Sword of Dawn

Page 163

"I saw the news in the newspaper, isn't there going to be a war?" Wright took out the "extra" he picked up, "I want to join the war."

Gao Wen originally wanted to explain to the other party the difference between the current professional military system and command system in the territory and the traditional chaotic private soldier system, but after seeing the serious expression on Wright's face, he only asked one question: " Tell me why."

"I know that a group of priests and church knights from the church have joined the army of the southern nobles," Wright said frankly, "I want a chance to face them head-on."

Gawain looked at Wright quietly for a long time, and finally let out a sigh of relief: "You should know that the Cecil Combat Corps is different from ordinary private soldiers of nobles. standards, and there is currently no official chaplain establishment in the military."

"I know, I've seen those ray guns too, they're things I haven't used before, and it's probably too late to learn them temporarily," Wright nodded, "But I can go to logistics, to help build fortifications, or to carry the wounded, I know bandaging first aid and herbal remedies, which should come in handy on the battlefield."

"...the medical team needs manpower," Gawain pondered for a long time, and finally nodded, "Go and sign up with Knight Byron, just say I let you go. In addition, you still need to learn about ray guns and grenades. Let Byron prepare a suitable set of equipment for you, even if it is not proficient, at least it can be used for self-protection on the battlefield."

With a smile on Wright's face, he bent down deeply: "Thank you for your understanding."

Then he stood up and walked towards the door, but before he was about to open the door to go out, Gao Wen suddenly stopped him from behind: "Mr. Wright."

Wright stopped and turned around: "Lord?"

"Facing your fellow church members on the battlefield is different from a brawl in a country street." Gawain looked into Wright's eyes and said calmly, "Have you really thought about this?"

"I've thought about it, Lord," Wright said seriously, "Facing them on the battlefield is the real enemy."

"Not only think about this," Gao Wen said seriously, "I hope you can think about another question before facing them...Do you believe in Holy Light, or the God of Holy Light?"

This sentence seemed to have greatly touched Wright. The tall priest suddenly fell into a brief silence. It was not until several seconds later that he took a deep breath and bowed: "I will think about it, Lord .”

"Are you really letting that big guy go?" After Wright left, Amber couldn't help asking curiously, "You have to know that he has no holy light now, except for the big guy, he is basically an ordinary person , is still an ordinary person who has not received the training of the Combat Corps... a person who has never even touched a ray gun, will there be no problems in the battlefield?"

"So I asked him to go to the medical team, and I believe that with Wright's skills, he can protect himself even without the protection of the Holy Light." Gawain shook his head, "Let him go, he is a believer, we must give him a opportunity for him to test what he believes in."

In the spring of 736 Ansu, on the last day of the Moon of Recovery, a courier riding a tall horse with the emblem of Earl Hosman hanging on his body and holding a small black and red flag ran into Cecil's checkpoint along the south bank of the White Water River.

The messenger was intercepted at the checkpoint, and the letter he brought was delivered to Gao Wen an hour later.

In the lord's mansion, Gao Wen received the letter he had been waiting for from Amber. It was an extraordinarily formal, even solemn letter. Written on tough light parchment and spiced ink, between the gorgeous fancy fonts and awkward aristocratic grammar, Gawain's long-awaited content is written.

Amber leaned half of her head from behind Gao Wen curiously, and looked at the contents on the parchment. What she saw was a diplomatic letter with extremely polite words, but the content was not friendly at all—

Earl Hossman and 43 lords with glorious titles and orthodox bloodlines in the southern border extend their greetings to Duke Gawain Cecil, and solemnly protest against the recent interruption of the supply of alchemy potions; solemnly protest against the skyrocketing prices of ores, mining machinery, and metal products; solemnly protest Protest against the Cecil family's deprivation of noble privileges and infringement of surrounding territories; demand that the Cecil family immediately stop destroying the order of the nobles, restore the privileges of the nobles in the territory, and re-regulate the behavior of the untouchables in the territory to prevent this The bad weather continues to spread and affect the atmosphere in other territories...

They also listed that Cecil continued to attract refugees in various parts of the southern border, advocated deviant laws, accepted heretics suspected of cults, released slaves on a large scale, arrested "sincere and legal businessmen", conspired to overthrow Kant's leadership, and assassinated the former Kant The Viscount also fabricated rumors of a cult and a lot of other evidence. There were more than a dozen pieces of evidence, true or false, which amazed Amber.

In the end, this letter finally revealed the willingness of "in order to maintain order, we have to use force to negotiate".

Amber watched Gao Wen read the letter seriously, and then saw Gao Wen calmly pick up the dip pen at hand.

