Before his brothers in the forward position were defeated and knocked him down, Les had already taken refuge in the bushes with great agility.

Although there was a one-sided situation on the battlefield, with shouts of killing and swords, most of the people were still just howling.

Because they could hardly see each other's positions, the only torches that were bright were extinguished for various reasons shortly after the two armies began to fight.

On an extremely narrow road, there were too many people congested up at one point.

One side has no habit of leaving reserves, while the other side simply has no way to leave too many reserves.

Even for Prus, who had already planned to raid, he did not expect to encounter Perris's army in this position, in fact, for a long time after the war began, Pruth stubbornly believed that the target of his attack was only an imperial outpost guard who was carelessly marching, not an army led by Perris himself.

For until the end of the war, he did not see any knights or royal guards of the enemy. Even the generals who accompanied the army did not meet a few.

But in reality it is far from the case.

After Les hid in the woods, he did not leave the battlefield in a hurry, but hid in a relatively hidden place for the time being.

He vaguely remembered that his position should be about a third of the place where the army was, and this place seemed to be the place where the middle of a rope began.

And it was here that the sound of the horses' hooves gradually stopped.

If it weren't for the delusion, he even heard many sounds of fallen horses.

It was the grumbling of some soldiers.

The view in the forest is terrible, and the path is too narrow, though it is a Jedi that is difficult for the Imperial legions to retreat from when they are under attack.

But for the pursuers on horseback, it was still a nightmare for them to be able to successfully pursue the retreating Imperial soldiers as more and more corpses piled up on the road.

Some of them were even taken by their brothers as Imperial infantry who were still resisting, and they fell off their horses, not to mention the fact that they were almost beheaded.

As for the heavy cavalry troops led by Pruss at the beginning of the battle, they had already been withdrawn to the rear for rest and recuperation, and now it was only some light cavalry units that continued to pursue the fugitive infantry.

When Les noticed this, he made up his mind not to desert.

The path in the forest is narrower and more difficult, but after losing the shield, the route is still the safest and most convenient way.

As the saying goes, the greater the risk, the more opportunities for returns.

After walking through the woods for a while, Les finally found his chance.

A light cavalry unit that was advancing too far forward.

Rice came from behind them, and of course understood the actual military disposition behind these cavalry.

In fact, perhaps he knew better than the cavalrymen.

There were seven of them, but they were firmly in the middle of the road, driving the Imperial infantry in front of them like a group of shepherds, and like a pack of hungry wolves, they pounced on the soldiers who had fallen behind.

In Leon's nasal cavity, a fishy sweet liquid suddenly poured into his mouth, down his throat, and into his chest.

Looking at the "enemies" who were ostentatious on horseback, he took off his spear from his back and clenched it with both hands.

This bloody battle that took place in the midnight forest was completely brought to an end at this time.

For the Imperial side, this was undoubtedly another crushing defeat since the North Sea War.

But from the point of view of the Prussian rebels, that is, the Rhine kingdom, they did not lose so completely.

In this battle, the empire directly lost 3,000 infantry, while the light cavalry of the Rhine Kingdom was only a few dozen.

From a strategic point of view, the empire's army in the north has been completely divided into two parts that are completely impossible to connect without defeating the cavalry of the Rhine Kingdom alone, that is, the army in the north has once again dropped to less than 10,000 people, and the garrison of Sea Castle in the state of defense has another 4,000 men.

They still have a huge advantage in terms of numbers, but because of Prus's tactics, their previous contact is gone.

But Pruss also missed a great opportunity to get an outright victory.

Because of his arbitrary cognition, he directly let go of Perris, who could have been captured alive directly.

And now, Perris and his guards, along with some of the other generals, the farmers, had scattered like a plate of sand to all corners of the Northlands.

There is indeed only one military route to Sea Castle.

But there was more than one trade route from the north south to Abbasquia.

A team of dozens, or hundreds, of people along such a trail seems to be easy again.

Unlike the military structure of the Great Emperor of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia from the very beginning embarked on a completely different path from the direction of the overall development of the empire.

When Emperor Notting wantonly divided the land, and then established feudal farms or local powers in a large number of vacuum areas, Prussia was unwilling to give up the military power and land in his hands for some reason.

Just to ensure that his frontier was not invaded too much by the Nordins, he divided several medium-sized tribal chiefs who were more culturally similar to the Rhine, appointed them as "dukes" after the king, and assisted him in managing the diplomatic, commercial and other affairs of the Rhine kingdom.

But many more small tribes and small slave owners with small serfs were not sent by him to administer the lands.

Instead, with a large army, they were firmly bound near their capital.

These people were nominally also vassals of his Prus, but in reality they were more like his slaves.

Everything they produce is all distributed by Pruus, and even who should be engaged in what profession is also up to him.

It was as if he was still running a huge slave classical kingdom in the kingdom of this feudal system.

He also enforced all soldiers and knights to owe allegiance to him alone, he was the king of the kingdom, but at the same time the sole leader of the army.

Relying on this system, Prus, although he had only one kingdom, defeated Perris, who had three kingdoms, under the condition of a backstab.

Deliberately spread by some, the mysterious news spread to Abbaschia.

A true king will be born from the north, with a mighty army and exalted majesty.

In short, he would not collect their taxes like some emperors, nor would he allow the clergy to move around his domain.

