Conquest

Chapter 524 [Skyfall] (Seven thousand words)

Osgiriya, once the largest city in the Big 6 and the most prosperous city in the world, has now almost become a huge boat barracks.

Inside and outside the city, the most commonly seen are soldiers wearing various imperial chalk military uniforms, including patrolling city guards, military headquarters logistics transport teams, and local defense forces mobilized from various places in the south.

Adrik was exhausted, in order to plan a counter-offensive plan, a group of local defense forces transferred from the counties in the south that are still in the hands of the empire's central government. The imperial capital came. There are also a number of private troops of the noble giants who came to King Diduqin from various places under the call of the royal family.

It can be said that when the fall of this year came, according to the statistics of the military ministry, the total number of various troops gathered inside and outside the Imperial City has reached nearly 150,000.

This is already a huge amount of data.

In other words, this is already the last force that can be mobilized by the Cretaceous in the entire Byzantine Empire-the last force of the Empire.

However, such a huge military force, gathered in the imperial capital, has brought a huge burden on the logistics supply of the military. These more than 100,000 troops came from all directions. Originally, they were not under the control of each other. Adrik was almost an unorganized army who retired from sleep and sleep and reorganized a group of local defense forces.

The Empire ’s Second Ninth Corps, the Imperial City Guards, have all been rebuilt, at least nominally.

If it is said that the mobilized local defense forces are relatively easy to command one by one, at least they were originally officially organized by the empire. So ... the private army of the various nobles and nobles who came to the King in response to the royal call became the most troublesome problem for Adrik.

In fact, Adrik himself was firmly opposed to the mobilization of private aristocratic troops.

As a proud professional soldier in the empire, Adrik really doesn't think much of the fighting power of the noble private army. In his opinion, these private army lack formal training, and even many people have never been on the battlefield. "People in Uganda are described as praising them! For generals like Adrik, it is important to have military power in such things as wars, but even this kind of miscellaneous soldiers, even if doubled, is just a bunch of useless The numbers are nothing more. In addition, the total number of private troops of the various nobles and nobles gathered in the imperial capital has reached 50,000. These nobles' private army cannot fight, but they bring great trouble in the imperial capital. These aristocratic private troops Many of these officers are the children of the noble family. How can these children understand the military strategy?

In less than a month, the throne of the Seal of God, at least twenty fighters and poor public security chalks were born in the capital. Some aristocratic children dared to pull out their private forces to fight for personal grudges or jealousy. Even some private troops with a disciplinary extraordinarily scattered 1uan, actually condoned the soldiers to make trouble in the city.

Adrik is the most orthodox soldier. Where did he see this? At the beginning, under his strict order, the patrol forces of the Emperor's security educated these guys severely, grabbed a group of them, and cut off some heads.

But soon, the heads of the private army who had suffered a bitterly ran back to their masters and wept, and the nobles and nobles immediately put pressure on the emperor.

Is it still alive? We are all loyal to our country, and we have come to the Emperor King Qinli for thousands of miles, but we are all for loyalty to the emperor! But it's just fighting and bullying a few untouchables. Is this going to cut our heads? Is there any other reason?

Emperor Garcia quickly passed on this pressure to Adrik, and the private capital of the emperor's private army soon became more arrogant.

Adrik was overwhelmed, but he couldn't really rush into the palace to find the emperor's sleeve.

On the other hand, in fact Adrik knew the Emperor's intention of supporting the aristocratic private army so much.

The Emperor had no direct military power, and these private aristocratic troops were the most powerful force of the Emperor. In a way, I am afraid that the emperor's trust in these black people will even be too much for himself.

However, to the surprise of Adrik, on the question of the private aristocracy, the prime minister Saran Bonelli, who has always contradicted himself, unexpectedly stood by his side.

The Prime Minister's intention was also against His Majesty's indulgence in the aristocratic private army.

In fact, in Salenbonelli's mind, he sees far more than Adrik!

