The Witcher: Lord of the Empire

Queen Calanthe had ruled with effort and built Cintra into the fifth kingdom after the four great kingdoms of the North. At its peak, Cintra could muster an army of twenty thousand men. However, after Nilfgaard caught them in a trap and destroyed their main army in a single battle, what was left were only small scattered combat units that were being eliminated bit by bit. Now, the remaining fighting ability was truly meager.

"If we combine the forces of Brokilon and Marshal Vissegerd's army, along with the young men we have recruited for the army, we could mobilize about five thousand men in about a month." Mousesack analyzed. "But those five thousand would only be enough for one battle. If we fail to drive Nilfgaard out in one blow and the war drags on, our supplies will be severely strained. At least half of those men will have to withdraw to deal with logistics."

Lann pondered for a moment. "In other words, our real standing army level combat power is only about 2,000?"

Mousesack nodded.

The army of the Northern Kingdom is mainly divided into two types: standing army and conscripted soldiers.

Standing army is a professional soldier, completely off-duty, and the task all year round is training and preparing for war. It is mainly composed of knights, kingdom guards, and city guards. Strong armies may also have special numbered legions.

Conscripts are essentially peasants. They only have a few dozen days a year to fight for the king on a voluntary basis, and they don't have much combat power. They are basically used as logistics or cannon fodder. Once this voluntary period is over, if the battle is not over, the king will have to pay to hire conscripts to continue fighting for him.

In Calanthe's time, Cintra was well equipped and virtually all citizens were soldiers. The quality of conscripts was also the best in the North. Now that the kingdom is broken and the family is ruined, the conscripts are naturally on standby at all times and volunteer to join the army. But they are willing to fight, but Cintra now has no capital to let all these more than 3,000 people leave their jobs to become soldiers. They have to engage in production work on a daily basis, and even the standing army that is not fighting on the front line has to help occasionally.

So, as Mousesack said, those five thousand men only had strength for one battle. After the first battle, no matter what, most of these soldiers will have to go back to production. And if casualties were too high, the entire structure of Cintra could collapse.

Aside from those five thousand men from Cintra, the only additional forces would come from the United Kingdom of Lyria and Rivia, and from Aedirn.

The United Kingdom, which was also fighting for its survival, could muster about fifteen thousand troops for the war, all of whom would be fully available for combat.

Aedirn, being a large kingdom, could mobilize around forty thousand men, between the standing army and the conscripts. But since they would only be involved in support, if they could send ten thousand soldiers it would be too much to ask. If there are more, they themselves and even other kingdoms in the North may have objections.

Lanen thought for a moment before saying: "Let all these 5,000 people leave their jobs and strengthen their training."

Looking at the two elders who were hesitant to speak, Lann smiled and said: "What I gained this time is not only the help of the northern kingdoms, but also wealth, a huge amount of wealth. Not only is it enough to support us to restore and rebuild our kingdom, but it is even enough for us to hire a mercenary group to replenish our troops."

Enns reflexively opened the account book in front of him. "That requires a lot of money."

Lann smiled and said: "I do have a very big amount of money."

Cintra has five thousand soldiers, the United Kingdom fifteen thousand, Aedirn ten thousand. Adding it all up, it barely reaches thirty thousand.

And what about Nilfgaard?

During this period, through the intentional or unintentional intelligence support of intelligence organizations in various kingdoms and the help of Novigrad, everyone now has a general understanding of Nilfgaard.

First, Nilfgaard unified the south, with a population of between 30 and 50 million. This data fluctuates because the local intelligence is not very detailed.

By comparison, the population of the entire North is about 30 million. Among the four northern kingdoms, Temeria and Redania, which have the largest populations, have a total of about 10 million.

What is really terrifying is the strength of Nilfgaard. The entire Black Sun Empire has a standing army of 350,000, plus civilians, logistics, conscripts, etc., so it is no problem to claim to have a million troops.

This is a million troops, and the entire northern army combined does not have so many. A figure so high that any northern intelligence agency receiving this news would be in shock. This is a number that makes people feel desperate just by hearing it.

However, fortunately, Nilfgaard did not come out in full force this time. First, his internal integration has not been fully completed, and second, they still need to leave people to guard the rear. This time, Nilfgaard sent a vanguard of 100,000 to attack the North. Only after opening the gap in Cintra and establishing a base, the army behind will be transported over.

This is because Nilfgaard is fighting at long range, which puts a great strain on its logistics. Therefore, Nilfgaard is eager to capture Cintra in one battle and turn this gateway to the North into its own province. It will become a springboard for launching a general offensive against the North.

Of course, to this day, that strategic goal has yet to be achieved. But Nilfgaard has reportedly already gathered troops in Lower Sodden, right next to Cintra, and in Angren, adjacent to the Yaruga River, establishing temporary military bases in both places. They have also turned several towns south of Cintra into temporary war fortresses.

