Wizard From Afar

Compared with what happened in Golovin at Imperial Capital, the hospitality received by Loren and his party on the journey from Imperial Capital to Eboden is nothing short of a "courtesy."

As long as you see the flying black-bottomed Golden Lion and the Iron Crown flag (given to him by Connaught) held by the three giant dragons, almost all towns, manors, fortresses and even the Legion supplies along the way At the station, they will "enthusiastically" open the warehouse and provide the most adequate supplies at the fastest speed. Weapons, food and even beverages are all agreed;

They even actively provide packhorses and wagons for shipments. The logistics team of China, so that this team of less than two thousand people is followed by a logistics team of nearly three thousand people; even the Byrne army, which is known for its abundant supplies, has never enjoyed such ample logistics-it is simply It's almost time to travel.

Even as the team continues to expand and supplies are becoming more and more abundant, merchants in surrounding towns also took the opportunity to keep up with the team and use their bits and pieces to do business with the Knights, or use more and better drinks Exchange the Knights' supplies.

Knights who knew that they were going to fight a bad battle no longer care about the money in their hands. Some bought meat and wine and drank it at night when they set up camp, and some spent a lot of money to ask someone to write Letter, send home with the small souvenirs bought in Imperial Capital and West Sacrament.

For this, Fury Castle count Eckert chose the default, and Loren didn't have any intention to block it. Even the Fiend hunters of Wings of Sky joined in.

The Byrne people have a tradition of sipping feasts before duels and rushing to the battlefield. This is also their last chance to celebrate.

For such generous contributions, all the "warm and kind" local lords unanimously put forward the same conditions.

Only stay one night, then get out as soon as possible!

The Loren entire group has no thoughts of staying in this dim sum. The most important thing is to arrive in Eboden as soon as possible and organize the local army and the citizens of the city to prepare for the battle.

As he was about to leave the border of Western Sacrament, an imperial Legion soldier, a flag regiment of nearly a thousand people, joined Loren’s team, claiming to be ordered by Connold I himself." To escort the Duke of Byrne to Eboden and fight side by side with the Duke on behalf of the emperor himself.

Well, I basically told Loren directly that I was sent by Connold to monitor you. By the way, I will be the emperor in Eboden to brush up on the presence of the emperor, lest the residents there think that they have been abandoned by the emperor. .

Although it is basically really abandoned-even Loren, who is the most confident in this tactic, does not feel that he can really hold Eboden without losing it, at most it is only time.

But Loren still laughed.

The opponent is the army sent by Connold, so it must be the elite of the fortress of Duanjieshan; these Legion soldiers in the empire can be said to be experts in defending the city, and they are the best land warfare Legion.

It’s not appropriate to say that, but if you step on the ground to form a square against each other, or form a small square on a city wall to fight with the enemy... Maybe a Legion Hundred Men Squad can exert an effect, better than Byrne Knight, who counts as and the others, is even better.

Although claiming to be an "escort", this Legion soldier still keeps a distance from the Byrne Knights team, not far behind, and even staying independent when camping, never Close to the tent of the Knights by Byrne.

Lusen with the wings of the sky walked at the forefront of the team, acting as a sentinel and scout to protect the queue, and at the same time constantly inquiring about the current trends of Eboden;

lead bye Well, Knight’s Rage Castle count Eckert and Loren escorted and protects the heavy squad, while constantly discussing how to deploy Eboden.

For Loren’s plan, the experienced Eckert disapproves very much. In his opinion, it looks like Eboden is a free city with weak defenses and a very large urban area. From the very beginning, it can’t , And should not be fully armed.

The ideal tactic should be to cooperate with Eboden’s extensive ground and underground transportation network, with several sturdy structures in the city as the support, put the enemy into the city for street fighting, between the narrow streets and buildings Only by dividing and annihilating can delay the fall of the city as much as possible.

Even if the enemy has one million troops, the number of troops that can be put into the siege is extremely limited; and once dispersed throughout the city, no amount of troops can control all the buildings and streets.

