The freedom guaranteed by a democratic method is not necessarily greater than that of an individual that could be allowed by another political method in the same environment, and may well be less.

– Joseph Schumpeter (Austrian political economist)

After withdrawing the pro-soldier guards who had suffered heavy losses to the station, Bai Feng, who was extremely disappointed, did not show his inner emotions on his face; how to appease the pro-soldier guards whose confidence had been hit hard was the most important thing for Bai Feng to do at the moment.

As the commander of the pro-guard team, there was no big problem with Luculus's command style, but it was difficult for the soldiers of the pro-guard to carry out Luculus's orders, which led to the rout on the battlefield.

Bai Feng, who had grown wise from a trench, first restored the morale of the officers and men of the pro-guard corps as much as possible, and then streamlined the pro-guard corps, which had lost troops and lost troops; the cavalry wing and the four infantry wings were reduced from 4,000 to the original 3,000 men.

The three wings of archers and crossbowmen that had not suffered losses were reorganized into three wings of archers and two wings of crossbowmen, each of which was also numbered at 3,000 men;

As a result of this round of readjustments, the number of wings under the command of the Pro-Guard Corps has increased from nine to ten, and the size of the regular force has been reduced from 38,000 to 30,000 soldiers.

Under the rapid expansion, even the pro-soldier guards will inevitably decline instead of increasing their combat effectiveness, and the other units that are expanding at a slightly inferior speed to the pro-soldier guards will probably not maintain their combat effectiveness very well.

Previously, the reason why the fourteen troops were able to take the initiative to attack was able to achieve a lot of success, mainly because they used an absolute superiority of troops against small orc troops, and if they faced a large number of orc troops, they might not perform better than the pro-soldier guards.

In view of this, Bai Feng, who had doubts, specially convened a military meeting at the level of a legion commander, and ordered the commanders of each legion to ensure that the legions under their command could not have a decline in combat strength, and if so, they must be strengthened back in time.

The flowers bloomed two and each showed a branch, and just as Bai Feng was re-grasping the training of the army under his command, in the Governor's Mansion of Mengdan County, the capital of Mengdan Province, after half a year, the kings of all tribes who had scattered the orc army scattered everywhere finally gathered together again.

Prince Sainsbury, who served as the supreme commander of the orc army, led his army to capture the Sunset Fortress, which had blocked the Orc Empire's attack for more than two hundred years, but his frowning brows meant that he was not in a very good mood at this time, and it could even be described as bad.

The five kings of the Orc Empire in two rows all looked sad, as if they had encountered some difficulty, but what was there that made them feel embarrassed by the orc army that had successfully captured Sunset Fortress?

After the dull atmosphere lasted for a long time, Prince Sainsbury spoke helplessly: "Cahill, you fox clan can be called the brain race of our empire, and you are the fox king of the fox clan, what do you think of our current predicament?"

"This ......" Cahill, the fox king whose eyelids jumped slightly, hesitated in his tone: "Your Royal Highness, in my opinion, if we continue to stalemate like this, we will do all kinds of harm and no benefit, and it will only waste our precious troops in vain, so it is better for us to withdraw from the army." ”

As soon as Cahill's suggestion to withdraw from the army was spoken, the grumpy bull-headed king Romero retorted angrily: "Retreat?

In the orc empire, where the strong are respected, the Minotaur clan, which can rank among the top five in the empire in terms of comprehensive strength, is much stronger than the fox clan, which is known for its wisdom, so the status of the Minotaur King Romero is also a notch higher than that of the fox king Cahill.

"Romero, it's not just you minotaur warriors who have made sacrifices, but also the warriors of other races who have died in battle. The wolf king Saker, who was dissatisfied with the remarks of the bull-headed king Romero, said-for-tat: "The knights of our werewolf clan have also sacrificed a lot. ”

"Hmph, I don't know how many knights you werewolves have sacrificed, I only know that our Minotaur warriors will never be defeated by human infantry, and can an orc warrior who can be defeated by human infantry in a field battle still deserve to be a great orc warrior?"

