Alphonse's actions were really elusive, and it stands to reason that with so many casualties among the old nobles in the camp, the choice of a normal person would be to abandon this expedition and return to the principality to recuperate.

Because of the death of this group of nobles, it was announced that a large number of the rank and file commanders of this army were killed.

In the armies of this era, only those large empires with complete state institutions, in a state of war or peace, were able to equip each unit with junior officers who had been selected after a certain degree of professional training. Other small states, such as the Duchy of St. Colesman, could only temporarily recruit and form armies with the personal armies of their own nobles and nobles, and of course the responsibility of the commanders at the grassroots level fell on these nobles, large and small, who provided private armies.

Of the 20,000-strong army of St. Colesman, only about 5,000 were regular troops belonging to the two major knightly orders and the royal family, which belonged to the standing army, were well-armoured, and had the most lucrative income, and they did not have to engage in farming or other activities on weekdays, but only had to concentrate on how to fight and train. Therefore, the combat effectiveness and discipline of these 5,000 people are the strongest.

Of the remaining 15,000 people, more than 5,000 are the private armies of the nobles in the principality, and they belong to the private standing army of the nobles in a sense, because they are troops paid directly by the nobles, but they do not hire instructors for special training like the regular army on weekdays, so their combat effectiveness is a little weaker than that of the regular standing army. The direct commanders of these men were the nobles to whom they were allegiated, so it was not surprising to expect them to be able to act in concert with the large forces. However, most of the knights in the principality were in the private army of 5,000 men, of which there were more than 3,000 descendants under the control of Aimo himself.

The new nobles from elsewhere on the continent brought with them an army of about two thousand. The combat effectiveness of these units is not very strong, but it is not that weak either. Because these people rarely have the experience of fighting in the desert, the combat effectiveness they exert remains to be considered. And among the more than 2,000 people, there may be some very elite troops. After all, not every new nobleman comes unprepared. Those great nobles of other countries who tried to infiltrate their own power in the principality definitely provided a lot of help to these people.

The weakest of the 20,000 troops is probably the 6,000-strong conscripted militia, who usually only cultivate in the fields, and do not have much expectation of combat ability, and the commanders just want these 6,000 troops to temporarily resist the enemy's attack. Their lives are not of much concern, and such conscription militias can have as many as they want.

There are also two thousand men, who are perhaps not the best equipped and perhaps not so disciplined. The teamwork is not very well-trained, but their individual combat ability must be top-notch. Their identity is mercenaries, these people who fight specifically for money are the least afraid of death, and every time the blood of the enemy is spilled, it represents the splash of gold coins. Their morale is also the highest, for them, this battle is just a little more than the previous fighter, they are veterans of the battlefield for many years, how to effectively kill the enemy has long been figured out to them.

Whether it is a new noble, an old nobleman, or a knightly nobleman. They had more than 11,000 people in their entire army, and they had recruited more than 2,000 mercenaries. Therefore, last night's attack shook the aristocratic system of more than 13,000 people, even if it was only the bloody massacre of the old nobility. But at the same time, it caused a major change of command and control in the army, and most of the noble officers were killed.

If this army does not solve the problem of officers in a timely manner, the army will face a serious crisis. It's not just the decline in the combat effectiveness of the army, it's more likely that the entire army will get out of control. Last night's massacre didn't go much clean. There were still quite a few lucky nobles who escaped the massacre. As long as they wanted to and put into action, they could take advantage of the whole opportunity to turn against the five thousand soldiers loyal to the old nobles and inflict a heavy blow on the army. in retaliation for last night's massacre.

Normally, what the expeditionary army should do now is to return to China as much as possible and settle down. While this will deal a blow to it, it is better than rebellion. But Alphonse did not do this, and instead ordered his army to continue its advance, moving towards the predetermined city of Safat.

"Goo...... Vikos opened his water bladder, took a sip, and looked at the marching cavalry in deep thought.

Alphonse not only did not give the order to return, but continued to attack uncharacteristically, there must be something unknown in this, and perhaps he was fully prepared.