For the experienced Eckert count, Loren has always relied on his opinion, and he is also right. If it is only to defend Eboden, it is indeed necessary to abandon the large perimeter defense, but it is weak. The city wall is transferred to a stronger building stronghold in the city.

But the problem is not this time.

Because the reason for sticking to Eboden is not because the city is important—of course, she is important—but to keep the Azorean elves in the empire’s coastline for as long as possible. Ensure that their fleet cannot be moored to shore.

For this goal, the city walls on both sides of the sea must be garrisoned by troops; even if you know that there will be heavy casualties, you cannot give up these two defense points.

The only thing to be fortunate is that this time the troops are very abundant; in addition to the 2,000 Knights and 1,000 Legion soldiers who came along, there are also nearly 20,000 mercenary groups in Eboden City.

Although Eboden’s mercenaries have always been famous for "requesting money than death" and "disrupting and murdering employers", this time they have to stick to their own city, and in order to keep Eboden If you don’t fall, the free aristocrats in the city are also impossible not to give generously, so there is no need to worry about their morale.

But as the entire group approached Eboden, looking at the empty commercial roads, Birds, Speech, Flowers, Fragrances trails, a not-so-good premonition gradually spread in Loren's heart.

It's too quiet.

It shouldn't be so quiet.

The Sifang Avenue from West Sacrament to Eboden is arguably the busiest trade route in the north of the empire, second only to the Gem River route.

Moreover, compared to the gem river route that specializes in transporting tributes and supplies upper class luxury goods in Imperial Capital, compared with the gem river route that connects the two places, the Sifang Avenue that connects the two places is the only way for ordinary merchants and hawkers. Road; two-wheeled carts and trolleys with luggage, carrying goods, and with billowing smoke and dust heading for East Sacrament, Lotaire, Eboden countryside... there are countless.

Even though he has seen the magnificence of Golovin, the prosperity of Scarlet Blood Castle, the sea of ​​camps in Thousand Tent City... Loren still remembers Eboden's original prosperity.

But now, there are few pedestrians, and the flat and spacious square avenue is deserted like a country road in a deserted place.

It shouldn’t be...Although Connold has issued the order for a total war, this was only a week ago. The dukes and empire’s messengers from all over Army, towns and roads within martial law duchy.

How could it be possible that the news here just came out and the business route was empty?

While Loren was still confused, the cavalry team in front suddenly slowed down, and the whole team also stopped.

Lu Sien, riding a pony, ran back from the front of the team with a complicated expression.

"What's the matter?" the black hair wizard raised by eyebrows asked anxiously.

"There is a team ahead, coming here from Eboden's direction." The gray pupil paused, with a hard to describe expression, described:

" There are too many people and the roads are blocked."

Black hair wizard and Fury Castle count looked at each other in blank dismay.

"How many are there?" Eckert Count asked a very critical question: "It's all who?"

"Common people, nobles, merchants... are all running for their lives, or Those who went to surrender to relatives, it seems that the whole Eboden knows that there is going to be a war here!"

Lu Sien shook his head with an ugly expression: "As for how many... please see for yourself. "

Following the direction pointed by the gray pupil, the two people...and Isaac behind them desperately looked up at the distant horizon.

Then they were all stunned.

People.

Crowd...and it's a crowd who can't see the margins.

All kinds of carts, carts or bullock carts, caravans or four-wheeled carts, hikers...but when they come together, Only the smoke and dust rolled up in the sky and countless turbulent black spots are left, converging like a black tide!

It’s like a pile of sand, ants coming forward to succeed; chaotic, disorderly, side by side, desperately surpassing the people in front, or closely following the team. Not daring to go away in the middle, rolled towards the black-bottomed Golden Lion banner.

"Who can tell me whether this is Eboden or...Boy's big green sea?" Isaac couldn't help opening the mouth and said: "This posture, this battle... I don't know. I thought it was which nomadic tribe was migrating!"

Eckert count looked surprised and suddenly looked towards black hair wizard:

"Duke, could it be said..."

"No, it shouldn't be the case." Loren shook his head, denying the guess of the Castle of Fury count: "If Eboden has really fallen, these are definitely not the only refugees fleeing."