She asked curiously, "Are you going to write a reply?"

Gao Wen shook his head, and casually wrote a word at the end of the letter:

have read.

"Give it to the courier." Gawain re-rolled the parchment and stuffed it into the paint tube, and handed it to the stunned Amber, "Let him go back and return to his command while it's still early—he won't be left for lunch. "

"You just write one word?!" Amber seemed to be unable to believe what she saw and confirmed again and again, "This is a letter of war! Don't normal nobles fight back and forth with more than a dozen verbal battles at this time?"

"That's enough," Gawain said with a smile, "As for other replies... Earl Hossman will see it."

Amber left with a "reply letter" with a confused face, and in the military workshop of the machinery manufacturing plant, under the personal control of Mr. Nicholas Egg, a heavy orbital acceleration shell was steadily falling into the shell box.

On the smooth surface of the cannonball, a line of newly printed stenciled text is clearly legible——

Hello fellow debaters, this is our argument.

On the last day of the recovery month, the news of the assassination of the king and the "revenge" of the Duke of the Eastern Territory is still on the way, but the first war that will usher in Ansu's change has already begun.

Chapter 0392 "Army"

Leslie Ling, Tanzania Town, the tall and thin Viscount Andrew walked up the city wall and looked towards the direction of the dock area from the viewing point of the city wall.

The newly built wharf tower stands on the bank of the Baishui River. The beautiful spire of the tower reflects the dreamlike brilliance in the sun. Under the tower, thousands of sails pass by on the Baishui River. Ships, big and small, come and go like busy ants. The whole river is a busy scene.

Such a busy and lively scene began last year.

A gust of cool wind blew, and his throat, which had become sensitive due to overconsumption of potions, suddenly felt uncomfortable. Viscount Andrew Leslie couldn't help coughing violently. long fur coat draped over his master.

The butler, who had been recruited for less than a year, was a little worried: "Master Viscount, you should go back and rest."

"Blowing the cold wind helps you think calmly," Andrew said casually, his eyes turned away from the pier, and swept across the newly built warehouses, mills, and the West District. He suddenly sighed, "It's so fast."

The butler didn't hear clearly: "What?"

The newly recruited housekeeper is reliable and flexible, but after all, the time is short, and there is no tacit understanding between him and himself - Viscount Andrew sighed slightly in this regard, then shook his head, throwing some unpleasant memories out of his mind : "Nothing. Is the messenger still waiting in the castle?"

"Yes," the butler nodded, "Earl Hossman is waiting for your reply."

Viscount Andrew was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Who do you think will win this war?"

"...The situation of Duke Gawain Cecil is not good," the steward hesitated, and said in a low voice. He knew that his master was very close to Duke Gawain, but loyalty required him to tell his true identity at this time. "Even if he is a legend, he only has a few thousand people, but Earl Hossman has already organized an army of tens of thousands..."

Viscount Andrew was noncommittal: "The 'army' of tens of thousands of people..."

With the mobilization ability of this era, coupled with the desolate and decadent situation in the southern border itself, it is indeed a remarkable number to be able to call up tens of thousands of troops. After all, the largest noble here is only the earl, and the number of private soldiers that can be maintained is after all. There are limits.

After thinking for a few seconds, Viscount Andrew glanced at his butler: "It seems that according to your intention, I should respond to Earl Hosman's call as soon as possible, so that I can stand on the side of the winner as soon as possible."

The butler bowed his head deeply: "My suggestion is insignificant. I'm just a butler, and I don't have enough ability to understand your business."

Andrew felt a little bored, curled his lips at an angle that the butler couldn't see, and then looked at the catapult pedestals on the city wall - those catapults were facing the direction of the Whitewater River. A century ago, the ancestors of the Leslie family used to rely on This part of the city wall facing the river was used to resist the robbers and fleeing soldiers who attacked from the waterway. It was not long after the civil strife in Ansu ended, and the southern border was far less safe than it is today.Now that a hundred years have passed, these catapults on the city wall have been replaced several times due to decay and fragility, but they have not been used for a long time.

There was another gust of cold wind blowing, and the wind on the city wall always seemed to irritate people's lungs. The viscount wrapped his clothes around his body and coughed softly twice: "Let's go back, Earl Hosman's messenger is waiting For a long time."

The housekeeper followed immediately: "Yes."

"In addition, find me a few 'newspapers' issued by the Cecil Territory, as well as information about the "Aristocratic Reform Act" and "Land Distribution Act" they implemented. Find me some... I have to Find out."

A great army is gathering in the north.

