Chapter Twenty-Six: The Martyrdom of Gifu

The Black Dragon Knights did not directly kill Uru, the capital of the Holy Desert Empire, and Chi Aotian did not lose his due sanity in his rage, his first target: Moyada, an important city on the east coast of the Holy See.

Prior to this, the worried Pope implored the Redstone Emperor to send elite troops from the Northern Federation of the Ice and Snow Continent to the east coast to assist in the defense of the Eastern Phanos Legion to prevent the surprise attack of the Eastern Legion of Phanos on the territory of the Holy See. After conquering the city of Hamburg, Balbas, one of the commanders of the small mercenary group, was ordered by Horns to make a special trip to Moyata to contact the commander of the Northern Federation's Snow Moon Legion.

According to Horns's idea, he hoped to be able to say that the Snow Moon Legion would send a squadron or even more soldiers into the northern part of the Fairy Forest for defense - not only to defend the Fairy Forest, but also to support the Holy Snow Mountain Theater, and in the longer term, to leave a safe passage for the mercenaries of the mercenary empire that was about to collapse completely. After these mercenaries enter the Tongyun Pass, Horns hopes to be able to reorganize on the spot and become a peripheral organization of the small mercenary group.

Chi Aotian's strategic steps are almost identical to Horns - it is best for the Black Dragon Knights to get in touch with the Northern Federation Legion, and even expect to take command of the Snow Moon Legion - after all, Chi Hanfeng and Amy's father were both captains of the Snow Moon Legion, and now quite a few officers of the Snow Moon Legion are under the command of the two, and Amy's father has always had an excellent reputation among the military, so it cannot be said that there is no such possibility.

Chi Aotian felt a faint trace of uneasiness in his heart, the Snow Moon Legion could be said to have been lured to the Holy See, and several months had passed, during this period, the whole country had changed dramatically, and the Holy See might not have plotted against the largest reserve force in the empire? At this time, Chi Aotian still had a trace of luck in his heart. There are more than 10,000 soldiers of the Northern Federation who have been transferred to the Holy See, and there are many elite troops such as the Snow Moon Legion Knight Brigade, because there must be a large number of Phantom Beast Knights in the direct brigade of the Snow Moon Legion, even if the Holy See uses more than 50,000 troops to make a surprise attack, it cannot guarantee that it will be wiped out in one fell swoop. It is impossible for the Holy See to risk leaking the news to attack the Snow Moon Legion first.

Considering the order before and after, the Holy See must have attacked the imperial capital first, and then found a way to solve this partial army. From the perspective of geographical leapfrogging, in order to ensure the victory of the imperial capital strategy, the Holy See must have concentrated superior forces, and around the night of the imperial capital, the Holy See can at most have a small part of its forces to secretly contain the Northern Federation Legion. Even if the Holy See immediately transferred troops to the east after completing the imperial capital strategy, from the imperial capital to the east coast of the Holy See, according to the regular march, it would take at least 15 days, and there would be an imperial boundary forest war zone during the period. And according to the combat strength of the Northern Union Army, it will definitely not be easily annihilated.

Based on these considerations, the Northern Federation Corps should have just been notified by the Imperial Military Department at this time and is trying to find a way to get closer to the nearest Imperial War Zone.

Tongyun Pass is 300 miles to the north and enters the territory of the Holy See.

All the way is a continental highway, on both sides of the highway, there are occasionally small villages of the Holy See - in any sense, these villages are extremely lucky, because until this time, Chi Changyun led 3,000 heavy knights to "see off", of course Chi Aotian knew the true purpose of his brother's long send-off, and the cold black pupils tried to suppress the strong murderous aura.

The inhabitants of the Holy See saw the massive march of troops, and their curiosity drove these people who did not know whether they were alive or dead to stand on both sides of the mainland highway and watch the bustle.

At the front were hundreds of knights with white and delicate skin, slightly pointed ears, and told everyone their identities for the first time - these seemingly extremely weak people turned out to be an extremely rare race on the continent: forest elves, and behind the elves were thousands of strong human warriors, one-color animal skin chain mail, and snowy long swords hanging from the side of the horse. The long line of human and elven knights was lined up in four columns, stretching for miles, all silently urging their mounts under their crotches, and their horses' hooves flying and moving quickly.

