After the bottomless lake defense line was breached, Pei Song finally figured out that the enemy's main attack direction was the left flank. But it was too late, as the HRE army poured in through the gap, and the reserves put in by Pei Song were demoralized by the extremely unfavorable conditions of the battle, and were almost immediately routed, unable to stop the enemy's ferocious assault.

By this time, the defeat was irretrievable. Pei Song gathered the remaining remnants of the defeated army and prepared to break through, but the enemy soon pounced on the rear of the defensive line and turned back to outflank the defenders on the middle and right flanks from behind. By the time Perdiccas' reinforcements arrived, the Bottomless Lake defense line had collapsed and 50,000 troops, including commander Person, were surrounded by the enemy.

The reinforcements lost the advantage of the terrain, and it was still difficult to protect themselves, and they were even more powerless to help relieve the siege, so they could only watch as the friendly forces were divided and eroded. Zuihou reluctantly abandoned this important strategic stronghold on the periphery and retreated to the city of Pera. At this time, the HRE army itself also suffered a lot of casualties, and due to the successive fierce assaults, the soldiers were very tired, and they were no longer able to continue to pursue the main city of Pera, which had a solid defensive position, so they could only concentrate the remnants of the army in the direction of Liliang to clear the bottomless lake, waiting for the next attack.

The battlefield was once again in a relatively calm standoff, but no one knew that it was only a brief lull before the storm. It won't take long for the combined forces of the HRE and Nicaea to wipe out the remnants of the Bottomless Lake's resistance, and soon they will be able to concentrate enough Liliang to attack again. There was a great panic in the city of Pera, the enemy vanguard had already killed under the main city, and the city was close at hand!

Noon on the same day. Perdiccas convened an emergency meeting again in response to the latest war situation, and all the main figures of Pera were present. The expressions on everyone's faces were full of worry, and the breath of death was already close at hand. The heavy pressure of the enemy army breaking through the city made them simply breathless.

After everyone took their seats, the regent stood up and looked around the audience, just in time to see Elrens sitting behind the Central Queen Mother Olympias, and couldn't help but be stunned! Didn't this black dragon lose all its magic power when it was seriously injured in the explosion of the Refractive Castle last night? How could it be that he was radiant overnight, and his magic power was so strong that he didn't seem to have been injured at all? Could it be that the news was wrong, or that he deliberately pretended to be injured last night? But what was the purpose of doing that?

Perdiccas was puzzled, but one thing was certain. The black dragon is in excellent condition now, and it will only be even more difficult to retrieve the Sword of the Conqueror, Gerdios!, he shook his head inwardly, if this happened last night. The Lord Regent may have been furious, but this morning the tide of battle had taken a turn for the worse, and he was too anxious to take care of it. Under tremendous pressure at hand, Perdiccas' mind had completely changed. The most important thing at the moment is to unite everything liliang against the enemy army. And not for a sword that can't change the tide of battle.

So after everyone in the hall fell silent, the regent spoke first with a calm face: "Everyone, everyone knows the current situation in Pera. However, what you may not know is that I have just received the latest news that Polybocon, the commander of the Eastern Floating Fleet stationed in Anatonia, has surrendered to the Nicaeans!"

When the crowd heard this, they were in an uproar, and Polybecomon was a die-hard henchman of Melagros. After the deputy regent committed suicide in defeat, Perdiccas, in order to prevent the general who held military power in the east from defecting, had sent someone to contact and pacify him. I thought that he, like Pei Song, would not betray the country. Unexpectedly, Zuihou still surrendered to the enemy.

Perdiccas waved his hand to silence the crowd, and said with a very tired expression, "Not only have we lost the Eastern Floating Fleet. Even the Anatonian Legion and the city-states of Troy were coerced by Polybocon to rebel together!"

"What?!"

Everyone was shocked for a while, Polybocon's surrender was expected by them, but they did not expect that even the Anatonian Legion and Troy and other city-states were also lost! In this way, not only was the illusion of expecting reinforcements sent by Anatonia shattered, but even the barrier to the southeast was completely lost, and the Nicaeans could draw a large number of troops from here to join the siege of Pella, and the already desperate battle situation deteriorated further, which was simply great bad news!

