I Will Be The Crowned King

On May 30, the southern border of Thun.

The sun is sinking in the west, and the vast land covered by the blood-red sunset has been reduced to a piece of scorched earth.

The golden wheat fields were burning in the raging fire, and the dark smoke covered the sky; accompanied by the screams one after another, the figure in colorful uniform, holding the rifle with a cruel and bloodthirsty smile, rushed into the quilt in groups of three or five. A town shrouded in black smoke.

On the road between the lit farmhouses, there were several corpses lying in disorder, and the figure with the rifle stepped on the cold corpse and the blood that had not dried up and rushed into the village, smashing every closed room with laughter. Doors, knocking on every locked box, shining bayonets at every living thing, including hyenas.

From time to time, a few figures emerged from the thick smoke, holding soil guns and farm implements to resist; a few sparse gunshots cut through the sky, accompanied by roars and screams that stopped abruptly, and shadowy figures fell to the ground. Bayonet and still smoking muzzle.

Outside the villages and towns, more old and young women and children were strung together by twine like livestock. They watched the soldiers set fire to their houses and fields, and watched them rob their few clothes and pay taxes. The copper plate I used, watching my father, daughter, husband, sister... watching them resist, struggle, scream, struggle, cry, struggle...

With dull eyes, he watched them turn into corpses.

Immediately afterwards, a knight riding a horse and wearing a purple one-shouldered cloak held up a crimson bull flag and appeared in front of the villagers with a dazed expression.

Along with the savage laughter of the soldiers expressing their desire, the villagers who fell under the bayonet and the muzzle wailed; the knight who turned over and dismounted solemnly walked on the road covered with blood and bones, and planted the bull flag in the center of the village. In the center of the square, he said solemnly:

"I declare in the name of the distinguished Lakhar family that from now on, this land officially belongs to the Duchy of Paya!"

A similar scene is being played out simultaneously between every village, town and farm on the border of Thun.

Since the Duchy of Paya officially declared war on the Grand Duchy of Thun and launched an invasion, the situation has been extremely smooth.

After the most elite 18,000 troops went north to fight the Iser Elves, the whole of Thun immediately fell into an unprecedented state of emptiness; the hastily organized recruits could not even have a rifle, facing the Principality of Paya. The 5,000 elite teachers of the NPC are often collapsed at the touch of a button.

In just one week, Paya devoured all Thun's frontier territories, burned and looted dozens of farms of various sizes, and thousands of Thun people were captured as slaves; waiting for them will be Paya nobles manor and dark mines.

In the face of the fall of the territory, the Grand Duke Claude Francois, known as "60,000 troops with a stomping", was extremely strong in the past, but this time he was surprisingly silent.

Not only did he not take revenge immediately, on the contrary, in order to prevent the army of the Principality of Paya from continuing to invade inward, he gathered 10,000 recruits along the border of Thun, and arranged an incomparably long line of defense in pieces.

The strength of 10,000 troops is not much or not, but it can only play a little warning role on the entire front; and these recruits can't even have a rifle, and cavalry and artillery do not exist at all. Can't pose any threat to intruders.

Even so, Duke Lagar of the Principality of Paya did not dare to act rashly.

Although it is also one of the Seven Cities Alliance, the Grand Duchy of Thun is the "gatekeeper" of the northern gate of the alliance. It not only has a long history but also has strong strength; while the Duchy of Paya is more like a make-up, and it can only pull out five thousand with all its strength. people's army.

Out of prudence, or to embolden himself, Duke Lagal found two small counties and a free city around him, and promised to divide Thun's territory equally after the war, and at the same time, he took it out. A large "opening fee".

Under the enticement, the Principality of Paya expanded from 5,000 to 10,000 troops, at least on paper it has the strength to fight Thun's main force.

So upholding absolute trust in his allies, Duke Lagar lined up 5,000 reinforcements at the border of Thun, and confronted Thun's 10,000 recruits head-on.

And his own elites of the 5,000 Pal Principality were active on the inside, continuing to loot and sweep the farms in Thun's territory, searching for population and supplies, keeping the morale of the soldiers high.

