Ancient soldier Shuyun: "Hanyang, the important town in the hinterland of Eminole." Ring Hanyang, there is water on all sides, the south is Hengsanggan, the north goes to Hanshui, the east lies in Langlang, and the west hugs Hucheng. ”

This sentence brilliantly describes the precarious geographical location of Hanyang City, which was originally located at the confluence of the Han River and the Sanggan River. The two big rivers and the natural port Langlang Lake on the east side have caused the water lanes in the city to be vertical and horizontal, more than 1,600 springs, Hanyang has become the city of boats, there are no less than 10,000 large and small ships in the city, only the crab foot clipper of the Han * army standing is more than 500 ships, and the inland rivers and lakes have the best combat strength in the seven major war zones.

"Those who get Hanyang, get Sanggan, and those who get Sanggan get the hinterland plains. "The importance of the city can be squeezed into at least the top three in the Sangan River basin.

Note: Tiger City is the same moat (river).

-- Chapter 42 of the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" After the bloody defeat of the lackey general Chi Aotian's expeditionary force and twisting his waist town, looking at the situation on the Eminole continent, the Western Emperor Monarch Group occupied an absolute advantage at this stage.

Although General Chi Hantong skillfully divided his troops to the south and built the Twin Cities on flat ground, however, these two cities only brought some variables to the battle situation of the original mercenary empire, and they did not immediately affect the local war situation, let alone the continental war situation, in a sense, the establishment of the Twin Cities is a double-edged sword, and the mercenary forces scattered in various places are concentrated together, although they will form a fist to form a local advantage, but at the same time, the detachment troops from the eastern army of Fanos have also been liberated, and then gathered near the twin cities to form a siege。

Outside of this local area, the war situation in various parts of the continent fell to the side of the Western Emperor: the city of Hamburg disappeared from the map forever as a strategic unit, and from then on, the Amy Empire no longer had A-level or higher dangerous castles to rely on on the north side of the continent. On the east and west sides of the Jielin Theater, 300,000 fierce soldiers of Iron Horse Jingo were gathered, like a nutcracker with blue paint, and in the middle of the clip was the Boundary Forest Theater commanded by Marshal Chi Datong, and the total number of Boundary Forest Theater at that time, together with the swordsman battalion, reserves, and mercenaries, was only a little over 100,000. The 30 Iron Army encircled the boundary forest, just as a small staff officer named Takenaka Hanbei from the staff headquarters of the Western Emperor said: with all his strength, swing a 90-pound iron hammer to ensure that a quail egg is smashed. This sentence truly reflects the winning mood of all the officers of the Western Emperor Monarch cluster from top to bottom in the Jielin Battle at that time, 300,000 elites against 100,000 miscellaneous troops, there is no reason to be invincible, even in the face of the Chi Aotian Expeditionary Army, it will definitely be able to stage a battle of twisting the waist again.

The morale of the Western Emperor Monarch Group was high for a while, especially among the middle and senior officers, and the idea of "winning or losing a battle, fighting the battle of the Boundary Forest with all your might, and being rewarded for meritorious deeds can rest for a few months" is common in their minds.

Theoretically, this idea is definitely not that the soldiers underestimate the enemy. At the time of the formation of the Battle of Jielin, the number of territories occupied by the three sides of the Eminole Continent was as follows: 46 for the Western Emperor Group, 17 for Alcatraz, and 35 for the original forces. The comparison of the overall combat power is as follows: 55 for the Western Emperor Group, 15 for Alcatraz, and 30 for the original forces. The comparison of the specific combat power of the Boundary Forest Theater is as follows: 41 Eastern Legions of Fanos, 32 Western Legions of Fanos, and 27 of Legions of Boundary Forests.

On the sand table exercise map of the Western Emperor's Staff Headquarters, the battle of Jielin, known as the "Ж (Nutcracker) Plan", is expected to be completely completed within three months, and then, the two major groups of the east and west will repair on the spot for 20 days, and then, the western group will go south to fight with the remnants of the Gyeonggi Theater led by Amy, and the eastern group will also go south along the Jielin, attack the important town of Tongyun Pass, encircle the point to send reinforcements, and after attracting the troops from Chi Changyunnan to the south, the north and south will attack and hunt the Imperial Shengxue Mountain Theater with at least 350,000 troops.

