The Invincible Overlord of Heroes.

On the third day after the capture of Brilliant City, several pieces of good news came one after another.

The coastal defense force led by Avid captured and destroyed the Hell Camp, several water forts of various sizes, shipyards, docks, etc.

Going upstream along the Hanjiang River, dozens of water forts and docks belonging to different demon lords were no match for the Coast Guard.

However, the demon lords did not attach much importance to the water fort and the dock.

Except for one demon lord who mobilized tens of thousands of winged demons to launch a surprise attack on the fleet, the other demon lords didn't care at all.

The demon lord who mobilized the winged demons did not gain any advantage.

Above the cold river, the demon lord himself cannot fly and cannot cover the attributes of the winged demon.

The Coast Guard has nearly 500 shooters, phantom marksmen, and countless long-range equipment.

The huge long-range ability taught these winged demons a painful lesson.

Even if these winged demons were lucky enough to board the ship, there would be at least hundreds of brave and highly motivated sailors on each ship.

At this point, there was no more territory controlled by the forces of hell on both sides of the Hanjiang River.

However, the Coast Guard is unable to clear the tributaries of the Hanjiang River and the narrow waterways upstream of the Hanjiang River for the time being.

Those places are so difficult to enter and exit for ships like cruisers, not to mention ocean-going gunboats or even large arrow ships.

Moreover, due to the Coast Guard's reckless behavior during this period, large and small refugee waves have appeared on both sides of the river.

When Avid sees humans, he will naturally try to take them away.

However, even for a cruiser, a very fast magic-powered ship, it would take at least two to three days to go back and forth even if it was just to patrol the main road of Hanjiang.

Before the Coast Guard showed up, these refugees had to find their own ways to avoid the patrols of the demons from hell.

Another good news came from Jian Yuan. Xu Lai's strategy of swiftness and speed achieved very good results.

When the demons were in chaos, the appearance of Jian Yuan and a large number of cavalry undoubtedly dealt these demons a heavy blow.

In the entire earldom, apart from the Glorious City, there are not many remaining base camps and fortress-level cities.

Most plains are indeed dominated by towns and villages.

Firstly, these places are located in the heart of the country and are not easily invaded by foreign enemies.

Even the borders between the Western Empire and the grasslands, the Northern Empire and the Southern Empire, were all part of the empire a few years ago.

As for bandits and robbers, large towns also have security teams, patrol teams, and militia, so they are not afraid of bandits.

Even when encountering special buildings such as underground passages, there are castles and bases nearby.

Secondly, it is out of practical needs.

The countryside is better able to concentrate productivity; there is no place for crops to grow in the city.

Towns are necessary for economic prosperity while ensuring food.

Cities above fortress level must have city walls, which are extremely resource-intensive.

At the same time, buildings such as fortresses are all used for combat, which also means that the space left for people's livelihood and the economy is very limited.

Building a large city not only requires building wider walls, but the difficulty of defending it also increases exponentially.

You can't just have city walls without enough troops garrisoning them.

But there is no such need for towns. You can expand your town as big as you want. You just need to build some roads and a few more watchtowers.

So although Jian Yuan did not lead the cavalry to attack the city, he led the cavalry and swept through half of the earldom in three days.

Wherever the cavalry passed, the demons either hid back in the city or had their heads chopped off and piled into small hills.

This move not only dealt a heavy blow to the demons of hell, but also brought great hope to the rebel forces everywhere.

Jian Yuan had no time to stay, as the towns and mines they captured would soon be taken over by the rebel forces from all over the place.

Although the number of rebels is small, they have some fighting power.

Once the demons send troops to try to retake it, the rebels just need to light the beacon.

If the distance is far, Elvy will fly back with the angels. If the distance is not far, Tahan will take the elite cavalry and go and come back quickly.

Jian Yuan led the cavalry and had no idea of ​​attacking the city.

On the contrary, because he never attacked the city, almost all the demons stationed outside fled into the city.

The knights of Chivalry did not participate in the landing battle and siege battle a few days ago.

However, after fighting in the past few days, the 3000 newly recruited nomads have basically advanced to level 4 or 5.

After the advancement, even without Xu Lai's blessing, with the statue of the God of War and the battle flag of Knight's Wind, the speed of these knights was still not slow.

If the demons in the wild hold their strongholds, they can hold out for a while longer.

As soon as these demons escape, it will be a one-sided massacre and they can't escape at all.

The brave knights led by Tahan were at a great disadvantage in pursuit because they could not be divided into too many teams.

