At the beginning of February, the spring cold rolls upside down.

Thousands of miles away to the west, the weather was already getting warmer, even if there was tender green breaking through the soil stained with dark red blood scale, it could not hide the slightest chill of spring, Gerald returned from the military camp outside the city, and went to inspect the city wall for a while, burly, fluffy golden beard like a lion, holding the hilt of the sword at his waist, his eyebrows were full of calm.

“.…… How long can I keep it......"

He whispered softly, turned and walked down the wall, and as he led the horse, Gerald rolled over and waved, "Go!" "Take hundreds of knights of the Holy City to the huge palace built on the mountain at the end of the sight, leaving the city wall, it used to be a deserted city, when the city was built, there was not much manpower and material resources to build more houses, except for the nobles and church quarters, there were only a few houses around.

Walking through a deserted field, there is an area where a large number of felt tents gather, people are lighting bonfires on the ground to keep warm, there are many figures in the vicinity of the river to draw water, and there are also people selling goods around the dilapidated tents, and there is a lot of noise, and a few barefoot children in sackcloth shorts chase past Gerald and his entourage, it is a lively and cheerful scene.

Last summer, Ptimius Severus, who had conquered the two river basins of the Euphrates and Tigris, suddenly led his troops back and launched a tentative attack on them, Gerald engaged the opponent in a tight array, and was quickly defeated, if it were not for the fact that his sister Stephanie led only 2,500 cavalry to learn the tactics of the eastern one, and carried out a roundabout attack on Severus's rear camp, forcing the other side to withdraw troops to reinforce, which gave the entire Clark City a chance to breathe...... It was not until winter that the Roman emperor returned with a truce.

And this named Ptimius Severus, the son of a knight, defeated the Syrian governor Nigel, and then marched westward, defeating the emperor Arnubis, originally Stephanie and Gerald wanted to take advantage of Rome's weak period of civil strife to establish their own city, but they did not expect that Severus, who sent troops to rest the empire, included the Mesopotamian two river basins into Rome's territory in less than two years.

This time, they couldn't find the answer from the white wolf, after all, they were going to face the entire Roman empire, not just a prince like that Gongsun Zhi.

Gerald was not very confident about whether he could hold on to the Romans' offensive this year and beyond, the other side had consolidated the civil strife of Rome in less than six years, and had also attacked to take the land in peace, and now that the spring planting season had arrived, and the war was imminent.

Stomp ......

The horses' hooves ran over the neat rocky brick path, stopping at the long stone steps, and Gerald rolled over his horse and threw the reins to a soldier, dragging his cloak into the palace above, the eyes of the guards around him.

The man, who was as burly as a lion, strode towards the palace, and when the city officials saw him, they stopped and saluted, and Gerald nodded at them, and went straight through the front hall full of flowers and green, around the front court of the throne, and at the end of the deep alleyway, he took off his cloak and threw it to the guards guarding the gate of the back court, and pushed the door in.

The iron basin with which the bonfire was lit was in the center of the hall, and the sunlight was shining through the window lattices above the dome on the floor tiles, and above the stone platform, a figure in a long white dress sat behind a long table, with a circle of fox fur around her shoulders, and her long golden hair hung down like a waterfall, occasionally surging like golden water waves in the spring sun as the woman looked through the parchment rolls.

Listen to the footsteps echoing in the quiet palace.

Stephanie raised her gaze from the parchment map, and her beautiful eyes looked straight at the people who came in, like a lioness crawling in the grass waiting to hunt - all these years, except for the rare tenderness in front of her own children, she had a cold attitude at other times, but she was more fanatical than anyone else about building a city that belonged to the Germanic people.

However, the person who came across from her was her brother, and the indifference was slightly restrained, and the servant served some fruit, and the two sat opposite each other for a moment, without speaking.

There was silence for a while, Stephanie probably knew what the man was worried about, or she didn't have much confidence in her, and she slowly stood up with her plump and tall figure against her long skirt, and looked at the window lattice: "The Romans, they divided all the conquered lands into provinces, and all the people who lived in that land were reduced to slaves, and those who were kind to them were freemen, without this city, how inferior would the Germans and Celts who were displaced from this land be?" Now that we've spent the winter, we're still standing here, alive, even with the threat of the Romans' death, and now it seems that they're not as good as they were rumored to be. ”

She turned around, her tone was simple and direct, and she looked at Gerald, "....... Gongsun's tactics are very useful, the Roman army is like a slow turtle, although they also have cavalry, but they don't seem to be very good at using it, this is the chance, my brother. ”

"You're doing this, it's too risky......"

Gerald was silent for a moment, then said, "We have too few cavalry...... There is simply no way to pose an effective threat to the Romans, and last time I didn't know how many cavalry you had, and this year they will come again, maybe it will be different. ”

"When they come back, the number of cavalry will be the same as last year, my brother."

Stephanie folded her arms and walked on the cold floor with her bare ankles, her beautiful eyes revealing confidence and a hint of coldness, "Brother, you have no confidence in your sister, nor in your son, but you will have confidence in the one who is far away...... Have faith? ”

The 'male lion' on the opposite side frowned, his face was slightly moved, and then he shook his head: "It's too far away, you can't know that person at all, he is still alive or not, and the Eastern Empire is too big, even if he wants to help us, he will have to wait until he clears the enemies in his own country." ”

Stephanie didn't mean much to say about her brother's disapproval, her expression was still confident, and she turned to the apse with her ankles lightly, and her voice was also coming.

“.…… I had already sent a team of dozens of people over in the winter, and perhaps in the winter of this year, he would receive my letter, but until then, we had no other choice. She said.

After that, Gerald walked out of the palace and let out a heavy breath, looking at the city that had been built step by step, and he couldn't bear to be destroyed by the war again...... Perhaps, the only way left is to continue fighting.

*************

The heavenly light shone on the earth that had awakened from winter, and stretched all the way eastward, past Parthia (rest), over Kushan, over Usun...... Tens of thousands of miles away, spreading across the endless grasslands, as the rain clouds turned downward, farther south, where the dawn was slowly drawing from the night.

The situation in the Central Plains is still fermenting and boiling.

In the tense situation, the soldiers in the city also stepped up their patrols, wearing their robes through the rain curtain and hurriedly leaving, or hiding under the eaves and waiting for the rain to pass.

In the Xun Mansion, the study was lit up in the gloomy sky, and in the light of the fire, Guo Jia was playing a game with the master here, and after going down to a son, "....... this battle, how many people believe that the main guild will win?" ”

On the other side, the man with a slender figure and a focused gaze is Xun Yu, who is cautious and steady, and usually looks farther away from the situation, and is also famous among scholars.

When the words came, he remained motionless, and as the chess pieces in his hand fell, the voice came from his mouth at the same time: "....... One layer, no more. ”