The battle is over.

The southern walls of Rock Fortress were completely powerless against heavy Crystal shells after losing shield protection, and the Crystal Shells proved to be more effective at destroying physical rigid targets such as the walls than the Calibrator Beam - Lord Maryland had thought that Rock Fortress would still have a few tens of minutes of resistance after the shield was extinguished, but in the end it turned out that he had miscalculated the different effects of the cannonballs and the energy beam: the wall only lasted sixteen minutes.

The heavy gate of the fortress has completely collapsed in the bombardment, along with the hundreds of meters of walls extending from both sides of the gate, all the arrow towers, prisms and external mage towers in this area have been wiped out, and the outer city and the southern inner city behind the wall have also been damaged to varying degrees, and the barracks, armories and other facilities concentrated between the first and second city walls have been razed to the ground.

This was a level of devastation that would never have occurred in a traditional aristocratic war: Cecil's army ended the battle almost completely with the fortress's defenses completely smashed, leaving no room for stalemate and maneuver for the people in the Rock Fortress.

After the end of the shelling, Philip Knight and Wald?? Cecil's 1st and 2nd Combat Corps, led by Knight Perridge, began to advance towards the fortress and arrived at the fortress, which had lost its combat capacity, and what surprised Knight Walder most was that his army took more time to receive the results of the battle than it took to destroy the fortress's defenses.

The 1st and 2nd Legions met with little resistance when they entered the Rock Fortress - in fact there was no resistance at all, and if I had to say, a frightened pony suddenly burst out of the rubble and was probably the only enemy the soldiers faced.

On the evening of the 58th day of the fire month of Ansu 736, the flag representing the royal family of Ansu fell from the flagpole in front of the fortress of the Rock Fortress, and the marks of the sword and plough of the Cecil family fluttered above the fortress of special significance.

Gawain's boots trodden over the stone pavement of the fortress, which seemed to still have a lingering temperature and tremors, and he was flanked by ruins and still smoking buildings, and the frightened, smoky soldiers of the fortress stood on either side of the road, and when Cecil's banner passed before them, they prostrated themselves to the ground in submission.

"All are temporarily imprisoned in the dungeons below the castle, and if there are not enough rooms, they are kept in the fortified buildings of the inner city," Gawain whispered to Knight Philip beside him, "it is strictly forbidden to mistreat the captives and the wounded, and send a medical team to treat them—these will be part of Cecil." ”

Philip stepped forward and saluted, "Understood." ”

The disarmed and disgraced Sir Maryland walked beside Gawain under the escort of several Cecil soldiers, and when he heard Gawain's explanation to Philip, he couldn't help but raise his head, and there was a little surprise in his eyes: "I didn't expect you to still abide by the ...... of the noble spirit"

"The prohibition of the mistreatment of captives has nothing to do with the so-called aristocratic spirit," Gawain glanced at the former commander, who, despite being a respectable knight, was clearly more of a traditional nobleman, "The 'captives' I forbid abuse do not only include knights and nobles. ”

Sir Maryland opened his mouth, but in the end he said nothing, just lowered his head again.

Gawain looked at Wald on the other side?? Knight Perridge, he nodded to the old knight: "You take someone to inspect the entire inner city and the secret cellar under the castle, search the whole city, to prevent anyone from hiding, and you must cooperate with Knight Philip to count the materials and houses in the city, and report in time." Don't forget to emphasize military discipline in this process: it is forbidden to hide booty, to plunder, steal, and conceal information. ”

Wilder?? Perridge gave a knightly salute with a serious face: "Yes." ”

The old knight knew very well that letting the Second Corps lead the search of the fortress city was not only an honor, but also a test - in this battle, the Second Corps was finally active as a full-fledged army, but after that, whether these soldiers from the Kant region could become the long-term trusted troops of the lord, they had to withstand the test of military discipline after entering the city, and at this point, the Second Corps, which had been converted from the original aristocratic private soldiers, had to face no less test than when they first went to battle.

Gawain then arrived at the castle area of the Rock Fortress - the castle straddles between the first and second walls, and in fact its main body is part of the second wall, which was once the grandest, tallest structure in the fortress, but is now ...... It has less than two-thirds of the structure left.

The entire top floor of the castle and all attached towers have been destroyed by the Calibrator's beam.

Cecil's flag had been hoisted on the flagpole in front of the castle by the first group of people entering the city, and next to the flagpole, Gawain saw a slightly emaciated lady in a light aristocratic dress.

Penny Lo Penny?? Glenn stood there quietly, beside the loyal middle-aged butler, and behind the two of them were a hundred guards who followed the baroness all the way from Gülen to Panshi Ridge, and then from Panshi Ridge to Rock Fortress, always loyal and steadfast.

On the other side, stood the high-ranking Ranger Thorderlin and the dozens of Iron Ranger warriors he led.

