Skablo City, a major city in the southwest of the Empire

The snowflakes in the sky flew freely in the dark night, like dancing stars, and finally disappeared into the burning flames, disappearing silently.

On the wall of Scablo, several soldiers were holding torches, standing there listlessly, standing here with sleepy eyes, and more were cursing under the corner of the wall to keep warm. When they lamented that this weather gave them a chance to breathe, they were also cursing the ghost weather, which made people who had long stretched out of the warm southwest area so cold that they couldn't stand it. Soon, they all wrapped in blankets and squeezed to sleep together.

The sight below the city was also pitch black, and you could see many wreckage left by Duran when the last time the siege of the city. I don’t know when the lights on both sides of the road were blown out by the wind. However, in this kind of ghost weather, no one would go down to reignite the lights for these lightings. Anyway, no one would launch an attack in this kind of ghost weather.

"A bunch of lazy people, what are you doing? You've worked enough, right?" General Geral's roar immediately spread throughout the city wall. The soldiers who were curled up and dozed were kicked up one by one by the officers, standing guard on the city wall.

"Not at all vigilance! If Duran attacked at this time, most of you wouldn't have time to issue an alarm!" Geral cursed at the soldiers in annoyance - this is not the first time he has caught a soldier and is lazy.

But he had no choice. Most of his troops were from defenders in the southwest of the empire. They were usually the kind of idle or assisting in agricultural production and catching thieves. Their training was very relaxed. After all, no country would put their most elite troops in the safest hinterland to wait for their own idle martial arts.

When Duran's army headed south, it swept across the southwest of the empire at the speed of blitzkrieg. Many of these troops were caught off guard. Many of them failed to organize any effective resistance. Geralt took great efforts to organize all the defeated troops, voluntarily gave up many places, pardoned some prisoners to become troops, and barely organized the army of about 20,000, but the quality was still pitiful. Fighting and sneak attacks, they won the Duran's army once by luck, and with the strong city wall and himself to supervise the battle, they blocked the Duran's attack. This was a very lucky thing. Without the obstruction of the city wall and entering the field, Duran only needs to dispatch one-third of the troops to completely defeat them.

"It's impossible to be not serious about military discipline." Gerald was cruel and looked at these lazy soldiers. If they didn't kill a few people, they probably wouldn't realize the seriousness of the problem - after all, since ancient times, Ci has never been in charge of soldiers.

"Come." Geral pointed at the soldiers who were sleeping lazy: "Pull them down and behead them for public display. I want the whole army to know the importance of vigilance..."

Before he finished speaking, an arrow shot the soldier he had just pointed at. The soldier opened his mouth wide and his expression of surprise was shot on the neck. He fell to the ground, and the blood dyed the snow around him red.

"Enemy attack!" Geral didn't bother to punish the soldiers, and immediately hid behind the city wall and shouted.

Countless rain of arrows flew out from the darkness under the city, rushing straight to the brightly lit city wall like moths flying into fire.

The soldiers who reacted half a beat slowed down were shot in succession, with many casualties. The rest of them pulled their bows and arrows randomly and shot into the endless darkness outside the city. There were also those who were at a loss and those who were timid and had already started running down the city. Fortunately, Geral's personal guard was still an elite force and began to carry out defensive battles in an orderly manner.

There was also a thunder under the city wall. With the help of the still lit fire, soldiers and various engineering equipment could be seen pushing the ladder and various engineering equipment approaching from outside the city. These soldiers seemed to have already been rehearsed. Some people used shields to block the arrows shot from the city wall, and the other people used the already prepared earth, stone and sandbags to quickly fill the ditches outside the city that were buried half of the snow, allowing the siege equipment to reach the city. The rushing car had already begun to hit the door violently.

Unfortunately, under the command of Gerald, the warning bell had already sounded and echoed throughout the city. This city that seemed to be sleeping suddenly became turbulent.

"General, all the city gates of our army were attacked." An officer came to report in anger.

