Act XXXIV: Opportunity for the Kingdom
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After the year of the Running Wolf, the most outstanding military strategist in the history of the Wind Jīng Spirit, Shaglifin, the king of the Gray Mountain, who had not yet reached the rank of marshal, stated in his writings: "If you cannot effectively inflict damage on the corpse witches in the army of Madara, then you cannot truly defeat an army of the undead." But when this black rose of Bromanda was really defeated, the skeleton that was routed in the river valley was not much different from a human army that fled in all directions, the undead fled backwards all over the mountains, because they had lost their command, the corpse witches fought separately with the skeletons they summoned, like a plate of scattered sand, although the undead lords from the Sea of the Dead Moon could still restrain their subordinates, but they only wanted to escape, they had no fighting spirit, and the current army of blood rods could not be called an army in fact, From top to bottom, they have lost the purpose and will to fight, and only struggle to save themselves, no different from the armies of the defeated northern nobles of Ampesel's time.
However, if you look closely, there are still some subtle differences, the flight of human beings under the defeat of the army is often due to the panic in the heart and surrender, there are no two factors in the feelings of the undead, they save themselves only out of rational choice, and will not trample on each other because of panic, or be killed like a duck and dare not turn back. If they are overtaken, they will stop and fight back, but out of the selfish nature of the dark creatures, they will never come to the aid of their nearby colleagues who are under attack - even if it may be more beneficial for them to do so.
Count Jacques and Brando, riding side by side in the river valley, were very moved when they saw this scene: "It turns out that the army of the undead is nothing more than this, and they can make mistakes all the same. ”
"The spirits of the dead are not natural things, and no one understands the mysteries between life and death better than them, so they remove the uneasiness of unknown death from the mortal mind at its root. They don't have an attachment to life, so they don't feel impulsive, they don't have a fanatical mentality, but impulsiveness and fear are just one of all the negative emotions, greed, arrogance, vanity and selfishness, all of which make them fall. Brando watched the battle unfold in the valley on horseback as he explained to the close courtiers of the Grand Duke Vieiro.
Count Jacques nodded silently, and he glanced at the lord who was also an earl but was too young: "Mr. Earl seems to know that dark country very well? ”
"I always try to know my enemies, the enemies of the kingdom," said Brando, looking at the Lord Count from Jacques-Genkin, who knew the man; Jacques Jean Gin, on the border between the provinces of Viero and Calasu, this count, who had dealt with Madara in history, although the other party had some common problems to the Eruin nobles of this era in the south, but he still knew the black rose of Blomanda much more deeply than other useless nobles, and it was rare that this person was deeply trusted by the Grand Duke of Viero in history.
"Monsieur Moberto," he continued, "I don't let you underestimate the black rose across from us because of what you have seen today. ”
"When I was a child, I watched my father's winter hunt bring back bears and wolves, and I always thought that these beasts in the forest were nothing more than that, and then I was fortunate enough to let a cunning fellow leave a mark on me, and the scar still remains on my back, and since then I have learned that I must not underestimate any of my opponents." Count Jacques made an analogy to make Brando understand that what he was talking about was actually today's thing, which meant a qiē that happened today, and he would definitely not take it lightly.
Brando also believed that this battle would leave a deep impression on the other side, which was one of his original goals: to prevent these nobles from learning a lesson, they would not understand what kind of enemy they were facing, and only by letting these people understand the real threat, under the persecution of external forces, the kingdom could take the path he wanted. He shook his head with a slight smile and continued to expose Mardala's old roots: "But what Mr. Moberto is thinking now must be that he has mastered the weaknesses of these bone frames, and if he thinks so, it would be very wrong. ”
Count Jacques looked a little stunned: "Why do you say that? I think you have a good point in describing them, Mr. Earl, that the bones do have that weakness. ”
"That's the heaven of the undead, just like the people, Mr. Moberto, humans will be afraid, but the people of Toniguer, Vieiro and Lantonilan will not collapse in the face of the undead, humans will be impulsive and greedy, and people will be just as arrogant and selfish, but our kingdom, civilization and order have not collapsed because of this. That's because we still have the second genus of social xìng, and the Madara people are the same, they used to be a plate of loose sand, but the blood rod we defeated today is far different from the past, I think you must know this very well, my lord. ”
"But Mr. Earl, I am afraid you have not thought that the Madara we see today is still an illusion." Without waiting for Count Jacques to nod, Brando continued, and the latter opened his mouth at this remark, looking very surprised, but Brando did not give him a chance to speak: "The reason why we have defeated the Blood Staff today is based on its ignorance of us, and also on the fact that it still maintains an old command system. Mr. Earl must have heard of the military reforms of the kingdom, but such reforms began in Madara seven years ago, and before the War of the Black Roses, they had basically ended this historical mission, and today's Madara has at least more than a thousand Imperial Electors, and these Imperial Electors are different from the army of the Blood Staff that you and I have seen in the sky, the Blood Staff is unruly, in fact, it is not the descendant of the Most High of Madara, it is defeated by us here today, It's probably because the Most High of Madala needs us to help him purge him of dissent—"
He paused: "And the real Madara army, they have a complete system of middle and lower non-commissioned officers, and they will never fall into a situation of disintegration because of the collapse of the upper command system, such an undead army can really fight until the last corpse witch falls." Sir Count, imagine how Eruin would have fought in the face of such an enemy, in order to win. ”
Count Jacques stared at the young lord with wide eyes, and if Brando had come to tell him this in the morning, he would never have believed it, it was simply ridiculous and nonsense. But at this moment, Brando's strength and knowledge of Mardala made him unable to doubt lightly, especially the thousand Imperial Election Regiments in Brando's mouth were like a thunderbolt that shook his mouth dry, and his mind was chaotic for a while.
