The Invincible Overlord of Heroes.

There are more soldiers in Wasteland City, and none of them can escape, and the experience points given are much more than those in Longan City.

After two days of fighting, there were almost no level 2 soldiers in the entire Qingfeng Legion, and all of them had to be at least level 3.

Of course, almost means that there are still some, but their number is completely disproportionate to the main force.

The entire Qingfeng Legion, not counting marching and rest, fought on the official battlefield for four days.

The auxiliary battle to wipe out the servants, retainers, private soldiers and mercenaries of the powerful families also lasted for 2 or 3 days.

In the two cities, a total of about 5 regular troops of various types were killed, and there were also to auxiliary troops including mercenaries.

The key point is that, except for those able-bodied men, almost all mercenaries and regular troops are of higher ranks than the soldiers of the Qingfeng Legion.

Basically, if you kill any level 2 soldier, he will definitely advance to the next level.

After a whole week of fighting, no one has been able to advance, either because they have extremely bad luck and cannot even encounter the enemy.

This is almost impossible, unless you hide at the back of every battle and dare not step forward to fight others.

After all, they were all conscripted soldiers, and the training time was short, only more than a month in total.

It's normal that you can't bring yourself to kill someone in actual combat so soon.

But after a week of continuous fighting, the situation was still the same, which Xu Lai could not tolerate.

These people, like the soldiers who advanced very quickly, will all have their names recorded.

After returning to Qingfeng City, we can either withdraw our troops, but that would be a pity.

After all, after a few battles, the experience gained from profit sharing alone is enough to almost reach the level of advancement.

With a little training, you can break through to level 3 in a few days.

If the troops were withdrawn and the people were returned to the country, not only would the initial investment be wasted, but there would also be too few opportunities.

After all, they were just civilians two months ago.

After thinking about it, it just so happened that the two cities that were captured also needed a large number of security personnel to maintain stability.

So, Xu Lai demoted all of these 300 people to security guards, and they were led by 30 sheriffs sent by Aaron to maintain public order in the two cities.

After the last two days of clearing operations, there was no longer any resistance in the entire Wasteland City.

Not to mention those heroes who fell from the sky, even the original nobles, wealthy businessmen, and various organizations of the Wasteland City were cleaned out by Xu Lai.

He had no dealings with people from the Western Empire, and they had never interacted with each other. Instead, he had a good relationship with the Northern Empire, the former enemy of the Western Empire.

Naturally, Xu Lai had no mercy on those powerful families in the Western Empire.

If you want to completely rule these two cities, you must completely eliminate all the original forces.

Even if people are willing to work for Xu Lai now, Xu Lai will not accept it. Even if he accepts, he can only be transferred back to the grassland.

After Xu Lai thoroughly cleaned up the entire Wasteland City, the officials sent from the grassland also took up their positions one after another.

As usual, Xu Lai left a cavalry team of a thousand men for these people.

In the two cities, even mercenaries were killed by Xu Lai, and there was almost no resistance left.

Even if some gangs disperse quickly and merge into the civilian population, the 200 level 3 security guards in each city are enough to handle them.

Although he is a defective soldier who retired from the army, he has received training and participated in actual combat after all, so he has no problem dealing with some small thugs and gang members.

Therefore, these one thousand people are almost unnecessary troops.

They are a deterrent, but also insurance.

Xu Lai, on the other hand, took a day's rest with his large army before continuing to advance deeper into the territory of the Western Empire.

If we go further, there are two more border cities, but they are no longer directly connected to the grassland.

Flat stone roads, endless farmland and rice, and watermills and windmills everywhere.

As the large army approached, all the farms were deserted, and even the ripe rice was left unharvested.

Xu Lai asked Charles to take a team of knights to take back all the villages, towns and manors outside the Wasteland City and Long'an City.

The Western Empire has relatively fertile land, a large population, many rivers, and relatively flat land, making it a good place for large-scale production.

However, the deeper you go into the Western Empire, the stronger the smell of sulfur becomes.

After walking about 3 or 40 miles, I could see a small town in the distance.

It was a base-level city called Thorn, famous for its abundant thorn flowers.

Less than ten miles east of Thorn City, there is a small city called Hantan City, which is built on the bank of the river at the mouth of the Western Empire.

These two cities do not belong to the Michel family, nor are they favored by the heroes who descended.

Because these two cities are too close to hell. Hell is on the other side of the river.

