Anlon United Kingdom.
The capital of the Principality of Arco, Netmoni.
Inside the magnificent palace, King Tihamoin was sitting on the high throne. He stroked the armrests inlaid with gold and gems, but he was not in the relaxed and joyful mood of the past.
The beautiful queen looked at her husband with a worried look. During this period, her husband's hair had turned a lot whiter, and his face often showed dejection and despair, which made the queen feel very uneasy.
"King, the Principality of Sherol has surrendered, and they have sent envoys to persuade... persuade you to surrender."
Below the throne, a courtier dressed in crimson purple clothes and a dark green melon-shaped hat bent his waist 90 degrees and spoke in a deep voice.
“Shameless!”
"Shameless bastard!"
"Has the Petar royal family degenerated into the Empire's running dogs?! When they swore an alliance together and established the United Kingdom, they were not this servile and disgusting!"
"Drive their messengers back! Our territory cannot be contaminated by the scent of these guys, it's really disgusting!"
On both sides of the palace hall, many nobles shouted.
They moved their hands and feet with great force, their fists clenched tightly, their expressions ferocious, and it was as if they were naturally angry out of fear and tension... It was unclear whether they were angry at the betrayal of their allies, or because of their own cowardice deep in their hearts.
King Yako did not answer. He gripped the armrest tightly, his veins bulging, and his eyes swept calmly across the seats below his left hand, where there were five exquisite chairs.
These chairs were specially reserved for the saints worshipped by the Principality of Yaco, but at the moment there was only one figure sitting on them, and the rest were empty.
Tihamoyin sighed secretly.
"Your Majesty Ibrahim, what do you think about the current situation in Yaco? I would like to hear your opinion..."
He tried his best to calm his tone so that others would not see his nervousness.
Ibrahim wore pearls on his head, and his short light grey hair looked quite mysterious and elegant under the pearls. If Chen Lun were here, he would recognize that the incarnation he had fought against on the high wall of Hercules Bridgehead was from this saint.
She slowly turned her head, glanced at King Yako who was sitting on the high seat, and just shook her head.
"Your Majesty Tiha, I'm sorry I can't do anything."
As soon as these words came out, the king's heart sank suddenly.
Even though he was mentally prepared, he still felt extremely lost at this moment.
The nobles in the hall fell silent instantly. No matter how angry they were before, now they were left with only despair. The calm words of His Majesty the Saint seemed to have pronounced the darkest ending to their future.
"The power of the Trisur Empire cannot be described in any words... From the very beginning, it was a wrong decision to go to war. I have warned you at the beginning."
Ibrayin stood up from his chair and sighed softly.
"Excuse me, but when the Red Apple Church was defeated, everything was already doomed, and even I couldn't change it... Even if there hadn't been all kinds of border frictions, there would have been the 'assassination' drama directed and performed by the Sun Prince, and even the 'fuse' secretly lit by the Rose Royal Family... The Principality of Yaco and even the United Kingdom of Anlong were too weak after all."
Her words echoed softly in the hall, like an ice chisel, piercing everyone's heart.
No one dared to refute her, or perhaps, they silently agreed with what she said.
Ibrahim looked around the palace and finally looked at the king and queen who were in high positions.
"Your Majesty Tiha, I am a little tired. I want to put down the burden related to the war... Thirteen years have passed unknowingly, and the family's kindness has been repaid. I will leave after the war is over... But please rest assured, no matter what happens next, I will still fulfill my last promise and protect you and the royal bloodline until the last moment I leave."
"Your Majesty Ibrahim..."
King Yako's expression tensed, and he even stood up from the throne as if by reflex.
This last straw of life will also be gone, leaving him with deep despair.
Ibrayin stopped looking at him. She dragged her long silver skirt and walked out of the palace until her back disappeared.
King Tiha sat down on the throne in a daze. The queen came over and expressed her concern for her husband, but the king just shook his head and said nothing.
I don’t know how long this dead silence lasted.
Suddenly, a courtier in luxurious attire ran up to the palace, exhausted, and said to the king in surprise:
"Your Majesty, the request for help from the Kingdom of Beelzebub has been responded to! They have even sent an envoy!"
King Yako suddenly looked up, his eyes lit up as if he saw the dawn.
"Please send the messenger! Quickly!"
Upon seeing this, the minister who had summoned the emperor turned around and left without even having time to wipe the sweat off his forehead.
Not even a moment.
This man then returned to the hall with a group of people.
The envoy group was not large, with only about a dozen people. The leader was a thin middle-aged man with a mustache and a dark red tight-fitting expensive cotton coat with some rose patterns printed on it.
