Baron Bocas was in his thirties and a little fat. Perhaps the city guards who managed the city put too much pressure on him, and he was already bald. In Li Tianrui's eyes, he looked more like an official than a soldier.
However, he still admired the man's courage. When Li Tianrui's army arrived, he sent people to deliver the Duke's letter and badge to the city. Baron Bocas personally came to the city to meet him without even bringing any guards.
No matter who is in charge of surrender, no one will be in a good mood. Baron Bocas looked a little gloomy. He took out the badge sent by the Duke and sighed: "This is the badge awarded to the most courageous warrior when the Duke led us to capture the enemy's castle for the first time. That time he personally led us to the city and was hit by four arrows from the enemy.
He made five badges in total. He kept one for himself, I have one, Amelia has one, and the owners of the other two have died in subsequent battles. "
Li Tianrui felt the heavy meaning in his words. Perhaps out of respect between soldiers, he did not say much, but waited for the other party to finish speaking.
"At that time, we only needed to fight bravely and didn't need to think about anything else. But... now everything is different." Baron Bocas gently stroked the badge with his fingers, and then carefully put it in his arms. He raised his head and said seriously: "I have always obeyed the Duke's orders, and this time is no exception. But I have a few requests of my own, and I hope you can do it."
"You tell me. If it's a reasonable request, I will consider it." Li Tianrui replied.
Baron Bocas said: "First, all the city guards surrendered voluntarily. Please don't turn them into slaves."
Li Tianrui said: "We never treat prisoners as slaves, you can rest assured. But now is a time of war, we will not let those who have left the army run around. We will uniformly screen and reform them. Those who are not suitable for military service will be dismissed, and those who are suitable will be retained and used to strengthen our own team."
"Okay." Baron Bocas added, "The second is not to harm the civilians in the city."
Li Tianrui laughed. "If you were to ask which army in the world cares most about its people, it would definitely be our army. Just look at what our army did after arriving in Alano, and you will know what kind of team we are."
"I heard that many people were executed during the trial in Arano," said Baron Bocas.
"But none of those people is not holding a life in their hands. In other words, they all deserve to die. As long as they are law-abiding, we will never make things difficult for them." Li Tianrui said.
Baron Bocas did not argue with him. Instead, he said, "Well, I hope you are as fair and principled as you say you are."
Li Tianrui asked: "No other requests?"
“No more.”
"Aren't you going to ask for something for yourself?"
Baron Bocas shook his head and said, "If you are ready, follow me into the city. The news of surrender has not spread yet. Over time, some restless guys may show up."
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Li Tianrui left the artillery battalion and five battalions of dark elves outside the city just in case, and took three battalions of humans with him and followed Baron Bocas into Green Forest City.
All the city guards laid down their weapons and walked down the city wall as requested by Li Tianrui. Except for a small number of people who maintained order on the streets, most people were asked to stay in the barracks and not go out. All citizens were also asked to stay at home and not move around.
Baron Bocas called in several of his knights to cooperate with the guards. Li Tianrui sent two battalions to block the city gates and key points, including the city defense barrier center, the Duke's Mansion, the city guard barracks, armory, granary, library and other facilities. The third battalion was responsible for maintaining public order in the city.
After everything in the city stabilized, he ordered the dark elf infantry battalion and artillery battalion outside the city to enter the city to strengthen the city's defenses.
Li Tianrui, accompanied by Baron Bocas and a guard squad, checked key points one by one.
Li Tianrui went to the city guards' barracks first. The barracks were located in the north of the city. He found that most of the city guards were staying in the barracks obediently. They were in good spirits and did not seem to worry about their fate. For them, avoiding an impending war meant saving their lives, which was more important than anything else.
Several captains in charge spoke flatteringly to Li Tianrui, saying that they wanted to be loyal to the Chinese and serve the Guards. It was obvious that they wanted to leave a good impression first.
As the saying goes, don't hit a smiling person. Li Tianrui fought with them for a while, and finally he really picked some people to join the team for maintaining law and order. With the help of these local tyrants who were eager to show off, it would be much easier for his team to maintain law and order.
Li Tianrui secretly observed Baron Bocas. Even though several captains who were originally directly under him now ignored him, he did not seem to have any emotional fluctuations. He was just distracted from time to time, as if he was reminiscing about something far away.
After coming out of the city guard camp, Li Tianrui looked at the key points one by one. He got the key to the center of the city defense barrier, established the regiment headquarters in the Duke's Mansion, and blocked some other important locations before finally coming to the elf community.
The city area where the elves are located has an inner city wall, but now the city gates are closed, turning it into a city within a city. The elves have also arranged a large number of magic arrays on the ground outside the city, forming a defense belt that is 20 meters wide.
According to Li Tianrui's own magical attainments, whoever sets foot on this land will be ignited by the flames released from the magic circle and burned to charcoal. Moreover, part of the magic circle also has a certain isolation effect. Although Li Tianrui does not know what the elves want to isolate, they cannot be without a goal. Behind the magic circle is the wall of the elf community, and there are also many elves with bows patrolling on the wall.
"It seems that the elves have a strong sense of vigilance?" Li Tianrui asked.
Baron Bocas said, "The elves were afraid that the war would affect them, so they started making this magic circle a few weeks ago. But they only activated it today. I can understand their concerns. After all, anything can happen in a war."
"It seems that they are still very wary of humans." The elves on the city wall also saw them. Several people gathered together and pointed at this side. Li Tianrui said: "Maybe I should ask the dark elves to send an envoy to communicate with them."
He looked back at his team and saw no suitable candidates, so he decided to take control of the entire city first and deal with the elves tomorrow. He would just send a platoon to garrison here.