After all, although Adrik is capable, he is a soldier after all, and his vision is limited to the military perspective, but Salenbonelli, the prime minister of the Empire, saw a terrible hidden danger in this matter!

The imperial state of the empire is degenerate, the authority of the Central Cretaceous is weak, and local control has declined to the weakest time in the history of the empire.

In the past, the royal family of the Byzantine Empire always united the aristocracy. After all, the royal family itself was the largest aristocracy of the empire. However, in order to ensure the rule of the royal family, the royal family has always adopted a lot of restrictions on the nobility.

In particular, there have always been strict restrictions on the issue of the private army of various giants and nobles.

Emperors of all ages, but few are really fools. They are very bitter. Although the power of the aristocracy can be borrowed, it also needs to be prepared.

The private army established by the noble giants has severe restrictions on the scale, so as not to cause too much military power to be held by the aristocratic class, so that the tail will not be too big.

But today, in such a mixed situation, the control and authority of the royal family are at the lowest point in history.

The measures taken by Emperor Garcia to strongly support the aristocratic group and rely on the aristocratic group were, in the eyes of the Prime Minister, a very unwise move!

Because the emperor's orders that signaled the nobility of the noble giants and the private army, the restrictions of the Byzantine Empire over the hundreds of years of the noble giants and the private army were suddenly broken!

Salem Bonelli knows what's going on now!

The various noble giants, who have intentions, unintentional, ambitious, or no ambitions, just want to try their best to protect themselves in the 1uan world. Almost any of the giants has enough energy to expand their private forces below!

Originally, these things were limited by the imperial private army laws of the empire for hundreds of years. Even if these people moved quietly, they did not dare to go too far.

But the emperor suddenly made such a statement and fought vigorously against the aristocratic group, and blatantly enlisted the aristocratic private military king. As a result, the former restriction law suddenly became a piece of waste paper!

The noble giants below had an excuse to openly expand their private forces!

In the long run, these aristocrats have so many military forces in their hands. If something goes wrong in the future, what will the royal family control them?

If you don't care, you will become a new warlord!

The imperial decree was extremely broadband to the nobles ’territory. The nobles’ own territories were like the individual kingdoms of Dokki. Apart from the need to pay a tax to the Central Chuiyang every year, the nobles were almost indulgent. Taxes are imposed in their own territories and laws are issued. Now, even the private army's mouth has been let go. Once the door is released, I'm afraid it's not easy to close it again!

According to the news of Salem Bonelli, it is said that the situation is almost erosion! A baron would dare to draw a duke out of the army of a thousand people, and the number of private troops in his hands could be tens of thousands!

This is already ten times the limit imposed by the imperial decree of the empire!

Even Her Majesty made a promise to those noble giants:

In the future counter-offensive and northern expedition war, if they can win, as long as the noble private army participating in the war, they can borrow military merit and seal their share in the land conquered in the north! At that time, the reward, the title, the fiefdom, and the emperor will never be shy!

You must know that for hundreds of years of the empire, the exhibitions of various nobles and nobles have been ingrained, but at the same time they have reached a bottleneck. Among many nobles and nobles, according to the imperial decree, the family title is inherited by the eldest son, then the other noble children can only Second best.

If you have good luck, you can also use the influence of the family to get a good official position. If you have a bad life or dare to be mediocre, you can only spend your whole life, even if you do n’t inherit the title of the family. There is also a lot of family property that ended up being bankrupt because of their incompetence.

When the emperor spoke like this, it immediately gave hope to many people!

Anyway, he is not the eldest son and cannot inherit the title. If he wants to fight for wealth, he will simply lead the private army to participate in the war! If you win, don't worry about rewards and get your own share! By then, the title, wealth, land ...

For those giants, they also supported the emperor's promise, and they also supported their children to bring private troops into the war. After all, if the war finally ends, the children of their own family get the title. For their own family, it can be regarded as an indiscriminate sprawl, which expands the influence and power of the family as a whole.

