When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#577 - Post-War Settlement and Meliati

The moonlight illuminated the sky.

The sharp calls of the song thrush echoed repeatedly in the flickering campfire, yet these piercing sounds elicited no reaction from the camp.

Sentries on the wooden walls whispered, regretting not bringing their bows as they watched a wild deer pass by.

Military police and sentries in groups of four patrolled with halberds, deliberately softening their steps.

The sleeping camp was so quiet that the occasional groans of the wounded did not diminish the tranquility of the moonlight.

The soldiers were too tired; after days of continuous combat and today's battle, which had strained their nerves to the extreme, everyone was exhausted.

After forcing themselves to eat dinner, they could no longer hold on, grabbing their blankets and crawling into the narrow tents.

However, although Hohn was also incredibly weary, he did not yet have the luxury of sleep.

The cold wind, carrying the scent of grass and metal, licked the window panels, causing the leaky house to rattle loudly.

Inside the house, Hohn sat behind a makeshift rotten wooden table he had found nearby, listening to the reports and summaries from several legion scribes.

The wood in the stove still contained moisture, occasionally crackling and emitting a pungent, acrid smoke.

Hohn subconsciously rubbed the quill between his two fingers: "So, to summarize, in this battle, a total of 323 enemy knights were captured, including 118 Edict Knights, and a total of 271 knights were wounded or killed, including 98 Edict Knights. As for the infantry, due to their large numbers and chaotic management, statistics are not yet available?"

The casualties Hohn mentioned referred to severe injuries and deaths, meaning they would be unable to return to the battlefield for at least a year and a half.

After Prince Condé entered Thousand River Valley, his nine Edict companies, combined with the local Edict Knights from the Thousand River Valley Church, numbered just over 1,000.

The Battle of Pavia, the Battle of Black Mountain, the Battle of Little Pool City, the Battle of Rapid Stream City, and the Battle of Lapper River saw nearly four hundred Edict Knights killed or captured in scattered engagements.

Mélia also eliminated over two hundred Edict Knights on the Upper Riverford Shire battlefield.

When Prince Condé withdrew from Upper Riverford Shire in the second half of 1445, he had only 380 Edict Knights left, forcing him to spend a large sum of money to bring in over 130 Edict Knights from the Kingdom of Leia.

By the spring of 1446, Prince Condé had approximately 550 Edict Knights.

However, after the Battle of Black Lettuce Village and the losses incurred in the attack on Highfort, Prince Condé had only about 450 Edict Knights left.

In the Battle of Cheese Bay, Hohn eliminated 216 Edict Knights in one fell swoop, wiping out nearly half of the remaining Edict Knights.

Currently, Mélia is still pursuing the remaining Edict companies, but the battle is decided, and they are estimated to have little ability to resist.

Of course, it is very difficult to kill Edict Knights if they want to escape.

Hohn and Mélia have eliminated over 1,000 Edict Knights before and after, but perhaps only about half of them will truly never be able to fight again.

The rest are either dead or "missing," which means they felt there was no future in fighting in Thousand River Valley and ran back to their hometowns.

But in any case, the Church's main military reliance in Thousand River Valley has been completely emptied, turning it into a shorn lamb, just waiting to be slaughtered.

"Yes, the data should be available tomorrow or the day after." Pettier, sitting at another narrow scribing table, handed over the transcribed form. "Your Excellency, please take a look. This is our casualty report."

The smile that had been on his lips froze, and the joyful expression turned into a wry one.

Lowering his head, Hohn began to read the form.

At Hohn's request, the Savior Army government has gradually begun to promote the use of this two-dimensional table.

Without looking at the details, he scanned down to the end: "Our army suffered a total of 1,492 casualties, with lightly wounded soldiers not yet fully counted… the sixth and eighth legion commanders of the Black Crown died in battle, and the third, fourth, and fifth legion commanders of the Guard died in battle…"

Seeing this casualty figure, although he knew it was unavoidable, he couldn't help but sigh deeply.

The 1,492 casualties did not include the specific number of seriously injured and dead, simply because they could not determine whether some of the seriously injured would survive the night.

One of the gains from the previous rescue of Kashya Shire was that Hohn's army had a large number of newly added monks.