However, what made Vicos even more puzzled was that Alphonse had the remaining cavalry team of more than 3,000 people in the army to split into two parts and move separately from the main army.............

What is the effect of this? Vicos was puzzled that it was not a wise move to separate the most elite parts of the army like this. This will not only reduce the combat effectiveness of the army, but will also put the 1,000 people in danger.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, Vikos was among the thousandth, and because of his status as a viscount, he was temporarily assigned to forty-nine cavalry subordinates. Each of these subordinates is a well-trained professional sergeant, and their combat effectiveness is definitely not to be underestimated.

It is worth noting that among these thousand people, there are eighteen detachment captains, that is, fifty captains like Vicos, all of whom are new nobles...... There were also two commanders, each commanding 500 men, and these two commanders were soldiers of the royal guard.

What is the reason why the 1,000 people are divided into two different parts and march in different directions?

Vicos stroked his hair lightly with his hand and narrowed his eyes.

If Shabak, who has a lot of battlefield experience at this time, is here, then he must be able to give him some good construction, but unfortunately, Shabak was not assigned to this thousand people. Instead, he followed the large army and attacked the Safat.

Actually, if the old Jock, an experienced hunter, was also here. It is also possible to unravel the puzzle of Vikos very easily, this hunter. It's not easy.

Suddenly, Vicos's mind lit up that he might know why Alphonse did this......

"Captain, what is our mission?" asked Vicos' deputy, who came to his side and rode his horse.

"You can ask the team leader about this. Vicos's answer was very simple, although he had some idea of what kind of mission the detachment of 500 people was going to carry out this time, but since it was not clearly stated above, then he did not need to say what he had in mind.

The cavalry of five hundred men had been walking in the desert for two days, except for a brief pause at a small oasis on the first day. and on the road, when the horses are resting, they are almost always on the road. However, most people didn't know what they were going to do, and they were ordered to follow the captain's dispatch and be ready for battle at any time.

However, it is reassuring to know that this time the journey in the desert relied on horsepower rather than manpower, otherwise these 500 people would have died of dehydration during the long journey.

"Captain, don't know. Rose River sighed a little dejectedly.

Rose River is a new nobleman from the rest of the continent like Vicos, but his rank is relatively low, just a knight. But in any case, the level of status is not a fence hindering one's faith, and it is out of his own belief in God and reverence for the Holy Church that Rosriver joined this sacred war. Of course, there is also his own little abacus in this.

An unpleasant confrontation had occurred the other day when the forty-nine of them learned that their captain was a young man who was no more than twenty years old.

But after Vicos leveled out more than a dozen provocateurs with his bare hands, the team's discontent was temporarily suppressed. Even if there is, it will not be revealed until there is enough strength. Vicos's movement speed and strength are simply beyond the limits of humans, and perhaps only those rumored warriors can fight him.

After witnessing the young Vicos' strong personal force. The same young Ross River naively wanted to follow Vicos on this team. But he didn't know that his actions would soon lead him to the isolation of the team. Vikos may be able to silence others by personal force, but he cannot stifle other people's minds. The people in the squad turn their grievances into isolation from Vicos. If you don't obey the dispatch, what can this captain do?

Age is such a magical thing. Vicos thought in his mind.

While Vicos and Ross River were chatting with each other, a fast horse suddenly galloped in front of the group.

"Your Excellency, Viscount. The man stopped the horse and gestured to Vicos. "Prepare yourself and your team, there's going to be a battle. ”

With that, the herald hurried to the next group, and it seemed that after two days of running, the first prey finally appeared.

"Finally appeared. Vicos reached for his hair and looked up at where Safed was.

"My lord, are we going to fight?" said Rose River with some excitement, although he had become a knight before he came to Clesman, it was the first time he had gone on the battlefield to kill an enemy.

"It seems that there is nothing wrong with that, go and prepare. By the way, let the others know. Vicos didn't want to confront his men, so he instructed Ross River to give orders. And all he has to do is prepare his weapons before going into battle.

