"All right, Lord Lynn. What do you plan to do next?" George sighed.
Lynn spoke up. "Free the serfs. Free the slaves. Baron Biginji."
"We're not rebelling. We're making a revolution to free the slaves of the Principality of Olexian and establish a free Principality of Olexian."
"Fine. Liberation," George said. "Then let's liberate them."
Lynn pulled out a uniform he'd prepared earlier and handed it to George. "Here, put this on. From now on, we'll all be glorious liberators."
Aside from decisive battles fought head-on, most wars were sustained by one small campaign after another.
Those small campaigns, one by one, added up to a major war.
The core territories within the fortresses belonged to the Grand Duke Olexian. Outside them, the nobles' holdings were mostly individual castles, or small towns at most.
They were like the circular-walled settlements in Western fantasy worlds: residential districts inside the walls, with the king's castle at the center.
Although Lynn had few men, he had super navigation and highly mobile Rangers.
Super navigation from Dog Demi-humans, super Rangers, hunting-hound Dog Demi-humans, and Cat demi-humans serving as night scouts.
And even if he'd been cast out of his family, he still had Olesian blood—in other words, he carried the core of Olesian.
This was a raid, and speed was everything.
"Lord Lynn, what do you plan to do next?" George asked. "You have too few soldiers."
Lynn took out a map and began to explain. "Look. This is your territory, and this is Rusca's."
"You're at the river's upper reaches. Downstream are Count Drowo's Gla Town and Wojino Town, followed by Count Drowo's city. The river surrounds it on three sides. Once we take this area, we'll have a natural river barrier and can follow the current downstream to attack Scholburg Fortress."
"All we need is to seize the Great River. Then we can use Mobile warfare to keep turning small victories into a big one."
"All right, let's get moving!"
No matter how large an army was said to be, the circumstances mattered. It was the same in ancient times: when people claimed there were a million soldiers, they counted garrisons stationed all across the land. A single front never had anywhere near that many—perhaps a hundred thousand or so at most.
Lynn was taking advantage of that time gap. Gla Town and Wojino Town probably had about a thousand defenders each, while Count Drowo's city might have several thousand.
With the support of two barons, Baron Kage remaining neutral, and the barons of Gujier and Kier also staying neutral, Lynn would be able to rely on the Great River Defense Line and wage a war of attrition against the Principality of Olexian once he took Count Drowo's city.
He would turn repeated local victories into a major triumph.
Lynn asked the two barons' knights to join his cavalry. He didn't need their infantry.
After marching for some time and stopping for lunch, Lynn's army reached Gla Town in the afternoon.
The defenders of Gla Town were confused. What was going on?
They recognized the Tricolor flag outside. It belonged to Baron Lynn.
Gray rode up to the front lines and shouted, "Defenders inside, listen up! You're surrounded. Surrender at once and don't resist for nothing! We're not invaders. We're here to free the slaves!"
The defenders of Gla Town understood immediately.
This was a rebellion!
"A few thousand men think they can rebel? What a joke!"
"Get lost! Shame of Nobility's army!"
The cuirassier cavalry weren't knights like the Heavy Cavalry, and the Light Armor Musketeers' armor wasn't visible from the outside. They carried nothing but wooden clubs. From the defenders' perspective, how were they any different from a peasant rebel army?
Ten knights could trample a thousand peasants into the dirt. With five mages and five knights, plus a few auxiliaries, a hundred men could exploit ten thousand peasants.
If the soldiers were all armored and carrying spears and crossbows, the defenders might have been afraid.
The defenders used magic to shout back, and took the opportunity to curse Lynn.
If they wouldn't surrender, that made things easy.
Lynn immediately set up his Field Cannon on a hillside a thousand meters away. Crossbow beds couldn't reach that far. Only something like a Three-bow Bed Crossbow could manage it, with a range of about 1,500 meters.
Fortunately, his Field Cannon had a maximum range of 2,800 meters, so he didn't need to worry about those, either.
Eckley drew his saber and shouted, "Artillery, set up! Calculate the range! Prepare for a test shot!"
The cannons were unloaded from the ammunition racks, and the soldiers lined them up side by side while adjusting the elevation of their barrels.
The soldiers took a shell from the ammunition rack.
The shells came with their charges, and the ammunition data had been measured in advance. They placed a shell in the muzzle and pushed it all the way down with a wooden rammer. Then another soldier took out a measuring sight and aimed. Once he'd adjusted it, he removed the sight and calculated the figures on paper. When he had the results, another soldier took out a Pull-tube and a long iron needle, pierced the powder bag, and inserted the Pull-tube. He then hooked a cord onto it. When everything was ready, the soldiers quickly moved to a safe position.
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