Ilru, an important town in eastern Normandy

Towering over the mountains, the Ilru Fortress stretches for miles and forms a ring of succession. Almost all the towers and the inner ring of the three fortresses were made of tons of granite, and between the cracks in the stones, the Normans used an unknown white mixture to firmly bind the stones together, as a barrier to the east of Normandy, and the main purpose of the Ilru fortress was originally built against the northeast rival Duchy of Romana.

To this end, the Normans used a great deal of manpower and material resources, and almost the entire young and middle-aged labor force of the Irru region was evacuated, and it took six years to build this impregnable fortress in the steep mountains. The whole fortress is like a tiger lying in the middle of a mountain valley. Staring at the enemy in front of it with fierce eyes, it condescendingly stared at the enemy in front of it, as if anyone dared to offend it, it would immediately return the fangs with the fiercest ferocity, and in fact it was, in the past fifty years, the Duchy of Romana had fought against Normandy several times at the fortress of Ilru, and the wolf bèi returned,

"It's really a strong fortress, no wonder the army of the Duchy of Normandy dares to speak wildly and look down on the northwest!"

Statunko put down the lookout glass in his hand and stared ahead with blazing eyes, admiring the majestic fortress in front of him, with the capital of Normandy being conquered, the Ilru fortress has become the last line of life and death for the Normands.

After receiving a personal order from the fat man, Statunko convened an emergency meeting, abandoned the plan to continue the advance, and instead led the 15,000-strong Southern Army to turn sharply in the direction of Irru, and rendezvous with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment pursuing the remnants of the Nord army under the fortress of Irru.

"My lord, is there some filtering of your majesty" One of the flag commanders of the Southern Army, next to Statunko, muttered with some dissatisfaction, "Even if the remnants of Normandy are here." But after all, this fortress is only a border barrier, and it will not have any impact on the inland war, but His Majesty Falcon Xià asked us to abandon the plan to continue the march and turn to Illu, and his subordinates can't figure it out!" "If you can't figure it out, keep thinking about it, but you must carry out Your Majesty's orders!"

Statunko withdrew his gaze from a distance, snorted heavily at his unruly subordinates, and said, "Although His Majesty did not say it explicitly in the letter, I can feel that His Majesty should have noticed something. The glory of victory is the easiest way to hide the potential danger, don't you think the whole Normandy is too quiet?Is this a normal reaction?" "Too quiet? What do you mean by that, my lord?" the commander of the Confederate Army Banner froze for a moment, his face full of confusion "What would you do if someone you didn't know suddenly ran out one morning and beat your neighbor in front of you?" Starturenko stared at the outline of the fortress in the distance, and smiled at the corner of his mouth

"Of course it's to help the neighbors!" said the commander of the Southern Army Banner without hesitation, "Otherwise, what if he beats the neighbor and then beats me?"

"Yes, that's it!" Statunko's voice stopped. "We beat the Normans, but there is no movement in the other borderline countries, don't you think it's too abnormal?"

"Your Excellency, I mean, several other countries are waiting for their chance. Eat us and the Normans!" the commander of the Southern Army suddenly realized

Statunko raised his horsewhip with a solemn expression, pointed to the Ilru fortress in the distance, and said: "Normandy is surrounded by the sea on three sides, and one side is connected to the mainland, and the middle line on this side is the Ilru in front of us. To the northwest of Ilru is Dunkirk, to the southwest is Romana, and on the flanks is the county town of Bionde. Taking down Illu, we can at least guarantee that one of the backsides is safe, just like fighting with people, in the case of being alone, it is natural that the less exposed the better, so that we can avoid falling into the crisis of fighting on several sides!"

The assault on the fortress of Illu began in the early hours of February 27,

The Thor soldiers of the Southern Army cluster pushed six specially made siege guns to the top of the slope opposite the fortress,

On both sides of the specially made siege guns, there are more than 70 guns in total, and the curved Thunder God dismantled from the naval battleship became the last swan song of the Ilru Fortress, "Adjust the angle, turn left 6 degrees"

More than ten minutes later, all the Thor completed the aiming correction, and the muzzle of the black hole was raised high, and there was a cold killing intent, and everyone's eyes were immediately aimed at the wall of Ilru in anticipation." Let's start!" Statunko ordered with an indifferent face, it is not the first time that Thor has attacked the city for the Falcon Army, but this time the use of the rare siege Thor has made many people feel very novel,

"Boom" With the sound of the first test shot of the siege artillery, the earth trembled slightly, and with the huge siege cannon roaring in an instant, the cannonball with a piercing whistling sound cut out the barrel, drawing a white arc line in the air, and slammed heavily on the first outer wall of the Ilru Fortress,

It was a pity that because of the barrier of the city wall, no one in the field could see the landing point of the cannonballs, nor could they see the power of the cannonball explosion, so they could only wait anxiously for the report from the observation post. After a while, the observation post came with the information, the cannonball fell on the inner wall of the fortress, and the rubble splashed, like raindrops, forming a circle with a diameter of about 100 meters.

