Realm of Power

"Watch out, it's coming again!"

The infantry commander shouted with some fear on the left. The soldiers who were still running around stopped almost at the same time. Everyone raised their heads and hurriedly looked for any corner to hide. Arrows fell, and a red blood flower appeared on the wall, just like being slapped by an unmanned big hand. Marquis Panbof saw his soldiers being shot backwards by the falling arrows. "Come on, save me! I'm shot!"

Not far away, a soldier hugged his leg that was shot through in pain and shouted miserably, but there was no Someone was paying attention to him.

No one knew when the next wave would come. Anyone who ran to save people at this moment was a fool. The top of the city was in chaos. Red human blood mixed with rain water dyed the ground red. Corpses with arrows stuck in their bodies were scattered all over the city road. In the streams formed by rain water, it looked miserable. "Deng! Deng!"

Amid heavy footsteps, several Oacha guards wearing heavy armor and holding large tower shields walked up to the chaotic city wall. Behind them was the Marquis of Panbof who climbed the city wall in person in a rage.

Just as he climbed the city wall, a roaring sound came down from the sky. The arrows from the cavalry archers gave him a warning. Countless arrows, like a swarm of locusts bursting out from the rain in the distance, covered the entire city wall. "Attention!" The knights raised their shields nervously. The sound of arrows hitting the shields of the guard knights was like raindrops falling from the sky. Marquis Panbof hid behind his shield, listening to the intensive impact sound, his face turned pale. If it weren't for the shields of the guard knights, he would definitely be full of enemy arrows at this moment. After the rain of arrows, Marquis Panbof shouted angrily to the garrison officer Kai on the city wall. Mi, several heavily-armored knights stood cautiously on the periphery with shields,

"Why don't you fight back? What are our archers doing?! Will they draw their bowstrings only after we are all dead?"

Marquis Panbov reprimanded the garrison officer Kemi, and it was no wonder that he was so angry. Although Oacha was a marquisate with weak military power, as the capital of the Oacha region, Orelon Castle also had 3,000 standing troops, including 500 archers, 500 heavy infantry from the lord's mansion, and a 200-man knight group. The knight group and heavy infantry were not arranged on the city wall. They lined up behind the city gate to deal with the enemy's attack on the city gate. "Sir, it's not that we don't fight back, it's that we can't fight back!"

The garrison officer Kami was scolded so much that he could only give a bitter smile. "The enemy is cavalry. Most of our archers don't have the ability to shoot cavalry from a distance. They are completely incapable of dealing with galloping cavalry.

Moreover, the enemy's shooting distance is more than 100 meters away. In addition to the heavy rain in front of us, it takes our archers three to five seconds from finding the target to shooting the arrows, just watching the arrows fly past. By the time the arrows fall, the opponent's swift cavalry have already ridden away, but the opponent's arrows can cover the city walls at will. Because we are stationary!"

The garrison officer Kami paused, his eyes flashed... After a moment of hesitation, he said with an ugly look, "To be honest. The opponent's archery and riding skills are quite superb, just like the grassland enemies we encountered in the Battle of Ekadze fifteen years ago. Shooting arrows while riding a galloping warhorse is simply like a nightmare." "The Battle of Ekadze fifteen years ago..." Panbov's face changed. It was a very painful memory. Fifteen years ago, a major battle that made the entire northwest tremble suddenly broke out like today. The barbarian Slav king who rose in the wild land of the northwest suddenly assembled 100,000 troops to the south. The northwest region was the first to bear the brunt. At that time, the main force of the empire was fighting in Seattle in the southeast. The only ones who could resist this enemy were the 30,000 people of the Julius family in the northwest. This It was a battle with a huge disparity in strength, both in terms of the number of troops and commanders. On one side was the barbarian king who dominated one side, and on the other side was the young and unknown playboy Julius Forbourg.

The war involved the entire northwest region.

In order to delay the main force of the Slav king and consume as much manpower as possible before the battle, Julius Forbourg, who had just become the commander of the Fifth Army of the Empire, did not hesitate to force the various regions in the northwest to defend and fight with the Slavs for every inch of land, and transferred 30,000 main forces back to the hinterland.

In the fourth month of the war, six regions near the border fell one after another. The Slavs' front reached the Echidna Mountains, which is known as the natural barrier of the northwest. This is the largest horizontal barrier in the northwest of the Gaul Empire. The Hengduan Mountains stretch for more than a thousand miles from west to east. The mountains are towering and covered with snow all year round. The huge glaciers between the snow-capped peaks make it impossible for the army to pass through. Faced with this insurmountable natural barrier, the Slavs can only choose to continue to march southward and want to pass through the relatively flat southern end.

