The Fall of Silver Maple City, Part Two

Upon hearing the commander-in-chief's words, the legion Legion Commander and the nobles who were qualified to attend the command post all fell silent. In the past month, Victor had already suppressed them to their knees through his campaigns in the Central Region.

Sure enough, not long after the Catapult troops stopped, cheers were heard from the south, while cries of anguish came from the city walls.

Just as everyone was wondering what had happened, a messenger carrying a command flag came running toward Victor, shouting as he ran, "The South City Gate has been opened! Our army has now taken control of the south city wall! Viscount Hawke's Fourth Legion has entered the city!"

Upon hearing this, everyone cheered loudly. Then, they all gathered around Victor, praising the commander-in-chief for his brilliant strategy, which allowed him to capture Silver Maple City, the last stronghold of the duchy, with minimal effort.

Victor politely accepted their praise, while stating that the capture of Silver Maple City was a collective achievement, and he dared not claim credit for it himself.

Silver Maple City a considerable area, and even with Victor leading an army of over 100,000, they were unable to surround it.

Therefore, Victor divided his troops into four camps to guard the four walls of Silver Maple City, ensuring that no one inside could escape.

However, Victor set up Catapult positions outside the northern city wall to draw the attention of the defending troops to that area.

He had made plans long before entering the Central Region, and this was inseparable from Alex's help.

Back during the Battle of Sextus County, Victor, one of the Duchy Army, did not capture all of them, but let some escape back to the Central Region.

Although this remnant army did not have any officers at the Legion Commander level, there were still several Regimental Commander, one of whom was a mole that Alex had recruited through the Intelligence Department.

This was Viscount Taros Viscount Honeysuckle. He was originally a Regimental Commander in the Third Legion and had long been cooperating with Alex. However, during the campaign in Sextus County, he believed that the Northern Alliance Army might not be able to achieve final victory, so he deliberately severed ties with Alex and thus survived the purge of the Duchy Army.

Despite setbacks in the ensuing battles, the Northern Alliance Army emerged victorious thanks to Victor's timely support.

Viscount Taros took the initiative to seek out Alex and apologize. Considering the subsequent actions, Alex allowed him to flee back to the Central Region as a defeated general, hoping that he could cooperate with the Northern Alliance Army in the future battles. Victor also agreed to this plan.

Unexpectedly, after returning to Silver Maple City, the Taros Regimental Commander was not trusted and could only serve as a Squad Leader guarding the city gate with the few dozen soldiers he had helped to reclaim the city.

However, during his subsequent campaign to sweep through the Central Region, Victor conquered Derby County and confiscated all the lands of the Derby County nobles, including the viscountry of the Honeysuckle family.

This allowed Viscount Taros to regain the trust of Prime Minister Count Lagos, who appointed him as Regimental Commander, leading a group of militia recruited from refugees to guard the southern wall of Silver Maple City.

Taking advantage of Victor drawing the defenders' attention to the north wall, Viscount Taros opened the South City Gate, letting the Northern Alliance Army into the city.

After the Northern Alliance Army successfully entered the city, everything fell into place. The defenders of Silver Maple City collapsed, and Count Lagos was forced to retreat to the Maple Leaf Palace with a portion of his remaining troops.

After Victor's attempts to persuade them to surrender failed, he directly ordered the nobles of the southern and Eastern Region to lead their private armies to wipe out the remaining troops.

Because Victor did not want the beautiful palace to be burned down, the nobles' private army had to fight the remnants room by room. After suffering many casualties, they finally captured it, and the Count Lagos committed suicide.

After the victory in capturing Silver Maple City, the war in the entire Grand Duchy essentially came to a halt.

Two weeks ago, Alex led his troops to recapture the lost territory of Durham County, while Turas's troops lost their retreat after the Central Region was captured.

Most of them surrendered to Alex under his leadership, while a small number who refused to surrender fled into the Carson Mountains.

Victor did not send troops to the Western Three Counties, as this land was to be handed over to the Raine Kingdom according to the agreement between Count Colt and the Raine Kingdom.

The former directly subordinate to the Duchy Strath County will be directly assigned to the Raine Kingdom as a direct Royal Domain, while the counties of Fude County and Ent County will be used as lands for the enfeoffment of nobles of the Raine Kingdom.

At this time, the Raine Kingdom Navy was already embroiled in a fierce battle with the Western nobles of the former Grand Duchy, with the two sides locked in a tug-of-war on the border between Ent County and Fude County. Victor was unwilling to expend his energy on this.

Vidoc walked through the newly cleaned Maple Leaf Palace, looking at the maple trees in the Garden, which were already ablaze with red, and sighed, "From early spring to late autumn, this war has finally ended. For the first time, I feel that time has passed so slowly."

As for the complicated negotiations with the Raine Kingdom, let Alex handle that!

I should get ready to go home!