"At dawn, you pass with your wounds and morning dew. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Dusty and exhausted.

The sun shines indifferently on your wounds.

The meaning ahead is not entirely unambiguous.

I don't know how long this road is. ”①

――――

What kind of concept is death and sacrifice in war, there are countless poems that have tried their best to express it for us from ancient times to the present. Regrettably, but rightfully so, the vast majority of poetry focuses on heroes and leaders, and even epic stories with pathos as the main theme often use dramatic conflicts and romanticized descriptions to make these brilliant heroes of the era die honorably.

The death of a little person, the death of ordinary people and ordinary soldiers in a war and a period of history, seems to have always been in the blind spot of people's sight.

Everyone only cares about the few who shine the brightest, and the other thousands of ordinary faces who are not brilliant are like backgrounds that no one cares about:

They were quiet, but not because they were silent. They were shouting with their mouths wide open, they were roaring, they were roaring, they were wielding their weapons with all their might. But the voices they uttered were unheard, and their words were lost in the wind. They are just the backdrop cloth in the epic frescoes, to set off the very few brilliant characters, their lives, their emotions, how they live, how they die.

Nobody cares.

As we said in our story a long, long time ago, the world is never fair.

No matter where they are, due to differences in origin, appearance, wealth, power, and even social skills, two people who do the same thing are likely to have very different processes and very different results.

In this regard, our Mira is lucky.

She has met a reliable mentor in these turbulent times, and whether it is the skills needed to survive or the way to think in the future, the white-haired Luoan girl has the best educational template. What she could achieve in the foreseeable future was far more than anyone else could - but it was exactly as Henry had said when the two first met: there were too many examples like her.

Mira has something remarkable about herself, that's for sure. But due to the limited vision and intellectual boundaries of her origin, if she hadn't met Henry, she would still be indomitable, and she would have been able to sink day by day when she had no way out, and perhaps one day she would lose her fighting spirit and become an ordinary mortal among the masses.

This is exactly what countless ordinary people experienced in the Battle of Neila Forest, or the war as a whole, along with other wars that have been waged intermittently for thousands of years:

They didn't know how to do swordsmanship, and they didn't have any good swords. The only way they know how to fight is to block counterattacks, throwing their spears, pitchforks, axes, and sticks at their opponents until they can no longer fight back.

They can't read, they can't speak several languages like Mira, and they can't see the long term, because it's already so difficult to survive.

They were hungry and had been uprooted since the beginning of the war, with nothing but the cauldrons and weapons they carried. They had to pick their own berries and hunt by themselves, and even then they had to be called up for food by their lords.

They are the backdrop of epic works, they are ordinary people in the crowd that no one will pay attention to, they are a passing number when counting casualties on the battlefield.

"The battle of so-and-so, the death toll is 10,000. ”

Nobody is going to have any real sense of that number, 10,000 dead, yes, yes, 10,000 dead, and then what?

Does anyone care?

Even if you care, what can you do?

Unnoticed voices, the minutiae of historical trends, sometimes end up determining the turning point of an important process.

On the last day of July in the 192nd year of the Avenella calendar, fog appeared again from all directions, heralding the final surprise attack of the Northern Army against the Southern Coalition Army. Stuck at the entrance to the Dordogne for ten days, the nobles and soldiers of the south were already exhausted and tired of it, and their momentum for successive victories was stopped and plunged into this static war of attrition, and their morale was rapidly depleted despite the low casualties.

The arrows attacked the fog again, because of the lack of food and the fact that they had been pounced several times before, and in the end they had to walk a hundred or two hundred meters to retrieve the arrows when the fog had cleared, and the longbowmen were extremely unmotivated.

But this time, when the arrow fell, something was different.

It was no longer the barely audible sound of falling into the dirt, but a clear "grab-" sound echoing across the empty plains.

