Emperor Marius seems to know a little bit about Livius, and probably guessed that this guy was going to cut first and then play after receiving Livius's report, so he directly ordered a reprimand, saying that it was not allowed to expand the army 'privately'.

But Marius probably didn't expect that Levius would be forced to recruit soldiers as soon as he took office......

The Shield Wind Fortress is the farthest castle from the capital Siyuan City, and it is indeed called the Emperor Far Away.

Livius was not a law-abiding person in the first place, and his family was an important member of the Lordship of the Bacchus Empire, and he was used to being rampant in his previous territory, and his style has always been more unrestrained.

Now that he has been assigned to the frontier, he still has a little resentment in his heart, originally he wanted to create a fait accompli of the army expansion first, and then talk about it when he gets military spending.

But since Emperor Marius responded by not allowing him to 'expand his army privately', the emperor's intentions are clear.

This is aimed at him, and he didn't plan to let him capture Bailu Fort at all, probably thinking that a year later, he would take away his military power under the pretext of 'leading a strong army but doing nothing'.

Of course, Levius will not sit still, he is just arrogant and domineering, but he is not a fool, and a warlord family like him knows better than anyone the truth that 'a soldier is hard when he has a waist in his hand'.

If there weren't for the Shadowfoot soldiers, he wouldn't have dared to be so arrogant in his territory......

But he won't directly confront the emperor, after all, he also knows that he is hated, and if he really wants to be punished according to the law, he should have been hanged eight times a long time ago.

Therefore, he would never make a mistake of principle - such as blatant disobedience or collaboration with the enemy.

Even Marshal Kairos, who was most opposed to reform, had been obeying the orders of Emperor Marius, and of course Livius would not disobey his orders either, and he had to endure it.

White Deer Fort still has to be fought, and it must be won.

But the problem is that Livius has already forcibly recruited more than 2,000 people......

The villages that should be offended have already been offended, so you can't just put these young people back, right?

That's too much of a loss......

So with a stroke of his pen, Livius changed the nature of the 'Second Imperial Legion' and turned it into a banner militia regiment.

This is reasonable and legitimate.

A governor-general certainly has the right to requisition the people, and the wages are owed first and then settled, after all, when the country is at war, the local civilian population does have an obligation to support the army.

Moreover, the banner of a large number of civilians can disturb the enemy's sight, which is also a normal combat behavior.

The army of 2,000 people, led by Lord Febius, the son of Livius, began to move in the direction of Fort White Hart.

However, instead of letting the legion of men carry baggage or build fortifications, Levius asked Febius to take them to the Noldor Forest north of the Shieldwind Fortress, the area between the Shieldwind Fortress and the White Hart Fortress, and began to build a camp on a large scale......

Because this can force White Deer Fort to send more troops.

The militia he sent was under the banner of the 'Second Legion of the Empire', although the location sent to cut wood was in the forest about two hundred miles away from White Deer Fort, but it wouldn't take too long for White Deer Fort to find a camp with the 'big army' of the Bacchus Empire building a camp.

In Livius's opinion, if a 'large army' of more than 2,000 people is allowed to set up camp so close to White Deer Fort, White Deer Fort will definitely strengthen its armaments, so it will definitely send additional troops to defend it......

Then Livius can ask Emperor Marius to change his order or send reinforcements on the grounds that 'there are a lot of garrisons in White Hart Fort'.

Yes, Livius is not a fool, he wants to increase the garrison of Fort White Hart, and he wants to make Emperor Marius change the order originally given to him in this way.

If White Deer Fort found out that the 'Second Imperial Legion' of more than 2,000 people was building a garrison, no matter how much it had to muster a large number of troops to take precautions......

Then the order issued by Emperor Marius to 'capture White Deer Fort within a year' will seem very unreasonable.

In this case, Emperor Marius will either send additional reinforcements to the Shield Wind Fortress, or let Levius expand his manpower, and may even directly change Livius's mission from 'capturing White Hart Fort' to 'defending the Shield Wind Fortress'.

