Riding and Slashing

Chapter 402 The Emperor's Last Words
Although he had expected the death of Emperor Marius, and knew that Emperor Marius wanted to use his life to force the entire Bacchus Empire to resolutely purge all the Snake Worshipers, Li Ang was still extremely sad—this was one of his few true disciples. friend.

A respectable role model.

A truly powerful hero.

A wise emperor who always brings life to Bacchus.

The only thing Li Ang can do now is to faithfully fulfill his promise to Emperor Marius, and killing all the enemies is the best memorial to his friends.

The death of Emperor Marius made the entire Bacchus Empire no longer accept Snake Worship, especially the low-level civilians.

After the news of Mario's death came out, the residents around Emperor Lingang worked together, and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians put their lives on the line to expel the Snake Sect.

At the same time, the serf general Ivaylo who was originally accused of 'treason' reappeared.

——Ivaylo did not really treason, he just took the vitality of Emperor Lingang and pretended to defect to the Snake Sect after he was sure that he could not keep Emperor Lingang civilians were not killed indiscriminately.

Of course, this is indeed joining the enemy in battle, completely inconsistent with the 'honor' in the eyes of the nobles of Pendor Continent. In the eyes of many nobles, this is a cowardly act, more shameful than treason.

But Ivaylo was originally a serf, and he was never a nobleman—he didn't care about any honor, he only cared about whether his subordinates would die in vain.

As a high-ranking general who "voluntarily abandons darkness and turns to light", Ivaylo played a decisive role in the Snake Cult army.

He prevented the Snake Worshipers from killing civilians indiscriminately, and cooperated with the shadow wolves after General Sulla arrived at Emperor's port. He cooperated with the inside and outside to kill several Snake Cult priests, creating the best counterattack for Emperor Marius condition.

After Emperor Marius entered Emperor Lingang, Ivaylo organized a large number of militias, and together with Emperor Marius pushed back the Snake Worshipers in Emperor Lingang for dozens of miles—this serf general had Huge prestige.

Using the militia to fight against the Snake Cult warriors would certainly cost a lot, but at this time, no one in the Bacchus Empire would care too much about the loss—Emperor Marius would risk his life to lead his troops to kill, so what reason do others have to spare their lives? ?

Three days later, surrounded and expelled by tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians, the Snake Worshipers lost their hiding place and were forced into the wilderness north of Emperor Lingang.

The threat of Emperor Lingang has been lifted, and the Snake Cult has lost all its bases.

This allowed Li Ang to easily find the main force of the Snake Worship Cult.

Or to be precise, it was the main force of the Snake Worship Cult who came to him.

The army of Snake Worshipers who had been expelled from all over gathered together near Buyulin Village. The scale was quite large, at least 1 people, and the exact number could not be calculated.

But these were not the followers of the priestesses that Li Ang had killed, most of them were well-equipped Snake Cult warriors.

Except for the fact that the training speed is still stretching and the tactical level is still not high, this Snake Cult army has a very high level in other aspects-those followers of the Snake Worship Cult who are poor in equipment and skills have long since died in the imperial palace. It's Lingang, it's not Li Ang's turn to deal with it.

The regrouped Snake Cult army did not try to counterattack Emperor Lingang, but began to march north.

Not surprisingly, their target is Eracle - for Kavala, the gate of the abyss in Lake Elacle is much more important than Emperor Lingang, since most of the bases have been lost, then concentrate their forces to forcibly break into The Noldo Forest became the last choice of the Snake Cult.

Just when the Snake Worship Cult army started marching northward, Li Ang led the army to launch an assault.

Li Ang is ready to wipe out the enemy on the predetermined battlefield.

Although one-third of the force is used to deal with a large number of enemies, Li Ang does have absolute confidence in achieving complete annihilation.

This time the combat soldiers had enough food and arrows, and they also brought a lot of explosives and grenades.

In addition, Marius sacrificed his life in exchange for the unanimous hatred of the people of Bacchus towards the Snake Cult. The Snake Cult army had no base and no supplies, and the village of Buyulin was full of troops from the Bacchus Empire and spontaneously formed militias.

The situation on the battlefield has basically formed an encirclement, and the encirclement is gradually shrinking.

Li Ang's troops blocked the due north, Alina and General Ivaylo led the troops of Emperor Lingang to compress the space of the Snake Cult army from south to north, Agathon led the cavalry to cruise in the west, and the east It is the vast sea.

In addition, General Sura's shadow wolves are secretly killing.

Once the Snake Cultists leave their army, they will be swallowed up by the surrounding troops.

Of course, the surrounding Bacchus troops did not dare to launch a strong attack easily - after all, the Snake Cult still has tens of thousands of troops gathered together.