"Romero, do you think that our werewolf knights can't break through your Minotaur camp?" Thack, who was enraged by Romero, did not hesitate to challenge Romero's Minotaur clan as his wolf king.

"Is it just your werewolf knights?" "In the face of the threat of war from Thack, Romero, who was dismissive, continued to sneer, "I want to see how the knights of the nests, who can't even be dealt with by human infantry, can challenge our powerful minotaur warriors!"

"You ......" The furious Thackle was so excited that he almost did it on the spot, and Prince Sainsbury, who was watching coldly, reprimanded him in a timely manner: "Romero, Thackle, do you want to stage a farce of infighting in front of me?"

"Your Royal Highness, it was Romero who spoke out first!" Thackle, whose eyes were red, did not dare to challenge the authority of Prince Sainsbury, and was unwilling to tolerate Romero, so he had to defend himself angrily.

Romero, who was not to be outdone, replied neither softly nor hardly: "Your Royal Highness, what I just said did not mean to provoke anyone, I just told the truth!"

"I don't care what grudges you have that you can't resolve, as long as we are still on human soil, you are allies who must support each other, and if I see you fighting like this again, I will make you regret coming into this world!"

Prince Sainsbury, who was the most powerful of the kings present, knew the old and new hatred of Romero, the king of the bulls, and the old hatred of the wolf king, and in order to prevent their quarrel from continuing, he was already a little angry and issued the most severe warning to them.

Romero, the Minotaur, and Thack, the Wolf King, who looked at each other unfavorably, could taunt each other unscrupulously, but they could not ignore Prince Sainsbury's warnings, and after slightly restraining their emotions, they each retreated to their original positions.

"Since the Celestial Dragon Empire's army launched a counteroffensive, we have lost nearly 50,000 Imperial warriors in just a few months, and this level of casualties is unacceptable for us with a poor population, and we must take targeted measures to achieve this. ”

"Your Royal Highness, the purpose of our all-out attack on the Celestial Dragon Empire was to capture the Sunset Fortress that the Celestial Dragon Empire used to block our westward advance; ”

As soon as Prince Sainsbury's words were finished, Cahill, the fox king, who had already written a draft, spoke again, and this time he not only made his own suggestion straight to the point, but also added an irrefutable reason to his suggestion.

"Cahill, the purpose of our adventure over the Sunset Mountains is not to capture the Sunset Fortress of the Celestial Dragon Empire, but to bring back enough food to feed the people of our empire who are struggling to survive, which is more important than the capture of Sunset Fortress. ”

"Your Royal Highness, during the occupation of the five provinces of the Celestial Dragon Empire, the food we harvested was enough to ensure that no old man would starve to death in the empire within five years, plus the captured human craftsmen and human utensils, what we need most is time to digest these. ”

"Then according to your speculation, how long will it take us to turn human things into ours?" Prince Sainsbury, who was not very interested in numbers, had already given the task of counting the captured to Cahill, the fox king.

"If we learn to use human things, we need five years, and if we learn to make human things, we need at least twenty years, and we still need to learn to make things that are not complicated, after all, we are different from human beings. ”

"Five years?" Prince Sainsbury, whose eyes were slightly condensed, turned to Sturalo, the bear king on the other side, and asked, "Sturaro, if I let you lead an army to garrison Sunset Fortress for five years, how many Imperial soldiers will you need to hold Sunset Fortress?"

"Your Highness, you only need to give me 200,000 Imperial warriors and 300 shamans, and I can defend the Sunset Fortress!" Sturalo, the bear king, who usually acts safely, gave a decent answer.

"Thiago, what about you?"

"Your Highness, I want 250,000 Imperial warriors and 500 shamans. Thiago, the elephant king, replied more cautiously.

"Romero, what about you?"

"Your Highness, all I need is 100,000 Imperial Warriors and 300 Shamans, plus 50,000 Minotaur Warriors under my command, and I dare to guarantee that even if the Celestial Dragon Empire can gather a million troops to attack Sunset Fortress, I can defeat them and annihilate them all!"

"Thackle, what about you?"