As soon as I saw the end of the Cavaliers, I heard a boom, boom, boom in the distance...... The thunder, the wide continental highway trembled in the thunder, two columns of 4-meter-high earth dragon knights led their mounts to trot over, from the knight to the earth dragon body covered with thick armor, the side of the earth dragon hung more than half a person long one-handed hammer staff, the red floating soil flying up the sky on the road continued to rise and fall, the knights under the black armor did not seem to see the dust at all, no one made a sound, like a dead ghost.

At the back of the line, there are ironclad knights lined up in three rows. In the sky, from time to time, human vulture knights and elven vulture knights rise and fall. Almost all of the soldiers carried bows and arrows on their backs...... Even...... There was also a dragon knight with a powerful crossbow more than a man tall on his back! Before that, no one had ever seen a legion made up entirely of archers.

What made it even more incomprehensible to the soldiers and civilians of the Holy See was that in the procession of nearly 10,000 people stretching for five miles, there were only two colors - black and white, which symbolized ominous and death. Slowly, some of the old residents realized something and quietly left the mainland highway with their families - all they read from the eyes of these soldiers was blood feud and death.

There is an important town at each end of the continental highway bordering the southern territory of the Holy See in the Imperial Tongyun Pass Theater, with Tongyun Pass on the south side and Gifu Castle of the Holy See on the north side.

On February 23, the 5th year of the magic calendar, the Black Dragon Knights' Eight Thousand Iron Cavalry could already clearly see Gifu Castle from afar.

Chi Aotian took the reins of the horse to circle, dusty and without any emotion, and gave the last eviction order: "Brother, please go back!"

Seeing a glimmer of cold light constantly flashing in the black pupils of his once young brother, although it was in the subtropical region of the southern part of the continent, Chi Changyun couldn't help but fight a cold war, in the past few days, he already knew that his younger brother didn't want him to follow, but ...... With his little understanding of Chi Aotian, Chi Changyun could only reluctantly use the excuse of farewell to follow him, at this time...... can only turn back, and those soldiers of the Holy See can only pray for more blessings: "Okay, brother, there will be a farewell for sending you a thousand miles, but ......" Chi Changyun knew that Chi Aotian didn't like to hear it, but he had to continue: "I won't say more, you ...... Think more about the Chi family's reputation for more than 600 years, it can't be linked to brutality......"

After speaking, the young commander of Tongyun Pass turned his horse's head and returned along the mainland highway with 3,000 ironclad cavalry.

At this time, the last moral umbrella of the Holy See was removed, and only Chi Aotian, a lawless avenger, remained.

At 3 p.m. on February 23, the 5th year of the Magic Calendar, 17,000 Holy See soldiers from various inland towns in Gifu Castle watched as the black-pressed vultures and snow-white ironclad knights silently assembled under Gifu Castle.

Whether it was the Holy See's Sect or the Black Dragon Knights of the Amy Empire, they were all stunned by each other.

The city of Gifu was bloody, with dozens of heads hanging and countless corpses nailed to the cross.

In the middle of the continental highway, four 10-meter-high avenue flags are carried on the four poles of the black-pressed knights.

The two white cloth and black characters in the middle: "Shameful and humiliating, the Chi family has been guarding Tongyun for dozens of generations, and the horse leather shrouded in corpse was swallowed by the ambition of the wolf son of the Holy See"

"Repay virtue with grievances, the black dragon has been riding for half a thousand years, and he has been serving one after another, but he has been rebellious and shameless."

Two bloody red letters on the side: on the left: "Pool"

Right side: "Kill"

In front of everyone's eyes, a huge bone dragon appeared in the enchantment, and a black-clothed young man wrapped in a white filial piety belt jumped up under the hanging flag, and two skeletons rose up in front and back of the bone dragon, tightly wrapping the boy on his back.

