In the early morning, when a red sun rose from the top of the Duantian Mountains, the Dragon Tooth Fortress on the northern border of the Solan Empire ushered in a rare good weather.
The Dragon Tooth Fortress is located between the Prussian Province in the northwest of the empire and the Principality of Farrington in the northeast. The terrain is slightly to the north and is the northernmost part of the Saint Solan Empire. On the empire's territory, this fortress is separated from the Tiger's Mouth Fortress, which is fifty kilometers away.
, like two huge fangs, tightly guarding the most important chokepoint on the northern border of the empire. Defending the huge empire in the north.
In the military defense system of St. Solan, the importance of Dragon Tooth Fortress and Tiger's Mouth Fortress is even higher than that of Longmen, a border town in the west. For more than a hundred years since the founding of the country, this place has enjoyed the highest military deployment priority, both in terms of military strength and
Military supplies are given priority to ensure supply here.
This was decided by Archduke Solan. It was here that the Solan Army he led fought an extremely brutal battle with the Pompeii-Holy Court coalition forces. If it weren't for the Dragon Tooth Fortress and the Tiger's Mouth Fortress that finally blocked the enemy from going south.
, I’m afraid there will be no Saint Solan Empire in this world.
One hundred years is a long time, but it is not long enough to forget the memory. Therefore, even after Philip invaded Saint Solan, the army here was not reduced at all. Especially after the Holy See issued the order for the third Eastern Expedition, a large number of
The appearance of Pompeii's army heightened the tension here.
The army of the Eastern Expedition was not the regular army of the Pompeii Empire. Among them were devout noble knights, squire knights, retinues, slaves and recruited private soldiers, wandering free knights, mercenaries who licked blood from their swords, and many more.
Speculators, criminals and thugs who make fortunes off the infidels of a chaotic land.
"Go and destroy the pagans, and God will forgive you all your sins."
"Go and destroy the heathen. God gives their property to his most faithful servants."
"Go and destroy the pagans, and God will engrave endless glory on the coat of arms of the most heroic knights, shining forever."
The holy voice of the Holy Court has led countless people to embark on the journey to the east. Whether it is because of faith or greed, the result is the same. From Boltan to Seri, from Alaminia to Is,
The road leading to the land of chaos is full of people holding cross flags and wearing cross emblems to participate in the Eastern March.
Although the traditional route of the Eastern Expedition does not pass through Saint-Soulan, this huge army still poses a great threat to the border of Saint-Soulan. Especially in this sensitive period, a group of soldiers mixed with the Eastern Crusade
Pompeii cavalry. For Saint-Soulan, it may be a fatal knife.
Saint-Soulan and the Pompeian Empire were never friends.
You must know that the existence of the Land of Chaos is the masterpiece of Grand Duke Solan. From a certain perspective, Saint Solan and the Land of Chaos have a relationship that is close to blood.
Fortunately, Saint Solan, at least the commoners and nobles here are not pagans. There are churches here, and Pope Solan, one of the three major popes of the Holy See, manages thousands of believers and thousands of believers throughout every region of Solan.
The church and even the Solan royal family maintain a respectful attitude towards the church on the surface.
But it's different in the chaotic land. There are no churches, Pompeian laws and lords' castles. There are only city-states ruled by pagans, gangs of bandits, lunatics, thugs, liars, thieves, and dark wizards from all over the continent.
and fallen knights, as well as uncivilized orcs, barbarians and other races.
The only outcome for any saint who tries to spread the holy message or a conqueror with a brave heart who dares to set foot in the chaotic land is to be beaten into a dead dog. This point is similar to the two earlier Eastern Expeditions and the earlier ones.
During the battle, it has been personally confirmed by countless unlucky people.
But despite this, the Holy See and the Pompeii Empire have never given up their attempts to conquer the Land of Chaos. They will always maintain strong military pressure on the Land of Chaos, and will always keep an eye on the border between Saint Solan and the Land of Chaos.
For the Saint Solan people, there is always a feeling that the spear is aimed at themselves.
Xia Heng looked into the distance.
As the most respected battalion commander among the infantry of the Dragon Teeth Legion, he led his guards and battalion officers to the city wall at eight o'clock in the morning today as usual, and began a day's patrol.
The Dragon Tooth Fortress is built on the back of a mountain. It has a total of four walls that rise in a spiral shape. The overall look is like a huge conch inlaid on the cliff. The first wall is fifty meters high, and the second wall is twenty-five meters high.
meters, the third floor and the highest fourth floor are each 20 meters high.
