War, it's expensive. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 During the war years, the standing army of a large empire could reach millions. What is the concept of a million soldiers? Excluding weapons and armor, the food they eat in a day alone is 400,000 catties of food. Soldiers were the largest labor force, and during the war years, all the young and middle-aged people were conscripted, leaving some old people and children to grow crops, and the empire's wartime food production was less than half that of peacetime. The burden of a major war is unimaginable, with massive civilian displacements, destruction of cities, and economic regression, and no empire can afford more than two wars in a short period of time. Because of this, before the opening of the emperor's calendar, the four large empires on the mainland took the form of four-legged power, which lasted for nearly a hundred years. Even so, the consumption of military materials for the small friction generated at the border is a one-to-one expense of millions of gold coins per year.

-- "The Economics of Controversy, Opening, and War"

The army of the Satya Empire had been on the outskirts of Xicheng for two or three days. Since the last temptation, there has been no more attack, and there has not even been a siege of Xicheng, allowing the sentinels to come and go between the main city and Xicheng, except for the piles of corpses piled aside to be cremated, there seems to be no shadow of war.

Hebrew was not in a hurry, as long as he held Tallinn Fort, the interior of the empire would be safe, and the inland areas that had not yet entered the war alert were a large production machine, and soldiers and supplies mobilized from all over the empire were being sent in a steady stream. If there is a protracted war, the Satya Empire will definitely not be able to win.

According to the other party's banner, Satya led the team in chief this time is still the old rival of the Count of Hebrew, Duke Maxim Miller, the two have been stationed at the border for many years, and have fought dozens of times, so they know each other's military methods. Maxim is known as the "double blade of the battlefield", in order to achieve the goal at any cost in the war, the way of fighting is difficult to prevent by killing 800 enemies and losing 1,000 self-inflicted losses. The corpses of four thousand soldiers outside the West City are the best proof of this. What is strange is that Maxim's title did not fall but rose, and in just a few years he rose from a marquis to one of the few dukes of Satya.

Contrary to Maxim, Hebrew cherished the lives of his soldiers and never fought uncertain battles. Maxim's way of fighting forced Hebrew to put all his forces into a tough fight against him. In the past few years, there have been as small as dozens of ranger encounters and as large as thousands of stronghold offensive and defensive battles, each side leaving more or less scars on the other.

But now it has been several days that the other party has not moved, which makes Hebrew a little strange, according to Maxim's character, 4,000 people is not at all what he should have.

"Joseph, you set out from the north gate tonight with five thousand light cavalry and cavalry, bypassing the enemy camp and attacking the enemy's supply lines. Syndicate, you also set out from the east gate with five thousand men. Remember to retreat when you encounter an enemy and only attack the supply lines. Two orders went down, and the two squadron leaders of the "Red Panther Knights" led the troops out of the city. Although I don't know the enemy's next move for the time being, I can't let them be idle, 10,000 cavalry is enough for them to be busy for a while.

Two days later, Maxim, who had been attacked on the supply line, sent troops to cut off the passage between the western city and the main city out of politeness, and many young officers were privately discussing whether Cosimo had offended Hebrew, and the small-bellied count was secretly throwing stones at the dragon knight. In the afternoon of the same day, a whole force of 50,000 men from the capital of Satya arrived at the front, including a whole squadron of magicians.

In the face of a city like Tallinn Fort, which is harder than a tortoiseshell, the magician is undoubtedly the best siege weapon, and the Hebrew Earl, who received the information, immediately set up the camp of the magician team in the city directly at the city gate. You have magicians and I have them, but there are not as many people as you and I have walls to hide, and magicians without barrier protection may even be killed by an arrow fired indiscriminately.

"Report!" The enemy army in the west city is attacking the city!" "Report!" Enemy troops have been found on the outskirts of the northern city!" "Report! Enemy troops have been found on the outskirts of the southern city!" The three sentries hurriedly came to report the military situation.

Oh, this is to attack three fortresses at the same time, with their forces, if the army is divided into three ways, Hebrew only needs to send troops from the main city to break through one by one, and the cautious Hebrew will inevitably begin to suspect that there is a deceit.

"Everyone, please come and see, all three fortresses are now in contact with the enemy, but it seems that only Xicheng has already started a war. The chamber was now surrounded by captains of the various teams, as well as some distinguished squadron leaders, and Hebrew beckoned them to come and look at the map.

"Could this be a suspicious tactic of the enemy?" said a young staff officer.

"Possibly, but what is their main purpose?" sometimes the fortifications of Tallinn were also distressed by the city guards, each fort was too close together for the enemy to change targets at any time.

"I think it's very likely to be the West City, which borders the Satya Empire, and if they capture the West City, it would be a perfect springboard to attack the main city. And now we've lost touch with Westside. ”

The vast majority of the people in the council hall agreed, and Hebrew pondered that the West City was more strategically important than the other three cities.

