A few hours later, when the obstacles in the marching direction were jointly cleared by the soldiers and magicians, information from all sides came again. What made everyone depressed was that all the captured prisoners dug out from the "combined burial group" answered in unison that they were not the troops of the lord here, but a powerful bandit group nearby. And those cavalry, through a lot of reconnaissance, showed that they all ran into the military camp near Crescent City. And those infantry who escaped, the intact division directly hid in the city, and those who escaped from the hands of the magicians and avoided being killed were unexpectedly killed on the way of escape, without a single one left.
"******, this is simply an open civil war! What kind of bandit group is this? If there were such a bandit group, wouldn't all the merchants and travelers in the empire be waiting to die? It's obvious that these people are the work of that... that dead money-grubber's cronies. My lord, why don't we just destroy those three cavalry divisions and the infantry divisions in the city, and see how they can be so arrogant in the future." After hearing these words, a division commander stood up and clamored to destroy those troops that had ambushed or attempted to ambush us.
"What basis do we have to attack them? Where is the evidence? Are we going to rely on those soldiers who claim to be bandits to insist that those troops ambushed our troops? Or if we attack there, we will be accused of attacking friendly forces, or even worse, be charged with treason?" After waving his hand to let his subordinates sit down, Pavel also felt a headache. Without evidence, he could do nothing.
"But can we just let it go like this? Although we didn't suffer any losses, how can you swallow this anger? At least we have to teach them a lesson as Lord Thacker said, and let them know that we are not easy to mess with. Or we can learn from them, tear off the military signs and badges, and just **** them..."
"It's not that this idea is not possible..." The last sentence of the division commander obviously touched the nerves of several top commanders.
"Sir, absolutely not. I know you can't swallow this, but doing so may put us in a greater crisis. They are far away from the emperor, and it may be difficult for you in the imperial capital to find any problems, let alone infiltrating the local military system. But we are a legion directly under the imperial capital. Can you guarantee that the other two forces will not send people to infiltrate our military system in a place where the secret fighting is so fierce
Not to mention the finance minister's people, even if the military minister knew that we attacked the Crescent City defenders, wouldn't they add insult to injury? At that time, under the double attack, even His Majesty couldn't protect us. Even if the other party used this as an excuse to rise up, wouldn't we have harmed His Majesty? "If Thacker attacked the Crescent City defenders, once the news leaked out, what I said would definitely become a reality.
"What does Hanlong have to say? But I think we should at least get this across, right?" After hearing my analysis, Sack immediately gave up his previous plan to anonymously attack the Crescent City army.
"Sir, I have two suggestions. First, find out the origins of the captives, attack the lair, and search for evidence. Second, bring the captives back to the imperial capital and hand them over to the Minister of Military Affairs, and tell him how many infantry divisions of the bandits we have annihilated and how many troops have escaped. We don't need to worry about the rest, just make it clear that we attach great importance to this incident and are very angry..."
"Well, you are worthy of being the wise general that I, Thack, have chosen at first sight. Let's go back and see how the Minister of Military Affairs and the Lord of Crescent Territory explain that there are so many bandits in the empire. Or maybe they start to fight each other, and we can not only see a good show, but also gain some benefits from it. Did you get anything I need from those prisoners?" Thack said the last sentence to several officers, and his voice turned gloomy. If the two officers didn't reply immediately, they would be in trouble.
"Sir, we have already dug out everything from those people. Their training ground is on a mountain more than 20 miles away from here. At the same time, we have also sent out scouts to report the situation there at any time. It is estimated that the first report will be sent here soon..."
"Report......"
Before the officer finished speaking, a notification sounded at the door. After Thacker finished reading the briefing, he handed it to Carsent, who then passed it to Pavel. . . . . . . Finally, it came to me. After reading it, I felt that I was not the smartest. When I proposed my plan and was about to implement it, they had already taken the lead and burned down all the camp facilities.
"Record all the conditions there, including the size of the training ground, the facilities it has, and the number of people it can accommodate. After returning, sort them out with the prisoners and hand them over to the Minister of Military Affairs. Now, let's prepare to continue our journey!"
An hour later, all the troops set out again. No one was missing, but there were nearly a thousand more prisoners. There should have been more, but Thacker killed them all on the spot because the wounded slowed down the march. The prisoners who were strung together didn't have an easy life either. If they showed any signs of abnormal movement or injury on the way, they would be killed on the spot by the escort. In the end, less than half of them made it to the imperial capital, but that's a story for later.
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After more than ten days of traveling, nearly 80,000 people finally arrived at the imperial capital. Because Thacker's army was in such poor condition (their weapons were all given to the locals, and they were all equipped with weapons and equipment left over from the fake bandits), except for Carsent, Thacker arranged for all of them to go to the Flame Legion's suburban training camp.
More than ten miles outside the city, all the soldiers of the Flame Legion carefully adjusted and cleaned their equipment and clothing several times, hung up their medals and other things, and even brushed the hair of their horses dozens of times. It seems that entering the imperial capital is really not fun, it is too troublesome.
Since half of my army was composed of slaves, they didn't understand any of this, including me, the division commander. We could only rely on the help of the 2,000 soldiers assigned from the original Horse Archer Division to tidy up their appearance. I, the division commander, became Matthew's puppet and was manipulated for nearly an hour.
After getting dressed and walking more than ten miles in the morning, it was almost noon when the tall and majestic walls of the imperial capital appeared in front of me. (Damn, even snails can crawl here) Several rows of ceremonial cavalry stood on both sides outside the city, which felt a bit like the current Royal Guard of England, except that they changed from fiery red dresses to the current bright silver armor.
The whole tower was covered with colorful ribbons. In the middle of the wall, standing among the ribbons was probably some kind of emperor. He was wearing a golden armor, but a crown that didn't look right. He also wore a blood-red cape, which made his not-so-strong figure look even more ridiculous. Although he kept smiling, no matter how I looked at him, he didn't look happy because the army had won a victory. His smile was more of a forced smile and worry.
On both sides of the emperor stood dozens of people, probably military and political leaders. However, the expressions of the people here were basically the same as their emperor, and I think there were very few people who were really happy.
The Flame Legion stopped in front of the ceremonial cavalry and began to form square formations on both sides of the road in order. In the front were two heavy cavalry divisions, then light cavalry, and at the end were the archers and my large troop composed entirely of chariots.
Under the leadership of the veteran, my slave soldiers didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but their slow speed and clumsy formation made many people smile in contempt. Damn, if I lined up and fired a volley now, I don't know what the consequences would be, and whether those guys would still be able to laugh.
After the troops were organized and the captives were made to kneel down at the foot of the city wall, we, the main generals, led by Thacker, walked to the center of the road and immediately saluted the emperor on the city wall. Then, a majestic music sounded on the city wall, and the emperor also published his long forum at this time, but the content was nothing more than those old-fashioned things, and in many aspects, it was not as provocative as my real boss. But his voice was really loud, I couldn't shout that loud, and he spoke in a calm tone.
When I was about to fall asleep, the words inviting our heroes to enter the city made my head spring up. I could finally go into the city and rest. This was the only feeling I had.
Looking at the crowds on both sides of the road throwing flowers at us with excitement, I no longer had time to appreciate the pleasant gardens and exquisite buildings on both sides of the street. I secretly wondered if these ignorant people would still be able to laugh when they knew the details of this war
A war of mutual exclusion and internal oppression, a war that could have been easily won. . . . . . Or perhaps for them, superficial articles can make them live happily without having to consider those complicated internal factors and live a life of intrigue. And how should I face it after arriving at the center of this vortex...