Chapter Summaries

Chris committed the Second Army Group’s reserves to the southern front, where the Mountain Tigers and other players helped repel Raitelia’s fiercest charge. Ye Ao Henai’s flamethrower killed him and his partner in a catastrophic explosion, and Chris ordered the siege guns to bombard the Retalian reinforcements and cut off their retreat.

• Chris spotted Raitelia committing a large cavalry force to the southern attack and ordered the Second Army Group’s reserves to support the Hegrande Legion.
• Knife-in-the-Butt led the Mountain Tiger Warband into the breach, unhorsed a Griffin Crest knight, and helped the defenders withstand the charge.
• Mountain Tiger players fired rockets at the Retalians, while Black-and-White Bear led the Han-Tang Warriors in a cavalry charge.
• Ye Ao Henai used a flamethrower against Retalian troops, but a musketeer shot its fuel tank, killing Ye Ao Henai and his partner in a fireball that threw the attack into chaos.
• Chris ordered the Siege Heavy Cannon Regiment to fire at the Retalian reinforcements and cut off their retreat.

Sebas watched the Bagnians' Siege Heavy Cannons devastate the Raitelian reserve assembly ground, destroying the planned decisive charge and cutting off the retreat. As Raitelian knights chose to press forward despite the slaughter, Chris ordered North Wind Rockets launched at the battlefield.

• Sebas realized that the Bagnians had deceived him and that their heavy guns were aimed at the Raitelian reserve assembly ground.
• Twenty Siege Heavy Cannons fired on the assembled Raitelian knights, tearing through their ranks and destroying Sebas's hopes for a decisive charge.
• Baron Carlyle saw the bombardment obliterate the reserves and, believing retreat impossible, led two surviving family knights in a final charge against the Hegrande defenders.
• Raitelian knights on the front line and in the bombarded reserves chose to keep fighting and support their comrades.
• Chris ordered the North Wind Rockets brought forward, and rocket troops launched more than a dozen toward the battlefield.

Chris’s forces defeated the Retalian southern assault, captured many nobles, and suffered heavy losses in the Hegrande Legion. As Sebas faced the scale of the defeat, he ordered negotiations to ransom the prisoners and vowed to move against the Minisians.

• The Retalian southern force broke under Bagnia’s cannons and pursuit, while knight lords held their ground to shield retreating soldiers.
• Chris ordered his troops to capture surviving knight lords for a possible exchange for mounts, and the western Retalians and eastern Minisians withdrew.
• The clerk reported that the Hegrande Legion had lost sixty-four percent of its combat strength, while Bagnia had taken thousands of prisoners, including Count Karl Schwarzenberg.
• Chris ordered extra rations for the army and warned the troops to remain alert for a counterattack.
• Sebas learned of the Retalian losses, clashed with Marquis Hornheim and Baron Stein over the defeat, and agreed to send envoys to ransom the captured nobles.
• Sebas blamed the Minisians for misleading him and declared that his forces would move east of Golden Ear City to prevent them from winning.

Street-Sweeper and the wounded Raitelian knight Edmund struggled to survive their duel in a grove, where Edmund offered him Sun God's holy water. Meanwhile, Lord Cassani arrived at Chris's camp to negotiate over Raitelian prisoners and was given an hour to inspect them.

• Street-Sweeper and Edmund, both badly wounded and stranded in a grove, argued over surrender and escape.
• Edmund offered Street-Sweeper a bottle of Sun God's holy water, explaining that it only kept its power when freely given.
• After Bagnia's victory, Lord Cassani traveled through the battlefield to Chris's military camp, hoping his missing son had been captured alive.
• Cassani inspected Bagnia's disciplined, well-equipped soldiers and met Chris in the command tent.
• Cassani formally raised the fate of Raitelian prisoners, and Chris gave him an hour to inspect them before negotiations continued.

Lord Cassani found his son Edmund alive among the prisoners, then returned to Prince Chris to negotiate ransom terms. Chris demanded 6,820 warhorses for the captured nobility and livestock or food for the common soldiers, giving Cassani until noon the next day to respond.

• Lord Cassani saw Bagnian medics treating wounded Raitelian prisoners and was struck by their care for ordinary enemy soldiers.
• Lord Cassani feared Edmund was dead until Street-Sweeper dragged the unconscious young knight into the camp, and Cassani embraced his son.
• Lord Cassani returned to Prince Chris, who demanded warhorses for the noble prisoners and livestock or half a year's rations for each common soldier.
• Prince Chris rejected land as payment, declared Minicia Kingdom's land already belonged to him, and gave Lord Cassani until noon to accept the terms.
• Lord Cassani left to meet Prince Sebas and discuss the ransom.

