A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

After the army of Aaron Landis invaded the territory of Kanal, after more than four months, the First Army of Caihors marched from the northeast and the Third Army of Heymos from the southeast to the territory of Kanal respectively. Wangcheng is approaching.

Their marching route was to detour an arc on the land of Kanal, and after attacking important cities one after another, they slowly approached the royal city.

At the same time, in Aaron Landis, more than half a year has passed since Garlan established the trade office in the royal city.

In the past six months, the Commerce and Trade Bureau has not only existed in Wangcheng, but has been successively established in Tozes and other large cities where commerce and trade are the main economic pillars.

The dignitaries in those large commercial cities—that is, the original vested interests are naturally unwilling to lose this huge profit.

However, the situation is completely different from the time when the Commerce and Trade Bureau was established in Wangcheng. After seeing the benefits of the Commerce and Trade Bureau, the merchants in these big cities that focus on commerce are almost looking forward to the establishment of the Commerce and Trade Bureau. .They even took the initiative to contribute money and efforts to help, just to build the Commerce and Trade Department as soon as possible.

Moreover, the large cities that Garlan selected as pilots to promote the Commerce and Trade Department are all cities directly under the Royal City, and the incumbent consuls are also honest officials specially selected by him to be loyal to him.

Most importantly, this time there are escorts from the Shrine of Shamash and the Shrine of Nanna.

In order to prove their own ability to King Garlan so as to overwhelm the opponent's temple as much as possible, the two temples carefully selected extremely capable chief priests to go to those big cities, sit in the local temples, and take charge of the branch of the Commerce Department. belongs to power.

No matter how powerful the powerful local officials are, facing these high-ranking priests, at least on the surface, they will never dare to make mistakes.

After all, the priests are the messengers of the gods.

Tomorrow is impossible.

But there is no hope in secret.

Because, even if they want to do something secretly, they still have to ask the priests of Nanna, who are the best at making tricks, whether they agree.

And the establishment of these commercial and trade bureaus has brought Garlan countless wealth. It can be said that he is now making a lot of money every day.

This huge amount of wealth is enough for Garlan to build roads, Solga's Temple of Wisdom, water conservancy and other infrastructure, and at the same time more than enough to support the military expenses of the army that attacked Kanal.

This is also the main reason why the battle has been fought for so long, and the ministers in the royal court have no opinion except for a few hardcore peacemakers.

Many ministers feel that way.

King Garlan is really a wise king.

Not only did he pay for the construction of infrastructure, but even the military expenses were not paid by Wang Ting's finances, and he paid for it all by himself.

You must know that over the years, military expenditures have accounted for almost a quarter of the royal court's annual financial expenditures.In the past, Aaron Landis was very poor financially because of the huge military expenditures that King Kamos spent on his expeditions all year round.

The Financial Secretary who took office has to rack his brains every year to balance the expenses of all parties, so he is bald with worry.

Now, with such a large sum of money saved, many other things can be done. The upright ministers headed by Prime Minister Zuo are naturally very happy, and the current Financial Secretary, who does not have to worry about the same baldness as his predecessor, is of course also happy.

However, there are also some caring people who secretly see it.

From then on, military expenses were no longer paid from the royal court's finances, but from the king's treasury.

In other words, the rise and fall of Aaron Landis's army was completely controlled by King Garlan, who was able to control the combat effectiveness of an army with the amount of military expenditure.

After all, food and drink, armor, weapons, residences, training grounds, and even fortress castles for soldiers all cost money.

If any legion wants to rebel, King Garlan can directly abolish more than half of its combat effectiveness as long as it cuts off its military expenses.

The most important thing is that from now on, even if the powerful ministers in the royal court have mischief, their threats will be greatly reduced-what can they do without soldiers?

The food, drink, weapons and armor of the soldiers are all given to them by King Garlan, who is equivalent to their food and clothing parents. Who has a sick mind to follow you to rebel against your food and clothing parents?

Therefore, in this way, the lifeblood of all the troops is in the hands of King Garlan.

Taking this expedition to Kanal as an opportunity, it wasn't just the six legions directly under the royal city. In the following year, Garlan gradually abolished the practice of 'using the city's own tax revenue to support the army guarding the city'.

All the military expenditures of the troops in the cities directly under the king's city are paid out of the king's treasury.

Those cities inherited from the family will continue to follow the usual practice, without forcing them—of course, there are also some city owners who are greedy for cheap and unwilling to spend their own military expenses, and as long as they make a request to King Garlan, the rich and kind young king will will graciously oblige him.

Under Garlan's various hidden prodding, the progress bar of Aaron Landis's centralization is slowly and silently extending backward.

——Yes, if you have money, you can do whatever you want.

The young king, who was praised as the wise king in later generations, expressed this feeling in his heart that was extremely inconsistent with the values ​​of "sage".

……

Closer to home.

After more than four months, the two armies of Aaron Landis unceremoniously approached the royal city of Kanal.

A month ago, seeing the defeat of the war, the commander of the Gastadians had decisively made the decision to abandon other cities and shrink their troops to garrison the royal city.

Those noble city lords who had surrendered to the Gastadians without hesitation, saw the Gastadians retreating steadily, and when Aaron Landis' army approached the city, they decisively opened their doors and surrendered again.

They offered no resistance at all.

These shameless city lords didn't care who they surrendered to, anyway, they just changed their allegiance, and they could still continue to be their noble city lords.