In the face of such an unfavorable situation, even if Alexander the Great woke up, there was no way to turn defeat into victory, and Perdiccas was even more helpless, he sighed and asked: "This is the situation, now that defeat is imminent, please put aside the differences of the past, and unite as one to fight the enemy from now on." If you have any ideas, especially those that can help the situation of the war, please speak up and discuss them immediately! Of course, surrendering to the enemy will never be tolerated!"

Everyone at the scene looked at each other and fell silent for a while.

Fighting a war is not magic, especially in this kind of large-scale all-out war, the two sides are fighting for comprehensive strength, troops, resources, equipment, etc. are the key factors that determine the victory or defeat of Zuihou, and even if some intrigues can temporarily gain some advantages, they will be quickly offset by the overall disadvantage. Pera's current situation is incomparable with the enemy in all respects, due to the prolonged siege, the defenders are less than a third of the enemy's strength, most of them are new recruits, and the reinforcements composed of the city-states outside the encirclement lack unified command and cannot be penetrated at all. Resources and equipment were also affected by the siege, the supply of various troops was stretched, the magic preparation could only be maintained at a minimum level for a long time, and the damage to swords and armor could not be repaired and replaced in time, resulting in even lower morale

After a long while, Antigonus, the commander of the Anatonian Legion, finally hesitated and said: "The only way to do this now is to immediately arrange for Princess Creo to marry the Seljuk Grand Prince Mansour, and then ask the Seljuks to send troops to rescue immediately!"

As soon as Antigonus finished speaking, Ellenston was furious and glared at him viciously. The evil dragon has long regarded Cleo as his own woman, and this guy dares to come up with such a bad idea, sooner or later he will want him to look good! The commander of the Anatonian Legion who did not know why was suddenly startled by the murderous eyes of the other party, and he was puzzled in his heart, what kind of nerves did this black dragon have? I just proposed that the princess marry together, and I didn't want to cut his whole family!

After hearing Antigonus's words, everyone began to discuss again, and the Queen Mother Olympias did not want her daughter to marry in a hurry, so she hurriedly frowned and objected: "The Seljuk barbarians have no integrity at all, and they are not trustworthy at all. It's okay to ask my daughter to marry their eldest prince, but they have to show their sincerity in sending troops to help first, but unfortunately they have only made empty promises and have not done anything at all. At this time, even if we take the initiative to ask for a marriage, it is estimated that they will not change their unpromised nature. What's more, even if they are really willing to send troops, they can't save the fire from far water, and by the time the Seljuk army arrives, Pera will already be ruined!"

The Queen Mother was right, and Antigonus proposed to marry the Seljuks as soon as possible, out of sheer selfishness, hoping to save his Anatonian legion from being held hostage by Polybecon. However, his proposal was not feasible and was quickly rejected by everyone.

Field Marshal Ptolemy, who had originally belonged to the camp of Melaculus, also came to the meeting this time, and the alliance between him and the vice-regent was originally only to use each other, and he did not send troops to rescue Melaculus last night, so when the assassination was over, he and Perdiccas quickly shook hands for their own purposes.

Seeing that the people were at a loss, Ptolemy proposed: "Break through." Pera can't hold it anymore, and while the enemy's encirclement in the south is not too strong, if we concentrate all Liliang to break through to the south, there is still a glimmer of life!"

The crowd fell silent again, Ptolemy was the marshal, and it was not very difficult for him to give up Pera, he only needed to lead the fleet out of the siege one night, and then choose a port in the south as a new base, as long as the strength of the fleet remained, it would be almost the same for him everywhere.

Giving up Pera was not an easy decision to make, as the city had been the capital of the Olympia League for many years and was the religious, economic, cultural, political, and military center of the entire Union. Once this place is abandoned, the strength of the alliance will not only be greatly weakened, but it will also deal a heavy blow to the fighting spirit and centripetal force of the affiliated city-states, and it is very likely that there will be civil strife again! More importantly, everyone here is concentrated in Pella, and there will inevitably be heavy losses in the process of breaking through, and even if they can reach the south smoothly, there is no place for them to develop again.

However, the admiral was right, and it would be a dead end to stay. Everyone only felt a dilemma, their faces were gloomy, and they all calculated in their hearts how to preserve their strength when Zuihou had to break through, and lost interest in speaking.

Only the chief priest of the twelve main temples, Eurymedon, said with grief and indignation: "As the high priest of Pera, my greatest duty is to ask the gods to bless this city, my faith, my temple and the believers are all here! Now that the gods no longer answer my call, even if I can leave, what is the point, where can I go!

(To be continued......)