In the eyes of the steppe nomads at the southern tip of the Rigal mainland, the inhabitants of the self-proclaimed civilized society were nothing more than a flock of weak sheep. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info This refers not only to the fact that most of them live on farming, lack the ability to fight and hunter-gatherer, and spend their entire lives on the same land like captive domestic animals. Spiritually, the peasants and workers of the West Coast and the major empires were also very different from the Absera.

Anyone who has ever herded knows that no matter how big the flock is, as long as the leader is found and controlled, the rest of the flock will follow the instructions. This kind of blind obedience and lack of assertiveness is also profoundly reflected in human beings, compared with the nomadic herders who live in idle tribes and lick their blood in harsh environments, the higher the level of civilization of the inhabitants, the larger the population base of a single country, and the more obvious the herd mentality becomes.

Scholars attribute this to the result of rigid occupations and classes, and the peasants, who have never been able to do anything but farm, do not have a dominant opinion, and the first reaction of the "majority" composed of them is naturally to grovel when faced with the "minority" of the aristocracy with innate force and class superiority.

The nature of living things is to seek advantage and avoid harm, and the first reaction of individual animals in the higher classes of the food chain is to flee. And the same is true in human society, but sometimes you can't even escape, so in the end you can only choose to swallow your anger and go against the grain.

Most people have long been accustomed to the inequality given by others in life, appearance, property, power, and origin, and as a social creature, human beings are destined to be inseparable from the fact that they are not able to get rid of the comparison with other individuals in their lives, and if they cannot endure all this, then life will not be able to continue. Therefore, ordinary civilians will choose to retreat and tolerate in the face of inequality and oppression from high positions, even if they have far more power than the other party if they are assembled, but they will always tremble and accept because of the few who have the advantage.

It's not good, it's not good, but at least they're alive – and that's why this irrational social situation, which is common in southern Avenella and many other West Coast regions, still exists today. It does not need to satisfy the ideals and universal ideas of all people, but it will continue to exist as it works in this particular situation for the time being.

Until one person or group of people tries to challenge it, the lords and nobles of Avenella will always be able to run amok and ignore the people.

But people are human beings after all.

They are not animals that don't care about everything else as long as they can live now, they are not sheep in captivity.

They are living human beings.

Our Sage once said in Prince Edward's March Proclamation that he had given the people "a dangerous and beautiful hope" - and this is the greatest difference between human beings and other life.

Captive animals cannot paint a picture of the future in their minds, they have no imagination, and therefore do not produce dangerous results.

Hope is a wonderful thing for humanity, and it can be the last straw that is lacking in a situation that is about to collapse in the face of extreme circumstances, and it can be the last straw that is lacking in a situation that is about to collapse.

The power of words is terrifying.

Edward's spark of hope was ignited in the hearts of peasants who had always been accustomed to receiving.

They didn't have a desire before, and if they had to say something, they just held on to their current life and didn't lose more. But now they have a taste of a good life and see signs that everything will be better. They see the light of hope that exists ahead, no longer fighting a confused war for the benefit of a lord who does not belong to them, they have a purpose, they have determination, they know where they want to go.

The spark that had spread was destined to one day become a prairie fire, but now it was just beginning to spread from the plains of Acasta to the forests of Neira, and it was the peasants of the south who had burned their villages to slaughter their wives and children.

Beauty needs ugliness as a contrast, and once the hope possessed by human beings is completely extinct due to the malice of others, then even the inhabitants who are no different from sheep and livestock will become the most terrible avengers in an instant.

......

- The Ottolo were excluded from the circle of the Confederate forces.

In a sense, this is not a surprise.

There was no such thing as unity between the Southern Coalition under the command of Ahibon II and the Ottolos. The sentiments of the entrenched southern aristocracy of Avenella are subtle and contradictory, on the one hand, they do have the traditional Westcoast kingdom mentality like Ahibon II, and they always put Ottolo's merchant and traveler status above their own commoners and merchants. On the other hand, as aristocrats, they themselves also have a strange urge to gain some humble superiority by behaving in front of each other, belittling each other, and so on.

This kind of distorted pride, in the final analysis, may still be a manifestation of inferiority, and I want to show a little majesty in front of a character who is far stronger than myself to impress the other party. They had defeated the Northern Army, so they began to cheer, raising their heads and chests, not looking at Ottolo's heavy infantry corps, and the Ottolos went too deep into the Nera Forest to be divided and strangled by the Northern Army, although they themselves suffered great losses, and they noticed that it was indeed not that the other side had reduced their strength by 40% but still maintained good morale and military discipline, and did not collapse in the excellent qualities of this foreign land, but began to say that this incident "represents the top combat effectiveness of the empire is not very good."

The unbridled southern nobles, inexplicably at the time of their own defeat, considered themselves to be superior to the noble cavalry of Avenella because the Ottolo people were also defeated. And the Otolo people, who were physically and mentally exhausted by the guerrilla tactics of the Northern Army, did not have the leisure and elegance to play aristocratic games with them anymore.