As for whether those 2,000 people will be killed by the people of White Deer Castle......

He didn't care.

Levius still has a lot of strengths, such as being improvised, or he wouldn't be the governor.

After sending the Legion of Folk to start cutting down trees and building a camp, Livius began to send scouts to White Hart Castle to investigate.

Then he found out that White Deer Fort had lit a beacon fire without encountering an enemy.

At that time, the peasant army had just begun to cut down trees to build a camp, and Livius thought that it was because Fort White Hart had discovered his army of people, and he was still lamenting that Fort Whitedeau's reconnaissance efficiency was quite high, and it was discovered so quickly two hundred miles away......

In fact, it was only because after Leon was taken away by the Lion Knights, Amy directly lit the beacon fire according to Leon's instructions.

There were a lot of things going on in White Deer Fort at that time, and Amy was focused on the safety of the lord in those days, and she didn't send scouts too far to the south at all, and she didn't know anything about the Minfu Legion two hundred miles away.

But Levius felt that his plan had succeeded, after all, according to common sense, after the beacon fire was lit in White Hart Castle, there would soon be a large army from Changhe Town to help.

So he immediately sent an eight-hundred-mile urgent report to the capital Siyuan City again - this time he directly said that the military strength of Bailu Fort had increased to two thousand, and he hoped that Emperor Mario would send him additional reinforcements, otherwise it would be a problem to even defend the shield wind fortress, let alone attack.

This time, Livius did not directly say that he was going to expand his army.

Because he knew that in such a situation, it was better to send reinforcements from other places than to recruit new troops on the spot, and Emperor Marius would most likely agree to his new formation of the 'Second Imperial Legion', and would also make other lords obey his command.

After that, he has been sending scouts constantly, intending to see the specific reaction of White Deer Castle.

Since then, however, none of his scouts have returned.

Of course, it's a good thing that the scouts haven't returned, and not coming back means that Fort White Hart is indeed strengthening its defenses.

And in Livius's opinion, the continuous dispatch of scouts can also make White Hart Castle firmly believe in the imminent attack of the Bacchus Empire.

At least the beacon fire in White Deer Fort was lit all the time.

But it didn't take long for the governor to notice that something was wrong......

The spy sent to Fort White Hart by the Bacchus Empire has returned.

Those spies were Justes' men, and their original mission was to spread rumors about Leon.

Although the rumors did not directly disrupt the White Hart Castle, they did get the planned result - Leon was indeed arrested by the Lion King.

Subsequently, the White Deer Fort lit a beacon fire, but the Lion Kingdom did not have reinforcements to support.

This also gives the spies a misleading impression that they believe that the rumors they spread are working, and that there seems to be civil strife in the Lion Kingdom.

Later, according to the orders of the lord, Amy brought Sir Roland to White Hart Fort to take charge of the defense.

Roland was a careful man, and he had spent half his life dealing with heretics, and he was very good at finding the mysterious people who were hiding in the dark corners to do things.

As a result, the spies sent by the Bacchus Empire to Fort White Hart suffered huge losses in a short period of time.

So the spies had to stay silent for several days, not daring to show their heads, and naturally they didn't know what happened in those days.

And then, they found out that Leon had returned.

And with Leon's return, there seems to be civil strife in White Deer Fort - several troops have moved in the city, and I don't know why.

Later, the spies got the result, and it was Leon who launched a rebellion in White Deer Castle!

Leon is really treasonous!

However, Leon's rebellion seems to have failed, and he was banished by Godric's daughter to McElly, and the soldiers of Fort White Hart did not rebel with Leon.

Naturally, this kind of news was to be transmitted back to the territory of Bacchus in the fastest way.

So the remaining spies returned to Bacchus as quickly as possible, and the closest was the Shieldwind Fortress, and Levius was the first Lord of Bacchus to get the news.

However, after Levius got the news of the secret agent, he was a little in a dilemma......

Because of this kind of civil strife in White Deer Fort, it is obviously the best opportunity to attack.

While it's uncertain how much Leon's rebellion has cost Fort White Deer, at least it's the best opportunity in decades!