A shadow flashed swiftly in the air, quickly rushed to Gawain's side, and condensed into an amber figure, Miss Half-Elf looked up triumphantly: "Hey, let me tell you, I helped hang the flag!" ”

Gawain casually patted Amber on the shoulder (it didn't seem appropriate to touch her head on such a formal occasion), and then turned to Penny Ro. Gülen walked over, and after seeing the calm expression on the baronesse's face, he knew that the other party's revenge was complete.

"There is no substitute for your merit, ma'am," said Gawain earnestly, "and Patty will be glad that you have come home safely." ”

He knew what the baroness was most concerned about.

After hearing Patty's name, Popenny's expression flashed a hint of softness, she showed a faint smile, and bent down to Gawain very solemnly: "Allow me to salute you, this fortress is yours - and allow me to pledge my allegiance to you again, the Glenn family will always be loyal to Cecil." ”

"I accept your allegiance," Gawain nodded slightly, "but don't be loyal to me or my family, be loyal to a great cause." ”

Sir Maryland, who was next to him, saw this scene, his expression changed a few times, and he didn't know what complicated emotions were in his heart, but in the end, all the words he wanted to say turned into a long sigh with complex meaning: "Alas......"

He found that he could not even call the baroness a traitor—that Perpeny's loyalty was unwavering, but that she was loyal to Cecil......

"Sir, don't be so busy sighing, although the Rock Fortress has fallen, at least it will fall into my hands, not in the hands of the rebels in the East someday," Gawain glanced at Sir Maryland and said lightly, "Maybe you are full of regret at the moment, but one day you will feel lucky." ”

The main hall and military hall in the upper area of the castle have been smashed by the collapsed ceiling, and other parts of the area have also become precarious due to the collapse of the upper floor, so Gawain directly entered the dining hall on the lower floor of the castle with his manpower, and used it as a temporary post-war takeover headquarters, preparing to make further arrangements for the wartime control, reconstruction and repair, and follow-up management of the fortress.

Bringing down the Rock Fortress is only the first step in the work, how to rearm and strengthen the fortress and turn it into a strong northern gate for Cecil is the more important thing.

Of course, before this was done, Sir Maryland, and all the officer-level prisoners of war captured after the Break, were sent to makeshift prisoner-of-war camps, where they were kept in solitary confinement and heavily guarded - Gawain gave them better living conditions, but he did not dare to relax in terms of security, and although he did not think that the Lord Maryland would make a move to escape, he did not dare to guarantee that the other party's old subordinates would not make any additional moves.

In his opinion, like Maryland?? A chivalrous man like Onar, although he may not be very popular in some aristocratic power circles, can easily cultivate extremely loyal subordinates, and in such a situation it is necessary to keep all the commander-level prisoners of war in the Rock Fortress in solitary confinement and strict guarding.

In the hall that served as the temporary headquarters, Gawain looked around the crowd on the scene - Philip and Byron, two Cecil knights, Wald?? Perridge and Margarita are two Kantate knights, Thorderlin, the commander of the Steel Rangers, and Le Penny?? Baroness Gülen, and Amber as a guard, that's all the people who attended this meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have been victorious, and the Rock Fortress has become Cecil's northern gate, but before basking in the joy of victory, we need to know that we still have a lot of work to do. Thorderlin, first of all, report back on what you know. ”

"Yes," Thorderling stood up, the High Ranger looking serious, "the King will soon learn of the fall of the Rock Fortress - as soon as the city's magical barrier was extinguished, the commander who remained in the city immediately released all the griffon messengers and pigeons, and sent a group of death squads to rush out of the city through the side gates of the north, and we only had time to intercept some of them, and the remaining messengers had disappeared into the plains of the Holy Spirit." It was my fault that I didn't destroy the griffon's nest in the first place. ”

"No, you have limited manpower, it's your job to destroy the Mage Tower first, it's not to destroy the griffon's nest," Gawain interrupted Sölderlin, "I expected the situation to be true, the king will definitely know that the Rock Fortress has fallen - even if the defenders in the fortress fail to send the information out, the Count of Pompeii will quickly detect the situation and send a message immediately, there are still griffon messengers in the count's territory, and maybe even a magic message." ”

Speaking of this, Gawain paused: "So, the first thing we have to do is to strengthen the northern wall of the fortress and completely renovate it - in fact, whether the king can receive the news or not, and how long it takes, the first thing we have to do is this."

"The Rock Fortress was originally designed to defend against the Cecil family in the south, so its northern walls are much weaker and lower than the southern walls - although the fall of the Rock Fortress shows that the old fortresses that relied solely on ramparts and magic shields to defend against attacks are outdated, they still need to exist, and we need to first thicken and raise the walls on the north side of the fortress, and even slow down the restoration of the southern walls for this purpose; Secondly, we will renovate the northern city wall, cover it with magic nets, and set up magic crystal railguns above the walls, and install calibrators in the future; Finally, the fortress will be transformed into a mixed fortress of heavy industry and military affairs, and the entire plain extending south of the fortress will be incorporated into the boundaries of the fortress city......"

.。 m.