"This is the main attack direction, and the other city gates are feint attacks, Duran, this guy." The experienced Geral suddenly stood up and shot an arrow at the city. An enemy soldier fell down. He also admired Duran's sneak attack on the snowy night. However, from the distance, the only thing they could prepare for the sneak attack was that they were here. The distance between the other three gates was too far, and the terrain was not conducive to the army's operations. However, if he hadn't led his elite troops to patrol here temporarily, he might have been allowed to sneak attack in. He could imagine the chaos of his army now.

"I ordered the entire army to defend Sikabro to the death. If the city is lost, we will have no way to survive. Those who are unfavorable in the battle will retreat." Gerald ordered loudly.

Although they were caught off guard at first, after a brief chaos, the defenders finally recovered. They immediately entered the combat readiness position as they had been trained on weekdays and began to launch an orderly counterattack.

Outside the city, Duran, who was hiding in the dark, looked at the city wall in the distance and felt anger. Why did the arrow rain just now shoot Geral to death? What a good opportunity. At present, he was attacking on a snowy night and doing such a military operation that violated the taboo of military strategists has completely lost its suddenness.

"Turn sneak attack into strong attack!" Duran issued an order, and tens of thousands of soldiers immediately rushed towards Skabrou in the heavy snow.

A fierce battle unfolds in this city.

The gate of Skabro had been blocked by the prepared sandbags. The officers on the city walls were commanding the soldiers to use bows and arrows to shoot continuously into Duran's army. On the other hand, countless thunderstones were tilted down to the rushing car below, and boiling oil and rockets ignited the siege car. Almost all the first batch of soldiers using the rushing car were killed, but immediately the second batch of soldiers rushed up and continued to push the burning rushing car to hit the city gate. Although the soldiers in front were seriously injured, their morale was high, and the shouts of killing were shocking, and they rushed forward and rushed forward.

Duran personally waved the sword from China to supervise the battle. Although the blood was already flowing under the city wall, the soldiers behind him still rushed up with their comrades' bodies, chopping and killing like crazy, and even killing the city wall for a while.

Faced with the almost crazy offensive of Duran's army, Geral also fought his life. He personally waved the high-carbon steel seedling knife that he asked someone to bring back from the imperial capital. With his superb martial arts, he crazily slashed the enemy who rushed up, and his body was stained with the enemy and his own blood. The supreme commander came forward to cut people, and the remaining officers and soldiers were also inspired, rushing forward, and pressing Duran's army down the city wall again and again with his military advantage.

This bloody battle between both sides fought from night to dawn. White snowflakes were still flying in the hazy sky. As soon as it fell to the ground, it was dyed red, turning into blood, dyeing the entire city wall red.

When the war drums on both sides stopped, the entire Skabrou's wall was like a big tomb, filled with the bodies of soldiers on both sides. Short swords and guns and broken shields flashed with metallic light on the bloody wall.

Skabrou held it, but the joy of the winner was fleeting, followed by infinite loneliness and sorrow. For the failed side, the burning siege tools and the corpses under the city wall were the only things left. But for the soldiers on both sides, countless familiar faces were wiped out overnight, and more than two thousand men on both sides were swallowed up by this tragic war.

Jeral stood on the city wall, his armor was already in ruins, but the knife in his hand was still covered with blood, reflecting the desolation of the battlefield. Looking at the soldiers around him who had just been baptized from the sea of ​​blood, he felt a little relieved - only soldiers who had fought in such a bloody battle were real soldiers, and could block the attack of Duran, a madman. Even though he lost many excellent soldiers overnight, more excellent soldiers were born.

"We can defend it, this is the last line of defense of the empire, and we have no way to retreat." Geral reminded himself over and over again.

Several large carts were pulled over, no arrows were fired on the city wall, and no one said anything more. Both sides began to collect the bodies of the soldiers who died in battle.

Duran sat in his tent without saying a word, and the generals around him lowered their heads, waiting for his orders without saying a word.

