The Second Lauch Conquest of The Hales

The Second Lauch Conquest of The Hales (also known as The Second Conquest and The Second Lauch-Hale War) is a continuation of The Hallengardian Reconquest.

Origins of the conflict
The Lauch court expected their settlement to defeat the Hallengardian Kingdom, so once the northern nation annexed their settlement, they declared war on Hallengard.

The Battles
Prior to the events, Braun has studied The First Conquest, and he thoguht that if it wasn't for King Morker suing for peace, they could have won. The nothern king aimed to repeat the same strategy, and launch an invasion once the invading waves have ceased.

Emperor Denis, however felt like the reason why Hallengard rebelled was because they let them have too much freedom, he wanted planned to conquer all of The Hales with a single invading wave, to project the might of the empire.

Instead of capturing the south and continuing north, the Lauch wave arrived on four different eastern coasts. While the Hallengardians managed to defeat the invaders on the northest coasts, the empire managed to capture three thirds of The Hales.

The emperor offered to spare Braun's life if he surrendered, but Braun chose to fight until the very end. Although Lauchette had the numerical superiority, Hallengard managed to fight back until they completely ran out of food, and due to starvation, the Hallengardians were forced to surrender.

Aftermath
Even though the empire won the war, the court saw the uprising as a failure in control and power projection. Emperor Denis was advised to punish the nothern kingdom, but his choices were found harsh even by his own advisors. He had Braun Tarbor publicly hanged from his castle and permitted the body's removal, it was only burried when it rotted away and the weight of the snow brought it down. Besides the king, he had every known member of House Tarbor decapitated.

Afterwards he ordered his soldiers to go through each Hallengardian family and only leave the youngest among the children alive, to decrease their number. Many escaped to Aedwin, and some managed to hide their children, but nevertheless, the majority of Hallengardian youth was butchered. Once the Lauch army left, they took numerous women with them, who were forced onto slavery.

The territory of Aedwin was extended, as the entirety of Hallengard was annexed into it, although a few decades later they were seperated once again, to prevent the complete merging of the two cultures.

After the war both Hallengard's numbers and morale to rebel decreased drastically.