The drop of more than 100 meters was enough for Xia Heng, standing at the highest point, to clearly see any moving figure on the plains within the Pompeii Empire's border in the north.
The early morning sun shines on the plains, casting a golden veil over everything. The plains in the north are different from those in the south. The land here is poorer and the climate is colder. There are still some water plants in the plains in the south, while in Xia Heng's
In front of me, there are only rocks, dust and low camel thorns, tamarisk and tamarisk.
In the God-given Land, this kind of place is called the Gobi. Except for adventurers, ore seekers and Warcraft, few people live there. But in the Land of Redemption, this is already a land that many lords dream of. At least here can
Planting some improved crops can feed people. Unlike other places, it is simply a restricted area for life.
As far as Xia Heng knew, the Gobi in front of him belonged to more than twenty Pompeii lords. Over the past hundred years, these lords had fought countless wars to compete for land. The brutality made it difficult for people to believe that this was an empire.
The internal war of the nobility.
As a bystander, everyone in Dragon Tooth Fortress knew that if there was a chance to obtain the land south of Saint Solan, the lords of Pompeii were willing to pay a far greater price than the war between them.
A long team was marching in the distance, raising a cloud of dust like an earth dragon.
"Which batch is this today?" Xia Heng asked.
"Sir, together with the group that passed by in the early morning, this is the third Eastern Expeditionary Army that passed through our fortress today." A guard squad leader reported.
Xia Heng nodded and looked warily at the team far beyond the border. Although he knew that at this moment, countless Solan Falcons were monitoring everyone passing by in the vast area in front of the fortress.
But he still didn't relax at all.
The conquerors marched toward the place where the sun rose. The sunlight shone on their dusty faces and cast long shadows in the yellow sand rising behind them.
The number of this army is not large. There are less than 500 people. Like other Eastern Expedition armies, they should be pieced together by many unknown people. They do not have uniform uniforms, and they hold the church in their hands.
Cross flags are also diverse and made of different materials.
There are beautifully embroidered cross flags raised by neatly dressed knights. They are the nobles in the team. They are usually the core of a team and walk in the center of the team.
Closer to the ranks of the nobles are the knights who are stronger and have gained their trust. These knights may be the owners of a small manor, or the second son of a family who has no inheritance rights or the run-down nobles who have lost their territory. They appear in
The only reason here is to gain wealth and glory through the Eastern Expedition.
Although they are relatively poor, they do not have many followers or good equipment. However, having received orthodox education, they are obviously more trustworthy and easier to integrate into the team than others in the team. The workmanship of their flags is not very good.
Exquisite, but not too bad.
The remaining flags seemed a bit messy. Some were linen with crosses painted on them, and some were simply strips of cloth torn from clothes tied to wooden sticks. The people holding these flags were also diverse.
There are mercenaries, wandering knights and swordsmen, as well as civilians with families.
Xia Heng was not surprised by this. On the walls of Dragon Tooth Fortress, he had seen stranger teams than this. He had long been used to it.
Those messy flags exist because on this Eastern Crusade road leading to the land of chaos, people have only two identities. Crusaders. Or enemies of the Crusaders. No matter how tattered the flags are, they want to avoid being
When the Crusaders attacked, they raised it.
The presence of civilians wearing civilian clothes, even women and children, in the team is not something to be surprised about.
You know, there are too many people on this continent struggling to die every day. Even in the best of times, they can barely have enough to eat. And a natural disaster is enough to kill many people
Common people took the risk and joined the team heading east to win a future.
This place is still hundreds of kilometers away from the Land of Chaos. Xia Heng doesn't know how many people will eventually reach the Land of Chaos and join the war. But he is certain that it is definitely not all of them.
Some of the team will fall ill and die before arriving, some will sink to the bottom of the sea in the huge waves of the black ocean, some will retreat the first time they see the horrors of the siege, and some will
Killed in a battle within the Crusaders.
The place of chaos is both heaven and hell!
A burst of shouting, footsteps and the whistle of an eagle came from behind. Xia Heng looked back. In the center of the castle, he saw several restless griffins, which were pulled out of the breeding room by the soldiers. There were fully armed lions.
The eagle knight stepped forward to comfort his mount, while the soldiers hurriedly strapped on the saddles, installed the balance bars and armor on key parts of these behemoths.
"What is this for? Is there any enemy situation?"
Xia Heng asked the people next to him a little strangely. As a mid-level officer in the camp, it was impossible for him not to know if there was an enemy situation. Moreover, he keenly discovered that the griffin was covered with a t-shirt embroidered with the Saint Solan logo.
