Riding and Slashing

Chapter 393 The Emperor's Challenge

"Cough...cough cough...Agason, you are too reckless... If I don't arrive today, if I don't stop you from continuing to attack, if we don't want to abandon the gladiatorial soldiers, what will be the consequences? You shouldn't Such a simple mistake!"

In Bacchus' camp, Emperor Marius taught his generals a lesson.

"Your Majesty, I just want to use offense instead of defense. Karen Lulu Castle was once occupied by Li Ang, so it's hard to guarantee that he didn't do anything... I'm worried that I won't be able to defend it."

Agathon lowered his head honestly and explained.

"No matter what, it's better than a field battle... Agathon, you are always reluctant to consider factors other than war. Karen Deer Castle is the residence of the Phoenix Knights. If Li Ang storms Karen Deer Castle, the Phoenix Knights will will help us..."

Emperor Marius said with a bit of hatred for iron.

"I know that the field battle is not good for us...but I hid all the Iron Ring Centurions, and I was going to go around the battlefield to attack his Chinese Army King's Banner..."

Agathon bowed his head and said softly.

"You still don't understand Li Ang... Ajiasong, I can guarantee that Li Ang is not in his camp at all! You are too adventurous, Ajiasong... cough cough cough... cough! cough!!!..."

As Emperor Marius spoke, he coughed violently.

"Your Majesty, lie down and rest quickly, don't talk anymore..."

Ajiasong was a little flustered, he knew about Mario's condition, but this His Majesty still led the troops to gallop wildly at this time...

"Huh...huh...I'm fine...it's fine..."

Mario pushed away the hand that Agathon was trying to support, took out a small piece of black thing from his arms, broke off a small piece and threw it into the wine glass on the table, and then drank it together with the wine in the glass do.

As usual, Mario was still heating the red wine in the small stove, but now there was no lead vessel.

"Your Majesty! This is..."

Ajiasong's eyes widened, and he lowered his volume in a panic: "Is this opium?!"

"...This is indeed opium."

After drinking the glass of wine with opium ointment, Emperor Marius no longer coughed, and his face looked much ruddy.

"you……"

Ajiasong didn't know what to say, his hands were trembling, and he finally covered his face, and slowly sat down on the chair.

He realized that Emperor Mario's body might not be able to last long, and his face was flushed now, which looked like a flashback.

"The opium is what the doctor prescribed for me. I can only rely on this... My disease is beyond cure."

Mario looked at Agathon calmly: "You are the marshal of the empire now...you can no longer see yourself as a general who charges into battle, Agathon."

"Your Majesty, I... our enemy is Li Ang... I don't have the confidence to surpass him in terms of strategy. If I keep guarding Karen Lulu Castle, I may be trapped... just like I was in Qicha Fortress ..."

Agason looked at Mario at a loss, explaining his demons in a low voice.

"Since that's the case, let's fight him quickly. After all, we have already attacked here... If you don't have confidence in the strategy, then march forward in a dignified formation!"

Emperor Marius patted Agathon on the shoulder: "I remember that the former Agathon always firmly believed that he could defeat any strong enemy."

"If your body is still healthy, then I still firmly believe that you can defeat any strong enemy..."

Ajiasong lowered his head and knelt down in front of Emperor Marius, with tears in his eyes: "But now... Your Majesty..."

"Cry ass! I'm not dead yet!"

Mario punched Agathon on the shoulder.

The punch was powerless, but Mario himself staggered.

Agathon hurriedly supported Emperor Marius, tears dripped from his eyes.

"Listen to me... I brought [-] cavalrymen, all of whom were urgently summoned military police and mounted policemen to maintain law and order. Their combat effectiveness is uneven. They can only be used for harassment and are not suitable for frontal combat...but it must be Disrupted Li Ang's deployment, we have to seize this opportunity. Tomorrow, you will lead the cavalry, and I will command the central army..."

Marius waved his hand, and did not let Agason help him, but quickly made arrangements.

"Your Majesty, do you want to direct the battle yourself? Your body..."

Agathon cried with tears.

"I don't want to die on my bed!"

Marius smiled, his eyes still shining brightly: "Listen, Agathon... If Li Ang charges at me tomorrow, you can't control me... Don't rescue, don't mess up. You have to take all the cavalry and do it What you are good at..."

……

At this time, a military affairs conference was being held in Li Ang's barracks.

Everyone is discussing the next battle situation.

"When did Bacchus have so many cavalry?"