"Birdwin, prepare your brigade to support Xicheng, and be ready to go at any time at my orders. ”

Birdwin, who belonged to the 1st Brigade of Knights, retreated after receiving the arrows, and the sound of horses' hooves continued to sound in the city. The unfit inhabitants of Tallinn have been evacuated to several nearby towns, as is the wartime rule of Tallinn. Evacuation of civilians can greatly reduce food consumption, and Tallinn Fort is a large military base at this time.

In the afternoon of the same day, the Satya Empire soldiers began to attack the three satellite cities of Tallinn Fort in three directions, and a large number of trebuchets continued to throw stones into the sky, and even the people in the main city could feel the shaking of the ground.

The walls of the West City were the most damaged, and the scars from the previous days were only nailed with some wooden sticks, which could not withstand the attack of the trebuchets at all. And compared to the previous days, this attack was even more violent, whether it was the pale yellow arrows that kept slashing in the sky or the fireballs falling from the sky, they suppressed the soldiers at the head of the city and could not defend effectively.

Fortunately, the trebuchet in the western city was behind the city walls, and the range of the mage's attack was really incomparable to that of the magic archers, so he was forced to pull the distance to two hundred and fifty meters. In order to protect the magician's effective spell casting, Satya used two squadrons of heavy infantry to protect the magician, and even under the protection of the heavy steel shield and plate armor, there were still soldiers and magicians who were killed by the rocks.

By the evening, the city wall of the west city had been smashed out of several gaps, and there were already many places where Satya's soldiers had climbed up, and they were engaged in white-knuckle battles with the Oslan soldiers who were constantly making up, and the death rate of the two sides was getting closer, and at this time, the soldiers lying under the city wall had piled up several meters high corpse walls.

Maxim used the corpses of nearly 10,000 people to pile up a ladder to step on the western city! More than 2,000 people had already suffered casualties in the western city after an afternoon of defensive battles, and the more wounded soldiers there were, the faster the morale would drop, especially the soldiers with broken hands and feet put great pressure on the soldiers in reserve. Moreover, Xicheng has now lost its supplies, and the reserves of stones and bows and arrows in the city have almost bottomed out, and many trebuchets have to stop projecting. If it doesn't work anymore, the trebuchet will have to be dismantled and used as a woodcutter.

Cosimo saw that soldiers were constantly being carried off the city wall, and if the main city did not come with reinforcements, the western city would definitely not survive tomorrow. Cosimo took the dragon flute from his bosom and put it to his mouth and blew it.

After only a few breaths, there was a roar in the sky, as if it was a thunderclap in the sky. The clouds in the distance were rolling, and the sunset was torn by the wind, like a cloud that had been burned by fire. In an instant, a cyan light tore through the remaining colored clouds, and it was flying at a very fast speed.

The soldiers fighting on the battlefield also noticed the constant thunder in the sky, the roar overpowered the roar on the battlefield, and the soldiers kept stopping their swords and turned to look at the blue light that was approaching at great speed.

"It's our dragon!" Of course, the soldiers of the Oslan Empire knew this cyan dragon that represented their city defense, and with the dragon participating in the battle, the morale of the defenders immediately rose, and the soldiers kept cheering and chopping down the stunned enemy from the city wall.

It only took a few minutes for the green dragon to reach the sky above the West City from the sky, and the cyan light suddenly stuck above the city tower as if it had no inertia, Cosimo jumped hard, grabbed the reins and turned over on the mount dragon, took off the dragon spear from the dragon saddle, and slowly flew to the city wall. Many Satya soldiers saw the dragon at such a close distance, and they were oppressed by its powerful divine power and jumped off the city wall more than ten meters high.

"Kill!" Suddenly a roar came from the side, and thousands of hoplites rushed into the flank of the light infantry. Dressed in fiery red armor, the same color of the big horse flew in the wind, and the red horse of the same color ran quickly. The two-meter-long knight's spear pierced through the small round shield and leather armor in the hands of the light infantry and nailed directly to the ground!

"It's reinforcements! Reinforcements are coming!" Whether it is the red from head to toe or the flag fluttering in the wind behind them, they all indicate their noble identity - the "Red Panther Knights", one of the five elites of the empire. And it can be seen from the strong berserker-like knights in the lead that they are the elite of the elite, the first cavalry brigade led by Berdwin. This brigade of pure heavy cavalry was the most combat-ready of the "Red Panther Knights".

Whether it is the divine dragon in the sky or the heavy cavalry attacking from the flanks, it is a nightmare for light infantry. Each hoplite's knight's spear was discarded on the ground after piercing more than one soldier, and dozens of kilograms of knight's sword continued to pierce into the flesh and blood, bringing out a line of blood before leaving a gorgeous departure, while their long sword slashed at the heavily armored heavy cavalry and left only a white mark.

The rout was only a matter of time.