence network that has only recently been rebuilt has, for various reasons, long lost its ability to effectively detect the movements of the Duchy Army leadership.

Therefore, it is practically an impossible task to know the extent to which the Duchy Army is integrating and deploying those noble private armies at this very moment!

Just then, several Northern Frontier nobles also stood up and spoke.

Viscount Edmund spoke up, "These private armies are all subjects of various noble families, with their relatives and families residing in their territories. Even if the Duchy Army forcibly annexes them, it would be impossible to have complete control over them."

Viscount Philip agreed, "Yes, to put it jokingly, even Count Colt can't command my private army without my permission, not even if I'm dead!"

A group of Northern Frontier nobles spoke up, believing that it was an almost impossible task to achieve unified command and management of the private armies belonging to various independent nobles.

Everyone agreed with Viscount Edmund's view that these so-called "private armies" were composed of their subjects, and each family had supreme power over the subjects under their rule, and could do whatever they wanted with them.

Even someone of such high status as a duke would likely find it difficult to easily interfere in such matters.

Alex couldn't help but feel helpless and saddened; he thought everyone was far too naive and simple-minded.

After all, the fact that Grand Duke Mora had so forcefully incorporated the nobles' private armies and imprisoned those independent nobles meant that there were no longer any obstacles to integrating the army.

If necessary, the Grand Duke is fully capable of supporting the legitimate heirs of independent nobles in smoothly inheriting their family titles and territories.

In this way, the Grand Duke could naturally gain command and control over these nobles' private armies.

It's important to understand that annexing the private armed forces of other nobles would likely have a greater impact; while simply granting a title to a specific nobleman would obviously not attract much attention or opposition.

This was hardly a difficult task for the Grand Duke!

More importantly, Alex believed that at this moment, Victor's troops had successfully cut off the Duchy Army's supply lines.

In this way, time became the most powerful weapon of the Northern Alliance Army.

Without needing to readily deploy troops, they are fully capable of wearing down the duchy's army through a protracted war until it collapses on its own.

Even if the Duchy Army ultimately chooses to launch a preemptive strike, the Northern Alliance Army, by meticulously deploying their defenses and adopting proactive and effective defensive strategies, can still withstand the enemy's offensive with minimal losses.

However, unexpectedly, Count Colt expressed strong disagreement with what Alex said!

Alex fell into deep thought, for he knew all too well what Count Colt was thinking.

In Count Colt's view, if the Duchy's power is weakened by simply cutting off the enemy's supply lines, then the one who will ultimately achieve great military exploits will be none other than Victor Vieid.

This was by no means the outcome Count Colt desired; he longed to personally control the battle, crush the enemy in one fell swoop, and thereby demonstrate his leadership.

Furthermore, with his keen insight and intuition, Alex secretly speculated that it was perhaps the message conveyed in the letter Victor had sent earlier that made Count Colt resolutely choose to launch this life-or-death decisive battle ahead of schedule.

You should know that Victor just wrote a letter saying that his army had only recently arrived in Blackwater City and would need a full week of preparations before they could march into the rear of the Duchy Army Main Camp.

In this way, Count Colt's decision to launch the decisive battle three days later was clearly an intentional attempt to avoid Victor and his troops getting involved in this crucial battle.

After a long and fruitless period of persuasion, Alex finally realized that he could not change these people's thoughts and decisions no matter what. He felt a deep sense of helplessness and frustration, but there was nothing he could do.

What made Alex even more upset was that Count Colt had given Alex a difficult task!

That is to use the intelligence network he has within the Duchy Army to contact the imprisoned independent nobles and try to incite them to cause a riot in the Duchy Army Main Camp during the upcoming fierce battle between the two sides.

Alex knew very well that if he did that, the intelligence network he had painstakingly rebuilt would suffer another heavy blow or even collapse completely.

However, for Count Colt and the other nobles of the Northern Alliance Army, this battle will undoubtedly be the key to victory or defeat!

If this intelligence network can operate successfully even once, or even just once, that would be an enormous achievement!

In fact, the entire intelligence system was handed over to him personally by Count Colt.

This means that even if Alex disagrees with the decision, given Count Colt's power and influence, it is entirely possible for him to bypass Alex and directly contact the Iron Birch Territory's Intelligence Department to issue relevant instructions.

Faced with such a powerful and decisive Count Colt, Alex knew very well that with his current strength, he was simply no match for him.

Left with no other choice, he could only silently accept this seemingly arduous yet inescapable task.

From another perspective, if someone else had been in charge of planning and executing this operation, the ultimate cost would likely have been far greater.

Therefore, Alex's decision to do his utmost to complete the mission might minimize the damage to the intelligence system.