Chapter 380: Marius's Judgment
Those who set fires will eventually die in the fire , and those who are addicted to gamble will eventually lose everything.
Gaul's troops were engulfed in fire at the Shieldwind Fortress.
Occasionally, those who tried to climb out of the city wall would be shot back into the city by Wendy's bow and arrow or the Scorpio Assassin's flying knives.
Until Shieldwind Fortress once again became a charred ruin.
The fire at Shieldwind Fortress was set by Wendy herself.
Gauls set fire to the Noldor Forest, so Wendy wanted him to die in the fire.
Although this kind of revenge cannot solve any substantive problems, it can at least make Wendy feel better.
Sometimes it is important to feel happy, especially for a group whose sanity has been destroyed by rage and hatred.
After seeing the fire in Shieldwind Fortress, the First Legion of the Empire fled in panic.
Now that the castle had been burned down, there was naturally no hope for military rations. Each centurion was worried about the assassin's flying knives that had appeared at home, and had no intention of wasting time here.
They divided into small teams, abandoned all their baggage and some heavy armor, and planned to go home.
People are really interesting. If an army of more than 4,000 people wants to march more than 600 miles, they will need at least 100,000 pounds of food.
But if this army no longer maintained its organization, no longer carried heavy armor and various war equipment; more than 4,000 people were dispersed into hundreds of small teams, each of which moved lightly, they would actually no longer need food...
But the food in Shieldwind Fortress was not burned - Ramon's men had already moved the food away.
Now Li Ang cherishes food very much, he knows what he will face.
"Lord Li Ang, I have done everything you told me to do. Can you please let my family go?"
Rimusk asked Leon tremblingly.
"Yes. But, Rimusk, you can't go back to the Baccus Empire. The First Legion has already fled, and they will regard you as a traitor. You can take your people back to Walvenburg now, but if you don't want to die, let Walvenburg fly my banner, otherwise Walvenburg will inevitably be slaughtered by Islandil - Islandil is in the area of Almera Castle, and now the fire in the Noldor Forest cannot be saved. You should be able to imagine what Islandil will do."
Leon patted Rimusk on the shoulder and gave him a chance to survive.
"...I understand. You can take my son to White Hart Castle as a hostage..."
Rimusk was silent for a while, then nodded helplessly.
He is not a fool. He offered to let his son be a hostage in exchange for Li Ang's trust. This is his only way out now.
"I don't need your son. You have no other choice now. Just send Walwyn's food to White Hart Castle. I will give you ten days to deliver 200,000 pounds of food to White Hart Castle."
Li Ang shook his head and refused. He didn't need hostages now, he just needed food.
Rimusk has betrayed Kairos and his son, and offended Justus. Emperor Marius will definitely not tolerate him. He can't return to the Bacchus Empire and can only rely on Leon now.
Only Leon's banner could protect him from being attacked by Islandil or the other Noldor elves.
Although Rimusk is a greedy, lustful and cowardly man, at least he has a clear mind and at least he did not follow Kairos and his son down the same path.
…
Half a month later, Siyuan City.
"Your Majesty is awake?!"
"Ms. Elena, go call the doctor..."
The hurried footsteps left.
Emperor Marius slowly opened his eyes.
"Your Majesty, are you awake?"
General Sulla supported Emperor Marius with surprise and brought a bowl of medicine from the table beside him: "This is the medicine prescribed by the doctor who came from the Knights of the Glorious Cross in Boshi City. They are the only ones who can be trusted now."
"What's wrong with me? Am I poisoned?"
Emperor Marius covered his head, closed his eyes in pain, and then opened them again: "I feel a little dizzy."
"The doctor said that you were weak and had lost too much blood... Kairos bribed your royal physician some time ago and took a lot of your blood in the name of bloodletting, and then used the Snake Heart Stone on you... I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I violated the law and did not investigate and collect evidence through legal procedures. Instead, I directly tortured the royal physician..."
General Sulla apologized, but there was no sign of uneasiness on his face. It was obvious that he did not think it was wrong to break the law in order to save people.
Emperor Marius sat up on the edge of the bed and drank the medicine in one gulp, with a painful expression on his face: "It's too bitter... I need a glass of sweet wine..."
"Don't even think about drinking. If you drink again, you might never wake up again..."
General Sura shook his head firmly: "You are lucky to wake up this time! If it weren't for the doctor in Boshi City who used coconut water to save your life, I'm afraid..."