Leofric was a little anxious, pacing back and forth in the military tent.

"They bought a lot of horses from Desia, and it is appropriate to form a few new cavalry units... But the decision to abandon the gladiator soldiers can only be an order issued by Emperor Marius himself, that is to say, Marius The Emperor himself is just across the way."

Li Ang sat on the table very unpretentiously, tapping his fingers on the scabbard.

"Isn't Emperor Marius seriously ill? Can he still lead the cavalry to fight?"

Klose asked puzzled.

"Perhaps the Knights of the Glorious Cross have excellent medical skills and healed his illness... Let's think about how to deal with it tomorrow. The enemy's cavalry is no less than ours. Fortunately, we were able to withdraw in time today and were not surrounded by those cavalry... "

Leo Frick stamped his feet, turned around, and began pacing again.

"But it may be too late to rearrange the tactics now... and the area where we are stationed is almost completely unsheltered plains. My people are not good at fighting large-scale cavalry in the plains..."

Islanduil shook his head and sighed.

This is the problem brought about by retreating for twenty miles—the place where the camp is currently camped, there is neither forest nor hills nearby. This is not the battlefield that Li Ang originally envisioned.

But in a large-scale battle, it is best for the side that retreats first to retreat to an unobstructed plain environment to camp after withdrawing from its position.

This is for safety, to avoid unpredictable accidents. When the troops withdraw, it will be difficult to support each other. At least the unobstructed plain environment will not be ambushed by the enemy.

"This area is very suitable for our cavalry assault and cavalry shooting. As long as the Chinese army can withstand the enemy's large forces, we can smash their array."

Ralph looked at Leofric, then at Islandil, and offered his opinion.

"If the Chinese army can withstand it, I won't find it troublesome..."

Leofric sighed: "It's not that I'm not confident. If it's 100 people against 100 people, our soldiers can beat the Bacchus to tears. But if it's thousands of people against thousands of people, the result will be reversed." ...Our troops were assembled by various lords, without unified large-scale cooperative training. But Bacchus's side is all legions that have undergone unified training. The larger the scale of the battle, the stronger they will be."

Indeed, this is the reason why the Bacchus Empire has always been stronger in positional warfare than other countries, and it is also the reason why the Bacchus have always been able to use infantry against the heavy cavalry of the Sarleon Kingdom.

Especially after the Marian reforms, all the legions of Bacchus were unified professional soldiers and received unified training. Even members of different legions could cooperate closely with each other, which was impossible for troops from other countries. ——The armies of other countries are composed of various lords.

In terms of individual ability, the members of any of Li Ang's troops are top-notch, so to speak, they are all elite troops.

But the problem is that each army has only a few hundred people, and the tactics, equipment, and combat ideas are all inconsistent with each other. I am afraid that they cannot withstand the advance of the Bacchus.

"We have to find a way to fight a melee, just like the Three Prophets did against us...but we must first disrupt the Bacchus formation."

Li Ang nodded towards Leofric.

It's true that you can't fight the enemy in the way the enemy is good at. If you can rush into the formation of the Bacchus, force them to disperse the army formation, and fight in melee, you can rely on your stronger individual combat ability to win a big victory .

"But how do we break up the army of the Bacchus?"

Islamadil asked.

Everyone was lost in thought.

At this time, a knight came in and reported: "Report! Your Majesty, Bacchus sent an envoy to visit... General Sulla begs to see you."

"It seems that the leader of the army on the opposite side is indeed Emperor Marius himself. General Sulla, please come in..."

Li Ang waved his hand, then got down from the table and sat on the main chair.

Not long after, General Sura was brought into the military tent.

Sura still came alone, with another box in her hand.

"General Sulla, you don't want to do business with me again, do you? Could it be that Emperor Marius is planning to surrender to me this time?"

Li Ang looked at Sura in surprise, and asked in a teasing tone.

"...Your Majesty Li Ang, I am entrusted by His Majesty Marius to bring you a gift—this is a gift for your wedding. His Majesty Mario asked me to apologize to you. When he learned of your wedding, he sent I went to Siyuan City to pick up this gift, but the journey is far away, so this gift arrived a few days late, I hope you don't mind."

Sura shook her head expressionlessly, and handed over the box in her hand.

Lisa Dilan reached out to take it, and asked Li Ang with his eyes.

Li Ang nodded: "Open it and have a look."

There are a lot of things in the box.

