Chapter 391 The Emperor's Challenge
"Ahem... ahem... Agathon, you are too rash... If I hadn't arrived today, if I hadn't stopped you from continuing your attack, if we were unwilling to abandon the Gladiator Regiment, what would have been the consequences? You shouldn't have made such a simple mistake!"
In Bacchus' camp, Emperor Marius taught his generals a lesson.
"Your Majesty, I just want to attack instead of defend. Karen Deer Castle was once occupied by Leon, and there's no guarantee that he didn't do anything... I'm worried that I can't hold it."
Agathon lowered his head and explained honestly.
"No matter what, it's better than a field battle... Agathon, you are always unwilling to consider factors other than war. Karen Deer Castle is the base of the Phoenix Knights. If Leon attacks Karen Deer Castle, the Phoenix Knights will help us..."
Emperor Marius said this with some regret.
"I know that a field battle is disadvantageous to us... but I hid all the Iron Ring Centurions and was originally planning to bypass the battlefield and rush to his central army's royal flag..."
Agathon lowered his head and spoke softly.
"You still don't understand Leon... Agathon, I can guarantee that Leon is not in his central camp at all! You love adventure too much, Agathon... cough cough cough... cough! cough!!..."
As Emperor Marius was speaking, he suddenly burst into a violent coughing fit.
"Your Majesty, please lie down and rest, and stop talking..."
Agathon was a little flustered. He knew Marius's condition, but his majesty was still leading his troops and galloping away at this time...
"Hu...Hu...I'm fine...I'm fine..."
Marius pushed away Agathon's hand that was trying to support him, took out a small piece of black stuff from his arms, broke off a small piece and threw it into the wine glass on the table, then drank it all along with the wine in the glass.
As usual, Marius was still heating the wine in a small stove, but now he was no longer using a lead vessel.
"Your Majesty! This is..."
Agathon's eyes widened and he lowered his voice in panic: "Is this opium?!"
“…This is indeed opium.”
After drinking the glass of wine with opium paste, Emperor Marius stopped coughing and his face looked much rosier.
"you……"
Agathon didn't know what to say. His hands trembled, and he finally covered his face and slowly sat down on the chair.
He realized that Emperor Marius' body might not be able to hold on for much longer, and his flushed face looked like a last gasp of vitality.
"These opiums are the medicine the doctor prescribed for me. It's all I can rely on... I can't be cured."
Marius looked at Agathon calmly: "You are now the marshal of the empire... You can no longer regard yourself as a general who charges into battle, Agathon."
"Your Majesty, I... our enemy is Li Ang... I don't have the confidence to defeat him in strategy. If I stay in Karen Deer Castle, I will probably be trapped... just like I was in Qicha Fortress..."
Agathon looked at Marius helplessly, and whispered about his inner demons.
"In that case, let's fight him quickly and decisively. After all, we have already attacked here... If you don't have confidence in your strategy, then just march forward in formation!"
Emperor Marius patted Agathon on the shoulder and said, "I remember that Agathon always believed that he could defeat any powerful enemy."
"If you are still healthy, I still believe that I can defeat any powerful enemy..."
Agathon lowered his head and knelt before Emperor Marius, tears gradually filling his eyes: "But now... Your Majesty..."
"Don't cry! I'm not dead yet!"
Marius punched Agathon on the shoulder.
The blow was powerless, and Marius himself staggered.
Agathon quickly supported Emperor Marius, tears falling from his eyes.
"Listen to me... I brought 3,000 cavalrymen, all of whom were urgently summoned military police and mounted police to maintain public order. Their combat effectiveness is uneven and they can only be used for harassment, not for frontal combat... But this will definitely disrupt Leon's deployment, and we must seize this opportunity. Tomorrow, you will lead the cavalry, and I will command the central army..."
Marius waved his hand and did not let Agathon support him, but made quick arrangements.
"Your Majesty, do you want to lead the battle yourself? Your health..."
Agathon cried and complained.
"I don't want to die in my bed!"
Marius smiled, his eyes still shining: "Listen, Agathon... If Leon charges at me tomorrow, you can't control me... Don't rescue, don't panic. You have to lead all the cavalry to do what you are good at..."
…
At this time, a military meeting was being held in Li Ang's military camp.
Everyone was discussing the next battle.
"When did Bacchus have so many cavalrymen?"
