In fact, Roddy very much hopes to simply lead the army to defeat the Roland Continent in the north. It is not a good thing to have hundreds of thousands of troops guarding the north, waiting for others to come.
The northern provinces of the empire have never been fertile places. The land here is barren and does not produce much food. Moreover, for hundreds of years, every time there is a war between the two continents, this is the frontline area - even if it is not a frontline battlefield. , or at least the forward position.
For hundreds of years, the most commonly used pronoun for the empire in the northern provinces is: war zone!
The Light Empire owns the entire continent, and its strength in any aspect far exceeds that of any country on the Roland Continent. All the countries on the Roland Continent must be added together to compete with the empire.
Over the past hundreds of years, countless "holy wars" of all sizes have been fought, especially during the reign of Abbasid the Great. After he governed the entire Bright Continent, the greatest emperor in the history of the empire set his sights on the north. —That’s the only piece of land he hasn’t conquered yet!
It is a pity that Abbasid the Great was not able to complete the great cause of unifying the two continents. The "Thunder God's Whip" at its peak, which could not be stopped even by the sturdy cavalry of the prairie, could only sigh in despair in the face of the vast sea.
The empire's army is powerful. The four main legions combined have a million soldiers. There are also local garrison troops in various local provinces. The entire Bright Empire has nearly two million soldiers, not counting reserves.
The empire has well-equipped heavy infantry and powerful warriors. There are warriors who march forward bravely under the banner of Tulip War, and there is the most powerful cavalry "Thunder God's Whip" that can sweep across the continent...
However, the empire had only one major weakness - its navy.
When the sage Danton was still alive, he once lamented that if the empire's navy could be half as powerful as "Thunder God's Whip"... no, as long as it could be one-third as powerful as "Thunder God's Whip". Then conquering the northern continent is definitely not a dream!
In addition to having excellent sailors and soldiers to lead the navy, the most basic thing is of course warships - but it is a pity that compared with the empire's first-class cavalry and infantry, the empire's navy can only be said to be third-rate... Well, I'm afraid even third-rate. It doesn’t even count.
Historically, the wars that inspired the Empire of Light to invade Roland Continent ultimately failed because of the weakness of the Imperial Navy. And this failure. During the Abbasid era, this happened three times in a row!
For the first time, the empire built a large navy - of course, this power was only the standard in Abbasid's mind. Unfortunately, the cruel reality made the great emperor very angry. The empire's navy was almost completely wiped out in a battle on the Thunder Strait - and the naval commander of the Northern Army, the general who had great hopes placed on him by the Abbasid Emperor, was shamefully taken prisoner by the Rolands.
The second time, it was slightly better, and Abbasid realized that the navy could not be relied on. The great emperor decided to rely on powerful cavalry to defeat the opponent - in that holy war, the imperial navy only played the role of a transport team - the coastline was so long. The other party can't block everything, there's always a place to land, right? After the largest maritime transport in history. After countless ships were sunk by the Roland navy and several troops were lost, 150,000 people finally landed on the northern continent. The horseshoes of "Thunder God's Whip" finally set foot on the land of Roland Continent!
But what happened next was that we were in trouble again!
The 150,000-strong landing force was eventually annihilated, and less than 10,000 people were eventually treated as prisoners of war and were redeemed by the empire with a huge sum of money.
Having lost nearly 200,000 of his most elite troops at once, Abbasid the Great was undoubtedly very angry, but the thundering strait was like a natural trench, firmly withstanding the charging pace of the imperial cavalry, firmly holding Protecting the Roland Continent.
The third time, it was the Roland people who were dazzled by the victory.
During the first two defeats, the Roland people seemed to think that the southern empire was not bad, and finally made up their mind to go south.
Their powerful navy crossed the Thunder Strait without any hindrance and sent large numbers of troops to the Bright Continent. Allied forces from more than a dozen countries went south in two directions, intending to conquer the southern continent in one fell swoop.
The ocean belongs to the Roland people, but on land, it still belongs to the people of the Light Empire!
Although the empire had lost too many heroic soldiers and too many elite cavalry in the first two wars. But the Empire still has great power, and most importantly - the Empire still has the Tulip Duke!
During the third "holy war" during the reign of Abbasid the Great, a generation of sage Danton appeared. This great man who appeared out of nowhere assisted Duke Tulip in completely defeating the enemy. During the war, he created countless strange weapons. It seemed that he had endless wisdom and whimsical ideas!
On land, the Roland navy was defeated thousands of miles away. After being defeated by the Tulip Duke, two armies were defeated and finally retreated. In that battle, although the empire finally repelled the invading powerful enemy, it could not cover up the shame that came from being defeated.
The only gain was the emergence of a generation of sage Dandong.