Most of the territories that originally belonged to these two cities have been swallowed up by hell.

If you can climb up the watchtower erected by the river, you can see the city in the distance.

The small town on the edge has not yet been transformed into a hell city, but the surrounding terrain has undergone tremendous changes.

The originally flat land was now covered with flaming mountains of various sizes, and the constantly flowing magma covered most of the farmland and roads.

The smell of sulfur that Xu Lai smelled was spewing out from these large and small flaming mountains.

If it weren't for the big river blocking the way, the army of Hell might have captured the two cities of Thorn and Cold Pond long ago.

Hell likes fire but fears water. He is not good at swimming, building ships, or fighting at sea or in water.

The name of the river is Hanjiang, which flows into the sea.

Hantan City introduced a tributary from the Hanjiang River, forming a large pool of water near Hantan City.

This pond was originally used for irrigation, but now there are nearly a hundred warships piled in it.

On the contrary, there were almost no soldiers to be seen in Hantan City.

Hantan City used the cold river to temporarily keep the troops of Hell out.

However, having Hanjiang is not safe because Hell has a large number of flying troops.

However, Hell is unwilling to deploy its elite forces to such marginal cities.

Otherwise, the small city of Hantan would not be able to survive, let alone spend all its efforts to build warships.

The Thorn City behind Hantan City also survived thanks to Hanjiang, and they even provided considerable support to Hantan City.

However, in order to utilize the water from the Cold River, Thorn City was too close to Cold Pond City. After Hell destroyed Cold Pond, it could reach Thorn City in the blink of an eye.

In order to have enough strategic depth, Jiang Jian and his team chose the most marginal city, but their relationship with Hantan and Thorn City was not good. Most of the wild resources in these two cities were also plundered by these people.

Even the farmlands and manors outside the city were sometimes robbed.

Even so, when Xu Lai attacked Wasteland City, Thorn City still provided support of 3000 soldiers.

Although Thorn City is only a base-level city, it was built 300 years ago.

If a lot of soldiers had not been conscripted when the noble coalition was formed to go to war with the Northern Empire, at least 70,000 to 80,000 troops could have been mobilized from Thorn City alone.

Although there are only about half of them left now, they can still provide reinforcements to Wasteland City.

However, the Lord of Thorn City never imagined that Wasteland City, as a castle-level city, would be so dilapidated that it fell in just two days.

After the fall of Wasteland City, the nobles of Thorn City were completely panicked, not knowing whether to prepare for battle or surrender directly.

However, Xu Lai did not give them a chance to hesitate, nor did he even try to persuade them to surrender. He started fighting right after arriving at the destination.

However, in this battle, Xu Lai only deployed long-range troops and some phantom shooters.

More than a hundred Phantom Shooters advanced, and the remaining Phantom Shooters were obviously no longer able to gain an advantage in long-range shooting.

The base city is much smaller. Although the city walls are not as high as those of the castle-level city and the increase is much less, it can’t withstand the large number of archers.

With the city walls, arrow towers, and tens of thousands of archers, Xu Lai only has 700 phantoms and more than 7000 level 3 archers, level 3 crossbowmen, 3000 level 4 longbowmen, and heavy crossbowmen.

Except for the Phantom Archer who can stably suppress enemies that are several times larger than his own, the rest of the archer troops are not only weakened by the city walls, but also by the bonuses of the city walls and arrow towers.

Of course, we also have super defense and angel alliance, which are basically enough to offset the bonus of city walls and arrow towers.

However, the gap in levels still exists.

The average ranged attack of our side is less than level 3.5, while that of the opponent is over level 4.5, which means there is a gap of at least one level.

Moreover, the enemy also has defensive weapons such as crossbows, and there are quite a few of them, which were probably originally used to deal with the Hell camp.

Seeing that their long-range troops were able to completely suppress the opponent, the Lord of Thorn City and other dignitaries finally felt relieved.

Of course they didn't know that Xu Lai had no plans to formally attack the city today, he was just here to test the waters.

Unlike Longan and Wasteland City, which have not experienced civil strife, the combat effectiveness of Thorn City and Cold Pond City is still relatively good.

Besides, when they arrived at the city today, it was already late, so after a brief test, Xu Lai sounded the call to action.

After the battle, those who came here from Xu Lai to heal their wounds were healed, and those who came here to be resurrected were resurrected.