His sallow and unbelievable appearance had been expected by Brando. Of course, Brando would not tell him, although the direction of expansion of Madara's expansion was Eruin, but their main enemies were the wind jīng spirits of St. Osor and the Faenzan people further north, and more than half of the more than 1,000 imperial electors of Madala had to be used to guard against these two huge empires, and it was better to scare this guy, so as not to make them still delusional.
In fact, it didn't make a difference, how many troops Madara had at the moment didn't really mean much to the small kingdom of Eruin, because even if it was a legion of the Black Sir after Rì, it might not be able to afford it. Now Eruin only has a chance, that is, to make the undead feel jealous, they have a lot of principalities on the border with St. Osore and Faenzan, anyway, sooner or later the spirit of the wind will fight with the bones of Madara, now just make the undead feel that Eruin is more difficult to deal with than those principalities.
The historical Eruin woke up too late, Her Royal Highness the princess was powerless, and the Cruz people were too busy and indulgent to lead the kingdom's final tragedy.
This time, this may not be the case.
But first, the kingdom still needs the courage and ability to fight.
He looked at Count Jacques, whose face began to turn a little pale, wiped his forehead with his hand, and did not know whether he was wiping the rain or sweat, his mind seemed to be still immersed in the fear brought by the thousand Imperial Election groups that Brando had described earlier, and asked in a low voice, "Lord Count, what you said is true?" ”
"Mr. Moberto, even if my intelligence is only one-third accurate, assuming that Madara only has three hundred regiments, what difference does it make to the kingdom?" Brando looked absentmindedly at the army of the undead fleeing in the rain, stroked the mane of the war horse with his hand, and asked rhetorically without hurry. He was not in a hurry, but the Count of Jacques was so anxious that he broke into a cold sweat, he didn't know whether what Brando said was true or not, but the other party didn't seem to have any need to make him happy, just like Brando said, even if his words were only one-third accurate, or even one-quarter accurate, what difference would it make to the kingdom?
There is no difference at all.
What kind of virtue the kingdom is, these nobles actually know best in their hearts, since the Anson era, the local struggle against zhōngyāng has greatly damaged the strength of the kingdom itself. And after Ampesel's first war, the confrontation between the north and the south made it even weaker. On the other hand, the dark kingdom to the east has always maintained a strong army and a tradition of war, but in the past it was scattered, and the dark lords fought each other separately, so they could not form a threat, and today, Madara has been integrated under the rule of the Most High, and the dark nobles have gathered under the mercury staff that has reappeared after a thousand years, and Count Jacques suddenly realized that Brando may not be lying, but the traditional thinking has made them ignore this as if they were careless.
Madara already had a large army, and now that they are integrated, who is she going to attack next?
Naturally, it can't be the wind jīng spirit and the Fa Enzan people, and the rest is self-evident.
Some things are actually like a layer of window paper, which is difficult to think of before it is pierced, but once it is brought up, the rest of the people will suddenly become clear. This was almost the case with Count Jacques at the moment, though he might have preferred not to realize it, at least the fool could live happily, and now he had to think of the word Mardala with fear of the army of the undead.
It is the spirit of the dead, the existence of the living that is incompatible with the living, and you cannot surrender except death.
The Count of Jacques thought about it in a cold sweat, and for a moment he couldn't think of a solution, and in today's Eruin, it seems that there is only one way to go except to perish. That dark country is already powerful and has the upper hand, but it is ridiculous that the nobles of the kingdom are still drunk and dreaming of death, and in the face of such a country, he really doesn't know how to resolve the crisis in front of him.
Maybe it's just a way to exile Cruz?