"We are only one breath away, only one breath away to kill Geral and conquer Skabro City." Duran suddenly burst out, scaring everyone.

"Your Majesty, it's snowing now and it's inconvenient to supply. Should we withdraw our troops and go back..." A general suggested, but before he finished speaking, Duran's roar came.

"We don't go anywhere, we are stationed here. From today on, we will build a high platform immediately, use the ultra-long range of the composite bow we bought from the Chinese to shoot and kill the defenders continuously, cooperate with the feint attacks every day, and beat drums continuously at night to create the illusion of siege, so that they can't sleep and destroy them psychologically. I see how long they can last. If they can't help but come out to fight, it will just let us beat them all in one go."

Durant paused, calmed down, and said in a firm tone:

"You guys, we have conquered the southwest of the entire empire, which is four times the territory of our original territory. Now we are short of this last city, and the last one, I don't believe that our elite troops of war will be dragged here by this piece of miscellaneous rags."

"Yes." The generals saluted together and then went out to deploy separately.

The generals came out one after another, but Duran's nephew Ansel walked in with a man in his 30s and somewhat timid, and saluted Duran: "Your Majesty, the man has been found."

"It's him?" Duran looked at the man with his sword-like eyes, making the other person tremble all over, like a sieve.

"Yes, he is the distant descendant of the Loren family, the lord of the former Sikabro city-state. Although it is a little far away, strictly speaking, the grandson of the niece-wife of the second uncle and the third uncle and the fourth aunt of the former city-state cousin, but Your Majesty, this city-state has been annexed by the empire for more than 50 years, who still remembers the former lord?"

"When the entire city is beaten to the point where we have a mental breakdown, they would rather believe that a former city lord will come back to end the war." Duran said confidently - even if the army can withstand this mental attack, it is hard to say that the 60,000 people in the city are.

Construction began to start vigorously outside the city. They transported wood from the rear, built high platforms, and then began to shoot at the city - the composite bows made in China far exceed those of the empire's crossbows, and Duran specially organized the arrows of this bow as consumables. Although they were very different from the special plastic arrows provided by China, they were at least more aerodynamic than the empire's arrows. For a moment, the little joy of the soldiers in Scablo's city's victory disappeared. The soldiers guarding the city on the city walls did not even dare to walk upright, and could only carefully hold the shield and walk horizontally like a crab.

Geral was also angry, but he was not unable to do so. The city was rushing to make a large weapon called the stone caster, preparing to use this weapon to smash the enemy's arrow tower.

Just as both sides were coming and going, a burst of sensational music suddenly sounded in the sky.

With the Chinese version of "Soviet March", five huge shadows began to cover the entire earth like alien spacecraft in "Independence Day". The white snowflakes disappeared at some point, leaving only the dark ground that covered the last bit of sunshine.

The soldiers stopped attacking, raised their heads and opened their mouths to look at the scene in the sky. Whether it was the Duran army, who had seen the power of the Chinese army or the Imperial army, who were stunned by the courage just by seeing this, they were completely in panic. Then, I don’t know who started it first, the soldiers on both sides began to throw down their weapons and fled desperately.

Duran and Geral were forced to hold swords themselves, and led the officers to slash dozens of deserters before pulling the troops back from the collapse...

The Red Cliff airship (the airship is named after the ancient battlefield place name)

Operation commander Wang Zhongguo looked at the battlefield below and felt a little annoyed. After all, just during the day yesterday, their satellites showed that it was still calm. In addition, the satellite effects on snowy days were affected. It was not until this morning when the drone reconnaissance discovered that it was already in full swing.

Although these ancient wars are simply not worth mentioning to them, they will definitely affect their tasks. After all, no one likes to do their homework amid the flying rain of arrows and the disturbing shouts of people.

