May 30th, south of Thun.

The sun sets in the west, and the vast land shrouded in the blood-red sunset has turned into a scorched earth.

The golden wheat fields burned in the raging fire, and the thick black smoke covered the sky; accompanied by screams, figures wearing colorful uniforms and holding rifles with cruel and bloodthirsty smiles rushed into the quilt in groups.

Villages and towns shrouded in black smoke.

On the road between the ignited farmhouses, there were several corpses lying in random directions. The figure holding a rifle rushed into the village stepping on the cold bones and blood stains that had not yet dried up, and smashed open every closed door with a smile.

He opened the door, knocked on every locked box, and pointed his bright bayonet at every living creature, including hyenas.

From time to time, several figures emerged from the thick smoke, holding guns and farm tools and trying to resist; a few sparse gunshots pierced the sky, followed by roars and screams that stopped suddenly, and the shadowy figures fell to the ground.

Under the bayonet and the smoking muzzle.

Outside the villages and towns, more old, young, women and children were strung together with hemp ropes like animals. They watched helplessly as the soldiers set fire to their houses and fields, and watched as they robbed them of their few clothes and taxes.

Using copper plates, I watched my father, daughter, husband, and sister... watching them resist, struggle, scream, struggle, cry, struggle...

With dull eyes, he watched them turn into corpses.

Immediately afterwards, a knight riding a horse and wearing a purple one-shoulder cape, holding a red bull flag, appeared majestically in front of the villagers with dull expressions.

Accompanied by the grins of the soldiers wantonly venting their desires, the wailing of the villagers who fell under the bayonet and the muzzle of the gun; the knight who dismounted from his horse walked solemnly on the road covered with blood and bones, planting the bull flag in the center of the village.

In the center of the square, he said solemnly:

"In the name of the distinguished Raghar family, I declare that from now on, this land officially belongs to the Principality of Paya!"

Similar scenes are happening simultaneously in every village, town and farm on the border of Thun.

Ever since the Principality of Paya officially declared war on the Grand Duchy of Thun and launched the invasion, the situation has been extremely smooth.

After 18,000 of the most elite troops went north to fight against the Yser elves, the entire Thun immediately fell into an unprecedented state of emptiness; the hastily organized recruits could not even hold a rifle, facing the Principality of Paya.

The five thousand elite troops often collapse at the first touch.

In just one week, Paya gnawed away all the border territories of Thun, burned and looted dozens of farms of various sizes, and thousands of Thun people were captured as slaves; waiting for them will be the Paya nobles

manors and dark mines.

Facing the fall of his territory, Archduke Claude Francois, who was extremely powerful in the past and who was known as "a stomping foot can bring an army of 60,000", was surprisingly silent this time.

Not only did he not retaliate immediately, but in order to prevent the Paya Principality's army from continuing to invade inward, he gathered 10,000 new soldiers and deployed an extremely long defense line scattered along the border of Thun.

The strength of 10,000 troops is no more than 10,000, but spread flat on the entire front, it can only play a little warning role; and these new recruits can't even hold a rifle, and cavalry and artillery do not exist at all.

Cannot pose any threat to intruders.

Even so, Duke Lagar of the Paya Principality still did not dare to act rashly.

Although they are both one of the Seven Cities Alliance, the Grand Duchy of Thun is the "gatekeeper" of the northern gate of the alliance, with a long history and strong strength; while the Principality of Paya is more like a make-up, and it can only pull out 5,000 people with all its efforts.

An army of men.

Out of caution, or to embolden himself, Duke Lagar approached two small counties and a free city around him, promising to equally divide Thun's territory after the war, and at the same time, he took it out with all his might.

A large "departure fee".

With the help of inducements, Paya's military strength increased from 5,000 to 10,000, at least on paper it has the strength to fight against the main force of Thun.

Therefore, with absolute trust in his allies, Duke Lagar lined up five thousand reinforcements on the border of Thun and faced off against Thun's 10,000 new soldiers.

And his own five thousand elites from the Principality of Pal were operating on the inside, continuing to plunder and raid the farms in the Thun territory, searching for people and supplies, so that the morale of the soldiers could be maintained high.

Such a fair and equitable division of labor and cooperation moved the allies deeply; they expressed unanimously that they could never watch the soldiers of the Principality of Paya shoulder such a heavy mission alone, and must help them share part of it.

As a result, the five thousand Allied troops deployed on the border left their posts without permission and participated in raids and looting activities. There were even many battles over the loot. However, the Principality of Paya was stronger, so it still suffered the loss.

Allies.

After hitting the wall several times in a row, they began to change their focus and forcefully crossed Thun's defense line to plunder; to their surprise, the Thun defenders on the border were simply vulnerable. After being defeated several times,

He didn't even dare to stop the marauding army and watched them leave the country in a big way.

This result greatly stimulated the remaining soldiers of the Principality of Pal and their friendly forces. The military discipline and organization on the defense line began to collapse. All the armies began to invest in this large-scale team building of "collective prosperity"

Went during the event.

In just a few days, the entire defense line became ineffective; the trenches at key positions were deserted, the important strongholds and military camps were filled with captured serfs and livestock, and the artillery forts were so filled with officers' belongings that there was nowhere to go.

Settlement - the ammunition boxes and artillery that were in the way were moved out early in the morning.

From the top commander down to the ordinary soldiers, no one had any objections to this; anyway, the Thun people on the opposite side are just helping weak persimmons, and it is impossible to attack them, so what is there to worry about?

