"I repeat my mayor, there's no way we're going to defeat those people, no way!"

In the town of Talboa, the time is in the early afternoon.

It was another wonderful and boring day for Mr. Mayor, for everything was so uneventful, and as the leader of the town (in his lord's absence) he had all the power in charge, criminal law, taxes, law and order, and all kinds of civil disputes. There are always all kinds of trivial things going on in towns that are not big or small, and our dear mayor is always tormented by these things, and the unbearable streets, where these guilty people always dump all kinds of filth in the streets, and even the lord's castle can smell the stench, and then he has to pay someone to clean it up.

Even the news of the southern orc invasion didn't make any waves here, Talboa is inland, and the people here probably haven't even heard of the word "war", and the terrifying orc army may be a group of rebels who have successfully resisted the lord's collection of taxes, or simply listen to it as a story, even a peaceful town likes to listen to knight stories, everyone is like that.

This uneventful life made the mayor feel a little tired, and sometimes he would daydream that he would visit other adults on behalf of the lord, and talk and laugh at their banquets, and let the adults raise a glass for him, and he would talk in a chic manner, attracting countless bees and butterflies. While thinking about it, he wiped his saliva and continued to deal with those damn trivialities for the lord lord.

Oh - please, that's the work of Lord Lord and his knights, and our mayor probably didn't even think about it, for his greatest feat, with the vigilantes, captured twenty-three rogue robbers who had come here to make a fortune, and had been wounded, and he had been struck in the toe by an arrow he had fired.

But God probably has a great sense of humor, and such a peace-loving gentleman wants to give him a chance to make a contribution. Well, shouldn't we say that the wheels of fate are finally starting to turn, even though this gentleman is over forty years old, long past the upper age limit of the protagonist in the hot-blooded comics.

Yes, it would still be an uneventful day, if- there were no troops outside the town.

Mr. Mayor was almost instantly stunned by the obscuring flag, and then the dull sound of trumpets and footsteps drifted slowly over the distant horizon, and it seemed that there were people everywhere - he had probably never seen so many people at once in his life!

It can be seen that after about thirty minutes of petrification, the mayor of the town immediately called the sheriff of the town, and then ordered him to organize his men as quickly as possible and prepare for the battle.

The "wise" sheriff did not hesitate to veto the mayor's proposal, joking! The other party is obviously a strong army, and with more than 500 brothers under his own command, who have only fought with the anti-tax Diao people and bandits, is it not only to seek death?

"I repeat, dear Mr. Mayor, we can't defeat those people, we can't!" the sheriff looked at the "insane" mayor in front of him as if he was looking at an idiot, pointed to the opposite side, and shouted loudly, "Wake up! That's an army, they have thousands!

"You mean to make us surrender?!" the mayor cursed loudly, "This is Talboa, it's the lord's territory, it's legal! we should hold on to the town and wait for the lord to come back, then these people will be finished, or we won't have any good fruit to eat!"

"But we don't have a knight, how can we defend? We don't even have a knight! And the other side has a strong army!" the magistrate grumbled: "They can even take the whole of Talboa with a single charge, my God, this is war, it's war!

Perhaps it was the sheriff's resolute attitude that shocked Mr. Mayor Town. For the first time, he felt that the stingy and quick-tempered old man was so cute - at least, he would not complain at this time, but would lead the brave knights to charge the enemy.

"Perhaps, they didn't intend to attack Talboa, after all, there were no special products here, and there were few merchants, only a few decent farms. And the lord is the legitimate lord, they have no excuses, right. The sheriff said to himself in a tentative tone, "Maybe it's just passing through?

"How dare you make a claim?!Those are the property of the master!"

"Then do you have any good idea, or if they ask us what you can do not give us, we should give some of it ourselves, rather than let them rob it!" The sheriff began to dislike the stubborn old thing: "For the rest, when the master returns, we will discuss it with them!"

"Look, they're coming!" the sheriff who looked back saw a knight riding a horse coming this way, and excitedly responded, "They must have come to discuss with us!"

"Damn it, Radiant Cross bless!" Mr. Mayor cursed, and hurried to follow.

"On the orders of my master, I have come to negotiate with the administrators here. The knight stopped his horse, took off his helmet, and looked down at the two men in front of him: "Who is it?"

"I'm the mayor of the town here, and I'm in charge of all things Talboya while my master is away. The mayor of the town slightly asked the knight of the walkway: "I don't know what your master is here for?"

"We're just passing through, we're not going to stay here for too long, we're going to leave early tomorrow morning. The knight's answer made both of them breathe a sigh of relief: "If we can, we need to add some food, bread for three thousand people, and some cured meat, of course we will give money, but please don't be too expensive!"

"Of course, of course!" the mayor nodded repeatedly, "I don't know if you came over to get it, or?"

