To the south of the ancient city, less than fifty miles north of the border between the Nandi Kingdom and the Ancient Land Kingdom, there is a city called Lang City, which is the third largest castle in the Ancient Land Kingdom.

In peacetime, this city was a commercial transit point connecting the north and south of the Xizhou continent, and it was also a necessary place for personnel and logistics from the ancient city to the new southern city, but at this time the two countries were in the war stage, and Langcheng became the main target that the Nandi army wanted to capture.

In the minds of the King of Nandi and his courtiers, as long as they occupy Langcheng, they can curb the ambition of the King of the Ancient Land to dominate Xizhou to the greatest extent, and can ensure the safety of the capital of the Nandi Kingdom.

Most of the terrain around Langcheng is relatively flat, with large fields and villages scattered, and the king of Gudi had already sent his second prince to lead ten corps to garrison Langcheng before he invaded the Western Kingdom. Because the Nandi Kingdom is the most powerful enemy in the three southern kingdoms, Langcheng is very important to the security of the ancient city, and the king of Gudi sent his second prince to garrison Langcheng, which shows that the second prince's legion has the strongest combat effectiveness.

A long time ago, the soldiers and civilians of the Ancient Land had built a trench around the city of Lang. After the second prince's army was stationed in Langcheng, several battle fortresses connected to the trenches were built in several strategic points on the periphery of the city.

Because of the strong fortifications and the fact that the second prince's corps was equipped with better gunpowder guns than the three southern kingdoms, although the king of Nandi sent twenty corps to attack fiercely for several days, he was unable to capture a single fortress of the defenders of Langcheng.

However, because the battle line was too long, the total number of troops was at a disadvantage, so he ordered the second prince's army to hold on and not launch a large-scale counterattack, and the war between the two countries in Langcheng fell into a stalemate soon after.

At this time, the blood-red light of the sun in the western sky shone on Langcheng, and the second prince and a group of retinues stood at the head of the city south of Langcheng and watched the gray sky, where the battle flag of the Nandi Kingdom fluttering on the undulating hills could be faintly seen. About a hundred miles behind those hills there was a small castle, Ikeda Castle, the northern city of the Southern Realms Kingdom. If he was allowed to counterattack according to the combat strength of the Second Prince's army, he was confident that he would capture Tiancheng.

The battlefield is always silent during the day. Because the gun performance is not as good as that of the Oldland Legion, the Southland Legion always takes advantage of the darkness to attack the Oldland defenses. However, to the satisfaction of the second prince, his legion withstood many enemy night sneak attacks, and so far he has not lost a single position.

A herald rushed up to the city and shouted, "Report to the second general, the treasurer has come from the ancient city to ask for an important meeting!" ”

The second prince didn't ask much, turned around and walked back quickly.

The treasurer was sitting in the general's mansion in the center of Langcheng and was drinking tea, when he heard the sound of neat footsteps outside the door and knew that it was the return of the second prince, he hurriedly stood up to greet him.

The second prince walked into the house and said, "Brother Treasurer, could it be that today's south wind is blowing you from the ancient city to Langcheng!" Ha! ”

Although they are similar in age and size, compared with the courteous treasurer, the second prince is much more powerful and powerful.

The treasurer barely squeezed out a slight smile on his face and said: "Second general, it's not the south wind, it's the cold west wind brought by your eldest brother and general that blows the treasurer to Langcheng, let me say it bluntly, the fleet led by the general to pursue the king of the West Land was attacked by the seamen in the West Sea!" ”

The second prince's smile immediately froze on his face, and he stared at the treasurer with wide eyes, "You mean that my eldest brother was attacked by the undersea people?" How could such a thing happen? The result? ”

The treasurer said with a gloomy face: "The general himself is safe and sound, but his fleet has suffered heavy losses. ”

The two sat down, and the treasurer told the second prince what the prince of Gudi had said in the palace chamber.

The second prince's face turned pale when he heard this, and he said angrily: "In this way, won't my ancient land country be attacked from all sides?" The people of the sea are far more powerful than us, what if they climb ashore and fight us for land? ”

"It is for this reason that Your Majesty ordered the treasurer to come to see the second general, and ordered me to join the army and garrison Langcheng with the second general. Because the situation that was about to appear in Xizhou would be more complicated than the second general imagined, for this reason, a princely envoy of the Red People of the Prairie also crossed the sea to Xizhou. The treasurer said with a serious expression.

The second prince was shocked, "The envoy of the red prince of the prairie? Tell me what's going on? ”

"This matter is a long story, and Treasurer Rong will report it to the second general from the beginning."

The treasurer then recounted what had happened in the palace of the ancient city this morning.