As soon as they get together, the aristocrats of Avenella will start sneering in disguise. Can't be provoked, they can still hide. Thus, with the mutual acquiescence of both sides, the so-called coalition became virtually extinct in late June 192, and not only the Ottolo and Avenella southerners were separated, but also the southern aristocratic coalition itself began to have some different voices.

The Otolo hoplites, who had only one corps commander and no real strategic commander, were unfamiliar with the situation after being separated from the command council of the southern nobles of Avenella, and inevitably fell into a difficult predicament to grasp the situation.

Their morale had been depressed by the failure of their first pursuit, and the small infiltration force that had been sent to ensure that the situation around them remained under control had been crumbling and nearly crumbling due to the large number of wounded who could not move freely due to the traps of the Northern Army. The sluggish negative emotions spread like a plague and infected the entire team, and Rao is belief in his heart is still in danger.

The Empire made two misjudgments - they overestimated the logistical supply, army coordination, and strategic command of the southern army in Yavenella, and without a reliable command system and logistical operations to support it, the Otolo army could only squeeze its own potential.

The energy of the soldiers is limited, with 10 as the number, if 4 percent of the energy must be divided into the search for food and water, then the combat effectiveness will definitely decline, and the words of the soldiers and horses before the food and grass are moved are not unreasonable.

This is the first, and the second point is that they underestimated the tenacity of the Northern Army.

Even if the Southern Coalition is unreliable, if it can take advantage of its top professional forces and achieve a quick victory, neither the attrition of soldiers nor the maintenance of morale will be a real problem.

Use the ambush to crush the enemy and then chase them down, completely dividing them into a series of scattered small groups.

As long as the main force was destroyed, the remaining militia Ottolo would have been able to take care of it himself if it was not dealt with by Ashbourne II - but all this was completely ruined by the noble cavalry of the Southern Coalition who ran for the spoils of war with cheers, and then it was an independent act of the Ottolos to try to remedy it. Due to the distribution of the spoils and a series of internal contradictions between the nobles and the militia, the Southern Coalition remained in the corridor of the Neira Forest for a long time, leaving the Ottolo people, who were unfamiliar with the local terrain, to enter the Neila Forest alone.

The Northern Army was shrewd, knowing that they could not gather and run to the flat areas of the Nella Forest Corridor to play Legion Wars, so they dispersed and retreated into the depths of the forest to fight a protracted guerrilla war using their numerical superiority. With the passage of time, without reliable logistics and friendly support, the Ottolo people who fought a war in a foreign land that did not belong to them were like a tight bow, putting too much pressure on themselves.

The continuous decline in morale and the misjudgment of the overall direction caused them to become more and more like a numb training target in the hands of the advancing soldiers of the Northern Army.

Admittedly, they have defeated their opponents. But because of the stupidity of the friendly forces, they were unable to extend the results in time - Ottolo's hoplites were down-and-out elite, they were excellent, and they could be used to the fullest extent if they were properly assigned positions. But they were dragged down by the stupid and incompetent southern coalition of Avenella.

Facing an opponent who is immature but must not be underestimated, they have such a group of incompetent teammates. Atolo's hoplites, who were still trying to maintain order, were still fighting alone, they were getting more and more tired, their sunken armor, their broken shields, their wounded ambushes, their stamina and endurance began to decline after a long period of inadequate logistical supplies, and in this situation, they had to endure the self-righteousness and strong uncooperation of the southern nobles.

"It's as if they care more about seeing us deflated than they are about victory," said the commander of the legion angrily in private, and on this day, under the compulsion of Ahbon II, the peasants who were familiar with the locality, and the knights and sergeants under the command of the Grand Duke Dehat in the Nella Forest Corridor, finally formed a joint force with the Ottolos, and the natives led the way and they began to advance more smoothly, and it seemed that the situation was finally about to converge.

Due to the lack of information, it was not clear what Ashbern II had done to the local peasants and nobles, and the Otolo people were once again indirectly stabbed in the back by this stupid teammate.

Edward gave the peasants the dignity of being human beings and the hope of a better life, which was only a little bit of starlight, but once tasted, everything was no longer the same.

Contrary to what he did, Ashbourne II believed in the way of the nobility and royalty of the West Coast that the people would obey if they were given violence and power. But the people who have been cut off from hope and whose homes have been destroyed no longer choose to swallow their anger this time.

When human beings are being pushed to the extreme, when they have cut off all hope of life, the momentum of breaking the kettle and moving forward is indomitable.

More than 20 years ago, the predecessors of this regiment witnessed it on the other side of Tambur, and more than 20 years later, they once again experienced the horror of all this.

The Legion Commander realized what was happening, and even though he wasn't really a famous general, he knew immediately from the way the peasants quickly dispersed.

In order to prevent the battle line from being stretched so long that it would be broken one by one, as was the case before, they adopted a slow formation in which the entire army moved forward in order, and this gave Edward the opportunity to finish the battle that they had been waiting for for a long time.