But the problem is that Livius has just sent back the news that 'the strength of White Deer Fort has increased to two thousand' to Siyuan City......

Originally, this was just an exaggeration of the enemy's military strength in order to get more military spending and troop support.

But if Justes' secret agents spread the news of the civil strife in White Deer Fort to Siyuan City, then this nature will change!

The great opportunity to attack was said by Livius to be an increase in the enemy's troops, which was not an ordinary fake military report, and it could even be regarded as a deliberate attempt to deceive the emperor and plot against him, and Emperor Marius would definitely be furious.

After all, Bacchus was founded by General Ossa by war conquest, and everyone may understand that he was paid a small amount of empty money, but this kind of military intelligence falsification is almost unforgivable.

And Livius didn't know how many secret spies Justs had, and besides, there were spies sent elsewhere, so he couldn't kill these insiders.

Then we must seize this opportunity to capture White Deer Fort first, and then the false military report will become "This is a ploy by the enemy, and it is deliberately framing the governor......

Yes, Levius is very adaptable.

But this means that he is not very good at cooperating with other lords, otherwise the matter of the false military report will not be tenable and difficult to explain.

But at present, he only has 800 soldiers in his hands, and the 2,000 farmers don't even have equipment, and the internal situation of this White Deer Fort is unknown, and it doesn't seem too sure to attack alone.

So Livius was a little entangled......

However, while Livius was struggling, he got a piece of great news.

……

When Risadillan arrived at the Shieldwind Fortress, the place was heavily guarded by Livius.

Levius still has a lot of strengths, such as being improvised, and protecting himself.

In order to avoid any catastrophic consequences of his usual misdeeds, the governor always kept his castle at bay.

A high-level killer like Lisha Dilan couldn't find a way to enter the city for a while, and there were many soldiers guarding almost everywhere.

However, fortunately, the elf killer's mission this time is not to enter the city to kill, but to deliver a message.

Given that the lord's request was to get the letter as soon as possible and not to be too secretive, Risadilan used an unconventional method.

He didn't enter the city, but hid in the forest behind the Shieldwind Fortress, sneaked up on the Shieldwind Fortress with the protective color of the trees, and then shot an arrow into the castle.

In order to avoid misunderstandings, and because he couldn't recover the lost arrows, he didn't use the Noldor arrow, but used an ordinary cone-headed arrow.

The Noldor Elves' archery skills and range were top-notch, and the arrow tied to the letter missed a wonderful parabola and shot accurately into a small window in the middle of the tower of the Shieldwind Fortress.

Shoot that window, mainly because Risa Dilan sees that there seems to be someone there—someone has to see the arrow.

As a result, after the arrow passed, a howl was heard in the distance......

It seems that there was a mistake, but for Risa Dilan, it doesn't matter, the most important thing is to complete the task quickly, and things like accidental injuries are trivial, and they are all enemies anyway......

Moreover, since he had shot someone, the task would definitely be completed, so Risadilan turned around and ran away.

The task was indeed accomplished - the one who was shot in the castle happened to be Livius himself.

Of course, he was slightly injured, just a little bit of skin.

It's just that the position is a little awkward, and the injury is just between the legs.

The Noldor Elves were clearly unfamiliar with the structure of the Shieldwind Fortress......

Of course, the castle tower is only lived in by the big people, and the small window in the middle of the castle tower is only a foot in length and width, but in fact it is the vent of the toilet, which is just at the waist of the person - this is so that when squatting or sitting, he can just face the window.

Poor Governor Levius had been going to the toilet and had just finished lifting his pants when an arrow flew in through the window and grazed his crotch into the wall behind him.

almost castrated him on the spot.

But fortunately, Levius did see the letter that the lord had given him.

The contents of the letter made him feel as if a big pie had fallen from the sky, and it happened to fall on top of his head......

A secret letter was tied to that arrow.

The letter was written by Li Ang himself, and it seemed to be a little sloppy, and it was estimated that he was in a nervous and urgent mood when he wrote the letter.