The man walked to the throne with his head held high and bowed gently.
He spoke with a strange intonation, slightly different from the common Trisur language, and seemed to have a different accent:
"King Yaco, His Majesty Tihamoinel, I am Ulbert, the leader of the Rose Envoys... I have come to help you at the order of the Rose King."
"Emissary Ulbert, welcome."
King Yako opened his arms with a smile on his face, without any trace of his previous dejection... Perhaps he concealed it well, or perhaps the arrival of the messenger gave him hope.
"On behalf of Yaco and all the people of Anlong, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Rose King!"
Ulbert raised his mustache and smiled.
Afterwards, King Yaco enthusiastically asked his servants to bring chairs for the envoys to sit down, a treatment that even the nobles in the palace did not have.
After a brief exchange between the two sides.
The king cautiously asked Messenger Ulbert about the reinforcements.
Unexpectedly, the messenger smiled indifferently, indicating that the Kingdom of Beelzebub had no intention of sending troops.
"No... no army?!"
King Yako was stunned.
He immediately guessed something, and a struggling expression appeared on his face, but soon, he let out a long breath of relief, and said to the messenger in a hoarse voice:
"I understand... Envoy Ulbert, please convey to the great Rose King that the Principality of Arco is willing to submit to the Kingdom of Beelzebub and become a part of the Rose Kingdom."
Everyone in the hall was startled, and then looked at the king in shock.
However, the king ignored these looks and just looked lonely. He knew that this was the only way out for the Principality of Yaco... To be more precise, it was the only way out for the royal family and all the nobles present.
After all, becoming a vassal of the Kingdom of Beelzebub might mean losing dignity, but it was better than being trampled by the imperial army and turned into dry bones. Even if the whole country surrendered, the ones who would survive in the end would definitely not be the rulers like them.
"Um… "
However, the messenger raised his eyebrows, paused for a moment and then said:
"Oh, Your Majesty King Tiha, I think you seem to have misunderstood."
He glanced at everyone present with a half-smile.
"Although my king has no intention of sending troops, he has asked us to prepare some powerful means to help the Principality of Yaco resist the attack of the imperial army."
"… "
King Tiha looked at the messenger quietly and fell into silence.
It wasn't embarrassment, but at this moment, he finally understood the intention of the Rose Royal Family from the other party's words... The Kingdom of Beelzebub would never accept their surrender, but was only willing to provide some so-called "help", using them as guns and pushing them to the stage to fight a war of attrition with the empire.
The other party had no good intentions from the beginning. The Principality of Yako and even the entire United Kingdom of Anlong were nothing more than pawns in the game between the two superpowers.
Tihamoyiner suppressed his inner grief and anger, forced out a smile and said:
"In that case, I am so grateful to His Majesty the Rose King for his mercy and willingness to support the Principality of Yaco..."
"Your Majesty Tiha, my king once said that Anlon is a neighbor of Beelzebub, and we should help each other and jointly resist the brutality and cruelty of the Trisur Empire... Helping you is also helping ourselves."
The messenger smiled.
Not sure if it was an illusion, but King Tiha always felt that there was a hint of pride and sarcasm in this smile. But he had no choice but to grit his teeth and swallow it.
In the subsequent communication, the envoys headed by Ulbert discussed the next strategic deployment with King Yaco... However, His Majesty the King seemed quite tired and responded to various arrangements weakly.
"... Your Majesty Tiha, the most critical fortress in the Principality of Yaco is the Nabil Forest Castle. Once it is breached by the Imperial Army, the entire war situation will be beyond redemption..."
The strange accent of Messenger Ulbert echoed in the palace.
King Yako supported his head with his hands and uttered the following words:
"According to the envoy's opinion, what should be done?"
"Of course, it depends on the means we bring..."
The messenger described the plan in a lighthearted manner.
After listening to this, King Yaco fell into a long silence, and the nobles who were listening all had complicated expressions on their faces.
Finally, the king nodded heavily and uttered one word:
"good… "
*
*
*
A few days later.
A forest area more than 700 kilometers away from Netmoni, the capital of Yaco.
In front of the Nabil Forest Castle.
A shallow stream was filled with fallen tree stumps and some randomly thrown rocks. Not far away, the imperial army was approaching like a cloud before a heavy rain.
The Anlong defenders on the castle looked nervous, as if they were facing a great enemy. The new recruits looked at the army below the city and trembled violently as if they were sick. Their legs became weak and they had to hold on to the parapet to avoid falling to the ground. The veterans sat on the ground with their backs against wooden barrels or ammunition boxes, smoking cigarettes with their heads down. Only the hands that kept stroking the butts of their guns trembled slightly, revealing that they were not calm inside.
