In the hall of the castle of Vilno City in Lithuania, dozens of famous nobles in Lithuania gathered around a long round table with sad faces, drinking the red wine in front of them without taking a sip.

For a long time, the lord of Vilno, the lord of Vilno, the most powerful and prestigious Grand Duke of Janusz Rajvier, who was the strongest and most prestigious in the Lithuanian aristocracy, took the lead in breaking the silence in a deep voice.

"Send peace emissaries, we don't have the strength to continue fighting."

As soon as Archduke Janusz Rajvir finished speaking, Count Grodno, who was sitting at the bottom of his hand, stood up abruptly, waved his arms and retorted: "Why should we surrender? There are honest young men in the territory who can be pulled into the battlefield with a little training, and the invasion of the Taiping Army has given us the moral obligation to persist in fighting, we are fighting a national war against aggression, fighting for the preservation of the living space of the Lithuanians, what the Taiping Army has done is well known, and we can win over a large number of people for our own use as long as we publicize it a little!

How many people are there in the Taiping army, and how many cities can Hong Tiancheng's Tatar god stick occupy? The whole region of Lithuania is full of people who support us, and the Moscow capital of the Russians was occupied by the Tatar barbarians of the Crimean Khanate, and then it was not taken in the same way?

What the Russians can do, can't we Lithuanians do? As long as we have the support of the people, sooner or later we will be able to kill the duckweed of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom! ”

Count Grodno owns Grodno, a well-known city in Lithuania, and belongs to the powerful nobles in Lithuania after Grand Duke Janusz Rajvier, and is also one of the leaders of the main battle faction facing the Taiping army.

The reason why Count Grodno advocated fighting was very simple, after the fall of the Black Rus region, his territory would be the first to face the Taiping army's military peak, and the rich city of Grodno would become a major target for the Taiping army's attack, because the Lithuanian nobles had already studied the Taiping army's combat methods, which were basically locust-like plundering and plundering.

For this reason, the great nobles of Lithuania also made many measures to clear the wilderness, moving the population of the countryside away, burning down houses and immature farmland, taking away all the materials that could be taken away, and destroying all those who could not be taken away!

It has to be said that this behavior did cause a little trouble for the Taiping army's supply, of course, it was just a little, first, the Taiping army had plundered enough logistics materials before, and second, the Lithuanian aristocracy could make the countryside and even the towns clear, but they could not make the real city become a 'ghost town'.

Because of the policy of clearing the wilderness, those cities with small populations on weekdays have become bloated 'fat sheep', as long as the Taiping army breaks through a city, it can get a large number of material supplies, for the elite army of the Taiping army with a strong military force of more than 10,000 people, it is really not difficult to break through a city, who called most cities in Europe only have a circle of earth walls?

In the era of cold weapons, this kind of earthen wall may be able to occupy the advantage of terrain by virtue of the height difference, but in the era of firearms where black powder is rampant, only a large amount of black powder is needed to bury the position, and then with a 'boom', it is enough to break the city......

Not to mention the cities of the European countries in the 17th century, even if it is a fortified city during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period in the late Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is difficult to hold under the gunpowder blasting of the Taiping army in history, and in the development of city defense, the eastern country has always been ahead of the west, this is mainly because the people and cultural relics in the east are much richer than those in the west, and they have more manpower and material resources to build the city wall more perfectly.

It's a pity that the popularity of black powder has gradually made the ancient favorable city defense system gradually backward, even the specially developed star-shaped fortress has become less solid under the increasingly powerful siege cannon, and finally the city of the Westerners took the lead in opening the construction mode of the 'wallless' city, after realizing that the city wall has lost its due role in resisting the enemy, Western countries simply build open cities with lower costs, and use the saved funds to expand the army and expand the army.

In this way, field warfare and street fighting gradually became the mainstream on the European battlefield, and of course, fortress complexes for purely military purposes were also widely used in warfare, but they were not widespread because of cost issues.

"Your Excellency, Count Grodno, do you think the Taiping Army will give us enough time to train a new army? According to the latest information, the city of Novogrodok has fallen, and the lord of Novogrodok, who had been clamoring for the loudest battle to the end, has become the first 'Lithuanian traitor' to kneel at the feet of Hong Tiancheng.

Although everyone does not want to admit it, in fact, we do not have much strength to continue to resist the invasion of the Taipings, and the Poles have not even seen a shadow of the city of Kiev, and it is better to expect them to help us than to expect the sow to climb the tree! Grand Duke Janusz Rajvir replied in a calm tone.

Count Grodno did not feel anything about the remarks of Grand Duke Janusz Rajvir, and what chilled him was that none of the many Lithuanian nobles present had come out to refute this surrender!

Even those 'allies' who had supported him bowed their heads in shame at this time, and their eyes wandered and they didn't know what they were thinking.

"Are you just watching your family's accumulated wealth being swallowed up by a Tatar pariah of unknown origin? And then bow your head and sing an ode to his exploits?! Count Grodno's voice trembled slightly, glancing at the Lithuanian nobles present.

Count Grodno's words finally touched the bottom line in the hearts of many Lithuanian nobles, and the voices of discussion and doubts sounded in the hall for the first time.

"Enough, think about it, even if we really mobilize all the untouchables to fight the Taiping army to the end, our richest territory will inevitably be the first to be attacked and sacked by the Taiping army!

When the time comes, who of you will want to abandon your cozy castle to lead a group of untouchables in a battle for an unpredictable duration?

Rather than making fearless sacrifices, it is better to give up some more interests at the negotiating table, judging from Hong Tiancheng's previous behavior, he is not an unreasonable madman, all he wants is nothing more than surrender and wealth to support his army, if you can use money to settle this difficulty, even if you temporarily put down your dignity, it is better than us losing the most fundamental territory. ”

Grand Duke Janusz Rajvir spoke earnestly and persuasively.