They didn't know what was waiting for them at this time.

At this time, Heymos and Kaihus had joined forces under the royal city of Kanal.

This royal city was originally established by the first king of Kanal, and that king finally created his own kingdom after going through hardships all his life.

At that time, the situation on the mainland was changing and it was very unstable.Therefore, he built the royal city under the cliff.

The king's city is backed by high mountains and cliffs that tower into the sky, and it is in the shape of an inclined ladder from top to bottom. The walls on the other three sides are extremely tall and strong.

And the river surrounding the royal city flowed down from the cliffs, so there was no fear of being cut off from the outside by the enemy troops besieging the city.

The first king of Kanal believed with satisfaction that such an easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack royal city would never fall easily.

It's a pity that this brave and powerful king couldn't guess that hundreds of years of comfort and ease have completely changed the appearance of his descendants.

This impregnable royal city easily fell into the hands of the invaders.

…………

After a lapse of one and a half years, the battle for Kanal King City started again.

The former aggressor became the attacked.

The commander of Gastard stood on the high wall, frowning and looking down at the outside of the city.

Outside the royal city, there is a black and red torrent.

The Aaron Landis army in black and red armor surrounded the huge city.

They are like a torrential flood, overwhelming and surging, hitting the city wall again and again.

Under the scorching sun, on the battlefield, a knight in black armor stood majestically on the ground.

The mane of the horse beneath him burns like fire in the sun.

The lion flag with red background and golden pattern fluttered high behind him, bathed in the scorching sun, like a red flame burning with golden brilliance.

One person and one horse stand among thousands of troops, but they are unusually conspicuous.

It's like the only strong color in a black and white picture.

He just stood there on horseback, and no one could ignore his existence.

Black Knight Heymos.

No one knows his fame.

Wherever he goes, there is victory.

The soldiers under his command are all brave men who are as fierce as wolves and tigers, fearless of death. As long as he gives an order, they will tear all the enemies who dare to stand in front of them to pieces.

The commander of Gastard stared at Heymos from the city wall with a solemn expression.

Today is the third day since Aaron Landis's army came to the city.

The Gastades have reinforcements and are coming day and night from the northwest, but it will take some time to reach the city of Kanal.

He once thought that with the strength of the Gastad people, it would be no problem to shrink all the troops into the royal city and hold it for ten days and a half months.

But after only three days, he started feeling anxious.

In just three days, the battle has already begun to tighten.

The Gastades are good at attacking, but they are not used to passive defense. Even he is defending the city for the first time.

If this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on to the arrival of reinforcements.

The commander of Gastard frowned and thought so.

At this moment, there was a loud shout on the city wall, and many Gastard soldiers shouted and pointed outside.

The commander raised his eyes amidst the shouts of the crowd, and his throat tightened suddenly.

A huge siege engine slowly appeared in front of the walls of Kanal King City.

At the same time, five or six-meter-high catapults and giant crossbow arrows also appeared in front of everyone.

After spending more than two days, the military craftsmen of Aaron Landis finally assembled these siege weapons and sent them to the foot of the city wall.

Heymos sat on the horse and slowly raised his hand.

Then, swing down hard.

In the next second, amidst the panicked shouts of the Gastadians on the city wall, huge boulders whizzed over and smashed heavily on the city wall.

A giant crossbow arrow as high as a person cut an arc in the air, swooped down, pierced through the bodies of several guards, and strung them into gourds.

The walls of Kanal King City seem tall, but they are not as strong as they appear from the outside.

Under the impact of the boulder, countless gravels rolled down the city wall, and cracks began to appear in many places.

Even the edges of several city walls collapsed directly under the impact of the boulders, causing the soldiers standing there to fall from the high walls and smashed into flesh.

Shocked, the other soldiers retreated subconsciously, for fear of following in his footsteps.

This time, many soldiers were killed, and the Gastades suffered heavy casualties.

Looking at the chaos on the city wall, the commander of Gastard showed a fierce expression.

He turned around and gave a few cold instructions to a subordinate beside him.

…………

Numerous throwing stones and giant crossbow arrows poured towards the city wall of Kanal, boosting the morale of Aaron Landis's army for a while.

Suddenly, there was a movement on the city wall.

The soldiers of Aaron Landis saw in astonishment that the Gastard soldiers on the city wall took the initiative to retreat and hide behind, as if they had completely given up resistance.

The general in charge of commanding the siege equipment waved his hand and temporarily stopped throwing stones and archery to avoid meaningless waste.

However, even if the throwing stones and the rain of arrows stopped, the city wall was still quiet, and there was no sign of the Gastadians.

Just when everyone was wondering, another figure finally appeared on the city wall.

The general commanding the siege equipment raised his hand, intending to continue the attack.

But the next moment, his hands froze in mid-air.

He stared blankly at the figure on the city wall, showing an expression of disbelief.

At this moment, what appeared on the city wall and in front of the soldiers of Aaron Landis were figures who were tied and pushed to the edge of the city wall.

Those people had a very different skin color, hair color, and appearance from the Gastadians.

Aaron Landis.

Those former Aaron Landis soldiers who were captured by the Gastadians after the defeat and brought to the King City of Kanal and became slaves.

They were bound and pushed against the walls by the Gastadians.

If the Aaronlandians want to continue to attack the city, they must first kill them and their own compatriots.

There was a dead silence on the ground.

In such a huge battlefield, there was no sound at this moment.