The entire empire was speculating on what kind of thunderous means Abbasid, the great conqueror, would use to retaliate against the Roland people. After all, the emperor who ruled the entire Bright Continent was actually beaten to his own home. This kind of shame is for an emperor. Intolerable - everyone is waiting for the next larger-scale war!
But the greatness of Abbasid the Great lay in his mind. After thinking hard in the palace for three days, the emperor ordered to stop using troops against the northern continent!
The three failed "holy wars" have cost the empire too much blood, and natural flaws have prevented the imperial army from conquering. So, before they can think of ways to make up for this flaw. Continue to start a war. Undoubtedly, the precious lives of the Imperial warriors can only be wasted!
Therefore, the Navy is an eternal shame on the Imperial Army...
The empire's navy is inherently inferior to the Roland warships in terms of warships - the Roland continent is rich in a strange kind of ironwood. This kind of ironwood is different from ordinary wood. It is as strong as steel, but its weight is still the same as that of the Roland people. Ordinary wood is almost the same, so something like this is undoubtedly the best material for building a boat. With this special material. The Roland people can build the most advanced warships and the most powerful sea fortress in the world.
Unfortunately, this kind of ironwood does not exist in the Bright Continent!
In fact, the empire has secretly tried to introduce this kind of precious wood from the north in the past generations. Unfortunately, the Roland people are also very aware of how valuable this kind of wood is to them, and have used the most stringent means to prevent almost all channels for this kind of wood from being transported to the south. Of course , through disdainful efforts, the empire still got some. Including the seeds and saplings of the ironwood tree.
But what followed was still disappointing.
Most of the ironwood trees that were transplanted to the Bright Continent could not survive. Due to differences in climate and soil, most trees die within a month of being planted. Even if it occasionally survives with strong vitality, the wood is far worse than the ironwood in the north. And the quantity is also extremely rare.
Therefore, the proud navy of the Roland people still maintains an undefeated record and roams the Thunder Strait.
Of course, what Roddy knew was slightly different from these historical descriptions...
According to the records in Dandong's notebook he got, Rody at least knew that the ironwood tree could be successfully transplanted to the Bright Continent!
Mr. Danton seemed to have mentioned several methods in his notes, and some of them had very strange names, such as "greenhouse", "soilless cultivation", "temperature regulation" and other words that Roddy could not understand.
What surprised Rody even more was that there was a shocking sentence in Dandong's notes: No matter how hard the wood is, it is just wood. What's so great about a boat made of wood? Give me some time and watch me create an armored fleet!
iron
Can iron build ships?
Rody was full of doubts. If something made of iron fell into the water, wouldn't it sink immediately? Can that kind of thing build a ship
But considering the series of miracles Dandong had created, Roddy had no choice but to believe it... Maybe, if it was created by Mr. Dandong, then it is really possible...
The important thing is that these words of Danton were only recorded in his notes. He himself did not mention these things to anyone, and he never mentioned these suggestions to Emperor Abbas!
Regarding this point, Dandong's notes explain that the empire's navy is weak and cannot be solved by just a few more sturdy warships. The Roland people's navy is strong because of hundreds of years of accumulated experience. The strength of the warships It's just one of the reasons. Even if this method of building warships is figured out, it may not be of much use.
Indeed, the terrain of Roland is very subtle.
The entire Roland Continent is like a piece of paper with a big hole dug out in the middle, and the big hole in the middle is the Berga Inland Sea, which occupies one-fifth of the Roland Continent's area. A large river, the Berga, connects the inland sea with the Thunder Strait.
Because there is an inland sea in the middle of the continent, the Roland people's maritime industry is extremely developed - to be honest, there are often wars between more than a dozen countries, and each other's navies have been fighting in the inland sea for hundreds of years. A very rich set of experience in water warfare has been accumulated.
Once the two continents go to war, the navies of many countries in Roland Continent will unite and sail from the inland sea through the long river to the Thunder Strait! In comparison, the navy of Guangming Continent is simply not impressive enough.
An excellent army cannot be built through training. It needs to be baptized by real swords and guns in war. Only then can you show your sharp edge!
Dandong also pointed out that the Bright Empire should not have launched the fourth so-called holy war at that time.
The first three holy wars have already consumed too much national power, and there are still many internal problems that have not been resolved in the conquered continent. The most important thing is not "conquering the pagans in the north." But how to make this huge empire become stronger quickly!
Dandong understands deeply. With the temper of the Abbasid Emperor, if he knew that kind of shipbuilding method, he would definitely start the war again... So Dandong kept his mouth shut.
Rody stood on a high tower in the castle, overlooking the vast sea in front of him, with the angry waves on the Thunder Strait, thinking about the things in Dandong's notes.
"The time was not there at that time, but now it's finally here. Someone else is calling us. Should we just wait for them to fight us?" Rody murmured in a low voice: "Iron-made ships... are interesting..."
