Archdemon

How many counties does the Kingdom of Alto have in total? Only sixteen. The bite of the Ant Empire is not small.

"I think we can discuss with the Ant Empire. After all, the princess will always get married, and the Ant Empire wants two earldoms as the princess's dowry, which is normal, but two earldoms are indeed a bit too much. I think one earldom is enough."

A noble on the other side spoke calmly. This is a duke.

Huo Ling looked at the duke who spoke and couldn't help laughing in his heart. It turned out that this family was missed in the list provided by Xili in the last cleanup.

According to the information, the duke's territory is near the south of the kingdom, occupying a large area of ​​coastline. The family is strong and relatively wealthy.

There is also a saint in the family who obeys the orders of the royal family. Perhaps this is also the reason why the duke's family can escape being purged.

"Coward! They want two earldoms this time, and they will ask for two marquisates next time! Do you want to give it too!" The marquis cursed.

"Bold!" The Duke was also furious.

The nobles on both sides of the hall were also providing support to the nobles in their own camp, and the whole hall became noisy.

Huo Ling felt like watching a play when the nobles quarreled. The quarrels of these nobles were all for their own interests.

The territory of the marquis was in the north, facing the Ant Empire. The family had already forged a blood feud in the battle with the Ant Empire.

Moreover, these noble territories in the north were all owned by owners. The Ant Empire wanted two earldoms, so all the families in the north had to bleed.

Asking the nobles to cede their territories was more painful than killing them, and this might not necessarily feed the Ant Empire.

But for the families in the south, it would be best if they could avoid fighting. Anyway, the ceding of territories would not be theirs.

On the contrary, if they had to fight, they would have to send troops and food. After a war, it was estimated that the family's savings for several years would be destroyed.

No noble likes to fight, especially a war that doesn't make money.

The whole hall was like a busy vegetable market amid the quarrels of the nobles.

Augustine listened for a while, and after letting the nobles spray each other, he patted the throne.

The strength of a sanctuary-level warlock made his gentle patting reach everyone's ears.

"Enough!" Augustine said lightly.

He said: "Marrying a princess to the Ante Empire is not a big deal, but if you want a dowry of two earls, it's not appropriate."

As soon as Augustine finished speaking, a girl in the crowd of nobles in the audience turned pale.

Obviously, this is one of Augustine's daughters, and the princess who was asked to marry by the Ante Empire.

"Duke Dro, please arrange someone to talk to the Ante Empire. My bottom line is not to cede the territory." Augustine looked at the duke who had just quarreled fiercely.

The duke bowed slightly and said respectfully: "Yes! Your Majesty, I will arrange people to try to persuade them."

"Hmm~" Augustine nodded.

Then Augustine said: "Everyone knows what the Ante Empire thinks. This marriage is just an excuse for testing. Regardless of whether the envoys sent can succeed in the negotiation, everyone must be prepared to face the war next!"

...

The nobles in the hall soon dispersed. These nobles will return to their own fiefdoms or send messengers back.

In the following time, the private soldiers of these noble families will gather again and begin to prepare for the war.

For now, the Ante Empire is not ready for a real war. Of course, this is reported by the intelligence personnel of the Kingdom of Alto.

This kind of fighting method is relatively feudal. Not to mention anything else, it takes a long time to gather the private soldiers of each family.

If the royal family of the Ante Empire issued an order to start a war, the messengers would go to the homes of various families, and then these families would gather private soldiers, which would take time, and it would be difficult to hide this movement.

This is also the reason why large-scale battles rarely start suddenly or are caught off guard at this time.

As long as the king is not a fool and has some obedient nobles under his command, he will definitely receive the news before the enemy's attack begins.

After the nobles in the hall dispersed, Augustine looked at Huo Ling and asked, "Lord Huo Ling, what is the situation of the demon army?"

Although Huo Ling did not interfere much in the work of the court wizard to transform the demon army, he still needed to live in the barracks and supervise these soldiers.

He hardly thought about it.said: "The situation of the Demon Army is very good. Now there are about 25,000 soldiers who can fight. If we can delay for a few more months, this number should increase by several thousand."

The soldiers who can fight here are at least at the Black Iron level. Those whose strength cannot break through to the Black Iron level are not counted.

It has been more than a year since the Demon Army began to transform. Those who have not yet broken through to the Black Iron level are either those who are not talented enough to break through, or those who have just completed the transformation recently.

Among these more than 25,000 Demon Army soldiers, except for a small number who have maintained their original wisdom, the others have been cleansed of wisdom due to blood disease, leaving only the injected combat logic.

The strength of these soldiers who survived the blood disease has been further improved, and many have reached the strength of the Silver level. Of course, this also comes at a price, and their lifespan has become much shorter.

These Silver-level Demon Army soldiers are now arranged as low- and middle-level officers because of their normal wisdom. Only under their leadership can other Demon Army soldiers have the possibility of performing combat missions.

Because of the blood disease, the soldiers who lost their minds, although they have combat logic and can participate in the battle, they can't perform more complex tasks and can only swing knives to cut people.

"I will let the time for the Ante Empire to start the attack be extended for a while..." Augustine's face was calm after hearing this.

The troops of the Ante Empire are definitely more than those of the Alto Kingdom. Apart from other things, the Black Iron-level private soldiers gathered together have tens of thousands, plus those apprentice-level soldiers and serfs, the number is even greater.

And the Alto Kingdom, whether in terms of the number of elite soldiers or ordinary soldiers, is far inferior to the Ante Empire, even now with the addition of the magic army soldiers.