I reached out to cover the light that pierced my cheeks, and replied impatiently, "Why do you say there are?" ”

"I'm sorry, sir!"

Lukka scratched the back of his head, as if considering his next words, and the pervasive light flowed through the small gap in his armpits, and mischievously merged into spots of light.

"Put your hands down."

Lukka was even more panicked, he must have thought that the Duke was angry, but I just hated the sun disturbing my dreams.

"Say something, Luka, don't waste my lunch break."

He sighed softly, and finally made up his mind:

"I want to go to war like Bills, my lord, and please promise me."

Luca has always been clumsy, and being able to say such decent words shows what he is forced to, men are hungry for glory and blood, not to mention falling behind Bills, which makes Luca feel very annoyed and unconvinced.

"I'm sorry, Luka, I'm afraid I can't promise you to return to your place, squire, I don't want to hear anything about you anymore."

I deliberately closed my eyes and pretended to be upset, and Luca, though with his big shoulders and round waist, was very afraid of the majesty of his superiors.

"But I'm more qualified than that kid to go into battle, my lord, he's not even as tall as a spear!" Luka's voice raised twice, drawing a slight sideways glance from the guarded guards not far away.

Stubborn and cute big man, I snickered in my heart:

"Luka, remember your duty? You have to keep me safe at all times, and give your life when it's dangerous, you know? Bills is the squire who serves the living, and I have two hands, so he can go to the battlefield if he wants and you can't. ”

I don't want to be killed by a catastrophe that doesn't know when it came.

"Believe me, staying by my side can fulfill the glory and dreams of men, Luca, I promise you."

Lukka was silent, his heavy back didn't move at all, and he couldn't see any surging emotions, was it a little too hard and cruel? I asked myself, but no one gave me an answer.

As I drifted off to sleep, I fell into a long, chaotic and bizarre dream, bizarre is a difficult word to describe, but it aptly interprets this dream filled with non-existent creatures, strange cities and Serena's warm smile, that hometown far away in the sky, is it okay?

Dreams that are more realistic than reality make people feel haggard, and my chest is depressed as if I am about to suffocate, and I can't sleep anymore, I reminded myself in a daze.

When you open your eyes, the sun is setting behind the towering walls of the city of Rome, painting the whole city scarlet, like a bloody hell that eats people and does not spit out bones.

Rome, how many innocent lives and the undead of the conquerors have been devoured?

To this day, the lonely ghosts still float over the city, their wails are no longer heard, the wheels of time roll forward, the weak fall, and Rome lives forever.

Luca turned his back to me as he had fallen asleep, as if he hadn't moved at all.

"Luca."

I called out to him in a hoarse voice, the old phlegm in my throat tearing the sound into staccato pieces, and it took a lot of effort to clear it.

"What time is it now?"

"The sun is setting, my lord, it's getting dark."

Luka's muffled voice floated from the other side of his back: "Do you want to prepare something to eat?" ”

You're still not happy, big man, and one day you'll understand me.

"Go and call Barberini."

I rubbed my eyes and sat up: "Do you know Barberini?" The small little guard, with black hair and brown skin as thick as a cloud, resembled a moldy piece of buttered bread. ”

Lukka stood up awkwardly and sat cross-legged for so long that his legs became disobedient.

"I know him, he is the most special in the squire regiment, and he is easy to remember." As he spoke, he hurried away in one direction, and Bills followed up with the already heated food, which was quite intimate.

Barberini was in a moment, but the servant was full of energy, his round eyes were like two searchlights of full power, and he stood waiting for the Duke to give orders, and he knew what he was waiting for.

"Everyone's been found?" I broke open the half-pulled bread and dipped it in the snail stewed vegetable soup left over from noon, and asked as I ate.

"Hmmm! Twenty obedient lads. He grinned.

I nodded, opened my mouth and stuffed the rest of the bread into it, the milky white soup overflowing from the corners of my mouth, it was simply a human delicacy, and I couldn't get enough of it, and I couldn't get enough of it.

"When it gets completely dark, our troops will relaunch their attack, and in this direction, Portetesaimen." The south gate with a wide field of vision is suitable for the siege troops to deploy their troops, and it is also suitable for the defenders to harvest their lives without obstacles.

"Understood."

Barberini's eyes flashed with excitement, and he rubbed his hands repeatedly and uncontrollably, making a rough grinding sound: "Before the moon rises in the sky, the door of San Pancrazio will be opened, and my lord, the enchanting and brilliant dawn of Rome will belong to her new master." ”

"It also belongs to the victors of glory."

I handed him a rotten wooden wine glass that I didn't know where Bills got it, and touched my own: "May God bless you......"

A few hours later, the sun had completely set, its light had vanished at the end of the horizon, as if it had been locked in an impenetrable black box, and the knights in full gear were once again clothed in battle, their eyes fluttering and talking to each other, showing their uncertain suspicion of night battle.

In the eyes of these self-proclaimed and bright knights, war should be a needle-to-needle rivalry, a large-scale duel with a considerable number of people, which pursues justice, fairness, and convincing, rather than endless intrigues and dirty tricks, but in fact?

I have no doubt that if God had a huge amount of gold in his chest, he would have knocked him directly from behind, saying that one thing and doing another is a common disease of human morality, and what we have whitewashed with beautiful words and strict rules is nothing but an illusion that looks as beautiful as possible and a lie as sweet as honey.

Antes, from Hanover, was an old knight with gray temples, who had never been mixed up with a hereditary knighthood in his life, and the terrible scars left by a certain battle had shaved off half of his already collapsed nose, and his ice-like frozen eyes did not seem to move at all, no amount of mental activity would be revealed through his eyes, especially the huge chin that protruded like a spliced defect of the Ancuo model.

