Sitting in a cold and damp room, Grand Duke Mabra endured a sore waist and shoulders dealing with various things generated by tens of thousands of troops.

The 18-meter-high majestic wall of the fortress of Basen completely cut off all the light. The inside of the fortress was completely dark, and it was so wet that it was very uncomfortable.

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

If Basen’s fortress has huge hanging windows and low and beautiful walls, then it cannot be called a fortress, it can only be a huge and useless luxury manor.

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

His worrisome hair is almost all white. At the beginning, Basen Fortress was hoarding a terrible amount of food, so he never considered whether there would be a food crisis.

And he didn't expect that the group of rebels should really be so willing to make money, consume a lot of manpower and material resources, and just surround the Basen fortress for nine months.

Originally, what he wanted was to bring the army to station in the fortress and wait for the enemy to leave after a long time, and then look for opportunities to destroy them one by one.

However, things backfired. Not only did they not retreat, they made the encirclement more tightly closed, and they were unable to transport some food into the fortress.

Another two months have passed.

Empire twenty-five years in May.

The food crisis in the fortress was completely exposed to everyone. Before the Grand Duke Mabra could hide this, but now with the gradual reduction of food rations, everyone has discovered this.

No way, the food is getting less and less, Grand Duke Mabra must reduce the food ration as much as possible, so that he can last longer.

Various rumors fermented within the fortress. For a time, the entire fortress was flooded with rumors and suspicions and deceptions everywhere.

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

"Lord Duke, compared to what you have heard of the rumors in the fortress, panic has spread among the soldiers. If we don't do anything, I'm afraid the danger of collapse will come!"

Two earls who followed Archduke Mabula to the defense of the Basen Fortress appeared beside him. One of them was a vassal of Prince Mabula and the other was an imperial party.

Most of the soldiers in the fortress are directly under the royal family's army, and one-third of the directly under the regular army is defending here, in addition to a part of the army of the Grand Duke Mabra and the army of other vassals.

The composition is so complicated, which means that their time is not in harmony, and they have not reached the point where they can entrust life and death to each other.

The speaker was a vassal under Grand Duke Mabula. Originally, Grand Duke Mabula didn't want to bring any vassals.

But for the honor and the respect of Grand Duke Mabra, the Count of Kafta volunteered to follow him to the Fortress of Basen.

Of course, he is not a brainless person to become an earl.

There are four earls in Mabula, and the other three are either his nephews or royal relatives. He is the only one who surrendered Mabula during the war of unification and conquest of the Redka Kingdom.

The Grand Duchy of Mabula is huge and powerful, and Count Kafta has been flattering him over the years.

At the beginning, in his opinion, it was just sticking to a fortress, and there would be no danger at all, so he followed Grand Duke Mabra to here.

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

Grand Duke Mabra looked at the two earls and couldn't help sighing.

That gang of rebels was so determined that no one had expected. Tens of thousands of soldiers were eating horses and chewing. This is definitely an astronomical number, a number that is extremely painful for all lords.

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

"In that case, why should we stick to this fortress? This is about to become a dead city!" Count Kafta said loudly.

Soon, he realized that his tone was inappropriate, and softened and said, "Sorry, Lord Duke...but this is indeed true. If our ministry abandons here, only death is waiting for us!"

Grand Duke Mabra was silent, he was 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 be confused because of lack.

Even if the tragedy of eclipse does not occur at that time, I am afraid that there will be a large number of deserters or be defeated by the enemy.

If this is the case, then the 150 kilometers after the Fortress of Basen, 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 more than 10,000 regular troops.

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

However, Grand Duke Mabra still had doubts. If he left the fortress in this way, it would obviously discredit him, and maybe the people of Count Redmara would use this to attack him.

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

Seeing Grand Duke Mabra in a dilemma, another earl spoke. He was a royal family, Albergh.

"Let's do it, uncle, it's really unreasonable to hand over the fortress of Basen. Why don't we take this opportunity to fight the **** rebels for the final but decisive battle!" Count Albergh's face was full of fighting spirit.

"Decisive battle?" Grand Duke Mabra frowned, not knowing what he was thinking in his mind, and said after considering: "Go on!"

"You see, although the enemy has more than 30,000 people~lightnovelpub.net~, most of them are serfs who have no combat effectiveness. Even their regular army has uneven equipment, and the combat effectiveness is not as good as ours, the regular army. In terms of numbers, we are more than the enemy. We may not have the strength to fight a battle. I think if we fight a decisive battle with the enemy, we have a great chance of victory!"

A touch of arrogance flashed across the face of Count Alberger, and he said vigorously: "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 be able to build on the battlefield like his ancestors.

In his opinion, although the group of rebels is huge in number, it is not always true that whoever loses and who wins is really fought.

After listening to his words, Grand Duke Mabra was silent.

Count Kafta was shocked. With so many enemy troops outside the city, the Earl Alberg also bewitched the Duke into a decisive battle. This was simply a bet with his own life.

He just wanted to say something, when he saw Grand Duke Mabra slapped the table, he slammed up from the chair, and said awe-inspiringly: "In ten days! We will go out of the city to fight the rebels!"