With the thrust of the rotor, five airships lined up in the middle of the city wall and the Duran army, all stayed only about 80 meters away from the ground. They first shot out the javelin to firm the airship on the solid ground, and then opened the lifting platform. The first thing that was lowered was the Type 09 infantry battle and more than 10 soldiers. At the same time, the huge sound was directly pressed from the airship:

"My government loves peace and always advocates resolving disputes in the form of negotiations and opposes any form of force resolution. Therefore, it came to seek consensus and proper handling for the peaceful mediation crisis. The highest commanders of both sides asked us to come to our camp in one hour to conduct peace talks. Please attend, otherwise it will be regarded as contempt for the Chinese government..."

Amid the broadcast, the Chinese officers and soldiers below had already started to build tents. In less than 20 minutes, a huge tent group was erected in the center of the battle area between the two sides, separating the two armies. Four Type 09 infantry battles were in four corners of the tent group, and the black muzzles were monitoring the operations of the two armies.

Duran was furious and pulled out the sword given by China and chopped it around in his tent. All the generals were careful to hide outside to avoid accidental injuries. After the tent calmed down, these people ran in. Although Duran's face was still angry and was still breathing heavily, he had already calmed down and looked at the generals and said:

"As long as we can take down the city of Skablo, we promise all the Chinese people's requests, no matter what they want, whether it is compensation or as a military base, the empire can give, we will give more. In this way, maybe we can still take down the last nail without bloodshed."

Meanwhile, Skablo City

Geral was also looking at the high-carbon steel knife. He and his subordinates were stationed in the southwest of the empire for a long time and had never participated in a war with the Chinese army. He only heard about all the legends of the Chinese army. However, he only knew one thing that none of the troops drawn from the southwest when the empire counterattacked. Yu Duran was different in fear, so he was more curious. So he made a wrong decision that made him regret his life.

One hour later Chinese military camp

Duran arrived early, and sat in the empty tent with a few subordinates with a look of fear, waiting. Until the head of the Chinese side, Colonel Wang Zhongguo, with a diplomatic smile, Captain Wu Zuren and others walked in, shook hands on both sides, and then, several generals of the Imperial Army also walked in from outside the door and greeted him.

"Where is Geral?" Looking at the faces of the other generals, Duran suddenly asked loudly. Wang Zhongguo and others were stunned for a moment, and then understood what he meant - the one who came from the Empire was not their commander, and their face suddenly turned ashen.

The general of the empire had a little panic on his face: "I am the representative of General Gerald. The general was injured in the supervision of the battle last night and was unwell, so he sent me to replace him. I am..."

"I said that we asked the supreme commanders of both sides to come to negotiate. It was our imperial language that was not standard. Did you understand?" Wang Zhongguo interrupted the other party without hesitation.

"General..."

"If he hurts, we will have a doctor to treat him, and we will ensure that it will be better than your doctor." Wang Zhongguo stood up "Huo" with a hint of calm anger on his face: "Since he doesn't want to come out, we will ask him out."

After saying that, he left with a few confused imperial representatives and Duran with a smug smile.

A huge explosion came from the city gate. Several imperial representatives were shocked and hurried out of the camp tent. The city gate that Duran's troops could not open yesterday had been blown into pieces by several 80 fires, revealing the sandbags that were blown up behind. Then, more rockets began to greet the city wall, as well as the magic rifles in the hands of the magic infantry flying in the air, and the 630 cannons on the airship. The entire city wall trembled in the powerful firepower, and there were constantly blown up. A minute of firepower volley, and when the Chinese army's firepower stopped, the city wall that had swallowed thousands of lives was cut down half, and only half was still standing in place. The aisles and towers on the city wall were all destroyed, and the rest were just a large ruin, shaking, as if they could fall down with just a push, and there was no defense of the city wall.

When the explosion began, the defenders on the city wall began to flee, and many people even jumped off the city wall to avoid this power. All the soldiers who had not had time to escape were wiped out, and even the entire body could not be found.

The representatives of the empire who were negotiating were scared to the ground, while Duran, who was beside him, showed a gloating smile.

