The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

When Keith arrived at the city wall, he saw the professionals already foaming at the mouth.

"Sir, there's not a single drop left, there really isn't a single drop left."

The still-energetic professional climbed up to Keith's side, as if he had been drained of all his strength.

The magic stones on the city wall had lost their faint glow and had become no different from ordinary stones.

The magical barrier appeared and disappeared intermittently, and Keith could already feel the vibrations from the exploding fireballs passing through it beneath his feet.

The tremors were clearly felt on the walls of Black Iron City.

"General?"

A soldier waved his hand in front of Keith, who seemed half-asleep, but Keith grabbed the soldier's hand and moved it away, staring at the magic barrier that was barely holding on and saying, "I think I saw my grandma. When the barrier disappeared, my grandma was smiling at me. Do you think I'm still drunk?"

"General, calm down! The barrier can hold for a while longer!"

After saying that, the soldier pulled a white cloth from his armor and said, "It's not too late for us to surrender!"

But Keith slapped the soldier across the face and yelled, "How dare you face the Governor! Think about how Governor Doug treats us!"

Keith paused for a moment, then said, "Forget it, don't even think about it."

After finishing his speech, Keith composed himself and roared again, "Think of the people and merchants in the city, think of your families and friends, think of yourselves! Do you deserve the armor you wear? Do you deserve the glory of the North? Surrendering at the first sign of trouble? Is this how soldiers are supposed to be?"

Hearing Keith's reprimand, the soldiers on the city wall lowered their heads, and even the professionals on the ground got up again.

"Can you afford the price of surrender? Standing on the city walls, are you all so innocent?"

The soldiers were filled with shame and indignation after hearing this.

Finally, Keith roared, "If we're going to vote, we have to wait until I've discussed it with the nobles and merchants in the city. If we vote now, how will we explain it to Governor Doug later? So listen to me, hold on a little longer, and I'll get the lords in the city to vote with us!"

As Keith turned to leave, he suddenly remembered something and said to the soldiers on the city wall, "Right, let's embroider the white flag first. When we surrender, we must do so with dignity and not let the enemy look down on us."

"Yes!"

After Keith finished speaking, the morale on the city wall was so high that everyone was determined to surrender. How much money did Governor Doug offer? Why risk their lives?

However, these soldiers really wronged Doug this time. Doug's investment in the Pétain Line was quite huge, including the reinforcements for the Pétain Line. But why didn't the Black Iron City, as the reinforcements, actually receive much money?

It's likely that the nobles under Governor Doug were all eager to learn, and after listening to Governor Doug explain how the Grey Collar army embezzled, they probably tried it out themselves.

In fact, Keith knew very well that the collapse of the city walls did not matter. Black Iron City was so large, and his side had the advantage in numbers, while the enemy only had a little over a thousand men. As long as Keith was willing to fight again, he could continue the battle.

Urban warfare is the most grueling, especially for the side that is outnumbered.

But the merchants and nobles in the city might not be willing.

Because once the enemy actually enters the city, the nobles and their residences will definitely be the primary targets for attack and occupation. Even if Keith bravely leads his soldiers in street fighting and holds out until the rescue, those noble lords will only grab Keith by the collar and ask, "What have you been protecting?"

Even if Keith wins in the end, he still loses.

For Keith, this was the true meaning of war, so even though he had never fought a war, he still became a general with the support of the nobles.

Down below the city, White got up feeling quite energetic, or rather, he hadn't slept at all the night before.

The opponent's magical barrier was more robust than expected, but after a day and a night of bombardment, it finally began to flicker.

It's unlikely that anyone in this era could have imagined an army continuously firing explosive fireballs at the city walls for a whole day and night.

Unless that army has a system of professionals, but if it did have a system of professionals, it probably wouldn't use such a simple and clumsy method.

Looking at the shimmering magical barrier, White began to think about what to do after the city fell.

After all, if the enemy were to engage in urban warfare, it could greatly slow down White's control of Black Iron City, as the number of soldiers was still too small.

The headquarters had already prepared a contingency plan, and the remaining troops of the Third Army were probably on their way. They would send people to assist White in controlling Black Iron City.

But the governor still thinks too highly of these northern nobles. White thinks these nobles might surrender even faster than the governor imagines.