"Coconut water? What do you mean?"
Emperor Marius turned his head with a grin on his face - this simple action was quite difficult for him to do. Then, he saw several coconuts hanging from the ceiling of the bed and several sheep intestine tubes inserted into the coconuts.
"It is said that this method was learned from Anson, a subordinate of Leon. It is said that fresh coconut water can be directly injected into the blood to keep an unconscious person alive... I don't know the details, but it is indeed effective. You have been in a coma for many days, and I originally thought..."
General Sulla sighed and shook his head.
"I won't say thank you, Sura...By the way, where is Kairos? What does he want my blood for?...Is he planning a rebellion?"
Marius asked, leaning back against the pillows.
"He wanted to save his son...but what he did might be more serious than treason. The news I got was that Kairos went to Changhe Town and was attacking Leon's territory, and..."
Sura looked at Marius carefully, and perhaps because he was worried about irritating the patient, he did not dare to continue.
"And what?"
Marius frowned.
"... and they set fire to the Noldor Forest... White Hart Keep and Almera Keep, both of which were set on fire. It is said that the fire in the Noldor Forest is completely out of control."
Sulla hesitated for a moment, but decided to tell Marius everything. After all, the future of the Bacchus Empire now depended on the emperor to make a decision.
“Cough cough cough…”
Emperor Marius was stunned for a moment, then started coughing violently.
"Take a deep breath, Your Majesty, take a deep breath!"
Sura hurried forward and patted Marius' back, but his coughing was still violent, as if he had a stitch in the side.
"puff……"
Marius took a deep breath and then spat out a mouthful of bright red blood.
"I shouldn't have told you this. You should take good care of yourself now... Stop talking, Your Majesty."
Sura showed a look of self-blame on his face.
"It's okay... I'm fine..."
Marius waved his hands. After coughing up the phlegm, he felt much more energetic: "The Noldor Forest was burned? ...Where is Justus? Didn't he stop Kairos?"
"His Majesty……"
General Sulla shook his head, trying to silence Marius.
But Marius kept staring at him with a firm look: "Tell me everything..."
"...Justus was kidnapped by Antonius, and the First Legion of the Empire was taken to White Deer Castle by him...Kaylos led the cavalry of the Shadow Legion to destroy Leon's Maixiang Territory, and then tried to attack Changhe Town..."
Sura sighed. "When I got the news, the First Legion had already encountered a joint attack by Leon and the Noldor elves. The legion was dispersed, Rimusk surrendered to Leon, and Gaulus died in the Shieldwind Fortress... Leon detained Lord Justus and declared a full-scale war on Bacchus."
Emperor Marius closed his eyes and remained silent for a while. He was not angry, but calmly accepted the reality.
After opening his eyes again, he asked about Leon's movements: "...Did Leon launch an attack on the Empire?"
"No, on the contrary, he stopped the Noldor elves from attacking the empire... According to the news sent back last night, Leon is leading a large number of Noldor elves to intercept Kairos in Changhe Town."
General Sura shook his head: "Li Ang may want to ensure the safety of Changhe Town first."
"Alas... He is not doing this for the safety . He wants the Noldor elves to stop fighting on their own. He wants the Noldor elves to obey his orders... Sura, go and send a message to recruit all the reserve soldiers in the country, concentrate all the troops in the area of Karen Deer Castle, and appoint Agathon as the Imperial Marshal..."
Emperor Marius said with a frown.
"If we concentrate our forces on Karen Deer Fort, most of the eastern areas, including Ameila Fort and Bapulun, will be lost..."
General Sura reminded.
"The Noldor elves will come out in full force, and the eastern part of the empire cannot be defended... The only thing we can do now is to defend the city of Boshi until Leon withdraws his troops. Don't think that the empire is very powerful, Sura. Without the Noldor Forest, all the Noldor elves will become desperadoes. In this situation, we are the weaker party..."
Emperor Marius shook his head weakly: "If Kairos is still near Changhe Town, he will definitely not be able to escape Leon's pursuit. Perhaps, we should try to rescue Kairos..."
"Why? Your Majesty, he has committed treason! He has also tried to murder you!"
Sulla could understand why Marius asked the empire to take a defensive stance. After all, no one wanted to fight back against thousands of crazy Noldor elves.
But when Marius said he wanted to rescue Kairos, Sulla really didn't understand.