Because of the lack of supplies, it had only been dispatched once, and after that, more than 2,000 heavy cavalry of the Northern Army, which had been recuperating the whole time, pounced on the peasants with an earth-shattering sound from their hiding places in the distance. With the equipment for infantry, the Otolos, who used not spears but spears, could not do much against the cavalry in full plate armor, not to mention that the vast majority of the throwing spears had been depleted before then.

They set their eyes on the knights beside them, and if the cavalry under the command of the Grand Duke of Dehart, who had more than 500 men, was willing to help, they would be able to retreat in an orderly manner, if not if they could not win. But not only did Ashbon II's actions force the peasants to rebel completely, but how could they obey the king's leadership after the king had beheaded the Grand Duke and forced them to slaughter his own people.

They set up a position to separate themselves from the Ottolos, and discarded all the weapons in their hands, turned over and dismounted, raised the white flag, and shook vigorously, the Northern Army saw this formation and adjusted its angle, and rushed towards the Ottolo hoplite array without hesitation.

"I curse you damned fellows—" the Legion Commander shouted in Otolo's thick West Coast accent, and his voice was drowned out by the earth-shattering sound of horses' hooves.

The Ottolo fought to the last moment.

The array of hoplites looked as fragile as paper in front of the heavy cavalry, and the heavily armed knights, who weighed a ton, sprinted at full speed with enough force to knock the soldiers and shields directly into the air, and they struggled to maintain the formation, but the Otolo hoplites, both physically and psychologically, had been hit one after another and the supply and logistics had never kept up, both physically and psychologically.

After another reduction in the number of employees, inevitably, ushered in.

Crash in an instant.

"We surrender!" More than half of the entire 10,000-strong army suffered casualties, and the knights of the Northern Army fanned out, slamming out from their left and right flanks. There is no formation ahead, and they are still turning their horses around and planning to make another backrush - the situation is settled, and even if they continue to hold on, they will only waste their lives.

Ottolo people.

Defeated.

Even if it was only an incomplete formation of more than forty legions in the Empire1, even if it was only an unrecognized covert operation force, it represented the top level of Ottolo's regular forces.

This is the second time that the tiny country of Avenella, with a population of only two million, has defeated the world-famous enemy elite on its own soil.

Last time it was Sivalier, and this time, it's Ottolo.

These thousands of captives represented a clear message, and he was silent in the palace for a long time when the only golden-red wyvern scales on the Legion's commander, who had hidden all the insignia, were the only tokens on his body, and as a blank letter bearing the name of Edward Eitling Shulfaga returned to the Emperor of Ottolo.

After a long time, in the silent palace, His Majesty the Emperor sighed.

But let's get back to the present, back to the Nella Forest.

After learning of the annihilation of the Ottolo army and the rebellion of the knights and nobles under the command of Duke Dehart, Alhibon II broke the jar and directly arrested and disarmed all the remaining knights of Dehart, and ordered all the noble children of the nobles who had reached the age of 12 in all the towns in the south to enter the battlefield to fight for the king.

This was not in line with the rule that only one member of the nobility could stay at home as long as one of them fought for the king, but by this time Al-Ashbourne II had nothing to worry about.

He roared loudly all day and all night like a madman, and the royal guards and the nobles of his cronies held the families of the great southern nobles hostage, and even themselves to force the troops under his command to obey orders. And under the threat of force and death, the militias from territories further south who did not rebel because of the death of their families had no choice but to march all the way into the forest.

The aristocratic mindset and practices that have existed on the West Coast for centuries have proven to be still effective.

In a short period of time, Ashbon II gathered an unprecedentedly powerful army through such power and terror, totaling 180,000 troops, even the northern army in its heyday could only bow to the upper hand. And the act of throwing them all into the boat at one time is both good and bad for the Northern Army.

The good thing is that the enemy no longer has reserves, and if they crush this army, they will win a big victory.

And the downside is.

The sheer numerical superiority, the march of covering a large area with a carpet search, Ashbern II directly and brutally invalidated the northern army's previous miraculous guerrilla tactics against the smaller Ottolo army, they could not ambush the large-scale southern coalition army, and even if the small-scale guerrilla team attacked, it could only be eaten up by the other side and cause little damage.

It was the beginning of July 192 in the Avenella calendar.

After ushering in a victory, the Northern Army was in the midst of the offensive of the Southern coalition forces.

Retreat in a hurry.

The front, which had once advanced to the Grand Duke of Dehat, had been shortened by nearly one-fifth in a matter of days.

Prompted by royal power and high-pressure policies, the Southern Coalition Army, which was only a ragtag army, took advantage of its overwhelming numerical superiority to directly cause the Northern Army, which had lost its material supply and could no longer have large-scale frontal combat capabilities, to retreat one after another.

A victory that seems to be on the horizon.

It's getting unpredictable again. (To be continued.) )