The letter expresses his admiration for Levius, and asks Levius if he remembers the friendship of the lord who kindly let him return to China......

Leon said that he was persecuted by King Ulrik and could not stay in the Lion Realm any longer, so he asked the Bacchus Empire if he would give him a chance.

To this end, he can join hands with Governor Livius to capture White Hart Castle, as a vote for defection to the Bacchus Empire, and hope that Emperor Marius will reward the 'General of Long River' is not just a lie.

As a sign of sincerity, the lord was even willing to give the wheat collar to Livius first.

Most crediblely, Leon said that he would go to the vicinity of Shieldwind Fort on July 30 to meet with Livius on how to attack Fort White.

Levius sighed as he watched, feeling that the plan of Emperor Marius and Justus was still quite powerful.

I guess it was Emperor Marius's letter that worked?

Of course, Levius knew that Emperor Marius was cheating on Leon, and he also knew that Governor Justus had sent many spies to spread rumors.

It seems that the effect of these tactics is obvious......

According to the letter, coupled with the news from the secret spies, Leon was probably convicted by King Ulrik and finally escaped, and originally planned to establish himself as treason in White Deer Castle, but failed.

So now it is being attacked by the army of Fort White Deer.

Therefore, he had to cooperate with the Bacchus Empire, join forces with the Bacchus Empire to attack White Hart Castle, and give the wheat collar to Levius, and he would then occupy White Hart Fort as a safe place for himself.

Even the reason is very clear, the Bacchus Empire must be allowed to get the wheat collar, and Leon himself can be safe in White Deer Castle.

Livius felt that if it was just a secret letter, it might be Leon who was cheating.

But if Leon really came here in person, it would be difficult to fake, and he could catch him first.

Besides, the way Li Ang sent someone to deliver the letter was also very suitable for the situation - if this was a fake surrender, who would send the letter in such a way that it was so easy to expose secrets?

An arrow came in, in such a hurry......

What if it's seen by someone else?

What if it wasn't delivered to Levius?

This obviously means that Leon's current situation is very dangerous, and he has no time to send an envoy to visit!

And July 30th, that's tomorrow.

So Livius sent his troops to set up a makeshift camp a dozen miles north of the Shield Wind Fortress.

He didn't want Li Ang to enter the Shield Wind Fortress, just in case, what if this was still a trick?

The lord did not cheat, he only led a few dozen men to the makeshift camp, waving a white flag to see Livius, looking quite embarrassed, as if he had just experienced a battle.

"Your Excellency Li Ang, I really didn't expect you to really come......"

Livius felt that pie had fallen from the sky, and this was really the rhythm of surrender.

"There's no way, the Lion Kingdom is chasing me, your Emperor Marius is not a good person...... However, since I have been named the 'General of Changhe Town', then I can't break my promise! ”

The lord took out the letter from Emperor Marius and threw it to Livius.

"So how are you going to take White Hart Fort now? How many troops does White Hart Fort still have? ”

Of course, Livius knew the contents of the letter, and most of his doubts were dispelled, and he began to ask directly about the plan.

"There are probably three or four hundred people in White Deer Castle, but it doesn't matter. As long as I lead my troops to appear outside the city of White Deer Fort, the troops of White Deer Fort will definitely pursue me, and White Deer Fort will be an empty city at that time! Governor Livius, fighting an empty city shouldn't bother you, right? ”

Li Ang shook his head and gritted his teeth, looking like he really wanted to occupy White Deer Fort.

Although this method is simple, it does seem to be reliable in the current situation.

However, Livius still said cautiously: "I don't have many troops in my hands, why don't I send someone to your Mai Xiangling first to make sure that there are no reinforcements in White Deer Castle?" ”

net

Li Ang nodded and agreed: "Indeed, to block the reinforcements of the Lion Kingdom first, you had better send more troops, and I will send someone to lead the way." ”

As soon as these words came out, Livius's suspicions were dispelled - this would really make White Hart Fort a lonely city, and it seemed that Leon was really going to surrender to the empire this time.