After being assigned to this team, Vikos felt a sense of crisis coming, so he exchanged all his divine coins with Benis early in exchange for a skill called [Armor Destruction].

Armor Destruction (There's nothing more annoying than facing a heavily armed enemy on the battlefield, so this skill can be very effective in helping you destroy enemy armor.) ）

Purpose: Has a chance to deal devastating damage to the enemy's armor, depending on the user's strength, armor thickness, and weapon damage.

So it's a skill of luck overall, but it's enough for now, and Vikos's strength over three times that of ordinary people should be enough to weaken the enemy's armor a lot.

After watching Ross River leave, Vicos closed his eyes and thought for a moment, thinking about the reason why Alphonse had sent a thousand people out.

If I'm not mistaken. Alphonse had two roles in doing this, one was under the leadership of the two royal guards. Kill nobles who want to defect.

And the other............ They must have besieged Safet City.

Vicos looked again at where the city of Safit was.

Dar Azzor area, outside the city of Safit.

Clesman's army had been on the outskirts of Safi for a day and a night. After marching through the desert, each soldier finally came to a halt and encamped to besiege the city of Safit.

Safit, the administrative center of the once powerful province of Ikzar Province, is blessed with a flat alluvial plain rarely seen in the Dar Azzor region, through which the Hinko River flows, bringing abundant water. Although it occupies less than one percent of the area of the Iqzar dynasty, it was an important grain producing area for the Iqzar dynasty. Every year, about 10 percent of the grain produced by the Iqzar dynasty was produced from here.

Especially now that the Iqzar Dynasty has fallen into an environment of aristocratic separation, the importance of the Safat has become more apparent, and now whoever wins the Safat represents whose strength can go to the next level.

Now, the Duchy of St. Colesmane is also coming to the Safad, in the name of declaring war to regain the core territory.

If the Iqzar people's fight for the Safat in the internal strife was motivated by the ambition of unifying the dynasty, then the Kolesmans aimed at destroying the Ikzar. Infighting among the Iqzars can be tolerated, but if there is an invasion from outside. Then the Iqzars will unite and temporarily put aside their prejudices to deal a crushing blow to the aggressor.

A war against the Kolesmang army is slowly opening up, and the Iqzars will let the invaders know what Ikzar's wrath is.

"陛xià. We've been besieging the city for a day, but what's next?" a sharp-eyed middle-aged man sat on a stool and looked at Alphonse.

Temporary wartime meetings are taking place in army stations. Alphonse and the generals who had a wealth of combat experience and were under the orders of the royal family were discussing the war. Abdullah was the son of a small militiaman born near the city of Salem, but. Now he's a small commander with a few hundred men. This year marks the thirty-fifth year of his birth on earth. If it is said that God created this world, then it is in this world that man will be punished for his sins. Abdullah did not live up to the heyday of the Iqzar dynasty, did not experience the exciting Ali reforms, he only caught up with the saddest moment of the dynasty, a fragmented territory.

Before he was born, the Iqzar dynasty was constantly fighting with the surrounding countries, defeat, victory, defeat, victory, defeat............ Whatever the outcome, it is the people who are really hurt by the war. As Abdullah grew into a young man, Iqzar was already divided, and the kingdom was divided. Almost every year, Abdullah would be called up by Khairifan, who ruled him, to fight militarily against other Khairifan, and sometimes he would continue to fight for this Khairifan if he lost, and if he lost, he would join the victorious Khairivan. It's not cowardice, it's about survival. As his abilities became more and more prominent, the color of the blood stained became more and more delicate, and his status naturally rose.

Now that the city ruled by his lord Khairifan was besieged by the army of Colesman, he hastened to lead his force of three hundred men to the south bank of the Hinkco River, where the great force commanded by Khairifan was located, to join the large army there, and then teach the invaders a lesson.

The Iqzars can tolerate civil war, but they will never tolerate an invasion from outsiders!