The second prince listened carefully, and when the treasurer finished speaking, the expression on the second prince's face calmed down:

"Brother Treasurer, although my father is dissatisfied with this prince's envoy of the prairie, in my opinion, if he can force the three southern kingdoms to truce and jointly deal with the undersea people, his arrival will be far more beneficial than disadvantageous to my ancient land country. Otherwise, if the undersea people were really about to attack the Xizhou Continent as he expected, our Ancient Land Kingdom would be the first target to be occupied by them. ”

The treasurer nodded yes, "What the second general said is exactly what the treasurer thinks, the people under the sea are aliens, once they are occupied, we will die and have no place to be buried." And even if the prairie reds occupy Xizhou, they are still the same kind as us, not to mention that they are far away from the east coast of the sea The transportation line is too long, and the sea is controlled by the seamen, even if their weapons are better than ours, but if they don't rely on our Xizhou people, they are also powerless to fight against the seapeople alone.

The treasurer thought that the prairie people tried their best to urge the Xizhou people to stop the civil war and fight against the seamen, and the main purpose was indeed for their own safety in the future, so they hurriedly sent this prince's envoy to Xizhou to lobby after receiving the information that the seafarers were going to attack the Xizhou continent. Because Xizhou is the largest land in the world, if Xizhou is occupied by the undersea people, the power of the seabed people will be even stronger, and their prairie will be occupied by the seabed people sooner or later. ”

The second prince stood up and looked at the barracks outside the window, and said in a resolute tone: "The most cruel and vast war in the history of Xizhou is about to start, in order to survive, we landers should join forces to fight against the invasion of the seamen regardless of friend or foe!" ”

In a barracks in Langcheng, Jiesheng's elder brother Haidong was personally treating the wounded soldiers in the infirmary, and his corps had only been withdrawn from the front line yesterday to recuperate.

Among the ten corps commanders of the second prince, Haidong is over forty years old, and he is the oldest in terms of age and seniority. Moreover, in addition to the regular ten companies with a total of 1,000 soldiers, his corps also maintains a training camp of 400 people all year round, and its combat effectiveness is undoubtedly the strongest.

The funds for this training camp are all provided by the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce, and every year the Chamber of Commerce recruits 400 people from the children of Qizhou people living in Xizhou to serve as soldiers in this training camp. After a year of military training, these young men will be assigned to work in local chambers of commerce, where they will become security guards who guard homes or escort goods, and those who are shrewd and business-minded will often later become businessmen and then members of the Chizhou Chamber of Commerce.

Haidong was nominally just a legion commander under the second prince of the ancient land kingdom, but in fact, with his prestige and the thousands of Qizhou soldiers he had trained, he was the big boss behind the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce.

Haidong came to Xizhou after escaping from Xiancao City after defeating Hu Zheng, and with his outstanding martial arts and swordsmanship, he was hired by the palace guard corps of the King of Gudi, and was soon appreciated by the King of Gudi. After five years as a guard in the inner courtyard of the palace, the king of Gudi asked him to assist the young second prince to form a corps.

When the second prince had three corps, Haidong took over as the head of the first corps.

After Prince Ming and Prince Ke fell one after another, both fled to Xizhou, and they both used the money transferred by their families to Xizhou to engage in commercial activities under the protection of Haidong. Later, out of the ideal of returning to Chizhou one day to restore the country, they established the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce with the support of Haidong.

In addition to continuously expanding its business network and expanding its economic strength, the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce uses the corps in Haidong to train hundreds of Qizhou soldiers every year. After more than ten years of accumulation, the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce has the potential power of ten corps. On the one hand, these armed men scattered all over Xizhou can protect the interests of the merchants of Chizhou in Xizhou from being violated, and on the other hand, if the time is ripe, these soldiers can gather together to form a powerful army to help Minke and the others return to Chizhou to restore the country.

The second prince has always fully supported the training camp of the Haidong Corps, and in addition to the fact that he has a good personal relationship with Haidong, the existence of the training camp has brought him a lot of extra income every year.

Moreover, the second prince was very clear about the strength of the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce in Xizhou, so he had always treated Haidong, the veteran corps commander, specially. The King of Gudi has four sons who hold military power, and with reference to the historical experience of the Xizhou royal family, after a hundred years of the King of Gudi, there is inevitably a cruel power struggle within the palace of the King of Gudi.

For this reason, the second prince has always taken the initiative to maintain a good relationship with the two bosses of Haidong and Mingke of the Qizhou Chamber of Commerce, and he has long considered that if he faces danger in the battle for power in the palace in the future, Haidong and his Qizhou merchants can help him.

When Haidong was burying his head in treating a wounded soldier, a strong man in civilian clothes hurriedly walked into the medical room. The two striking scars on his face were the most useful passes, and the soldiers in the barracks not only did not stop him, but politely smiled at him to make way for him.

The strong man walked all the way to Haidong's side and shouted softly: "Big brother!"

Haidong looked back at the visitor in surprise and asked, "Brother Tie Lei, why are you here?" Don't know there's a war going on here? ”

Tie Lei laughed and said, "Big brother, as long as the younger brother comes, there will be no need to fight this boring battle." ”

The wounded soldiers in the room, who had sighed because of the pain, burst into tears and laughed when they heard this.