The key point in this plan was that the Sanggan River Theater was able to successfully attract Amy's expeditionary force for three months, not seeking merit but no fault, and even allowing the top commander of the Sanggan River Theater to give up some of the outlying cities in exchange for this precious three months. In the postponement of the sand table, the General Staff Headquarters of the Western Emperor came to the following conclusion: with the current strength of the Sanggan River Theater, even the Amy Group, which has dragon knights, will lose 100 troops for every 30 kilometers of combat on the mainland highway, and 1,000 for every small and medium-sized city conquered, if you want to conquer a medium and large city with more than 100,000 people, it will take at least a month, and the casualty figure will definitely not be less than 5,000. Such time and battle damage figures were sufficient, and the General Staff Headquarters chose the final decisive battle site on the front line of Hanyang City on the north bank of the Sanggan River. In the deduction of the General Staff Headquarters, no one ever thought that Hanyang, a city that was easy to defend and difficult to attack, would be captured.

And since the bloody night of the imperial capital, Hanyang City, a place of four battles, has been firmly controlled by the camp of the Western Emperor.

Becoming one of the most important pawns of the new dynasty, the strategic position of Hanyang Fortress increased, however, the vitality of the city and the living standards of the people, as well as the treatment of soldiers, decreased a lot.

As a hub city for water and land transportation, tolls and boat and bridge taxes have always been the largest source of income for Hanyang Castle Guard, and this alone accounts for 5% of the tax revenue of the entire Amy Empire. The so-called daily progress and gold ...... This statement is worth nothing in Hanyang Castle, and the poll tax collected by the four major gates of Hanyang Castle in peacetime every day was measured in baskets.

After the bloody night in Scambray City, the entire continent of Eminole fell into war and the division of kings, and the income of Hanyang City plummeted to less than 3% of the original. This huge gap was immediately reflected in the cities, where commerce gradually declined, and tens of thousands of workers were laid off in large numbers by merchant groups, and with it, rumors of discontent continued to appear among the people. Under these circumstances, the Imperial Vice-Chancellor had to transfer Earl Raybarton, the best and most warlike "lackey general" in his system, to guard this strategic location.

Speaking of Earl Raybarton, he is an absolute outlier among the many high-ranking generals of the Imperial Army.

The vast majority of Imperial generals can be divided into three different factions. The largest proportion is the knight school faction, they graduated from the three major knight schools of the empire, after entering the army, they started from the middle and low-level officers, and finally promoted step by step to become senior generals, most of them are the children of the imperial family; There is also a small number of officers, who are slowly becoming senior officers through the civilian officer system such as staff officers, operations, and planning, and this type of officers are often known for their resourcefulness, which is often referred to as wise generals. The officers of the three factions are also the main components of the Phantom Beast Knights, therefore, the Phantom Beast Knights are not treated as a separate system.

The Life Earl of Raybarton was completely different, he was originally an obscure shepherd in the territory of the Marquis of Delaware, and he definitely did not look like a strong man, and he could even be said to be a little weak.

Carnivores such as wild wolves and brown bears are often found in the Macesis Mountains, and at least 10 percent of their animals are taken away by these carnivores in a year. As a shepherd, if such tragedies occur frequently in the sheep or cattle under his jurisdiction, he will inevitably be punished by the family steward.

When Raybarton was 14 years old, Macis Snow Mountain had just entered autumn and several heavy snowfalls, two feet of ice and snow covered thousands of miles of mountains tightly, wolves and brown bears could not hunt normally, even if some animals were frozen to death were covered under the deep snow, not even a little taste would be revealed, the wolf was okay to say, these brown bears were about to hibernate, just this last bite of food, eyes were hungry red.

Dozens of hungry wolves and four or five equally dizzy bears broke into the flock that Ray Barton was in charge of. These guys are probably all hungry and frightened, and not only do they eat and drink one by one, but when they finally want to retreat, each wolf has to pack and take a copy with them. As for the brown bear, it is even more infuriating, these big guys are estimated to ensure the quality of their hibernation, with a sheep in their mouths, two on their shoulders, and a mountain village tune in their mouths: 3--5--6--3--5--,6--5--3--1--2--like a triumphant look of "returning from target shooting".

When such a thing happens, it is impossible for the charity steward to let it go unchecked, and even if he has pity in his heart, it is impossible not to punish him, otherwise, if such a thing happens again, will not all the cattle on the mountain be sent to the beast's mouth with songs and dances?

The 14-year-old boy immediately showed his genius. The young man who gritted his teeth first put all the sheep in the sheepfold, and after two days of starvation. Then he borrowed a wolf's skin from the old shepherd, sprinkled salty salt water on the most delicious fresh grass, and then put the fresh grass into the wolf's skin to fill it with the appearance of a wolf and a bear. The goat was frightened at first when he saw these carnivores, but he was very hungry, and then he saw that the carnivores did not seem to attack him, and he smelled the delicious aroma of food in their bodies, and he could not help being hungry, so he tried to pick at the wolf's skin with his horns, and wow, he ate the food...... Baa--baa-baa-baa--baa--this sandwich tasted good too, and the sheep began to praise each other.