The allies were moved by such a fair and just division of labor and cooperation; they said in unison that they must not watch the soldiers of the Principality of Paya undertake such a heavy mission alone, and must help them share a part.

As a result, the 5,000 Allied troops deployed on the border left their posts without authorization, participated in sweeping and looting activities, and even broke out many times because of fighting for the spoils; but the Principality of Paya was stronger, so it was still disadvantaged. allied forces.

After hitting the nails several times in a row, they began to turn their spearheads and directly forcibly crossed the line of Thun's defense to loot; to their surprise, the Thun defenders on the border were simply vulnerable, and after being defeated several times, He didn't even dare to stop the plundering army, watching them struttingly leave the country.

This result greatly stimulated the remaining soldiers of the Principality of Parr and their allies. The military discipline and organization on the defense line began to collapse, and all the troops began to invest in this large-scale group building of "collective wealth". went to the event.

In just a few days, the entire line of defense became useless; the trenches at key positions were empty, the important strongholds and barracks were full of captured serfs and livestock, and the gun forts were so full of officers’ belongings that there was nowhere to go. Settlement - the ammunition boxes and artillery that were in the way, were moved out early in the morning.

From the top commander down to the ordinary soldiers, no one has any objection to this. Anyway, the Tuen people on the opposite side are helping the soft persimmons, and it is impossible to attack. What is there to worry about?

Taking 10,000 steps back, he said, even if they did attack, with the firepower of the three Thun people and one rifle, after a few rounds of platoons, they would be scattered as birds and beasts, and there was no need for artillery at all—how expensive the shells are!

Facing the "military advice" given by his most trusted generals and allies, Duke Lacar had no choice but to accept the reality; after all, the first priority and premise of war is to satisfy his army.

If the military is unhappy, they make others even more unhappy.

On the other hand, Thun's kidney deficiency surprised the Duke of Lacar; after receiving the invitation letter sent by Claude Francois, his first reaction was not that Thun had given up, but serious doubts— - This is not a trap, is it? !

The dignified Francois family, when did you bow your head to others? And yourself? !

From the beginning of April to the end of May, the Clovis-Isel war in just a few dozen days changed the situation in the entire vast land, and the situation changed almost every day.

If a year... no, someone told himself a month ago that Claude Francois would not only not blame you after your invasion of Thun, but would forgive you generously, and even promised to let it go, Duke of Lachaar It is unbelievable to kill.

And now, Claude-François's invitation letter is placed in front of him, with his own seal and signature on it.

Duke Lacar hesitated again and again, and the final choice was not to go.

Apart from not being able to imagine the picture of Duke Thun shaking hands and making peace with him, he was even more worried that he would be arrested as soon as he arrived and forced to give up the territory and population he had already eaten.

Wait, um, wait.

The Imperial Guard Corps of the Iser Elf has 40,000 troops, and the vanguard of Clovis plus Thun is almost 40,000. The 80,000 troops are engaged in a tragic offensive and defensive battle around Eaglehorn City... How to deduce, this battle does not have Not even a month or two.

That being the case, there is no need for the Duchy of Paya to choose a side so quickly, so it might as well maintain the current confrontation with the Grand Duchy of Thun.

If the Iser Elf wins, then of course everything will be fine. The Duchy of Paia will take advantage of the situation to besiege the White Tower City, invade the Golden Stone City, and force the Francois family, the "traitor of Hantu", to cede their land and pay indemnity;

If Clovis wins... er... then you might as well pretend to surrender and get close to the Clovis's thighs; anyway, everyone is a traitor and lackey, can his François family be a head taller than him?

Duke Lacar's wishful thinking crackled.

He is now even looking forward to winning the battle of Eagle Point City is the Kingdom of Clovis - the Yisel Elf and the Seven Cities Alliance are too close, they are simply under the nose, and they should be wary of their colonization and infiltration all the time.

But Clovis is different. The core area they rule is closer to the north. The Seven Cities Alliance is too far away from them, and the cost of direct control is too high. It is better to support one or two allies, and then regularly scavenge and cut leeks.