The shock wave brought by the shells caused a mess of Normans on the spot, and many people lay down, some were hit by broken pieces, and some were frightened and sat on the ground, their faces were pale in the light of the fire, and their eyes were full of fear, "Mom, what is this!"

The Ilru defenders, who had never seen Thor, were in chaos on the spot and ran around, "Quick, take Lord Duke to a safe place!" Kavibod, who was still wearing gauze, was forcibly put out of his command post by a group of guards, and his command post was at the front of the first wall position, "Bastard, what are you going to do, I won't leave! I won't leave even if I die!" Cavibode's angry scolding, the defeat in the battle of the river beach, and the fall of the capital, this northwest tyrant no longer has any extravagant expectations, he only wants to fight the Falcon Army well, he wants to let the Falcon Army know that not all Normans are dead "boom" The huge explosion came again, this time it was dense like lightning and thunder in a rainstorm. After receiving the confirmation of hitting the intended target, countless fires erupted from the top of the hill opposite the fortress at the same time, and the ground shook, and the flames smashed like meteors, and the firelight shone again, as if the lights were lit inside the fortress of Ilru

Thundered......

The cannonballs fell on the slope of the inner city of the fortress, bursting into dazzling fire, and the covered area was immediately completely covered by gunsmoke and black smoke. The power of the siege artillery made everyone feel a little staggered, and most of the houses in the fortress were made of stones, which were very strong. However, in front of the siege guns, these solid stone houses, like children's toy building blocks, were shattered one after another. As if a huge ball of light rose in Ilru, the stone houses were uprooted, and the whole ground flew into the air, Then it smashed down so hard that a large area below was in shambles, screams and screams came one after another, and the smoke cleared, and the area was already in shambles, "Keep shooting, crush them!"

Among these people, only Statunko's face did not change in the slightest, and his ruthless orders caused the walls of Ilru to be constantly shattered under the bombardment of large-caliber siege artillery. The walls of the city fell one by one, and smoke billowed from the entire inside of the fortress. The sound of collapse continued,

The large trebuchet on the city wall was blown apart before it could be launched, and the heavy rolling stones of the trebuchet flew all over the sky in the explosion, tumbling forward along the ground of the Seyne, smashing many Norman soldiers, and the first wall was very unassailable and cracked. What are you doing in a daze, take the Duke away!" Every second, it felt like he was tormented in hell, and one of Kavibod's guards turned red in the eye, and he slammed into the stomach of Kavibode, who was still clamoring to hold on. "I will not ......," the corners of Kavibod's mouth twitched, and the pain fell silent, and the guards quickly led him from where he had come to the safer second wall.

Boom, boom...... Countless points of light fell unscrupulously, and Norman soldiers, who had nowhere to hide in the chaos of rocks and fire, constantly jumped into the moat between the city walls, and these ditches became the best place for Normans to hide from artillery fire. But often, if you are not careful, a siege shell falls on the wall next to it, and the collapsed wall is covered in the ditch, and all the people inside are buried alive or stoned to death.

This offensive lasted for two days, every morning was a heavy shelling, and in the afternoon, the Falcon's infantry crossbowmen would approach the wall and shoot the defenders of the fortress with their crossbows, and the two days of shelling completely shattered the resistance of the Normans, no one wanted to accept such a baptism of artillery fire, and many Normandy soldiers who were not afraid of death fell into a state of hysteria in the continuous bombardment, and even killed their comrades in a delirious sense. As a result, he was eventually killed. The shelling led to the chaos within the Normandy soldiers, and sometimes in order to seize a trench that could evade the shelling, several squadrons would often fight together, and then several Thor shells would come unexpectedly with the roar of death, and pieces of corpses would float between the ditches inside the fortress,

On the morning of the third day,

Statunko let the hoplites of the Southern Army officially attack, the black army formation, like a tide, rushed towards the collapsed city wall of Ilru, the defenders above did not wait for the heavy infantry to rush to the side, they collapsed first, the morale of the Normandy army has been severely low, most of the people's ears have zài Yan zhòng tinnitus problem, as if the sound of artillery is still endless, some people even seem to have some difficulty even standing, continuous days of shelling, created unprecedented fear in Normandy," Retreat"

The Normandy army barely had the courage to make contact,

The morning sun slowly pierced through the clouds, reflecting the golden glow on the tall ruins of the Ilru Fortress,

The earth is bathed in the vibrant sunshine of the rising sun, the wild grass stretches its body comfortably in the morning breeze, and the unknown wildflowers absorb the sun, air and moisture under the sunlight of the greedy, so that they can grow taller and stronger, can see higher and farther, and stay in this world for a longer time.