The bone dragon vibrated two giant wings up to 15 meters long, the air waves rose majestically, the dragon knight slowly rose into the air, and the two vulture knights rushed up from behind, putting a huge black cloak three meters long on the back of the dragon knight, the dragon knight slowly tied it on his chest, and the cloak was instantly torn by the wind and flew in the air.

Any human being who sees a dragon for the first time must be terrified, and any human being, who sees a dragon for the first time, must lose faith in his own life.

Needless to say, an ordinary human, even a warrior who has been in a hundred battles and even fought with a dragon, for the first time to see the mount of the god of death, the ultimate master of all things, about to leave the dragon, it is a deepest fear from the heart.

The 8-meter-high walls of Gifu Castle were silent, and nearly 10,000 soldiers from the Supreme Commander to the lower levels watched in amazement at the huge giant beast that slowly rose higher than their own line of sight, as well as the pair of sharp cold eyes hidden behind the black gem on the back of the giant beast.

The news of the official war between the Holy See and the Amy Empire was brought here by the Holy See Bishop 10 days ago.

The bishop's performance was wonderful, and in broad daylight, more than 20,000 loyal soldiers and 170,000 residents of Gifu Castle saw the god of light and many angels appear at the same time after the prayers of the gods were performed by many clergymen, and the god of light himself announced that the descendants of the Western Emperor would once again reinstate the continent. The power of the Church is unimaginable for the common people, especially for the Holy See.

In just 10 minutes, in the hearts of the soldiers and civilians of Gifu City, the Amy Empire has directly degenerated from a close ally to an evil country that shamelessly and despicably obstructs peace with its own selfishness and traps the people of Li in the midst of fire and water.

Of course, not all the words were uttered by His Excellency the God of Light himself, and the Archbishop floated in the air after the disappearance of the Holy Statue of Light to the inhabitants and warriors to preach again - many grievances between the Amy Empire and the Holy See. It was only at this time that the believers of the Holy See knew that the Phanos Legion, which had always been described as a beast of the Miao Wilderness, was actually an ally of the Holy See, and that such a despicable race was the first to be influenced by the Western Emperor and swore allegiance.

Shame and courage, the believers burned with anger in their chests, and even roared to attack the territory of the Amy Empire - the most martyred were the 20 officers sent by the Amy Empire's military headquarters to Gifu Castle for training. Ironically, it was His Excellency the Pope who had repeatedly pleaded with the Redstone Emperor months ago to send a good soldier to fully train the instructors to prevent a surprise attack by the Phanotic Legion, and now the trained soldiers turned their swords and guns against the trainers......

More than 10 bloody heads were hung on the city walls, and only three officers were lucky enough to rush into the alleys and be taken in by the well-meaning residents, who fled from the walls at night. What the three officers didn't know was that because the residents who took them in were the citizens of the Amy Empire who had just moved into Gifu Castle a few years ago, when the matter was leaked, an earth-shattering tragedy occurred in Gifu Castle - the angry indigenous soldiers and civilians of the Holy See slaughtered the residents of the Amy Empire who had moved into Gifu Castle in the last 20 years in just 5 days.

Bestiality, not only the soldiers, but also the civilians who claimed to believe in the god of light, raped young Imperial girls in the streets, slaughtered innocent Imperial civilians, and threw torches into the homes of the inhabitants of the Empire - nearly 10,000 corpses were nailed to crosses outside the city walls.

It is known as the "Gifu Martyrdom".

Later historians believe that the indigenous people of Gifu, who were at the vanguard of the "Gifu Martyrdom", were the immediate beneficiaries of this event. As we all know, Amy's empire is rich and strong, and ordinary Shengdou small people become rare wealthy households in the local area once they cross the border, and the local residents of Gifu City have long seen the wealth of outsiders in their eyes and remembered in their hearts, and in this martyrdom, it is undoubtedly the happiest thing for those ruffians who fool around on the streets, and they are not responsible for killing people, and they can also grab women and grab a lot of money. At first, the ordinary people and the soldiers who were supposed to maintain order finally tore off the last diaper of the so-called god believers and became the tailgators of the robbery after seeing the huge amount of money snatched from the rich house.

