In the face of great temptation, and of course the lessons of the nobles who died tragically in Hantu City, the representatives of these towns quickly relented - although 50,000 gold coins was a lot, it was not impossible to bear if it was reasonably divided, and it could also be mortgaged with various materials, although it was also very painful, but it was much better than destroying the family.

As for the remaining two years of taxes, the taxes were also on the heads of the commoners, and they could still be scraped together as long as they tried their best - compared to the rest of the kingdom, the lords of Hantu City were far less stressed than the people of Turin elsewhere, and they did not have to bear the taxes of the lords and pay taxes to the king. The towns here only need to serve the Duke of Hantu City.

The light taxes were attractive to many poor Turinees, and the chaos in the area brought many noble children and wandering knights who could not inherit their family fortunes to the land, and the status of the Duke of Hantu City also made the territory extremely loyal to the kingdom, or the Markaeus family.

This barren realm in the Plateau is likely to be more loyal to the Royals of Markaeus than the King's direct domain, which almost every King has held the title of Duke of Lord, which makes them feel immensely proud and honored, if not much worse than the Turineites of Turin.

After the salaries and supplies were settled, all that remained was how to allocate them - how to transport the wagons full of supplies, food, and silver coins to the designated places, as well as the quotas between the various legions, would become a very headache, and even if it was reasonably distributed, there would definitely be problems in the end.

The reason is simple. No legion would feel like they had enough supplies. These legion commanders came to Hantu City with the expectation of thousands of people up and down. The amount of supplies he can receive determines whether he will be welcomed by the road or watched by the sidelines when he returns to his legion.

Edward was the Chief Flag Officer, but he was also the commander of the Banner Legion, so he naturally preferred his own Legion and the Little Prince's Legion under Green Turn, the Little Prince's Legion - the Little Prince had acquiesced in this since Anson gave him this task to Edward, and he certainly would not refuse.

By securing enough supplies for his legion, he was able to gain more support from his knights and soldiers. It's like a beast that grows stronger. The more qualified you are to take more food, you represent not only profit, but also status and power - and in this respect there is really not much difference between man and beast.

The "beasts" who are not strong enough will either show their loyalty or be better than others, or they will have to wait for the other "beasts" to eat and drink, and kneel behind them and pray that they will be left with a little scrap to fill their stomachs.

In order to feed these "beasts", Anson had to loot as much as he could in the whole of Hantu before he could give them the strength to fight the enemy - a full army of 50,000 people, and the whole of Hantu had never had such an army gathered together. And it was assembled for a war, even in the history of the kingdom of Turin. It will also be a big event that will be remembered by everyone.

Of course, our enemies are also stronger than ever before...... Edward looked at the letter in his hand, which had been sent from the Twin Towers, where Gracchus of the Red Horse Clan had approached the Twin Towers with an army of 50,000 and had begun to besiege it.

Behind them was an army of 300,000 barbarians—the seemingly impregnable Twin Towers Fortress, which was as fragile as a small sand dune that could be breached at any moment, and could not hold out for long.

Without support and enough power to turn the tide, the fall of the Twin Towers is almost inevitable - it won't take 300,000 at all, as long as Gracchus is ruthless enough to send his 50,000 people to death at any cost, and he can drown the entire fortress alive with corpses!

And is this guy ruthless enough, insidious enough, or cruel enough? Of course he is enough! If he is not, he will defend the Red Horse Canyon and fight himself, instead of leaving a group of old and weak women and children to become slaves, this guy is absolutely cold-blooded beyond many people's imagination.

"Lord Edward, your squire is outside. The guard entered the room and said, "Do you want him to come in—he looks like he's in a hurry." ”

"It's little Goodwin, isn't it?" Edward nodded softly, "Hurry up and let him in—I'm sure he's going to be in a hurry." ”

Little Goodwin was of course in a hurry—when he heard that Gracchus' army of 50,000 had arrived at the Twin Towers, he even thought that Edward would immediately raise his army and rush towards the fortress with his knights desperately. The squire was even ready to persuade Edward.

He was well aware of the importance of Miss Allen and the soldiers of the Banner Legion to Edward, as well as the inexplicable Miss Shrell, and of course, Angela...... Little Goodwin didn't want to see any of them die if he could, but he was equally aware of the importance of the big picture and the necessity of sacrifice.

But until now, he hadn't seen Edward worry in the slightest, and he didn't even plan to leave Hantu City, as if he had forgotten that the thousands of brothers in the Twin Towers, as well as the people he cherished the most, could die a tragic death anytime and anywhere!

"That's what you're worried about, dear little Goodwin, how could I have forgotten!" Edward sighed lightly and shook his head, "Yesterday I had Iskar lead six hundred clan cavalry, as well as the Lund Guard plus two banner regiments of infantry to the Twin Towers Fortress, leaving only one banner regiment and a few hundred light cavalry to defend Hantu City. ”

"But they need more than just support, they need you!" said little Goodwin with some urgency, "Only if you appear in the Twin Towers Fortress will the Battle Banner Legion be impregnable, and the brethren can believe that they have not been abandoned—there are 50,000 troops outside the city, and there will be 300,000 troops behind, and they will arrive there at any time!"

"They're not going to the Twin Towers. ”

"But......" Little Goodwin just wanted to continue to persuade, but he was suddenly stunned: "No?"

"You are loyal, dear little Goodwin, but you know too little about war. Edward sighed, "Do you know what 300,000 people are?"

Little Goodwin scratched his head in distress, and finally shrugged his shoulders: "I don't understand, it's a lot of people anyway, right?"

"300,000 means that if they march in a tight line, walking side by side in a row of ten, when the warriors in the first row reach the finish line, the warriors in the last row have at least two days to go. Edward smiled: "It means that the last column of the team has been attacked, and if you want to get the news to the first row, even the best light cavalry will have to gallop for a whole day, and then exhaust a horse to death." ”

"So no commander with a brain will let an army of 300,000 men march in unison, they will certainly be divided into many parts, and then arrive at a common place at the end - the smaller the number, the more flexible, but too much will affect the transmission of orders. Edward sighed, "No fool would gather 300,000 people together to attack a fortress. ”

"And the topography of the Twin Towers makes it impossible to deploy too many troops—50,000 is already the limit of the limit, and I even doubt that Gracchus can really control the 50,000 army under his command!" Edward asserted, "After sending so many troops, they will definitely not send more troops to the Twin Towers, because it would be pointless!"

"So...... If Gracchus is not going to break through the Twin Towers, then it means that the enemy is only using him as a front, a front to attract our attention! The real goal is to cross this fortress and attack Hantu City from other directions - leaving them with an incomparably empty Hantu City when we hastily mobilize our troops to the Twin Towers Fortress to fight Gracchus!" )