"Does the Dark Elf know the strength of our city?" Ashrufat asked inadvertently.

"Well, I'm sure we must have a spy for them in the city. One of his subordinates replied cautiously. Although the elves and the dark elves are already very different in terms of customs, concepts, and thoughts, at least there is not much difference between their appearance and language. It's not too much of a problem for a dark elf to sneak into the city to find out the news.

Ashrufat nodded. This is more logical, the dark elves should already know the military strength in the city of Ereber, but why are they standing still?

If I were the commander of the Dark Elves, Eshuruphat thought, I would already know the state of the army in the city of Iribel...... There is more than enough to defend the city, but not enough to fight in the field. What I'm going to do is to move immediately and sweep through all the towns and villages around Iribo as fast as I can...... It is naturally best to lure the enemy out of the city for a decisive battle, and if it doesn't work, you can also clear external obstacles......

He suddenly remembered the battle he had with Valinor before, and he had to send a detachment for the dark elves...... Wait, they're not here to attack!Eshuruphat remembered what the dark elf had said before he committed suicide! That force's original mission was not to attack the home of the Shadow Warriors, but to prevent them from reinforcing Iriber. It was only due to a misintelligence error that the Dark Elves discovered that the city was far weaker than they had expected, and they switched defense to offensive combat - and they almost succeeded.

All this information was intertwined in Ashrufat's mind, and he sensed that something must be wrong in it, and that things were not as simple as they seemed.

"Let Swiftwind come to me. "Ashruphat gave an order to one of his subordinates. He now has a better understanding of the things about the Shadow Warriors. In fact, Prince Berlan is one of the few elven princes who support and trust the Shadow Warriors, and there are many Shadow Warriors in his army (of course, these troops are now sent to the front line to support the Phoenix King), so it is only natural for him to choose to build a small city on the edge of Iribo to take in the Shadow Warriors who have lost their homes in the unfavorable situation.

It must be said that the elven prince has quite a lot of autonomy power within his own territory, even more than many human lords. A human lord, for example, an earl, is subject to many constraints despite having a lot of dominion power within his realm. For example, he could not build a standing army beyond what the king allowed (even if he had the financial resources), he could not carry out policies that the king had expressly forbidden, and so on. But the elven princes don't seem to have this limitation. Of course, this may have something to do with racial differences, as elven princes usually don't have the same ambitions as ordinary human lords - and they never thought of using force as a backing to claim the throne of the Phoenix King. The elves all seem to be the same in this regard. There will be no commoners to pretend to be nobles, and no nobles will pretend to be princes. Because this kind of trick is very incredible for conservative elves, and if this happens, it is easy to debunk. That's because the elves have an emerald queen who holds the entire history of the elves. Such scams are so easy to debunk that few people even think about them.

After a short while, Swiftwind came to Ashrufat. Although Ashrufat didn't ask, he instinctively knew that if there was more than one person who put him on the throne of "prince", there must be a share of Swift Wind among them. Now, Swift Wind and the dozen or so shadow warriors he had been working with had officially been assigned to the city defense force, and had been promoted to captain.

"Your Royal Highness. Swift Wind saluted him. Ashrufat could sense that Swiftwind and the other Shadow Warriors had a slightly different attitude towards him. The shadow warriors looked at him with a strange fervor in their eyes, and their demeanor was extremely respectful. He wondered if it was because he had killed the hydra.

"Here," Ashrufat gestured with his hand to the map. "There is a camp of the dark elves. Judging by the results of the existing scout reconnaissance, judging by the size of the camp at present, they probably have about three thousand soldiers, and no more than four thousand. I want you to scout again. ”

"Your Highness, Prince!" shouted the elven officer next to him, the one who had previously led the troops on reconnaissance missions, in an eager tone. But Ashrufat made a gesture that stopped him from speaking.

"I think...... The Dark Elves are nowhere near as powerful as they seem!" said Aerufat. "They were motionless in the camp, which in itself speaks of their weakness. ”

"But they're gathering supplies...... This silence may indicate that they lack supplies and are unable to launch a formal offensive......" the officer interjected.

"So I told the Shadow Warriors to scout again. Ashrufat replied. "I think this kind of action in front of them makes me very confused......"

"Your Royal Highness," said one of the officers in the conference room. "You shouldn't question ......"

"I'm suspicious of everything!" Athruphat retorted sharply, "the army of dark elves that suddenly appeared for no reason...... If the Dark Elves possess this ability, why should they come to Ereber? They should go around to the rear of our army and attack, which is much more cost-effective than attacking Ereber. There is no way our evil cousins could have made such a stupid mistake!"