The sound of arrows hitting the wood - the AMA militia at the front noticed this, but the lack of an effective military management system, coupled with the exhaustion and confusion of many days, for a time they just ran around aimlessly like headless flies, and no one knew what to do.

It wasn't until the army in the fog approached a distance of fifty meters, and the dense footsteps could be heard by the entire frontline, that the forward of the Southern Coalition Army, which was full of decadence, reacted half a beat slower in panic and panic, and began to pick up all kinds of weapons and prepare for the attack.

This seems absurd, but in fact it is also an act to exploit the weakness of human nature.

The Confederate army was a rabble, they did not possess much professionalism and vigilance in the true sense, so when the fog of magic appeared again and again, they also went through the process of shock, bewilderment, and then from bewilderment to fear, and finally to numbness.

"Even a counterattack is just against the air, it's pointless. Henry's careful timing, ten days of waiting for the two cavalry to return and the arrival of new reinforcements from the Dordogne in the rear, accustomed the militia of the Southern coalition army to the presence of fog.

The enemy may or may not appear, and the lack of food and food, the uncertainty of timing, the frustration of being unilaterally teased, all these factors contributed to the demoralization of this great army - and Ashbourne II reacted with impatience and impatience.

His already low popularity among the people was now almost reduced to the point of disgust, and the people were afraid to speak out of it for fear of that power—but not the worst of all, for the wanton execution of the nobles by Ashbon II had driven the only ones who might be on the same side as him to waver.

After all, if Edward were king, they would only be challenged to the interests of their families, and with Ashbourne II as their companion, they might lose their heads.

At this point, the war no longer needed any slogans, and the archers in the forward of the Southern Coalition Army launched an attack on the opponent, but the fog stayed in the range of fifty meters away, and the Northern Army did not stop this time.

They rushed forward, far outnumbered than expected, led by thousands of men armed with shields and miscellaneous weapons, all of whom were low-ranking mercenaries - they had arrived from the Plains of Acasta, and after retreating into the Nella Forest, close enough to send a message to Dordogne, Edward had hired a large number of mercenaries with a wave of his hand.

This was the capital he owned that Ashbourne II did not, and the northern part of Avenella, which had opened up commerce, had far more wealth than the south, and the experience of merchants from the southern city-state alliance in haggling with mercenaries made this a matter of course.

The militia of the South began to retreat, more troops emerged from elsewhere, and the emblem of the Holy White Knight, once again raised high in the mist, had been equated with the invincible specter in just ten days, and under their leadership, the Northern Army fanned out and outflanked the first half of the Southern Army.

Chaos dominated this demoralized army, and they were isolated from the main force led by Ashbern II in the second half, and they were easily surrounded by this army of more than 5,000 people under the command of Archduke Lesky.

The main forces of the Yugoslav coalition took note of this, and despite their lack of experience in large-scale warfare, they still knew that this was the opponent's intend to hide - guerrilla warfare and the tactics of delaying time could certainly preserve strength, but in the end they had to rely on a frontal assault to achieve a crucial victory.

Ashbourne II.

Laughed.

As we said earlier, he is not stupid, although he is self-serving.

Ten days had been delayed, and there was no reason why he could not notice the strangeness of the Northern Army's ability to avoid its edge—although the resistance of the other side would become fierce once he tried to advance, the fact that he needed to rely on the fog as a cover was enough to prove that the Northern Army did not have the strength to attack head-on.

But he still stopped, not calmly and restrainedly, but utterly madness and hatred.

When Edward, who was his favorite son and the best successor in his mind, raised the banner against him, the bitterness and anger of betrayal in the heart of Ashbourne II was incomprehensible - just killing him?

He crushed and crushed those who followed him on the frontal battlefield, and all who dared to betray him were deeply imprinted in the eyes of this terrible sight.

No one dared to challenge the majesty of the king again.

So he laughed, and when he learned that the Northern army had surrounded his own front, Ahibon II laughed unbridled in his tent.