Jian Yuan led a mixed force of new recruits and veterans, mostly conscripted knights, with the smallest team consisting of 10 men.

This group of knights, with the old leading the new, will not have any accidents, the pursuit efficiency is high, and the experience gained is huge.

Of course, the infantry, archers and priests of the Qingfeng Legion were upgraded by two or three levels.

These knights also upgraded by an average of 1.5 levels, and they basically relied on conscripting soldiers, which really cost Xu Lai a lot of gold coins.

But Xu Lai did not lose any money, and even made a lot of money.

Because he mainly paid the soldiers' salaries and advancement fees, the pensions and bounties of the war bosses had not yet been paid.

The demons will not be polite when they attack the city. For example, after Xu Lai occupied the city on the grassland, he usually only plundered the aristocratic rulers.

The merchants, mercenaries and other middle and upper-class people in the city cannot be easily touched.

Once he touched these people, he would be able to plunder more wealth, but he would also lose the support of the people.

It would be impossible for Xu Lai to develop if it only relied on ordinary farmers.

He captured so much spoils in every battle. If it weren't for Xu Lai's good reputation, how could he have converted them into resources from merchants so quickly?

When he unified the grassland and sent officials, the mercenaries who supported him also made outstanding contributions.

However, the demons will not be polite. They don't care who you are, whether you are an official or a civilian, they will capture you all, including your property.

After occupying the Brilliant City, all the wealth that Matthias had robbed, except for the part that had been used for sacrifice, naturally belonged to Xu Lai.

Although Xu Lai will return the land and real estate to the people, the resources will not be returned.

Firstly, no one can prove that resources such as gold coins, food, and minerals belong to them, unlike real estate, which at least has proof.

Since there is no proof, Xu Lai can't just give them whatever they say.

If someone asked for an exorbitant amount of money, would Xu Lai just give up his entire Eagle Kingdom as compensation to that person?

Secondly, the city was not captured by Xu Lai alone, but by those soldiers.

The Qingfeng Corps had good benefits, and when the country was founded, a large bounty was just issued for military merit.

Therefore, even though these people are new recruits, they are willing to trust Xu Lai and can do almost nothing under the requirements of military regulations.

This is unimaginable in any army, especially one composed mainly of conscripted soldiers. But the Qingfeng Army did it.

But as long as Xu Lai does not reward them for their contributions this time, will these soldiers still be so dedicated and abide by the rules?
Therefore, if Xu Lai did not accept the money and resources, he would have to come up with his own money later.

Then let's just not fight this war. No matter how much reserves Xu Lai has, he can't withstand such consumption.

He also has a legion of angels, and the pension can be reduced to an extremely low level.

But even so, Xu Lai estimated that he would not be able to continue the war after conquering one or two earls.

So this money is what Xu Lai deserves, and even if some people have objections, Xu Lai doesn't care.

Who made these people lose their country? The Western Empire no longer exists, and there is no one who can make decisions for them.

Besides, Xu Lai saved the owner's life after all, and the money was not stolen by him. If they had the ability, they could just go find the devil and get it back themselves.

The third good news came from Hantan City.

The Deep Sea Tribe, which had formed an alliance with Xu Lai, agreed to cooperate deeply with Xu Lai and jointly sign a strategic alliance agreement.

And when the old patriarch who led the team met Xu Lai's coastal defense force, he immediately decided to keep Emilia and the Naga guards she brought.

It’s a pity that Xu Lai crossed the river early and was unable to meet the old patriarch in person.

Emilia and the Naga Guards are both amphibious creatures and will not be trapped on the cold river.

They are warmly received in Hantan City today. After a day of rest, they will rush to Huihuang City tomorrow to meet Xu Lai.

The old patriarch said that since it was a deeper cooperation, as allies, they had an obligation to send troops to fight for Xu Lai.

Of course, during the expedition, Xu Lai would be responsible for the food and lodging of these allies, and they should also receive a share of the spoils.

The number of Naga guards Emilia brought was not large, only 3000 people in total, but the lowest of them were level 5 four-armed Nagas.

Different from the previous support for Qingfeng City, since it is a more in-depth cooperation, the old patriarch also specially mobilized a troop of fishmen.

The murloc troops are naturally inferior to the Naga Guards, but they are also amphibious creatures, and their average level is 3, so they will not lag behind.

The key is that the number of murloc troops is large, as many as 10,000 murlocs, mainly divided into murloc warriors and murloc hunters.

The former are basically cannon fodder of the Naga tribe, while the latter are one of the few long-range forces of the Naga tribe.