As soon as Raybarton saw that there was a door, he began to accentuate the smell of the animal itself on the wolf skin and bear skin, and finally, he simply changed the bloody wolf skin that had just been peeled off to wrap the fresh grass in order to train the sheep's guts.

The young man was very careful, and he was worried that if he encountered a pack of wolves, if a sheep was killed by the wolves first, the whole flock would be nervous. By throwing stones, he directed his flocks to charge in a neat phalanx - from a distance he even looked like a regular knight. Moreover, find sick wolves and remnant wolves to let the sheep practice, and once the wolf is killed, the sheep will be rewarded with salt and water. In this process, he specially found a few famous white bear dogs to graze the sheep, this kind of dog is much larger than the average dog, and it looks about the same size as the snow wolf in the frozen continent from a distance, and it is not afraid of wolves at all, even if it encounters a brown bear, it dares to pounce and bite. It is usually used to watch over the sheep, and during training, it is used to whistle to command the big white bear to bite the disobedient sheep into the flock and charge the herd.

A child who is only in his 10s directs the sheep to do this, and the adults are too lazy to pay attention, and even if they see it, at most they take it as the child's own entertainment, and the children all like to ride horses and fight, and they will never take it to heart.

However, since then, Raybalton's flock has never been lost to wild beast attacks, and in an encounter with 20 wild wolves, more than 150 sheep actually killed 16 wild wolves with their horns, and in that winter, Ray Barton harvested more than 30 wolves with his flock. Raybarton was a small man, and his mouth was quite tight, and no one told anyone about these things--in fact, it was a child who was greedy for money, and if he told him about it, he would surely immediately have a steward come and ask for a wolfskin coat, and if he didn't say it, he could sell it, and make up for himself.

Paper can't contain fire after all.

When Ray Barton was 18 years old, that is, in the fourth year of his quiet three-year sheep fortune, the pasture was relocated, and it had to span 400 miles before and after.

It's a good idea to ask a mercenary group to escort you, but it's a pity that in order to save money, the chief manager hired a low-level mercenary group, with a total of more than 120 mercenaries. Along the way, he scared away all the little thieves, but in the end he attracted the "Iron Pickpocket", one of the largest thieves in the Messis Snow Mountain area. Iron Pickpocket is both the name of the thieves and the nickname of Robin Hood, the leader of the thieves, as the name suggests, that is, wherever the thieves go, they catch everything they can get their hands on like the Iron Pickpocket.

The thief group of more than 400 people faced the mercenary group of more than 120 people, and set up an ambush in style, and the mercenary group was committed to the mercenary responsibility, knowing that it could not be defeated, but still rushed over, and was soon cut down by the thief group who came prepared.

Ray Barton was in a hurry—so many thieves rushed over, and even if he let himself go, he would surely snatch all the sheep away, and the boy didn't want to be greeted by rattan on his ass again. In this way, the red-eyed boy put the large array of sheep and dogs used to hunt wild wolves against the thieves.

In the past three years, the sheep under the command of Ray Barton have developed rapidly because they have not been persecuted too much by those poor beasts, and there are more than 500 large and small sheep, and more than 60 great white bear dogs.

The Iron Picket thieves defeated the mercenary group and thought everything was fine, but the thieves hummed "Pigs, sheep, where are you going...... To that dear iron chopstick...... Ay...... Hi...... Hey, hey, ......", and was ready to come up and pull the sheep. Outcome...... To their great surprise, this large flock of sheep did not run around like the other flocks, but lined up in a neat line, 20 in a row, with the big sheep and ram in front and the lamb in the back, "one, two, three, four, tango, tango...... He walked along, bowing his head in two steps, grinding his horns in four steps...... "walking step by step—he almost bleated and counted himself."

The thieves were so happy that they all flowed out, which was too easy to do, and at a glance they knew how many sheep there were, and it was easy to divide the dirt when they turned around. Where could they have guessed that these well-behaved sheep were thinking about the delicious herbs and dripping with halazi, and they took advantage of the opportunity to adjust the formation to the best attacking state.

Just as the thieves were happily spreading their arms and preparing to come up to share the spoils, the snow-white sheep suddenly ran rapidly in a whistle, and 40 horns more than a foot long were in a row, leaving no gaps in between. These sheep were used to deal with wolves, and the speed of the wolves was comparable to that of the thieves. The wolves have been defeated, what is this thief?

