4 "The Undead"

After the defeat in the Battle of Toom, the Marquis of Risen was appointed as the commander of the Imperial Army, and under his rectification, the morale of the army was slightly restored, the phenomenon of desertion almost disappeared, and the security of the city was greatly improved.

"Hey, he's my old superior, he's quite easy to get into, and he often runs to the soldiers to ask for warmth, and everyone likes him very much." One veteran recalled, "When we learned that he was the supreme commander, we were reluctant to let him go." ”

Marquis Risen immediately organized a defense to prevent the djinn from taking advantage of the victory to attack. But the strange thing is that the djinn who captured the city of Tum suddenly stopped, turned around and retreated, and the imperial army was afraid that there was a trap in it, so they did not dare to pursue it and continued to build a defensive line. The humans did not attack, and the djinn did not attack, and the two sides were in a stalemate for nearly half a year.

In June 1800 of the Imperial Calendar, soldiers in a military camp on the southern front of the Spallow Empire reported to the commander-in-chief that there were rumors of "undead soldiers" on the front line. The Marquis of Risson then rushed to the barracks, and saw such a group of soldiers: a squad of twenty men, who were generally emaciated, and had been starved for a long time; Their armor was so tattered that none of the soldiers wore it intact, and most of their bare skin had wounds of all kinds, ranging from minor abrasions to severe cuts; All the cloth and garments they wore were torn to be bandages and tied to the wounds on their bodies, but when they were still not enough, they were replaced by animal skins; The weapons in his hands were all destroyed, and many of them were made by improvised processing and patchwork, using sharpened animal bones or sharpened tree branches as weapons. There was no expression on their faces, and their eyes were deadly, as if they had just witnessed the birth or destruction of hell. They smelled of blood and foul odor, and as they walked, they moved forward as if they were being sucked by a magnet on their heads, and their steps were faltering, and their bodies were almost completely disempowered, as if they would die if they were knocked down.

Their presence surprised the front-line soldiers and the Marquis of Risson, and soon called in a military doctor to treat their injuries and provide them with food and water to gradually recover, but six of them were too exhausted to be saved. Rising then begins to question them, slowly uncovering the secrets of this army of the undead.

When the Battle of Tum was defeated, everyone almost fled for their lives, and a few noble warriors who cherished their honor stayed behind to evacuate the people in the city, fighting desperately against the undead, saving many people, and the army also used them as an example to promote their bravery to boost morale. But there was one group that had been forgotten: the soldiers who had attacked from the ice. After the battle, all the Imperial generals, including the Commander and later the Marquis of Risson, thought that they had been wiped out and reduced to ice sculptures, but there was one small group that was lucky not to fall into the river, and the ice under their feet turned into ice floe and floated in the middle of the river. Seeing the tragic fate of their comrades around them, the surviving soldiers immediately paddled the ice floes to the shore away from the djinn and successfully landed. After witnessing the complete fall of the city of Toom, they found themselves completely cut off from their retreat, unable to return to their human stronghold in the north. So the captain decisively decided to take the team deep into the area occupied by the djinn and hide.

As the saying goes, "the most dangerous place is the safest place", and the captain was right, avoiding encounters with djinn, using all the resources they could gather to preserve their vitality, and even ambushing and killing some lone djinn. In the treacherous djinn-occupied area, they hide very well, changing multiple hiding places every day, and the djinn can't find them. In this way, the team of twenty people traveled for half a year, and finally returned to the front-line military camp of mankind. Because he was mistaken for a "ghost soldier" by the front-line soldiers when he first appeared, he was given the title of "The Undead of Toom City".

"I've heard that they came back to life by eating dead bodies." An old soldier suddenly said loudly, but he felt that it was inappropriate, looked around, and found that everyone had already eaten breakfast, and saw that the soldiers in the distance did not notice him, so he was relieved.

There are many rumors about the "undead of Toom City", and the soldiers are respectful of them, because as the veteran said, in the djinn-occupied area, the animals will be killed, the food will be burned, and the source of food will be extremely tight, but what happened next makes everyone have no time to doubt and think - the djinn has once again launched an attack on the defensive line.

Less than a week after the "Turm City Undead" returned to the barracks, the djinn launched an attack, and due to the preparations, the attack did not cause much damage. However, Marquis Ryson was keenly aware that there seemed to be a connection between the return of the "Turm City Undead" and the attack of the Djinn, whose performance reminded Risen of two insects - ants and bees. These two social insects have a very similar defense mechanism: when the ruler of the colony is threatened by an imminent threat, even if it is only a potential threat, the entire colony will shrink to the vicinity of the nest and will not take the initiative to attack, until the threat is cleared and the colony will return to normal order again.

The Djinn's reaction is also in line with this mechanism, when the "Turm City Undead" lurks in enemy-occupied territory, they may unknowingly approach the leadership core of the Djinn army, maybe the leadership core is just one or a small group of Djinn, but under the influence of this "potential threat", order the Djinn who are fighting outside to return to their side and stand still. This simple and crude socialization relationship may be the weakness of the Djinn, and the shrewd Imperial Army commander plans to use this to fight back against the Djinn.

After careful planning, a month later, Risen ordered two troops to set off. One is the main army of 100,000 men, and the target is a ruined fortress defended by the djinn, and when the time is right, the attack will begin; The other group is the fully recovered "Turm City Undead", who are lightly armed, carrying brand new equipment and plenty of food, and the mission they have been doing for half a year - lurking in the Djinn occupation zone, the closer you get to the core of the Djinn army, the better.

Five days later, the news of the victory spread throughout Spreett, and Resson's plan succeeded. The djinn who was originally guarding the fortress suddenly retreated for some reason, and the main human army attacked decisively, almost all the time watching the djinn's back attack. In this battle, the human losses were insignificant, and the djinn left more than a thousand corpses behind when Queen Cang retreated.

In the following year, the Imperial Army concocted the same method, and each time achieved fruitful results, gradually grasping the strategic initiative, and the "undead of Tum City" active in the enemy-occupied area were always able to retreat with their whole body due to their full experience behind enemy lines. The news of victory kept coming, the morale of the army was rising, and the rear cities were restarted with production and reconstruction. The remnants of the djinn were foolishly driven to the southern coastline of the Spellet Empire, where they were greeted by the relentless shelling of the Dragon Empire's fleet, and the cannonballs mixed with the hatred and anger of humanity smashed on the heads of these black creatures that had been rampant for half a year, burning the entire coastline.

In September 1802, the last of the large Djinn legions were wiped out, and humanity finally won the war. However, the scattered djinn scattered throughout the continent was still a big threat, and Marquis Risen immediately sent his army to various parts of the empire to deal with the recalcitrant djinn.

"That's what we're doing right now." Captain Charlie let out a long sigh of relief, and turned his head to look at the world-famous "Ghost of Toom City" and the leader of the team, Milo Enteman. "It's a great honor for us to be able to fight alongside them this time."

"Captain," the young soldier began, "since this squad has made such a great contribution, it should be rewarded by the state, why do I feel that they are just like us, with average equipment and status, shouldn't they be promoted?" ”

After hearing this, Captain Charlie's expression became serious again, and even a little terrifying. "It's true that the state didn't give them any rewards and promotions because of that person." Ignoring his men's surprised expressions, he looked at Captain Milo again.

"Melo Entecoman - he has a terrible secret."