On the other hand, in the City of Thorns, the more than one thousand archers who died in battle today are completely dead.

Many of the rest are injured and may not be fully recovered tomorrow.

But Xu Lai didn't pose much threat to the city in the end. Instead, he gave the lord of Thorn City hope.

No matter what, the City of Thorns has been passed down for more than 300 years, and the city lord was really unwilling to give up the City of Thorns.

Moreover, after all, the difference in military strength between the two sides is not that big. He can still recruit mercenaries, but Xu Lai needs to obtain supplies from the grassland hundreds of kilometers away.

Although Wasteland City and Longan City have been captured, it is not easy to organize a transport team so quickly.

Xu Lai was not under much pressure to replenish supplies. After Lina came back, she had already returned the warehouse ring to Xu Lai.

After each day’s battle, Xu Lai could even use this ring to get hot, fresh food directly from Qingfeng City.

This is also the reason why Xu Lai brought nearly 100,000 soldiers but did not bring many logistical troops at all.

If it comes to a battle of attrition, Thorn City will be completely unable to outlast Xu Lai.

Moreover, if it was just a long-range shooting, Xu Lai wouldn't even lose any bodies.

If there are no accidents, no matter how many people die, they can be resurrected. In any case, the more than 600 shooters who died yesterday evening were all resurrected in the evening.

The next morning, a dozen or so catapults that had been smashed down were all renovated and flew onto the walls of the City of Thorns with freshly fired stone bullets.

The process of conquering Thorn City is much more difficult than conquering the other two cities.

Xu Lai was unwilling to lose his own troops, so even if the catapults and the like were broken, they could just be thrown into the warehouse, and someone in Qingfeng City would naturally pick them up.

However, once the casualties of his own archer unit exceed 600, Xu Lai will order the troops to gradually withdraw from the battle.

After that, there will be basically no other fighting that day.

Xu Lai did not take the initiative to attack, and the people of Thorn City did not dare to leave the city to fight, so the two sides were in a stalemate.

Anyway, on Xu Lai's side, there are more and more advanced phantom archers, but there are also more and more archers who are advanced to level 4 longbowmen.

By the way, you can also raise the level of the archers on the city wall to gain higher experience.

Even if the dead shooters on our side are resurrected, experience still needs to be given.

But compared with Xu Lai, the archers lost by Thorn City are basically permanent losses, and their morale will also drop significantly.

Although we only fight for one or two hours a day, we can use the rest of the time to slowly restore the lost morale.

But in the end, our losses are increasing every day, while the enemy is resurrected every day. It makes people despair just thinking about it.

Except for the recruited troops whose morale could be barely improved, it was difficult to continue to boost the morale of the rest of the army no matter how much they were encouraged.

Finally, after a week, even the hired mercenary archers were either dead or fled, and the long-range force suppression on the city wall was finally gone.

After losing their long-range power, the infantrymen who had been patient for a long time finally launched a charge towards the City of Thorns.

After a week of continuous bombing, the walls of Thorn City, including the city gates, had long been destroyed.

The infantrymen did not need to climb the city walls. They could just use ladders to build over the moat and rush directly into the city.

Infantrymen are much harder to kill than archers, and as their levels gradually increase, with the help of god-level offensive techniques, they can completely crush opponents who are one or two levels higher than themselves.

On the other hand, the soldiers of Thorn City had almost no fighting spirit. Even when they were recruited, their morale was only about 2 or 30 points, which meant they were basically ready to collapse at the slightest touch.

At this time, the Lord of Thorn City, along with his relatives and officials in the city, knelt on the ground.

Xu Lai narrowed his eyes and ordered that they all be killed without leaving a single one alive.

He didn't like being a tyrant, but their heads were still useful to Xu Lai.

The heads of these people were all sent to Hantan City.

Xu Lai wanted to persuade Hantan City to surrender, because Hantan City’s navy was something Xu Lai was extremely lacking.

He told Tahan, who was in charge of transporting the heads, that those who surrendered would be forgiven, but those who resisted would be killed.

As a result, Tahan hurriedly arrived at the city of Hantan with only a hundred cavalrymen, and the city gate was directly opened. The city lord and all the soldiers and civilians in the city surrendered directly.

Xu Lai directly captured a naval fleet with 120 warships of various types, 5000 infantrymen, and more than 15000 archers without bloodshed. (End of this chapter)