Chapter 419: A Different Jatu
'Those who come here, please salute and pay your respects.'
'Here lies my friend Gaius Marius, a kindly elder and a mighty emperor.'
'Strength is an attitude, not power. Strength is always doing things that are useful to people, not pursuing the pleasure of conquest. Strength is the spirit of self-confidence and the heart of happiness and peace, not eternal desire and dissatisfaction.'
——New Pendor Kingdom, Leon Griffin.
…
"This is the epitaph written by His Majesty Leon for His Majesty Marius. I think now I can understand why they became friends."
Alina stood in front of Emperor Marius's tomb, looking at the inscription that had just been carved by the craftsmen, and turned to look at Justus: "Father, I plan to marry Leon."
Justus looked at the inscription in silence for a long time. After a while, he asked softly, "Why? Your Majesty, is it because of what the child of prophecy said?"
He addressed his daughter as Her Majesty.
This means that he was giving advice to Emperor Bacchus as an aide.
"Not only for this... but also for Bacchus' future. With the death of His Majesty Marius, the enemies of Barclay and Amara will take action, and the D'Shar people will also be ready to launch a counterattack. Bacchus will face more dangers than before."
As the ruler of Bacchus, Alina spoke to Chief Political Officer Justus about official matters: "Before his death, His Majesty Marius asked me to submit to the New Pendor Kingdom because we are about to face countless foreign enemies and must rely on the power of the New Pendor Kingdom. But I want to retain the name of the empire, so I cannot let Bacchus submit..."
"In fact, Bacchus has never been an empire. There is nothing wrong with taking this opportunity to change it to a republic... Besides, there is nothing to lose by bowing your head for a while."
Justus didn't care much whether Bacchus would still be called the "Empire" in the future. Although the name of the Bacchus Empire had existed for a thousand years and the head of state had always been called the "Emperor", in fact, starting from the Second Bacchus Empire, this country that elected its head of state was no longer an empire, but a republic.
Of course, it was a typical aristocratic republic at that time, and everything was decided by the Senate, which had nothing to do with the common people.
Now, after the reforms of Emperor Marius, citizens had the right to elect tribunes, and former slaves were nominally granted citizenship;
The tribunes can run for senator and nominate members of the Senate for election;
Members of the Senate can nominate candidates for the head of state, and the members will elect the emperor from among the candidates.
——In other words, Alina was actually the first emperor confirmed after three levels of elections, and the first head of state under a true republican system.
But in reality, this election was a completely authoritarian operation because only one candidate was nominated.
In the last moments of his life, Emperor Marius actually used a dictatorial approach to ensure a smooth transfer of power.
"No, the Empire must remain the Empire...at least until I leave office, it must be called the Empire."
Alina shook her head and said, "Leon will understand me, and only he will understand... So I have to marry him. This will not only maintain the integrity and independence of the empire to the greatest extent, but also use the new Pendor to suppress the country and ensure that I can promote reforms as a dictator."
"Then...you decide for yourself."
Justus nodded: "Actually, I know that you always think dictatorship is better..."
"No, it is not, father. I simply want a constitution - one that treats all citizens equally, whether noble or commoner, or even the Emperor himself."
Alina smiled self-deprecatingly: "But to do this, I must first become a dictator."
"You are braver than I am, child. But you should know that Leon's decree...it needs the consent of the two queens first."
Justus nodded slightly, now understanding where his daughter was coming from.
Arina wanted to complete what Emperor Marius had not done.
"They have agreed."
Alina smiled and said, "I received a reply from Amy yesterday . I will go to Sarleon City to meet her."
Amy did write Alina a letter.
But to be precise, this letter was actually written to Wendy.
However, Wendy and Alina currently live together, and this is indeed Amy's response to Alina, so Amy was sent to Dilin Port by express horse.
The content of the letter is——
Dear Wendy:
I received your letter.
But please don't blame Leon and Alina.
Since the law allows him to marry three wives, even if he doesn't have affairs, his subordinates will force him to have more offspring...
Without Alina, there will be someone else, that's inevitable.
If the third one was Alina, maybe we could all accept it.
But if it was anyone else, I definitely wouldn’t be able to accept it… and I think you would be the same way.
However, for the sake of our friendship and the peace among the three countries, we should not only help each other but also restrain each other.
So, it's better for us to meet. I'll wait for you in Sarleon.
Don't let Leon know.