In addition to the 2 troops assigned to Earl Pepo, most of the 5 main force have been mobilized and assembled after more than ten days. The continuous camps and flags are on the plain southwest of the Carroll area Spreading out, it was bustling like an unprecedentedly huge market.

Dozens of local nobles' troops from all over the southern border gathered here, from barons to earls, all glorious and orthodox bloodlines gathered together.The number of soldiers brought by each nobleman ranged from less than a hundred to as many as a thousand, and they set up their own camps according to their size.They first allocated a large area according to the noble titles they were loyal to, and then made a secondary allocation in this area according to the order of coming to the gathering point, and finally formed a staggered, extremely chaotic, and varied garrison area.

Dozens of different flags are flying over this huge camp, and between the camps is a labyrinth of winding and intricate roads, wearing various livery and armor, holding various flags, and carrying various Accented orderlies ran around the labyrinth of the camp, bellowing orders that only their own people could understand (or not understand), and chaos broke out due to wrong orders-but it was very rare. It will soon be stopped by the knights rushing out by force.

The equipment worn by the soldiers in the camp was as chaotic as their camp, and it was even a lively exhibition. From the simplest half-body leather armor to the most sophisticated full-body steel armor, they all gathered in this same place. The methods to identify oneself are also completely different. Some rely on a burqa with an emblem on the body, some tie cloth strips of different colors on the head, some rely on the logo on the shield, and some There is no mark at all, and it is up to the soldiers in the same village to remember each other's faces. This makes people worry about whether this "army" will follow the wrong team on the day of disbandment and return, causing them to run to other places. Going up the territory-and in fact this kind of worry is entirely possible, and even happened.

In the stories of some bards, there is such a story vividly described: a soldier named Tom, who may be a mountain man or a Consco, participated in a grand war, but returned in triumph. At that time, he mistook the officer's face and followed someone else's army to a place not far away from home. He married a wife and had children in a foreign land, lived for eight years, and then followed the wrong team again in a new war. Returning to his hometown in a daze... This story is widely spread in the southern border, and is even regarded by many knights as a symbol of "romantic battlefield life".

Wearing a golden-red count cloak, Karlov Hossman rode on his favorite maroon horse, and was accompanied by several viscounts and barons through the huge camp. In his nearest position, he was wearing Viscount Carroll in a black jacket.

Earl Karlov Hossman had a relaxed and happy smile on his face. The astonishingly large-scale camp in front of him and the [-]-strong army in the camp were all established and gathered under his supreme prestige. This grand occasion proved that the Housman family was still brilliant in his hands, and this was the best compliment he could get as a member of the Housman family.

"Look, with such a large-scale power, I really don't know what our ancient hero will use to resist it," Earl Hossman pointed his whip forward, and his tone couldn't help rising, "To be honest, I almost regret it now That's it—maybe I don't need to gather so many people, every flag here must have a fair share of the spoils."

"This just proves your generosity, my lord," said a baron with a smile, in a tone of respect and admiration. "You not only stood up to uphold the laws and traditions of Ansu, but also generously caressed the land of the land. everyone."

Other people around echoed, and while the nobles were talking, some noises suddenly came from nearby.

Earl Hossman looked up and saw a group of soldiers wearing mail armor or half-armor noisily wrestling together next to the camp. It seemed that a dispute broke out for the priority to fetch water, but it didn't take long for them to wrestle. Then, a knight in bright armor stepped out and knocked all the fighters to the ground with two or three blows.

"Look, the knights who are dedicated to their duties are maintaining order. This is exactly the duty and meaning of nobles." Hossman watched this scene with satisfaction, and couldn't help sighing, "I can't imagine that there would be no such power to maintain order." , How chaotic it will be here... That's why I don't even dare to imagine what our ancient hero wanted to do after depriving the knights of their privileges and destroying the role of the nobles in maintaining order."

"I'm afraid only the gods know what he wants to do, but he must have experienced the consequences of what he did," Viscount Carroll said, shaking his head and sighing, "The insulted knights and mages destroyed him He also blew up his warehouse, he destroyed the order, and now the order has disappeared from his land, and it can only be said that he reaped the consequences."

Viscount Carroll had real regret and regret on his face—of course he would feel regret, because since last winter, selling potions to the Holy Spirit Plain and collecting high taxes from the Cecil merchants who entered the city are important to him. The source of income, now that the alchemy factory in Cecilland has been destroyed, and the supply of potions has plummeted, how can this not be regrettable and regrettable.

What annoyed Viscount Carroll even more was that when he had to look for the existing alchemists in the territory and wanted to use traditional alchemy potions to temporarily alleviate the shortage, he couldn't even find a single alchemist...