The black smoke rising in the distance was very abrupt and out of place in the glow, and the cold wind blew through the withered yellow bushes next to the fortress, and the blackened branches made a gurgling sound in the smoke, most of them had no leaves, and some even left only half of the bare wooden stakes. The upper half of the section has long been unknown to where it has gone,

The front of the fortress, littered with stones and rubble, as well as broken weapons and armor, was a mess. The mutilated corpses, from time to time, were hidden in the rubble, and a snow-white winter snow covered the place last night, and many of the corpses were buried in the snow.

The horse's hooves trampled on a miserable white man's hand, still exposed outside the mound. When Statunko passed by the center of the tragic fortress, he suddenly stopped and marched forward, "What's going on?" Statunenko's face asked with an ugly face, and what appeared in his sight was a mountain of corpses more than ten meters high, seeing these white corpses piled up, stacked on top of each other, even Van Luntien felt worried about the bloody corpses of white flowers like hills, all of them were Normand. Some were regular soldiers, but most were probably ordinary civilians inside the fortress, and these Normans, who had been badly wounded in battle, were casually placed in the open space in the center by their own compatriots.

"Report to your lord, they are all seriously wounded by the enemy," a squad leader who was directing the cleanup nearby hurriedly ran over, saluted him, and then gritted his teeth and said

"Self-judgment, all suicide?" said Statunko's face became more and more solemn. As a soldier, he was not afraid of death and blood. But in the face of such a large-scale abuse, it's another matter.

"No, they didn't commit suicide!" the squad leader said, looking up, very ugly

"There are no obvious weapon wounds on their bodies, just because there are any treatment measures after the injury, not even the most basic shelter tent, many soldiers do not die because of the inflammation of the wound, in fact, in this cold weather, the chance of inflammation of the wound is not great, they were frozen to death, when we cleaned up, we also found a few people who did not completely breathe, their clothes were also stripped off, but they were pressed under like dead people, so that they did not die in the severe cold"" As is customary, it's all burned!"

Statunko turned his back and didn't want to ask any more,

This is war, killing and being killed, just like passing by some cities in the heart of Normandy that have been purged by the expeditionary force, such a scene is everywhere in this land, and the slaughtered Normans have at least exceeded 500,000 in these 2 months,

Large tracts of land have lost their owners, lush manors have been reduced to wreckage and ruins, towns are almost empty, and few people are not seen during the day, the destructiveness of war has always been ruinous, and 200,000 Salander slaves, although they have been sold everywhere and scattered to all parts of the mainland, there are still more than 100,000 left in Normandy itself, accounting for one-twentieth of the total population of Normandy.

As the expeditionary force advanced into the interior of Normandy, the revolt of the Salanders flourished like a volcano.

The expeditionary force, under the slogan of rescuing their compatriots, can even sometimes take over several towns in a row in a single day, without the need to use a single soldier, the lack of faith and repressed revenge, and with it, the cruel and bloody revenge of the Salanders against the people of Normandy,

Salander's slaves killed every Norman they saw, even children, in such a way that even a professional soldier like Statunko could not bear to look at it any longer

Statunko has been stationed in Salander for more than half a year, and thinks that the Salander people are a peace-loving and romantic people, but now what is unfolding in front of him is completely a kind of national violence, and on the other hand, the Normans who are dying in the river have mobilized a number of people who can mobilize, and in order to make up for the lack of troops, they have also sent a large number of Normandy civilians to the battlefield.

These civilians are dressed in simple linen clothes, holding a three-meter wooden gun that is temporarily polished, and the meaningless phalanx is discharged, the process of this wooden gun is very simple, only need to create an iron spear tip, and put a wooden stick on the back, the process is simple, even if it is an ordinary blacksmith apprentice, it can be completed ten in an hour, which fully meets the requirements of the Normans in a large number of equipment in a short time, although there is no killing, but these soldiers can barely act as cannon fodder in enough cases,

But such a force was completely at the target of slaughter on the battlefield, and the main force of the Normans had been trapped in Ilru, and although the force defending the capital claimed to be 80,000 men, it was in fact only a group of peasant soldiers

Statunko still remembers that on the outskirts of Kyoto in Normandy, under the cold moonlight, his Southern Army easily defeated 6 such 10,000 troops with a force of 15,000 men, and he will always remember that battle, not because of the victory, but because of the bloody wilderness, the disregard of the corpses that covered the earth, almost became the cheapest fertilizer in this land, the black vultures hovered in the sky, and even the beautiful nocturnal strings were sad,

In front of the imposing expeditionary force and the Southern Army, the last resistance of the Normans was crushed lightly,

According to the order, Statunko handed over the capital to the expeditionary force that would enter the city later, and at this moment, there was a hint of happiness in his heart, the letter from His Majesty the Falcon had arrived too timely, and if he continued to advance like this, Statunko did not dare to guarantee that he would not become a real butcher! At least for now, he was still a soldier! His opponent was also a soldier! (To be continued.) )