…
Leon really didn't know that Wendy and Alina went to Sarleon City to handle diplomatic affairs.
Because after Leon received the news from Lisadilan, he set off for Changhe City - Wendy asked him to go first, because the wounded soldiers left in Dilingang needed someone to take care of them. There were many Noldor warriors among the wounded, and Wendy was of course the most suitable person to stay and lead the team.
Li Ang's injury had not healed yet, so he did not travel fast along the way and did not arrive in Changhe City until October 2nd.
Risadilan sent the message on September 16. According to the time, the Jatu people had entered the eastern part of the kingdom for at least half a month.
Strangely, after Li Ang arrived at Changhe City, he received a report that no villages or towns had been looted by the Jatu people in the past half month.
The one who came to report the situation was Ors from the Owl Knights, who is now a baron.
The Owl Knights who had been staying in Troublen did see a large number of Jatu entering from the east, that is, coming out of the Noldor Forest, half a month ago.
But after entering the country, the Jatu people did not attack anyone, and they should have deliberately bypassed Bailu Fort and Maixiangling. It was not until the evening of September 15th that the Jatu people passed near Troublen at night and were discovered by the owls.
The Owl Knights immediately reported the warning to various places and then followed the large army of the Jatu people.
But the Jatu people were good at riding and shooting, they had a lot of horses, and their scouts were stationed very far away. The Owl Knights were too few in number and did not dare to follow them all the time.
By September 17, the Owl Knights lost their way after passing through a foggy, uninhabited area and a heavy rain.
The location at that time was to the west of Serenmis, at the foot of the Goddess Mountain - and the Jatu people did not attack Serenmis, and Serenmis had no defense force.
After this, they completely lost track of the Jatu people.
Godric was not careless. He asked Ralph to blow the horn to summon the Rangers to guard Braveshield Castle, and asked Andonga to help Charles defend Fletcher Village. He also sent 300 newly trained Red Arrow Longbowmen to reinforce the combat force, and sent a message to Fothert to ask him to send people to block the intersection and suspension bridge north of Kwyn Village.
At the same time, Lisadilan also sent a large number of Noldor troops to search the forest, and arranged Noldor warriors to garrison in White Deer Castle and the Forest Market.
Godric and Lisadiran were going to close the door and beat the dog. With several ends blocked, the Jatu people should not be able to escape.
However, until now, there has been no news of any attack anywhere.
In other words, the Jatu people did not plunder anywhere during the past half month, nor did they return to the grassland. They may have been moving westward.
But this kind of marching discipline was totally unlike the Jatu people’s style—marching for a long time and a long distance, but not harming the places they passed by, not even attacking Serenmis who was not prepared...
Even the regular armies of ordinary countries would forcibly requisition some military rations when passing through villages and towns in enemy countries.
"That is to say, the Jatu people had already reached the vicinity of Goddess Mountain half a month ago, but they never attacked anyone... How big was the size of the Jatu army that you saw?"
Leon asked Ors, he found it a little unbelievable.
"We saw at least 4,000 horses at the time, but we don't know how many people there were. It was difficult for us to keep up with them."
Ors said confidently.
This time, Li Ang found it even more incredible.
Half a month, more than 4,000 horses...
A large number of horses were in the inland areas, neither looting nor attacking cities. How did the Jatu people supply the horses in the past half month?
People really can't eat much, so if they eat frugally, maybe twenty pounds of food will be enough, and they can carry it with them.
But that's not the case with horses. A horse needs to consume at least ten pounds of grass every day.
The inland areas are not like the grasslands. There is limited grass available to feed horses. Apart from large fields near villages and towns, it is impossible for the wild to supply 4,000 horses.
You can't carry hundreds of pounds of fodder with you, right?
Typically, the Jatu would plunder villages along the way during long-distance raids, both for loot and to feed their horses.
Because Gato horses are easy to raise, they are not picky eaters, do not need to be fed concentrated feed, and will not get diarrhea if they eat grass. Most importantly, they can eat crops directly from the fields - whether they are ripe or not, even if they have water in them. They are not as delicate as mainland horses.
Wheat straw is a common horse feed. After leaving the grassland, the Jatu raiders usually use the straw from wheat fields or haystacks near villages and towns to feed horses, and use the looted food to feed people.
However, wheat fields only exist around villages and towns. The Jatu people have never attacked villages and towns, and they have avoided the search of the Owl Knights, which means that they should not have stayed in any villages and towns...
