Hyper-Dimensional Player

Balton was silent for a long time, finally nodded lightly and said, "We can only do this."

At the same time.

The army led by Torismund had already entered the central district of what would later become France. Everything in this battle was under his control, even more smoothly than he had expected. Because, in his estimation, if the Britain Kingdom wanted to capture the Italian peninsula, it would have to mobilize its elite main forces, meaning the Frank area would be guarded by at most ten thousand troops.

And even then they would have to use Frank's surrendered soldiers, whose morale would definitely be low.

"Your Majesty."

"Lord Holding has already defeated the enemies at the lower reaches of the Seine River."

Under the flying flag, a cavalryman rushed over excitedly, gasping for breath, "The enemy has retreated to the towns near Champagne."

Torismund was overjoyed at the news.

He immediately ordered, "Do not let them cross the Seine River, directly station in Gaul outside the mountains, if the British Legion's main forces retreat to Frank, they must be stopped with all efforts."

"Send people to monitor the movements of the Burgundians."

"At the same time, send envoys to meet the leaders of the Burgundians, as long as they don't interfere, the Western Goth Kingdom guarantees their independent statehood."

In order to divide Duncan's forces, Torismund spared no expense.

He secretly sent envoys to meet the leaders of the Burgundians, promising that after defeating Duncan, they would be allowed to establish the Burgundy Kingdom within the Gaul Province, regarded as a vassal state of the Western Goth Kingdom.

Now that he had become king, Torismund didn't have many opportunities to personally go to the front lines.

According to his habit, this proud and brave prince would have led the vanguard in a direct attack on Paris, but now he could only command the army from the rear. Upon learning the enemy had a legion stationed near Fontainebleau, Torismund immediately led an elite cavalry force to approach.

Unfortunately, before his army could arrive, when the reconnaissance posts noticed the flying king's banner, the enemy began to retreat immediately, abandoning even the newly built military fort.

At this point, most of the Île-de-France had fallen, and the British Legion could only rely on the low stone walls of Paris to barely defend themselves.

The entire situation in Western Europe rapidly deteriorated.

The Britain Kingdom, which had been at its peak a few months ago, suddenly seemed to falter; they lost three battles in a row, losing not only all the land west of Île-de-France, but also part of Burgundy.

If Paris couldn't hold, nearly all the Frank territories they had captured would likely fall.

On the plains of Normandy.

A force of more than 2,000 elite cavalry was taking a detour to strike at the enemy's rear. Accompanied by flying black dragon banners, a small squad of knights quickly caught up with the troops ahead, and soon Carl's figure appeared, dismounted, and said, "Governor."

"The enemy has already taken areas around Burgundy. As per your instructions, the Fifth and Sixth Legions are urgently returning as a feigned retreat to Frank."

"Lord Clegane has already led a group of Sarmatian riders into combat with the Western Goth cavalry."

Upon hearing this, Duncan reined in his horse with a confident demeanor and slowly said, "Have the Fifth and Sixth Legions launch the attack to distract the Western Goth forces in Lyon."

"Have Balton hold on to Paris."

As he spoke, he raised his whip and pointed westward, towards the Western Goth Kingdom's rear, and said solemnly, "Now it's our turn to come into play."

This force of over 2,000 elite cavalry began to accelerate forward.

Duncan's entire strategic plan wasn't complicated, nor had he studied much military theory; the basic tactical approach was learned from reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

To some extent, it was more of a psychological tactic.

First, upon hearing of the Britain Kingdom's attack on Italy, Torismund would be eager to seize the opportunity to cut off their retreat, not giving the main forces time to return.

To maximize gains, he couldn't possibly send a distant expedition to rescue the Pseudo Emperor; the best solution was to employ a strategy of encircling one state to rescue another.

This is the first factor, if Duncan were in command, he would certainly do the same because capturing Paris would be a major strategic victory.

Second, the Western Goth Kingdom had elite cavalry; they were adept at raids, and if the Britain Kingdom suffered losses on the frontline, they could immediately strike at the Île-de-France.

But in this era, the mobility of infantry could not match that of cavalry; if they really hit Paris' gates, pioneer cavalry alone would find it difficult to storm the city. Unless one's martial prowess matched Duncan's and employed a surprise attack, one needed siege engines.

With this, the Western Goth Kingdom's frontlines would stretch very long.

Most importantly, the enemy's cavalry and infantry would become somewhat disjointed, presenting numerous gaps and flaws from Duncan's godlike perspective.

At this point, Duncan had Balton deliberately lose three battles, achieving the goal of luring the enemy deep.

What followed was a grand performance for Torismund.

From start to finish, Duncan hadn't intended to forcefully attack the Italian peninsula; his greatest enemy was only the Western Goth Kingdom. Therefore, all the main forces from the third to the seventh legions were for show; the forts on the Italian peninsula were notoriously tough, with the Vandals even using deceit to conquer into the city of Rome.

In reality, attacking those strongholds on the Italian peninsula, which the empire had operated for centuries, would require large amounts of siege machinery.