Leofric was a little anxious and paced back and forth in the military tent.
"They got a lot of horses from D'Shar, so it's reasonable for them to form a few new cavalry units... But the decision to abandon the Gladiator Regiment can only be made by Emperor Marius himself. In other words, Emperor Marius himself is right across from us."
Li Ang sat at the table in an unmannerly manner, tapping the scabbard with his fingers.
"Isn't Emperor Marius seriously ill? How could he lead the cavalry to fight?"
Klose asked in confusion.
"Perhaps the Glorious Cross Knights' medical skills are so great that they can cure his illness... Let's think about how to deal with it tomorrow. The enemy's cavalry is no less than ours. Fortunately, we retreated in time today and were not bypassed by those cavalry..."
Leofric paused, turned around, and began pacing again.
"But it may be too late to rearrange our tactics now... and the area where we are stationed is almost entirely an uncovered plain, and my people are not good at fighting against large-scale cavalry on the plain..."
Islandir shook his head and sighed.
This is the problem caused by retreating twenty miles - there are neither forests nor hills nearby where the camp is currently set up, and this is not the battlefield that Li Ang originally envisioned.
However, in large-scale combat, the party that retreats first should preferably retreat .
This is for safety, to avoid unforeseen accidents. When the troops withdraw, it will be more or less difficult for them to support each other. The unobstructed plain environment at least will not be ambushed by the enemy.
"This area is very suitable for us to conduct lance assaults and horse archery. As long as the central army can hold off the enemy's large force, we can break through their formation."
Ralph looked at Leofric, then at Islandir, and offered his opinion.
"If the central army can hold out, I won't have any trouble..."
Leofric sighed. "It's not that I don't have confidence . If it's a hundred people against a hundred people, our soldiers can beat the Bacchus people to tears. But if it's a few thousand people against a few thousand people, the result will be the opposite... Our troops are gathered together by various lords, and have not undergone unified large-scale collaborative training. But the Bacchus side are all legions that have undergone unified training. The larger the scale of the battle, the stronger they are."
Indeed, this is why the Bacchus Empire has always been stronger in positional warfare than other countries, and why the Bacchus people have always been able to use infantry to fight against the heavy cavalry of the Kingdom of the Fierce Lion.
Especially after Marius's reforms, all the legions of Bacchus were unified professional soldiers who received unified training. Even members of different legions could cooperate closely with each other, which was something that the troops of other countries could not do - the armies of other countries were all made up of various lords.
In terms of individual capabilities, every member of Li Ang's unit is first-rate; in fact, they are all elite troops.
But the problem is that each unit has only a few hundred people, and their tactics, equipment and combat ideas are not unified. I am afraid they will not be able to withstand the advancement of the Bacchus' battle formation.
"We have to find a way to fight a melee, just like the three prophets did to us... but we have to disrupt the Bacchus' formation first."
Leon nodded to Leofric.
It is true that we cannot fight the enemy in the way that the enemy is good at . If we can rush into the Bacchus' camp, force them to disperse their formation and engage in a melee, we can rely on our stronger individual combat capabilities to achieve a great victory.
"But how do we break up the Bacchus army?"
Eslandil asked.
Everyone fell into deep thought.
At this time, a knight came in and reported: "Report! Your Majesty, Bacchus sent an envoy to visit... General Sulla wants to see you."
"It seems that the leader of the opposing army is indeed Emperor Marius himself. Please invite General Sulla in..."
Li Ang waved his hand, then got down from the table and sat in the main chair.
Soon, General Sulla was brought into the military tent.
Sura still came alone, and he was holding a box in his hand.
"General Sulla, you are not going to do business with me again, are you? Could it be that Emperor Marius is planning to surrender to me this time?"
Li Ang looked at Sura in surprise and asked in a teasing tone.
"… Your Majesty Leon, I was entrusted by His Majesty Marius to bring you a gift—this is a wedding gift for you. His Majesty Marius asked me to apologize to you. When he learned about your wedding, he sent someone to Siyuan City to pick up this gift, but the journey was long, so the gift arrived a few days late. I hope you don't mind."
Sura shook his head expressionlessly and handed over the box in his hand.
Lisadiran reached out to take it and looked at Leon questioningly.
Li Ang nodded: "Open it and take a look."
There are quite a few things in the box.
There was an earthenware wine jug and lots of fruit in a wooden box filled with ice.