Riding ornaments, but there are no stainless steel claws for fighting on the four claws.
"Sir, it's the northwest. Someone has been sent over there." A third-level tiger lieutenant reminded.
Upon hearing this, the expressions of Xia Heng and the surrounding officers suddenly darkened.
The northwest mentioned by Captain Hu is not just a direction in the minds of all the officers and soldiers of Dragon Tooth Fortress. This word refers to a person who, although he has never fought against Dragon Tooth Fortress, has been stationed in the fortress for generations.
The opponent that has been defending for a hundred years - the Principality of Langres.
The Principality of Langris is located fifty kilometers northwest of Dragon Tooth Fortress, with only a few small territories in between. Although this principality, like other noble territories, belongs to the Pompeii Empire, no matter whether it is the cable south of the border,
Neither the Lan people nor the Pompeii people in the north saw it this way.
Just as no one had ever really considered the Duchy of Farringdon to be part of St. Solan, no one had ever thought that the royal family of Pompeii ruled the Duchy of Lanrith.
That principality and the family that rules there are the most unique existences on this continent. Their terrifying power makes Dragon Tooth Fortress worry about and guard against them, even far exceeding the level of vigilance against the Pompeii Empire.
This time, the fortress uses the most precious and scarce gryphon knights in the empire. The reason is because today a sky magic ship will enter the airspace of the Saint Solan Empire from the Principality of Lanlith. It will pass through the entire empire and go to Lulian in the south.
Province. The role of the gryphon knights is firstly to serve as a courtesy guard to show respect and welcome, and secondly to ensure that the sky magic ship does not pass over the Dragon Fang Fortress.
It's ridiculous to say it. The passengers on this air demon ship that made the emperor feel like he was facing a formidable enemy were said to be just a second-level steward of the Principality of Lanlith. What's even more ridiculous is that the reason why he went to the south was because of them
He wants to replace Saint Solan and teach a young knight student.
Regarding what happened in the south, perhaps no one in the fortress knew more clearly than Xia Heng.
He is from the Xia family in Beihai. Xia Li is his nephew.
The Xia family is not a wealthy family, but in the imperial court, the Xia family is definitely a family that cannot be ignored. Just of Xia Heng's generation, there are more than thirty Xia family children serving as mid-level officers in the military. Five of them are senior officers.
Officers. In their previous generation, the three tigers of the Xia family, including Xia Heng's father, were all imperial generals.
Xia Li is the eldest son and grandson of the Xia family and the leader of the third generation.
Because of his outstanding talent and being the heir to the family, Xia Li has received the attention of the family elders since he was a child. Xia Heng, in particular, has great expectations for this talented nephew. He himself is only forty and has not yet married. Completely
He regards Xia Li as his own son.
Xia Li is indeed very ambitious. He has already broken through to the rank of Brave Knight before he was nineteen years old, and his future is bright. However, he did not expect that just a few days ago, Xia Li was beaten up. And it was at the Grand Duke Lulian's house.
At the castle ball, in front of all the Lulian nobles, he was beaten until he was unable to fight back.
The day after the dance, Xia Li returned to the border town of Beihai Town.
After understanding what happened, the Xia family did not send anyone to Lulian to settle the score with the person who beat him. Instead, Xia Li's father Xia Song personally beat him up, and then went to his grandfather, the Xia family, to
Under the order of Xia Cang, the head of the family, he was imprisoned in the tower of the Xia family castle and closed his door to think about his mistakes.
No one was surprised by this, neither Xia Heng nor anyone else in the Xia family, not even Xia Li himself.
The Xia family does not prohibit their children from fighting. They don't care about winning or losing. Xia Li's fault was that he forgot that he was a general and the children of the Xia family were soldiers and not anyone's thugs. Even Anthony, who had a good relationship with the Xia family
Not even the prince. The Xia family will never participate in the political struggles of the empire!
A group of aristocratic children ganged up to bully a commoner boy. They deserved to be beaten! What's more, they were heroes in the battle of Meiding City. No matter in terms of strength or other aspects, Xia Li made people blush when compared to him.
.This is why he was punished even after being beaten.
After Xia Heng learned about this incident, he wrote a very stern letter to his nephew. Then he forgot about it. After the Eastern Expedition began, the defense burden of Longya Fortress was very heavy, and he had no energy.
Don't worry about anything else. Besides, in his opinion, it was just a farce between a few children.