Abdullah rode a camel and slowly maintained the same speed as the troops, and the sharp eyes of the desert people trained by the wind and sand made him play to the fullest, Abdullah's eyes were scanning the land in front of him at any time, and even the slightest abnormal movement from a few kilometers away would be noticed by him. Because the colors of the desert are so monotonous, full of deathly dullness, any inconspicuous color will become incomparably vivid in the dull and monotonous sea of yellow sand. With this contrast of colors, a desert dweller is often able to spot enemies quickly.

Abdullah didn't know if the enemy would attack their team, let alone when. So he was on guard every moment. If his troops were the old team he had led before, he didn't have to do the vigilance as a leader at all. Naturally, there will be scouts specially trained on the battlefield to complete it. But his current subordinates are just a group of recruits who have never been on the battlefield and have only been trained by him for a month. The real old subordinates had been transferred by Khairifin to guard the stronghold adjacent to the Duchy of Klesmang a month earlier.

A few months earlier in the Duchy of Clersman, it had been said that the Grand Duke and the nobles would once again wage another crusade to regain the "lost land".

However, at first, every Ikzar did not pay attention, and their eyes were still fixed on the civil war, until the matter intensified as time passed, and the frequent mobilization of troops in the principality and the crusaders from afar from the mainland made the Ikzars nervous.

Now, that tension has become a reality.

The Kolesmans besieged their city of Safed in a vain attempt to capture the strategically important stronghold. The Safar is not only a grain production center. It is also the key point of communication with the transportation arteries of the Iqzar dynasty. To the west, the Safat could capture the port city of Behebehan and gain a natural harbor, and to the south cross the Hinco River to reach Salem, a desert iron-producing city. In the east, there is the blocking of the Hinke Mountains, which can naturally and effortlessly cut off the threat of Safat from the east. If the city were to be captured by Kolesman, the south bank of the Hinkko River of the Iqzar dynasty would be exposed to the opponent's dagger.

A militiaman was carefully wiping his blade with a sackcloth to calm his restless heart from the impending war, but his somewhat trembling wrists did not settle down as he had requested. The reddening and pale cheeks made him look a little nervous.

Some of the militiamen were talking with stern faces and mouths. Looking at the sky with reverent eyes, he must have prayed for himself.

Such a force was deeply disappointed by Abdullah, and the years of war not only dealt a heavy blow to the economy of the Iqzar dynasty. And even now, frequent infighting is still consuming their own people, and most of the experienced fighters have died on the battlefield. Almost all of the troops were made up of these new recruits who had been in formation for a few months. Abdullah was confident in his ability to train, but would the recruits do what he was told?

The truly capable warriors have long been transferred away by Hai Lifan!

If it really collides with the army of Colesmane now. Abdullah was not optimistic about his own situation, even though there were many conscripted militiamen in his army. But Kolesmanka is a complete country! Far from being something that these large but weak in power, strength, population, and economy can contend with, if these Hailivans are not united, the Ikzar dynasty will be in jeopardy.

"Alas......" Abdullah sighed, even though he understood the situation in front of the dynasty very well, but others were soft-spoken, and they had no ability to change a qiē, war is the greatest evil of mankind, and the beacon fire for years has made this land that Abdullah loves full of holes, he doesn't care who is his ruler, he only cares about whether he and his compatriots can get real peace, maybe some of this idea will be idealized, but Abdullah believes that such a day will one day be realized.

Now, for the sake of his two sons and daughters, who are less than thirteen years old, Abdullah is even willing to let the Kolesmans rule the land, because if Kolesmang comes to rule, it will mean that this endless civil strife may be ended.

(As long as we do our best to put an end to this endless evil, let peace come to our homeland.) Abdullah thought to himself.

Suddenly, on the yellow horizon in the distance, there was a sudden and unnatural rush of sand and dust, which was definitely not caused by the strong winds in the desert.

Abdullah's memories of the dust were etched in his bones, and he knew exactly what it meant.

"Everyone is ready to fight!!" Abdullah shouted at his men! He doesn't want the war to continue, but that doesn't mean he's afraid of it, the only way to end the war is to end it with war!!Negotiation is a medium between victory and defeat, not a criterion for determining defeat and victory!!! (To be continued......