At this time, Chi Aotian didn't know who was crucified on the wall, but when he rose into the air, he clearly saw a large area of charred residences in the city, and a puzzled look crept up to his white face.

Suddenly, three Imperial officers rushed down from the northwest hill of the city, their hips dirty and unorthodox, and the officers themselves were even more muddy, and if it weren't for the Imperial standard daily officer uniform, no one would associate them with soldiers.

The three of them jumped off their horses, and before they could speak, they wept bitterly, and their eyes and noses were full of blood.

"Which general of the empire in front of him has ruled the iron cavalry and wants to avenge the more than 10,000 resentful residents of the empire......" The three middle-aged officers in their thirties wept bitterly.

To get away from the dragon's wings and fall, Chi Aotian responded coldly: "I am Chi Aotian, from Tongyun Pass. Who are you?"

Among the three imperial officers, some of them had a very clear mind, and they covered their mouths and said while snorting blood: "It turned out to be Second Young Master Chi...... We are the instructors of the Imperial Military Training Corps, the Imperial Knights Li Lafeng, Dardanion, and Ping Lei, who were sent here to train their soldiers two months ago...... But...... More than 10 days ago, they suddenly killed the squadron leader and more than 10 other officers, and ...... and killed all the inhabitants of the city from the Empire......" The three officers were incoherent, but they also explained the general matter.

Later historians believe that it is true that Chi Aotian slaughtered thousands of miles all the way, but the Holy See, especially the officers of Gifu Castle and the 170,000 indigenous residents of Gifu Castle, bear absolutely unshirkable responsibility. 10,000 Imperial civilians died tragically, in the face of this scene, even if it was not Chi Aotian, another person, whether it was Da Qingshan, Horns or Amy, or Chi Changyun, Viscount Fan, etc., but anyone with some blood, maybe the choice at that time was the same. If there had been no martyrdom in Gifu, at least there would have been aristocratic officers who would have objected to something out of chivalry.

If it is said that there is still a trace of far-fetched Chi Aotian's text before, and some soldiers still have a little hesitation, at this moment, there is only blood feud surging in the black and white team.

Chi Aotian gently lifted the miserable white mask, revealing his fair face, and a faint voice sounded in the sky word by word: "I originally wanted to persuade you to surrender, and those who surrender will not be killed." However, now it is not necessary. Destroy this city with you. ”

A middle-aged man in his thirties on the city wall snorted coldly: "Arrogance." Even if you have a few thousand people, what if you come with 30,000?"

"Chi Shao family master, this person is Gifu Castle Shou Suharto. "The three knights of the Imperial Training Corps have returned to the headquarters of the Black Dragon Knights, and they will be reminded below.

Suharto's face fluttered with a smug look: "As long as we don't go out of the city, you can attack it! Gifu City is the largest city in the southern Xinjiang of the Holy Sect, let me see what you can do to me? Don't use the method of agitation, I am a person who knows the art of war, the art of war is cloudy: ten will surround it, five will attack it, and if it is doubled, it will be divided, and the enemy will be able to fight, if it is few, it can be escaped, and if it is not, it can be avoided." Therefore, the small enemy is strong, and the big enemy is also captured. The husband is the assistant of the country. I'm going to drag you bastards to death. ”

Looking at the triumphant expression of the middle-aged man in front of him, he couldn't help but be as cold as Chi Aotian, it is estimated that these words were probably learned by Lord Cheng Shou and the Imperial Training Brigade just now. Ten are to surround it, and five to attack it...... The Bone Dragon Knight shook his head slightly.

"Vulture Swordsman Battalion, Vulture Forest Elf Battalion, Liftoff, Target: Gifu City Wall Soldiers, 20 rounds. All the rest, go back 500 meters. Chi Aotian slowly gave the order.

The 5,000 regular knights retreated in a loose array, and the flock of vultures let out a low tremor and soared into the air, and a hissing rain of arrows covered the front wall in an instant - especially the more than 300 elven archers, who shot short arrows that pulled out green tail smoke in the air.