If it weren't for this blow, the neutral Viscount Carroll would not have completely joined Earl Hossman's camp so soon, and would have taken out a large plain on the edge of his territory for the army to station.

"I don't know what's going on with Earl Pepper," a viscount in the team suddenly said, "That Andrew Leslie is very close to Cecil, and he didn't respond to your call this time, maybe he will Ignore your letter to him."

"I personally wrote a letter asking him to stay in the castle and not to block the way of Earl Pepper. This is already the greatest courtesy and tolerance," Karloff Horsman snorted softly, "If he ignores it deliberately It doesn't matter, Earl Pepper brought 2 people, and it would take less than two days to bring down the small town of Tanzania. Even if the sick child of the Leslie family went to Cecil to rescue soldiers, it would be too late to put out the fire in his castle ...so as long as his brain isn't completely destroyed by the potion, he'll know what to do."

Hearing this logical analysis, the followers around him all agreed.

Earl Hossman raised his head and looked at the messenger flying towards him in the distance.

He smiled: "We seem to have received a reply from the 'ancient hero'."

When he saw that the courier handed him a rather familiar paint can, Earl Hossman couldn't help raising his eyebrows, and when he saw that the letter in the paint can was the parchment roll written by himself, he In addition to being confused, there was also some anger at being fooled.

The anger reached its peak when he unfolded the parchment and saw the word at the end of the letter, but it turned into a laugh.

Someone next to me was very puzzled by this: "My lord, is there a rebuttal in the letter?"

Earl Hossman stopped laughing and snorted softly. The parchment scroll in his hand caught fire out of thin air and quickly burned to ashes: "No, it's 'war'."

The second volume of the war years

Chapter 0393

The 5-strong army set out to fight, blowing and beating all the way, lively and lively, with a joyful atmosphere and unbearable noise.

Earl Hossman and his brightly armored knights were the brightest colors in the team. Knights in brand new plate armor rode on tall horses, and squires also in armor carried brightly colored banners beside them. Along the way, singing "Lost Soldier Tom", a well-known folk song in the South, accompanied by musicians playing bagpipes and tambourines. These bright-pitched instruments are designed to allow nearby teams to determine where the commander is. — Generally speaking, the musicians play like this once every ten miles to prevent the whole team from being completely messed up.

But even with these things, the whole team is still extremely chaotic, which is inevitable: such a large army is crowded together, and it is led by dozens of different nobles, and it is almost impossible for them to cooperate with each other. To put it bluntly, the whole team formed a long and intermittent line on the Kingdom Avenue that runs through the north and the south. When the vanguard left the Carroll Territory, the last ones who set off hadn't even left the place where they were stationed.

But Earl Hossman didn't care about this. In his opinion, being able to follow the big troops in the same direction is already the best achievement that those small rural nobles can achieve. They can't be expected to recruit from the fields. Yes, the mud-legged soldiers who only know how to get drunk and fight with others can be as disciplined and high-spirited as their own knights, and it doesn't matter if the team is a little chaotic, anyway, there is still a long way to go to reach the destination-in the next few days In the past few days, the main task of the troops is to hurry, and there are still many troops of remote nobles who have not arrived in Carroll in time. At this time, there is no need to rectify order.

The chaos should be more chaotic-he has 5 people, and I am afraid that the entire Cecil can be flattened.

And... Those messy country private soldiers wearing tattered leather armor or chain mail are not an important force at all. They are just firewood rushing to the battlefield to fill the pit with corpses, and they can really be used. , or an extraordinary person in the army.

As Count Hossman thought about it, he turned his gaze to the queue beside him - he saw his proud knights, and the mages in robes guarded by the knights in the middle, and finally The priests in holy white robes and the church knights led by them marched behind the knights. These people wore solid armor or gorgeous robes, with noble and reserved demeanors, and they looked very special among the messy and vulgar soldiers around them. Extraordinary temperament.

These are the strengths he can truly rely on.

……

In the northern part of Kant Territory, the artillery positions on the windward hills have been deployed. Knight Philip rode his horse to inspect the firing groups and returned to the center of the position.

His sight swept across the entire position, not only the well-disciplined and fast-moving Cecil combat soldiers and their artillery positions, but also the Kant Corps (Second Combat Corps) who was helping behind the position and looked a bit chaotic. .

There are 3000 First Corps soldiers on standby here, and the rest are the newly formed "Second Corps" in the Kant area, but the latter is not the main force of the battle. Their tasks are to help set up positions, serve as logistics, and... ...watching the battle.