To put it bluntly, even if they really attack, with the firepower of the three Tuen people and one rifle, they will be scattered after a few rounds of volleys. There is no need for artillery at all - artillery shells are so expensive!

Faced with the "military advice" given by his most trusted generals and allies, Duke Lagar had no choice but to accept the reality; after all, the first priority and prerequisite for war is to satisfy his own army.

If the military is unhappy, they will make others even more unhappy.

On the other hand, Thun was also suffering from kidney failure, which surprised Duke Lagar; after receiving the invitation letter from Claude François, his first reaction was not that Thun had given in, but that he had serious doubts -

-This is not a trap, right?!

When did the dignified Francois family lower their heads to others? And to themselves?!

From the beginning of April to the end of May, the war between Clovis and Iser in just a few dozen days changed the entire Hantu. The situation changed almost every day, and it was so fast that Duke Lagar was overwhelmed and unable to react at all.

If someone had told themselves a year... no, a month ago that Claude Francois would not blame you after you invaded Thun, but would generously forgive you and even promise to forget the blame, Duke Lagar

You wouldn't believe it even to death.

And now, Claude Francois's invitation was placed in front of him, with his own seal and signature on it.

Duke Lagar hesitated again and again, but the final choice was not to go.

In addition to being unable to picture the Grand Duke of Thun shaking hands and making peace with him, he was even more worried that he would be arrested as soon as he arrived and be forced to give up the territory and population he had already gained.

Wait, um, wait.

There are 40,000 soldiers in the Ysel Elf Guards Corps, and nearly 40,000 in Clovis's vanguard force plus Thun. The 80,000 troops are engaged in a fierce offensive and defensive battle around Eagle Point City... How to deduce, this battle has no

I can't finish it in a month or two.

In this case, there is no need for the Principality of Paya to choose sides so quickly. It might as well maintain the current confrontation with the Grand Principality of Thun.

If the Yser Elf wins, then of course everything will be fine. The Principality of Paya will take advantage of the situation to besiege White Tower City, advance towards Jinshi City, and force the "traitors of the land" Francois family to cede land and pay compensation;

If the winner is Clovis...well...then he might as well pretend to surrender and follow the Clovis people's lap; since everyone is a traitor and a lackey, how can the Francois family be a head taller than him?

Duke Lagar's wishful thinking came crashing down.

He now even somewhat expects that the Kingdom of Clovis will win the Battle of Eagle Point City - the Ysel elves and the Seven Cities Alliance are so close that they are right under his nose, so he must be wary of their colonization and infiltration at all times.

But Clovis is different. The core area they rule is closer to the north. The Seven Cities Alliance is too far away from them, and the cost of direct control is too high. It is more cost-effective to support one or two allies, and then regularly search and cut leeks.

For the Seven Cities Alliance, no matter who you pay money to, you have to pay money. No matter how bad Clovis is, he is still in the human kingdom. Emotionally, he is naturally closer to and easier to accept than the Ethel elves.

With this idea in mind, on May 28th, Duke Lagar stopped further offensive against Thun and ordered his generals to maintain the status quo; the army continued to plunder villages and towns on the border of Thun, but no longer advanced as before.

This made the generals and knights of the Paya Principality very dissatisfied. After all, if they continued to advance, the next stop would be White Tower City, which was much richer than the border.

But in contrast, the allies of the Principality of Paya breathed a sigh of relief—even if they knew that Thun was currently very fragile, they really did not want to confront this behemoth head-on.

As for the soldiers on the border, they expressed their emotional stability about this... Honor and the principality are bullshit to them. Taking advantage of the opportunity to grab more is a good thing, and subsidizing the family to buy land, build a house and get married is the serious business.

The Arezzo knight didn't care much about these untouchables who didn't know what glory was; in his eyes, soldiers were basically hyenas bought with money, and they shouldn't have any expectations in the first place.

Riding their horses under the bull flag in the central square of the village, the enthusiastic soldiers of the Arezzo knights burned, killed and looted wantonly, just like hunters admiring their hounds in pursuit of their prey.

Just then...

Um?

As if he was hallucinating, the Arezzo knight suddenly raised his head and looked behind him; under the purple sunset, a cool and comfortable breeze blew across the earth, rolling up gentle waves in the wheat fields that had not been destroyed by the soldiers.

Looking at the pleasant scenery in front of him, the knight's eyes softened.

But the next second, he realized that he was not hallucinating - because not only him, but almost all the soldiers who were still looting and looting stopped what they were doing and looked at the rolling waves of wheat in shock.

.

Following the vibrations coming from beneath my feet, black shadows suddenly appeared one after another on the horizon that was painted golden red by the setting sun.

One by one, one by one... more and more, more and more dense.

The knight who gasped narrowed his eyes... Because of the dim sky and the fact that the other party was in the direction of the backlight, he could only see a rough outline, and that outline looked like...

"Cavalry, cavalry!"

A soldier standing next to him suddenly turned pale, pointed in the direction of the black shadow and screamed hysterically: "Cavalry, the Thun cavalry is coming, enough for hundreds of them!"

"No, not from Thun!" another soldier with better eyesight screamed:

"It's the Clovis people - look at the flag in their hands, it's the Clovis unicorn!"

"The Clovis are coming and we are doomed!"

"They are all cavalry, we can't escape!"

The atmosphere of panic spread rapidly among the soldiers like a virus.

The soldiers who had been showing off their power just now, burning, killing and looting wantonly were all confused and stood there shivering. Some even cried out on the corpses of the villagers.
To be continued...