Could it be possible that they could conjure up fodder out of thin air? !
Leon expressed his incomprehension, saying that these were not the Jatu people he remembered.
But at present, there is nothing wrong with the arrangements made by Godric and Lisadiran. Closing the door and beating the dog is also a good idea. Leon does not need to adjust his strategy.
The question now is, where are the Jatu people who broke into the heart of the kingdom?
Godric was also a little anxious - he had never thought that one day he would be looking forward to receiving news that a place was attacked by the Jatu people...
But there has been no news from the Jatu people who entered the hinterland, but there is new news coming from the north.
It was Raphael who brought back the news.
"Your Majesty Leon, we found a large force of Jatu people... They are in the wilderness between Lion Lake City and Fletcher!"
Raphael described to Leon what he saw: "I took the Horn Rangers to explore the grassland and found a large number of wheel marks heading west, so we followed them... I saw countless wheel tents with my own eyes, as if they were migrating on a large scale."
"They're migrating? Migrating again? They migrated last time... I killed thousands of them in Eagle Claw. Last time it was Juda's tribe..."
Li Ang was even more confused: "Who is it this time? Do you know which tribe those Jatu people belong to?"
"I'm not sure. I didn't dare get close - there were too many of them."
Raphael shook his head: "But I think it should be Zakar's people."
"Zakal defeated Zhuda a few years ago and forced Zhuda's tribe to migrate to the Lion Lake City area... and now his own tribe is also starting to migrate to Lion Lake City? What's going on..."
Li Ang frowned: " Have you sent a warning to Lion Lake City?"
"Of course, Ms. An Dongjia went to Lion Lake City, and I came to Changhe City. We went our separate ways, so Lion Lake City should have received the news earlier."
Raphael nodded.
Li Ang felt that the current situation was a bit tricky.
There is a Jatu army in the heart of the kingdom. Four thousand horses usually means two thousand Jatu people. These two thousand people cannot be ignored, but they cannot be found.
Between Lion Lake City and Fletcher, a large number of Jatu people moved to the wasteland. This cannot be ignored, but the question is how to transfer troops? Where to transfer troops?
There might be seven or eight hundred troops stationed in Lion Lake City, and these people must defend the city; the personnel of Brave Shield Castle and Fletcher cannot be moved casually, otherwise there is no guarantee that the Jatu people will not turn around and attack.
Changhe City has two thousand troops, half of which are Godric's troops and the other half are from the Free Legion, but none of them are suitable for being deployed for an active attack.
After Lisadilan came back, he left the Free Corps in Changhe City - the Free Corps currently has only about a thousand people, and several hundred are recovering in Dilingang.
It would be very difficult to bring heavy infantry to deal with the Jatu people, and Leon didn't want to cause trouble.
Most of Godric's troops were newly recruited soldiers. They had no problem defending the city, but would be in great danger if they were taken out for a field battle.
Besides, nothing can happen in Changhe City. The group of Jatu people hiding in the hinterland are probably waiting for Li Ang to send out the garrison.
As for Lisadilan, he can only dispatch a few hundred Noldor Rangers to ensure the defense of the Noldor Forest and White Hart Keep.
Leofric of Karen Deer Castle still has more than a thousand people available for deployment, and he has a lot of cavalry, but they are a little far away.
Dallion and the Griffin Knights can also be transferred here, but they are currently in Sava River Castle, which is even farther away...
Moreover, even if they were all transferred here, there would only be a little over two thousand people in total... would that be enough?
It is estimated that it is not enough. There are no Lion Knights and Raven Army to use this time. It is unlikely to replicate the last time we fought against Jatu together in Eagle Claw.
When power grows, war becomes harder to fight, because everywhere is your territory and you have to defend it all.
After sending out his men to pass on the order to mobilize the troops, Leon began to consider whether there was any way to talk to the Jatu people...
If you can avoid fighting, it's better not to fight... Leon really doesn't want to waste the lives of his soldiers on the Jatu people, who are barbarians who will launch suicidal charges at the slightest disagreement.
Moreover, there are many ways to deal with the enemy, and fighting is the least cost-effective way to deal with the Jatu people. Unless it is for other reasons, there is really no need to fight head-on.
So, Raphael got an important task. Leon asked him to be his special envoy and try to communicate with the Jatu people in the wilderness in the name of the new King of Pende - there was no other way, although Raphael's eloquence was average, he was the only one who could speak Jatu language.
