Two teams of men and horses, passing by the dirt road, are heading in completely opposite directions.

To the west were civilians with their families, mostly on foot, some in carriages, and east for Monroe were neatly organized soldiers, wearing helmets and chain mail carrying spears and shields. They were accompanied by horse-drawn carts and ox carts that carried all kinds of grain and grass supplies.

The vast array of soldiers numbered about a thousand, and the residents who had passed by them in a long line looked at these people with complicated expressions.

On the one hand, with such a military force dispatched to Monroe, the "magician" must be in danger this time. But on the other hand, Monroe is their home, and there is always a feeling of unease when such an army is heading there. Coupled with more and more complicated situations, no one can give a simple and clear answer to whether they can go home or not, and whether everything will become wrong after returning home.

The sound of dense footsteps echoed incessantly, and because of the mixed feelings, only a few of the inhabitants noticed the presence of the magicians among the soldiers, but only at a glance.

The number of mages accompanying the army is scarce, not to mention that they are only apprentices, and the poor Krant is pitifully small even if the number of court mages enshrined by the royal family is pitiful, and at this time, not only the chief mage but also almost all the remaining people have been dispatched, which shows how much attention Xilin attaches to the rebellion of the Grand Duke of Monroe.

It's the end of March.

As the evidence was unearthed, Herman, who had applied for more and more troops, finally launched a large-scale operation.

With the caravan inn serving as a makeshift command post as the central point, Herman's troops quickly spread to every place in the vicinity. The patrol was increased from one to five, and the elite soldiers followed. Each entire brigade patrol is also staffed by an elemental mage apprentice.

The patrolling troops were heavily surrounded, and the residents who were willing to leave Monroe were gone. The rest remained in their homes, and Herman sent out a patrol to guard the nearby streets, citing their safety.

The daily lives of the remaining inhabitants were brought under the control of the Knights of the Guards of the King of Crane, and in just three days the city was radically transformed into a military-controlled city-state.

A piece of paper from the royal family of Crant directly disbanded Monroe's ordinary soldiers, and these people who had lost their jobs had to be disarmed and returned to the nearby villages and towns to become ordinary peasants - ordinary soldiers, but the Grand Duke of Monroe's own elite soldiers could not be deprived.

They were only a few fewer than all the members of the guards who had arrived from Xilin, but the Duke of Monroe had made a big mistake - they had scattered their forces throughout the city-state, as if they had not reacted to it. When everything was ready, Herman launched a direct attack, taking advantage of the local superiority of forces to take down these elite troops in one fell swoop.

There was no need to fight to the death, and with the royal name of Krant and an overwhelming advantage, they directly broke these scattered elite soldiers of the Duke's family and disarmed and arrested them.

The bloodshed occurred only in a few areas, and most of those who knew each other chose to surrender outright.

In order to prevent the prisoners from initiating feedback, Herman ordered a group of soldiers to escort them directly to Xilin. In cities where the headquarters of the Knights of the Guards are located and where the royal family's own army is in control, they have more control.

And most importantly, he wants to use all the rest of his forces for the upcoming face-tearing decisive battle.

The Duke of Monroe's palace seemed to be asleep and did not react to his actions, and only a small part of the elite army was reduced to sixty percent, and the steady Herman led the army. Finally, we came to the confines of the Duke's Palace.

The opponent's vital force has been reduced to this level, but Herman still refuses to rest assured. While asking for more reinforcements in the direction of Xilin, he also formed a circle of troops from all directions step by step, keeping watch for the opponent's attack step by step while narrowing his own encirclement.

The Grand Master is advancing very slowly. He ordered his soldiers to be on the lookout for attacks at all times, but even such vigilance was a drop in the bucket in the face of a deadly weapon like the wizard's interference spell.

The campfire was swaying slowly. The dozens of soldiers stationed on the avenue of the North City District were talking and laughing and enjoying their dinner.