"Shield-" the officers on the city wall shouted loudly.

Wow, whoa...... Hundreds of skinned shields were raised to the sky at the same time, forming a tiled square wall.

To the surprise of the instructors, the arrows falling from a height of more than 600 meters were free falling at a speed plus the speed of the initial fire, and all of them shot through the shield with bang, bang, bang, bang, and screams one after another -- looking from the air, the shield that suffered the most from the rain of arrows in the middle paused for a moment and fell to the ground in a languid, and bright red blood and snow-white brains oozed from under the shield piece by piece.

The officers in the tower were keenly aware of the tragic situation and shouted: "Quick!! Retreat into the Arrow Tower! Block!! Everyone retreats into the Arrow Tower!!"

The soldiers hid in the castle towers and arrow towers like a tide, and when they couldn't squeeze in, they hid behind the city walls along the horse road. After 20 breaths, there was not a single soldier on the city wall - except for the more than 300 shields in the center that were strangely laid on the bluestone bricks at different angles, and blood was dripping and dripping down the road. 300 square shields...... means at least six hundred or more soldiers......

"Shoot!!!" ordered His Excellency Suharto, hiding in the tower.

"Your Excellency, we can't shoot that high!" replied the soldier in the arrow tower in the distance.

At a height of 600 meters, not to mention the standard configuration of the Holy See's horned bow, probably, no crossbow can shoot 600 meters except for the legendary Ice Crossbow, let alone 600 meters high.

"Bastard, what if you can shoot arrows from the sky? You have the ability to attack the city, and you have the ability to shoot through the arrow tower! You wait, His Majesty the Pope and the Emperor of the West will definitely lead the army to come, and when the golden dragon appears here, it will be your death...... I'll drag you to death here!" Suharto pointed his finger at Chi Aotian in the tower, his face full of disdain.

Chi Aotian looked back at Yu Ling, the captain of the Vulture Swordsman Battalion, and Qing Luo, the elf elder who were following him, and gave a new order in a deep voice: "Target, buildings in the city, no difference, rocket, 20 rounds." ”

The two captains were stunned for a moment, no different? Facing the civilians, the sharp gaze swept over the back of the bone dragon, and the two of them no longer hesitated, and quickly rose up and ordered loudly.

You could clearly feel a burst of protesting elven words among the elven archers, followed by the words of Elder Qingluo's command, and the elves obeyed.

The soldiers in the sky skillfully inserted the tip of the arrow into the spontaneous combustion powder arrow, and when the arrow feather was pulled out again, the spontaneous combustion powder immediately burned in the air, and the rockets rained down like a rain under the surprised eyes of the soldiers and civilians of Gifu Castle...... Gifu Castle is located on the southern half of the continent, and winter is the dry season in the subtropics, and it often does not fall a drop of rain from the fields to the city, and the thatch that grows on the houses dries up. Soon the cries for help of adults and the cries of children were heard in the burning room, one, two, three...... Dozens of people covered in fire rushed out of the house, rolling on the ground and wailing. Some of the escapees sat on the ground and cried into the house...... There is no way to escape from the house, and there is no way to escape, it must have been nailed to the ground by a rain of arrows.

"It's out of water...... Quickly put out the fire...... "The surrounding residents just broke the wooden basin and rushed out of the house, the arrow feather changed the target, and the arrow feather shot down from a height of 600 meters with a horned bow has already exceeded the speed of sound, poof, poof, poof, from one human body and then into another human body, one after another blood line collapsed, the fifth round of arrow rain has not yet fallen, and there are nearly a thousand more corpses on the street.

Thick smoke billowed up, flames burned brightly, devouring corpses, and the stench of burning flesh spread southward along the wind, and the soldiers of the Black Dragon Knights 700 meters downwind could smell it.

"Bastard!!You attack civilians!!Are you still knights?" Two young phantom beast knights soared up from the castle tower: "We demand a decisive battle between the armies!"