His voice was filled with an indisputable tone, and all the elven officers around him were silenced. However, he could see that there was obvious disbelief in the eyes of these subordinates. It's no wonder they're not convinced, although he's a prince, but in the eyes of the elves, he's still a recruit on the battlefield and has no experience in commanding armies in battle.

"I think that the number of our evil cousins, most likely, is not as great as they seem. They did not attack Ereber's strength, and only succeeded in ambushing Prince Berlan by accident and luck. They are now trying to pretend that they have a large army, trying to scare us into retreating. So I decided to set off tomorrow to prepare for an offensive against the camp of the dark elves. ”

"Wait a minute, Prince!" the order was like a thunderbolt falling on his officers, causing them to look at each other. Including Valinor and Swiftwind, Ashrufat now has fourteen mid-level officers. Most of them acknowledged his status as princes, but had no expectations of his abilities. They embraced him only because they needed a supreme leader to coordinate all aspects, but they never expected Ashrufat to be so proactive.

"What's wrong?"

"If your judgment is wrong—pardon my rudeness, but that's just an assumption—the Dark Elves do have three thousand troops, three times more than ours, so what are we going to do?"

"We'll retreat. Ashrufat replied. "Retreat to the city and prepare for defense. That's why I just ordered the Shadow Warriors to scout again. We'll leave tomorrow morning, and we'll probably be near our wicked cousin's camp tomorrow afternoon or evening. I'm sure the Shadow Warriors will bring me the details at that time. If their situation is as I expected, we will attack immediately, otherwise, we will immediately retreat. ”

"But they may be aware of our movements and respond to them. When we retreat, we will be pursued by them. ”

"I will personally direct the troops to break the rear. "Ashrufat did not waver in the slightest.

"They have a whole squad of cold beast cavalry. I don't know who said it. The barren land of the Dark Elves could not raise a large number of horses, so they replaced them with cold beasts. The Cold Beast is a scaly, carnivorous reptile that is fierce and irritable, but has the speed and endurance to be equal to that of a war horse. These dark elves, who drive the cold beasts, are generally known as the dark cavalry, and are extremely dangerous warriors among the dark elves.

"Don't worry. Ashrufat's hand pointed to the map. "The path of Iribo is not wide, and there is no way for our evil cousins to make a detour against our army, and a whole army of determined warriors can resist them. Besides, the Shadow Warriors are skilled in scouting, and they can provide our troops with a front-line hideout from our evil cousins from gaining insight into our forces' movements. How many fighters do we have available now?"

The officers' expressions showed that they had reluctantly accepted the course of action.

"If we were to choose all the elite troops, we would have nine hundred soldiers, including seven hundred Marines and two hundred Knights of the Silver Helmet. An officer replied. "There would have been more, but we had to leave a part of the fighters in the city just in case. Your Royal Highness, I advise you not to choose such a reckless way for a week...... It took us only seven days to recruit the same number of fighters from among the civilian population. They may not be as good as the Marines, but they are still proficient in spears and bows. ”

"Weapons and equipment are insufficient. "Ashrufat had learned the details from the administrative officials long before convening this military council. Ereb is a trading port rather than a commercial city, and as a safe rear base, a large portion of the military reserves are sent to the front line to support the Phoenix King. "We can recruit warriors, but we can't arm them with enough weapons and armor. And in any case, the sudden appearance of our evil cousins is an indisputable fact, and their reinforcements may well appear in the same way. We must act now. ”

......

Ashrufat walked down the aisle. As he passed, all the guards, servants, and women saluted him. He walked through a large room with high, narrow windows covered with countless fine carvings, inlaid with colorful glass. On the windows, there are carved moving landscapes, troubadours, and even flying unicorns. Tomorrow he had to try to lead the elven army out, and before that, he had to pretend that he was going to sleep for a while.

He moved forward, and the more he looked at the elven palace, the more surprised he became. Take one more step and he will discover new miracles. There is a free-standing building here, built in the shape of a blooming peony, and the curves of the vaulted roof are dotted with glass or precious stones. In the garden over there, there is a small waterfall controlled by magic so that it can flow through the garden with laughter. In the center of the garden is a small pond surrounded by gently rotating seats, gently moving up and down as they rotate. Elves don't just fight with magic, they have long embraced magic as part of their civilization, as part of their lives.

Ahead was his bedroom, and Ashrufat pushed open the door to see a large oval bed hanging low in the air, with a leaf-shaped tent on it. An elf girl on the bed heard the door push and rolled over and sat up. She was very slender and beautiful, with blue-black hair scattered around her, and wore a tight nightgown as thin as a cicada's wings, with her shoulders and arms exposed.