Although the Second Corps has begun to receive formal military training, after all, time is still short, and the habits and thoughts of the old-style noble private soldiers are still deeply rooted in these people's minds. This cannot be solved by assault training, but Philip I believe that letting these people personally experience the fighting style of the First Corps on the battlefield will greatly loosen their stubborn thinking-this has been well verified by those Kant knights.

The leader of the Kant knights, the middle-aged Walder Pelich was wearing newly issued armor and holding a new weapon called a "melting sword" standing on a high platform on the hill, looking at the soldiers We are busy in this place called "artillery position".This gentle hill has been thoroughly armed, a large area of ​​land has been leveled, and then various trenches and "cannon pits" have been dug. They are placed in the gun pits, and between the gun pits are the traffic trenches for transporting shells and personnel. Those Cecil soldiers with bright armor are running quickly between the trenches. Relying on concise orders, the actions of these people present An astonishing sense of order and... beauty, and this kind of feeling, Wald has never seen it in the army for decades.

The battlefield in his memory was far simpler, rougher, and more chaotic than here.

As for this special "artillery position"...that was beyond his comprehension.

He had indeed seen the magic crystal rail gun, and he even knew the name of this gun was "Justice", but he had only seen the test firing of this weapon on a neat flat ground, and he thought it was a rail gun. But now seeing this peculiar position and the skillful preparations of the artillerymen, he realized that what he saw that day was just the most superficial thing.

A female knight with brown shawl hair stepped onto the high platform and came to Walder Perici's side: "Mr. Walder, I heard... we won't participate in the next battle?"

The old knight didn't look back: "According to the order, unless the enemy can rush to the hill, the Kant Knights and the entire Second Corps will not participate in the battle."

The female knight couldn't help but frowned, with dissatisfaction on her heroic face: "Isn't this a contempt for us?"

"This is training for the Second Corps, young Margarita," Wald finally turned his head when he heard this complaint, and looked at the female knight in front of him. This female knight was the most talented among the female knights in Kant Okay, the closest to the intermediate level, but after all, they are too young and not stable enough, "Don't forget, the Second Corps hasn't completed the basic drills, and they haven't even memorized the new combat instructions. You let them go to the battlefield to give people Add to the chaos?"

"They didn't memorize it, we can," the female knight said angrily, "Now the brothers and sisters are leading the soldiers to dig soil and move stones, carry shells and magic net substrates behind the Cecils. When the battle begins But it has nothing to do with us... It is obvious that you still don't trust everyone. We have clearly sworn allegiance, and we have always strictly obeyed the orders of the lord..."

"Then continue to obey, knight," Walder interrupted Margarita, "as a knight, if you can't even obey your master's orders, then you will have no honor to fight well on the battlefield." Word."

The female knight was speechless and could only lower her head slightly, but Wald knew that Margarita's resentment was also shared by other Kant knights, so he continued: "Margarita, do you think your new body is How about the armor and new sword?"

"Armor and sword?" The female knight was stunned for a moment, then looked down at the strange but beautiful alloy armor with Cecil's steel seal on her body, with a slight magical radiance flowing between the gaps, and the melting sword at her waist, Nodding subconsciously, "It's a very good thing... I was a bit regretful when I took off the family armor and put on this 'standard equipment', but now I think they are really good things, especially this sword —much better than my original steel sword."

"Have you seen those soldiers? They all have such a set," Wald pointed at the Cecil soldiers busy on the battlefield with his chin. "I have inquired about it. The difference is almost the same, the latter just has more bronzing patterns, and the magic material is slightly better, do you know what this means?"

The female knight showed a thoughtful look.

"It means that as long as you put on this armor and hold this melt-cut sword, five or six ordinary soldiers can bring down an extraordinary knight like you-this also includes your advantages in sword skills and combat experience, if they With heat ray guns and grenades, you might not be able to deal with two people. Extraordinary knights may be fine in other places, but here, you are at most equivalent to a soldier who can fight."

Margarita: "..."

"So the lord's refusal to let us participate in the battle is not because he doesn't trust us, but because he doesn't need us," Wald cast his gaze into the distance, and exhaled softly, "but he let us watch the battle and let us learn from it, which shows that he wants us to It will come in handy one day. What he needs is not a knight who can fight, but a group of knights who can actively learn and keep up with his pace, do you understand?"

"……I understand."

"That's good," Wald nodded with a smile, "Then let us watch quietly and see how the Cecils fight..."

A messenger came to the hill, ran to Philip, and sent the latest information to Philip.

Philip unfolded the information and saw a few lines written in female handwriting:

"Count Hossman led 5 people to the south, passing through the Kingdom Avenue-Small Ridge, and arrived on XX."

Philip nodded, and turned the note into dust that drifted with the wind.