Lightly wounded soldiers who drink allicin can greatly reduce the possibility of infection.

Seriously wounded soldiers are first kept alive with divine magic or potions, and then witch doctors perform rituals or surgeries to try to rescue them.

If Hohn did not have a medical system far ahead of its time, the casualties in this campaign would have been five hundred more.

Compared to the Pavia period, where a quarter or an eighth of the army was lost in one battle, the casualties have been greatly reduced, but Hohn still feels heartache.

Especially since he saw many old faces who had followed him since the Gulag period on this list, people who could almost be considered Hohn's relatives.

As Hohn said before the war, battles will result in deaths, and although he will never see those familiar faces again, their sacrifices are not without value.

"Prince Condé's final charge was too dangerous." Even now, Pettier is still afraid. "At least a third of the casualties were caused by that final charge. If we didn't have monks using blessings to keep people alive and witch doctors to heal, the casualties would have been even greater."

Prince Condé's final charge, although Hohn appeared fearless and confident, was extremely dangerous in the eyes of others.

When the prince charged, almost all the war monks tried their best to form gun formations to block him, but they were constantly defeated.

Prince Condé was no more than thirty meters away from His Holiness. That dog Shar was a half-step Grand Knight. If he pounced over and injured His Holiness, what would happen?

Having been penetrated through three lines of defense, the war monks' morale was at a critical point or even on the verge of despair, either soaring to the sky or falling into the abyss.

If Hohn had been beheaded by Prince Condé, many of the new war monks would probably have collapsed and fled.

They were still farmers a few months ago and did not have the firm will of the veterans. Even the veterans were not robots.

The remaining steadfast war monks could probably stabilize the situation, but they would probably be unable to resist Prince Condé's attack and could only slowly retreat with the Holy Gun cavalry.

Hohn was so caught up in the heat of the moment that he didn't feel scared. He was able to calmly command the gunmen and falcon cannons, but now he himself is secretly shocked by his performance at the time.

"Try to save the lives of the seriously injured, and disability doesn't matter. There's a veterans' hospital; I'll take care of them anyway." Hohn put down the list in his hand. "Collect all the dog tags and the bodies, and list them in the Hall of Heroes later."

"Yes, Your Excellency." Armand, sitting behind the other scribing table, began to write in his memo.

Hohn put down the quill: "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, Mr. Cassani and Mr. Giganon have just arranged to visit, and they brought a mysterious guest who hopes to visit you."

These Franconians are fast; they won the battle in the afternoon and are already visiting in the evening.

As for that mysterious guest, Hohn could guess it was Montiac with his hemorrhoids.

"Find them a house to stay in first, and we'll talk about it when we get to Flystream Fortress. I have a lot of things to do right now and don't have time for the moment."

Trading with the Franconians is actually an important part of Hohn's future plans, but currently at least half of Thousand River Valley was taken down by Mélia.

With her popularity among the people and the current situation, he cannot act on his own.

Although the battle was won, as Prince Condé said, there are still a lot of troubles to come.

Kashya Shire has Putzelio's army, and North Mound Shire has the Gravel Field noble coalition.

Internally, there are nobles, citizens, and monasteries who are hedging their bets, and externally, there are the two countries of Norn and Franconia, who are watching with eager eyes.

Nearby, there is the issue of Grand Duchess Mélia and the division of his power, and further away, there is the possible invasion war of the Kingdom of Leia.

The most important thing at the moment is Mélia's problem. For at least ten years, it is best for both sides not to have civil war or split.

Otherwise, with the power of either side alone, they cannot compete with the Kingdom of Leia.

Thinking of this, Hohn's eyes slightly lost focus. For some reason, the half of the Grand Duchess's face under that iron mask always felt familiar to him.

Could it be that he had seen her before?

Impossible. Although the Grand Duchess occasionally comes to Highfort City, she always wears a hood and an iron mask, and he has never seen the Grand Duchess's face.

Speaking of Mélia, Mélia arrives.

Hohn was still thinking about her when he heard the sentry at the door report: "Your Excellency, Lady Mélia is here to visit."

The people in the room exchanged glances, their eyes filled with some suspicion.

"Please let her in." Supporting himself on the wooden table, Hohn walked towards the door to greet her.