Chapter 272: Temple Defense War
Since Leon had been stabbed and injured before, these most loyal companions stayed close to the lord to protect him all the way and were always armed to the teeth.
The armor of the Mettenheim Greatswordsmen was already extremely thick, and now that they had become members of the Silver Hand, Leon had specially provided them with a set of gleaming silver arm armor.
It was an enchanted equipment produced by the Noldor, a plate arm armor with mittens forged from fine steel and inlaid with mittens. The forearm part of the arm armor was widened and thickened, and integrated with the gauntlet, and there were some spikes on the elbows and gauntlets.
In fact, this kind of arm armor itself is also a weapon. The thickened forearm can be used as a wrist shield or an arm hammer, and both fists and elbows can kill people.
It is also quite reliable when used as a wrist shield. Although the protective area is relatively small, the curved forearm plate is quite solid. Unless it is hit by an axe, ordinary swords and knives can hardly break the defense.
This kind of silver gauntlet that can attack and defend at the same time is the signature equipment of the core members of the Silver Hand. At least it looks like the real "Silver Hand" and is much more reliable than the Ebony Gauntlet Knights who don't even have ebony gauntlets...
However, this kind of arm armor cannot be mass-produced, and Leon dare not equip it in large quantities. Only true confidants can get it - this thing is very expensive, and its cost is more expensive than the same volume of silver. It is a real silver hand.
The foot-wide arm armor made up for the defect of the Mettenheim greatswordsmen not carrying shields, and also made the big strong men look like a bunch of thorny iron men, which was very deterrent.
The female explorers brought by Sarah were the best and most outstanding ones under Amy's command. They were eight female warriors who had obtained the status of reserve knights.
Amy asked Sarah to take them with the army, not only to "protect" Leon from being "violated" by an underage elf girl, but also to let them contribute to the country and establish military merits.
This was actually a declaration that Griffin Claw was a regular follower loyal to Amy, a bodyguard of the princess of the kingdom, and not a mercenary.
In this way, Amy can legitimately canonize these women as regular knights as the Lord of White Hart Castle, and it will not be regarded as illegal conferment - no matter where you are, if you want to become a recognized and legal knight, fighting for the country is a necessary procedure.
These female soldiers are the top fighters under Amy, and their equipment are naturally the best. Amy is a rich woman now, and she has got a lot of good things for her subordinates.
Ten strong men dressed in clothes as thick as steel plates, eight heavily armored female knights, and two of the best among the Noldor elves.
Twenty bodyguards like this are not something that ordinary people can deal with.
Besides, Li Ang himself was no weakling. Even without the guards, these Ghazi people probably couldn't catch the lord...
Those hundred or so nomads had not made any preparations beforehand, their equipment was very simple, and their skills were not very skilled. Even if they were outnumbered, they were no match for the enemy - and they had to be captured alive, so they couldn't fight if they were tied up.
So Ikram's plan naturally failed. Not only that, it also resulted in a large number of Ghazi casualties in a very short period of time - facing the attack, Leon and his guards would not hold back.
This brief battle was actually unremarkable, with the Mettenheim people standing on the periphery to attract fire, two Noldor elves shooting arrows in the middle, and several female explorers moving around to fill in the positions - they all had rich combat experience and knew how to cooperate in this kind of small-scale battle.
Li Ang stood in the inner circle and didn't need to take any action or give any commands. He only needed to guard against hidden arrows .
After just a few minutes, dozens of nomads died, and the rest fled on horseback. On Leon's side, only Summer and two female warriors were slightly injured - and that was because the Ghazi people threw several waves of crudely made javelins as they fled.
This kind of bent, tattered, and inferior weapon is indeed quite threatening when thrown out - the winding flight trajectory of the javelin is really hard to predict, and these people were originally guarding in front of Leon, they did not dare to avoid it, lest the lord behind them who was blocked from view would be unfortunately hit.
So they used their swords to block the javelins, and got a few scratches as a result - the javelin shafts even had thorns that had not been scraped clean.
This attack did not do any harm to Leon, and Klose and others did not pay much attention to this kind of attack that occurred in enemy territory. After all, it is normal to encounter such things when sending troops to war.
But Li Ang was very unhappy.
On the one hand, it was because his plans were affected, and on the other hand, it was because Ikram was missing.
