"Your Majesty, we are ready and can leave at any time."
That afternoon, the general walked quickly into the Changhe Town City Hall and asked the king.
Benjamin, on the other hand, stood aside early on. Their preparations were relatively simple. The mages and apprentices had already gathered outside, patiently waiting for the time to set off.
"Okay." The king also nodded and said, "We will set off first, and the rest of the army will meet us halfway."
There are probably more than 30,000 soldiers stationed in Changhe Town. Together with General Hawke who surrendered a few days ago, the final number can reach more than 40,000. In these days, many places in Carites have also expressed their loyalty to the king. Coupled with the support of wealthy businessmen from various places, they are no longer in short supply of food and weapons.
As for the marching route, they have already discussed it.
They did not intend to conduct a surprise attack - it would be difficult to operate, and with an army of this size, it would be impossible to hide it from others. They all know in their hearts that they may have just set off from Changhe Town, and there will be news from the church.
Therefore, they planned to take the nearest main road and attack Glory directly!
The villages, towns and cities along the road were not directly controlled by the church. The king sent people to communicate with those places. Although they were still waiting and watching, they would not interfere in the dispute between the king and the church. Therefore, they don't have to worry about local forces getting involved.
In short, the current situation is very simple - capture Glory and defeat the church. This is the only question they need to consider.
Just like that, with an order, the horn sounded.
Under the watch of countless people in Changhe Town, the army set off grandly.
Soldiers dressed in armor and lugging weapons walked down the street. Looking down from the sky, the long queue looks like a black line on the ground. The person in the front held a flag, and the king was protected on horseback. The logistics at the end of the team pulled the cart and escorted the supplies that accompanied them.
Benjamin’s apprentices also followed the logistics team.
There were probably more than fifty apprentices participating in this operation, and for this reason, Benjamin carefully selected them. The king was very moved when he heard this, but after all, they were just apprentices, and no one dared to expect them to have strong combat effectiveness. It was better to arrange them in the rear, which was a safer position.
As for Benjamin himself and the twenty or so mages he brought with him, they were flying in the sky, taking a bird's eye view of the entire area, temporarily serving as sentinels.
From Changhe Town to Glory, even if Benjamin and the others could use magic to increase their speed, it would still take nearly a week of marching time. There was nothing that could be done about it. All Benjamin could do was to turn on the water element perception method throughout the process to prevent them from being attacked on the road.
Several mages were sent to the front to find out the news, but for now, Glory's side was very quiet. The entire city should have been sealed off by them again, and the bishop's death did not cause much shock.
This made Benjamin a little worried.
"You have been lurking in Glory for so long, so there shouldn't be any more bishops, right?" After about three days of marching, he couldn't help but ask Miles.
"No, the one I killed was the last one." Miles said, "But before I killed Bishop Cameron, he seemed to want to use something to contact the church in Horli Kingdom. There may be new reinforcements coming. , I’m not sure either.”
Benjamin nodded when he heard this and didn't ask any more questions.
Don't worry about reinforcements or anything like that. The Kingdom of Hori is so far away, and Icol is separated in the middle. Even if they fly the whole way, Benjamin and the others can reach Glori before reinforcements arrive. What's more, he is more worried about having a bishop-level person in charge of the overall situation, rather than the bishop's combat effectiveness.
One or two new bishops arrived, and they did not understand the situation of Carrites, so they had little impact on the situation of the battle.
"Well, that's the intersection ahead." The king also spoke at this time and said, "At the next intersection, General Hawke's army will meet us there."
"General Hawke..." Benjamin came back to his senses and suddenly asked, "Where is he himself? Was he involved in this plan to capture Glory?"
The king showed a somewhat regretful expression and sighed.
"After handing over his duties to a major general, he chose to end his life and disappeared in the flames along with the cross on his body."
Benjamin couldn't help but shake his head.
... Although I really want to complain about the character of these generals, if I think about it carefully, General Hawke has been planted with a cross. Even if he hides, it is actually no different from death.
It is better to commit suicide than to die under the torture of the church.
With this thought in mind, he flew into the sky again.
Not far ahead of the marching route, Benjamin saw a large camp. That should be General Hawke's army, encamped at the agreed intersection, waiting to meet up with the king's large army.
"Um... wait."
However, as he flew closer, he suddenly realized that something was wrong with that place.
This is an empty camp.
Benjamin in the sky was slightly startled, and immediately flew over there. Soon, the entire camp came into view. There was no one in the camp, and the several campfires were extremely cold, as if no one had touched them a few days ago.
Some dried black blood stains could be seen on the flat ground.
When he saw the blood stains, Benjamin's expression changed immediately.
He immediately flew back towards the large army.
"Your Majesty, please stop everyone, something happened!" He landed next to the king and said solemnly, "The camp ahead is empty and there is no one inside."
The king was also stunned.
"How, how could this happen...did you read that correctly?"
"Of course you read it right. Judging from the traces of the bonfire, there may have been no one inside since yesterday. There are still some blood stains on the ground. Something must have happened here."
The king couldn't help but frown, and was silent for a while.
There were blood stains... Could these soldiers have been killed
He immediately thought of the church.
To be honest, the church must be on guard at these times when they set out. But in their expectations, the church would either concentrate its forces to defend Glory and fight them to the death; or it would ambush them halfway and catch them off guard. On the contrary, they were a little surprised by the current situation.
how come? The church ambushed the reinforcements coming to meet up
Something feels wrong.
"Did you see any bodies in the camp? Or signs of a fight?" asked the king.
Benjamin shook his head.
"There was just blood and an empty camp."
At that moment, the king even had a creepy feeling.
If there are no signs of a struggle, it's not an ambush. But... where have everyone gone
There are tens of thousands of soldiers in an entire camp. It's impossible for them all to disappear, right? No matter what happened, even if only one person was left alive, he could still escape to their team and pass the news to them.
Could it be... some unknown monster attack
He looked around at his surroundings. Although it is not an endless plain, it is still on the main road and there are very few Warcraft activities. Their march in the past few days has been smooth. They only encountered two small attacks by monsters in total, and they were easily repelled without causing much trouble.
At this moment, the smooth road ahead suddenly became dangerous in his eyes.
"Let's... be careful and go over to check the situation first." After thinking about it, the king spoke.