But people of sound intelligence throughout Saxony know that Old Antes is no easy character to be messed with, and rumors about his penchant for torturing prisoners of war and having sex with a thousand women have divided into countless versions, with several drunken knights at the wine table claiming to have seen him skin prisoners of war with red-hot iron chisels, and two of them fought over whether to make old Antes's own underwear or the lining of chain mail.

"All strife after the sun goes down is condemned by God and forbidden by the Church."

Old Antes reeked of disgusting booze, and he spent all his life savings on wine and women, so much so that he went into battle on his own because he could not afford to pay for his attendants.

"I have to warn you, Lord Duke, that he is fair in making our enemies blind at night and blinding us and depriving us of the ability to observe."

I'll try to like you if you stop being noisy, and the stench and the unwashed appearance are not a problem at all.

"I have people tear down everything in the village that can be used to start a fire, beams, fences, poles to draw water, etc., and collect enough wood to burn for three days and three nights, and the enemy can only see from the walls the shadows of our endless rush to the front, they will not have the courage to resist for so long, the night will help us, she is Satan's bride, and death belongs to Satan, doesn't it? The night makes people forget their fears, and we are in them. ”

"Can I tell the truth, my lord?" Old Antes put his hand into the crotch of his pants without hesitation, scratching the itch comfortably as he spoke.

"What?"

"Even with Satan's bride helping us, the walls of Rome remain impregnable, and it has never fallen to an enemy without siege weapons." His tone didn't sound serious or joking.

"That's just a legend from the past, but legends are created by humans after all."

I pulled at my chain mail gloves: "Besides, we have siege weapons, don't you see the ladders carried by the soldiers?" It's not only durable, it's simple and lightweight, and you'll love it. ”

If you're still alive at sunrise tomorrow, I'm willing to take back the ridiculous nonsense I'm talking about at this moment.

"Who knows!"

Old Antes carried his shield on his back, and the scarred signs of damage showed the master's good fighting and stinginess: "Let's see! ”

"Ignition!"

At my command, three towering pyres burst into flames, orange light piercing through the hazy mist of the night, illuminating a large clearing up to the city walls, and the excited soldiers let out high-pitched roars as they tapped their shields, gradually gathering into a sea of cheers.

The Romans at the head of the city woke up from their slumber, and more and more torches lit up like stars hidden behind the clouds, and everyone knew that a fierce battle was inevitable.

"Gone, sir!"

Old Antes didn't like the encouragement and farewell of his mother-in-law, and he devoutly believed in God: "Every time I go out into battle, I will go all out, and when God thinks it is time to take away this old soul, he will do it, if I am lucky enough to survive, what else can I do except reward this God-given **?" ”

He was drunk at the wine table and said this to his friends who made fun of him.

"The Basels, commanded by Oden, will attack from the front, they will attract the attention of the enemy, and you will take this opportunity to approach the walls along the blind spots of fire on both sides and try to successfully erect the ladder."

I don't feel at ease to explain tonight's tactics again, when the knights are on the rise, they often forget about the prior arrangement, and turn into angry berserkers, blindly burning themselves and dragging others down.

"Even if the enemy discovers you, it's too late to adjust the scorpion crossbow and trebuchet, and concentrating the archers will loosen the suppression of the front."

I think there is always one of you who can succeed in echoing each other: "If you can't hear the horn, no matter how big the casualties are, you have to grit your teeth and hold on, and the follow-up troops will continue to replenish them, or send them to death in a steady stream, piling up the road to my success in Rome, and the bones are the best ornaments for the victors." ”

The last few words followed the back of old Antes, and he hurried back to his ranks, the selected knights of Nijmegen and the knights of Hanover, who had become inseparable through several battles of life and death, and could not be distinguished by the seats they ate or the settlements in which they were encamped.

"This is the best outcome and the worst outcome, and only the all-knowing and all-powerful God knows the answer." There was an inadvertent conversation with Rollo that stuck with him, and I knew what he was worried about.

When will such a war come to an end? Startled by the thought that popped into my head, I quickly touched the sword hanging from my waist to stabilize my emotions.

"Let's get started!"

There was still a little trembling at the end, but the herald, who was so engrossed in his attention, could not hear the change in the Duke's tone at all, and in his reflex arc, there were only the two endpoints of the order now and the revocation of the order now, and the rest did not respond.

Auden led the knights loyal to his family to drive the soldiers who had just experienced a round of slaughter in the morning, and they crowded forward one by one, and the atmosphere was oppressive and dreary, like an army of wooden men.

The impregnable walls of Rome made them desperate, and it was especially demoralizing to die despite the fear of despair, and the survivors were even more painful than their comrades who died in the morning under the rain of arrows, the roar of trebuchets and the pushing and trampling, because no one wanted to experience the choice of death twice.

"Run, you slackers!"

Auden's broken leg was almost fine after being bandaged by the medical officer, and whether it could grow well or whether it would worsen the infection depended on God's arrangement.

"I can guarantee that you will not bleed again, but I cannot guarantee that you will be completely fine."

The medical officer dropped this irresponsible sentence, but no one blamed him, in fact, everyone knew in their hearts that the so-called medical officer's attainments on gelding were better than saving lives.

Unable to ride a horse, Auden insisted on letting two squires support him and personally direct the attack on the city wall, even if he could not really do much, inheriting his father's cautious character, Auden did not want to give up any opportunity to curry favor with the superiors, and the Duke's importance to Basel made him see the hope of the salted fish turning over.

"I swear to God that I will tear off the head of the man who fell at the end and stick it in the spear to dry, and let the crows peck at your rotten eyes and lips!"

The pain of the broken leg did not stop Auden from going into a rage, and he sent all the knights to press the formation to ensure that the soldiers would only move forward, inserting the two bloody headless corpses next to them, ://bqg3