After waiting for a month in the "Thunder City" on the coast of the northern province, the Empire of Light finally welcomed the envoy from Roland Continent... the envoy who came to declare a war.
The so-called "chivalry" advocated by the Roland people made their war writing seem to have an elegant atmosphere.
The letter was originally a fierce letter of war, but it was full of noble and elegant words, such as "in order to defend the dignity of God" and "in order to spread God's light to all directions, so that more people can be protected by the true God." I declare war on you in the name of a knight. "On a certain day in a certain month, I will land in the waters of Thunder City. I hope that you can obey the will of God and surrender honorably, or fight in a fair manner with the spirit of a knight, etc."
After reading the letter of challenge, Rody smiled lightly. He casually pulled out the sword of the guard beside him, then threw it at the feet of the standing envoy, and said coldly: "Go back and tell your commander this. This is the reply given to him by the commander of the Light Empire, Duke Tulip. !”
Standing on the city wall, watching the envoy leave the city, walk through the wilderness below the city, and get on a lonely boat on the seaside, Roddy looked up at the sky, with a calm smile on his face.
Sieg stood behind him and couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty Duke, don't the Roland people have any brains? Since they are here to invade us, why should they prepare a gauntlet and tell us when and where they will land... Isn't this obvious? Should we be prepared? The coastline in the north is so long and our navy is so useless. It is probably impossible to stop them. Wouldn't it be better for them to land safely somewhere and then organize themselves and fight with us? "
"Commander Sieg... Oh, that's wrong, it should be Deputy Commander Sieg." Milo, the commander of the Northern Army who was sneering next to him and the nephew of Marquis Caroline of the Lionheart family, shook his head and said coldly: "Roland people Advocating a kind of "chivalry spirit", they believe that only by defeating the enemy head-on can they achieve the glory of their knights. Hiding one's head and showing one's tail will only tarnish their noble reputation as a knight... As a warrior, I appreciate their spirit, but as a general, I can only sneer at such rigid thinking.”
Rody glanced at Milo next to him, but Milo pretended not to see his gaze.
In fact, the two of them really don't get along very well these days. The two of them had met once before at the banquet in the Imperial Capital. At that time, Roddy was still a young boy who had just started pretending to be the Tulip Duke. At that time, he was severely humiliated by the arrogant Milo. Later, Milo was teased by Jojo again...
Thinking of "Jojo", Rody felt a pain in his heart and couldn't help but look at Milo again with complicated eyes.
Human psychology is very complicated. No matter what, Rody didn't hate Milo very much in his heart. Milo had only targeted himself because of the discord between the families. Besides, he was not a real Tulip Duke. Thinking that Milo was once very infatuated with Qiao Qiao, but now that the beauty has passed away, he couldn't help but feel a little sad in his heart. For a moment, he thought of Qiao Qiao's charming voice and smile at that time, and even that time with Mi Luo in his memory. Luo stood together, Qiao Qiao stood aside, and the memories of the overt and covert fights between the three seemed to become better.
It was beautiful because Jojo was still alive at that time, right
Thinking of the time when he first came to the north, Milo's eyes were filled with deep pain when he saw him - was that also because of Qiao Qiao, right? I heard that the commander of the Northern Army, who had a lot of troops, almost ran back to the imperial capital after learning about Qiao Qiao's disappearance...
Rody couldn't say he loved Jojo, but he always felt guilty in his heart. Standing in front of him at this moment was a man who once deeply loved Jojo. In any case, Rody didn't hate Milo in his heart.
Milo finally couldn't ignore Rody's gaze, but he seemed to have misunderstood Rody's meaning and said coldly: "Your Majesty the Duke, do you have any different views on what I said?" Rody took a deep breath, Shaking his head, trying to get rid of the emotion in his heart, he slowly said: "Master Milo, I think what you said is right, but my opinion is still a little different."
Rody smiled and then said slowly: "Although the Roland people uphold the 'chivalry', they are not fools after all, let alone people who don't know how to adapt. They are also cunning. This can be seen from their secret collusion with Reuenthar. I can see it. I think it was a helpless move for them to issue a challenge to us and openly tell us the target of their attack.”
Milo didn't speak, just looked at Rody coldly.
Rody pretended not to see his cold gaze and said calmly: "They came across the sea. The first and most important thing after landing is to seize a foothold, a stronghold! Then organize the troops at this stronghold and get supplies at the same time! And! Prevent our counterattack! The current military stronghold closest to the coast is here, Thunder City! Due to the empire's hundreds of years of preparation, there are basically no strongholds on the mainland near the coast for them to gain a foothold. With such an army, they can't come ashore. Just fight... So no matter from any angle, they must capture Thunder City, because this is their only choice.