"Tell you immediately General Gerald, he still has 20 minutes left and he doesn't want to come out to talk, so we don't need to talk." After Wang Zhongguo said that, he turned around and returned to his tent. The imperial representative immediately ran towards the city, shouting Gerald's name while running.

Duran looked at the half-shaking city wall and smiled proudly: "Geral, you are seeking death."

In just over a dozen minutes, Gerald ran out in panic and sat at the negotiating table, looking at the serious Chinese officers, and did not dare to breathe.

"General Geral." Wang Zhongguo looked at him with sharp eyes, and the latter was feeling uncomfortable.

Zhao Yi, who was standing by, took out the seal from the emperor and the orders from the Senate:

"General, we came from the imperial capital. Now the Senate and His Majesty the Emperor want you to cooperate with us with all your strength. I didn't expect that you are so arrogant and you won't give anyone any face. We have traveled thousands of miles to help you avoid war and regain peace, but you don't even want to meet with us. Otherwise, let's leave and let you continue fighting."

"The officials are in vain, and the officials are in vain. It's just that the situation of the war is unknown. I dare not show up easily. I hope you all understand." Geral said in a trembling voice. With the city wall being destroyed and morale collapsed, he can't even bear Duran's attack.

"Okay, let's talk about the serious matter!" Wang Zhongguo said seriously: "You also know that our country's foreign policy has always advocated negotiations to resolve disputes and avoid all resolutions by force... (1,000 words are omitted below). Now let's talk about the dispute between you and you will see if you have any fundamental conflicts. You can solve the problem without force. Please rest assured that our Chinese government has always insisted on being impartial and abiding by justice on the issue of major issues."

"We are just fulfilling our responsibilities as a soldier defending the territory." Geral said first. At this moment, he was a little secretly happy. It seems that these Chinese people like to talk about face and some great principles, so they are just doing their best to protect the territory of the empire. Duran is an invader, not with him in terms of reason and reason. Now let's see how he should talk about this problem.

Unexpectedly, Duran just smiled slightly: "Defend the territory, you invaders have the nerve to talk about this problem. The Skabro city-state was originally an independent city-state. It was you greedy empire invaders who annexed him and brutally killed the whole family of the lord. Now the descendants of the city-state lord Loren family asked me for help, hoping that I would save their suffering people from the clutches of the empire. I was launching troops to attack for the sake of justice."

After saying that, Ansel immediately walked in with the "distant descendant" in his 30s who were trembling with fear:

"Everyone, this is the distant descendant of the former lord Luolun family."

"Stop talking nonsense." Geral screamed angrily: "Skabro City has been in the empire for more than 50 years. The weather is good and people are determined. Moreover, the former lord Luolun family is sparsely populated and has long lost descendants. How do I know that the farmer you recruited from from some field and said that they were distant descendants?"

"I knew you would say that." Ansel took out a portrait, a family tree and a metal seal: "This is a portrait of Lord Loren. Please see, it looks very similar to his facial features, and this is a treasure circulating in his family. It is the seal of the Luoren family, and this family genealogy is enough to prove that he is a descendant of the Luoren family."

Looking at the genealogy that was drawn like a maze roadmap, Geral was also angry: "What can this mean? Anyone who wants to forge such a thing can forge it. Besides, the seal of the Luolun family is in the folk, so it is not surprising that anyone can get it. Do you say he is, and there is direct evidence?"

"Okay, please be quiet, two of you." Wang Zhongguo spoke, and the two immediately stopped quarreling and looked at the colonel: "It is impossible to identify identity with your technical means, but our technical means can be done." After saying that, he winked at Zhao Yi, who understood it, walked to the "distant descendant" and stretched out his hand:

"Hello, Mr. Hou, I am Zhao Yi, deputy commander of the Southwest Contingent of Taoyuan Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. I am very happy to see you."

The other party was stunned for a moment, looked at Duran and Ansel first, and then timidly reached out and imitated Zhao Yi to shake hands.
To be continued...