When Count Jacques raised his head to look at Brando, his eyes were a little sloppy, Brando knew that he was already frightened to the extreme, he sighed, in fact, this reason is very simple, these nobles may not have thought about it in their hearts, but they always think that Mardala has not yet come to a step, and even until the eve of the Second War of the Black Roses, there are still people in history who think that Mardala is still in a civil war. And today he told the other party in person that the unification process of Madara had already been advanced, and sure enough, the Lord Count immediately reacted to what the kingdom was facing.
Count Jacques did not speak again, and Brando did not insist any more, he patted his horse's mane and asked his seated horse to quicken his pace so that he could keep up with the White Lion Guards pursuing in the valley. He knew in his heart that today's words could only give these nobles a hint, and sooner or later they would understand how Eruin could survive. And at that time, if there is still a stubborn person, then don't blame him for being ruthless.
The fate of the kingdom has already been fiercely poisoned in the battle of Ampesel, and the next can only be slowly reversed.
Brando pursed his lips silently, it was not that he didn't want to make drastic reforms and give this kingdom a new lease of life with a quick knife, but the longer he came to this world, the more he understood the difficulty of this matter. The nobles have ruled this kingdom for too long, the traditions have long been ingrained, and they do have their own merits, although this class of Eruin has long since decayed, but it still has a power to be reckoned with, and he may be able to eradicate this power, but it will inevitably bring great harm to this ancient kingdom.
Most of his non-commissioned officers, such as Caglis, Antitina, Couran, Meria, and even the White Lion Knights, are inextricably linked to the traditional aristocracy, whether they come from the royal party or the local faction, but they all have more or less conservative marks on them, and to completely eradicate this qiē will inevitably hurt the people around them. Even Princess Griffiin might turn against him because of this, knowing in his heart that the Eruin that Her Highness wanted was not really a new kingdom from the ruins.
He didn't want to-
"The opportunity has been handed over to you," Brando said to himself, "and as for whether you cherish it or not, it's up to you." ”
……
Soon, the Lantonilan knights arrived from the east side of the river bank to join forces with the White Lion Guards, and the humans marched along the valley, driving the army of the undead southward, and by evening, the combined forces of Viero, Lantonilan, and Toniguel had effectively annihilated most of the mercenaries of the undead lords from the Sea of the Dead Moon. Most of the scattered corpses fled into the nearby forest, and they would become a security problem in the area for the next few months, but by this time Brando and Cowen could not care about so much, and these problems were left to the Van Mill Legion to have a headache, and the Blood Staff and its guards mixed into the remaining one and a half regiments of skeleton cavalry, and at this time the advantage of the undead came into play again, and the skeleton cavalry, which was not bothered by the body, gradually widened the distance between them and the Lantonilan cavalry during the long marchBrando's men were the only ones who rode Pegasus, and only the Ringor Legion could keep up with these skeleton cavalry, but of course he couldn't do that.
Using a fourth-order shè hand to deal with a skeleton warrior can be said to be crushing, and using it to pursue a real cavalry is purely looking for death.
In this way, until nightfall, the coalition army finally lost the trace of this remnant of the undead cavalry, Eco was so angry that he jumped to his feet, and the subordinates of the Count of Jacques also showed some pity, but the commander of the Vieero people was in a state of distress all day, and Brando heard that Calglis said that he had sent a number of heralds to the north, and he suddenly understood in his heart that the count had indeed asked the Grand Duke of Viero for advice, and his words during the day were not in vain, and the rest was up to these nobles to think, Although it was difficult to get the information from the Madara side, if they really had the heart, it would not be difficult to get the information he said.
Historically, the aristocracy had no idea at all, but this time, they had a chance to react.
Brando was very indifferent to the escape of the Blood Staff, not to mention that there was a Cruz Knights waiting for it to crash into it, even if it was lucky enough to return to Madara, what would be the good result? The Banshee King Alvette had been waiting for her for a long time, as a symbol of her rebellion against Madara's Emperor Xià, a symbol of her will and self-esteem, the Blood Staff must die, and then how she surrendered to the Silver Staff, that's another story.
Brando stood in the valley and admired the night sè of the Slofa region, which darkened quickly after the early autumn, and before the day had completely disappeared from the mountains, there was a night in the lime trees. It was the last period after the end of summer, and the moon in the sky was supposed to be the proud golden sea and the flawless Timis, but it was only pitch black in the rainy weather, and on the other side of the valley he looked at the valley plains of the Silman region, and he stared at the gurgling river in that direction, thinking that the Blood Staff must have met its last enemies by this time.
It's just that what the young people of Cruz will be like, he doesn't bother to care, he privately arranged for Kewen to return to the Silman Hills overnight, to lead his people to replace the Knights of the Folding Sword to clean up the battlefield after the battle, he doesn't want those Cruz people to be exposed to the public eye for the time being, this time the battle Tonigel exposed a lot of power, in order to let Madara temporarily settle down for a while, but if you can hide, try to hide.