Soon, it was evening.
As the sky gradually darkened, a loud horn sounded over the forest, startling a large number of birds.
Woo—
Then, there was a shout that echoed throughout the world.
"Imperial Army, charge!
”
With sharp and rapid whistles, the imperial army began to charge. The deafening sound waves of the charge and the footsteps of thousands of horses galloping made the defenders on the castle seem to have hallucinations. The surrounding environment was like their own violently beating heart, shaking constantly.
Countless castle defenders were stunned at this moment. The voices in their ears seemed to gradually fade away, and they felt like they were in a world of ice and snow, with their blood frozen.
They were intimidated by the might of the imperial army and could hardly muster the slightest desire to resist.
Wheels and wheels!
The sound of heavy wheels rolling could be heard from behind the battlefield.
A giant catapult more than ten meters high was pushed to the front line by a small group of imperial soldiers. Its structure was beautiful, with square iron sheets covering its surface like scales on a cold-blooded animal. Its main parts were connected and supported by rivets and gears.
There are even steam boilers and giant spring-loaded films at the base, which looks like a retro siege machine combined with "modern" black technology.
Chen Lun had already gotten off the carriage and was standing at the rear, staring at the catapult. He knew very well that the reason why the Empire Extraordinary Workshop chose to develop this old-fashioned siege weapon was because of a special kind of artillery shell!
Its raw material is a precious mineral called "sunstone". Once burned, it will produce terrifying high temperatures and spread wantonly! A fist-sized piece of "sunstone" can burn for more than ten hours, and its power is enough to burn several reinforced concrete buildings into ruins.
Conventional cannons cannot use shells made of "sunstone" because even steel will begin to melt after being fired several times... Only equipment like catapults can be disassembled and used frequently.
Teams of imperial soldiers were seen carefully carrying sealed wooden boxes and taking out "golden" shells wrapped in special oil paper. The shells had a gem-like luster and were very eye-catching.
Under the command of the officers of the catapult battalion, a soldier in front of each of the dozen catapults dripped some kind of gel liquid on the surface of the shells, and then asked the four soldiers operating the catapults to turn the joysticks and switches.
Great, great, great—bang!
There were dull roars, and golden fireballs filled the sky, falling on the walls of the Nabil Forest Castle and inside the castle like a group of meteorites.
Suddenly, intense flames lit up the sky.
Faint screams rose and fell, composing a purgatory-like tune. The stone walls were gradually spread by the flames, and collapsed like weathered sand during the burning, forming huge pits.
The defenders were stained by the flames and instantly turned into moving pillars of fire. They struggled and fell down, and turned into ashes in just a few breaths, leaving behind a ball of undying flames and a pool of vague black shadows.
"This was a one-sided massacre..."
Behind Chen Lun, the men who witnessed this scene sighed with emotion. Golov shook his head and muttered something softly.
Chen Lun didn't say anything, just looked into the distance calmly.
The eyes reflected the burning flames.
He had long known the strength of the Imperial Army. Even in his previous life, defeats like the Battle of Hercule Bridgehead were only rare exceptions... The Western War was almost a smooth journey.
"Don't take it lightly. This battle is not like the previous ones. It is not as simple as it seems..."
Chen Lun said without turning his head, holding his silver cane.
When the subordinates heard what the captain said, they couldn't help but look at each other.
Sure enough, a deafening thunder suddenly sounded overhead—
Boom!
Chen Lun's men and the soldiers of both sides on the battlefield were immediately attracted by the sound. They looked up and saw that a vortex of dark red clouds had condensed in the sky above the Nabil Forest Castle, with strange blue-purple electric light flashing inside.
Patter…
Immediately afterwards, blood rained from the sky.
The view was shrouded in red mist, and this place felt like purgatory.
In the burning castle, the inextinguishable flames from the catapults mysteriously died out, but the countless screams did not stop. Instead, they intensified, becoming even more hysterical and full of madness...
"This rain seems to be a trick of the Red Apple Church."
Fuluoyin held up a black umbrella for Chen Lun and whispered behind him.
All the men held up their umbrellas and looked at the leader's back in confusion, expecting him to answer their questions.
"To be precise, it's the Rose Royal Family..."
Chen Lun spread out his hands, stretched them out from the umbrella, and received the bloody rain falling from the sky.
There was a constant hissing sound, and the blood rain poured down on his hands, emitting green smoke, but his smooth white palms were completely unharmed.
"It's like some kind of ritual... a ritual that's even more brutal than the Red Disaster."
Chen Lun had a calm face and his eyes were slightly narrowed.