Fortunately, the scouts reported that they could see the other comrades from the Third Army in the distance.

While waiting for the barriers on the city walls to completely break, White saw his own reinforcements arrive.

"Lord Sean."

White wanted to kneel down to pay his respects, but Sean helped him up.

"I'm just a staff officer, you're the commander-in-chief. What kind of commander kneels before a staff officer?"

"but..."

“No buts, General White, this is the army.”

Faced with Sean's firm stance, White resisted the urge to kneel, and the two eventually replaced formalities with a handshake.

Although I knew the governor attached great importance to this first battle, I did not expect the people who came to support him to be of such high caliber.

"Lord Sean, why is the support arriving a day or two earlier than expected?"

"The Pétain defenses were even weaker than my brother-in-law had imagined. They only made a brief contact and then didn't dare to show their faces. They didn't try to stop us at all, so we set off ahead of schedule."

"And I also brought alchemists with me this time. Oh, my brother-in-law said they are an engineer unit. Oh well, it's all the same anyway. Once the city falls, we can take over the city's defenses immediately."

While the two were talking, white flags were already flying on the city wall.

Sean frowned. Most of Doug's troops were originally from the Northern Army. The speed of their surrender was too fast. The two sides hadn't even really fought each other. Had the Northern Army degenerated to this extent?

Although they are now enemies, Sean still felt uneasy about the Northern Army's rapid decline; these soldiers might have once been members of the Lars family.

Seeing the enemy raise a white flag, White also stopped shelling, took the megaphone handed to him by a soldier, and shouted: "Northerners do not fight Northerners. Grey and White Collar treat prisoners of war well. Lay down your weapons and surrender immediately."

The other soldiers joined White in shouting.

Upon seeing this, Keith immediately led his troops, removed all their weapons and armor, and opened the city gates to surrender.

And so, one of the key reinforcements of Pétain's defense surrendered.

After confirming that the other party was not feigning surrender, Sean, surrounded by his guards, stepped into the almost intact city.

"This algorithm is so outdated."

Sean arrived at the tower on the city wall and inspected the magical barrier device there.

It can only be controlled by professionals, and even the magic stone power supply requires professionals to connect it. Moreover, the runes are arranged randomly, and the efficiency of the magic circle is extremely low.

The alchemists in military uniforms, carrying toolboxes, followed Sean into the tower, cursing at the control device of the barrier.

"Who the hell wrote this algorithm? It's worse than my son's homework."

"Recompile it; this old magic circle is completely unusable."

"No wonder we couldn't even hold out for a day. This waste of magic is too serious. What a disaster."

White also came to Sean's side. There was no way around it; although White was the commander-in-chief of the Third Army, Sean's actual status was much higher than White's, both in the past and now. Without realizing it, everyone still regarded Sean as their leader.

Sean shook his head and sighed. It seemed that his brother-in-law's reforms still had a long way to go. But it was precisely because of his special status that his brother-in-law had entrusted him with this heavy responsibility.

My brother-in-law must have his reasons for doing this, and I should learn a lot from him.

"Lord Sean, shall we have these professionals help us out?"

The soldiers pushed out those professionals whose eyes were unfocused due to depleted magic, and who still had foam at the mouth.

These professionals watched as the gray-collar alchemists, or rather engineers, grumbled and cursed as they drastically altered their prized magical barriers.

"No need, their level is not as good as my friend's younger sister who teaches elementary school."

In the past, Sean would probably have treated these professionals with great courtesy, even if they were enemies. But now, Sean wouldn't even bother to look at them with disdain.

However, these people are not entirely useless, but before using them, their so-called professional self-esteem must be shattered.

"Then what about the nobles and merchants in the city?"

“I’ll make contact with them. I guarantee they won’t cause any trouble for our defense.”

Sean was originally a top-tier nobleman, and he could easily control the nobles in a commercial city. Sean knew what they needed and could even guess why these nobles surrendered.

The Third Army quickly took complete control of Black Iron City, but the so-called reinforcements for Black Iron City had not even appeared.

White estimated that the other nobles had probably already received requests for help, since he hadn't placed any blockade on Black Iron City.

The project is about 80% complete, and people are starting to argue about whether or not to provide support. It will probably be some time before we actually set off.