These illusory words clearly caused a great deal of turmoil in the capital.

The townspeople who had chanted long live the emperor three seasons ago, the craftsmen changed color almost overnight.

Even the revered clergy seemed to be greatly hated.

Then there was one rumor after another.

It was the Emperor's army that lost to the Northlands, and then paid a large ransom to withdraw from the barbarians' territory.

Then there was the emperor and the rebels who invited the war and the opposition, and were defeated.

Then the emperor's garrison base was destroyed, the sergeants were scattered, and the emperor's whereabouts were unknown.

Subsequently, news of the fall of several towns between the borders of the Rhine and Abbasquia kingdoms also came.

The original great empire seemed to be in danger of extinction overnight.

The local lords began to refuse to obey, and they kept watching.

Moreover, emissaries had even been sent to begin negotiations with Prus, seeking to secure a suitable position under his new empire.

And the merchants of the empire began to scatter their wealth, and they took their money out of the cities on the southern coast of the Abbasquian kingdom, and the shops and chambers of commerce in the capital became extremely depressed overnight.

Only the ship trade on the docks quickly became deformed and prosperous.

The original eight docks were temporarily expanded to twelve, but even so, there were still so many ships that were difficult to dock, and so many wealthy people were packing their bags and preparing to leave the city.

It was as if the war had not yet begun, and it had come to its worst.

Workers on several docks, carrying heavy loads, are now receiving more work every day than usual, but their quality of life has not improved in the slightest.

In preparation for the coming war, all the nobles were basically hoarding food, and these citizens, who relied heavily on the surrounding farms to survive, were surprised to find that the Imperial gold in their hands was no longer worth anything, and the price of bread was going up three times a day, and even then, there was no price.

In addition to the maritime business, the most growing is the price of land in the Kingdom of Cyprus.

For the landed nobles who did not have to worry about eating and drinking, few people would be willing to sell their territories, after all, these things were the ancestral property recognized by the empire, and no matter how bad they were, there was no reason for them to do such a thing.

It is the peasants who have been liberated who have been further exploited.

In order to survive the recent tax shortage, they had to mortgage their land.

And the merchants who took control of their land sold the bond land one after another as soon as they saw that the price of land was rising.

An imperial official working in the affluent South, after a gap of twenty years, saw a starving farmer from the land of the South again.

In a letter to the Central Committee, he wrote:

"The farmer [here] is so thin that he can barely hold a hoe for the plough, and the tools of their labour have not been changed in time for a long time. Almost overnight, the land became barren. According to conservative estimates, the spring grain production of the Cyporus Kingdom will be reduced by about 10%. ”

Tian Sen put down the letter in his hand, and then looked at the faces of the members of the council.

"Elites of the Empire, this is the Northern Expedition you want?"

Since the new emperor came to the throne, the members of the council have begun to suppress the bureaucracy, consciously or unconsciously, and some nobles have even directly said in some high-class diners: "How can these bureaucrats be truly patriotic? They don't even have a reasonable right to rule." These poor men, who came out of the peasants and merchants, could not do anything else but take the last of them out of the treasury of the Empire. ”

But in terms of the current situation, when the empire is about to collapse, these "people who are good for nothing but corruption" continue to work.

And the leader of it is Tian Sen.

Even after resigning as king, the gray-haired old man remained a prominent figure in the empire.

He patted the table and looked at the nobles and merchants who were bowing their heads and saying nothing.

Those who can run have run away, and now they are either inconsequential little people, or some people who have become too deeply entangled with the core of the empire.

If those who run away are like passengers on a boat, all they lose is a ticket.

And these people must at least be regarded as sailors and first mates who work the ship, the sea ship has become their second home, and now they have been working for more than ten years, and they have just passed the internship period, and the salary has not been paid, and now they leave here, the loss is too great.

"Let me tell you, gentlemen, what I, and what you call the corrupt criminals, have done while you are busy transferring your finances. ”

"To put it simply, your actions of crossing the river and tearing down bridges are not useless for the development of the Empire. The citizens who have been tossed to bankruptcy by you are easily organized and instigated, and if it had been before they went bankrupt, I would not have been able to recruit a single person on the street for ten gold coins, and now they alone are worth half a sack of grain. ”

"As for diplomacy, our Highness the Empress has written a letter to his brother, and our brave King Cyporus has decided to support us, and he will lead an army of more than eight thousand men to serve the Empire. ”

"And if you add the private armies in your estates...... I think you should know this amount better than I do. ”

A young earl slowly uttered a number in the quiet hall.

"Prime Minister...... We, the Capella family, recognized two hundred soldiers...... Plus, plus a knight!"

After hearing this, the surrounding nobles also reported their prices as if they were unburdened.

But Prime Minister Tian Sen's face did not shake in the slightest, and he was still as hard as a stone.

"If you just have such an attitude, then there must be no need for us to talk about it, just open the city gate and welcome the new emperor. After all, I've heard that some of you 'visionaries' have already made friends with the one close to you to the north. ”

The faces of the nobles who were lucky suddenly changed.

Why are you all vassals of the Abbasquia family, but you are so imposing??

At this point, whatever the post-war landscape may be, their reputation will stink into the gutter.

They are trying to find a hair to do it, so that they can accuse Tian Sen of this "unrighteous" behavior.

Everyone