In the few minutes when the herdsmen attacked Leon, or in the one or two minutes when Leon was blocked from view by the tall Mettenheim people, Ikram disappeared without a trace.
There was grassland all around with little shelter, and the only places where people could hide were a few shabby tents and some fences for keeping horses.
But Ikram was still missing, and it was obvious that Ikram had run away with the nomads.
These nomads were lightly equipped and rode fast, and they ran very fast. Li Ang was not familiar with the terrain, so he would definitely not be able to catch up with them. The area around Mount Ghazi was all grassland, and the area was quite large, so he didn't know where they would go.
"Sir, what do you think he said to those herdsmen that caused them to attack you? Could it be that he did this at Bahaman's request?"
At the moment, only Sarah could discuss countermeasures with Leon, but neither of them understood Ikram's intention - if Leon was really killed, Ikram himself and his entire family would be doomed. This was easy to understand, as the army of the Sarleon Territory could kill people without a marshal.
In fact, without Leon's restraint, the army of the Fierce Lion Territory would have reduced Ashcomb to ruins long ago.
"I don't think Bahaman is that stupid... Actually, I don't care what Ikram said. Anyway, it has already happened. The problem now is that after Ikram did this, all the Desha herdsmen in this area have become my enemies. And it is difficult for us to communicate with them..."
Li Ang looked at the bodies on the ground and sighed: "I originally just wanted to do business and didn't want to kill anyone... But now, I probably have to kill a lot of people."
——After all, dozens of people have been killed. Once this kind of conflict involving human life occurs, it is difficult to calm down. In addition, there is a language barrier and communication is impossible. It is impossible to resolve it peacefully in a short period of time. The only thing to do is to continue killing.
Sarah also sighed: "It's a pity that I can't speak the ancient language of D'Shar..."
It was true that she did not speak Deshagu, and she had not been born when her father, Sharafan Sheikh, left the Holy Mountain.
After Sarah was born, Sarafan never took care of her. She was raised by her mother - Sarah's mother was a noble lady from the Cherze tribe in northern Desha and had never been exposed to ancient languages.
"It is impossible for me to show kindness to them anymore, and they certainly won't believe me. Phew... Since they have chosen to be my enemy, I must destroy them..."
Li Ang looked towards the east, but in fact he couldn't see Mount Ghazi in Fangdar, he could only see a grassland.
“We should also destroy them! In fact, this is also a good thing for the D’Shar people—that holy mountain is simply the source of all evil! But, my lord…”
Sarah agreed with Leon's decision, but at the same time she had some concerns: "But that is the sacred mountain of the D'Shar people after all. If you kill people wantonly in the sacred mountain, the D'Shar people may regard you as a devil, and you will be hunted by assassins all your life... There are many assassin groups in D'Shar."
"I know there is a Scorpio Assassin Brotherhood in Ashcomb, right?... I want to take over Ashcomb peacefully because I don't want to provoke them."
Li Ang sighed and shook his head. "But it's different here. I don't need to do anything to destroy this place... Sarah, you and Sigismund should go back to Eichkoman and tell General Agathon that there are plenty of war horses that Emperor Marius wants under Mount Ghazi..."
In fact, Leon had never expected that in the end, Agasson would still have to take advantage of D'Sha...
"...Sir, I understand that you want General Agathon to do this dirty work... But those herdsmen will not keep horses at the foot of Mount Ghazi. General Agathon will not be able to see the horses when he comes, so where can he find those enemies?"
Sarah frowned and expressed her incomprehension. There were grasslands all around Mount Ghazi. Who knew where those herdsmen were gathering now?
"No need to see it, Sarah. Go tell Agathon that as long as he burns down the Wata Temple, countless stray wild horses will appear at the foot of the mountain..."
Li Ang curled his lips and said, "By the way, tell Agathon that in order to ensure that he can take the horse away, he'd better bring more people and weapons and equipment... I will let Sigismund bring the gladiators to help Agathon, so that the guy won't die in the mountain. He still owes me a big debt!"
Li Ang had no intention of changing his plan. If there was a possibility that the plan might go wrong, he would eliminate those who might cause problems, no matter how many people there were.
But the lord still has to do business, and business requires harmony to bring wealth - so he must not do things like murder and arson himself, as it would make people hate him and affect his business.