Only Li Ang has enough ability to take the initiative to attack.

Li Ang's tactics are also very simple, which is to implement oppressive annihilation.

Fighting against the Bacchus Empire, of course, cannot be fought in battle; but fighting against the Snake Cult, it should be a continuous battle.

Li Ang divided the troops into four parts. Klose and Sigismund each led a thousand hoplites and marched southward slowly in an army formation, constantly oppressing the space of the Snake Cult, making it impossible for them to organize large-scale troops. shock.

And Risadiran and Wendy each brought eight hundred Noldor elves, and instead of riding horses, they used the form of skirmishers to cooperate with the advancement of the heavy infantry, and used the range advantage of the Noldor's bows to kill the enemy at a long distance.

When the enemy organizes a large-scale cavalry charge, or uses a large number of troops to try to take time, let the Silver Hand use grenades to open the way, blow up the cavalry and drive the horses, and then continue to maintain the army formation to carry out orderly annihilation.

This is not a line infantry tactic, but more like an infantry-tank coordinated tactic-shooters with relatively high accuracy and range, follow the tank-like heavy infantry in a skirmish line.

The bows and arrows in the hands of the Noldor elves have at least twice the range of the spears of the Snake Cult.

Relying on the range advantage to advance step by step and maintain the overall army formation is the most suitable way to deal with the Snake Cult's low-trained and disciplined troops, and it is also the way to minimize casualties.

But this method is not suitable for dealing with the army of the Bacchus Empire - the heavy crossbows of the Bacchus have a longer range than the arrows of the Noldor...

The only problem is that the Noldo arrows are cumbersome and difficult to make, and they consume ebony, which is very expensive and relatively heavy. Each person will only carry thirty or so arrows when fighting.

But as long as the battle is won, most of the Noldor Arrows can be recycled.

And heavy infantry like the Silver Hand is enough to ensure an absolute advantage in local battlefields when fighting hand to hand.

It's just that Li Ang won't engage in close combat with the Snake Cult's troops at will. Although his troops are not afraid of the Red Death, who knows what other poisons those Snake Cult warriors have on them?
Moreover, the people of the Snake Cult are not afraid of death, and their pure strength is very strong. If the hand-to-hand combat becomes one for one, it will not be worthwhile.

Rather slow down, the Snake Cult warriors are strong and well equipped, and they are very threatening when throwing spears, but they are really weak in long-range attacks such as bows and crossbows, and they basically have nothing to fight back when shooting from a long distance.

This tactic is very simple and the advance speed is very slow, but the effect is quite good.The Snake Worship Cult army organized several forced charges, and also tried two large-scale arrivals and throwing spears, but they failed once, leaving only corpses everywhere.

Cooperating with Li Ang's continuous annihilation, the encirclement circle formed by the surrounding Bacchus troops was also shrinking, and the Snake Cult army had to retreat into Buyulin Village after suffering heavy losses.

This also means that the Snake Cult army will be completely trapped in the small Buyulin Village.

In this way, they can be directly besieged and starved to death.

Seeing that Li Ang was about to fulfill his promise to Emperor Marius.

But at this moment, something unexpected happened...

General Agathon of Emperor Lingang suddenly led his troops to charge Li Ang from the flank!
The army he led was not many, it was the soldiers of the Shadow Legion who had their thumbs cut off, and his personal guard, the Iron Ring Centurion.

There are a total of less than 2000 troops, of which [-] are disabled without a right thumb. It stands to reason that such a troop cannot pose too much threat to Li Ang.

But the problem is that Li Ang is currently dealing with the army of the Snake Cult with all his heart, and he is completely defenseless against Bacchus' troops!
……

Three days ago, Emperor Lingang.

"Luciana, don't cry, this is the home I want the most..."

Emperor Marius was lying on the couch with a gray complexion and a low voice.

He didn't suffer any injuries, but his originally bright eyes had lost their luster, and his fingers were trembling slightly, but he was unable to stretch out...

"Your Majesty, I didn't cry... what do you want to say?"

Alina said with tears in her eyes.

She knew that this was the last few minutes of her adoptive father's stay in the world, and she would not foolishly stop Emperor Marius from speaking.

Both Alina and General Sura next to him had seen the death process of many people. Most people would tremble slightly before death, unable to move their whole bodies, and could only whisper softly.

This is the last energy supplied by the body to the language system, allowing people to leave the last message for this world.

If he can say a few more words, let him say a few more words as much as possible, this is Alina's only thought.

"Sura, my friend, please do me a last favor... After I die, please help Luciana become the emperor of the empire, and then return to Ashborn... If anyone refuses to accept..."