At this moment, the king of Avenella had only one thing left in his mind, and he wanted only to shed more blood and crush all those who disagreed with him.

Not only the commoners, but even the voices of the nobles around him, he could no longer hear them.

"Attack! Crush them for me, don't care about the untouchables of the forwards, it's just some stupid useless peasantry, catch me that stupid traitor thief!" said Ahibon II, laughing maniacally.

But in the tent hall, no one responded.

"What are you waiting for?!" said Ashibern II as smoke billowed in the distance, and a group of Muna, carrying various noble flags, galloped towards him.

At a distance of about a kilometer, they faced thousands of surrounded militiamen, as well as other militias approaching their front line in the rear.

Under the tense atmosphere, surrounded by the Holy White Knights, Edward, dressed in gorgeous plate armor and covered with royal robes, stood up.

Under the clear sun of the end of July, in the quiet winds of the plains at the interface between the Nera forest and the Dordogne, and in the presence of more than 10,000 Yavenella peasants, he said to everyone in a magically amplified voice:

"I've been waiting. Edward said on the plains.

"Hurry up and kill that rebel thief!" roared Ahibon II hoarsely in the tent.

"Wait for yeast to make your choice. Edward said.

"I am your king!" said Ahbone II.

"Every single one of you is a living human being, and I don't want any bloodshed on top of that. The sacrifice in war is not as simple as the death of 10,000 people, but the death of one person and this kind of thing happens 10,000 times. Edward said, "Your wives are waiting at home, waiting for their husbands." Your mothers are waiting at home, waiting for their sons. ”

Edward's unique magnetic baritone and slightly accented Avenela words, he says, hit the hearts of the peasants.

"Your children are waiting at home, waiting for their fathers. Waiting for you to return, to embrace them in your arms again. ”

"I don't want them to wait for a corpse, or worse, just a word from the mouth of a fellow villager who survived. ”

"You are all living people, you are all the people of Avenella, you are all my people. Edward said.

"Your king, command you to kill him!" said Ahbon II.

"This war is not of your will, and no one deserves to die again. Edward said, "Lay down your arms, no one here wants to fight any longer, I implore you." ”

"Go home and live a happy life. ”

"Kill him!" roared Ahibon II.

"Arvenella's future needs you, I," Edward said, "and needs you." ”

"Kill!!!" said Ahbone II, in a hoarse voice.

"Live well. Aventelin said this, and then Charles, who was on horseback, raised his sword and shouted, "All stand back!"

As he said this, the troops of the Northern Army complied and pulled away, and then His Excellency the Knight Commander spoke again: "Lower your arms!" said Charles, and the people hesitated, for everything had been tense a moment before, and it seemed a little naïve to let the other side go in such a situation, but they finally let it go.

It was like the straw that broke the camel's back.

First was one person, and then more and more militiamen, who had long since lost their fighting spirit, dropped their weapons.

The cavalry of the Northern Army on the distant horizon quickly rushed over, and the noble cavalry of the Southern Alliance Army in the rear was at first panicked and intended to launch a counterattack, but they immediately noticed the banner held high by that force.

"That's ...... Our family crest?" The knights began to wonder and informed their lords about it.

Upon hearing the news, the lords were silent, looking at the letters written by their wives or mothers.

Everyone understands what this means.

The point is not what Edward did, but what he could have done.

-- This is a concession and a step up for them.

The war has made many things clear, and despite their arrogance and lack of sight, these nobles are not stupid when it comes to their own interests.

Edward was a rare tolerant king, while Ashbon II.

"Kill! him!"

He was still shouting.

"Kill him!"

"Kill that stupid traitor thief!"

But that voice doesn't change anything.

――――

――――

Note: (1): The quote here is the lyrics of the Russian song "Азориздесьтихие" (The dawn is quiet here), and the translated version of this translation is Baidu netizen "Red Luoru". It's a good song, but unfortunately I didn't show enough mood in this chapter.