The Murloc Hunter can perform semi-ranged shooting by throwing bone spikes behind it.

The term semi-long-range is usually used to refer to those shots whose range is far below the shooter's standard range.

For example, if the maximum range of a normal shooter is 100 meters, then the maximum range of a semi-long-range shooter unit is less than 50 meters.

General throwing archers are almost all semi-ranged, such as Xu Lai's Wind Knight, the orcs in the stronghold, and the giant goblin throwing hammers in the tower.

Of course, there are exceptions, such as the boulder-throwing Cyclops at the Stronghold, the lightning-throwing Titan at the Tower, etc.

The bone spurs of the murloc hunter can only be thrown about 30 meters. The good news is that they can generate bone spurs automatically, so they don't have to carry a large bag of axes when they go out like the orcs.

These 13,000 amphibious troops will be joined by the Qingfeng Corps transferred by Xu Lai and the Vanguard Suicide Squad that was recruited on the spot.

In terms of military strength, there is not much gap between Xu Lai and the devil.

In fact, because the demons have to defend the entire Western Empire, their troops are scattered all over the place even though they are large.

Xu Lai's military force may not be as strong as the demons from hell, but he can gather himself into a fist, and any local demon will not be his opponent.

"The sun is about to set. How many households have moved out of the city?"

Xu Lai was calculating his military strength. He looked up and saw that the sun was about to set, so he hurriedly asked Yu Lan.

Yu Lan glanced at the information summarized by the secretary and replied:

"A total of more than 630 households have moved out of the city and have been resettled in three villages near our farm.

A village has more than 200 households, and it needs to be expanded a little bit on the original basis.

The three villages are already full, and it's unlikely that other households will move in. But isn't it too close to Brilliant City?"

Xu Lai shook his head and said, "Putting them together is to give them a sense of security.

But this is only temporary. Once they have washed away the stains on their bodies, others will naturally not be able to bully them.

It just so happens that we are close to the city, and we can use it as a model for publicity in the future, and ask Brilliant City to give us some care in the future."

Yu Lan nodded and didn't say much. In most cases, Yu Lan was extremely indulgent towards Xu Lai.

Unless there is a real problem, Yu Lan would basically not deny Xu Lai's intention.

"These 630-plus households have a total of more than 800 males, all of whom have already registered with Brandi."

Xu Lai touched his chin and said, "Only more than 800? As I recall, there were quite a few slaves in Brilliant City."

Yu Lan said: “It is impossible to count the exact number, and some people, even slaves, do not need to work in front of others.

For example, the cooks in the castle, the demons' personal servants and the like.

As soon as Brilliant City was liberated, they quietly blended into the crowd and no one could recognize their identities.

Of course, there are many who are simply afraid of death, and you also said that you don't allow others to break the law.

These people probably just hope for the best."

Xu Lai sneered and said, "Don't worry about him. What about those rebels I asked you to contact yesterday? Are they willing to be incorporated?"

Yu Lan smiled bitterly, glanced at Xu Lai's face, and thought that he should be in a good mood, so she told him everything:

“There are more than a dozen rebel forces, both large and small.

The larger ones have thousands of people, while the smaller ones have only dozens of people.

There are some who are willing to be recruited by us, but most of them are small teams of only a few dozen people.

The rest of the troops are also willing to be incorporated, but they want to negotiate conditions with us and are not willing to join us unconditionally."

Xu Lai snorted again and asked, "What are their conditions?"

“Well, most of them are actually fine, and I think the conditions are acceptable.

Some of them were escaped professional soldiers, some were mercenaries, some were private armies of nobles, and some were trained militias.

What most people want is nothing more than to give their families more land or property.

We also provide resettlement allowances for recruiting soldiers. These rebels are quite capable, so I think it's acceptable to give them more land.

Some people just can’t accept it, such as Yan Wenjun, Xiong Zizheng, and Alex. ”

Xu Lai frowned. His memory was very good now. He instantly remembered who Yu Lan had just mentioned.

Yan Wenjun and Xiong Zizheng were both heroes who had descended. Relying on their specialized abilities and the few remaining recruited soldiers, they were able to gather hundreds of people around them.

And Alex was the leader of the largest resistance army, with 3 to 4000 men under his command.

Among these 3 to 4000 people, excluding the elderly, the weak, women, children and non-combat personnel, there are still more than a thousand mid- and high-level fighters.

It is said that Alex was the former leader of the largest mercenary group in Brilliant City.

"What conditions did they put forward?" (End of this chapter)