For the Seven Cities Alliance, anyone who pays money is paying money. No matter how bad Clovis is, it is still a human kingdom. Emotionally, it is naturally closer and easier to accept than the one with Iser.

With this idea in mind, on May 28, the Duke of Lagar stopped his further offensive against Thun and ordered his generals to maintain the status quo; the army continued to plunder the villages and towns on the border of Thun, but did not advance further.

This made the generals and knights of the Principality of Paya very dissatisfied. After all, if they continued to advance, the next stop would be Baita City, which was much richer than the border.

But in contrast, the allies of the Principality of Paya were relieved—even if they knew that Thun was vulnerable, they really didn't want to confront this behemoth head-on.

As for the soldiers on the border, they expressed their emotional stability... Honor and the principality are **** to them. Taking advantage of the opportunity to grab a little more is a little bit, and subsidizing the family to keep buying land, building a house and getting married is a serious business.

For these pariahs who don't know what glory is, Knight Arezzo doesn't care much; in his eyes, soldiers are basically hyenas bought with money, and they shouldn't have any expectations.

Zema stood under the bull flag in the central square of the village, and the soldiers of Arezzo Knights with great interest burned, killed and looted recklessly, just like hunters admiring their hounds chasing their prey.

at this time……

Um?

The Arezzo knight, who seemed to be hallucinating, suddenly raised his head and looked behind him; under the purple sunset, the cool and comfortable breeze blew across the ground, rolling up gentle waves in the wheat fields that had not been spoiled by the soldiers.

Looking at the pleasant scenery in front of him, the knight's eyes softened.

But in the next second, he realized that it was not his hallucinations-because it was not just him, but almost all the soldiers who were still searching and looting stopped their work, and turned their eyes to the billowing wheat waves in astonishment. .

With the vibration from underfoot, on the horizon, which was painted golden red by the setting sun, one after another black shadow suddenly appeared.

One by one, one by one... more and more, more and more dense.

The knight, who gasped for breath, narrowed his eyes... Because of the dim sky and the fact that the other party was in the direction of the backlight, he could only see the general outline, and how the outline looked like...

"Cavalry, it's cavalry!"

A soldier standing next to him suddenly turned pale, pointed in the direction of the shadow and screamed hysterically: "Cavalry, the cavalry of the Thun people have come, enough for hundreds!"

"No, not the Thun people!" Another soldier with better eyesight screamed:

"It's the Clovis - look at the flag in their hands, it's the Clovis unicorn!"

"The Clovis people are killed, we are dead!"

"They are all cavalry, we can't escape!"

The atmosphere of panic spread rapidly among the soldiers like a virus.

Just now, the soldiers who wanted to burn, kill, loot and loot stood shivering in place, and some even cried out on the corpses of the villagers.

"Quiet, give me peace!"

Knight Arezzo angrily interrupted the soldiers who were still in chaos.

"Soldiers, as you can see, we are now about to face a very serious dilemma!"

"The Clovis people are here... We don't know if they are friends or foes, or even confirm their true identities; but we all know one thing, and that is the land of the Hantu people standing under our feet, and we and Tu Like benefactors, they are all noble people of the vast land!"

The Arezzo knights who shouted loudly, pointed the general's knife to the Clovis cavalry who were getting closer and closer to them:

"For the Thun and Paya, the war between us is an infighting between brothers, and the Clovis is a despicable and shameful invader!"

"For the cowardly and incompetent people, when facing the invaders, they only know how to lie on the ground and cry, or run away like wild beasts; but we are different, we are the great Paya, the great people of the vast land!"

"We... have our completely different ways of coping!"

The terrified soldiers turned their heads one after another, looked at each other and looked at the high-spirited Arezzo knight who was ready to sacrifice himself.

Ten minutes later, the surprised Storm Division cavalry battalion commander took over the ruined village from the Paja soldiers holding the white flag without firing a shot.

By the way, there is a gift of the Arezzo knight who was stunned by being bundled into a zongzi.

​​

​​