There was an earthen jug and lots of fruit in wooden boxes piled high with ice.

Oranges, lemons, pomegranates, coconuts...

Many of these fruits are not in season, and most of them are melted with ice cubes, apparently taken from the ice cellar, and there is only one of each fruit.

Most of the fruits are special products of the West Coast, that is, those things that Li Ang once asked Emperor Marius to buy for zero yuan-these fruits can relieve the symptoms of lead poisoning.

Of course, Leon was mainly to let the Bacchus Empire stab Fieldsway, because Amy had just become the queen of the Sarleon Kingdom at that time.

——These fruits represent the friendship between Mario and Leon.

Even if the two sides are currently hostile camps, personal friendships can still exist.

At the same time, these fruits are also pure blessings—this is wishing Li Ang to have his own fruits soon...

"Please thank His Majesty Marius for me... I have received his kindness."

Li Ang expressed his gratitude sincerely.

But then he realized that Emperor Marius might not be able to last long - Marius himself came here, but he sent people to Siyuan City to get these fruits, that is to say, he didn't bring these things with him... …

This meant that he was already terminally ill and could no longer use these fruits!
"I will... Your Majesty Li Ang, in addition to bringing gifts, His Majesty Marius also asked me to invite you to fight - tomorrow morning, he hopes that you will fight him head-on."

Sura nodded and continued.

Before the words fell, there was a lot of discussion in the military tent.

"Invitation to fight? Is there still such a thing these days?"

Leofrick's face was full of disbelief.

Indeed, this practice of confronting the two armies, openly inviting battle, and then conducting a fair hedging has disappeared hundreds of years ago...

"Okay, please tell His Majesty Mario, I will wait for him here tomorrow morning."

Li Ang waved his hand to stop Leofric, and agreed seriously: "Risa Dilan, send General Sura for me."

"Your Majesty! You can't joke about this..."

As soon as Sura walked out of the military tent, Leofric asked in a hurry: "Are you really planning to fight head-on like this? We haven't made any arrangements yet!"

"I must agree... This is a challenge from Emperor Bacchus to the new King Pandor, how can I refuse?"

Li Ang smiled: "A big battle should be dealt with in an upright manner."

"But we are at a disadvantage in frontal combat, and they have a large number of people now, and Emperor Marius is supervising the formation, so their morale must be high... and we don't have time to deploy too many tactics now."

Islandil also felt that Li Ang seemed a little sloppy.

"It's because there is Marius supervising the formation... If Emperor Marius hadn't come, I would definitely not fight against the Bacchus... But it is precisely because their current coach is Emperor Marius, then I am willing to face them head-on Fighting... Sometimes there are too many people may not be a good thing, and the emperor's personal conquest may not be a good thing either."

Li Ang shook his head: "The strongest link is often also the weakest... So, tomorrow we only have a simple tactic - everyone follows me and charges to where Emperor Marius is!"

"But how do we know where Emperor Marius is?"

Klose asked.

"Marius' body is already very weak...he can't lead the cavalry. And since he invited me to fight openly, he will not hide in the dark. With his character, he will definitely stand on the side of the Bacchus. In front of the Chinese army..."

Li Ang spread his hands: "Of course, everyone, this is just my judgment, plus a little feeling... But I can be sure, my feeling is correct!"

"A debilitated patient, standing at the front of the formation...I think he might deliberately lure me to charge at his position—if nothing else happens, this is the intention of Emperor Marius to invite me to fight, He's going to use himself as bait..."

"But this also happens to be our chance..."

"Emperor Marius himself is a hero with a firm will and will not be chaotic. He will definitely make some targeted arrangements, but other Bacchus may not have his stable mentality..."

"As long as they think Emperor Marius is in danger, they will definitely try to rescue him, and the lineup of Bacchus' other troops will probably be in chaos!"

"As long as their army formation is a little bit chaotic, we can break in!"

"Of course, this is a gamble. If Bacchus is in a mess, we can usher in a big victory. But if we don't have the determination to break through everything, or if all the Bacchus don't care whether Mario lives or dies, then we will Facing a defeat... Everyone, do you want to bet?"

After Li Ang finished speaking, he looked around at everyone present.

"bet!"

No one present was a coward, and there was no need to explain such a simple and easy-to-understand tactic. They still believed in Li Ang's judgment.

"Okay...then it's decided. But you have to remember one thing - even if I am in danger, you don't care about me! Remember! Only charge towards Emperor Marius!!"

(End of this chapter)