Sentinels with longbows stood on the second-floor terrace of the nearby vacant house, and it was clear that digging a pit in the middle of the stone road and erecting a boiler would not work. Luckily, there were stoves in nearby houses, and the soldiers who brought their own utensils cooked directly in the residents' homes. Bonfires lit up all over the road illuminate an entire area nearby. The equipment was left casually aside, and because the weather was getting hotter, they didn't even have armor or helmets on.

The attackers arrived just as they were having dinner, and the wooden and earthenware pots and pans were just thrown on the ground.

The first sound was the shrill sound of a copper whistle from the mouth of the sentry above, and a group of a dozen Monroe soldiers in half-body armor ran straight through the avenue, spears and shields in their hands, united in a dense phalanx.

The crooked roads in Monroe City provided them with convenience, but it was precisely because of this that Herman was equipped with sentries to guard the high places, and the sentinels immediately drew their longbows, but the elite soldiers equipped with armor raised their shields, and the bows and arrows in their hands immediately became useless.

"Ding-" Even the fastest archers could only shoot two or three arrows at most in this case, and they would be rushed by, but fortunately, the well-trained sentries had to blow the whistle before opening their longbows, so the soldiers below immediately reacted, dropped the utensils still containing the hot meals, and then picked up the equipment and met it.

-- Herman made a mistake.

He hastily spread out his soldiers.

The ordinary soldiers on Xilin's side were no different from Monroe's side, they were just drafted civilians, and most of these soldiers were young people with little education. You want to train through this kind of army formed by the lord with a low salary, so that you can become an elite soldier or a knight's squire.

They had only been here for a few days before they were sent to besiege it, even though Herman had a squad of magicians and experienced men for every brigade. But what he didn't realize was that these junior soldiers, elite soldiers, and magicians were not all the way.

It's as if the Duke of Monroe's family treats the lives of their elite soldiers as nothing. These mage, apprentices and elite soldiers, who were higher in status than the low-ranking soldiers who were like peasants, also looked down on them. While this is partly due to the laziness and lack of discipline of these junior soldiers, in the final analysis, it may be a sense of superiority.

Herman didn't tell everyone in person because of the sheer number of them, he just expected that the elite soldiers and court mage apprentices who knew about these problems would take the initiative to explain, but the deep class concept in their bones made these people tired of even fighting side by side with them, let alone going to the trap.

So when these soldiers picked up their weapons and hurried to meet them, they thought that they were dealing with just ordinary elite soldiers.

"Drink—ah!" the spear stabbed through the edge of the round shield, and the junior soldier tried hard to raise his shield to block it, but the action caused his opponent's spear attack trajectory to rise, stabbing him in the forehead without any protection.

"Wow!" Despite the lack of force, it did not directly penetrate the skull. The pain and the blood that came out of it interfered with his vision still made him panic, and it was at this moment that another elite soldier next to him decisively stabbed him through his throat.

"Uh-huh-" The first soldier who fell from the shield did not meet anyone's attention, and the Xilin soldiers, who knew that they had the advantage in numbers, loosely picked up their shields and rushed up with crooked slogans, and Monroe's elite soldiers noticed all this, and they immediately formed a shield wall at a very high speed.

"Click, click, click!" The shields of all black paint formed a solid wall, and everyone lowered their center of gravity, and the Xilin sentries on either side opened their bows and arrows at them, but the Monroe elite soldiers in half-body armor were not harmed.

Long arrows with black tail feathers pierced the surface of the shield, and four of the dozen or so Monroe soldiers raised their spears and threw them at the archers high on either side. "Wow. One archer dodged them, while the other was hit in the lower abdomen and fell to the ground screaming.

"Boom!" Monroe's elite soldiers, who had lost their spears, drew their armed swords from their waists and scattered to the side, forming a flank. All of this was done at the same time as the march was made, and the Monroe soldiers at the front, who formed a shield wall and raised their spears, collided with their opponents.

"Wow!" The inferior quality and lack of experience of the junior soldiers caused fatal injuries in this situation, and many people subconsciously retracted their entire bodies because of the bright spears stabbing towards them, and some even raised their shields directly above their heads, and in such a situation, they faced the impact of the shield wall of neat and powerful elite soldiers.

They just collapsed.

