Black Iron Crown

Sitting in a cold and damp room, Grand Duke Mabula endured sore waist and shoulders to deal with all kinds of things produced by tens of thousands of troops.

The eighteen-meter-high majestic city wall of Bassin Fortress completely cut off all the light, and the entire interior of the fortress was dark, and it was very wet and uncomfortable.

However, this is a normal phenomenon, and it is understandable to sacrifice familiarity in order to obtain strong defense.

If the Basin Fortress has huge hanging windows and low and beautiful walls, then this cannot be called a fortress, but can only be a huge and useless luxury manor.

"Hey..." Grand Duke Mabula frowned, put down the pen in his hand, and gently massaged his eyes and bridge of nose with his right hand.

His worried hair is almost completely white now. Back then Fort Bassin had a terrifying amount of food stockpiled, so he never considered whether there would be a food crisis at all.

And he didn't expect that the group of rebels would actually be so willing to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to surround the Basin Fortress for a full nine months.

Originally, what he thought was to take the army to station in the fortress and wait for the enemy to leave after being unable to attack for a long time, and then look for opportunities to defeat them one by one.

However, things went against their wishes. Not only did they not retreat, but they made the encirclement even tighter, even if they wanted to transport some food into the fortress from the rear.

Another two months passed.

May of the Twenty-Five Years of the Empire.

The food crisis in the fortress was completely exposed to everyone. Grand Duke Mabula was able to hide this matter before, but now with the gradual reduction of food rations, everyone has discovered this.

No way, the food is getting less and less. The Grand Duke of Mabula must reduce the food ration as much as possible, so that he can persist for a longer time.

All kinds of rumors fermented in the fortress, and for a while the whole fortress was filled with gossip, suspicion and deceit everywhere.

Feeling this atmosphere, some people couldn't bear it.

"My lord duke, compared to you who have also heard the rumors in the fortress, panic has already spread among the soldiers. If we don't do something else, I'm afraid the danger of collapse is coming!"

The two earls who followed the Grand Duke Mabula to defend the Basen Fortress appeared beside him,

One of them is a vassal of Grand Duke Mabula, and the other is an imperial party.

Most of the soldiers in the fortress are the army directly under the royal family, and one-third of the regular army directly under it is defending here. In addition, there are part of the army of Grand Duke Mabula and the army of other vassals.

The composition is so complicated, which means that their hearts are not aligned at the time, and they have not yet reached the point where they can entrust life and death to each other.

It was a vassal under the command of Grand Duke Mabula who was speaking. Originally, Grand Duke Mabula didn't want to bring any vassals here.

But the Earl of Kafta volunteered to follow him to the Fortress of Bassin for honor and the respect of the Duke of Mabula.

Of course, to be able to become an earl, he is not without brains.

Grand Duke Mabula has a total of four earls, and the other three are either his nephews or relatives of the royal family. He is the only one who surrendered to Duke Mabula during the war of unification and conquest of the Kingdom of Ridka.

The Grand Duke of Mabula has a huge and powerful territory, and Count Kafta has been courting him all these years.

But at the beginning, in his opinion, it was just to stick to a fortress, and there would be no danger at all, so he came here with Grand Duke Mabula.

However, as time went by, he felt more and more that the danger was approaching, and now that the food was running out, he finally couldn't bear it anymore.

Grand Duke Mabula looked at the two counts and couldn't help but sighed.

The resoluteness of the gang of rebels was beyond everyone's expectation. Tens of thousands of troops were eating horse chews. This is definitely an astronomical figure, a figure that makes all the lords extremely painful.

"I understand what you mean, but now we have nothing to do. Bassin Fortress has been completely surrounded by the enemy, and we can't get supplies at all!"

"In this case, why do we still stick to this fortress? This is about to become a dead city!" Earl Kafta said loudly.

Soon, he realized that his tone was inappropriate, and he softened and said, "I'm sorry, my lord Duke...but it is indeed true. If we all give up here, all that awaits us is death!"

Grand Duke Mabula is silent, he is not a pedantic person.

On the contrary, he sees the current situation very clearly. If they don't give up this fortress, sooner or later they will mess up because of the lack.

At that time, even if the tragedy of cannibalism does not happen, I am afraid that there will be a large number of deserters, or they will be defeated by the enemy.

If this is the case, then the 150 kilometers behind the Basin Fortress, the royal lords of more than 200,000 square kilometers will also become a pile of scorched earth.

In addition, the royal family will lose the strength of more than 10,000 regular troops.

In comparison, since these territories must be lost anyway, it is better to maintain the current vitality.

However, Grand Duke Mabula still had doubts. If he just surrendered Basin Fortress to others, his reputation would be ruined, and maybe Earl Redmara's gang would use this to attack him.

Grand Duke Mabula has a deep understanding of the short-sightedness of those people.

Looking at the Duke Mabula who was caught in a dilemma, another earl spoke up. He was a member of the royal family, Yarborg.

"How about this, uncle, it's really unreasonable to hand over Fort Basin to others, why don't we take this opportunity to have a final decisive battle with those damned rebels!" Earl Jahlberg's face was full of fighting spirit.

"Decisive battle?" Grand Duke Mabula frowned, not knowing what was going on in his mind, and said after a moment of deliberation: "Go ahead!"

"You see, although the enemy army has more than 30,000 people, most of them are serfs who have no combat effectiveness. Even their regular army has uneven equipment, and their combat effectiveness is not as good as ours. What's more, we may not be incapable of fighting, I think if we have a decisive battle with the enemy, we have a great chance of winning!"

A look of arrogance flashed across Earl Aarburg's face, and he said vigorously: "The victory often does not depend on the number of soldiers, but on whether their combat effectiveness is strong!"

As a member of the royal family, he is very proud of his identity, and at the same time, he also hopes to establish an unworldly deed like his ancestors on the battlefield.

In his view, although the number of the rebels is huge, it is not sure who will win and who will win when they really fight.

After hearing his words, Grand Duke Mabula fell silent.

Count Kafta was shocked. With so many enemy troops outside the city, this Count Aarberg tricked the Duke into a decisive battle. This was simply a gamble with his life.

Just as he was about to say something, Grand Duke Mabula slammed the table, got up from his chair, and said solemnly: "Ten days later! We will go out of the city and fight the rebels to the death!"