"My master doesn't intend to disturb the inhabitants of this place, as I said earlier. The knight frowned and replied, "Send it directly to the barracks, and say that the two lords, Brenus and Julian, asked you to send it!"

"So, your decision?"

"We'll do it!" the mayor hurriedly beckoned to the servant behind him, telling him to go back and inform him.

"That's it!" the knight nodded, turning the reins of his horse: "Ride--!" galloped away with a puff of smoke.

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Caesarea - Camp of the Great Army of Mistema

Perhaps as a result of Theodore's actions, the two armies now trusted each other very highly, and the camps of the two armies were joined together. Of course, it is deliberately divided into two parts, east and west, and only one main account is shared by both sides and serves as a meeting room for the heads of both sides.

So you can clearly see from the middle that the barracks on the left and right are almost distinct, on the one hand, they are built at random, and it is even difficult to walk, and on the other hand, they are neatly arranged like small squares, and between each tent there is a path large enough for two soldiers to walk in parallel, and the road in the center can even allow horse-drawn carriages to move at will.

This kind of discipline made Aaron, the future duke's successor, envious, and even wanted to emulate it, but he quickly dismissed this idea - wanting those soldiers to be good babies was probably more uncomfortable for them than killing them.

The most haode example is that even the tents on the sides of the two sides are still clearly distinguishable, and the soldiers who have seen each other's superb qualities still go their own way, without the slightest shame or desire to learn from each other's merits.

However, this did not affect the relationship between the soldiers on both sides, and occasionally the soldiers on both sides would use various excuses to "visit each other" and exchange military rations for both sides to improve the food, and the peculiar northern spirits in the army of the Duke of Brenus and the generous amount of fermented bread in the Roman legions became sought-after.

In the central horde, Aaron is standing in front of the map, explaining to Theodore the importance of Severcro.

"Severcro Castle can be said to be the barrier of the entire north, relying on the Severcro Mountains to build, can even accommodate an army of 20,000 people to defend here, behind the mountain so the enemy can only attack one side, whether you want to go north or south, this is the only way, otherwise the rear will be cut off at any time. Aaron pointed to the place marked the castle on the map and said: "Of course, this is also a dividing line, the south is the direct territory of the emperor, and the north is the fief of the lords, so this place is also known as the 'Broken Boundary' Mountain!"

"I have a question!" Theodore began, "judging from the map, this should be regarded as the hinterland of this country, and the foreign enemies are all in the north and west, is it necessary to build a castle of this magnitude here?"

"Uh, this ......"

"That's because this castle is not designed to defend against foreign enemies at all!" With a cold tone, Brenus walked in angrily: "It's used to defend against our vassals!"

"Father!" Aaron grumbled, "how can you say that?!"

"Am I not right?" the Duke took a glass of ale and drank it down, "Anyway, it's not a secret that can't be said, what's wrong?"

"In the past, two hundred years ago, the empire was only in charge of the south, which is now occupied by orcs, and the north was still a barren land at that time. The duke gestured on the map with a cup: "In order to expand the territory, and in order to drive many nobles from the empire out of the imperial capital, it was wantonly divided here, so although the area accounts for half of the empire's territory, the population is less than one-fifth." ”

"The family territory that is close to the emperor is closer to the south, and the family that is not in harmony is closer to the north, such as our Brenus family, who guards the northern outposts? ”

"It's not all like that. Aaron defended weakly and palely: "At that time, Bixia also had her own considerations, such as the migration of population, the distribution of troops, and the amount of wealth......

"Is that why you didn't send reinforcements in time?" asked Theodore, calmly.

"Not exactly, of course, part of the reason for this, the Empire doesn't trust us people, and when it can really have Liliang in control of this place, we don't think anything will end up too haode. Brennus shrugged his shoulders: "Of course, more of a reason is self-preservation. ”

"Self-preservation?"

"Yes, among those of us, there are only five or six lords who actually have an army, and they are not very wealthy. Brenus handed over a glass of ale, and after seeing Theodore drink it all, he continued: "Most people only need so many dozens of reasonable knights to be enough, and they don't need any troops in the deep interior, and they want to spend a lot of money to send troops, just like this time, if you really bring all the men and horses to fight against the orcs besieging the imperial capital, I'm afraid there won't even be scum left!"

"Of course, in any case, we have not fulfilled our promise as vassals, which is a felony in itself, but the Imperial Imperial Family is in ashes, and it is unlikely that it will come to us for accountability. Brennus spread his hands indifferently: "But even if it's for our own sake, we have to keep Severcrowe!"

"Old Best doesn't have a few soldiers in his hands, and if it weren't for the orcs not going north last year, I'm afraid we wouldn't have had a chance. The old duke drank the wine in the cup violently: "We have done our best, and the rest depends on whether the others can understand." ”

"Tomorrow, tomorrow. Theodore looked at the towering mountain in the distance: "Tomorrow is here, Broken Boundary Mountain!"

"I'll make it the first battle for the Roman legions!"