But what he didn't expect was that as Scarlett returned to the imperial capital, things became increasingly uncontrollable. Not only was there a crisis of internal strife within the royal family, it also involved the Golden Dragon family.
When they heard that the imperial capital was turbulent and the various forces were finally balanced, the royal family swallowed their anger and acquiesced that the Langris family would serve as Scarlett's protectors to trouble the young man named Roy. The entire Dragon Tooth Fortress was in an uproar.
, Xia Heng couldn't help but drop the cup.
When did the Solan people turn to the Lanlith people to teach them a lesson?!
They faced the Lanlithians at Dragon Tooth Fortress and had been defending for hundreds of years. They had always regarded this principality as their lifelong enemy. But this time, the Lanlithians actually wanted to swagger through their defense line and go to the southernmost part of the empire.
Showing off one's strength makes everyone feel deeply insulted.
Xia Heng couldn't wait to go back to the border town and beat Xia Li again with his own hands.
"Coming."
Following the voice of the guard beside him, Xia Heng turned around and saw in the distant sky, a sky magic ship with high sails, slowly flying towards this side under the sunlight.
The hull of the Sky Magic Ship is made of rare wind wood. The hull is in the shape of a fusiform and is engraved with dense magic patterns. The bow, keel and stern are all made of magic gold, and the short wings on both sides are made of magic silver and
It is made up of magic crystals. The whole ship has a dreamlike feeling under the sun.
Xia Heng snorted coldly.
Although the Sky Demon Ship looks beautiful, it is useless militarily.
The flying height of this kind of ship is only one thousand meters, and many slightly higher mountain peaks cannot be passed. It must pass through canyons through fixed channels. Moreover, because the load must be reduced as much as possible, each Sky Demon ship has a huge empty space.
The body can't carry many people or goods, let alone be used for combat weapons and armor.
In addition, the materials required for its construction are rare, and the operation and maintenance costs are high. Once it is shot down, the losses will be unimaginable.
If permission hadn't been given before, this sky-demon ship wouldn't have dared to appear within the sight of Dragon Fang Fortress even if it had given a hundred courages. As long as two griffin knights were needed, it would be able to keep it here forever.
.
The Sky Demon Ship is slowly heading this way.
And with two eagle screams and a huge flapping of wings, it was like a whirlwind blowing in the fortress. Two griffons rose into the sky and flew towards the Sky Demon Ship. A moment later, the other two followed closely.
, flew into the sky.
At the same time, four small black spots had appeared in the eastern sky. They were the gryphon knights from the Tiger's Mouth Fortress. There were only twenty gryphon knights in the Dragon Fang Fortress and the Tiger's Mouth Fortress. This time,
Eight people were dispatched. This shows that they are on guard against the Langris people.
The Sky Demonic Ship flying towards the Dragon Fang Fortress slowly slowed down. It seemed that it knew what the consequences would be if it flew towards the Dragon Fang Fortress again.
You must know that from the moment they appeared, they were not only greeted by the gryphon knights, but also the magic pattern cannons that had opened the veil, the armor-piercing crossbows, and the ants who rushed up the city wall like ants and were waiting for them.
The fortress soldiers had at least a thousand bows and arrows and more than ten magicians to lock them down.
A few minutes later, the Sky Demon Ship, escorted by Solan's Griffin Knights, slowly changed its course, lowered its altitude, and flew through the canyon between Dragon Fang Fortress and Tiger's Mouth Fortress.
Xia Heng stood on the city wall, staring at the Lanlithians on the deck of the Sky Demon Ship.
Among them, the leader was a middle-aged man wearing a blue buttoned coat with a ruff collar. Behind him was a tall and tall young knight. The two of them were escorted by a group of accompanying knights, standing on the boat.
He turned his head and stared straight ahead. He didn't even glance at the gryphon knight beside him or the Dragon Teeth Fortress not far away.
"Count Schilling of the Pompeii Empire, a Knight of Glory, a member of the Royal Guards of the Duke of Lanres, and a second-level steward." A subordinate responsible for intelligence revealed the identity of the middle-aged man.
On the city wall, there was silence for a while.
Everyone knows that the Golden Dragon Family is powerful, but they never expected that a second-level butler has the power of a Knight of Glory and the identity of an earl. What are the strengths and identities of the first-level butler and the great butler?
After a long while, Xia Heng said calmly: "What a grand occasion!"
He fluttered his sleeves and turned around, walking down the city wall. When the information about the young man who beat his nephew came to mind, a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth: "I hope they don't get bloody heads in the south!"
.
.(To be continued)
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