Sebas accepted Chris’s ransom terms for eight thousand warhorses but asked for a month to deliver them, offering to lift the siege of Tavitsky and withdraw. Chris pressured Lord Cassani by offering to release his son Edmund in exchange for the reason behind the delay, and Cassani revealed Retalia’s aims in Minisia and Sebas’s likely plan to retaliate.

• Sebas decided to offer eight thousand warhorses for the captured nobles, provided Chris extended the delivery deadline by a month.
• Cassani returned to Chris’s camp and relayed Sebas’s offer, including lifting the siege of Tavitsky, withdrawing thirty kilometers, and paying the ordinary soldiers’ ransom within ten days.
• Chris questioned why Sebas needed a month and offered to release Edmund immediately if Cassani explained Sebas’s real objective.
• Cassani revealed that Retalia had invaded to find Minisia’s saltpeter mines and seize fertile southern lands, and that Sebas had ordered preparations to withdraw from Dul Province after meeting a Minisian envoy.
• Cassani suggested that Sebas needed the month to retaliate against the Minisians, and Chris recognized that Cassani had carefully disclosed the army’s motives while trying to protect his son.

Chris proposed exchanging basic saltpeter field technology for the Retalian territory occupied in Minisia, judging that Bagnia’s technological lead would outweigh the future risks. Lord Cassani brought the offer to Prince Sebas, who summoned senior officials to assess a deal that could transform the empire.

• Chris concluded that selling basic saltpeter field technology in return for Retalian withdrawal from Chivilevka Province was worth the strategic trade.
• Cassani returned to the Retalian camp with his wounded son Edmund after Chris agreed to the eight-thousand-warhorse ransom and one-month delivery period.
• Cassani told Sebas that Chris had offered saltpeter field technology in exchange for the Retalian-held territory in Minisia.
• Sebas reacted with shock and considered the technology’s potential to overcome the empire’s saltpeter shortage, while questioning whether the offer was genuine.
• Sebas ordered Cassani to record every detail of his meeting with Chris and summoned senior commanders, the chief court alchemist, and the chief engineer for an urgent discussion.

The Retalians exchanged saltpeter-field technology for land with the Bagnians, then launched a devastating cavalry raid into Minisia. As Retalian forces ravaged the heartland, Chris refused Minisia's pleas for help and told the Bagnians not to meddle.

• The Retalians and Bagnians finalized a deal exchanging saltpeter-field technology for land, while both sides rejected Minisia's envoys.
• More than half the Retalian army rode past Golden Ear City and severed Minisia's supply routes to the eastern front.
• The Retalians stormed Omdur Harbor, burned its warehouses, wrecked its facilities, and withdrew before the Minisian fleet could stop them.
• Over twenty thousand Retalian cavalrymen rode north and plundered Minisia's villages, towns, estates, and military sites.
• King Charles and his advisers found no way to stop the raids, while Chris kept the Bagnians out of the fighting and refused Minisia's appeals.

King Charles ordered the Minisian army to withdraw from Golden Ear City, but his decision to split the forces let Sebas trap and devastate them. After receiving the emperor’s approval for the Saltpeter Fields deal, Sebas ordered the Retalian army to end its campaign and prepare to withdraw, leaving Minisia near collapse.

• King Charles ordered the Minisian army to retreat toward Omdur, splitting his forces between a northern feint and the coastal road.
• Sebas launched the Harvest Plan, and Retalian cavalry harried Charles’s force while the main army blocked Norton Perrier’s route to Omdur.
• Chris kept the Bagnian Defense Force in camp and demanded 2,400 breeding horses from Sebas under their agreement.
• Sebas learned that Charles had escaped capture and that two bannered detachments had occupied Omdur’s port.
• A messenger delivered the emperor’s approval of the Saltpeter Fields deal, and Sebas ordered the Retalians to stop plundering and withdraw in three days.
• Sebas sent an envoy to Chris to arrange the warhorse delivery, hostage exchange, and transfer of Saltpeter Fields technology.

Chris completed Bagnia’s takeover of Dul and Chivilevka and planned how to stabilize and rebuild the devastated provinces while demonstrating Bagnia’s strength to the Retalia Empire. He left the border fortress with orders for relief, administration, and reconstruction, and approved private trade with Retalia.