Emperor Marius looked at Sura with difficulty, and the words he spoke were broken.

"Don't worry, before returning to the Amara continent, I will make all those who refuse to accept it disappear completely."

Sura nodded and stepped forward to help Mario say the last part of the sentence.

"... Your Majesty... I am not you, I do not have your wisdom and courage..."

Alina had tears in her eyes.

"Luciana, I know you don't want to do this job... I am actually selfish. If someone else becomes the emperor, my two sons may find it difficult to live a good life...Only you will not embarrass them ..."

Emperor Marius turned his head gently, with a hint of love in his eyes: "Besides, only you are suitable, only you will always firmly promote reforms, and only you will not blindly let the empire continue to carry out some conquests... Son, Su La will help you solve the troubles among the nobles, and all the killings and notoriety will fall on me; Li Ang is a man of faith, and he will definitely be able to eliminate the Snake Cult. The two biggest threats of Bacchus will be resolved together after my death... ...promise me, boy, promise me you'll do the job well..."

His voice became smaller and smaller.

"Your Majesty... I promise you... I promise."

Alina lowered her head and knelt down in front of Emperor Marius, tears in her eyes fell on the back of Marius' hand: "But I don't know what to do..."

She felt empty in her heart, she couldn't refuse Mario at such a time, now she only hoped that Mario could say more, whatever.

Seeing that Alina nodded in agreement, Emperor Mario smiled, just like when he asked Alina to pour him wine.

"After I die, you can surrender to Leon as the Queen of the Empire. The current Bacchus is no longer his opponent. Keep Bacchus' independence and let the New Pendor Kingdom become the suzerain... This will bring the entire continent a long-term peace and a better life for people..."

Emperor Marius smiled and said the last sentence: "Only you can do it, and only you are willing to do it..."

As he spoke, he closed his eyes.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty?! Father?!!"

Alina stared blankly at Emperor Marius who was still smiling but no longer, and slowly put her forehead on her adoptive father's chest.

General Sura put his hands on his chest, bowed his head and gave his last military salute to his friend.

There was no mournful cry, nor a stern parting.

Until the end, the emperor was still thinking about how to make the people's lives better. Alina and Sura naturally wouldn't cry and cry to chill the hearts of the dead.

But in this world, there will always be some people who have obsessions.

Like Agathon.

When the last words of Emperor Marius reached Agathon's ears, the marshal broke down.

"Sura... I will obey Your Majesty's last wish and serve Alina. I am also willing to stop fighting and recuperate after the Snake Cult is resolved, but I must not surrender to Leon! The empire cannot be subordinated to any country!"

In his barracks, Agathon looked at General Su La who came to summon him, and shook his head firmly while weeping.

"This is not a surrender, it's just lowering your profile and forming an alliance with New Pendor, acknowledging the suzerainty of the New Pendor Kingdom... Bacchus is still an independent country."

Sura patiently explained.

"I know! But then the empire can no longer be called an empire!"

Agathon shook his head angrily with red eyes: "Is Bacchus who has lost his glory still Bacchus? I will not obey such an order!"

"Bacchus is called an empire or a kingdom. It's just a title. Is this false name more important to you than the lives of all citizens?"

General Sura shook his head: "Agathon, I am also a Bacchus, but I was born in a wasteland that has already perished... Bacchus used to be powerful and brilliant, but where is it now?"

"I have witnessed the rise of the Ashborn Empire from a few isolated cities, and with the efforts of two generations, it has become a new powerful country. I know why..."

"Not because of the powerful army of the Ashborn Empire, but because it treats most citizens well!"

"In order to deal with the Snake Cult and to make life better for more people, His Majesty Marnius sent Shadow Wolves and Phoenix Knights to support the Pendor Continent...but you should be very clear that His Majesty Marnius also He is also capable of sending troops to expedition against Bacchus! But why didn't he do so?"

General Sulla glanced at Agathon sarcastically: "Your Majesty Marnius, Your Majesty Marius, Your Majesty Leon...why can they become 'Your Majesty'? Agathon...I'm afraid you don't know what the real glory."

"...Maybe. But I have something I must insist on... Sulla, I am a descendant of the conqueror, and I cannot just let the empire established by the conqueror lose its proper crown. I will give the cavalry of the empire to You, you can lead them to continue cleaning up the Snake Worship Cult... I will do what I should do."

Agathon was not persuaded, he left with his personal guards.

The army of the Bacchus Empire still encircled the Snake Cult army under the command of Alina and General Sura.

But at the moment when the Snake Worship Cult army was about to be completely wiped out, Ajiasong rushed into Li Ang's army with a group of wounded soldiers who should not have appeared on the battlefield.

(End of this chapter)