"Your Highness, our werewolf knights are not suitable for defending the fortress, but they can act as a mobile force to take the initiative, if you need it, I can lead 30,000 wolf cavalry to stay behind and assist the remaining commanders to jointly defend the Sunset Fortress. ”

The overall strength of the fox clan is not strong enough, which determines that Cahill, the fox king, is not suitable to be the commander of the army left behind in the Sunset Fortress, and among the other four kings with suitable positions, the cautious elephant king Tiago and the clever wolf king Thackel are obviously better answered.

As for Sturaro the Bear and Romero the Minotaur, the former does not have the ability to be the commander of the army, and the latter is really overconfident; moderate self-confidence can make people progress, and excessive self-confidence will degenerate into conceit, and it is easy to make people empty-eyed.

"Thiago, I will leave you 300,000 Imperial warriors and 500 shamans, and your mission is to garrison Sunset Fortress for five years, and if your army loses more than 50,000 during these five years, you must report to me immediately, without any delay or delay!"

"No!" Thiago, the elephant king, who was calm and calm, accepted the order of Prince Sainsbury without sorrow or joy.

"Thack, in addition to the 30,000 wolf cavalry under your command, I need you to transfer another 20,000 wolf cavalry over, and for the next five years, your mission is to assist Thiago in defending the Sunset Fortress, but remember not to leave the fortress without permission, lest you encounter an enemy ambush. ”

"No!" the wolf king Thackle, who had received his wish, became high-pitched in his tone when he accepted the order.

Looking at the slightly lost bear king Sturaro and the angry bull-headed king Romero, Prince Sainsbury continued to order with an expressionless face: "Romero, three days later, you will lead the first group of retreating troops to begin to retreat. ”

"No!" Romero, the reluctant bull-headed king, had to respond in a muffled voice.

"Sturaro, you are in charge of leading the army to escort the captured human craftsmen and captured human equipment, and retreat after Romero. ”

"No!" Sturalo, who had regained his spirits, tried his best to show a high-spirited appearance.

"Cahill, I will give you 100,000 Imperial soldiers, your task is to let your fox people coordinate the transportation order, and transport the grain and other resources we have harvested back to the empire as soon as possible;

"No!" Cahill, the fox king, who was in awe of Prince Sainsbury, bowed down in response.

The high-level decision of the orc army was quickly implemented, and the orc troops stationed in various parts of the province of Mengdan, with the assistance of the foxes, retreated towards the Sunset Fortress while still scavenging as much food as possible that was almost impossible to find.

The burrowing orc troops were finally withdrawn to Sunset Fortress within a month of Prince Sainsbury's retreat order, and at this time, there were still 500,000 orc troops stationed in Sunset Fortress, where food was piled up!

The Minotaur King Romero led his army to withdraw to the Orc Empire half a month ago, the retreat of the Bear King Sturaro has not yet ended, and the fox people under the command of the fox king Cahill have not yet liquidated the materials piled up in the Sunset Fortress.

The wealth contained in the five eastern provinces that the Celestial Dragon Empire has developed for hundreds of years is billions of gold coins if it is converted into gold coins, and the wealth plundered by the orcs is still as high as billions of gold coins, excluding those fixed assets that are not easy to take away and assets that have been destroyed.

Such a huge amount of wealth, handed over to any human country, is enough to instantly increase the overall strength of this country by a notch, not to mention the orc empire with poor land and few resources, this wealth means even more extraordinary to them.

In fact, the ubiquitous Luo Wang had already sensed the intention of the orc army to withdraw, and after learning of this, Bai Feng first asked Luo Wang to confirm the movement of the orc army, and then sat back and watched the orc army in Mengdan Province leave with the harvested supplies.

It was not that Bai Feng did not want to lead the army to intercept the retreating orc army, but the 500,000 orc army stationed in the Sunset Fortress threatened Bai Feng's army at all times, and the excessive risk of sending troops forced Bai Feng to sit back and watch the orc army retreat.

It wasn't until all the orc armies in Mengdan Province withdrew to Sunset Fortress that Bai Feng tentatively sent Hans to lead the Yulin Legion into Mengdan Province to take over the dilapidated ownerless towns in Mengdan Province.