• Chris received the final 2,400 warhorses from the Retalian Army, sent the Retalian delegation to the Saltpeter Fields under escort, and released captured Retalian nobles and soldiers.
• Alex reported that Tavitsky had completed spring planting, trained its Blue Banner Army auxiliary corps, and begun collecting taxes; Chris ordered troops and officials sent to Dul and Chivilevka and granted Tavitsky a three-year agricultural tax exemption.
• Chris ordered Major General Marlow to clear Dul’s ruins, recover and bury bodies, establish refugee camps, and survey a temporary military wharf while postponing construction of a commercial port.
• Chris ordered fields near Tavitsky cleared and planted, while making Dul’s coast and central ruins military-controlled zones and organizing refugees into work-relief crews.
• Chris ordered Blue Banner Army units to help Chivilevka’s farmers rebuild, strengthen the border fortress, and extend the Supply and Marketing Cooperative into both provinces.
• Chris approved private trade with the Retalia Empire despite the risk of enemy spies, deciding that regulated trade was better than smuggling.

Valentin inspected the Blue Banner Army in Tavitsky Province and reported its exploitation of tenant farmers, while Chris explained why he relied on it to govern newly occupied lands. The chapter ended when a messenger warned Chris that Minisia nobles had discovered the Tia Family’s hiding place.

• Valentin surveyed the Blue Banner Army’s farms and saw soldiers using their authority to exploit tenant farmers.
• Valentin rode to a village to hear the farmers’ views and planned to include his concerns in a report to Chris.
• Chris learned that Valentin and other observers feared the Blue Banner Army would grow corrupt, but he kept relying on it because Bagnia lacked a local governing system in the occupied provinces.
• A messenger told Chris that Minisia nobles had discovered the Tia Family’s hiding place.

Elena Tia refused to leave the hidden valley without the rest of her family, despite the commanders’ warnings and Prince Chris’s need for her. She ordered the guards to protect the Tia Family and search for her missing relatives, but the valley’s brief safety ended when Retalian cavalry arrived.

• After a supply escort reached the valley, Elena and the Tia Family settled into a guarded wooden settlement and recovered from their hardships.
• Alvin and Torres urged Elena to leave for Bagnia, but she insisted on waiting for her father and other relatives and for Prince Chris to secure a stronger escort.
• Elena ordered Alvin and Torres to strengthen the valley’s defenses, send scouts to search for her family, and monitor enemy forces.
• Alvin and Torres accepted Elena’s decision and pledged their companies to defend the valley and her family.
• Retalian cavalry arrived, ending the Tia Family’s brief period of safety.

Retalian cavalry drove Elena and the Tia Family from their hidden valley, and a Minisian noble later discovered their abandoned refuge and alerted Charles, who sent troops after them. After hearing that the exiles were in danger, Chris ordered a quest for nearby Players to rescue them.

• Retalian cavalry approached the valley, and Elena ordered tighter defenses while refugees crowded into the camp.
• A Retalian company attacked and killed the refugees outside the entrance, forcing Elena, Alvin, and the Tia Family to flee through the rear of the valley while Torres held the fortifications.
• The Retalians withdrew without entering the valley, but Alvin advised Elena that returning was too dangerous, so she ordered everyone to keep moving and sent Torres to join them.
• After the Retalians left, a Minisian noble discovered evidence that the Tia Family had sheltered in the valley and informed the King; Charles sent elite troops to hunt the family.
• Chris heard about the Tia Family's plight and ordered a quest for nearby Players to support them and bring them back.

Jacques assigned military farmland in Tavitsky to veterans, and Bard accepted a militia captaincy and vowed to plant potatoes. The arrival of elite troops raised fears of an urgent crisis, and the veterans offered to return to service as Jacques went to seek answers.

• Jacques showed Bard his 150 mu of military farmland and explained the rules for using it.
• Jacques offered Bard another 50 mu of militia farmland if he became militia captain, and Bard accepted the post.
• Bard declared he would plant potatoes across his land, while Jacques recorded his appointment and continued assigning plots to veterans.
• Mountain Tiger knights and Varangian warriors raced past the farmland, alarming the soldiers and prompting speculation about a new crisis.
• Kruger, Bard, and other veterans offered to take up arms again, but Jacques told them to protect their land while he went to ask what had happened.

After a bloody battle left him weary of killing, Black-and-White Bear accepted a mission to help civilians and found survivors in Oak Stump driven to fight over ruined crops. He offered them a chance to survive in Bagnian territory, and Jacob and the other villagers began to consider leaving.

• Black-and-White Bear agreed to Old Li's main quest to save lives rather than kill, then set out alone.
• Jacob returned to Oak Stump's ruined fields and found that hungry survivors had ravaged the crops left after Raitelia's cavalry destroyed the village.
• Jacob attacked Pierre for cutting green wheat from his field, drove him away, and then collapsed in grief over the famine and ruined land.
• Black-and-White Bear approached Jacob and told him that farmers could find land and grain in Bagnian territory or work for Bagnian veterans.
• Jacob looked east and began to resolve to leave for Bagnia, while the gathered villagers also considered going.

