Duke Macarus, the commander of the Candela Imperial Expeditionary Force, looked down at the battle report in his hand, and his already dark skin was now even more gloomy because his face was like a cloudy sky outside, full of blackness.

The atmosphere in the tent of the Chinese army was as if time had frozen, and everyone held their breath, not even daring to release the sound of breathing, for fear of attracting the attention of the Duke of Macarus, so the volcano was triggered.

However...... Volcanoes don't erupt if you don't want to start them.

After a while, Duke Macarus put down his battle report and squinted his eyes over the faces of the other Candela Expeditionary Force officers in the tent, seeing that they all hung their heads and let out a muffled grunt.

The other officers in the tent shuddered involuntarily.

In the military department of the Candela Empire, in addition to the Grand Duke Campbell Sudirman, Duke Macarus has the highest status and prestige.

This time, the Imperial Military Department asked him to personally lead the expeditionary force to the Ruerson Kingdom, which undoubtedly represents the great importance that the Imperial Military Department attaches to this expedition.

However, on the first step of the expedition, the Imperial Expeditionary Force was hit in the face.

The Six Fronts, which were divided into six directions and advanced into the interior of the Ruerson Kingdom, all suffered extremely heavy defeats in three days.

Among them, the smallest loss was the St. Joan's Legion of the Fourth Front, but after being ambushed by the army of the Ruerson Kingdom, more than 4,000 people were killed on the spot, and more than 10,000 soldiers were lightly and seriously wounded, so that the St. Joan's Legion, which originally had a total strength of nearly 30,000, lost nearly half of its combat strength at one time.

Among them, the most serious losses were the Golden Eagle Knights and the Red Sun Legion under the name of the Third Front Army.

The direct death of the Golden Eagle Knights plus the more than 10,000 soldiers who lost their combat effectiveness due to serious injuries is equivalent to the direct abolition of half.

The losses of the Chiyang Legion were slightly weaker. More than seven thousand soldiers were killed. On the contrary, the number of seriously injured people is not large. There are only less than 2,000, which proves the cruelty of the battlefield from this point.

Moreover, in comparison, the loss of manpower was not as great a blow to these two armies as the loss of materiel.

In the fierce battle, the Golden Eagle Knights lost a total of sixty-three large cargo magic locomotives, and the most critical magic artillery was destroyed as many as eighty-nine guns, making the high firepower that the Golden Eagle Knights have always relied on the most directly announced that they were close to being scrapped.

The Chiyang Legion was even more straightforward, and more than 100 large freight magic locomotives that were originally equipped with as many as 500 taels were directly damaged in the battle, and more than 200 were unable to operate normally due to various problems after the war.

This time. The Red Sun Legion's most famous locomotive, which relied on the high mobility of large freight magic locomotives, was also scrapped.

The worst thing is that due to the rupture between the Candela Empire and the New Flying Chamber of Commerce, the New Flying Chamber of Commerce withdrew all support for the Candela Empire.

Embodied in the large cargo magic locomotive, that is, there is no official logistics maintenance department of the New Flying Chamber of Commerce in the Candela Empire.

These large freight magic locomotives were all purchased from the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, and now that they are broken, of course they can't expect the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to come and take charge of repairing them, so they can only figure out their own way.

However, although there are already several chambers of commerce in the Candela Empire that are privately developing imitation large freight magic locomotives, and have achieved certain results, it is impossible to reach the level of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce in terms of technology.

And even with the technology to repair it, there is simply no suitable and substandard parts in the Candela Empire.

At the current level of the Candela Empire's magical industry. A lot of parts can't be made on their own.

So in this way, it also means that the Chiyang Legion has also lost most of its combat effectiveness.

If you sum up the results of the Six Front Army. The total number of people who participated in the first batch of battles exceeded 130,000, but after only one battle, the loss of personnel alone had exceeded 40,000, and the losses of various materials were innumerable, nearly half of the combat strength was lost.

This result undoubtedly shocked the Candela Empire.

Although they had already expected that this war would not be easy to fight before the war began, because the New Flying Chamber of Commerce would definitely support the Ruerson Kingdom this time.

But no one thought that this war would be so difficult, and just the first battle would cause the Candela Empire to suffer such heavy losses.

What's even more terrifying is that the losses on the part of the Ruerson Kingdom are almost zero!

Because from beginning to end, among the 130,000 soldiers of as many as nine legions in the total of the six front armies, none of them really fought against the army of the Ruerson Kingdom.

In other words, the various legions on the side of the Candela Empire were passively beaten from beginning to end, and they didn't touch the army of the Ruerson Kingdom at all.

This fact undoubtedly frightened everyone on the side of the Candela Empire, and even had a trace of horror.

But that's not what surprised them the most.

It was the Third Front that caught the attention of the military of the Candela Empire the most.

The two legions, the Golden Eagle Knights and the Red Sun Legion, were not even ambushed, but suffered such terrible losses in the face of a head-on battle with the Kingdom of Ruersun on the steppes of Indra.

This result meant that the strength advantage that the Candela Imperial army relied on most instantly came to naught.

The Ruerson Kingdom did not send many men at all, which was enough to defeat several times the Candela Imperial army, and the Candela Imperial army did not even inflict any losses on the other side.