But it was different with Agathon. This imperial general certainly didn't care whether the D'Shar people hated him or not. The more the D'Shar people hated him, the more satisfied he might be - for a general, the hatred from the enemy country was actually equivalent to his own reputation.
Sarah understood. She bowed to the lord with sincerity, then rode her horse to find Sigismund.
Three days later, the Wata Temple on Ghazi Hill unfortunately caught fire.
The fire attracted all the traditional herdsmen who were devout believers in Wata, and they all rushed over on horseback to put out the fire.
But Mount Ghazi is too steep and dangerous for horses to climb, so there are indeed countless "ownerless war horses" at the foot of the mountain.
The Desha herdsmen rushed up the mountain like crazy, while Agasson stood guard on the mountain from a high position, turning an invasion into a defensive battle.
In fact, it was Sigismund who burned the temple, and he had been lighting fires on the top of the mountain to ensure that all the temples on the mountain were burning - this was to illuminate the entire mountain to prevent Agathon from being attacked at night.
Sigismund could not stand such things as using the name of gods to make money and have sex with women. In his opinion, destroying such evil worship was equivalent to saving the people.
And Agathon also knew that Leon had not fooled him. As long as he could hold on and kill all the Desha people who attacked the mountain, the horses at the foot of the mountain would naturally become ownerless war horses...
But how long this battle will last, and how long he will have to defend the mountain, is unclear...
Fortunately, the snow on the top of the mountain all year round ensured the water supply, and the food prepared by Sigismund in the temple was piled up like a mountain, and even the dinars used to reward the soldiers were piled up like a mountain - these temples were really rich, and I'm afraid Leon would be envious when he saw them.
The only problem is manpower.
Agathon brought only a thousand men - half of the fleet he had brought to D'Shar, with the other half at Ashkoman.
As for the Deshar people at the foot of the mountain, there were too many to count. There were heads everywhere. A javelin thrown down could cause casualties to two enemies...
Moreover, these Desha people were extremely crazy after the temple was burned, even crazier than digging up their ancestral graves.
It looks like this is going to turn into a protracted war.
…
While Agasson was struggling to defend the temple, Leon had already successfully arrived at the city of Toba.
The gates of Toba City were closed at this time, and there seemed to be several cantilevers extending from the city walls, probably because large catapults and other equipment were deployed in the city.
From a distance, you can see the Desha soldiers standing on the top of the city moving on the city wall.
Li Ang's troops were stationed about five miles north of Toba City, which is the junction of the green land and the desert outside Toba City, and also the location where the land is the hardest.
In the distance, thin yellow sand was blown up by the wind, bringing up a piece of gauze-like fine dust, which flashed golden light under the reflection of the setting sun.
The defenders in Toba City had obviously discovered Leon's army a long time ago, but they closed the city gates at such a distance and started fiddling with catapults. The defenders in the city were probably quite cautious.
Of course, this is also a sign of lack of confidence.
"Sir, do you want to send scouts to investigate?"
A Sarleon Knight came over to Leon. He was a subordinate of Fothert. Like Amy, Fothert did not come himself but sent a few representatives.
Leon did not allow Fothergill to join the army. He had already taken Eric away, so Fothergill had to stay within the Changhe Town because he had a huge deterrent effect on those rogue nobles or bandits hiding in the mountains.
Nowadays, Fotherg is regarded as a "butcher" in the eastern part of the Kingdom of the Fierce Lion. Everyone knows that he is cruel and ruthless, and some people with discerning eyes know that he is the knife that kills people in Leon's hand - but no matter what, when this knife exists, no monsters dare to show up.
The knight under Fothert only brought thirty soldiers with him, but all of them were light cavalry with excellent skills, and were Fothert's elite troops.
This was the attitude Fawcett showed toward Leon—his troops were willing to take on the hardest work, like serving as the riskiest scouts.
"There should be quite a few Deshar Windriders in the city. They are very good archers. You'd better not go over there... It won't be long before someone comes to tell us the situation in Toba City. Maybe they can even bring a map of the city's defense..."
Leon didn't send the knight out, but patted the knight on the shoulder and gave him another task: "Take your men to patrol about thirty miles to the north. I'm more concerned about whether there will be enemies in the desert behind. The Desha cavalry trapped in the city ahead are nothing to worry about."
The army then began to set up camp on the spot and make fire to cook .
Leon planned to rest here for one night and wait for Ramon's men to come find him.