Black-and-White Bear traveled north through famine-stricken Minisia, witnessing the devastation and the players’ slaughter of local soldiers. At the Tia Family’s mountain hideout, he used a player assault on the blockade as cover and approached the road into the mountains.

• Black-and-White Bear crossed Minisia, killing starving bandits and observing abandoned fields, silent villages, and desperate refugees outside White Rock City.
• A merchant told Black-and-White Bear that Minisia’s nobles could obtain grain by sea but refused to provide meaningful relief.
• Black-and-White Bear witnessed players overwhelm a Minisia garrison and decided that the country’s crisis suggested a rough, possibly impractical plan.
• Black-and-White Bear reached the Tia Family’s mountain hideout and found its road entrance blocked by several hundred private soldiers.
• Players attacked the blockade with heavy cavalry and firearms, drawing the defenders’ attention while Black-and-White Bear approached the mountain road under cover.

Black-and-White Bear found Martha, a maid of the Tia Family, and persuaded her to lead him to the fugitives’ hidden camp. He identified himself to armed Bagnia soldiers guarding the entrance, but their wary standoff remained unresolved.

• On the eleventh day of his search, Black-and-White Bear came upon Martha picking berries in a forest clearing.
• Black-and-White Bear told Martha that Prince Chris had sent him to rescue her, and she reluctantly agreed to guide him to the camp.
• Martha led Black-and-White Bear along a concealed route to a narrow crevice hidden behind vines.
• A Bagnia soldier aimed a flintlock at Black-and-White Bear while another covered him with a crossbow.
• Black-and-White Bear raised his hands, identified himself as a member of the Han-Tang Warriors Battle Group acting on Prince Chris’s orders, and warned that many people had entered the mountains.

Black-and-White Bear reached the Tia Family’s hidden valley and found its residents short on food, fuel, medicine, and able fighters. He coordinated with the players to distract the Minisians, threaten their supply hub at White Rock City, and deliver supplies before the refugees starved.

• Bagnia soldiers recognized Black-and-White Bear, and Martha led him to the Tia Family’s actual refuge in a secluded valley.
• Black-and-White Bear learned from Centurion Torres that more than two hundred people were hiding there, with only five days of food and thirty soldiers fit to fight.
• Black-and-White Bear contacted the players’ commanders but refused to reveal the valley’s location because exposure could endanger the refugees.
• Little Knife, Old Li, and Black-and-White Bear devised a plan to stir up trouble in the mountains and attack White Rock City to disrupt the Minisian supply lines.
• Black-and-White Bear told the players to send supplies into the mountains within five days, while Olaf and other warbands prepared to join the fighting.

Black-and-White Bear prepared a nighttime supply mission and refused Elena Tia’s request to meet, telling her to keep the people in the valley in order. After learning that he was a powerful grand knight, Elena reinterpreted his refusal as an etiquette matter and planned to gain his support.

• Black-and-White Bear told Torres to assemble men without night blindness for a nighttime supply run at least five kilometers away.
• Black-and-White Bear refused Martha’s request to meet Elena Tia and said he would focus on the mission while she kept the valley’s people in order.
• Elena Tia swallowed her anger, asked Martha to investigate Black-and-White Bear’s identity, and learned of his battlefield reputation and affiliation with the Han-Tang Warriors.
• Elena Tia concluded that Black-and-White Bear had refused her because she had breached noble etiquette, and she ordered Torres’s people to cooperate fully with him.
• Elena Tia told Martha to convey her apology and concern to Black-and-White Bear and to find a valuable Tia Family item, such as her father’s sapphire-set family crest ring, to offer as thanks.

General Hoffman used White Rock City and its imprisoned Tia Family members as bait to lure their surviving relatives into a trap. Nearby, Olaf’s Varangian Warband ambushed and massacred a Minisia cavalry unit returning from an attack on the Little Erlang Backpack Corps, then escaped with supplies and equipment.

• General Hoffman ordered rumors spread that White Rock City was undermanned and that the Tia Family’s captured men were alive there, while strengthening the dungeon guards to keep the hostages available as bait.
• Olaf spotted a suspicious convoy near White Rock City and kept his Varangian Warband hidden, while the Little Erlang Backpack Corps attacked the convoy and drew a Minisia cavalry response.
• After learning the cavalry had intercepted the Little Erlang Backpack Corps, Olaf prepared a roadside ambush with obstacles, traps, and concealed archers and axemen.
• The returning Minisia cavalry entered the trap, and Olaf’s Varangians broke their formation and killed them in a brutal attack.
• Olaf ordered his warriors to loot usable equipment and surviving horses before the Varangian Warband disappeared into the woods.