——M Salenbonelli is very clear, this situation is a downright gamble! It is ng insurance!

If the empire's counterattack against the rebels goes smoothly, it can successfully defeat the rebels and achieve a huge victory in the war of counterattacks. Then, the might of victory will probably be leveraged by the huge impact of the victory. Those aristocratic groups trembled and did not dare to move! At that time, it may be the only way to free up these nobles and slowly weaken them.

But just in case ... there are some setbacks in the counter-offensive war, once the situation is bad ... at that time, those nobles who have money, food, land and army in their hands will not continue to attack the royal family Put down your ears, I'm afraid ...

Because of these anxieties, Salenbonelli has shown a cooperative attitude with Adrik these days. He governed the affairs of the empire, and actually supported Adrik. Even his connection with Adrik has become much closer.

Whether this will cause the emperor's dissatisfaction is beyond the control of Salenbonelli.

But Salem Bonelli also had his own ideas. He repeatedly urged Adrik to enter the war as soon as possible. With such a situation, each day of procrastination gets worse.

However, it has been several months since the reunification of the capital, and the counterattack has remained unremarkable. Adrik is still busy daily reorganizing the army, mobilizing supplies and formulating operational plans.

But the days when the troops were sent out were distant.

Salembonelli argued with Adrik several times on this point, and the reason given by Adrik, Salembonelli could not be argued.

Adrik's point is clear: Now it's the empire's final combat power that is mobilized! With more than 100,000 troops, it is now the home of the empire, and all the counties in the south can mobilize here. It can be said that this is the last power of the Byzantine Empire!

There is only one chance to win!

"We must be foolproof! Because we can't afford to lose it, Prime Minister! Once we send troops, we must win. Any failure will make us directly collapse and completely collapse! If we fail once, we will have no power! National strength It has dried up, and the counties in the south have been almost hollowed out! We have no room to step back half a step! There is no chance of failure to come again! So, before sending troops, I must push the power to the extreme! Adjust the military strength to the best , Make the battle plan foolproof! In a word: we have such an opportunity, we can't afford to lose! "

This principle is very clear to Salen Bonelli, and he knows that this idea of ​​Adrik is reasonable and correct.

However, looking at the day after day, the more the situation below eroded, the anxiety in his heart was still better than day by day.

In order to support this armament rectification, to support the military expenses of this counter-offensive war, and to mobilize supplies from all over the place, Salenbonelli is the prime minister. He knows what the South has become!

The northern lands of the empire have been lost. The only source for raising military expenditures is the counties, military garrisons, grain, ordnance, and supplies that the southeast of the empire still holds in the hands of the Clay Central in the empire ... this Everything, has become a heavy courage to bear on the empire!

Several counties in the south have increased taxes to the highest point in empire history! In the worst case, the extra war tax levied in order to raise military expenses has reached more than ten times the pre-war tax rate! The burden on civilians has increased nearly twenty times compared to before the war! !! In some places, local officials have to collect taxes after ten years in order to make up for the military expenses!

As a brilliant political governor, Salem Bonelli knew exactly how bad the situation was now!

It can be said that the old man looks daily, and the up and down are all eschatological!

The only way to break this eschatology is to support Adrik to win this war, defeat the rebels smoothly, regain the lost land in the north, and then use the huge power and aura of victory to deter all others. The danger of instability, so that the empire can get precious time to respite the Seal of the Seal of God. Only then can the Seal of Time and the power to clean up this mess of leaks.

The other important reason for Saran Bonelli to change his attitude and start to cooperate with Adrik is the Duke of Minas!

Just because, regarding the emperor's behavior of indulging the aristocratic private army, the Duke of Minas actually approved it! Even, I'm afraid that there are still some secret actions behind the scenes!

Such an attitude of the Duke of Minas aroused great vigilance and anxiety from the Prime Minister.

He didn't believe that, with the insight of Duke Minas's life in the sea, he would not see the consequences of the aristocratic private army flooding in the future-but the old duke just supported the emperor!