This means that the combat effectiveness of the two sides is no longer at the same level at all, and the number of troops has simply become a meaningless thing.

If the Ruerson Kingdom continued to maintain such a strong fighting force, the army of the Candela Empire probably had no hope of victory.

Duke Macarus pondered for a while with a gloomy face, and suddenly fixed his gaze on Gerald, the head of the Golden Eagle Knights, who was standing in front of him to the left.

"Gerald, tell me what's going on with that weird-looking magic locomotive you've come across?"

Hearing this, Gerald's eyes came to mind the monsters he had encountered on the battlefield that day. A look of fear involuntarily crossed his face.

Even if it was already three days ago, the battle. He still feels powerless when he thinks about it now.

At first glance at those strange magic locomotives. Gerald was still only puzzled, and ordered his men to attack with magic artillery.

But then the strange magic locomotive told him with the facts that the two sides were not on the same level at all.

Under the bombardment of the magic artillery of the Golden Eagle Knights and even the Red Sun Legion and all kinds of individual magic rockets, those strange-shaped magic locomotives easily resisted all the attacks with a flickering halo, and they would make the Golden Eagle Knights and the Red Sun Legion suffer heavy losses if they counterattacked casually.

Such an exaggerated difference in combat power even made Gerald suspect that these guys were demons pulled by the New Flying Chamber of Commerce from another world!

However, this is of course an illusion, and the fact is that the New Flying Chamber of Commerce now has this extreme horror. It is impossible to think of a way to defeat it or even block it as a demon-level military magic machine.

Now hearing that Duke Macarus asked him to describe what was going on with that thing, Gerald opened his mouth and stayed for a long time, not knowing how to describe it for a while.

Seeing Gerald stay there, Duke Macarus snorted dissatisfied.

"What? Gerald, have you been beaten stupid by the Luxons, if you're afraid, get back to the empire now, don't be embarrassed here!"

Gerald was full of excitement, came to his senses, and quickly shook his head vigorously: "No, no, no." Lord Duke, I'm not...... It's just that you want me to tell me what happened to the weird magic locomotive I encountered that day...... I don't know how to describe it. Merely...... I really can't think of any way to get those things. ”

"Do you mean that we don't have a chance of victory when we encounter that kind of thing?" Duke Macarus asked, raising an eyebrow.

Seeing the evil in Duke Macarus's eyes, Gerald could only smile bitterly and nod slightly.

"Yes, Lord Duke, I don't think there's anything we can do to fend off those horrible things if we run head-on. ”

Hearing this answer, the other legions in the tent couldn't help but show surprised expressions.

Although most of the generals and officers in the tent had actually participated in the previous battles with the army of the Ruerson Kingdom, most of them had suffered a big loss, knowing that the Ruerson Kingdom had a lot of extremely powerful military magic machines, so that they had all kinds of magical attack methods, which made them helpless.

However, Gerald said that the so-called "strange magic locomotives" he encountered could not be stopped at all, which is too alarmist, right?

Could it be that Gerald, this kid, deliberately exaggerated the strength of the enemy because he lost the most, so as to cover up his own ineffectiveness and lead to defeat?

If Narorov, the commander of the Red Sun Legion, hadn't been unable to participate in this meeting because he had been in a coma these days, would he have been in the same tone as Gerald?

Duke Macarus was obviously also very dissatisfied with Gerald's answer, and he snorted heavily and said, "Gerald, according to what you say, should we retreat immediately now?

No one could hear this obviously full of ironic rhetoric, but Gerald thought for a while, then nodded vigorously, and replied with a very serious expression: "Yes, Lord Duke." I think...... In a situation where we are not able to cope, it is a wise choice to temporarily choose to retreat. ”

Duke Macarus was suddenly furious, slapped the table next to him vigorously, pointed at Gerald and scolded loudly: "Gerald, if you shake the morale of the army so much, believe it or not, I will immediately pull you out for military justice?"

Gerald tried to defend himself a few more words, but another officer standing next to him pulled his arm and stopped him.

Seeing that Gerald lowered his head and stopped speaking, Duke Macarus snorted coldly again, his eyes swept over everyone, and he said with a calm face: "Since the army of our Candela Empire has already attacked, we can't retreat until we get results! If anyone shakes the army's heart again in the future, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

A group of generals and leading officers responded awe-inspiringly.

"Now let's discuss the next battle plan, see here......"

Duke Macarus walked to the side of the huge map hanging on one side of the tent, and just as he spoke, the curtain of the tent was suddenly opened, and a guard of Duke Macarus, who was a messenger, rushed in with a panicked face.

Before Duke Macarus could ask, the guard knelt down on one knee in front of Duke Macarus and said in a panic: "Big ...... My lord, I just received news that Sewen West City has been raided by an army of unknown origin......"

Everyone in the tent was amazed.

Sewen West City is the location of the expeditionary force's logistics warehouse, which is equivalent to the foundation of this expeditionary force, and now Sewen West City has been raided, so ......

"How's the supply warehouse?" Duke Macarus hurriedly asked.

"Material warehouse...... The warehouse is in raid...... Completely destroyed......"

The answer that came out of the guard's mouth instantly plunged the tent into a dead silence. (To be continued......)