Chi Aotian did not accuse the other party of attacking civilians before, but only waved his hand slightly to make the vulture knights stop attacking.

The drawbridge outside the south gate of Gifu Castle was lowered, and a large group of knights rushed out of the castle with a roar, followed by light infantry, archers, heavy infantry, and heavy cavalry.

Seeing the enemy skillfully assembled into a giant phalanx, the knights of the Black Dragon Knights faintly had some commotion - they didn't expect that the main general of the Holy See's defense would know the way of using troops, and he had a level that was not inferior to Tongyun Hou and Chi Changyun, and a phalanx was arranged in a regular and proper manner.

The light cavalry formed a phalanx on each side of the ranks, and the light cavalry was the most changing place in the war, and if the war fell into a phase of mutual balance, the light cavalry would be the most effective pawn for the commander to break the stalemate, and it was best described as pulling the whole body.

The light infantry scattered formation is located at the forefront of the entire battle array, and in the battle, the application of light infantry should be like the tentacles of an octopus, "when it is strong, it is weak, and when it is weak, it is strong". When a powerful enemy charges, immediately take cover under the protection of heavy infantry and attack the enemy with the spear in your hand, and if the enemy force is about to break or collapse, it will immediately rush out like a tidal wave, like a maggot with a bone, and rush up to encircle and annihilate all enemies.

A large-scale archer must be a snake formation, even if there are tens of thousands of soldiers, it must be a snake formation, and any war commander must follow the principle of "not thinking of forging ahead, only seeking to retreat" in the arrangement of the archer array. An archer array with a thickness of 20 layers definitely means the commander's incompetence - 3 meters must be reserved before and after each archer's activity space, and 20 layers means that the archers in the last row are more than 60 meters away from the archers in the first row, and the effective range of the horn bow and longbow is only 60 meters, and in order to ensure the effective range of the last few rows of archers, how much does it take to advance the entire battle array towards the enemy? The 20-layer archer formation means that all the archers after the 5th row do not have any angle to shoot the bow and arrow. Once the opponent attacks, the distance of 200~300 meters is only 7~10 breaths for the knight troops, especially the light knight troops on both wings, and after 7~10 breaths, all the archers lose the meaning of existence.

The heavy infantry phalanx is the foundation of the entire battle array, and the prudent commander will put this phalanx in a place where it will be put to death and then come back to life - the heavy infantry phalanx can only advance and not retreat in the battle. In war, as soon as the heavy infantry phalanx moves back, then it only means the collapse of all phalanxes.

The heavy cavalry phalanx is generally located behind the light cavalry phalanx, and it is easy not to move - in fact, for any country and any army, the heavy cavalry is the most expensive type of troops, and if it is not used well, once defeated, it will cost money to rebuild again. Therefore, the heavy cavalry only dealt a fatal blow after the light cavalry pulled the enemy and showed a flaw in the whole situation.

In the face of the phalanx of Gifu City, no matter how good the famous general is, no matter which elite army it is, if you want to defeat the opponent in the true sense, you will need to pay at least about the same price.

The three officers of the Imperial Training Brigade at the front of the Black Dragon Knights looked at each other with a wry smile - the formation in front of them was the instructor they had taught in the past two months, and they didn't expect it, so they immediately returned it fiercely.

Chi Aotian's direct knight guerrilla and direct elf archer guerrilla waved their flags at Chi Aotian at the same time to report the enemy's total combat strength.

The first line of defense of the Holy See, and the largest army raised in the southern frontier in the shortest possible time, sent its elite troops out of the city at this time.

3000 light knights, 6000 light infantry, 2500 horned archers, 2000 heavy infantry, 1500 heavy knights, 1000 clergy. This is the most luxurious lineup that Suharto has been able to come up with. Although he is not a natural expert in the use of troops, he is a disciple who is not confused and is good at learning and inquiring, and of course he knows the famous saying "concentrate superior forces to defeat in one fell swoop".

Outside Gifu Castle, Chi Aoten, who led 6,000 troops, faced an elite enemy army of 16,000 and was destined to fight an unbalanced war.