Moreover, the prime minister investigates secretly, getting news also makes him more disturbed.

The Minas family, in their southern territories, has drawn over 5,000 private troops. Although this figure is not too obvious in the situation of the entire aristocratic private army flooding, after all, some Duke's homes are also pulling up tens of thousands of people.

However, the Minas family is the family of the Imperial chalk army! In his lifetime, the Duke of Minas drew horses, even among his generals. There were quite a few generals who had followed him from the army to the north! Although the Minas family only pulled 5,000 private troops, the combat effectiveness of these thousands of people is far more than a hundred times stronger than those of other families.

The old duke had regained control of the Empire's chalk army, and His Majesty also relied on him, and strongly supported him to divide Adrik's authority in the army. Under such circumstances, what is the intention of the old duke to display his private army so quietly?

If only to take the opportunity to expand their own strength, in order to protect themselves in the 1uan world, that's fine.

But if ...

Whenever I think of it, Salem Bonelli can't help but fight a shiver, and dare not continue to think deeply.

However, because of the cooperation between the emperor and Adrik, these Japanese dates have recently become dissatisfied with themselves. Even when they met, the attitude of distrust and dissatisfaction became more and more obvious. It doesn't seem to be listening.

At this time, Salenbonelli knew very well that Her Majesty's prejudices about himself had been formed ...-Of which, fearing that there might not be the shadow of the old Duke of Minas. If you want to defend yourself, it's not that easy. The only way ... only to fully support Adrik to enter the Northern Expedition as soon as possible, as long as you win a few beautiful battles, then maybe the situation can be alleviated.

※※※

On the morning of this day, Salenbonelli personally went to the dock port area, and the Landis Kingdom brought in another ten ships of aid.

Although in order to get such aid from the Landis Kingdom, Salem Bonelli had to hold his nose and sign a harsh treaty with the Landis Kingdom to borrow money, but at this moment, even if he is drinking and quenching thirst, he cannot care about it. .

At least, the supplies of more than a dozen ships can solve the urgent need of the northern expedition of the current imperial capital, because the southern part of the empire can hardly squeeze any energy at this moment.

When these ten ships arrive, the biggest gap in military supplies can be filled. Adrik has solved this worries in the future, and he can start his army as soon as possible.

In order to support this belief in his heart, the old prime minister dragged his old body and personally rushed to the dock to sit in town. He stood in the sea breeze for a whole morning, watching the cargo ship fleet enter the port safely, and the unloaded materials were piled up. I felt a little relieved in my heart.

The anxiety in his heart eased a little, and the old prime minister cleared his mood and reluctantly raised his spirits, and ordered his men to feast on the court officials and generals of the Landis fleet.

Although in accordance with etiquette, he, as Zai Ying, should meet the officials of the other party in person.

But now Saron Bonelli's mind is not in that mood.

Moreover, these materials were all borrowed from the Kingdom of Landis on extremely harsh terms. Such an unequal treaty is appealing to others. If you hold it with your nose, you will endure it. You still have to beat the old man with a smile and a spirit. Dealing with the officials of the other party, the old prime minister really has no good mood at this time.

However, the availability of military resources still made the old prime minister feel a little better. He was preparing to leave the dock and go back. He was thinking that he should go to the Imperial City to persuade His Majesty, or go to the military headquarters to meet with Adrik to talk about the Northern Expedition. plan……

Thinking for a while, I suddenly heard the noise of the noisy, rushing horseshoe from the distant road leading to the city, like thunder hitting people's hearts.

Because of this important transportation of goods, in order to ensure that no accidents occur, Salembonelli has ordered martial law in the port area today. The city's guards were deployed in the city to shoot the checkpoints around the port and port area to prevent idle people from entering and leaving.

At this time, a few riders came far away, rushed to the checkpoint, and were stopped by the city guards. The two sides were shouting. The knight helmet that flew from the crooked armour was obstructed by the city guards. The two sides didn't bother to speak well and went directly. Scream.