In other words, if Lann wants to drive Nilfgaard away, he must speed up the progress before Nilfgaard's follow-up troops come to gain a foothold. And Nilfgaard is obviously aware of the negotiations in the north, so they will surely be on guard against any moves by Lann and his group.

Mousesack analyzed the situation: "According to intelligence reports, the Nilfgaard army lost twenty thousand men in the Battle of Sodden Hill against the allied forces from the north. In our great battle for Cintra and the skirmishes that followed, they also lost over ten thousand soldiers."

"Even so, there are still more than 60,000 people." The old butler Enns frowned.

"There are also many factions among the Nilfgaardians. I heard that their emperor Emhyr executed a group of older officers before, which strengthened the cohesion of the troops. But this also made their officers and soldiers lack running-in. In addition, their current garrisons are all occupied lands, and a large number of natives have been captured as slaves by them." Mousesack said meaningfully: "Their position is not as firm as it seems."

"Ever since they abandoned their attempt to take over all of Cintra, Nilfgaard's main forces have moved east to attack Queen Meve's Kingdom. According to what Lann has told us, Aedirn plans to aid this kingdom. So our mission is to deal with the remaining five thousand Nilfgaardians in Cintra, plus the ten thousand soldiers who are camped in Lower Sodden and could come to their support at any time."

"15,000 people, three times as many as ours. And these 5,000 soldiers under Lann are very valuable. They will be the seeds of Cintra's rise in the future. We can't really lose most of them here."

"We need to plan a surprise attack, a blitzkrieg, to destroy the enemy's main force and morale in one battle and drive them out of Cintra completely before the reinforcements can react." Lann pondered. "It's the only way, Cintra cannot afford a war of attrition."

If they want to achieve this goal, they need additional support.

Mousesack nodded. "Skellige could help us. They could launch a surprise attack from the river and stop the enemy at Lower Sodden. It remains to be seen how many men they can send."

The people of the islands, who are based on clans, have a total army of no more than 10,000. But on the sea, they can fight against enemies that are several times or even dozens of times their own. The mobility of coming and going like the wind also allows them to plunder the southern coastal areas almost without damage, which is most suitable for harassment operations.

"I will talk to Skellige, just in time to visit Uncle Eist." Lann said.

Then he added: "Aside from that, we'll need more support. We need to hire a large number of mercenaries. We won't turn away anyone from the north, especially those from Kovir, who have huge mercenary companies. Also, Redania has promised us access to their transport ships, which will allow us to bring mercenaries to fight for Cintra."

Enns said worriedly: "Kovir's mercenaries are certainly formidable, but their rates are already astronomical. If we want to hire them on a temporary basis, we'll need to pay them at least 50-100% more than usual. And if we add in the costs of transportation and logistics, even if we were to empty Cintra's coffers, we wouldn't be able to afford it."

The Kingdom of Kovir is located at the northernmost end of the North. It is a strange and absolutely neutral kingdom. It is most famous for its mineral resources. It is said that Kovir produces 80% of the gold and 70% of the dimeritium in the North. Therefore, even though Kovir has a small population, it has formed one of the most powerful armies in the North by hiring mercenaries, and even defeated the coalition forces of Redania and Kaedwen.

It is no wonder that the old butler looks worried when stealing business from such a kingdom.

"I'm very rich now." Lann chuckled. "Not only will I use mercenaries to supplement our forces, I will also upgrade the equipment of Cintra's existing soldiers. I have heard that even the simplest soldiers in Nilfgaard are equipped with chain mail, while northern recruits must bring their own weapons, and some do not even have a decent coat."

Lann said seriously: "Cintra's soldiers will be as well equipped as those of Nilfgaard, if not better."

Enns sighed even more heavily. "That will not only require a lot of money, but also craftsmen and manpower. It's not something we can easily do at the moment."

"I will go to the dwarves of Mahakam and buy equipment from them." Lann said. "If possible, I would even like to borrow a heavy infantry from them to fight against Nilfgaard's cavalry."

Spending money to hire Kovir mercenaries, directly buying equipment from dwarves, and even persuading dwarves to send troops to support. Any of these things sounded unbelievable to Enns and Mousesack. But none of them refuted Lann, but after Lann proposed it, they began to think about how to achieve the goal set by Lann to the best of their ability.

Enns took out a notebook and, after a while of writing and calculating, he finally showed it to Lann.

"I don't know how many times I have said this today, but Lann - this is a lot of money."

Lann glanced at the numbers and smiled. "Then Enns, do we have an empty warehouse now? I will show you my current wealth."

The old butler had long known that Lann had the magical space storage ability. After hearing Lann's request, he and Mousesack led Lann to an empty barn.

Lann looked around, stretched out his left hand to open the [Inventory], and gently supported Enns's back with his right hand.

"Master?" Enns asked, not understanding.

"To keep you from getting too excited." Lann joked, ready to turn the old butler into his 'follower' if the shock of the resulting wealth was too much for him.

Enns sighed. "Master, I am the royal butler and grew up in the palace since I was a child."

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