"Poof—"

"Click--Click-" The spear stabbed so hard that many people fell to the ground. The hot blood and the gradually cooling dinner were mixed together, and several soldiers who rolled their eyes fell directly to the ground. However, they finally reacted with the advantage of numbers, and many of them tried to send out powerful counterattacks, and the spears stabbed from all sides directly killed the two elite soldiers. The Monroe soldiers on the flanks threw away the heavy shields in their hands and began to slash in with their swords in one hand, blood splattering everywhere. And the royal capital's personal guards, elite soldiers and mage apprentices, who heard the sound in the rear, were only late at this time.

"Fireball!" The huge fireball that flashed from behind hit the shield wall of Monroe's elite soldiers directly, and the effect of the flames encountering the wood was self-evident. Monroe's elite soldiers were forced to abandon their shields, and the spears in their hands were basically broken.

"Boom-knock!" a handful of Monroe's elite soldiers, whose spears were not damaged, threw them at the mage apprentices who rushed forward, and in the confusion, these well-trained veterans still performed at their due level, and two of them fell to the side, and one was about to hit, but fortunately, the elite soldiers on the side of Wang Du's personal guard stepped forward to stop it.

The spear, several times heavier than the arrow, pierced the wooden shield so hard that the damage and excess weight rendered the shield ineffective, and the soldier threw it away before striding forward and throwing the spear in his hand.

Despite its strength, the spear that hit the iron cuirass only dented it, and the elite soldiers and mage apprentices who were staggered by an opponent turned around and wanted to run over to rush forward and join the battle, but they were unable to do so because of the chaos.

"Kill! they're dying!!" The soldiers crowded closer and closer, many of them lost their shields, and the ground was full of debris, and although they paid more than twice the price, the overwhelming number of the Xilin soldiers directly killed more than half of Monroe's elite soldiers, and they tried to take advantage of the victory to pursue them, in order to gain credit and improve themselves.

He had to draw his sword, but he was unlucky on the ever-changing battlefield, and that was enough to kill him.

"Poof-" The elite soldier who had been stabbed in the throat splattered blood and fell down, and the inferior quality of the junior soldier had a side effect once again at this time. Behind just now

But the other party stopped, and the few remaining elite soldiers glanced at each other and then took out a black bag from their pockets.

"Rustle—" They opened the seal of the bag and poured out the black sand inside, and then a black bracelet with a soft glow was removed and placed on the wrist.

"Uh-huh-" A powerful suction force immediately generated from the place where it touched the skin, and the elite soldiers all felt like someone was desperately trying to extract their own blood.

The mage apprentices and the elite soldiers of the royal family's guards, who had not seen all this behind them, were still trying to squeeze forward, and the junior soldiers in front raised their weapons and slashed at these standing elite soldiers - they did not know the meaning of the other party's actions, this was a great opportunity for these people, so they took a decisive attack.

"Whew-woo-" Long knives, long swords, and spears, most of them were made of wrought iron, and only a few were steel weapons that slashed indiscriminately at each other, and the attack trajectory of many people even covered the companions around them.

There was a mess, and all kinds of expressions could be seen on everyone's faces, saliva and food scraps flying in the air - and then there.

"Bang!!"

The limbs were twisted, and blood was splattered.

Torn skin, broken blood vessels, broken bones squeezed all the fluid in their bodies and splattered out, and all the soldiers who were too close to each other died in an instant, including the mage's apprentices and elite soldiers in the rear.

Their deaths were tragic and horrific, dozens of people with twisted limbs, hideous expressions, blood and feces overflowing, mixed with the smell of food left on the ground, and extremely disgusting.

"Disgusting—" The archer on the second-floor terrace of the house on the street began to vomit while clutching his chest.

"Bang Bang

"No, don't, don't kill me!!" the archer shouted and ran inside.

"Uhhh

Their pupils widened and showed signs of severe congestion, and the blood from the corners of their eyes, nostrils, and ears flowed towards their left hand as if they had been attracted by the ring.

The fire flickered, and this was only a place under attack. (To be continued.) )