"I don't want to save Kairos himself... I just want to save the Shadow Legion. Even though they don't like me, they are all the elite of the Empire..."
Emperor Marius sighed, "Sulla, where is Antonius? Can you catch him?"
"He should be in Dilin Port. I can't guarantee it, but I will do my best... Do you want to capture Antonius and hand him over to Leon in exchange for the Shadow Legion's cavalry?"
Sulla knew Marius very well.
"This is the only way to save the Shadow Legion... Hurry up and pass the message before Leon marches to Boshi City..."
Emperor Marius nodded and gently stroked his hand to signal Sulla to hurry up.
"Why are you so sure that Leon will march towards Boshi City?"
Sura turned around and sat down at the desk and began to write some orders.
"With Justus and Alina in his hands, he will of course attack Boshi City. As long as he can reach Boshi City, the entire city may surrender without a fight... So we need to deploy troops to Karen Deer Castle... But he probably won't attack immediately. We still have some time."
Marius briefly explained a few words, and then asked, "How is the situation in Sarleon City? Are the Knights of the Radiant Cross still there?"
"Serleon is under attack from the Firdsvain. The Knights of the Radiant Cross and General Cleon are on their way back to Siyuan City..."
General Sulla turned around and said, "It is said that there are not many residents in Sarleon. I don't know why Firdsvain launched this attack."
"They are just taking advantage of someone's misfortune. Firdsvain has always been like this. They probably think that under such circumstances, Leon will gather all his troops to attack the Empire with all his strength and will not get entangled with them..."
Emperor Marius said softly, "But Leon will definitely not do that. The Firdsweil people will probably be struck by lightning... Leon will probably first become the king of Sarleon, and then launch an attack on the Empire..."
Perhaps Emperor Marius really was the person who knew Leon best, and his judgments were all correct.
Leon did not launch an attack on the Bacchus Empire immediately.
He also did not recall the troops from Sarleon.
After burning down Shieldwind Fortress , Leon returned to White Hart Keep as quickly as possible, and together with Wendy and Vendatil, he led the Noldor warriors to pursue and intercept Kairos.
After destroying Maixiangling, Kairos originally tried to harass Changhe Town, but he brought all cavalry with him and could not cause any substantial damage to Changhe Town. After discovering that a large number of Noldor elves were coming from the area around Bailu Fort, Kairos began to evacuate southward.
But when he retreated to the area of Trubrun, he was entangled by two small forces.
These two small forces, one is the Owl Knights, and the other is a force composed of the "farmers" of Maixiangling.
In fact, all the farmers in Maixiangling were Li Ang’s first batch of troops.
That is the original "non-commissioned officer corps".
These people are all small shareholders of Maixiang International, and each of them serves as the person in charge of a farm.
They have always retained the mechanism of internal competition, which not only ensures grain production, but also maintains public security and stability in Maixiangling and Changhe Town.
When Kairos arrived with his army, they did not receive orders, nor did they foolishly resist on their own. Instead, they gathered farmers separately and avoided Kairos' army.
They either came from the original Elladaige or were moved from Serenmisse by Sir Roland. They had all experienced the destruction of their homes and witnessed the establishment of the Fenxiang Territory in person.
So they knew that when faced with a large army deliberately destroying the village, the best option was not direct resistance or helpless crying, but to try to preserve vitality and hope for future reconstruction.
So they took all the stored grain and supplies from the farms in Maixiangling to Bailubao - the road between Maixiangling and Bailubao was well maintained and anyone could get there with a horse-drawn carriage.
This is the right choice.
The farm stored important materials such as grain, saltpeter, seeds of various high-yield crops, and human lives.
These are hopes for the future.
It doesn’t matter if the houses and defense facilities are destroyed, it doesn’t matter if the Maixiangling Wholesale Market is destroyed, as long as the people are still there and the seeds are still there, everything will be there.
After transferring the supplies, they gathered again in Trubrun - this time, in order to concentrate their forces for resistance.
Because they have no worries...
They once again put on their black robes with white griffin emblems and picked up their spears and swords.
Although their old surcoats did not have golden emblems, the loyalty and honor of the first generation of non-commissioned officers were pure gold.
They used the chariot formations taught by Leslie and the riding skills trained by Sarah, and with the assistance of the Owl Knights, they, with a force of more than 300 people, held back Kairos' cavalry of more than 2,000 people until Leon arrived with a large force of Noldor.