But the Slavs did not expect that Julius Foberg at the other end of the Ekadze Mountains took advantage of the Slavs' turn and brought 30,000 main forces to cross the most dangerous Hengduan Mountains.

This is an adventure, a great adventure with 30,000 lives at stake. The Ekadze Mountains belong to a high-altitude cold area with extremely low temperatures. The glaciers stretch for hundreds of miles, the mountain roads are rugged and difficult to travel, and on both sides are thousands of blade cliffs formed by ice valleys over billions of years. The white mist is curling and the bottom is unseen. If you are not careful, you will be crushed to pieces and your body will not be left.

The 30,000 troops of Fort Julius Ford stumbled all the way, marching far away from the side of the mountain. Countless people froze to death and suffered frostbite, and countless people lost their feet and fell into deep ravines. After passing through the Ergatse Mountains, only a few of the 30,000 troops were left. When the number reached 6,000, it was with the remaining 6,000 that Julius Fort suddenly launched an attack from the rear of the Slavs, cutting off the supplies of the 100,000-strong army in one fell swoop.

The Slavs spent countless efforts to plunder the hundreds of thousands of tons of military rations stored here and burn them all, just as Julius Fordburg said when negotiating with Fatty. As said, cutting off the back-up supplies will lead to the collapse of even a million-strong army. The Slavic Allied Forces are originally composed of various ministries. Once the military supplies are cut off, they will immediately fall into chaos.

The various tribes blamed each other and were slack in fighting. On their way back in a hurry, they were met by Julius Fort and were subsequently pursued and killed. Less than 20% of the 100,000 troops could actually escape. In that battle, Julius Fort's reputation quickly rose. He was promoted to a new generation of famous generals in the empire, and he became the real commander of the fifth army from the deputy commander of the fifth army. After March, he served as the general person in charge of the northwest strategy against the Slavs.

But for the entire northwest region, which is the main battlefield, the Battle of Egatse is an extremely painful memory. Even areas close to the coast like Ohacha were not spared. They encountered the most elite cavalry troops under the Slav king. During the period of food shortage, in order to solve part of the crisis, the Slavic king sent this troop into the mountainous woods for hunting. Most of this cavalry troop was composed of surrendered Dongting grassland people.

The Slavic region is connected to the grassland region. Some losers and exiles in the grassland tribal wars fled into the Slavic region. This type of elite cavalry gradually formed. Although the number is not large, they are tough and good at fighting. They have fast horses and long bows, and can completely defeat the Austrians. The Acha people took off their armor and had no power to fight back.

At that time, Marquis Pambouf was still a personal attendant of the old Marquis, and Kemi was the captain of the guard. The two of them still remembered the fast wind and the lightning-like prairie devil in that war.

The war with the Slavs only ended in the sixth year when Julius Fortress killed the Slav king. Parts of the northwest land were already in ruins, and the Slavs, who had been cut off from logistical supplies, had no choice. They did everything they could to kill people and set fires during the retreat. They even robbed children and women to use as food for the army. The scene along the way was filled with human heads piling up towers and human bones paving the road. It was too horrible to see.

Afterwards, everyone realized that from the beginning, the Julius family had used the entire northwest region as bait to consume the power of the Slavs. More than seventeen countries were attacked, and nine regional leaders and more than 200 lords were attacked. Most of the knights under his command were killed in the battle, more than 170,000 other soldiers were killed and injured, and more than 1.5 million civilians were killed or injured. There were sounds of sorrow everywhere, but the Julius family was holding a grand celebration banquet.

Everyone is cannon fodder! This kind of thinking has caused the attitudes of many regions to begin to waver, especially when Fort Julius Ford was transferred to the northwest to fight the Slavs, and the northwest region as the rear was regarded as a source of supplies and soldiers that he desired. On the ground, Julius Fort has always had a tough style, just asking for things without giving a penny, but under the power of the Fifth Army, everyone dared to be angry and dare not speak out.

For example, what triggered the turmoil in the entire northwest this time was Julius Ford's order to surrender all slaves in the northwest.

Slaves were private property in the empire and were a source and symbol of wealth. Many countries maintained large numbers of slaves in manors, especially in the four core areas of the Anti-Julius family, Ohacha, Southend, and Svendborg. , Bangor owned the largest number of slaves. If all were turned over, the economies of some areas would collapse. The Julius family's wanton behavior finally triggered a collective resistance in the northwest region.

In the northwest region, the rule of the Julius family is similar to that of tyrants, and this situation is similar in other parts of the empire.

The various wealthy families that grew out of the Imperial Kyoto were like the roots extending from a big tree. They used military expansion to seize land. They all more or less regarded their sphere of influence as a provider of various resources.

It's just that the Julius family happened to be unlucky, and Kyoto's wavering finally made people dare to raise the flag of rebellion (to be continued...)