From a distance, Salenbonelli only seemed to hear a few words floating in the wind.

"What about the emergency army ... delay ... you ... face ..."

The old Prime Minister twisted his eyebrows slightly. At this moment, he was still calm, and waved to the followers around him: "Go and bring that person. What a noise?"

The men under him passed, and within a few moments they brought the rider to ride.

The knight was full of cold, running all the way, Xu was too exhausted, and his steps were a little stupid. When he was in front of the prime minister, his legs were soft, and he fell directly to the ground, raised his head, and covered his face. Anxiously hurriedly, panting: "Sir, sir ... the military situation is urgent, we passed from Twenty Riders, one to the military, one to you, please, please ..."

"Hold it up." Salem Bonelli took a deep breath. Calculating in my mind: What happened? Are the rebels disturbing again? Or are those noble troops outside the city making a noise again? The Second Corps had been in trouble for a while because of lack of troops. Could something have happened again? Well, fortunately, now that I have such a lot of supplies, I can solve this urgent need when I want to ...

Just thinking, the men presenting the military intelligence on the messenger, when they got it, the prime minister suddenly jumped!

There was still blood on the reel sealed with the newspaper!

I don't know why, at this moment, there was a panic in which Salon Bonelli had no reason, his heart was short of breath, and suddenly there were some flowers in front of him. He took the reel, and this dizzy feeling could not be suppressed, and it was stuffed into the hand of a civilian officer next to him. , Whispered: "I have some eyes and can't see it, you read it to me."

When the civilian officer next took the reel and unrolled it, Salem Bonelli had sat down with the supporter of the crew, and a cup of hot tea was brought to his hand. Tea, was about to take a breath, and suddenly his expression froze there! !! !!

Just listening to the civilian official, his voice was trembling and his face was horrified, but he was reading the paper intermittently.

"... Zwen reported that the bandits had exploded in Effendt's Dubode City a few days ago. The county's army was inadequate, and the field was defeated. The defenders and governors of Effendt County had spread across the county within three days. The migrants swept the whole territory to reach tens of thousands, spreading to the neighboring three counties, conquering the county town, and looting the official warehouse.

The situation is eroding to become uncontrollable! The military powers of the southern counties are empty, and they are powerless. They can only stay in the county and wait for help! If the reinforcements do not arrive, the three counties in the south will lose their hands ... "

Teng! !! !!

Before the civilian official finished reading, the prime minister Salenbonelli had suddenly jumped from his chair. The old man had a pale face, his eyes widened, and stared at the official who read the newspaper. Pointing at the official, he opened his mouth as if to ask something, but his mouth was opened and opened again, but the voice of "Gege," came out in his throat. Where can I say half a word?

The followers saw that the old man was wrong, and hurried up to try to help, but Salenbonelli suddenly gave up a lot of strength, shook off the hands of others, and went up to grab the newspaper and paper that grabbed the officer's hand, his eyes looked Stare at it ...

For a moment, the throne of God Seal was surrounded by silence and everyone was shocked by the news.

Finally, the old prime minister murmured a few more times in his throat, and suddenly opened his mouth, a sigh of blood sprayed on the paper in his hand ~ www.readwn.com ~ The old man said nothing, just So straight down straight down. The others immediately shook their hands and feet, flocking to surround the old man, and anxiously cried out.

The top was stroked, and the tea was poured again, and the old man woke up quietly. He lay on the ground and looked around or kneeled or stood around his officials at all levels. Everyone was anxious and anxious. Looking at it, no one can keep calm.

The old man sighed in his heart.

I don't know why. At this moment, when I woke up, Saran Bonelli seemed to have lost the horror and panic when I heard the content of this article. My heart seemed to be numb and there was no longer a half wave.

In my heart, there was only a calm thought that could not be calmer.

This peace, even he himself did not understand where it came from.

That thought was:

Is this Byzantine Empire really going to die?