Orange, lemon, pomegranate, coconut...
Many of these fruits are out of season, and most of them are melted with ice, obviously taken out from the ice cellar, and there is only one of each fruit.
Most of these fruits are specialties of the West Coast, which are the same things that Leon once asked Emperor Marius to buy for free - these fruits can relieve the symptoms of lead poisoning.
Of course, Leon's main purpose at that time was to get the Bacchus Empire to stab Firdsvain, because Amy had just become the queen of the Sarleon Kingdom.
——These fruits represent the friendship between Marius and Leon.
Even though the two sides are currently in opposing camps, personal friendship can still exist.
At the same time, these fruits are also pure blessings - they wish Li Ang to have his own fruits soon...
"Please thank His Majesty Marius for me... I have received his kindness."
Li Ang expressed his gratitude sincerely.
But then he realized that Emperor Marius might not be able to hold on for much longer - Marius himself came here, but he asked people to go to Siyuan City to get these fruits, which means that he did not bring these things with him...
This means that he is already seriously ill and has no use for these fruits!
"I will... Your Majesty Leon, in addition to bringing gifts, His Majesty Marius also asked me to challenge you to a fight - tomorrow morning, he hopes you will fight him head-on."
Sura nodded and continued.
Before he finished speaking, there was a loud discussion in the military tent.
"Invitation to a fight? Is there such a thing these days?"
Leofric's face was full of disbelief.
Indeed, this practice of two armies facing off, openly inviting a fight, and then fighting fairly, had already disappeared hundreds of years ago...
"Okay, please tell His Majesty Marius that I will be waiting for him here tomorrow morning."
Li Ang waved his hand to stop Leofric and promised seriously: "Lisadiran, send General Sura off for me."
"Your Majesty! This is not a joke..."
As soon as Sulla walked out of the military tent, Leofric asked anxiously: "Are you really going to fight head-on like this? We haven't made any arrangements yet!"
"I must agree... This is a challenge from Emperor Bacchus to the new King of Pende, how can I refuse?"
Li Ang smiled and said, "A big war should be dealt with uprightly."
"But we will be at a disadvantage if we fight head-on. Besides, they have more people now, and with Emperor Marius leading the battle, their morale must be high... and we don't have time to deploy too many tactics now."
Islandil also felt that Leon seemed a little careless.
"It's because Marius is leading the battle... If Emperor Marius hadn't come, I definitely wouldn't have fought the Bacchus in battle formation... But it's precisely because their commander is now Emperor Marius that I'm willing to fight them head-on... Sometimes having more people isn't necessarily a good thing, and an emperor leading the battle in person isn't necessarily a good thing either."
Li Ang shook his head: "The strongest link is often the weakest point... So, tomorrow we only have a simple tactic - everyone follow me and charge towards the position of Emperor Marius!"
"But how do we know where Emperor Marius is?"
Klose asked.
"Marius is already very weak... He cannot lead the cavalry. And since he has challenged me to a duel, he will not hide in the dark. Given his character, he will definitely stand in front of the Bacchus' center..."
Li Ang spread his hands: "Of course, everyone, this is just my judgment, maybe with a little bit of feeling... But I can be sure that my feeling is correct!"
"A weak patient standing at the front of the formation... I think he will deliberately attract me to charge towards his position - if nothing unexpected happens, this is Emperor Marius' intention to challenge me to a fight. He wants to use himself as bait..."
“But this is also our opportunity…”
"Emperor Marius himself is a man of strong will and calm attitude. He will definitely make some targeted arrangements, but other Bacchus may not have such a stable mentality..."
"As long as they think Emperor Marius is in danger, they will definitely try to rescue him, and then the formation of the rest of Bacchus's troops will most likely be disrupted!"
"As long as their army formation is a little disrupted, we can break in!"
"Of course, this is a gamble. If Bacchus loses his composure, we will have a great victory. But if we don't have the determination to break through everything, or if all the Bacchus people don't care about Marius' life or death, then we will face a crushing defeat... Everyone, do you want to gamble?"
After Li Ang finished speaking, he looked around at everyone present.
"bet!"
No one present was a coward. Such a simple and easy-to-understand tactic did not need further explanation, and they still believed in Li Ang's judgment.
"Okay...it's decided then. But there is one thing you must remember - even if I'm in danger, don't worry about me! Remember! Only charge towards Emperor Marius!!"