What the thieves couldn't have imagined was that these adult rams were just as tall as the waist of a man, burying their heads and stretching their two horns forward...... This one...... The position and height of the horns seem to be a bit obscene.

In particular, the width between the two horns doesn't feel like it was designed to defend against ferocious predators, but rather it was tailored to reduce the ability of humans to reproduce. The dozens of thieves in front of them suffered a huge loss before they even had time to shout out, and no matter how the two horns were poked, whether they would pass through one leg or not, at least one of them would appear in the middle of the two legs......

This row of sheep's horns is like a sea of mountains, and it continuously conducts tests such as piercing, poking, piercing, picking, and squeezing the vital parts of human beings...... The more than 30 thieves in the front simply fainted without saying a word......

The thieves in the back immediately discovered the secret, threw away the weapon in their hand, turned around and ran away...... This one...... It seems that the thieves are quite smart, and as they run, they buckle their shields to their buttocks, and those who don't have shields directly buckle the pot - the front is the key point, and the back is actually the same. In case you get stuck in the horns...... It's not good to eat anything...... The thieves are still very strange, what are these sheep for? You can prick it, it hurts, and you can bear it...... Why do you have to pull around so hard to get in, and even seem to pick it out to see...... What's so nice in this ass? A lot of thieves don't understand this until they die.

As a result, except for more than 60 thieves who climbed to the tree one by one, all the other thieves were put down, nearly 20% of the thieves died tragically at the feet of sheep, and in the end, only more than 100 thieves escaped.

After gaining the approval of the Marquis, Ray Barton became a semi-professional soldier in the realm, and even had the title of a junior officer. Dozens of days later, a group of men rubbing their buttocks and directly under their stomachs found Ray Barton, led by Robin Hood, the Iron Pickpocket, according to Robin Hood: "As professional thieves, my comrades and I have never been afraid of death and injury, but ...... In order to avoid being hurt by your flock again, it is better to take refuge in your flock, so that you can mix a bite of food, and by the way, you can guarantee that we will pass on the ancestry. ”

Such a legend may not be credible, but it is a hard fact that Robin Hood, the thief, eventually took refuge with his cronies and subordinates.

Later, after many conflicts with different bandits, Ray Barton finally obtained the position of deputy commander of the Marquis family's territorial guard, and the title of family baron. Then, in order to have his own power in the army, the former deputy minister recommended Ray Barton to serve in the army, and eventually became a generation of famous generals. Of course, the soldiers under Ray Barton have long ceased to be animals, but the demeaning nickname of General the Stooge has been called down.

What makes it difficult for the soldiers to understand is that Mr. Darwin, a famous zoologist in later generations, actually gained great inspiration from this battle, and he argued in his book "Theory of Species Evolution" that natural selection, for sheep living in the mountains, for thousands of years, the biggest enemy is definitely not wolves and brown bears or golden eagles, but humans, otherwise...... After thousands of years of hard work, how did the sheep grow weapons against the two major dangers of human beings......? Alas...... If Marshal Ray Bottomon still has a heroic spirit under Jiuquan, I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I see such an article?

Putting aside these past histories, when General Raybaton had just held the Great Seal of General Sanganhe, he looked at the panicked faces of the many officers below, and then looked at the fact that most of the ordinary soldiers and junior officers did not know which His Majesty to be loyal to, and most of the citizens had starving hostility in their eyes, and there must have been children spitting after them when soldiers walked by on the street.

The General is indeed very big-headed, if he continues to develop like this, he doesn't have to wait for other armies to come over, as long as His Majesty Redstone sends a civilian official here to raise his arms, these people may rush into the General's Mansion and tie up their five flowers as a small gift for His Majesty Hongshi.

The order from the imperial capital was that if Huairou's strategy could not be adopted, then it would be safer to suppress it by force, and for very unstable and geographically important cities, if necessary, the means might as well be more violent. To paraphrase the words of the former vice minister of the empire: use heavy codes in troubled times.

I can't say it: Hello everyone, readers. In the past two months, I have taken over a new online game product, and I have been so busy that I can't sleep until 3 or 4 o'clock for several days in a row, so the progress of the mercenaries has been seriously delayed.

I beg your pardon.

Mercenary Book 12 mail order, currently five readers' books have been returned, I will post them in the afternoon.

The mail-order list of the third and fourth volumes of the mercenary, I will post it in the evening. At present, the fourth book has not been printed - the publisher is relatively tight, so it has been delayed for a few days.

In addition, according to the news from the publishing house, the mercenary publishing situation is getting better and better, such as the Northeast, Yunnan and other places have patched, here, thank you readers and friends for their continuous support over the years.