Furthermore, after the refugees, there should probably be a defeated army, as well as chasers sent by the Azorean elves to hunt and kill the refugees...In short, it is absolutely impossible for so many people to pass through the Quartet Avenue in such a big way.

More importantly, he doesn't believe that there is a wizard tower, and Eboden, which has nearly 20,000 professional hires mercenary group stationed, will fall so soon.

"The Corona Master returned to Eboden first. These should be the nobles and civilians who just heard about the arrival of the war and wanted to flee."

Looking at the Uzbek in the distance. The sighed team, Loren sighed, waved to the Knights behind him: "Let go of the road and let them go, and also inform the Legion commander sent by the emperor not to stop these fleeing people."

Lu Sien took the order happily and turned to leave.

"The Duke...the evacuation of civilians and nobles from the city in large numbers will severely weaken the city's defenses." Eckert count couldn't help but remind: "I know you may have some kind thoughts, but The manpower and wealth needed to defend this city are not a decimal..."

"But they have already started running, even if we close the road now, how many people are willing to go back?" Loren shook the head: "I'm afraid we have to fight this'rebel' first before Eboden."

Eckert count paused.

"...From another perspective, it is also a good thing to allow civilians to evacuate before the war-so that we can abandon some insecure civilian areas and concentrate more troops on key strongholds and Defense line." I don’t know if it’s to persuade myself or Loren, Act said solemnly:

"At the same time, the evacuation of a large number of refugees can also reduce the consumption rate of various supplies in the city, allowing us to persist longer Time; reinforcements that don’t need to consider logistical issues can also come to support us at a faster speed... It can be said that it is one move, two gains."

The black hair wizard did not speak any more, but laughed in agreement .

Fifteen minutes later, the Byrne Knights were ordered to separate the ends of the Supreme Path Road and let the center of Sifang Avenue out for the refugees to pass. The Legion soldiers in the back did not seem to object. He even took the initiative to maintain order, using a shield wall to divert the crowd to ensure the smooth flow of roads.

The weeping refugees hurried to the road, passing through the passages reserved by the army without stopping at the fastest speed, forming a messy but orderly line, and they did not dare to be negligent.

Looking at the crowds and crowds of pedestrians, the black hair wizard sighed with emotion.

As the crowd was gradually leaving and was about to order the team to move forward, a somewhat strange silhouette suddenly broke into his sight.

Without waiting for him to glance, Fiend Hunter of the wings of the firmament on both sides has already stepped forward and pressed the guy down on the spot.

"It hurts... Hey, wait a minute! I'm not a bad person, I know... I know your Lord Duke!"

"Duke Loren! Loren Torino! Duke, do you remember me, I am Boss Locke from the old cripple tavern!"

Huh?

The black hair wizard looked at the ground curiously, struggling to get up, and vaguely remembered that there was such a guy.

The Boss Locke of this "old cripple tavern" is a small reputation bard plus a night watchman intelligence dealer. He has no less than double-digit love debts, plus wants to let him die without a burial site. The green-capped nobleman survived after changing his appearance with Peter Fasha’s alchemy potion.

Apart from this, he is also an outside line of the Eboden Night Watch organization, controlling several insignificant intelligence networks, and has close contact with Eboden’s mercenaries in private, so he has also been under control. The Bellini family of the Eboden trade and mercenary business took refuge.

When the night watchman organization in Eboden fell, Loren and Edward entire group stayed in this tavern for a while.

However, as soon as this "old acquaintance" came up, he told Loren a "great" news.

"What are you talking about, Eboden has fallen?!"

"No, it's not fallen, it's civil strife!" The panting tavern boss waved his hand and interrupted. The gray-eyed boy with a surprised look, and then eagerly looked towards Loren:

"The three mercenary groups in charge of Eboden city defense have rebelled collectively because they were owed commissions, and they also occupied the city defenses and fortresses. , Forcing the Liberty Council to make up the promised commission."

"My lord, if you don’t hurry to solve this matter, Eboden will not be destroyed by foreign enemies, but will be destroyed by civil strife! "