Ch.137Expansion (9)

However, Neustria’s resistance was meaningless.

The Duke of Anjou, who had taken up his father’s will to continue negotiations with Lotharing, refused to ally with Neustria. This was partly because the killer of his father had not been clearly identified, and rationally speaking, Lotharing had no reason to kill the Duke of Anjou who was in the midst of surrender negotiations.

Of course, the private friendship with the Duke of Aquitaine and the Duke of Anjou’s own cowardly nature also played a part in that decision.

The Duke of Provence’s army could no longer advance due to Lotharing’s solid defense and the pro-Lotharing nobles stabbing them from behind. With the Duke of Anjou refusing to project power outward and instead focusing on internal affairs while holed up in his domain, Neustria was literally left to fight Lotharing alone.

“Indeed, learning through actual combat is much better.”

The battle with Neustria provided great benefits to Lotharing’s officers and officer candidates—the precious experience of real combat.

Not a single student was attending the recently established military academy in Dijon, where they should have been studying. This was because everyone had gone to vivid practical training grounds where they could learn and experience more than what they would in school.

Students learning defensive warfare went to Provence in the south, those learning offensive warfare went to Neustria in the northwest, and those learning logistics were receiving very realistic—or rather, reality itself—education everywhere, gaining knowledge. Of course, this was accompanied by the generals’ military research as well.

“It seems they intend to hold out until the end…”

“What should we do?”

“What else? If they want to die, we should naturally oblige them.”

Neustria, whose capabilities had largely depended on Lotharing’s weapons sales and financial support, could no longer hold out.

They had already lost much of their strength fighting a civil war, and it was nearly impossible to withstand Lotharing’s army, which had recovered through extended rest periods despite having fought several wars.

Nevertheless, the Duke of Neustria refused to surrender, which left a meaningful impression on Lotharing’s nobles and soldiers.

Some admired the enemy duke’s courage and tenacity, showing respect; others scoffed at the duke’s futile resistance; and some felt shock and fear toward their lord who had pushed the duke to the edge with an assassination plot.

Of course, regardless of their various emotions, they all had the same job to do: to defeat the resisting enemy.

“Fire the cannons.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

General Arras, who had been enjoying a comfortable retirement as the headmaster of the military academy before being hastily recalled to active duty due to the war, was utilizing the new weapon—the cannon—very effectively. He was so fond of it that it would be fair to say the cannon was using the army rather than the army using the cannon, as he based all his tactics around it.

As a result, Neustria’s defense became not just futile but completely meaningless, because castle walls, which formed a major pillar of medieval defensive tactics, had become useless. The core of defense was to hold out in a castle, disrupting the enemy’s siege weapon production and supplies until they ran out, but Neustria could accomplish neither.

If the firing angle could be adjusted, the cannons could collapse castle walls without giving defenders time to prepare a response. Additionally, supplies continued to flow uninterrupted through the trade routes that Lotharing merchants had established throughout Caroling over the past one to two years.

Even if they somehow managed to cut off Lotharing’s supply lines, numerous preserved foods like hardtack and pemmican allowed the army to hold out for a long time without supplies, and new supply routes were quickly established, rendering such efforts meaningless. The Duke of Neustria felt frustrated, as if punching a rock with bare hands, but he never surrendered.

After all, he couldn’t negotiate with a shameless bastard who had killed his father and framed him for the crime.

BOOM!!

“Kuheu… A sound that shakes your entire body no matter how many times you hear it. I love it.”

“Really? I find it too loud and unpleasant. My ears keep ringing, and it won’t stop.”

The Duke of Neustria’s castle crumbles like a sand castle under the cannon fire, just like the other castles that had faced Lotharing’s army.

Lotharing’s soldiers show various reactions to the cannon’s roar and power, but they all share one identical feeling:

With those cannons, existing castles would become as useless as neighborhood stone walls.

“Everyone attack!! Charge through that gap as we always do!!”

“Uwaaaaaa!!”

When the commoner soldiers serving as non-commissioned officers—a new military rank created by Claude’s military reforms—vigorously declared the charge, the soldiers responded by taking up their weapons and charging forward.

Of course, the Neustrian army didn’t just stand by watching; they resisted using the collapsed castle walls and city as barricades, but that resistance was quickly consumed by flames from the firebombs thrown by a handful of skirmishers.

[They refuse to surrender and either resist using collapsed walls as obstacles or hole up in the city, causing heavy casualties? Hmm… Well, I have just the right thing for that.]

Upon receiving reports that Neustria would resist to the end even if it meant using citizens as shields, Claude adopted firebombs that were perfect for such environments.

Glass production was quite difficult, but since the purpose was to break them anyway, and bubbles or impurities didn’t matter, it wasn’t a major issue as long as they maintained a basic shape.

They filled these bumpy, impurity-laden glass bottles with oil, tree resin, honey, and sugar made from sugar beets, then sealed the openings with oil-soaked rags to create firebombs. As Claude had anticipated, these firebombs proved extremely effective in narrow city streets.

Enemy troops crowded in confined spaces collapsed as entire formations burned in the sticky flames of oil, tree sap, and honey. The medieval cities, mostly wooden structures, could not withstand the inferno. Consequently, rumors spread that the King of Lotharing enjoyed handling terrible hellfire and taking lives with it, further heightening Claude’s notoriety.

Of course, firebombs were extremely expensive due to their materials, limiting them to about five per division, but since they were only used in otherwise impenetrable areas, this caused few problems.

“…Is this the end? How empty.”

“You know that’s deceptive, right? If you’re going to feel so deflated, why not let me have the duke’s head?”

With the Duke of Neustria meeting his death at the hands of Lotharing’s soldiers without surrendering, the Neustrian front finally concluded.

The nobles who stood with the Duke of Neustria to the end all died without surrendering, either stabbed by swords or burned to death, resulting in numerous ownerless lands throughout Neustria.

And those ownerless lands would be given as rewards to the many soldiers and nobles who had distinguished themselves in this war.

……….

‘…But why?? He could have just surrendered.’

I simply cannot understand.

I can understand killing his father because he wanted to become duke and then framing me for it. But what’s the point of becoming duke only to die like this? Shouldn’t he have tried to survive first?

Sigh, never mind. How can an ordinary person understand the thoughts of a madman?

‘Well… the outcome isn’t all bad.’

Because Neustria refused to surrender and continued to resist, many nobles there have completely vanished.

Of course, some nobles didn’t participate in that madness and coolly surrendered to me, but even considering that, it’s undeniable that ownerless lands have sprung up like mushrooms throughout Neustria.

It would be great to distribute those ownerless lands to meritorious soldiers, make them my vassals, and incorporate them into the Kingdom of Lotharing.

The basic power disparity between Caroling and Lotharing is already severe, so balancing them as much as possible this way will make it easier for me to govern.

[I beseech you, noble one who wears two crowns and rules two kingdoms. Please allow me to manage the minor nobles near Aquitaine.]

I realized something from the Duke of Aquitaine’s recent request.

Due to my extremely negative image, it would be quite difficult to directly govern the territories of the Carolingian Kingdom, so it would be better to follow the method suggested by the Duke of Aquitaine.

Distribute the ownerless lands to meritorious subjects to make them landed nobles, incorporate them into the Kingdom of Lotharing as my direct vassals, and dump the already-owned lands on nearby major nobles to manage.

Following this solution would address Lotharing Kingdom’s chronic hierarchy problem while eliminating the need to manage my image with numerous nobles.

Of course, this would empower the major nobles, making them more difficult to deal with, but facing a few enormous nobles is better than dealing with numerous small and medium nobles, so it should be fine.